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For almost 40 years, the Minute Paper has been a quick and easy means of learning assessment, both in the college classroom and in library instruction. More recently, the use of social media, particularly selfies, has gained popularity by connecting with students through the technology with which they are most familiar. This article makes the case for combining the Minute Paper and selfies in order to gain an insight into students' skill development and retention after a library session. Adaptable to a variety of classes and learning outcomes, the activity enables students to actively use the skills they have learned, rather than passively reflecting on them.

This paper details a critical ethnography I conducted in my own classroom--an undergraduate children's literature course for pre-service elementary educators--in which I analyze white students' emotional responses to multicultural children's literature through the lens of a cultural politics of emotion (Ahmed, 2015; Zembylas, 2008). In my paper I use critical whiteness studies and critical emotion studies to analyze the effects of these emotional responses, complicating the assumption that emotions are a bridge to empath and exploring how white emotional performativity often serves to deflect from authentic critical discourse, reinforcing white supremacy in educational spaces. I look reflexively at my own pedagogy as a white educator, noticing the ways in which my failure to critically interrogate white emotions contributed to a classroom culture that valued majority voices over the voices of students of color. I conclude with the impacts of this study on my own commitments as a teacher-researcher.

In this paper, we address the achievements to date and the learnings from the development and ten-year implementation of the Iron Range Engineering (IRE) program while articulating its future directions. IRE uses research-based instructional strategies to implement a project-based learning (PBL) curriculum where authentic design sits at the heart of each semester's learning experiences. Industry projects are used to provide the learning context that spans the three engineering domains of professional, technical, and design capabilities. Delivered as an upper-division program to graduates of community colleges, the IRE model attracts a wider gender, racial, and socio-economic diversity. The rural IRE program has been replicated successfully in a metro region. Both programs have small enrollments, are resource intensive, and immerse student engineers in two years of PBL curriculum with industry clients leading to a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE). Many unique learning strategies with the potential to advance engineering education have been developed by these programs. In an effort to propagate the use of these strategies, IRE has developed a new program designed for higher enrollments while both decreasing resource intensity and further expanding the diversity of the profession. This new entity, known as the Iron Range Engineering Bell program, attracts community college graduates from across the U.S. Using the framework of looking forward, this paper briefly describes the motivations behind the IRE model, its background, and the specific details of its philosophies and implementation. In the results section, both advancements and new learning strategies are described in a way that others can seek inspiration for possible adaptation. Finally, the new Bell program is described along with its potential for impact on change in engineering education.

The University of Minnesota Talented Youth Mathematics Program (UMTYMP) is a selective, five-year accelerated mathematics program for students in grades 6-12. During the program, students take college mathematics courses on University of Minnesota campuses, starting with algebra and continuing through logic and proofs, linear algebra, and multivariable calculus. The majority of UMTYMP students come from two demographic groups: White and Asian/Asian American. In 2020, we surveyed UMTYMP students to understand the impact of model minority stereotypes (MMS) on Asian/Asian American students, particularly girls, who are labeled as "gifted" and/or "talented." In this paper, we reveal the preliminary results of this study, discuss their implications, and provide recommendations for addressing the MMS in mathematics programs.

In the spring of 2021, staff from the University of Minnesota Morris participated in Fika Coffee Time gatherings, inspired by a Swedish tradition to slow down, have coffee, conversation, and a treat with friends or colleagues. As Minnesota is the state with the largest number of Swedish Americans, it has a great deal of institutions that celebrate this heritage. With the backdrop of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the COVID-19 pandemic, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Sandra Olson-Loy presented the idea of fika to connect with other staff members. Olson-Loy scheduled five sessions, invited all Student Affairs staff members, organized with the campus coffeeshop, and asked Student Affairs units to "host or cohost" a session. This paper reflects on the context and inspiration for the sessions, their success, and the future of the program.

