Report on Engineering Design Self-Efficacy and Demographics of Makerspace Participants Across Three Universities

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan C. Hilton ◽  
Kimberly G. Talley ◽  
Shaunna F. Smith ◽  
Robert L. Nagel ◽  
Julie S. Linsey
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Research University ◽  
Liberal Arts University ◽  
The People ◽  
The Us ◽  
Improving Student Learning ◽  
Hispanic Serving ◽  
Large Research

Abstract University makerspaces have been touted as a possible avenue for improving student learning, engagement, retention, and creativity. As their popularity has increased worldwide, so has the amount of research investigating their establishment, management, and uses. There have, however, been very few studies that use empirical data to evaluate how these spaces are impacting the people using them. This study of three university makerspaces measures engineering design (ED) self-efficacy and how it is correlated with involvement in the makerspaces, along with student demographics. The three university makerspaces include a relatively new makerspace at a Hispanic-serving university in the southwestern US, makerspaces at an eastern liberal arts university with an engineering program that has been created within the last decade, and a makerspace at a large, research university in the southeast often considered to be one of the top programs in the US. Students at all three universities are surveyed to determine their involvement in their university's makerspace and how they perceive their own abilities in engineering design. The findings presented in this paper show a positive correlation between engineering design self-efficacy (EDSE) and involvement in academic makerspaces. Correlations are also seen between certain demographic factors and the percentage of students who choose to use the academic makerspace available to them. These findings provide crucial empirical evidence to the community on the self-efficacy of students who use makerspaces and provide support for universities to continue making these spaces available to their students.

scholarly journals Antiracist and Faith-based: Critical Pedagogy-Informed Writing and Information Literacy Instruction at a Hispanic-Serving, Lutheran Liberal Arts University

2021 ◽  
Vol 121 ◽  
pp. 14-23
Author(s):  
Jolivette Mecenas ◽  
Yvonne Wilber ◽  
Meghan Kwast
Keyword(s):  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Literacy Instruction ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
First Year Writing ◽  
Liberal Arts University ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Information Literacy Instruction ◽  
Racial Dialogue ◽  
Hispanic Serving

English faculty and librarians at a Hispanic-Serving Lutheran liberal arts university collaborated to integrate critical information literacy in a first-year writing course, following the Lutheran educational tradition of valuing inquiry and aligning with a faith-based social justice mission. The authors discuss an Evangelical Lutheran tradition of education committed to antiracism, and the challenges of enacting these values of equity and inclusion while addressing institutional racism. The authors also describe how curricular revisions in writing and information literacy instruction informed by critical pedagogy decentered whiteness in the curriculum, while creating needed opportunities for students and faculty to engage in cross-racial dialogue about systemic racism. 

The relationship between the technology acceptance model and preference for ebooks at a large research university

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 13-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Lynn Smith ◽  
Allyson Rodriguez ◽  
Erin DeWitt Miller ◽  
Lu Xu
Keyword(s):  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Research University ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Large Research ◽  
Large Research University

Purpose This study aims to uncover factors related to students’ preference for ebooks with hopes that understanding what drives these preferences will help librarians to figure out how to increase students’ use of ebooks. Design/methodology/approach Based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, researchers developed a model of ebook preference and a survey including constructs related to perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Respondents were undergraduate students from a core political science course at a large research university in the USA. Findings Ebook performance expectancy and ebook self-efficacy have indirect effects on ebook preference by way of ebook attitude. Ebook attitude and social influence both have direct effects. Research limitations/implications One of the limitation include respondents being of a similar age and having a similar experience of technology and ebooks. Prior use of ebooks may partially explain the results. Practical implications Librarians should help students develop ebook self-efficacy. Vendors should consider how interfaces may impact ebook self-efficacy. Ebook attitude may be positively influenced by tapping students’ desire to utilize technology. Originality/value This research adds to the understanding about ebook preference while expanding research in libraries by applying a theory and model from another research discipline.

University Makerspaces: More Than Just Toys

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan C. Hilton ◽  
Shaunna F. Smith ◽  
Robert L. Nagel ◽  
Julie S. Linsey ◽  
Kimberly G. Talley
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
First Generation ◽  
First Generation College Students ◽  
Frequent User ◽  
First Generation College ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Design Skills ◽  
Hispanic Serving

University makerspaces are growing increasingly in vogue, especially in Colleges of Engineering, but there is little empirical evidence in the literature that these spaces impact the students. Speculations have been made about these spaces creating a community of practice, improving retention, improving design skills and self-efficacy, teaching manufacturing skills, improving creativity, and providing many other benefits, but this has not been empirically documented. This paper compares student engineering design self-efficacy (i.e., confidence, motivation, expectation of success, and anxiety toward conducting engineering design) to reported usage rates from a makerspace at a large Hispanic-serving university in the Southwestern United States. Not all users of these spaces were engineering students, and as such, responses were examined through the context of student major as well as differences in gender, race/ethnicity, or first-generation college student status. Design self-efficacy is critical because when individuals have high self-efficacy for particular skills they tend to seek more opportunities to apply those skills, and show more perseverance in the face of set-backs. Thus, self-efficacy is often a good predictor of achievement. The results from one year of data at the Hispanic-serving university indicate that female and first-generation college students have significantly lower engineering design self-efficacy scores. The data also shows that being a user of the makerspace correlates to a higher confidence, motivation, and expectation of success toward engineering design. Initial data from two additional schools are also consistent with these same results. These results indicate that, for all students, regardless of race/ethnicity and/or first generation status, being a frequent user of a university-serving makerspace likely positively impacts confidence, motivation, and expectation of success toward engineering design.

