Undergraduate Level Courses Research Articles

An exploratory study of adult learners’ perceptions of online learning: Minority students in continuing education

The study was an investigation of online adult learners’ perceptions of interaction, satisfaction, and performance within an online course using the Blackboard platform. Interaction included learners’ interaction with the instructor, content, and the classmates. The effect of student background variables and course-related variables on interaction was explored. Participants were 167 minority students enrolled in six online undergraduate-level courses from a university in the southeastern United States. The majority of the students were African-American working adults. Results indicated that learner–content interaction and learner–instructor interaction were significant predictors for student satisfaction in online settings in which group activities were not provided. Internet self-efficacy was positively associated with three types of interaction. Student satisfaction was positively related to student performance. Learner–instructor interaction was influenced the most by student background variables (gender, age, hours spent online), and learner–learner interaction by course-related variables (course length, course type, and the number of discussion forums). While it had the strongest influence on student satisfaction, learner–content interaction was not affected by student- or course-related variables.

Strategic Tangle

Games are useful in enriching a course and reinforcing classroom teaching. This article describes a game developed by the author for Strategic Marketing course of an MBA program. It is a team game that can be played without computers. The unique aspect of the game is that one team creates a challenge for another team to respond to. Each team defends its own response and challenges another. Strategic Tangle is like a live case where decision makers have limited access to market information. The game offers a business context for reinforcing class room learning, and the participants can be evaluated on their performance. Participant feedback shows that the element of cocreation makes the game interesting. The game can be adapted to other courses and for undergraduate-level business courses. The game can be played over 3 or 6 hours plus presentation and debriefing time.

Towards sustainable public engagement (outreach)

There are myriad benefits to science departments that have a public engagement in science portfolio in addition to any recruitment of new undergraduates. These benefits are discussed in this paper and include: improving congruence between A level and first year undergraduate courses, training in science communication and the breaking down of barriers between the public and universities. All activity requires investment of personnel and incurs a financial cost. Small scale activities may be able to absorb this cost, but ultimately as the portfolio grows this will become an increasing drain on resources. Bristol ChemLabS Outreach has, from the very start, set out to be fully sustainable financially and in terms of personnel. A very important component is the full support of the senior management team. In this paper we discuss how we have achieved this.

Western Faculty Profile: Dr. Neil Klar

Dr. Neil Klar is an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Chair in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University. His main research focuses on clustered randomized trials. Dr. Klar teaches both undergraduate and graduate level courses in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. He also supervises theses at the undergraduate, MSc and PhD level. Vivian Tan, a member of the Editorial Review Board for WURJHNS, had the pleasure to interview Dr. Neil Klar to learn more about his career in Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

Digital Signal Processing: An Abstract Mathematics to Real World Experience

Teaching large classroom is always a very challenging task for educators. This is due to many difficulties imposed on the teaching-learning process. Digital signal processing (DSP) is now pervasive as it is used in everything from digital photo cameras, MP3 players to automobiles. However many students see DSP as abstract mathematics. This is because of the gap between understanding the mathematical formalism of each concept and being able to make sense of them in practice. Getting students actively participate in learning process and motivating them to fill these gaps is a difficult task [3]. To address this difficulty a recipe is suggested i.e. visualizing the DSP theory with practical applications like speech processing, image processing and so on will help the students in learning better. Sensory stimulation theory of learning says that majority of knowledge held by adults is through seeing (75%) while hearing is the next (13%) and if multi-senses are stimulated; greater learning because of synergy takes place. This theory encouraged us to develop undergraduate level course activity with the applications of audio processing. In this way students are able to see the results of audio processing in MATLAB plots and analyze the results by varying few design parameters. Thus DSP related theoretical concepts will be studied not just as mathematical abstracts but as a useful tools having sense in real world.

Book review: Epigenetics (second edition, eds. Allis, Caparros, Jenuwein, Reinberg)

Book review: Epigenetics (second edition, eds. Allis, Caparros, Jenuwein, Reinberg)

Engaging students in paleontology: the design and implementation of an undergraduate-level blended course in Panama

Despite the fact that Latin-American countries present ideal environments to train young scientists, most of these countries lack local scientific capacity. Here I describe the design and implementation of an undergraduate-level blended course on paleontology. The course was taught in 2012 to 10 biology majors from the University of Panama and it had three main foci: (1) a design grounded in a theoretical framework that supports meaningful learning; (2) the application of concepts and skills to the region where the students live, making the learning experience relevant and authentic; and (3) a strong research and science-communication component that allowed students to experience real-life situations (i.e. those commonly faced by scientists throughout their careers). These components contributed synergistically to engage students with paleontology, a field not formally taught in their country. This work can be applied to different disciplines in science and to different levels in students’ scientific training.

