University System Of Georgia Research Articles

The effect of collaboration and utilisation of academic coaches in online learning environments

A nursing shortage is being felt across the US and the problem was only amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic that began in late 2019. There are many registered nurses (RN) who hold an Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN) degree; however, hiring new RNs with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) is a national priority. Therefore, the University System of Georgia (USG) established a Cooperative Academic Agreement of 13 institutions in Georgia which offer the RN to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN) programme. In an attempt to increase pre-licensure programme enrolment and capacity, RN to BSN faculty were released to teach in pre-licensure programmes. For the Cooperative Academic Agreement to be utilised to its full potential, academic coaches were hired to assist students in the successful progression through the collaborative courses. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine students’ perceptions of support provided by academic coaches in an online learning environment. To assess students’ perception, the researchers added five items to the course evaluation administered in the collaborative courses. Although the response rate was low, the results from the course evaluations suggest that students perceived the academic coaches positively contributed to their academic success.

Evaluation of the Coronal Malposition of the Volar Locking Plate in the Treatment of Distal Radius Fractures

Background and objectives: Literature does not show any studies regarding plate placement problems in the coronal plane of patients with volar plating due to distal radius fracture diagnosis. We aimed to investigate the functional and laboratory results of the coronal malposition of the volar locking plate in patients with distal radius fracture treated with internal fixation.Methods: In this retrospective study, we included patients who had volar plate fixation, were aged between 18 and 80, had no pathological fracture, had a minimum of six months of follow-up, and had the same rehabilitation protocol. We consider the angle subtended on the coronal axis between the distal radius long axis and the distal radius locking plate as coronal malposition. We named the coronal malposition angle the "AYE Angle." Patients with an AYE angle of over 1 degree were evaluated under group 1. Patients with an AYE angle of 0-1 degrees were evaluated under group 2. Radiological parameters were taken from AP-Lateral X-ray views. Superficial University System of Georgia (USG) examinations were applied to detect tendon problems. The DASH and QUICK-DASH scoring systems were used for clinical evaluation. Grip strength was measured with a dynamometer in all patients. All results were compared between the two groups.Results: Thirteen patients were female and 27 patients were male. Nineteen patients who had coronal malposition were added to group 1, while 21 patients who had no coronal malposition were added to group 2. Fifteen patients had normal USG results in group 2, while 18 patients had edema around the flexor pollicis longus (FPL) tendon as a result of USG in group 1. Statistically, a significant difference was detected between the two groups in terms of the amount of tenosynovitis around FPL (p=0.01).A statistically significant relationship was found between USG grading and malposition grading. The study revealed that a higher rate of USG grade 2 was found in patients with malposition grade 2 (90.9%), while a higher rate of USG grade 1 (50%) was observed in patients with malposition grade 1 (p=0.01).A statistically significant difference was not found between Soong grading and USG in terms of the level of tenosynovitis around the FPL tendon. The amount of tenosynovitis detected around the FPL tendon was 62.5% for Soong and grade 0 level, 60.7% for grade 1 level, and 50% for grade 2 level. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in the DASH and QUICK-DASH scoring systems (p=0.96). There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in the grip strength (p=0.52).Conclusion: Coronal plate position in the treatment of the distal radius fracture is important to avoid potential flexor tendon problems. The volar plate position should be adjusted properly both in the coronal and sagittal axes.

Faculty Perceptions of Cleanliness and Safety on a College Campus During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected many institutions – one of which is Kennesaw State University (KSU). In the Fall 2020 semester, KSU implemented safety protocols following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as the University System of Georgia (USG) guidelines. A cross-sectional survey was disseminated for faculty to complete at their own will regarding their thoughts on how the new guidelines are affecting their work as well as their safety while on campus. The survey consisted of 18 Likert-scale questions and eight free-response questions. The survey results showed that 60.42% of faculty members reported that they were trained regarding their new work requirements and that while faculty generally felt safe, they had concerns about specific areas on campus. As most classes across the KSU campus were forced to become fully online classes, faculty reported that their relationships with students changed as their class modalities changed. KSU faculty and students alike tried their best to adjust to the new environment and will continue to do so to promote safety and stop the spread of COVID- 19.

Georgia Depository Libraries: Expanding Engagement During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), the Government Publishing Office (GPO) provides materials published by government agencies to designated libraries in the United States and its territories. In return, these libraries offer free, public access to the materials in their depository collections. The state of Georgia has 23 federal depository libraries—one Regional and 22 Selectives. All but two of these libraries are affiliated with academic institutions, and the majority are part of the University System of Georgia (USG).

