Sophomore-level Course Research Articles

Career readiness: preparing social work students for entry into the workforce

Career readiness of college graduates is of critical importance in higher education. As defined by the career readiness is the attainment and demonstration of requisite competencies that broadly prepare college graduates for successful transition into the workplace and/or graduate school. This article outlines the development of a sophomore-level course – Critical Thinking and Writing for Social Work Professionals – as part of a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) program at Ball State University. The primary purpose of this course is to help students develop career readiness competencies that support their growth throughout their educational and professional social work careers. The career readiness competencies support the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards required by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). The authors discuss the importance of this approach for undergraduate education and how career readiness enhances and builds upon CSWE competencies. The authors conclude with a brief discussion of student feedback and lessons learned through this process that suggests students’ gained career readiness skills.

A study for the evaluation of a safety education program me for nursing students: discussions using the QSEN safety competencies.

To respond to calls for improvements in nursing education in Japan, a group of faculties of a baccalaureate nursing programme has made an initial attempt to incorporate quality and safety education for nurses safety competency into three related courses, two sophomore level courses and one senior level course. To evaluate the learning experiences in a senior level course on medical safety in order to identify learning outcomes in terms of areas of strengths and areas for further improvements of the course and a system-wide implementation of quality and safety education for nurses competencies in the future. Fourteen students who met the criteria had volunteered to participate in one of the two 40-minute focus group interviews. During the interviews, participants were asked questions as to what they have learned and how they may use that knowledge in the future. The sessions were tape recorded, the data were transcribed and analysed using the content analysis method according to Berelson. Eight categories of learning related to medical safety were identified, including awareness of own risks for errors and plans to reduce such risks. These categories of learning were thought to have achieved the level equal to 75% of quality and safety education for nurses knowledge, skills and attitudes items. The current content and methods for this course identified strengths to be continued, with some areas of improvement for the future for further adoption of quality and safety education for nurses competencies into the entire curriculum.

Explicit Content: Two Experiments on Bringing Writing Instruction into the Political Science Classroom

This paper reports findings from two studies of student writing performance carried out in undergraduate political science courses to test whether low-cost interventions could lead to improvements in writing outcomes. Students enrolled in an introductory comparative politics course (N = 180) and a sophomore-level survey course (N = 101) were randomly assigned to receive short instruction sessions in specific writing skills led by a faculty member or senior graduate student. In the first experiment, half the class received explicit instruction on writing (focusing on two specific skills from a comprehensive rubric that we subsequently coded their papers against) while the other half did not. In the second experiment, all students received general writing instruction, but the treatment group also received detailed instruction in the use of a writing-skills rubric that formed the basis for evaluating students’ performance on written assignments. In both cases, the post-treatment difference between groups was small but showed an improvement in the specific skills taught, while showing no change or slightly decreased performance in related skills that were not explicitly taught. We conclude that limited interventions of the sort we were able to engage in were not sufficient to bring about a meaningful improvement in student performance, but the preliminary evidence suggests that the use of rubrics as a pedagogical tool, combined with repeated small-scale interventions, may be effective if targeted and/or repeated across a course or curriculum.

The Impact of a Semester-Long, Cell Culture and Fluorescence Microscopy CURE on Learning and Attitudes in an Underrepresented STEM Student Population.

Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) is an access institution with a diverse student body, located in metro Atlanta. To strengthen research skills, teach employer-valued cell biology laboratory techniques, and increase student engagement, a semester-long, inquiry-based CURE was developed and implemented in Cell Biology with Laboratory (BIOL3400K), a sophomore-level course, which serves as a “gateway” to all upper-level biology courses. This CURE centers on the investigation of a student-chosen experimental factor on the viability of cultured, mammalian cells. Through participation in this CURE, students gain experience in cell culture, fluorescence microscopy, and viability assays, and strengthen important research skills, such as literature searches, graphing, and data analyses. The impact of this CURE on student learning gains and attitudes was assessed using pre-/post-content exams and the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS). Our data show that all students made significant content gains. Female students made larger learning gains than male students. Additionally, minority students performed better than majority students in some content areas. Student attitudes did not change, or in some cases were slightly more negative after the CURE. Overall, this CURE had a positive impact on students by engaging them in an inquiry-based laboratory experience.