From request to assess: using cloud-based tools for the library instruction lifecycle

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 14-20
Author(s):  
James Parrigin
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Research University ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Instruction Scheduling ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Library Instruction ◽  
Graduate Assistant ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Large Research

Purpose The author first gained experience with library instruction scheduling at a large research university library as an Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) graduate assistant. Design/methodology/approach The author would occasionally shadow the faculty librarians as they received instruction requests, which were vetted by an administrative assistant and entered into some mystical technology that would facilitate the reservations and populate a library staff calendar. Findings The author remembers it as a fairly mundane process that he did not think much of at the time. Social implications The author soon became an instruction librarian who was put in charge of orchestrating the multitudes of course-integrated one-shots at a small, private four-year liberal arts college. Originality/value The author thinks back to this experience and marvels at the humble instructional requests (e.g. “just show them JSTOR”) and the primitive tool that their library used for scheduling their sessions: a spreadsheet on our network drive.

scholarly journals Managing Diversity in Liberal Arts College Libraries

2000 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark D. Winston ◽  
Haipeng Li
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Research University ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
The United States ◽  
University Libraries ◽  
Diversity Awareness ◽  
College Administrators ◽  
Managing Diversity ◽  
College Libraries ◽  
Large Research

Although fostering diversity has been identified as a priority in librarianship, the evidence suggests that the majority of the programs related to diversity in academic libraries have been implemented in large, research university libraries. In this study of the liberal arts college libraries in the United States, data were gathered with regard to programs related to diversity awareness, staffing, information services, and library collections. Although the level of diversity-related activities in liberal arts college libraries has not been overwhelming, the evidence suggests that activities and programs related to diversity have been undertaken in some instances. In addition, the support of college administrators appears to be particularly important in encouraging these activities.

scholarly journals Diversification in the Academic Workforce: The Case of the US and Implications for Europe

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (S1) ◽  
pp. S141-S156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin J. Finkelstein
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Research University ◽  
Generational Change ◽  
Family Balance ◽  
Knowledge Industry ◽  
Faculty Positions ◽  
The Us ◽  
Globalized Economy ◽  
Academic Workforce ◽  
Changing Attitudes

This paper examines two broad dimensions of change in the American academic profession: (1) demographic and generational change, including increasing feminization, changing attitudes toward the career-family balance, migration of faculty positions to the professions (versus the liberal arts) and away from the research university sector; and (2) changes in types of appointments, work and career tracks, including the decline of tenure and the rise of fixed term appointments, which involve more ‘specialized’ and less ‘place-bound’ work roles and alternative career tracks. It considers these changes more broadly in the context of the changing nature of work in a globalized economy and the changing nature of the knowledge industry and in the context of similar developments in Europe and Asia. It concludes with an extrapolation of how these trends are likely to play out in the US context and in a new ‘globalized’ academic marketplace over the next 10–20 years.

Dispatch from Hong Kong

PMLA ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 123 (5) ◽  
pp. 1757-1760
Author(s):  
Shuang Shen
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
American Literature ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Research University ◽  
Chinese Literature ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Liberal Arts University

I moved to Hong Kong about fourteen months ago to teach in a liberal arts university located in the new territories, on the border between Hong Kong and mainland China, about half an hour away by bus. Before coming to Hong Kong, I had taught for a few years in several American institutions, ranging from a community college to a research university. The courses I taught were mostly in Asian American literature, postcolonial literature, and Chinese literature in translation. Immersed as a graduate student and a teacher in American multiculturalism, postcolonialism, and ethnic studies, I have found a great deal of difference between the situation in Hong Kong and the social contexts of the United States and former colonial nations in South Asia, in which most ethnic, multicultural, and postcolonial theories are situated.

The Crisis of the Ryukyus (1877–82)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Sze-lok Leung ◽  
Anthony Carty
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
Independent State ◽  
The People ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Status ◽  
Historical Viewpoint

Okinawa is now considered as Japanese territory, without challenge from most world powers. However, this is debatable from a historical viewpoint. The Ryukyu Kingdom which dominated the islands was integrated into Japan in 1879. The transformation is seen by Wang Hui as a process of modernization. This chapter argues the issue from an international law perspective. It shows that Ryukyu was an independent State as demonstrated by the 1854 Ryukyu–US Treaty, although it sent regular tributes to China. The Japanese integration by coercion is not justifiable. The people of Ryukyu were willing to continue being a tributary State rather than part of Japan. Britain, as the greatest colonial power, did not object. China and the US attempted to intervene in this affair, but no treaty has so far been concluded. Therefore, the status of Ryukyu/Okinawa remains unresolved and may need to be revisited, while putting the history context into consideration.

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