We detail our experience running an annual four-day workshop at the University of Minnesota, called the Mathematics Project at Minnesota (MPM). The workshop is for undergraduates who come from groups underrepresented in mathematics and aims to increase the participation and success of such groups in the mathematics major at the University. In this paper, we explain how MPM is organized, discuss its objectives, and highlight some of the sessions that we feel are emblematic of the program's success. The paper concludes with an analysis of achievements and obstacles in the programs' first three years. [Funding for the Mathematics Project at Minnesota was provided by the National Science Foundation.]

This paper describes the development and execution of an exhibition in an academic museum setting. The exhibition is presented as a self-directed learning intervention. The development process included conceptual development, the selection of exhibition materials, the creation of didactic written materials, spatial arrangement of the materials, organizing the flow and interaction of the exhibition, and analysis of the results of the exhibition. We find that interactivity is a viable means to drive interest in the subject(s) of an exhibition and that crowds can make informed decisions about the perception of displayed objects. We propose that interactive didactic exhibitions such as this show potential for successful self-directed learning in a variety of contexts and that further study of the results of such exhibitions are necessary.

The EPICS Program was created in 1995 with the dual purposes of improving engineering education and addressing compelling needs within our communities. The model broke with many traditional academic traditions, involving students in multidisciplinary teams of students from first-year to fourth years for multiple semesters or even years on projects with local and global community partners. EPICS has been recognized as a model within engineering education and community engagement. The EPICS model has been adapted by several other institutions at the undergraduate and pre-university settings. There are currently 38 active higher education institutions with each adapting the model to their own institutional culture. This paper highlights the EPICS model and how four institutions that are recognized global leaders in engineering education have collaborated and adapted the model to their own institution's goals and culture.

Interior design education aims to provide students with real learning experiences. The authors, hence, combined problem-based learning (PBL) and design thinking to design a seven-week studio project in the Interior design program at a land-grant Midwest university. Thirty-two sophomores were engaged in different stages of the design process for the education wing of Minnesota's official natural history museum in collaboration with Perkins+ Will, a global architecture and design firm. Students explored design thinking via interactions with stakeholders and practitioners who participated in the creation of the Museum. This approach allowed students to gain insights about the design-challenge plus the pros and cons of their solutions. For seven weeks, students in teams of three immersed themselves in a diverse and real design environment. They learned how to communicate, collaborate, and compromise to accomplish the common goal of finding the most relevant solution for the design problem at hand. The authors collected students' reflections on their learning experiences at the end of the project. This paper discusses the lessons we learned from this interior design PBL case.

This paper presents the results of participatory action research survey responses from doctoral students regarding strategic onboarding activities. Twelve first-year doctoral students in an inaugural doctoral program cohort responded to Likert Scale and open-ended questions during the first week of a two-week on-campus residency. Resulting student perspectives highlight the importance of faculty mentorship and cohort engagement during residency to clarify roles and responsibilities, build academic support and collaboration networks, and alleviate anxieties about doctoral program expectations. Specific recommendations for academic residency include providing increased opportunities for one-on-one conversations with faculty and administrators, and cohort socialization activities to identify peer strengths and alliances.

Grade prediction can help students and their advisers select courses and design personalized degree programs based on predicted future course performance. One of the successful approaches for accurately predicting a student's grades in future courses is Cumulative Knowledge-based Regression Models (CKRM). CKRM learns shallow linear models that predict a student's grades as the similarity between his/her knowledge state and the target course. However, there can be more complex interactions among prior courses taken by a student, which cannot be captured by the current linear CKRM model. Moreover, CKRM and other grade prediction methods ignore the effect of concurrently-taken courses on a student's performance in a target course. In this paper, we propose context-aware nonlinear and neural attentive models that can potentially better estimate a student's knowledge state from his/her prior course information, as well as model the interactions between a target course and concurrent courses. Compared to the competing methods, our experiments on a large real-world dataset consisting of more than 1.5 million grades show the effectiveness of the proposed models in accurately predicting students' grades. Moreover, the attention weights learned by the neural attentive model can be helpful in better designing their degree plans.

