Responsive survey design is a technique aimed at improving the efficiency or quality of surveys by using incoming data from the field to make design changes. The technique was pioneered on large national surveys, but the tools can also be applied on the smaller-scale surveys most commonly used by sociologists. We demonstrate responsive survey…

Active learning tools are critical in imparting real world experiences to the students within a classroom environment. This is important because graduates are expected to develop software that meets rigorous quality standards in functional and application domains with little to no training. However, there is a well-recognized need for the…

The call for reform of science education is nearly three decades old (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983), but the implementation of such education improvements in the form of active learning techniques in large enrollment classes remains difficult. Here we present a class project designed to increase student involvement and…

An introductory course is the discipline's handshake; it is the greeting that either seals the deal or in varying degrees convinces the learner that this discipline has little usefulness. Given the huge stakes in forming a strategy for the introductory course, how should we structure the course? The argument in this paper is that we should…

THIS STUDY WAS AN INVESTIGATION OF CRITICAL THINKING, ATTITUDES, AND VALUES AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS, AND THE INTERRELATIONSHIP AMONG THESE FACTORS AND THE CHANGES TAKING PLACE IN THEM AS A RESULT OF EDUCATION. USABLE AND COMPLETE DATA WERE OBTAINED FROM APPROXIMATELY 2,700 FRESHMEN OF MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY WITH A BATTERY OF TESTS AND…

The NEAIR 2010 Conference Proceedings is a compilation of papers presented at the Saratoga Springs, New York conference. Papers in this document include: (1) Collaboration Between Student Affairs and Institutional Research: A Model for the Successful Assessment of Students' College Experience (Michael N. Christakis and Joel D. Bloom); (2) Direct…

American KFL (Korean as a foreign language) students' communicative success depends to a large extent on their ability to express interpersonal meanings with target-language resources. However, information regarding how KFL students acquire, or fail to learn linguistic politeness through classroom learning is scarce. The nature of this study is…

AN INSTRUMENT WAS DEVELOPED WHICH COULD BE USED TO INVESTIGATE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF SITUATIONS WHICH CONSTITUTE CHEATING. ALSO AN INSTRUMENT WAS DEVELOPED TO INVESTIGATE STUDENTS' PERCEPTION OF THE WILLINGNESS OF FACULTY MEMBERS TO RELATE TO THEM IN A VARIETY OF WAYS AND SITUATIONS. THE PERCEPTION OF TEACHERS AS UNWILLING TO RELATE…

A study examined attitudes that discourage students from competing in rhetorical criticism forensic events. Subjects, 31 students at the Michigan Intercollegiate Speech Association state championship, completed a questionnaire. Results indicated that: (1) only 1 of the 11 subjects who had experience in competitive rhetorical criticism chose to…

AN EXPLORATORY SURVEY INVESTIGATED THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCES AMONG COMMUTING STUDENTS, ATTENDING THREE TYPES OF INSTITUTIONS TO COMPARE COLLEGE EXPERIENCES BETWEEN COMMUTING AND RESIDENT STUDENTS. STUDENTS SELECTED FOR STUDY WERE (1) 100 COMMUTERS FROM A LARGE, PRIMARILY RESIDENT UNIVERSITY, (2) 100 COMMUTERS FROM A COMMUNITY COLLEGE WITH NO…

IN 1960, THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN BEGAN ITS OWN PROGRAM LEADING TO A MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE. THE FOLLOWUP STUDY, CONDUCTED IN 1965 TO ASSESS THE PROGRAM'S EFFECTIVENESS, COVERED GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GRADUATES, THEIR EDUCATIONAL HISTORY AND EMPLOYMENT, AND THEIR EVALUATION OF THE PROGRAM. A QUESTIONNAIRE WAS PRETESTED WITH 30 OF…