Search

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) can create large scale communities of learners who collaborate, interact and discuss learning materials and activities. MOOCs are often delivered multiple times with similar content to different cohorts of learners. However, research into the differences of learner communication, behavior and expectation between multiple presentations is scarce. This is of importance to MOOC developers, academics and moderators, as an understanding of these differences could have an impact on content provision, community moderation, course delivery, learner interactions, and completion rates. This case study of two presentations of a Futurelearn History MOOC examined learner activity data, and pre and post course learner survey results (n = 10,449). Differences in learner survival rates, behavior, expectation, recruitment, experience of online learning, demographic makeup, reasons for non-completion, and comment activity were identified. These results form a preliminary exploration of learner community differences between multiple MOOC presentations that guide future analyses by identifying areas of comparative interest and importance. [For the full proceedings, see ED562093.]

Ohio's Model Industrial Technology Systems (MITS) project was initiated in 1987 to achieve the following: identify good activities in the areas of physical, communication, and bio-related technology; standardize the activities' format; and provide a coding system for their eventual use in a hypermedia system. To date, 220 activities have been modified by MITS, which was initially based on the Hypercard system provided with Macintosh computers. Activities in the MITS can be organized by grade level/concentration and/or referenced to outcomes and goals. The MITS system breaks outcomes first into their respective performance indicators and enabling outcomes. The system produces index cards for all activities identified during searches. Once selected, activities can be called up in Microsoft Word or Works. Each activity includes basic information about its objectives, presentation, development, and content, as well as a student activity pack. The Hypercard's two main limitations--that it is not cross-platform and not in color--have been solved by using the Macromedia-developed program Authorware, which can run on Windows/DOS or Macintosh computers, and by using the program called Oracle Media Products, which appears to have all the characteristics of Hypercard with color. (Sample screens from the MITS are included.) (MN)

This report addresses the need to assess teacher attitudes toward teaching culturally diverse youth in West Virginia. West Virginia ranks as the second most rural state in the nation, with a 64 percent rural population. Nevertheless, West Virginia's culture is becoming increasingly pluralistic, and many students are finding that they cannot identify with the middle-class values, perceptions, and expectations of their teachers. To address this problem, teacher training programs should provide teachers with the awareness and the competencies to meet the instructional needs of students from diverse backgrounds. The Cultural Difference Theory suggests that minority children are unsuccessful in school because schools do not capitalize on the experiences that these children bring to the learning environment. Therefore, teachers should integrate experiences from the students' culture into the curriculum, place less emphasis on ethnicity and social characteristics, and accentuate the individual strengths of students. Also discussed is the importance of creating an effective learning environment and developing special programs to encourage acceptance of cultural diversity by both teachers and students. (LP)

This paper addresses problems in providing educational services to gifted students in rural areas and discusses feasible solutions. Rural schools face numerous obstacles such as small numbers of identified gifted students; limited resources and funding; locations distant from universities, libraries, and cultural activities; difficulty in obtaining trained personnel; and differences in cultural values. Rural schools need to explore programming options such as developing regional centers for gifted programs, providing opportunities for students to participate in independent study, matching gifted students with mentors, developing residential programs, and holding regional or national academic competitions. Capitalizing on the strengths of the rural community entails creating a database of community resources, implementing oral history projects, and encouraging student involvement in community problem-solving projects. The use of available technology such as videotapes, telecommunications, videodiscs, interactive television, and distance learning programs can alleviate the isolation of rural schools. Equally important is the need for teachers of gifted students to develop a professional network to provide support to their programs, and to have opportunities to receive ongoing training through regional workshops, summer institutes, distance learning, and correspondence courses. School districts and individual teachers of the gifted need encouragement and professional networking to locate solutions that are best for their local communities. (LP)