Furthering intercultural competence in higher education requires colleges and universities to establish an intentional, mission driven strategic plan that embeds intercultural understanding and practice across the institution's work. To secure broad-based buy-in and support, this plan needs to consider the various ways that different units within the academy define, interpret, and view intercultural work. For large, complex and multi-faceted colleges and universities, building this plan can prove daunting as different parts of the institution will ascribe different meanings, purposes, and intentions to intercultural advancement. In this paper, administrators from the University of Minnesota, who represent units that are highly engaged in intercultural competence work, share some of their struggles and lessons learned in their effort to build a comprehensive, campus-wide strategy to grow intercultural advancement. The administrators initiated this campus-wide strategic work following their participation in an international conference focused on intercultural competence. Since that time, they have developed recommendations for the foundational work required to establish a common university-wide framework and comprehensive plan for institutional intercultural advancement.

This paper examines the debate in the U.S. Senate over the reasons why state governments have decreased funding for higher education. One side believes that federal mandates on states to pay for Medicaid have forced them to reduce spending on higher education. The other side believes that states unwisely reduced taxes, which decreased their revenues and caused cuts to higher education funding. This study finds that important factors regarding revenues and spending are missing from the Senate's debate. Revenues decline for a number of reasons, including the effects of unemployment. Court decisions have required many states to increase spending on K-12 education. As a policy priority, higher education is disadvantaged, in part because lawmakers understand, and perhaps accept, that institutions may increase tuition to replace cuts in appropriations. This acceptance is part of a "grand paradox" between what lawmakers say and what they do regarding higher education. Ultimately, leadership determines states' spending. If governors and legislators have the political will, they can make funding for higher education a priority. [This paper was presented at the Symposium on the Financing of Education presented by the "Journal of Education Finance" at the Oxford Union, Oxford, England on Dec 9, 2014.]

Immigrant community college presidents are working to ensure the unpleasant, even frightening experiences of their younger years are not replicated among the current student body. Immigrant leaders interviewed by "Community College Journal"--Dr. Steady Moono, president of SUNY Schenectady County Community College; Dr. Lin Zhou, president of Bates Technical College; Dr. Claudia Habib, president of Porterville College; and Dr. Adenuga Atewologun, president of Riverland Community College--discuss the importance of being both visible and accessible to students uncertain about their future success due to attributes they cannot control.

Current world events demand public affairs leadership training that generates among professionals a sense of capability, agency, and responsibility to engage in complex public problems. In this paper, we describe a unique course operated in the US focused on achieving these learning outcomes. It uses an unconventional schedule and course design that leverages information communication technologies to support learning. Its integrated model combines conventionally distinct courses with a pedagogical approach stressing experiential learning, personal reflection, and critical thinking. The paper describes the teaching practices used in the course, as well as offers three sources of evidence about what results from its implementation.

Concurrent enrollment refers to partnerships between postsecondary institutions and schools through which secondary school students can complete a university class taught by a qualifying secondary school teacher at their secondary school. We propose that concurrent enrollment programs are an under-recognized tool for extending the impact of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The context of our study is an equity-focused university course in algebraic mathematical modeling that is also offered through concurrent enrollment in over 30 secondary schools to over 800 secondary students annually in our state of Minnesota, U.S.A. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of secondary school teachers' experiences implementing the inquiry pedagogy and the equity goals of the course. Several results are important for UDL. Teachers (1) describe equity in social terms of race, ethnicity, income, immigration, and language status in addition to measures of academic success; (2) perceive improvements in students' attitudes towards mathematics, school, and university education; (3) perceive student academic growth through mathematical writing; and (4) report close relationships with students. If higher education faculty design their on-campus classes to incorporate UDL principles, concurrent enrollment offers the potential to improve inclusive pathways from secondary schools to universities.

Using data collected from peer reviews for Open Textbook Library titles, this paper explores questions about rating the quality of open textbooks. The five research questions addressed the relationship between textbook and reviewer characteristics and ratings. Although reviewers gave textbooks high ratings generally, reviewers identified differences in quality according to criteria and discipline. Physics and chemistry textbooks earned significantly lower ratings than other textbook types. Ratings were not significantly associated with reviewers' status and experience, but were associated with reviewers' place of residence. We discuss the implications for OER efficacy studies and other research.

