COVID-19, FORCING A TOUGH DECISION FOR THE OFFICE OF DECISION SUPPORT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

10.28945/4751 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 001-014
Author(s):  
JAMES J FARLEY
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Student Success ◽  
Leadership Team ◽  
South Florida ◽  
Academic Affairs ◽  
Online Classes ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Spring Semester ◽  
The University ◽  
Academic Year

Dr. Valeria Garcia, AVP for the Office of Decision Support (ODS), at the University of South Florida (USF), a member of the Academic Affairs leadership team and has been involved in academic and student success continuation planning. Dr. Garcia was on track with scheduled planning for the 2020-21 Academic Year as her team of analysts prepare analyses, dashboards, and other analytical materials for constituents across the university. Mid-March 2020, an unexpected turn of events occurred, the “Black Swan”, as the COVID-19 pandemic that first hit China in December 2019, affected America. Very quickly, government bodies reacted to the pandemic, implementing tactics to control the spread of the virus. With a shift to online classes for the remainder of the spring semester and transition to fully online for the summer semester, USF leadership was challenged with pivoting decision-making with the best interest of the community in mind.

scholarly journals Using Incoming Data to Monitor Engagement and Inform Mathematics Support Interventions

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-27
Author(s):  
Ioannis Lignos
Keyword(s):  
Student Success ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Performance Data ◽  
First Year ◽  
Teaching Activities ◽  
Student Behaviour ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The University ◽  
Academic Year

Students who do not engage enough with their studies could place themselves at risk of underperforming or failing. Such a risk may be higher for students who are assessed in one or more mathematics modules and lack the appropriate background knowledge, or do not engage enough with related teaching activities. It has been shown for students who engage with mathematics support, there is a significant impact on student performance and progression in the relevant modules. Thus, improving the mechanisms of engagement with mathematics support should be a priority for any student success strategy.We discuss the monitoring of attendance and performance data of first-year engineering students, as it becomes available, in order to inform interventions which suit the observed student behaviour best. Specifically, the method described was used with first-year engineering students at the University of East London (UEL) during the 2017-8 academic year. We find that when monitoring processes are applied to an already tailored support package, they can often help maintain engagement levels, understand why some students do not engage, and prompt us to differentiate support further.

scholarly journals Journey Across State Lines: Transition to a regional campus

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J LaRock ◽  
Kira K Zwygart ◽  
Kelli Herman ◽  
Amy B Smith
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Medical Curriculum ◽  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Management Training ◽  
South Florida ◽  
Academic Affairs ◽  
Healthcare Leadership ◽  
Leadership And Management ◽  
Regional Campus ◽  
The University

The University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine’s SELECT program was developed to equip medical students with healthcare leadership skills as they progress through the medical curriculum by providing them with leadership and management training, as well as a curriculum based on emotional intelligence. Medical students spend their pre-clerkship years in Tampa, Florida and then spend their clinical years at the Lehigh Valley Health Network regional campus in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The authors describe how faculty at the regional campus are involved with student and academic affairs on the main campus and the process of helping students transition not only from the pre-clinical to clinical years but also transition from Florida to Pennsylvania.

scholarly journals Investigation of Pre-service Social Studies Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Perception of and Attitudes Towards the Profession of Teaching

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Nur İkbal Yıldız ◽  
Harun Şahin ◽  
Feti Çelik
Keyword(s):  
Social Studies ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Arithmetic Mean ◽  
Social Studies Teachers ◽  
Spring Semester ◽  
Geography Teaching ◽  
Geographical Regions ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The University ◽  
Academic Year

The current study aimed to investigate pre-service social studies teachers’ self-efficacy perception of their ability to teach geography and attitudes towards the profession of teaching in relation to the variables of gender and university attended. The study is a descriptive study employing the survey model. The research sample was determined from the universities, where there were two public universities represented from each of the seven geographical regions, and a fourth-year student of social studies teaching in the spring semester of the 2017-2018 academic year. The study was carried out with the participation of 654 pre-service social studies teachers from 14 different universities across Turkey. In order to collect data, “The Geography Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale” and “The Scale of Attitudes towards the Profession of Teaching” were used. In the analysis of the collected data, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, independent samples t-test and one-way variance analysis (ANOVA) were used. According to the findings of the current study, self-efficacy perceptions related to geography teaching and their attitudes towards the profession are high. The mean scores taken from the whole self-efficacy perception scale and its sub-dimensions were found to be not varying significantly depending on the gender variable while they were found to be varying significantly depending on the variable of the university attended. On the other hand, the attitudes towards the profession of teaching were found to be varying significantly depending on both of the variables.

scholarly journals Virtual Classrooms: How Online College Courses Affect Student Success

2017 ◽  
Vol 107 (9) ◽  
pp. 2855-2875 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric P. Bettinger ◽  
Lindsay Fox ◽  
Susanna Loeb ◽  
Eric S. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Student Success ◽  
College Level ◽  
College Courses ◽  
Online Classes ◽  
Virtual Classrooms ◽  
Local Average Treatment Effects ◽  
The University ◽  
Instrumental Variables Approach ◽  
Local Average ◽  
College Grades