This document contains the following plenary speeches from the 1994 annual conference of the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC): "Forging New Links--Focus on Developing Economies" by Sir Donald Maitland of the Independent Commission for World-Wide Telecommunications Development (United Kingdom); "The Missing Link: Still Missing? The Continuing Role of the ITU in Telecommunications Development" by Pekka Tarjanne of the International Telecommunication Union; "Forging New Links Philippine Style" by Josefina T. Lichauco of the Department of Transportation and Communications (Philippines); "Telecommunications Liberalization--The Hong Kong Model" by Alex Arena of the Telecommunications Authority (Hong Kong); "Information Technologies--Present and Future" by Warren E. Falconer of AT&T (United States); "KDD's International Cooperation Activities under a Competitive Regime" by Kunishi Nosaka of Kokusai Denshin Denwa (Japan); "Telecommunications in the Pacific" by Ieremia T. Tabai of the South Pacific Forum Secretariat (Fiji); "The Co-Ordinating Role of APT in Promoting Telecommunications in the Asia Pacific Region" by Riluvan Shareef of the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity; "Compatible Roles of Government and the Private Sector in Fostering Telecommunication Development" by Derek H. Burney of BCE Telecom International, Inc.; and the abstract only of "Let's Take a Ride on the International Information Highway" by Mike Thurk of Digital Equipment Corporation (United States). The winner of the 1993 PTC research prize competition, "Telecommunications, Capabilities and Development: Towards an Integrated Framework for Development Communication" (Nikhil Sinha), is also included; this paper contains 54 references. (MES)

This volume comprises the papers presented at the 1994 conference of the Pacific Telecommunications Council. This gathering, which focused on the theme, "Forging New Links: Focus on Developing Economies," brought together more than 1,100 participants from over 40 countries. The 146 papers are organized chronologically, according to date of presentation. Topics covered in the papers include accounting rates/tariffs, alliances, area networks, asynchronous transfer mode, broadband applications, broadcasting policy, broadcasting technology, cable television, cellular applications, competition/privatization, convergence, data communications, development applications/technologies, multinational/international development policies, national development policies, technology transfer, disaster communications, distance education, foreign investment, INTELSAT, Internet, multimedia, network management, network technologies, personal communications, policy issues, regulatory issues, rural and remote applications, satellite applications, competitive systems satellites, satellite technologies, security issues, socio-cultural issues, standards, submarine cables, telework/telecommuting, trade issues, training/human resources development, videoconferencing/teleconferencing, videotext, virtual networks, and wireless local loop. Subject, country, and author indexes are included. Many of the papers contain references.

This two-volume set contains 165 papers presented at a conference that brought together over 1,100 telecommunications leaders and leading commentators from over 40 countries across the Pacific region. The papers indicate that the optimism of the telecommunications industry is possibly greater than during the 1980s, although tempered by a more comprehensive view of how telecommunications development must benefit society; that distance education, health care, and other social applications of new technologies are vitally important; and that the importance of telecommunications to infrastructure development in developing countries is now recognized as crucial. Topics include planning and implementing services, techno-applications, economics of telecommunications development, distance education, wireless technologies, regional satellite systems, broadband technology, mobile services, satellite services, restructuring telecommunications organizations, health care enhancement through telecommunication, enterprise networks, digital audio radio, international strategies, user perspectives, business strategies, network management, culture and communication, markets for services, future trends and projections, converging technologies that impact regulatory structures, fiber optic submarine systems, social impacts of telecommunication changes, technology transfer, regulatory concerns, and social impact studies. A comprehensive table of contents and indexes of topics and authors are included. Many of the papers include references. (SLD)

This paper deals with strategies for developing literacy skills in nonnative speakers of English. Discussed in the initial section of the paper are four different categories of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) adults and the basic philosophy that underlies the teaching of literacy skills to adults at all levels of literacy. The special needs of ESL students from preliterate societies and learning activities for use in addressing these special needs are examined. Described next are a series of strategies focusing on meaning that can be used successfully with students who are not themselves literate but who speak a language that has a common written form. A series of activities focusing on patterns are provided for use with ESL students who are well educated in their first language. Concluding the paper are sample lessons from a refugee camp in Southeast Asia and from an adult education center in San Francisco. (MN)

