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Article
Publication date: 3 July 2024

Michael Kaplowitz, Yuqing Liu, Matt Raven and Crystal Eustice

This paper aims to examine the impact on diverse students’ social equity outcome measures that result from incorporating social justice education and inclusive practices into an…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the impact on diverse students’ social equity outcome measures that result from incorporating social justice education and inclusive practices into an introductory course on sustainability offered online asynchronously, online synchronously and in-person.

Design/methodology/approach

From fall 2020 to fall 2021, 706 students took “Introduction to Sustainability” at Michigan State University. A revised curriculum increased inclusive practices and social justice content centered on race and other social identities; institutional, individual and implicit bias; interrupting bias; socialization; and spheres of influence. Students’ self-reported change was examined using a retrospective pre/post survey.

Findings

Students reported significant growth in social equity understanding and practice across teaching modes with in-person instruction associated with the largest reported growth. Students reported growth regardless of their racial/ethnic identity or gender, with instructor effects varying in expected ways. The gap in social equity understanding between students with low precourse ratings (on outcome measures) and those with high precourse ratings was significantly smaller after the course.

Research limitations/implications

This study is not without limitations. First, the authors were limited in the student-specific information that they could collect. Second, the authors did not have access to an alternative course that could serve as a control. Third, the authors did not have the resources to also conduct an in-depth, thorough qualitative study. Furthermore, the authors did not conduct their investigation during “normal” campus life because it took place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic was a factor that could not be accounted for and might have impacted the outcomes.

Originality/value

This study is novel in identifying and incorporating specific social justice education material, tools and practices for improved teaching of social equity components of sustainability.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 February 2011

Michelle Kathleen Dunaway and Michael Teague Orblych

This paper aims to describe the use of a pre‐assessment exercise and in‐session assessment questions to determine graduate students' existing information literacy skills and to…

4865

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to describe the use of a pre‐assessment exercise and in‐session assessment questions to determine graduate students' existing information literacy skills and to adjust the content of the instruction session accordingly. The paper seeks to propose that the use of assessments to inform instruction increases the practicality of research instruction. The use of formative assessment creates effective information literacy instruction by acknowledging variation in information literacy skills among students.

Design/methodology/approach

A librarian partnered with a faculty member to create instruction sessions for graduate level business courses. An open‐ended pre‐assessment exercise was administered prior to the session, and students' responses were used to determine the content of the instruction session. Assessment questions administered during the session provided the librarian with a measure of the effect of the pre‐assessment exercise on students' information literacy skills, and provided students with feedback regarding their individual information literacy and engaged students in the learning process.

Findings

The pre‐assessment exercise and the session assessment questions together created an instruction session that included content that was appropriate for the students in each session. Therefore, these information literacy instruction sessions were more practical and beneficial to the students than sessions based on pre‐determined content.

Research limitations/implications

The paper presents a conceptual approach to the design of research instruction sessions rather than extensive empirical analysis of data. Therefore, the essay addresses the need for quantitative measures of the impact of formative assessment on students' information literacy skills.

Originality/value

The process of formative assessment has not been applied to one‐shot information literacy instruction sessions.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 39 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 May 2019

Judd Michael and Nathaniel Elser

This paper aims to propose a quadruple bottom line approach for higher education leaders who must decide whether to accept sustainability initiatives that do have not have a…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to propose a quadruple bottom line approach for higher education leaders who must decide whether to accept sustainability initiatives that do have not have a business case. The authors describe a personal waste management program at a major university to illustrate how a quadruple bottom line framework may impact decisions to adopt a sustainability practice in higher education. The authors also demonstrate how opportunity costs can be applied to better understand the true costs of such waste management programs.

Design/methodology/approach

This exploratory research uses a case study approach with a unique accounting method to determine the costs of a personal waste management system. System costs are calculated for the entire university and for sample units within the university.

Findings

University leaders chose to continue the new waste management program in light of evidence showing higher than anticipated costs. The authors illustrate how this decision was driven by consideration of a fourth bottom line, that of the educational value of the sustainability initiative. It is discussed whether proposed sustainability initiatives such as these should be evaluated using a traditional triple bottom line framework, or, in the case of higher education, if equal consideration should also be given to factors related to the educational mission of the institution.