An Artificial Neural Network Based Early Prediction of Failure-Prone Students in Blended Learning Course

One of the objectives of the performance measurement of grade-based higher education is to reduce the failure rate of students. To identify and reduce the number of failing students, the learning activities and behaviors of students in the classroom must be continuously monitored; however, monitoring a large number of students is an extremely difficult task. A penetration of web-based learning systems in academic institutions revealed the possibility of evaluating student activities via these systems. In this paper, we propose an early prediction scheme to identify students at risk of failing in a blended learning course. We employ a neural network on the set of prediction variables extracted from the online learning activities of students in a learning management system. The experiments were based on data from 1110 student who attended a compulsory, sophomore-level course. The results indicate that a neural-network-based approach can achieve early identification of students that are likely to fail; 25% of the failing students were correctly identified after the first quiz submission. After the mid-term examination, 65% of the failing students were correctly predicted.

Assessment and Characterization of Writing Exercises in Core Engineering Textbooks

AbstractWriting has been identified as a critical skill and element of the engineering profession, yet it is rarely included in sophomore-level and junior-level courses. Textbooks often influence h...

Comparing Conventional, Hybrid, and Distance Learning Courses in Horticulture

In a conventional sophomore level course entitled “Organic Farming and Gardening,” 114 undergraduate students registered from years 2007 to 2009. Due to high demand and insufficient classroom space, this conventional curriculum was reformatted with identical course content into both a hybrid and a fully online version in which 361 students registered from years 2010 to 2012 and 336 students from 2013 to 2015. In comparing conventional instruction with hybrid and fully online versions over a 9-year period, few significant differences were found in final grades involving 811 students. Final class grade averages of these three learning systems ranged from 85.5% to 89.6% over their first 3-year spans. Over their 6-year span, the conventional class average of 89.6% was higher compared with 88.3% for the hybrid format and 86.8% for the online format. Student evaluation surveys assessed faculty performance with eight evaluative questions on a 1 to 5 scale from years 2012 to 2014. No significant difference existed between teaching in person vs. remotely, averaging 4.35 for the hybrid and 4.17 for the online. An additional eight questions measured educational methodology, technology, student confidence, and class satisfaction. There were no significant differences in comparing the combined averages of 4.12 for the hybrid format and 4.00 for the online version. Student responses indicated a significant preference overall for hybrid and online course formats compared with conventional methods. Registration numbers indicated an overwhelming choice for online education with an average class enrollment of 91.0 students compared with 38.0 students for conventional classes and 25.2 students for the hybrid format.

Student Scientists: Transforming the Undergraduate Biology Lab into a Research Experience

This article features an authentic research-lab experience developed for use in a freshman-level general biology course for nonmajors at a two-year college. Students work in groups to select and investigate factors affecting microalgal cell growth and relate their findings to a real-life application of social significance. This lab experience was designed using a four-step pedagogical framework originally developed at a four-year university in a sophomore-level molecular and cell biology course. The creators of the pedagogical framework at the four-year university mentored the instructor at the two-year college through the process of using the pedagogical framework to design and implement the authentic research lab experience described in this article. This example shows that adaptation of successful pedagogical models, particularly within mentoring partnerships, can greatly increase the implementation of authentic research experiences in biology lab courses at varying levels of study.

Acting Like a Mathematician: A Project to Encourage Inquiry Early in the Math Major

Inquiry is promoted as a way to engage students so that they learn more deeply; inquiry is also an end in itself, introducing students to the research process and the behaviors of a mathematician. This article reflects on an individual exploratory project used in a sophomore-level number theory course, examining how it supported student inquiry and integrated with departmental efforts to encourage productive mathematical dispositions. Additional attention is given to the choice of topics, focus on process rather than product, and student reflections in supporting the goal of student inquiry.