TEACHING AN ADVANCED ENGINEERING MOOC: LESSONS LEARNED

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) allow anyone in the public to learn from professors at universities across the world. An internet connection is the only requirement to participate in a MOOC. In engineering, the majority of MOOCs are targeted at self-learners, and consequently most courses are based on introductory undergraduate courses. The University of Toronto offered its first advanced engineering MOOC entitled, “Wind, Waves & Tides” based on a mixed fourth-year undergraduate and graduate level course. A total of 11,723 students registered in the course, and 617 students completed the course in its entirety. The following paper describes the experience of teaching a niche interest MOOC and the lessons learned throughout the endeavour.

Managing for Resilience: Lessons from Ecology

Many business schools embrace a mission or purpose to develop leaders with a focus on values and principles. In this article, we discuss the role of the institutional mission in teaching sustainability within a business school, and illustrate how mission can be adopted as a framework for discussing and operationalizing sustainability. Specifically, we provide examples of how to adopt mission orientation within a core business course in order to achieve a deeper awareness of sustainability issues and how a single business decision can impact many stakeholders. Moreover, while several of the pedagogical methods presented draw from Jesuit tradition, the strategies discussed can be applied within secular institutions. This article describes how this framework was used to encourage students to make sound and conscientious decisions in a business setting. In addition, we suggest methods for navigating obstacles in integrating mission orientation into undergraduate and graduate level courses.

The Role of Mission Orientation in Sustainable Business Education

Many business schools embrace a mission or purpose to develop leaders with a focus on values and principles. In this article, we discuss the role of the institutional mission in teaching sustainability within a business school, and illustrate how mission can be adopted as a framework for discussing and operationalizing sustainability. Specifically, we provide examples of how to adopt mission orientation within a core business course in order to achieve a deeper awareness of sustainability issues and how a single business decision can impact many stakeholders. Moreover, while several of the pedagogical methods presented draw from Jesuit tradition, the strategies discussed can be applied within secular institutions. This article describes how this framework was used to encourage students to make sound and conscientious decisions in a business setting. In addition, we suggest methods for navigating obstacles in integrating mission orientation into undergraduate and graduate level courses.

Donald W. Loveland, Richard E. Hodel, and S. G. Sterrett: Three Views of Logic: Mathematics, Philosophy and Computer Science

This is a textbook based on an interdisciplinary (advanced undergraduate level) course that was originally taught by the three authors at Duke. It is intended for many different disciplines. Even though it covers mathematical and philosophical topics, it occasionally still feels like a textbook whose origins lie more in computer science than in the other disciplines. This isn’t even surprising, for an interdisciplinary focus on logic easily draws one towards computer science and artificial intelligence. In three parts, each written by one of the authors, a three-chapter overview is given of the topics of proof-theory, computability-theory and philosophical logic. Yet, rather than a juxtaposition of logical, mathematical, computational, and philosophical subjects, this textbook isn’t merely intended as an illustration of how logic is relevant for many different disciplines, but forms the basis for a different kind of introduction to logic. This reviewer surely applauds the intent to teach logic to philosophers more like we would teach it to computer scientists—with an emphasis on what it allows us to achieve, but also to teach it to computer scientists more like we would (or ought to) teach it to philosophers—with more attention to the diversity in logic than to the dominant background role of classical logic. While Part 1 is concerned with proof-theory, with chapters on classical propositional logic, first-order logic, and Prolog, it also double-tasks as an introduction to formal logic. Thus, chapter 1 reviews the language and semantics of propositional logic, and even goes on to prove two basic meta-theoretical results by

Motivating Game-Based Learning Efforts in Higher Education

Though there is considerable research to support using Game-Based Learning (GBL) in higher education, its implementation is lagging behind K-12 education by an order of magnitude. By considering the current state of GBL from leadership, primary consumer, academic and technical perspectives, the authors frame the main issues involved with successfully implementing these efforts. These issues involve obtaining the resources required to make mature serious games that are similar in presentation, functionality and effectiveness to the commercial-based products so widely used today, while ensuring that they are imbued with academic content worthy of college curricula. After motivating a compelling case for GBL, despite a number of constraints and difficulties, the authors present two higher education efforts that are designed to augment the core curriculum for undergraduate and graduate level courses associated with the field of Trauma—a field enhanced by virtual efforts due to its challenging subject matter.

Evaluation of high-altitude balloons as a learning technology

The utility of high-altitude balloons as a learning technology to facilitate education in several disciplines is considered in this paper. The role that a high-altitude balloon can play as a learning technology is discussed and its utility in this role is considered. The need for a formal design framework for high-altitude ballooning is also discussed. A framework for the assessment of high-altitude ballooning in supporting an undergraduate-level course is evaluated and an assessment using this framework is conducted. The paper concludes with a discussion of techniques that can be used to broaden access to high-altitude ballooning in education.