Originality/value

The authors develop a quadruple bottom line framework to explain the frequent implementation of economically costly sustainability programs in higher education contexts. This paper also reviews the rise of “personal waste management” programs at higher education institutions, demonstrates how the value of employee time can and should be considered as a cost of a comprehensive campus sustainability program (i.e. recycling and composting) and illustrates a novel means for using opportunity costs to determine those costs.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 20 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 4 April 2016

Louis P. Cain and Brooks A. Kaiser

At the beginning of the 20th century, three intertwined ambitions drove federal legislation over wildlife and biodiversity: establishment of multiple-use federal lands, the…

Abstract

At the beginning of the 20th century, three intertwined ambitions drove federal legislation over wildlife and biodiversity: establishment of multiple-use federal lands, the economic development of natural resources, and the maintenance of option values. We examine this federal intervention in natural resource use by analyzing roll call votes over the past century with a Random Utility Model (Manski, 1977) and conclude that economics mattered. So did ideology, but not uniformly. After World War II, the pro-environment vote which had been conservative shifted to being liberal. All these votes involved decisions regarding public land that reallocated the returns to users by changing the asset’s physical character or its usage rights. We suggest that long-term consequences affecting current resource allocations arose from disparities between broadly dispersed benefits and locally concentrated socioeconomic and geophysical (spatial) costs. We show that a primary intent of public land management has become to preserve multiple-use option values and identify important factors in computing those option values. We do this by demonstrating how the willingness to forego current benefits for future ones depends on the community’s resource endowments. These endowments are defined not only in terms of users’ current wealth accumulation but also from their expected ability to extract utility from natural resources over time.

Book part
Publication date: 10 December 2015

Chun Kit Lok

Smart card-based E-payment systems are receiving increasing attention as the number of implementations is witnessed on the rise globally. Understanding of user adoption behavior…

Abstract

Smart card-based E-payment systems are receiving increasing attention as the number of implementations is witnessed on the rise globally. Understanding of user adoption behavior of E-payment systems that employ smart card technology becomes a research area that is of particular value and interest to both IS researchers and professionals. However, research interest focuses mostly on why a smart card-based E-payment system results in a failure or how the system could have grown into a success. This signals the fact that researchers have not had much opportunity to critically review a smart card-based E-payment system that has gained wide support and overcome the hurdle of critical mass adoption. The Octopus in Hong Kong has provided a rare opportunity for investigating smart card-based E-payment system because of its unprecedented success. This research seeks to thoroughly analyze the Octopus from technology adoption behavior perspectives.

Cultural impacts on adoption behavior are one of the key areas that this research posits to investigate. Since the present research is conducted in Hong Kong where a majority of population is Chinese ethnicity and yet is westernized in a number of aspects, assuming that users in Hong Kong are characterized by eastern or western culture is less useful. Explicit cultural characteristics at individual level are tapped into here instead of applying generalization of cultural beliefs to users to more accurately reflect cultural bias. In this vein, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is adapted, extended, and tested for its applicability cross-culturally in Hong Kong on the Octopus. Four cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede are included in this study, namely uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and Confucian Dynamism (long-term orientation), to explore their influence on usage behavior through the mediation of perceived usefulness.

TAM is also integrated with the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) to borrow two constructs in relation to innovative characteristics, namely relative advantage and compatibility, in order to enhance the explanatory power of the proposed research model. Besides, the normative accountability of the research model is strengthened by embracing two social influences, namely subjective norm and image. As the last antecedent to perceived usefulness, prior experience serves to bring in the time variation factor to allow level of prior experience to exert both direct and moderating effects on perceived usefulness.

The resulting research model is analyzed by partial least squares (PLS)-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. The research findings reveal that all cultural dimensions demonstrate direct effect on perceived usefulness though the influence of uncertainty avoidance is found marginally significant. Other constructs on innovative characteristics and social influences are validated to be significant as hypothesized. Prior experience does indeed significantly moderate the two influences that perceived usefulness receives from relative advantage and compatibility, respectively. The research model has demonstrated convincing explanatory power and so may be employed for further studies in other contexts. In particular, cultural effects play a key role in contributing to the uniqueness of the model, enabling it to be an effective tool to help critically understand increasingly internationalized IS system development and implementation efforts. This research also suggests several practical implications in view of the findings that could better inform managerial decisions for designing, implementing, or promoting smart card-based E-payment system.

Details

E-services Adoption: Processes by Firms in Developing Nations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-709-7

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 November 2010

Anna Marie Johnson, Claudene Sproles and Robert Detmering

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

4923

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

Findings

The paper provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

Originality/value

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 38 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1996

Hannelore B. Rader

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related…

Abstract

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the twenty‐second to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1995. After 21 years, the title of this review of the literature has been changed from “Library Orientation and Instruction” to “Library Instruction and Information Literacy,” to indicate the growing trend of moving to information skills instruction.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1987

Hannelore B. Rader

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with orientation to library facilities and services, instruction in the use of information resources, and research and…

Abstract

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with orientation to library facilities and services, instruction in the use of information resources, and research and computer skills related to retrieving and using information. The thirteenth annual such review in Reference Services Review, the article covers items in English published in 1986. A few items are without annotations because the compiler was unable to secure copies of them for this review.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 15 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1991

Hannelore B. Rader

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related…

Abstract

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the seventeenth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items, in English published in 1990. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 19 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1989

Hannelore B. Rader

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with orientation to library facilities and services, instruction in the use of information resources, and research and…

Abstract

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with orientation to library facilities and services, instruction in the use of information resources, and research and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the fifteenth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1988. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

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