A growing number of public colleges and universities in the United States have hired management consulting firms to help develop strategies aimed at increasing institutional effectiveness and efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to explore the frames and strategies of consultants in US public higher education reform efforts. Drawing upon a range of documentary evidence, the paper examines four consulting firms (Accenture, Bain & Company, Deloitte and McKinsey & Company) and their perspectives on higher education reform. The paper analyses the consultative process with two public universities and two state higher education systems to determine possible avenues by which consultants exert influence. Through reference to theory on academic capitalism and new institutionalism, the paper reveals the ways in which consultants circulate crisis narratives and diffuse private sector management ideas among public colleges and universities that are seeking both financial solvency and legitimacy.

The Capstone Sales course is the final in a sequence of five required courses in a 15 credit Professional Selling program housed in the Marketing Department at St. Cloud State University. The course is heavily focused on experiential learning activities for senior-level sales students. In this paper details of the course design, instructor and student deliverables, grading rubrics, student project/assignment guidelines, and a suggested course schedule are presented.

This paper presents a step-by-step process for the development and implementation of a professional selling specialization program in the marketing curriculum of a school of business at an AACSB accredited state university. The program is presented in detail along with the process followed in order to develop support for the program with three primary stakeholders: faculty, administrators, and regional and national employers. Ongoing program challenges, successes, and growth opportunities are discussed. Program outcomes and stakeholder perceptions are included.

Competency-based approaches to education are becoming increasingly common in higher education. One of the key principles of competency-based education is flexibility, which "allows students to progress as they demonstrate mastery of academic content, regardless of time, place, or pace of learning" (U.S. Department of Education). In some examples of competency-based approaches in collegiate honors education, students may fulfill honors requirements through experiences outside of the traditional classroom. While the degree to which honors programs might award actual credits for experiences taking place outside of the classroom varies across programs, the value in learning gained through experiences and based on student needs is clearly expressed in key recommendations for honors programs by the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) and as stated in the first characteristic of its guidelines, "Basic Characteristics of a Fully Developed Honors Program." This paper presents the findings of a study focusing on one of three competencies at the Minnesota State University, Mankato (MNSU) Honors Program--the global citizenship competency--and its potential application to other programs with competency-based education or the inclusion of intercultural competency as a key component in their curriculum. The focus of the study was to gauge students' perspectives on the language requirement as part of the global citizenship competency, not as a stand-alone requirement, in order to help students see the critical connections of the language component to the broader competency. Data came from an anonymous survey sent to all sophomores, juniors, and seniors in the program. The survey was designed to solicit students' views on the value of the global citizenship competency requirement, their understanding of the purpose and requirements associated with the competency, and the program experiences designed to help students develop their competency. Students clearly understand the purpose of the global citizenship competency (94%) and what is expected of them in relation to the competency requirement (92%). In addition, students overwhelmingly agree with the values associated with the global citizenship competency, namely that it is important to be able to work with people from various cultures and backgrounds in their future profession (100%). The results of the survey demonstrate the need for MNSU's program to better communicate regarding the various experiences that exist to help students develop their global citizenship competency.