Navigating Climate Science in the Classroom: Teacher Preparation, Perceptions and Practices

ABSTRACT Results from a series of surveys describe dimensions of middle and high school science teachers' preparation for and practices around climate science instruction in the classroom. Descriptions are drawn from 877 respondents to four surveys of US middle and high school science teachers from 2009–2011. Most respondents had engaged in self-directed learning or short duration workshops to prepare for climate instruction while a third had received professional development in sustained undergraduate or graduate level courses. Controversy was cited as the top climate education concern in 2011, followed by the need for resources, alignment with standards and needs for professional development. Some respondents perceive the existence or human-attribution of recent climate change to be false, some accept and wish to teach the evidence that the climate is changing due primarily to human activities, and some describe a desire to teach “both sides” without describing the motivation. The most commonly used strategy to address controversy and misinformation is to promote learning about the nature of science, evidence, and data. Recommendations for supporting teachers in climate science instruction are made based upon the findings of these studies, the evolution literature, and the Next Generation Science Standards.

Science Instructors' Views of Science and Nature of Science

This qualitative study examined how college science faculty who teach introductory level undergraduate science courses including the fields of chemistry, biology, physics, and earth science, understand and define science and nature of science (NOS). Participants were seventeen science instructors from five different institutions in the northeastern U.S. and all of them were interviewed. Consistent with previous research, the findings revealed that the participants in this study held sophisticated and complex conceptions of NOS. In some instances their views were in line with the views promoted by science philosophers, and in other instances their views were more mixed and naive. Findings show that engaging in scientific inquiry is not enough to ensure informed conceptions of NOS.

Western Faculty Profile: Dr. Shauna Burke

Dr. Shauna Burke is an Assistant Professor at Western University in the Faculty of Health Sciences. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate level courses and has been recognized several times for her outstanding contributions to teaching. Dr. Burke is a faculty researcher in the Health Promotion Laboratory at Western and was the Principal Investigator of the Children’s Health and Activity Modification Program (“C.H.A.M.P.”), a family based program targeting childhood obesity in London, Ontario. Her current research interests include childhood obesity, health behaviours (physical activity, breastfeeding), and literacy (food, physical, political).

Western Faculty Profile: Dr. Giovanni Fanchini

Dr. Giovanni Fanchini is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Western University. He also holds the Canada Research Chair in Carbon-based Nanomaterials and Nano-optoelectronics. He is currently developing novel organic and carbon-based nanomaterials to increase solar cell performance. Dr. Fanchini teaches both undergraduate and graduate level courses in physics as well as supervises undergraduate and graduate students. Vivian Tan, a WURJHNS representative, had the pleasure to interview Dr. Giovanni Fanchini to learn more about his career in research.

Sugar Cane Refining And Processing Company: A Comprehensive Case In Measuring A Firms Cost Of Capital

The Sugar Cane Refining and Processing Company is a comprehensive case illustrating how a firms financial manager should calculate the firms cost of capital. Senior level undergraduate and graduate corporate financial management courses cover advanced topics in cost of capital and applying the rate in capital budgeting. To cover this relevant topic in a single case, the invented or armchair approach is used. This case is completely contrived but is very educationally effective.

Investigation and analysis of the new nurses’ knowledge of infusion therapy in a tertiary-level hospital

Objective To investigate the new nurses ’ knowledge of infusion therapy , and analyze the problems and countermeasures .Methods According to the “infusion therapy nursing practice guideline and implementing rules” written by Chinese Nursing Association , the self-designed questionnaire and convenience sampling method was designed to investigate 79 new nurses in 2013 .Results The new nurses ’ knowledge of nursing of infusion therapy was uneven .The scores of questionnaire were 26-73, with an average of （49.72 ± 7.79）,including one nurse with 70-79, nine nurses with 60-69, sixty-nine nurse with less than 60.The scores of the nurses with medical school level education or college level education or undergraduate course were （45.65 ±4.55）,（48.69 ±6.93）,（60.82 ±5.60）,and the difference was significant （F=21.097,P〈0.05）.The undergraduate nurses were better than the nurses with college level education or medical school level education in terms of infusion therapy .Infection control and nursing safety , transfusion puncture types and application of the auxiliary tool , the maintenance and management of transfusion treatment showed significant differences （ P〈0.05 ）, but the treatment of infusion complications , assessment of puncture vascular and selection of biopsy site showed no difference between different education background （P〉0.05）.These were related to less training and clinical practice .Conclusions For the “weak link” of the infusion knowledge including the treatment of infusion complications , assessment of puncture vascular and selection of biopsy site , effective training and teaching methods for nurses education should be carried out , in order to improve the nurses’ knowledge of infusion therapy to meet the needs of clinical care services . Key words: Questionnaire investigation; Infusion therapy; New nurses

How to develop students’ metacognitive skills: lessons learned from an upper level undergraduate anatomy course (336.1)

Metacognition is a term to describe when a person learns how to learn, and becomes more perceptive of one’s learning. Metacognitive techniques may be incorporated in the classroom to help students develop a better perception of what they know. In this session, Valerie O’Loughlin will describe how reflective writing (through the use of online journals or ‘blogs’) in an upper level undergraduate anatomy course helped students refine their metacognitive skills. She will provide examples of how reflective writing may be incorporated in other anatomy courses so students may better gauge their understanding of the complex material.