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Institutions rely on career-ready competencies developed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) to understand the nationwide job outlook and labor market trends. The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to inform a course redesign process in the business curriculum at a Midwestern university in the United States. Using an adapted NACE survey, we found that while Midwestern employers and alumni valued NACE core competencies and employability attributes similarly, there were certain elements that were overlooked in the previous curriculum. Thus, identification of the locally relevant top competencies and attributes was a leading factor in the course redesign process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last forty years, motorsports has grown to become one of the most popular spectator sports in the United States, second only to professional football. Often motorsports reflected the narratives of the times. The authors of this article, one a historian and one a business professor, teamed up to teach an interdisciplinary history course at a Midwestern university that combined aspects of U.S. history and motorsports. The university offered an interdisciplinary program in motorsports management housed in the College of Business. The course earned foundational studies credit under the historical studies category and was available to all undergraduate students. As a result of enrolling and completing the course, students often demonstrated an even higher level of interdisciplinary learning and American history recall than expected by the two instructors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of Big Data and related applications and technologies have largely changed the process and practice of the accounting, and led to essential changes in the construction and teaching contents and practice of the undergraduate accounting curriculums. In response to the changes and practical needs in accounting education, in this paper we propose the rationale and procedures of integrating data analytics into the undergraduate accounting curriculum. Based on the extensive literature review of Big Data and data analytics processes, techniques, and technologies, we discuss key strategies, procedures, contents, and specific pedagogies for the integration of data analytics into the undergraduate accounting classroom. Following the data analytic implementation framework of Dzuranin et al. (2018), we introduce our teaching practice in a large public university in the U.S.A. and exemplify the integrative process and activities of incorporating data analytics topics into the existing accounting curriculums in a large public university in the U.S.A. This paper shall contribute to the teaching practice and pedagogies in integrating data analytics into the undergraduate accounting curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disparities in health outcomes between U.S. population subgroups, related to factors like race/ethnicity, income, and geographic location, are alarming. By integrating health disparities awareness content into the curriculum, academic institutions can play an important role in developing conscious health practitioners to help close gaps in health outcomes. This paper presents the implementation, results and feedback of efforts to incorporate health disparities awareness content into two undergraduate public health courses at a rural Midwestern U.S. university. Throughout this process, the author's work was supported by a faculty development program. Students completed pre- and post-surveys to report health disparities knowledge and attitudes and online course evaluations to rate instructor and curriculum elements. A statistically significant increase in mean scores occurred for survey items pre- to post-survey. Online course evaluation ratings revealed student progress on related outcomes and positive student experience. Findings suggest promise for teaching health disparities content in public health courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online learning provides extensive opportunities for individuals with disabilities to enroll in degree and certificate programs. However, accessibility must be central to online course development since this can have a profound effect on student engagement, academic performance, and completion rates. This article provides a unique perspective on accessibility in online learning. One current online student and three alumni of online programs provide video self-introductions, an overview of their online experience, and strategies for increasing student success in online courses and programs for students with disabilities. Strategies are also shared for integrating accessibility as a critical component into faculty development to ensure accessibility goes beyond the office of disability services and becomes an integral part of online teaching, learning, and assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this technologically advanced age, much emphasis is put on collaboration in education at many levels. As a result, faculty co-teaching (collaborative teaching) has grown dramatically. This paper introduces how two instructors from different countries (USA and Turkey), one experienced in online teaching and the other in medical informatics, collaborated successfully, to develop and teach an online medical informatics course. This study outlines effective strategies in co-teaching and student satisfaction with the course and includes various instructional techniques for cost effective technology for communicating at a distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry actively adopts the concept of sustainability to not only minimize the impact on the environment but also increase social and economic benefi ts through accepting sustainable design and construction practices. This growing trend in sustainable construction requires both new knowledge and new skills for sustainability, in addition to conventional knowledge, such as scheduling, estimating, contracting, etc. Due to this paradigm change in the construction industry, construction programs in the U.S.A. should offer sustainable construction courses in order to teach sustainable knowledge, technologies and skills to their students before their entrance into industry. The purpose of this study is to develop a sustainable construction course designed for university construction programs using a systematic course development approach divided into three stages including preparation, development, and improvement. The course described in this paper is used to illustrate the systematic development process and can serve as an example for faculty at other universities on how to use such a method. During the preparation stage, a syllabus review is conducted in order to recognize and evaluate current sustainable construction courses offered by construction programs. In addition, in-depth literature review is performed to identify current trends in sustainable construction courses and related research. The development stage consists of: creating the framework for a sustainable construction course, choosing the goals and objectives for this course, choosing the contents of the course, organizing the chosen contents of the course, and planning the course schedule. At the improvement stage, the proposed course is improved, reviewed, and evaluated by experts from both the construction industry and academia through a detailed feedback process. From this systematically developed sustainable construction course, students in construction programs can learn basic knowledge of sustainability and the importance of sustainable design and construction. They will be exposed to different sustainable building rating systems such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Green Globes, collaborative skills among construction participants, and the advantages and pitfalls of sustainable construction. In addition, construction students who become leaders in the industry will change the nature of the construction industry and society to help not only minimize environmental impacts caused by construction activities but also to secure our earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High profile sporting events in the United States have been identified by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as potential terrorist targets (Lipton, 2005). However, there has been an identified lack of training and education for key personnel responsible for sport security operations (Cunningham, 2007). Recognizing the demand and need for a specialized area in sport event security management, the University of Southern Mississippi School of Human Performance and Recreation developed an emphasis area in sports event security management as part of the Master of Science in Sport Management program. The sport security emphasis area includes three graduate level courses - 1) introduction to sport security management, 2) risk assessment of sport venues, and 3) sport event emergency response planning. These courses were developed by an interdisciplinary team composed of faculty from the USM School of Human Performance and Recreation, individuals from the Center for Spectator Sports Security Management, a curriculum design specialist, and several professional sport security experts. The goal of the emphasis area is to equip current and future sport and entertainment managers with the specialization skills and knowledge needed to address the challenges of homeland security in the sports industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of the American homeland security endeavor has created demands for knowledgeable professionals to address issues of critical infrastructure assurance. James Madison University has recently developed a survey course on infrastructure performance using a complex systems approach. Course development was facilitated by the enthusiastic support and participation of a multi-disciplinary faculty team. The course is designed for a broad student audience including physical science, public administration, health, business, economics and sociology majors. The course has been successful in terms of graduate and undergraduate student enrollment and has generated positive student feedback. Drawing on recent work from the physical, engineering, and social sciences, we take an interdisciplinary approach to understanding complex system operation and failure. We begin by considering historical examples of major system failures. We then explore the components, operation, and complex interdependencies of the infrastructures most critical to society. We divide critical infrastructures into three classes -- commodity, service, and information -- and focus on the electric power, health services and telecommunication sectors as representative examples. Students are exposed to literatures that inform their understanding of large, complex, and risky technical systems. Course material illustrates how complex systems engender unexpected interactions of failures to occur that can result in a cascade of increasingly serious disturbances often culminating in disaster. A major component of the course is devoted to defining and measuring risk. The final instruction block is devoted to risk management strategies involving both technology and public policy. The course concludes with the presentation of student projects that may address a historical complex system failure case study, an assessment of an existing infrastructure system, or survey a specific topic on complex system operation and failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]