In today's educational climate, liberal arts institutions must demonstrate that their educational goals are being met. This paper presents reliability and stability testing of a concise, research-based survey instrument designed to examine student perceptions of academic experiences that is particularly suited to institutions rooted in the liberal arts. The Academic Experiences Survey (AES) consists of five scales: Comfortable in College, Skills, Interdisciplinary Understanding, Liberal Arts Integration, and Future Academic Plans. We present data from administrations at two institutions; examining the instrument's validity as prediction of college retention and graduation, enrollment in STEM courses, and longitudinal changes over the course of students' first year in college.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the efficacy of foreign immersion programs in terms of increasing cross-cultural awareness among university students in business, accounting, human resources and agriculture. The authors extrapolate from their population to the practice of developing business professionals on international assignments. Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper presents findings of a four-year, government-sponsored university exchange program involving 40 professional management and agriculture science students from four US and Brazilian top research universities who participated in a semester-long study abroad experience. Pre-departure and post-exchange data were collected using the well-established Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). In addition, the authors collected academic performance data and verbal mid- and end-project personal assessments. Two of the authors of this paper served as project directors, the third as evaluation specialist. Findings: Despite intensive pre-departure preparation, in-country support and cultural immersion, the research subjects failed to attain significant and consistently higher levels of intercultural awareness. Students tended to overestimate their own level of cross-cultural competence both before and after the program. While students tended to perform well academically and voiced high levels of satisfaction with their own overseas stay, objective measures of cross-cultural awareness did not mirror these outcomes. Research Limitations/Implications: Multiple measures of cross-cultural competence exist, and it is possible that the development in areas other than those measured by the IDI did take place. It is also sensible to assume that cognitive development might take longer and was not captured by the post-test right after return. Practical Implications: The paper suggests that cross-cultural development requires carefully designed interventions, feedback and mentoring/coaching. Simply sending individuals on overseas assignments, no matter how well prepared and supported by the institution, does not guarantee the development of multi-cultural attitudes and cognitive frames of mind. Social Implications: The development of cross-cultural competence has been described as a central concern for universities and workplaces alike. The burgeoning research literature on cross-cultural development reflects not only the importance of the topic but also the struggle to find effective pedagogical and andragogical approaches to fostering such development in university students, expatriate managers, working professionals and members of the workforce in general. Originality/Value: The paper presents evaluation findings of a carefully designed and well-supported exchange program over a period of four years and involving three cohorts of students. These students are at the cusp of moving into the workplace, where many will assume professional and leadership positions in international settings. Given the high failure rate of international development and placement and the increasing global interconnectedness of academic and business organizations, the paper suggests the need for carefully designed and well-supported overseas programs to maximize cross-cultural development.

In this article, the authors describe the structure and assessment of a capstone course in economics. The outcomes are noteworthy for three reasons. First, among cited evidence to date, this is the only undergraduate economics program from a nonselective public university reporting similar achievements in undergraduate research paper publications. Second, the program reports learning outcomes of a relatively new instrument in standardized test (ETS MFT Economics) to measure attainment of proficiencies in economics. Finally, it introduces undergraduate research paper competition outcomes as a measure of student paper quality.

Effectively managing active learning classrooms (ALCs), particularly large ALCs, can present a variety of challenges for instructors. There is a rapidly growing body of research literature addressing the impact of ALCs on student engagement and learning, but fewer studies have focused on investigating instructional practices and instructors in ALCs. Moreover, little to no information on best practices for multiple instructors in these learning spaces has been reported, although the presence of multiple instructors or facilitators simultaneously seems to be frequently implemented in these spaces. Many unanswered questions remain regarding optimizing the opportunities afforded by ALCs and collaborative teaching models while minimizing difficulties that may arise when multiple instructors facilitate student learning concurrently. In an effort to begin reporting faculty experiences and student perspectives of team teaching models at the college or university level, this paper provides an overview of collaborative teaching models described in the literature, describes collaborative teaching models in two undergraduate biology courses, and reports student responses to questions addressing their experience with collaborative teaching in those courses. Finally, from our experiences, we provide recommendations of helpful practices for courses with multiple facilitators acting simultaneously in ALCs.

This papers looks into whether combining Skype, blogging and class discussions reinforces or refutes stereotypes. The hypothesis was that some students do not have an adequate chance to reflect on their skype experience and course content. To see if students have made improvements in reducing stereotypes, the Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Culture will be used to evaluate their blog entries. In addition a survey will be given at end of the semester to analyse the student's perspective of their own learning.

