University Research Articles

Exploring Mindful Self-Care as a Potential Mediator between Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue among Student Services Professionals

Higher education professionals are subject to high levels of stress as they support student populations at risk of trauma. Compassion fatigue, which represents dimensions of secondary traumatic stress and burnout, is associated with a poorer health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among those providing student services. Prior studies on helping professionals have found that mindful self-care mediates the relationship between compassion satisfaction, the positive aspects of helping others in one’s role, and compassion fatigue, but this has not been sufficiently explored in this population. A total of 559 respondents (faculty, students, and staff) who provide non-instructional support across 23 student service areas at 22 comprehensive regional universities completed a cross-sectional survey assessing mindful self-care, professional quality of life and HRQOL. Path analyses were conducted using EQS 6.4 software to test one model controlled for age, progressing from compassion satisfaction to mindful self-care, to compassion fatigue, to HRQOL. Mindful self-care, particularly supportive structure, mediated the relationship between compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. Compassion satisfaction was positively associated with HRQOL through mindful self-care and compassion fatigue. Institutions seeking to address compassion fatigue and promote well-being should implement policies to facilitate self-care by ensuring manageable workloads and balancing internal and external demands.

Current Situation of The Digital Transformation of The Mongolian Education Sector

Digital learning is a comprehensive, innovative approach to the provision and management of education. In order to incorporate this approach into our education system, there is a need for the capacity building of human resources, incorporate distance education resources, adapt curricula and teaching methodologies to distance education, enhance students’ and instructors’ digital capacities, plan and develop a comprehensive open University system and diligently research the potential risks that are posed to our students’ and instructors’ wellbeing, privacy and security as a result of the digital transformation. 
 Policies and programs such as Mongolia’s “Sustainable Development Goals”, “Vision 2050 – Mongolia’s long-term development policy”, “Digital Society medium-term program 2022-2027”, “2020 – 2024 Mongolian Government operational program”. “Medium-term Education Sector Development Plan” have established the legal environment for the incorporation of digital technologies into the education sector. 
 As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic that has ravaged the world since 2019 a dire need to transform the development strategies, plans and education arose in countries across the world. Attempts to prevent and minimize the spread of Covid-19 further necessitated the development and conduct of online and hybrid classes and we have been using digital technologies to maximize the effectiveness of education in the New Normal. 
 The purpose of this paper is to determine the issues facing the digital transformation of education in terms of management, organization, curriculum, content, methodology, digital competencies of specialists, infrastructure, online resources, as well as education financing and propose solutions to some of the key issues.

The impact of entrepreneurship education on tourism students’ entrepreneurial intention in South Africa

ABSTRACT This paper explores the impact of entrepreneurship education on tourism students’ entrepreneurial intention, and insights of the desirability and feasibility of starting a tourism-related business upon graduation. A structured questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 154 randomly selected tourism students in a comprehensive University in South Africa. Data analyses included descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses to address research objectives. The results indicate that entrepreneurship education influences tourism students’ entrepreneurial intentions, including students’ perceptions of the desirability and feasibility of starting tourism-related businesses. The findings further suggest that some respondent profile variables have influences on how tourism students perceive entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial behaviour. The study recommends that the university that is studied implement a variety of reform programmes aimed at increasing employability or self-employment among university tourism graduates. Among them is the addition of a new entrepreneurship track to the undergraduate curriculum. Students, as from their first year of study should be invited to apply for the entrepreneurship education track, which includes business training as well as individualised coaching sessions with industry mentors. This will aid in the formation of professional networks, increased entrepreneurship process knowledge base, and self-efficacy among tourism students who want to become tourism entrepreneurs.

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PERAN MULTI AKTOR DALAM PEMBERDAYAAN PETANI KOPI BERBASIS PENTA HELIX

Community empowerment for coffee farmers in Muncar Village is carried out in collaboration with actors through the Penta Helix synergy model. The existence of empowerment programs for coffee farmers has gradually provided improvements in the cultivation process, post-harvest process, and marketing process. The objectives of this study were to know, describe, analysing the role of each actor in the Penta Helix synergy model on the empowerment programs for coffee farmers in Muncar Village in terms of the process of cultivation, post-harvest, and marketing. This study uses a qualitative method with a descriptive approach. The results of this study indicated that the existence of empowerment as a whole has been able to provide changes in farmer activities, starting from the process of cultivation post-harvest, and marketing towards a better order. Actors in the Penta Helix model collaborated together to create prosperous coffee farmers, including First, the government through the Muncar Village Government, the Temanggung Regency Government, Dinperindagkop and Dintanpangan of Temanggung Regency. Second, the private sector through PT. Astra International Tbk. Third, academics through Sebelas Maret University (UNS). Fourth, is the community through Karya Mulia's Joint Business Group and farmer groups, and fifth is the media through Temanggung Radio.