USG’s Well-Being Policy Regarding Tobacco Product Use: A Proposal for Changing from Opt-Out to Opt-In

The University System of Georgia (USG) has a state-wide initiative aimed at increasing the well-being of faculty and staff by deincentivizing the use of tobacco products by employees who are covered by a USG healthcare plan. This incentive is positive in that aid in stopping tobacco product usage is offered to each member; and negative in that each member who is a tobacco product user is penalized. A healthcare surcharge is added to the monthly health insurance premium paid by each faculty/staff member for themselves and covered dependents over 18 years of age who are tobacco product users. The current policy considers covered employees and their applicable dependents to be users of tobacco products unless they annually opt-out. This paper includes summaries of the incidence of cigarette and tobacco product usage in the U.S., a summary of USG’s policies related to the current tobacco initiative, a brief literature review regarding opt-in and opt-out programs, and a discussion of the possible negative impact of the current USG tobacco use policy. Support is provided for the present tobacco surcharge penalty being either eliminated or its implementation changed, and for the current opt-out default being changed to an opt-in program.

Mergers in higher education: it’s not easy. Merger of two disparate institutions and the impact on faculty research productivity

ABSTRACT Despite the growing popularity of mergers in higher education, limited research examines their sociocultural impact on faculty which is arguably a university’s most valuable resource. This paper examines a merger of disparate institutions in the University System of Georgia (USG) and presents faculty research productivity results over time, given that increased research presence for the merged university was a goal for the merger. A sociocultural based quantitative methods approach was used to explore faculty research efforts and productivity in the merged university. Surveys of faculty were conducted three times over five years post-merger. Research effort and productivity were analysed. The findings suggest that merging two disparate institutions to expand the primary mission of the higher status legacy institution, in this case research and scholarship, requires greater attention to cultural differences between the legacy institutions to the merger. The merged university experienced a consistent reduction in research following the merger, with the most pronounced productivity decline university-wide by year five. With this research, we provide guidance for administrators of higher education institutions and policy makers considering university mergers as a means to encourage research, among other priorities.

The Effect of Online Core Courses Enrollment on Student Success: The Case of University System of Georgia

ABSTRACT This study examines the impact of online core courses on students’ academic and financial outcomes of postsecondary students. To do so, we analyzed data from a large sample of students in the University System of Georgia (USG), governing agency of Georgia’s 26 public universities and colleges. Since 2001, USG has offered “eCore” courses: lower-division core curriculum courses that are offered fully online to students enrolled in either face-to-face or fully online programs, and satisfy requirements at any USG institution. Our dataset contains students seeking associate degrees (N = 103,684) and bachelor’s degrees (N = 238,648) analyzed independently. Our research investigates the impact that eCore has on student retention, graduation, and loan accumulation. Our findings show that students who took eCore courses enrolled in more semesters regardless of the degree being sought. Associate-seeking students who enrolled in eCore courses were more likely to graduate and took on fewer loans on average.

Online course enrolment and tuition: empirical evidence from public colleges in Georgia, USA

In the USA, higher education has witnessed substantial increases in tuition levels and online course offerings. In an effort to estimate the demand for online courses, this study collected institutional-level enrolment data during four academic years (2010-2011 through 2013-2014) from 22 colleges within the University System of Georgia (USG). The results indicate that: 1) the demand for online courses is price-elastic (a 10% increase in online tuition rates reduces online credit hours by 15-18% when the effect of traditional course tuition rate is not controlled, and by 30-36% when this effect is controlled); 2) online credit hours increase 1.0 to 1.3 times more than overall student enrolment; 3) online courses and traditional courses are shown to be substitutes, rather than complements.

Returns to Late Aged College Degrees

The benefits of a college education are well documented. However, the majority of existing research focuses on students who matriculate soon after high school graduation. There is little empirical evidence illustrating whether a college degree is similarly beneficial to those already in the workforce, particularly individuals over 50. Nonetheless, the coming years will see the dramatic growth of older individuals, many of whom will continue to be active in the labor force, and policymakers would benefit from effective strategies to improve the labor market outcomes of older individuals.
 This research proposes to evaluate the labor market outcomes of individuals in Georgia who obtain a bachelor’s degree at age 50 or older by merging state-level individual level labor force (Dpt of Labor) with individual level educational data from the University System of Georgia (USG). Specifically, we explore whether these later-age degrees result in employment opportunities with higher wages and increased retention in the labor force beyond the traditional retirement age of 65 than those who do not attain a bachelor’s degree. The results will provide policymakers across the United States with information to make informed decisions regarding higher education incentives and policies for older students.

Complementarity merger as a driver of change and growth in higher education

PurposeMergers in higher education seem to be more common as academic institutions work to control costs and avoid program duplications in challenging economic times and adopt the more common cost saving measures often espoused from business mergers. The purpose of this paper is to highlight successes from a complementarity-based merger of two institutions in the University System of Georgia (USG) and present results over time.Design/methodology/approachA case study methodology was employed to explain why a particular merger resulted in greater growth compared to other system-wide academic mergers. This research focuses on a single merger of two institutions in Georgia, one of seven such mergers in the USG institutions to date, involving Gainesville State College and North Georgia College and State University to become the University of North Georgia. Observations are made and complimented by secondary data to rank growth among the seven USG consolidations.FindingsThe case findings highlight the success from the complementarity of these institutions. While the two were unique institutions, the success of the merger was linked to the underlying complementarity issues.Originality/valueUsing the strategic issues inherent in mergers from the business literature, the merger of the two institutions is profiled and discussion and recommendations are provided along with areas for future research.