Year-Long Peer Mentoring Activity to Enhance the Retention of Freshmen STEM Students in a NSF Scholarship Program

The last year of a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded scholarship program was used to provide pseudo-formal peer mentoring activities to engineering, mathematics, and science undergraduates. A one-credit class was used to afford time for peer mentors and mentees to interact. During the fall semester, seniors augmented each week’s topics with personal experiences as to how they used the skill/topic that they had learned in their freshmen class in a future sophomore, junior or senior level course or on their co-op assignment. The last 10 min of every class were used for the seniors and freshmen to have an informal discussion. During the spring semester, the seniors served as an additional technical resource for the freshmen as they completed their class project. All participants found the one-credit class, project and peer mentoring activities beneficial to their education and would highly recommend the experience to incoming students.

Boundary Value Problems and Finite Differences

SummaryThe solvability of boundary value problems differs greatly from that of initial value problems and can be somewhat difficult to make sense of in the context of a sophomore-level differential equations course. We present an approach that uses finite difference approximations to motivate and understand the theory governing the existence and uniqueness of solutions to boundary value problems at an elementary level.

Teaching information literacy skills to sophomore-level biology majors.

Many undergraduate students lack a sound understanding of information literacy. The skills that comprise information literacy are particularly important when combined with scientific writing for biology majors as they are the foundation skills necessary to complete upper-division biology course assignments, better train students for research projects, and prepare students for graduate and professional education. To help undergraduate biology students develop and practice information literacy and scientific writing skills, a series of three one-hour hands-on library sessions, discussions, and homework assignments were developed for Biological Literature, a one-credit, one-hour-per-week, required sophomore-level course. The embedded course librarian developed a learning exercise that reviewed how to conduct database and web searches, the difference between primary and secondary sources, source credibility, and how to access articles through the university’s databases. Students used the skills gained in the library training sessions for later writing assignments including a formal lab report and annotated bibliography. By focusing on improving information literacy skills as well as providing practice in scientific writing, Biological Literature students are better able to meet the rigors of upper-division biology courses and communicate research findings in a more professional manner.

Developing Future Engineers: Case Study on the Incorporation of Sustainable Design in an Undergraduate Civil Engineering Curriculum

AbstractTo better prepare students to tackle the challenges of real-world problems, the authors developed a strategic approach to incorporate sustainable-design principles in the undergraduate curriculum to set a foundation of sustainability on which students could build throughout their academic careers. The plan through the four-year undergraduate curriculum involves creating an awareness of sustainable design in a required freshman introduction-to-design course and describing the science of sustainability and how students can apply sustainability principles in a new required sophomore-level course. The students are then prepared to consider sustainability in their civil engineering technical design courses during the third-year curriculum. In their fourth year, students apply sustainability principles in developing and evaluating design solutions during their senior capstone design course. Assessment of student learning showed improvement in students’ abilities to comprehend principles of sustainable d...

Environmental connections and concept mapping: implementing a new learning technology at Lewis & Clark College

What is environment? The answer to this question is fundamental to how we teach environmental studies and sciences (ESS). We follow recent scholarly literature in approaching environment as connection, not as some category of reality, and consider pedagogical implications via concept mapping, a new learning technology. Concept maps potentially offer a visually explicit means of representing and analyzing the hybrid connections between actors that define environmental issues. We explore the utility of concept mapping as pioneered by Joseph Novak and others via the Cmap Tools application, in which concept maps (cmaps) consist of concepts connected by propositions; both can include linked resources, and the resultant cmap can be collaboratively edited and shared online. We evaluate concept mapping in the context of a sophomore-level environmental methods course taught annually at Lewis & Clark College. The course includes adaptations of concept mapping drawing on Novak’s work and actor-network theory, designed for students to reflect on their environmental perspectives, synthesize course material, and explore a proposed topic for environmental research. These exercises were evaluated in fall 2010 using self-reports, assessment rubrics, and open-ended student responses. Results showed that higher achieving students generally found concept mapping more demanding and attained more sophisticated understandings of connections. This suggests that concept mapping helps facilitate the intellectual struggle that characterizes engaged learning, yet also that not all students embrace this struggle to fully grasp environment-as-connection. In a larger sense, the study illustrates challenges in cultivating new approaches to environment in the ESS community.