In February 2015 a large group of scholars, researchers, and practitioners interested in P-20 finance issues gathered in St. Louis, Missouri, for the National Education Finance Academy's annual conference, on February 25-27, 2015 to discuss, among multiple topics, the state of P-20 finance in all 50 states. There were 35 states represented in the round table session and representatives of 30 of those states submitted their manuscripts to the "Journal of Education Finance" for publication. This is the third year that JEF has published the State of the States manuscripts as a service to those interested in trends around P-20 finance and the 28 states represents the highest number of states included in the report to date. However, it is the intention to have all 50 states represented by 2016 and individuals interested in representing currently unrepresented states should contact Drs. Weiler and Hartman. Presenters at the 2015 National Education Finance Academy's State of the States Round table session were directed to address the following topics: (1) Funding priorities/trends for P-12 and/or higher education (2) Changes to the funding formula for P-12 and/or higher education; (3) Pressing issues affecting P-12 and/or higher education funding; (4) Exclusive to P-12: Diverting funds from public school districts; and (5) Exclusive to Higher Education: Trends in state funding for public institutions. The following information summarizes some of the more prevalent trends observed in the submissions. The following manuscripts are presented here listed alphabetically by state: (1) Alabama (Brenda Mendiola and Philip Westbrook); (2) Arizona (Oscar Jimenez-Castellanos and David Martinez); (3) Arkansas (Dongfang Liu and Chao Liu); (4) California (Henry Tran); (5) Florida (Megan Lane, Jolande Morgan, and R. Craig Wood); (6) Georgia (Brittany Larkin); (7) Hawaii (Christine Kiracofe); (8) Illinois (Kelly H. Summers and Christine Kiracofe); (9) Kansas (Thomas A. DeLuca); (10) Kentucky (Tyrone Bynoe); (11) Louisiana (David G. Buckman); (12) Maryland (Sarah Irvine Belson and Thomas Husted); (13) Michigan (Brett Geier and Dennis McCrumb ); (14) Minnesota (Nicola A. Alexander); (15) Montana (Lou L. Sabina); (16) Nebraska (Barbara Y. LaCost); (17) Nevada (Deborah A. Verstegen); (18) New Jersey (Luke J. Stedrak and Robert Kelchen); (19) New Mexico (Joshua M. Cohen); (20) New York (Osnat Zaken); (21) North Carolina (Lisa G. Driscoll and Jim R. Watson ); (22) Ohio (Carlee Escue Simon); (23) Pennsylvania (Tim Shrom and William Hartman); (24) South Carolina (Misty B. Soles and Robert C. Knoeppel); (25) Tennessee (Betty Cox); (26) Texas (Ken Helvey); (27) Virginia (William Owings, Leslie S. Kaplan, and Richard G. Salmon); (28) Wisconsin (Faith E. Crampton); and (29) Wyoming (Kelly H. Summers). References are provided with each individual paper.

Mentoring and advising are critical aspects of the graduate student experience, and can have a significant impact on the professional lives of future postsecondary faculty and staff and a rippling effect throughout higher education and the global economy. This paper describes the process a new department undertook to create a graduate program that puts the inclusion and success of students first.

Study abroad is often regarded as an important curricular component for supporting intercultural development among college students. While creating rich cross-cultural experiences for students is of primary concern, it remains unclear exactly which programmatic features of study abroad influence intercultural growth in a positive way. Consensus seems to be building around the importance of quality interventions within study abroad programs. What those interventions might look like may vary by context, and researchers are beginning to delve into the task of exploring the salient features of effective mentoring and guided reflection within sojourns. This paper examines multiple semester-long study abroad programs that utilize a faculty-led model as a means of providing effective pedagogical interventions to support intercultural learning outcomes. This research works to reveal the impact of certain contextual, personal, and pedagogical variables on intercultural development in study abroad.