Quality Circle (QC) and Quality of Working Life (QWL) in the United States are similar in that both stress participative decision making, preserve management's prerogative to have the final say, and are voluntary. QC and QWL programs differ, however, in that labor unions are more involved in QWLs; QCs deal only with technical problems related to work while QWLs discuss the entire work environment; and QWLs incorporate representatives from all levels of the organization while QCs limit the circle to employees on the same level. An examination of QCs and labor relations in Japan reveals that labor relations there tend to be both more cooperative and more antagonistic than those in the West because of the presence of enterprise unions, labor-management collusion, traditional dispute settlement, and modern dispute settlement. In Japan, the QCs play an important role in furthering employee interest by offering an alternative to identifying solely with company or union interests and by providing the training needed for advancement. Unlike the QCs in Japan, those in the United States do not consider the needs of the employee participant, stressing instead technical problems. This fact explains why QCs in the United States are initially successful but ultimately fail. For these reasons, QWL programs may be better suited for the United States. (JL)

To illustrate decision making as negotiation, this report utilizes P. H. Gulliver's theories concerning negotiation and two case studies of decision making by cooperative labor-management Quality of Work Life (QWL) committees. Negotiation as joint decision-making is discussed and two models that are central to Gulliver's theories of processual negotiation are presented: a cyclical model of information exchange between the negotiation parties, and a developmental model that maps the progress of the negotiations, guiding them with eight conceptually distinct phases that may more or less parallel actual phases in time. The report describes two labor-management committees that are part of a QWL program established to improve both the quality of working conditions for municipal employees and the services provided by city government. It then recounts the operating principles of the QWL program, its expansion, its committee based structure, and the consensus decision-making process it employed. A record of each committee meeting follows, with an abstract of the occurrences at each one. The first analysis section on negotiation as decision making concludes that Gulliver's theory presents little help in explaining why one committee acted successfully and a second inconclusively. The second analysis section concludes that the decision making of the successful committee may be viewed as negotiation because the committee built incrementally on a series of decisions made by the committee, consulted outside parties, and incorporated the diverse interests of different organizational stakeholders in its operation. (CRH)

Arguing that educational research rarely makes it into print, this paper discusses what is wrong with educational research, what is wrong with the press, and offers suggestions for improving the relationship between educational research and the press. The paper argues that (1) education research is badly underfunded; (2) the most pressing questions in education research are often ignored; (3) most of the research comes in bits and pieces; (4) much education research is written in dense, abstract prose; and (5) education research often confirms common sense, which does not make for much of a news story. The paper argues that since most education research fails to pass the test of being new and significant, reporters and editors usually ignore it. The paper also notes that education is considered a backwater beat. The paper concludes that the relationship between education research and the press could be improved if there were a few well-edited research journals with a broad audience, a dozen media stars who could serve as sources for the press, and a regular schedule of research reports from organizations such as the Department of Education and the National Assessment of Educational Progress. (RS)

This paper presents a rationale for teaching higher level thinking skills to students with special needs, including those with mild mental handicaps and learning disabilities. It briefly reviews the literature on teaching such skills, stressing that thinking skills can be taught through specific teaching methods such as a four-step method (introduce the skill, explain the skill, demonstrate the skill, apply the skill) and careful questioning. Incorporation of higher level thinking skills into life skills is stressed, and teaching students use of the I PLAN five-step motivational and learning strategy is urged. Evidence of the I PLAN model strategy's effectiveness in increasing student input to Individualized Education Programs is offered. (12 references) (DB)