Baccalaureate Courses for Nurses Online and on Campus: A Comparison of Learning Outcomes

A comparison of student learning outcomes between distance education and campus-based nursing students in a mental health course working toward registered nurse (RN) licensure in a baccalaureate (BS) degree program is presented. Learning outcomes were evaluated using results from a commercially developed content mastery test taken by students who completed a sophomore-level mental health course. Results utilizing independent t test analysis of archival data indicated no statistically significant differences between the distance education students and the campus-based students in either initial knowledge prior to the mental health course or in the educational effectiveness of the distance education and classroom-based delivery.

Integrating Fundamental Science and Engineering Concepts into a Civil Engineering Sustainability Course

Integrating Fundamental Science and Engineering Concepts into a Civil Engineering Sustainability Course

The effect of effort grading on learning

In the fall of 2004, Benedict College – a Historically Black College in Columbia, SC – began enforcing a new grading policy called Success Equals Effort (SE 2). Under this policy, students taking freshman and sophomore level courses were assigned grades that explicitly rewarded not only content learning (“knowledge” grade) but also measures of effort (“effort” grade). This paper examines the effects of effort grading using two stage least squares and fixed effect estimates. I find evidence of a strong positive correlation between “effort” grades and “knowledge” grades. Under some restrictions this relationship can be interpreted as “effort” producing “knowledge”.

Mastery Learning in a Sophomore Level Genetics Course Using the Blackboard Course Shell

ABSTRACT A type of mastery learning was implemented in a sophomore-level genetics major course, using a Blackboard course shell and a premade course cartridge. Students were required to take a series of topical quizzes leading up to the hour lecture exam. However, students could take the quiz as many times as they wished, to earn the grade they wished. Each quiz was unique and drew 10 random questions from a pool. The grades for the mastery learning class were not statistically significantly different from a previous class in which homework assignments were given (P=0.28). However, students were given the option of answering an anonymous survey before each lecture exam; survey results were positive.

Learning Might Not Equal Liking: Research Methods Course Changes Knowledge but Not Attitudes

Students completed surveys at the beginning and end of a sophomore-level course on research and statistics. We hypothesized that the course would produce advances in knowledge of research and statistics and that those changes would be accompanied by more favorable attitudes toward the subject matter. Results showed that knowledge did increase significantly, but 4 of 6 attitude measures showed no change. Two attitude measures (perceived utility of research and statistics) showed significant declines. These results demonstrate the independence of knowledge and attitudes and show that attitudinal change is not monolithic. We argue that students' misconceptions about research might underlie the declines in perceived utility of research and statistics.

Grading for Effort: The Success Equals Effort Policy at Benedict College

Many students and professors believe that the more effort a student puts forth in a class, the better grade that student will earn. This chapter describes the Success Equals Effort (SEE) policy, at Benedict College. It discusses the assumptions that are necessary for the policy to be successful. This policy was implemented to increase the preparedness of Benedict College’s students by emphasizing the importance of effort. By focusing on effort, Benedict College hopes to increase learning, retention and graduation rates, and the value of the degree its students receive. For the SEE policy to increase learning, retention and graduation rates, and the value of the degree its students receive, some assumptions must hold. The policy emerged out of dissatisfaction with learning outcomes due in part to a lack of preparedness of students for the rigors of college. The unique aspect of this policy is that for freshman- and sophomore-level courses effort is an explicit part of a student’s grade.