Universities have a long-established tradition of granting students special consideration when circumstances beyond their control negatively affect performance in assessments. Typically, such situations affect only one student (e.g. medical emergencies) but we consider the impact of a natural disaster that led to all students being eligible for…

The postdisaster experiences of social work students have been the focus of a growing corpus of research in the past two decades; however, few investigations have been conducted in the context of catastrophic flooding events. The present study examined coping responses and mental health among 186 social work students in the aftermath of the Great…

The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, a historically American Indian university that is experiencing major climate change impacts from hurricanes, was the setting for four service-learning projects seeking to advance sustainability in a racially diverse community. Courses in American Indian Studies, English, and Social Work, in…

The paper presents the activities proposed for the course "Safety at school", organized by the University of Macerata and Safety Education Training Agency Association. Six workshops held by university professors and other experts focused on the topic of inclusive safety both at school and in the city. Both prospective and in-service…

The motivation to adopt innovative communication and e-learning practices in education settings can be stimulated by events such as natural disasters. Education institutions in the Pacific Rim cannot avoid the likelihood of natural disasters that could close one or more buildings on a campus and affect their ability to continue current educational…

The phenomenological study illuminated the lived experience of senior-level student affairs administrators who encountered high-profile crises, such as natural disasters, intentional violence, or accidents. In the midst of unimaginable tragedy, their lived experience was defined by: uncertainty and fear, heightened awareness, personal impact, and…

Objective: There is growing interest in the effectiveness of disaster preparedness at universities. Although several studies have examined student preparedness perceptions, a better understanding of factors that may influence actual preparedness is needed. Participants: Seven hundred sixty-five undergraduate and graduate students at a southeastern…

Understanding what disaster means will not only raise our awareness but will also bring us closer to knowing how to protect ourselves in the face of their destructive effects. The aim of this study is to understand how the concept of disaster is perceived in different demographics/subgroups of the population and by defining the term, to determine…

Saudi Arabian citizens, including university students, are in an interesting and precarious situation -- they care for sustainability, but their economy thrives because of oil production. This study used an author-developed instrument to briefly explore 135 Saudi university students' (nine disciplines) knowledge, awareness, evaluation and…

Model-Based learning is a methodology that facilitates students' construction of scientific knowledge, which, sometimes, includes restructuring their mental models. Taking into consideration students' learning process, its aim is to promote a deeper understanding of phenomena's dynamics through the manipulation of models. Our aim was to ascertain…

There is a dearth of studies on how college students prepare for the threat of natural disasters. This study surveyed college students' preferences in mass media use prior to an approaching hurricane. The convenience sample (n = 76) were from a university located in the hurricane-prone area of the central Gulf of Mexico coast. Interestingly,…

The ability to explain scientific phenomena is a key feature of scientific literacy, and engaging students' prior knowledge, especially their alternate conceptions, is an effective strategy for enhancing scientific literacy and developing expertise. The gap in knowledge about the alternate conceptions that novices have about many of Earth's…

The paper provides the results of a preliminary investigation into the information sharing behavior of social media users after a natural disaster. The results indicate that users shared information that they thought victims would find useful. On the other hand, they reported that they usually do not or never share information considered useful to…

The global pandemic of COVID-19 brought about the transition to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) at higher education institutions across the United States, prompting both students and the faculty to rapidly adjust to a different modality of teaching and learning. Other crises have induced disruptions to academic continuity (e.g., earthquakes,…

The Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 defines major management challenges as programs or management functions that are vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement, and where a failure to perform well could seriously affect the ability of the U.S. Department of Education (Department) to achieve its mission or…