An unavoidably ideological frame of reference in Writing across the Curriculum (WAC) exists and an unavoidably political job must be undertaken if Writing across the Curriculum is to escape being the handmaiden to the so-called content disciplines. Despite this, many teachers who work in the field do not see their task as emerging from a distinct ideological framework. Writing instructors must understand the conceptions about the nature of writing that are held by professionals in various disciplines. Recently, a number of studies have centered on the texts and writing processes of such professionals. A survey looking at the past five years of two scientific and engineering journals demonstrates a lively interest in how to teach discipline-specific writing skills, and this paper relates that survey to the goals and values of Writing across the Curriculum. Writing is a social act manifesting ethical character, a way of making meaning, but these assumptions currently favored by many writing instructors may not be shared by teachers of other disciplines. Examples from engineering and chemistry educators show contradictory notions about writing. Writing instructors must promote an understanding of the ways knowledge is formulated not through systematic methods of extracting it from the world, but through social discourse, which is an ideological task. (Some sample comments about writing from other disciplines are appended.) (HB)

The primary concern of this conference was the seeming discrepancy between role groups and functions within and across Teacher Corps projects and the importance of local team members working together toward identified goals. Speeches were presented on the following major topics: (1) collaboration and teaming; (2) preservice and inservice training designs; (3) developmental planning and institutional adoption of models; (4) evaluation, management, and demonstration; (5) community education; (6) multicultural education; and (7) educational leadership. (JD)

The primary purpose of this conference was to update members of the Teacher Corps on current issues in education as they relate to the Teacher Corps. Speeches delivered by individuals from federal, state, regional, and local levels of the Corps are printed in their entirety. (JD)

Five hundred two employees of 20 television stations (47% response rate) completed a 90-item questionnaire in a study designed to determine their level of job satisfaction as well as the extent to which their perceptions of organizational and interpersonal relationships were similar to those reported in previous studies by employees of other commercial enterprises. The job satisfaction variables examined were task simplicity, instrumental and supportive leader behavior, need for achievement and for autonomy, satisfaction with work and with supervisor, and beliefs about the effect of degree of effort on quality of performance and attainment of rewards. Analysis of the data indicated that the employees' job-related attitudes were not notably different from those of persons employed in other enterprises, that persons who perceived their jobs as relatively simple had generally low levels of job satisfaction, that those subordinates whose leaders were perceived to be friendly and supportive were significantly more satisfied with their jobs and supervisors than those whose leaders were not so perceived, and that employees with a high need for achievement were relatively satisfied with their work. The study provides a basis for the inference that improved management techniques that have created more positive employee attitudes in other areas might have the same result in television stations, providing a possible solution to the currently high turnover rate among television station employees. (GT)

The uses of various research designs in educational research are discussed. Research methodologies such as social anthropology, path analysis, classroom observation, historiography, interaction analysis, and statistical analysis are described. The educational settings in which each of them would be an effective research tool are illustrated. (JD)

A longitudinal study compared the academic abilities of undergraduate women students in seven college programs at a large university. Four questions were posed: (1) What are the academic qualifications of women choosing education as a career? (2) How do these women compare with women choosing other programs? (3) What changes take place in the career choices of women during their college career? and (4) Are women who are unsuccessful in other programs choosing education as a last resort? Information was gathered on women choosing programs in agriculture, business, education, engineering, liberal arts, physical education, and science. The qualifications of the students were measured by Scholastic Aptitude Test averages for the math and verbal components for each of their four years and by their high school class standing. An analysis of the resulting data indicated that education attracts women who have lower academic qualifications than women in other fields. Large numbers of women with high academic ability chose majors in male-dominated fields. The greatest difference between women choosing education as a career and women choosing other areas was in mathematics scores. The wide range in verbal test scores that appeared at the senior year indicated that education was allowing women with marginal verbal skills to complete the program. However, the improved academic qualifications apparent at the junior year indicated that some women with high academic qualifications were evaluating their original career choice and choosing education as a career. By the junior year, women in education compared quite favorably with those in other fields. (JD)