‘Don't become so much high sounding’: Power dynamics in master's thesis viva

The viva is a crucial component of the master's thesis examination process. It offers students opportunities to defend their thesis and engage in scholarly dialogue with disciplinary experts. As the viva involves participants with unequal and hierarchical power relations, the possibility of a scholarly dialogue in the viva is primarily shaped by the positioning of the examiners in relation to the students. Although master's students writing a thesis outnumber those doing a PhD, the research on master's thesis viva is in the embryonic stage. This study set out to extend this research by examining ten master's thesis vivas at a comprehensive university in Nepal. The analysis of audio-recorded feedback sessions revealed that the vivas were primarily examiners' monologic and directive talk. There was little negotiation of power because the students contributed minimally to the dialogue. The examiners acted as custodians and gatekeepers of the discipline to ensure the reproduction of academic norms and conventions. The implications of the study for enhancing the effectiveness of the viva are provided.

Mobile phone addiction and depressive symptoms among Chinese University students: The mediating role of sleep disturbances and the moderating role of gender.

BackgroundWith the continuous updating of mobile phone functions, the phenomenon of mobile phone addiction among University students is becoming more and more serious. It is important to identify the potential risk factors for mobile phone addiction. The aim of the study was to examine whether there is a relationship between mobile phone addiction and depression symptoms in University students, and to investigate whether sleep disturbances play a mediating role between mobile phone addiction and depression symptoms, as well as the moderating role of gender.MethodsA cross-sectional study, carried out between September to December 2021, recruited 973 students (478 males) from seven comprehensive universities in western China. The Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI), the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ9), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used to complete measures of mobile phone addiction, depressive symptoms, and sleep disturbances. For statistical analyses, descriptive statistics, correlation, regression, mediation and moderated mediation analyses were used. Furthermore, we tested the mediation model and moderated mediation model using the SPSS macro PROCESS.ResultsIn this study, it was found that there were positive correlations between mobile phone addiction and depressive symptoms among Chinese University students. Mediation analyses revealed that this relationship was partially mediated by sleep disturbances, but the mediating role was not moderated by gender.ConclusionSleep disturbances have a partial mediating role in the relationship between mobile phone addiction and depressive symptoms. Our results highlight the critical role of prevention and early identification of mobile phone addiction among University students, especially those with sleep disturbances.

Do students perceive faculty as responsible for equitable learning environments? Results from a mixed-methods study

ABSTRACT Despite having expertise, student voices have typically been left out of faculty professional development literature. The purpose of this study was to center college student voices around perceptions of equitable learning environments for use in faculty professional development programs. Using a mixed-methodology, student-driven approach, the current study examined students’ perceptions of college instructors' responsibilities to implement equitable classroom practices to more deeply inform faculty development programming on equity. Student responses were also compared to faculty perceptions. Participants were 66 undergraduates and 141 faculty from a comprehensive state university. Both students and faculty completed a survey assessing instructor responsibilities to implement highly equitable classroom practices, while students additionally completed open-ended questions about instructor responsibilities. Results revealed students and faculty had similar perceptions and both endorsed the importance of equitable classroom practices. Using content analysis to generate themes, students identified instructor responsibilities to promote learning environments that are: (1) caring and supportive, (2) safe and equitable, (3) individualized, (4) student-centered, and (5) active and collaborative. Overall, these themes shared considerable overlap with survey results measuring equitable classroom practices. The findings support efforts to include both student and faculty perceptions in the design, curricula, and evaluation of equity-based faculty professional development programs.

Student engagement with automated feedback on academic writing: a study on Uyghur ethnic minority students in China

ABSTRACT Aided by big-data technology and artificial intelligence, automated writing evaluation (AWE) systems aim to help students engage in self-regulated learning and improve their academic writing in the digital era. While much research on student engagement with AWE systems has been conducted in mainstream classrooms, little attention has been paid to ethnic minority students who have different educational experiences and sociocultural backgrounds. This study investigates how a group of ethnic minority students from Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region engaged with an AWE system in academic writing during an 18-week semester at a comprehensive Chinese university. Data were collected from multiple sources including student multiple-draft assignments, AWE feedback, and retrospective interviews with the students. The participants were found to engage with the AWE system behaviourally, cognitively, and affectively in their writing and revision, but the extent to which they engaged in the process is influenced by their multilingual proficiency, familiarity with digital technologies, learning beliefs and sociocultural identities. Those who were more actively engaged and obtained more learning gains tended to capitalise on their linguistic and cultural capital in their engagement with AWE feedback in their writing. The article concludes with educational implications for ethnic minority students in higher education.