Measures of student success with textbook transformations: the Affordable Learning Georgia Initiative

In 2014, the state of Georgia’s budget supported a University System of Georgia (USG) initiative: Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG). The initiative was implemented via Textbook Transformation Grants, which provided grants to USG faculty, libraries and librarians, and institutions to “transform their use of textbooks and other learning materials into using lower cost options”, in other words to use open educational resources (OER) in lieu of a traditional bound textbook. The Round One Textbook Transformation Grants have already shown to be successful in that they saved students approximately $760,000. What is not known, is the collective impact on student learning. This study examines the learning gains or losses pre- and post-transformation in ALG Round One courses where traditional resources were replaced with OER. It estimates differences between pre- and post- textbook transformation across the following outcomes: 1) Drop Fail Withdraw (DFW) rates, 2) rates of completion, 3) numbers of students receiving a final grade of A or B, C and D, 4) numerical final grades as a percent, 5) final exam grades as a percent, and, 6) course-specific assessment grades measured in percent. Twenty-four data sets were analyzed for DFW rate, eight data sets for completion rate, fourteen data sets for grade distribution, three data sets for final exam grades, three data sets for course specific assessment and one data set for final grades. The null hypothesis that there would be no differences between pre- and post-transformation rates in these learning outcomes was supported. Thus, this study demonstrates that the USG’s ALG initiative helped students save money without negatively impacting learning outcomes. In addition, it is the first of its kind to measure some of these learning outcomes (e.g. final exam grade, assessment grade, and distribution of letter grades) at this scale.

Remarks on the occasion of the retirement of Merryll Penson, Executive Director, Library Services, Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (USG) made on April 28, 2016 at the University of Georgia’s Main Library.

Remarks on the occasion of the retirement of Merryll Penson, Executive Director, Library Services, Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (USG) made on April 28, 2016 at the University of Georgia’s Main Library.

The effects of HOPE on post-college retention in the Georgia workforce

Research suggests that merit scholarship programs increase college enrollment in states that adopt them but post-college migration may limit the effect these programs have on the stock of college-educated labor in those states. In this paper we consider the effect of Georgia's HOPE Scholarship program on post-college retention, estimating the effect in two ways. First, we use administrative data on student and employment records to examine the effects of the HOPE Scholarship on post-college retention rates in the Georgia workforce for students enrolled in the University System of Georgia (USG). Second, we use data from the census and ACS and a difference-in-difference model following the approach of Hickman (2009).

Educational Reform in Science and Mathematics: An Anthropological Perspective

This study illustrates the role of practicing anthropologists who seek to promote critical educational reform based on anthropological theory and ethnographic research. The analytic context is PRISM (Partnerships for Reform in Science and Mathematics), an initiative designed to improve the scientific and mathematical literacy of K-16 students in the state of Georgia. The unit of analysis is "Strategy 10," a dimension of PRISM also referred to as "The Reward Structure Committee," of which I am a member. The Committee's charge was to construct a new policy and reward structure that would advocate for and reward science and math faculty in the University System of Georgia (USG), whose work improves primary and secondary education in their respective disciplines.

Georgia Galileo: Georgia's electronic library

In the summer of 1994, Stephen Portch, the new chancellor of the University System of Georgia (USG), issued a call for projects that would benefit all 34 public colleges and universities (see figure 1). For the past several years, a subcommittee of library directors in the University System had been meeting regularly with representatives of the vice chancellor for information and instructional technology (IIT) to discuss possible electronic library proposals and sharing the results of these meeting with all library directors in the system through the Regents Academic Committee on Libraries (RACL). Thus, when the chancellor requested proposals, there was already a consensus on the services and features that were most desirable for the University System libraries.

TRENDS IN THE PREDICTIVE VALIDITY OF THE SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE TEST

ABSTRACT Changes in the predictive validity of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) that haNe been observed in the University System of Georgia (USGA) over the past two decades were studied. Several analyses were performed using student data from 27 USGA schools to determine the effectiveness of the SAT in predicting freshman grades. National trends indicated that the validity coefficients for high school record (HSR) and HSR+SAT declined from 196' to 1982. Findings from Georgia also demonstrate an appreciable decrease in validity coefficients for the past 6 or 7 years. The decrease in SAT validity coefficients is accompanied by similar variations for high school average (HSA) coefficients and for multiple correlation coefficients involving combinations of HSA and SAT. The same general trends were observed when annual variations were smoothed by computing 5and 10-year averages. These general trends were affected by the variability of student abilities, as measured by the SAT, and academic performance, as reflected in high school and college grades. It is cautioned that decreases in the magnitude of validity coefficients do not mean a decline in the meaning and significance of the SAT as a measure of verbal and mathematical abilities. Appendix A contains 5-year averages in validity coefficients, and Appendix B contains profiles of cooperating institutions. (Contains 9 figures, 15 tables, 27 figures in Appendix A, 23 figures in Appendix B, and 7 references.) (SLD)