A review of the literature suggests that student evaluations, contrary to popular belief, can be valid sources of data about teaching performance when care is taken in the planning and administration of the evaluation procedure. This study sought to determine if a difference is made in the assessment of teacher competence when student evaluation data are added to supervisor evaluations. Fifty-one elementary, middle, junior high, and high school principals were asked to evaluate seven teachers. One-third of the principals were given only school district summative evaluation data. The other two-thirds were given summative evaluation data as well as student evaluations. Findings indicate that student evaluation data do not significantly alter the assessment of teacher competency. The majority of principals perceive student evaluation data as less reliable than supervisory ratings, even though those ratings might be based on a limited sample of teacher behavior. If the teacher evaluation process is to move forward, a variety of data sources, including student evaluations, should be added to the traditional classroom observation. Appended are a table, 14 references, and an appendix consisting of (1) sample school district teacher evaluation forms, (2) a sample teacher fact sheet, and (3) samples of student evaluation forms. (IW)

I argue that the historical cases of populism in Europe, Latin America, and the U.S., contribute to an understanding of the rise of ultraright politics in the three respective regions. Populism is here defined either as a "discourse" following Ernesto Laclau, a type of "persuasive rhetoric" for Michael Kazin, or a "thin ideology" with Cas Mudde - that pits ordinary people against elites, seeks to mobilize the former against the latter, and oscillates ambiguously in its world view, both across cases and within them, between emancipatory radical left politics and illiberal ethnonativist projects. I designate, for our purposes here, those movements and administrations, which utilize this discourse, as populist. The first cases of populist movements emerging in Europe and the U.S. in the mid-nineteenth century, and the advent of populist administrations during the 1930s and 40s in Latin America provide insight not only into the general "ideological character" of the populist movements and administrations that develop in those regions, they also provide insight into potential causal-frameworks for understanding the current decline in left political administrations around the world. In short, the rise of a rightward-leaning populism in the U.S. and in Europe, coupled with the decline of left populism in Latin America has a direct correlation with the global rise of the right. More troubling are the emerging coalitions and alliances across regions, including a persistent alt-right across Europe and the States, and a shared vision between Putin, Trump, Orbán, Assad, Modi, and Bolsonaro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the most sophisticated advancements in contemporary and continental political theories of populism and their potential shortcomings can be best understood through the methodological orientation evidenced in the classical sociological theories of Weber and Durkheim. Built into Weber and Durkheim's theories of the 'social' was already a nuanced perspective of 'discourse' as an implicit horizon of understanding that comprised both individual and collective levels of social phenomena. They understood culture not just in the Neo-Kantian sense of an objective and independent conceptual sphere, but also on the level of the 'subjective component of belief.' In tracing the emergent paradigm of populism as discourse through the history of social theory, this paper shows that at each subsequent stage of linguistic and psychoanalytic interventions, it is precisely this Weberian orientation toward methodological individualism that faces the peril of obfuscation from every reformulation of the 'anonymous social field.' Thus, in order to theoretically conceive of and operationalize the concept of populist discourse for comparative-historical analysis, this foray through the history of sociology and social theory reveals the ever-timely necessity to account for the classical sociological cornerstone of the 'subjective component of belief.'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies of cultural practice have identified omnivorousness as a dominant theme. While most of the earlier studies also linked cultural activities with socio-economic underpinnings, the currently prevailing view is that class plays little role in cultural distinction in contemporary capitalist societies like Britain. An important reason for disagreement about the determinants of cultural distinction is lack of appropriate data containing both parents' and own cultural practices in addition to class, education and other attributes. In this study we use the Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion survey (2003/5) in the UK that contains unprecedented details in all these aspects. Using Item Response Theory (IRT) models to construct the latent scores for three domains of cultural practice from fifty cultural activities and analysing their association with parental education, cultural practice, the respondent's mobility trajectory and other socio-demographic attributes including social capital, we find very powerful and highly interwoven effects of socio-cultural transmission in the cultural life of contemporary UK, substantiating some theoretical expectations of Bourdieu's (1984[1979]) Distinction while at the same time moving beyond the confines of