The Relationship among College Students' Physical Exercise, Self-Efficacy, Emotional Intelligence, and Subjective Well-Being.

Purpose: To deeply analyze the influencing factors on college students’ subjective well-being and the path mechanism between each factor. Method: The physical activity rating scale (PARS-3), the emotional intelligence scale (EIS), the self-efficacy scale (GSES), and the subjective well-being scale (SWS) were used for 826 students from two comprehensive universities in southwest China. College students conducted a questionnaire survey, and used SPSS22.0 and AMOS21.0 statistical software to process and analyze the obtained data. Results: (1) Physical exercise was significantly positively correlated with self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, and subjective well-being; self-efficacy was significantly positively correlated with emotional intelligence and subjective well-being; emotional intelligence was significantly positively correlated with subjective well-being; (2) Physical exercise has a direct positive predictive effect on subjective well-being (ES = 0.16); (3) Self-efficacy (ES = 0.057) and emotional intelligence (ES = 0.077) play a part in mediating the role between physical exercise and subjective well-being, respectively. Meanwhile, the chain mediation effect (ES = 0.026) of self-efficacy and emotional intelligence also achieved a significant level, among them, only others’ emotional management and emotional application were involved in the regulation of emotional intelligence. Conclusions: Actively participating in physical exercise could not only directly improve the level of subjective well-being of college students but also indirectly affect their subjective well-being by improving their self-efficacy, as well as their emotional management and emotional application abilities, thereby improving college students’ life satisfaction feelings of happiness, such as degree, positive emotion, and negative emotion.

Maintaining Validation through Empathy: Exploring How Higher Education Practitioners Supported At-Promise Students during COVID-19

At-promise students (low-income, first-generation college students, and/or racially minoritized) have long encountered disproportionate barriers in navigating higher education, resulting in disparate impacts during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we examined how higher education practitioners in three comprehensive college transition programs facilitated the validation of at-promise students during the pandemic. By drawing upon empathy, practitioners engaged in critically reflective practice that allowed them to adapt previous strategies to the current context and provide key support.

KONDISI PROGRAM STUDI PENDIDIKAN MATEMATIKA DITINJAU DARI JUMLAH PEMINATNYA

The purpose of this study is to describe the condition of the mathematics education study program in terms of the number of enthusiasts. The type of research used is literature review research with a descriptive quantitative approach. The data studied in the form of data on the number of students in the mathematics education study program for the last 5 years obtained/derived from national data on the government website (Kemdikbud), namely at https://pddikti.kemdikbud.go.id/.The results of the study show that public interest in the Mathematics Education Study Program at State Universities (PTN) and Private Universities (PTS) is different. The difference in interest can be seen in the increasing number of new students every year from 2017 to 2021. The addition of students at UNRAM starts from 30 to 191 students and UIN starts from -21 to 43 students. While at UNDIKMA the number of additional students experienced an increasing number of successively from 17, 46, 15, 28 and finally in 2021 as many as 17, as well as the addition of students at UMMAT in a row starting from -9, -7, 1, 9 and the last in 2021 as many as 5 students. So, the number of enthusiasts for the Mathematics Education Study Program is generally low and even lower in private uni versities

Virtual Tabadul: Creating Language-Learning Community Through Virtual Reality

This article presents on a multi-institution project that explains the development of Virtual Tabadul, which is an exchange program in virtual reality for English and Arabic foreign language and culture learning and community building amongst 1,200 US and the Middle East, and North Africa (MENA) college-aged youth. The program involves faculty, staff, and students at four institutions: Florida International University (U.S.), University of Michigan-Dearborn (U.S.), Oum El-Bouaghi University (Algeria), and Ibn Tofail University (Morocco). The project has been developed with generous funding from the Stevens Initiative and is the very first virtual exchange program for Arabic and English foreign language learning in virtual reality.