Today, members of the various lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities enjoy many of the same rights and privileges as their cis-gender, heterosexual peers. Yet, the lived experiences of many queer-identified teachers in schools remain problematic, uncomfortable, and tension-filled. Given the rise of 'No Promo Homo' laws that exist in six states and current Supreme Court cases being argued that question whether or not anti-discrimination laws should apply to sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace, many queer teachers justifiably feel uneasy. In this reflective narrative, I utilized semi-structured interviews to awaken participants' memories of past classroom experiences. While not engaged in face-to-face interaction, the six queer individuals who participated in this project evoke images of people in conversation from afar. Throughout the narrative, I insert my voice in the hopes of creating larger meaning from the wisdom, advice, questions, fears, and hopes of the six participants.

The primary purpose of this paper is to describe the variety of active engagements that characterize student behaviors in active learning classrooms (ALCs) across an undergraduate degree program. The number of different engagement types observed during a single class meeting varied between two and eight across 23 different courses. Three forms of engagement accounted for nearly 75% of all observed time, regardless of the subgroups (e.g., consistent in STEM vs Non-STEM courses, lower division vs upper division courses). In addition, unique patterns of student engagement characterized the pedagogical "signature" of a given course. We conclude that intensive class observation focused on student engagement not only has value for comprehensive undergraduate program review but also serves as a lever that invites faculty reflection on pedagogical practice toward course improvement.

Service sociology is a critical strategy for teaching and learning in sociology. Even beyond that, service sociology is an imperative for communicating the value of our discipline to our students and other constituents. Using data collected from faculty members in Minnesota colleges and universities, I describe the salience of the sociology literacy framework for service sociology and as a means to avoid some of the weaknesses associated with service learning as a general pedagogy in our discipline. I offer six recommendations for advancing a "culture of service" in sociology, concluding with the case for service sociology as socialization to advance the common good while building sociological literacy.

The ability to clearly disseminate scientific knowledge is a skill that is necessary for any undergraduate student within the sciences. Traditionally, this is accomplished through the instruction of scientific presentation or writing with a focus on peer-to-peer communication at the expense of teaching communication aimed at a nonscientific audience. One of the ramifications of focusing on peer-to-peer communication has presented itself as an apprehension toward scientific knowledge within the general populace. This apprehension can be seen in a variety of venues, including the traditional media, popular culture, and education, which generally paint scientists as aloof and with an inability to discuss scientific issues to anyone other than other scientists. This paper describes a curriculum designed to teach Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology students the tools necessary for communicating complex concepts that were covered during the semester using approachable language. Students were assessed on their word usage in associated writing activities, the student's ability to reduce complexity of their statements, and performance in an informal scientific presentation to a lay audience. Results showed that this pedagogical approach has increased students' ability to reduce the complexity of their language in both a written and oral format. This, in turn, led to evaluators reporting greater levels of understanding of the topic presented following the presentation.

Recognising that regional differences in mentored undergraduate research and inquiry (URI) practices shape how academic developers might adapt international practices and resources to their local contexts, guest editor Jessie L. Moore invited four scholars to discuss the key terms, concepts, and initiatives for mentored URI in their countries. Spelling has been standardized throughout the conversation but have maintained regional differences in terms used to describe aspects of mentored URI. Susan Larson is a professor of psychology at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. She is a Councilor with the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) and served as the 2016-2017 president of the US-based organization. Lee Partridge is an academic developer and an adjunct faculty member at The University of Western Australia and Notre Dame University Australia. She is a senior consultant with Higher Education Evaluation and Development (HEED) Consulting and serves as an executive member of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA); she is also the founding director of University to Community Inc. in Perth Western Australia. Helen Walkington is a professor of higher education in the Department of Social Sciences at Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, UK. She is a National Teaching Fellow and has been a steering group member of the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR) since its inception in 2010. Brad Wuetherick is Executive Director, Learning and Teaching in the Office of the Provost and Vice President Academic and the Centre for Learning and Teaching at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He previously served as a Canadian Vice President on the Board of Directors for the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL). Jessie L. Moore is Director of the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University, which sponsored a 2014-2016 multi-institutional and international research seminar on excellence in mentoring undergraduate research. She currently serves as a US Vice President for ISSOTL.