his interpretation of class habitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative analysis of four cases of populism found in Venezuela and the United States: Betancourt's Acción Democrática (1945-48), McCarthyism, the Chávez administration, and the Tea Party. Populism is here defined as a discourse containing a symbolic structure that demonizes the 'enemy' as the disruption of the legacy traced to a glorified 'founding moment.' This sense of nationalism represented in the relationship between the 'founding moment' and the demonization of the 'enemy' is reinforced through the attempt to define the enemy within a spectrum of linked internal and external threats to the nation. The symbolic discursive structure, which is found in all four cases, reveals further similarities between the anti-leftist content of McCarthyite and Tea Party discourse and the Bolivarian/social reformist content of AD and Chavista discourse. The key difference, however, between the cases of populism in the immediate postwar period (AD and McCarthyism) and present cases (Chávez and the Tea Party) is the relative success of the latter concerning their ability to institutionalize populist discourse within stable systems of democratic politics. This paper attempts to account for the emergence of these new forms of institutionalized populism in historical perspective by revealing how the relationship between the Manichean structure of discourse and corresponding reductive economic platforms provides for clear-cut methods of implementing policy initiatives within democratic politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The RAL Front End Test Stand (FETS) is being constructed to demonstrate a chopped H- beam of up to 60 mA at 3 MeV with 50 p.p.s. and sufficiently high beam quality for future high-power proton accelerators (HPPA). High power proton accelerators with beam powers in the several megawatt range have many applications including drivers for spallation neutron sources, neutrino factories, waste transmuters and tritium production facilities. The aim of the FETS project is to demonstrate that chopped low energy beams of high quality can be produced and is intended to allow generic experiments exploring a variety of operational conditions. This paper details the first stage of construction- the installation and commissioning of the ion source. Initial performance figures are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reveals insights into how different players in the field of U.S. healthcare utilize the Internet to present certain conceptions about health to the public. I examine three websites sponsored by three different types of health actors. I find that the websites all present messages that on the one hand, advance the neo-liberal agenda by advocating individuals to take active control over their health, and on the other, proclaim the continued relevance and importance of mainstream western medicine as a primary distributor of care. Additionally, depending on the type of health actor operating the website the websites health messages reflected different agendas. This provides evidence that while operating within a cultural script there is room for actors to advance messages that promote their individual goals. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The amount of economic risk that Americans shoulder in the twenty-first century has increased considerably. More volatile incomes and a trend toward more neo-liberal policies have led to growing economic instability among American families. In the context of rising health care costs, particularly in the post-2000 period, this paper examines whether or not the emergent health insurance model contributes to economic instability. Considerable attention has been given to the impact of health insurance on health outcomes. The contribution of this paper is a systematic examination of the impact of health insurance on salient economic outcomes. Using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study (NLSY79) collected by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2006), initial findings based on multinomial logistic regression suggest that a loss of health insurance coverage is positively related to downward economic mobility of families between 2000 and 2004. Interviews with a sample of twenty-five New Hampshire residents of varying economic means support the findings of the quantitative analysis and provide a more in-depth understanding of the processes involved in managing rising health care costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the extent to which nonprofits, for-profits, and government agencies that serve young people use formal evaluations and formally screen workers. After reviewing arguments that suggest that different sectors should evaluate and screen differently, we develop an argument based on agency theory which suggests that other factors - particularly the distance between principals and agents - affect the use of formal evaluations and screening. Data on 176 nonprofit, for-profit, and government providers of youth services in the Phoenix metropolitan area are analyzed through quantitative analysis, and a subset of 45 nonprofit, for-profit, and government organizations are analyzed qualitatively. Our results show some support for agency theory - among nonprofits the greater the involvement of principals in organizational affairs, the less formalization - but sector differences remain with government organizations more likely to use formal evaluations and formal screening practices than for-profits and nonprofits. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]