Evaluation of Teaching Quality of English Courses in Comprehensive Universities under Multiple Indicators

With the continuous development of internationalization and the task of cultivating graduates with high comprehensive quality for the society, the importance of English teaching in comprehensive universities has been increasing. In this paper, based on the analysis of the evaluation subjects of university English teaching quality, 16 evaluation indexes are constructed from five aspects: teaching content, teaching method, teaching process, teaching literacy, and teaching effect, and the Particle Swarm Optimization-Least Squares Support Vector Machine (PSO-LSSVM) algorithm is used to comprehensively evaluate the teaching quality, and finally English teaching in universities is selected as the object of empirical research. The research results show that PSO-LSSVM algorithm has high applicability in evaluating ECCU and can provide over reference for universities to improve teaching quality and develop reform programs. Due to the lack of training data, although the evaluation index system in this paper is scientific and feasible, it still needs to be further adjusted and optimized according to the specific practice situation.

Hubungan Volume Oksigen Maksimal dengan Denyut Nadi Istirahat Fase Pertumbuhan Dewasa Muda

Maximal oxygen uptake is a measure of cardiorespiratory capacity that shows human body fitness. Resting heart rate shows the ability of the heart to pump blood throughout the body thus resting heart rate related to the maximum oxygen volume. The young adult is an important phase of human in determining the productivity of the level of life. Maximum oxygen volume can be related to resting heart rate, but this has not been studied in detail regarding the relationship between maximal oxygen volume and resting heart rate in young adults. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between maximal oxygen volume and resting heart rate of young adults. This research uses cross sectional method. The number of research samples was 38 students from the Faculty of Medical Education, Sebelas Maret University (UNS). The dependent variable tested in this study was resting pulse rate and the independent variable was maximal oxygen volume. The research was conducted at the Physiology Laboratory of Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta. Resting heart rate was calculated by sleeping position in the supine position for 15 minutes then measured by pulse oximetry and maximal oxygen volume was calculated by Astrand-Rhyming Step Test. The results showed that the data were normally distributed so that the Pearson correlation test could be performed. The results of the correlation test showed that the value of p = 0.000 (p < 0.05) which indicated there was a significant correlation between the two variables tested and the Pearson correlation value of - 0.612 which indicated a negative correlation with a strong correlation strength. This study concludes that there is a significant correlation between maximal oxygen volume and heart rate of young adults with a negative correlation.

Correlation and Change in Physical Activity and Physical Fitness across Four Years of College Students after One Year of COVID-19 Lockdown.

The relationship between physical activity (PA) and physical fitness (PF) has been well established among college students. However, the impact of this relationship after 1 year of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown measures is unclear. This study aimed to test the relationship between PA and PF, exploring the trend across four years, the different components of PF related to PA, and their determinants, by analyzing specific items. A total of 1506 university students (19.48 ± 1.35 years old, 55.8% male) in years 1–4 at two comprehensive universities in Shanghai were recruited after one year of COVID restrictions and asked to complete the PF measurements and International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ Chinese Short version). The PA level is categorized into three types of intensity (low-moderate-high), and the level of PF is represented by the total test score of each item. Results show that PA was significantly positively correlated with PF; PA levels significantly predicted 1000m-run, 50m-sprint, and standing-long-jump in males, and 800m-sprint and sit-ups in females. Males predominantly had high-intensity PA, whereas females maintained moderate-intensity PA over four academic years. Meanwhile, PA and PF both trended downward as academic years increased in males and females, which could be attributed to a decline in high-intensity PA. The following two recommendations were obtained from the study: first, college students should engage in high-intensity PA activities after the end of the epidemic. Second, colleges offer physical education classes for four academic years of college students to promote PA and PF.

Students' Learning Difficulties at the Open University Webinar Tutorial

The Open University (UT) is one of the pioneer universities that implement distance learning. However, students still encounter learning difficulties which become obstacles in distance learning. The purpose of this research is to analyses the construct of learning difficulties of students’ learning at Open University and to compare the contribution of indicator variables to the construct. This research uses a combination method of Concurrent Embed model, the primary method used is factor analysis method (EFA and CFA) and qualitative descriptive method as a secondary method. The research respondents were 126 students who had attended the webinar tutorial (Tuweb) at least twice and voluntarily filled out the questionnaire. Primary data were collected through online questionnaires and interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using EFA and CFA, while quantitative data were analyzed descriptively qualitatively. The results showed that there are six factors of learning difficulties, each of which consisted of 4-9 indicator variables. The indicator variables that contribute the most to learning difficulties in Tuweb according to student perceptions include: (1) there are no clear guidelines regarding the online learning procedures that are carried out; (2) learning materials/content delivered by online tutors are difficult to understand; (3) the internet signal is not stable/good from students’ location; (4) students' families are constrained in providing facilities for online learning/webinar tutorials due to low income; (5) students do not understand how to study online; (6) The device used by the tutor is constrained during the Tuweb learning process.

