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This qualitative study reviewed student application of self-regulated learning (SRL) processes in self-paced graduate business communication courses. It was preceded by a quantitative analysis of the same courses. In both studies, researchers sought to understand student experience in a self-paced learning environment, and how this experience demonstrated SRL and increased student performance. Neither study established a clear connection between a self-paced learning environment, SRL, and student performance. However, both studies confirmed the importance of student predisposition for the cyclical phases of preparation, performance, and appraisal and highlighted the critical role of support in readying students for learning strategy changes.

What is the best way to assign graduate business students to online team-based projects? Team assignments are frequently made on the basis of alphabet, time zones or previous performance. This study reviews personality as an indicator of student online team performance. The personality assessment IDE (Insights Discovery Evaluator) was administered to 450 students in the first six-week course of a proprietary online university MBA program. The IDE was utilized for the study because the university had selected the IDE as a part of its business curriculum. In the second week, students were randomly placed on 138 virtual teams and quantitative data collected from an assignment where students self-reported their IDE type. A qualitative method was used to determine subject IDE type in those cases where subjects did not clearly identify their type. Performance was measured using three instructor- graded assignments completed during the course. Student virtual teams were categorized as random, variable and dominant, contingent upon the composition of team personality types. This study found no statistically significant relationship between IDE's personality types or the cognitive trait variables of attitude (extroversion and introversion) or trait function (thinking and feeling) on team performance. Personality trait did not appear to be a variable with the intentional formation of higher performing online student teams. All personality traits performed equally as well. Personality Bias (IDE type homogeneity) was the closest to being statistically significant as a factor in virtual team performance. A model is presented describing the relationship between personality and performance.

The technology adoption process model (TAPM) is applied to a new synchronous conference technology with 27 asynchronous courses involving 520 participants and 17 instructors. The TAPM resulted from a qualitative study reviewing webcam conference technology adoption. The TAPM is now tested using self-efficacy as the dependent variable. The independent variables from the TAPM were authenticity, distraction, and the technology acceptance model (TAM) perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness (Davis, 1989). The TAPM explains 26% of the increased student self-efficacy. The dominant independent variable, TAM explains 80% of the variance. Distraction and authenticity were secondary influences. Technology transience is addressed.

Examines a virtual work team to determine the domains of the team and the effect the virtual work environment had on the domains. Discusses results of a literature review and a phenomenological heuristic case study, including the effects of post-modern philosophy and postindustrial society on changes in the marketplace. (Contains 79 references.) (Author/LRW)

A first-year laboratory experiment that utilizes concepts of electrochemical tip etching for scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is described. This experiment can be used in conjunction with any STM experiment. Students electrochemically etch gold STM tips using a time-efficient method, which can then be used in an instructional grade STM that operates under ambient conditions. Electrochemical etching is one method used by researchers to prepare tips for high-quality STM imaging. Whereas the most common materials used to fabricate electrochemically etched tips cannot be used in ambient STMs, this experiment is a way to integrate the importance of tip etching (as opposed to mechanically prepared tips) into an STM laboratory experiment. The students are able to make Au tips with a reasonably small radius of curvature (less than 100 nm). First-year undergraduate students with almost no previous experience using an STM instrument were routinely able to achieve atomic resolution on a graphite surface. (Contains 3 figures.)

Mass spectrometry was performed on self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of dodecanethiol on gold using the new direct analysis in real time (DART) ionization technique. Observed peaks for the SAMs included monomers, dimers, and trimers of the SAM molecules, with the dimer and trimer relative peak heights enhanced as compared to the spectra for neat dodecanethiol. The possibility that the observed peaks were due to residual (noncovalently bonded) material on the surface was tested by attempting to observe residual dodecanol. No peaks corresponding to dodecanol were observed. These results indicate that DART is an excellent ionization method for the direct and unambiguous mass analysis of chemical species in self-assembled monolayers.

After Whiteness: Unmaking an American Majority. By Mike Hill. New York: New York University Press, 2004. xii + 268 pages. Poor whiteness studies. No one loves it anymore. It had [...]

A method was developed for the reestablishment of chemical contrast in STM images obtained with chemically modified gold tips. Such tips display selective chemical contrast, which allows the selective imaging of specific species on the sample surface. Chemically modified STM tips can be fabricated by forming a serf-assembled monolayer (SAM) on an electrochemically etched gold tip. One difficulty with this method thus far has been the relatively short lifetime of SAM-treated tips. The method described here utilizes the brief application of a high bias voltage between the sample and the tip to cause SAM molecules to reoccupy the tip apex, thereby allowing the tips to display selective chemical contrast in imaging. These treatments consist of applying a +1.9-V sample bias for 0.5-10 min under tunneling conditions. The usable lifetime of SAM-modified tips could be increased by more than 2 orders of magnitude, from hours to at least a month, dramatically increasing the efficiency of using SAM-modified gold tips. SAM molecules can also be removed from the tip apex by application of a negative sample bias (-2.0 V for 0.5-10 min) making it possible to alternate between conventional STM images and STM images with chemically enhanced contrasts.

Refrigerator magnet (RM)-based demonstrations of scanning probe microscopy, magnetic field imaging, and magnetic read-and-write processes suitable for the classroom are explored. Flexible-sheet RMs, such as promotional items, can be used for experiments. The nature or these sheet magnets, which have U-shaped field lines for a complex and ingenious magnetic structure, and their manufacture, which involves an array of permanent magnets forming the magnetic stripes as a sheet of ferrite-Hypalon composite passes by the array, are explained. Hypalon is an elastomer, the structure for which is given

Online professors typically assign teams based on time zones, performance, or alphabet, but are these the best ways to position student virtual teams for success? Personality and task complexity could provide additional direction. Personality and task complexity were used as independent variables related to the dependent variable of team performance. Four hundred-fifty students starting an MBA in a proprietary online university took the Insights Discovery (ID) personality assessment. Students were randomly assigned to 138 teams. Each team had 3 deliverables, which were ranked using the Bonner Model of Task Complexity (Bonner, 1994). Performance was determined by the grade given by the professor. Teams were designated as Variable when all ID personality types were present and Dominant when 50% or more of the team members had one ID personality type. Using ID, teams were also categorized as extroverted/introverted or thinking/feeling. T tests and ANOVAs were used to determine statistical difference. Extroverted teams outperformed introverted teams and Variable (heterogeneous) teams outperformed Dominant (homogeneous) teams with complex tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A refrigerator magnet can be used in the chemistry classroom to simulate a scanning-probe microscopy experiment. Most, if not all, refrigerator magnets have magnetic poles arranged in stripes. Students can discover the arrangement of the magnetic poles by cutting a strip from one end to be used as a scanning probe. The response of the probe to the magnet is explored by passing the probe strip over the magnet and observing the relative size and alignment of their magnetic fields as well as the influence of the distance between the two surfaces.