On February 24, 2017, all of the authors of the state-of-the-state manuscripts published in the "Journal of Education Finance" met in Cincinnati, Ohio, to participate in a roundtable discussion focused on recent legislative actions in 38 states. A majority of those papers were revised to reflect a final report on legislative actions impacting the funding of P-12 and higher education. Overall, adequate funding for education continues to be an issue many states are struggling with. There is reason to be hopeful, as several states have seen increases in per pupil funding and teacher salaries. When facing funding shortfalls, some states have begun considering alternate sources of funding for public education. In complicated fiscal times like these, it is anticipated that an increasing number of states will look to novel forms of raising revenue for public schools. The following contents are included: (1) The Good, the Bad, and the Alarming: Commentary on the 2017 State of the States Submissions (Brittany Larkin, Christine Kiracofe, and Spencer Weiler); (2) Alabama (Philip Westbrook and Brenda Mendiola); (3) Alaska (Amy Dagley); (4) Arizona (David G. Martinez and Oscar Jimenez-Castellanos); (5) Arkansas (Steve Bounds); (6) California (Henry Tran); (7) Colorado (Gabriel R. Serna and Spencer C. Weiler); (8) Connecticut (Lesley A. DeNardis); (9) Florida (Megan Lane, Jolande Morgan, and R. Craig Wood); (10) Georgia (David G. Buckman and Tommy Jackson); (11) Illinois (Christine Kiracofe); (12) Indiana (Scott Rodger Sweetland); (13) Kansas (Thomas A. DeLuca); (14) Kentucky (Tyrone Bynoe); (15) Louisiana (Arvin Johnson, Venice M. Adams, and David G. Buckman); (16) Massachusetts (Tyrone Bynoe); (17) Michigan (Brett A. Geier); (18) Minnesota (Nicola A. Alexander); (19) Mississippi (Spencer D. Stone and Joshua A. Money); (20) Nebraska (Barbara La Cost); (21) Nevada (Deborah A. Verstegen, Oscar Jimenez-Castellanos, and David Martinez); (22) New Hampshire (F. Frank Ayata and Jeremy M. Anderson); (23) New Jersey (Luke J. Stedrak); (24) New Mexico (David G. Martinez and Oscar Jimenez-Castellanos); (25) New York (Osnat Zaken); (26) North Carolina (Walter Hart, Jim R. Watson, and Lisa G. Driscoll); (27) Ohio (Barbara M. De Luca, Krystel H. Chenault, and Randall S. Vesely); (28) Oklahoma (Jeffrey Maiden and Channa Byerly); (29) Oregon (Michael C. Petko); (30) Pennsylvania (Jeremy Anderson and F. Frank Ayata); (31) Tennessee (Lisa G. Driscoll and Betty Cox); (32) Texas (Ken Helvey); (33) Virginia (William Owings and Leslie S. Kaplan); (34) West Virginia (Drew Milligan); (35) Wisconsin (Michael C. Petko); and (36) Wyoming (Joshua M. Cohen). [For the previous year, see EJ1170086.]

Increasing costs and decreasing numbers of university Extension faculty have made it difficult to provide quality turfgrass short course education. In response, faculty from nine institutions collaborated to develop the Great Lakes School of Turfgrass Science. This 12-week online course provides students with unique learning experiences through a combination of assigned readings, quizzes, lectures, and live instructor discussion. Student attendance increased and costs decreased relative to traditional in-person short courses. Additionally, student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. These results demonstrate that online courses such as this can provide an effective and flexible source of knowledge that meets the busy schedules of students and instructors.

Measuring research impact has become a nearly ubiquitous facet of scholarly communication. At the University of Minnesota Medical School, new administrative directives have directly tied impact metrics to faculty assessment, promotion, and tenure. In this paper, I describe a platform for the analysis and visualization of research impact that was developed in the University of Minnesota Libraries specifically to support these directives. The implementation of that platform, named Manifold, has required not only major technological resources but also new investments in user education. The libraries' experience with Manifold offers a case study of the changing roles academic librarians increasingly face in managing expectations around research impact metrics.