In Situ Studies of the Formation of Tungsten and Niobium Oxide Nanoparticles: Towards Automated Analysis of Reaction Pathways from PDF Analysis using the Pearson Correlation Coefficient

AbstractInvited for this month's cover are the groups of Kirsten M. Ø. Jensen at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and Simon J. L. Billinge at Columbia University (US). The cover picture shows a sketch of the formation process of metal oxide nanoparticles, where nanocrystalline oxides form from fragments of e.g., polyoxometalates. In situ X‐ray total scattering studies with Pair Distribution Function analysis can give new insights into the formation process, as it provides structural information on all stages of the reaction – from precursor ions in solution, over amorphous or nanostructured intermediates to the final crystalline material. Here, it is show how the analysis of such data can be automated using structure mining and simple computational tools. Read the full text of their Research Article at 10.1002/cmtd.202200034.

The Iterative College Choice Process of Students with Disabilities: A Mixed-Methods Study

Background: Although students with disabilities are enrolling in higher education in larger numbers than ever before, they are still underrepresented in colleges and universities, particularly among four-year institutions. College choice has been explored across multiple facets, but limited research has examined the college choice processes of students with disabilities. Research Questions: (1) What factors are most influential to the successful college choice processes of students with disabilities? (2) To what extent are these factors different from those that influence the choice processes of students without disabilities? (3) How do students describe the influence of key factors on their college choice process? (4) How does the college choice process for students with disabilities vary across institutional types? Setting: This research took place at three public institutions in the state of Massachusetts, one public research university (Research University [RU]) and two regional comprehensive universities (City State University [CSU], Suburban State University [SSU]). Research Design: We utilized a convergent mixed methods study composed of survey research and qualitative interviews. Participants: For the quantitative survey, we recruited students with and students without disabilities by sending invitations to a random sample of 30% of students at RU and all students at CSU and SSU. A total of 1,981 students completed the survey. For the qualitative interviews, we recruited students via a targeted email invitation sent through the disability services office on each campus, resulting in 27 participants. Data Collection and Analysis: Data were collected through a quantitative survey and a qualitative interview. The survey took approximately 15 minutes and took place over Qualtrics; data were analyzed using descriptive analysis and chi-squared tests. Qualitative data were collected through 60- to 90-minute semistructured interviews and were analyzed through deductive and inductive coding. Conclusions and Recommendations: Our findings revealed that although students with disabilities considered the same factors as their peers without disabilities, they faced additional considerations related to the quality of disability services and accessibility of the campus. We also found that although factors such as family, school, and distance had similar influence across students with disabilities, subtle distinctions emerged in how students approached these categories when they chose a research university versus a regional comprehensive institution. We concluded with recommendations for further research into how disability and institutional type shape college choice and for practices to help students with disabilities in their college search and choice processes.

Facilitators and barriers of African postgraduate nursing students' adaptation to internship: A qualitative study

BackgroundClinical internship is a focused and supervised practice where nursing students have opportunities to master clinical skills and better adapt to the real working environment, promoting the formation of professional practice quality. However, for African postgraduate nursing students who had an internship in China, the factors affecting their adaptation to the internship have not yet been sufficiently explored. ObjectiveTo explore the facilitators and barriers of African postgraduate nursing students' adaptation to an internship. DesignQualitative descriptive study. SettingsA comprehensive university with three affiliated hospitals in southern China. ParticipantsTwelve African postgraduate nursing students who finished a three-month internship in the two-year postgraduate programme. MethodsParticipants were recruited using purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between April and December 2021. Data were thematically analysed using the Colaizzi seven-step method. ResultsThree facilitators and four barriers to their adaptation to the internship emerged in the study. Facilitators included the teacher–student interactions, harmonious working atmosphere and positive inner incentives of the students. Barriers to adaptation were language barriers, unsuitable internship arrangements, lack of opportunities to practice clinical skills and disparities in hospital routine works. ConclusionsThe present findings could contribute to the improvement of a more effective clinical training programme. Nursing colleges and teaching hospitals should make more efforts to enhance the current clinical internship programmes. Further support is necessary for international nursing students according to their culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.