Online college courses are a rapidly expanding feature of higher education, yet little research identifies their effects relative to traditional in-person classes. Using an instrumental variables approach, we find that taking a course online, instead of in-person, reduces student success and progress in college. Grades are lower both for the course taken online and in future courses. Students are less likely to remain enrolled at the university. These estimates are local average treatment effects for students with access to both online and in-person options; for other students, online classes may be the only option for accessing college-level courses. (JEL I23, I26)

scholarly journals Academic, Financial and Administrative Issues of Online Teaching During Corona Pandemic: The Scenario of Private Universities in Bangladesh

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-122
Author(s):  
Zulfiqar Hasan ◽  
K. M. Anwarul Islam
Keyword(s):  
Online Teaching ◽  
Private Universities ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Online Classes ◽  
Tuition Fees ◽  
The University ◽  
Teachers Training ◽  
Academic Year

Regarding financial and administrative issues involved in online teaching, the study focuses on the views of the teachers of private universities in conducting online classes during the corona pandemic in Bangladesh. Based on primary data collected from teachers of 22 private universities selected randomly, study finds some reasons for online classes like financial needs and obligations of the university to pay the salaries and other allowances by collecting tuition fees from the students, to save the academic year of the students, to follow the directives of the UGC and Government, etc. The study also finds some significant differences in the uses of technology, internet, and equipment by the teachers before and during the corona pandemic. Online teaching has significant effects on teachers' training, student's punctuality in attending classes, interactions between teachers & students. It also helps authority in monitoring the classes. Finally, the study recommends some policy guidelines for the University Owners & authorities, Government, UGC, and the faculty members as well. JEL Classification: A23, M41.

scholarly journals Challenges of Virtual Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences of Mexican University Professors and Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 188-204
Author(s):  
Claudia Patricia Contreras ◽  
David Picazo ◽  
Aixchel Cordero-Hidalgo ◽  
Paola Margarita Chaparro-Medina
Keyword(s):  
Online Teaching ◽  
English Language ◽  
Traditional Education ◽  
Online Classes ◽  
Spring Semester ◽  
University Professors ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Virtual Classes ◽  
The University ◽  
Successful Students

Students’ and university professors’ challenges due to the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic have been enormous. Without prior notice, they had to switch from traditional education to virtual teaching. This study’s objective was to identify the perception of students and professors of the Bachelor in the English Language from the University of Chihuahua, Mexico, during the transition to virtual classes due to the pandemic. Researchers applied a survey of 28 items with a Likert scale to 152 students during the spring semester 2020 and the second instrument of 51 items to 26 professors. The students reported having complications in connectivity (21%) and difficulties interacting with professors and classmates (34%). Many students reported experiencing anxiety (69.1%) and feeling isolated (62.5%). Most agree that they learn better in face-to-face classes (85%). In turn, the professors agree that the students had a lower performance than in a face-to-face semester (69.3%). Despite this, the professors affirm that they followed the program to the letter (92.3%) and completed the programmed contents (84.6%). Besides, 92.3% of the academics are confident to face a new semester in virtual modality, if necessary. Although we can say that the transition from face-to-face to virtual classes in the institution was successful, students and professors encountered difficulties and disadvantages in the use of platforms for online classes. The benefit of this research´s findings is understanding the University must have all the necessary elements in place for online teaching. It must establish a formal regulation of virtual programs that includes professor´s and student´s profile, as well as the strategies to be followed. The students’ and professors’ perceptions highlight the crucial elements that professors need to consider to teach virtual classes and take advantage of these lessons to face the future better.

scholarly journals Students' opinions on online classes of English: Possibilities and limitations

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 117-140
Author(s):  
Danijela Đorđević ◽  
Zoran Pavlović ◽  
Tijana Vesić-Pavlović
Keyword(s):  
Language Teaching ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Online Classes ◽  
Spring Semester ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
English Classes ◽  
Language Classes ◽  
Face To Face Instruction ◽  
The University

Online classes are not a brand-new concept in teaching languages. The use of Internet and different applications and platforms in everyday life all probably contributed to recognizing online classes as a convenient way for language teaching. There has been a plethora of research on online classes, their benefits and weaknesses, as well as on students' attitudes towards this type of learning. Since there are many benefits of integrating online materials into language teaching programmes, some language practitioners are eager to use these regularly, whereas some still hesitate and use this type of teaching rarely or not at all. However, the year 2020 forced all university teachers to conduct online classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, since it was impossible to conduct face-to-face instruction in classroom setting. This opened up new possibilities, but brought about various problems as well. Having all this in mind, this paper aims to show how university students perceived the online classes of English during the declared national state of emergency in Serbia. These particular students attended online English classes at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Belgrade, in the spring semester of 2020. An extensive, online questionnaire designed for the purposes of the study was used to examine students' opinions on various aspects of online classes, their assessment of important technical, contextual, and psychological factors in the process, as well as their motivation to participate in online classes. The results of the analysis show that the respondents were highly motivated for this type of English language classes. They predominantly positively assessed practically all analyzed aspects of online classes, including the observed equivalence of knowledge acquired in face-to-face and online classes, as well as the equal interactivity of both types of classes. The level of self-assessed digital literacy of respondents was fairly high, which must have helped students to a great extent in successively attending the classes. As for the main advantage of online classes, most respondents stated that they were able to attend classes from home, which saved their time and facilitated communication. They also liked the atmosphere in online language classes. The most commonly stated disadvantage of this type of classes is poor internet connection, followed by the related interruptions of sound and video. The dominant attitude of the respondents was that English classes at the university should be conducted as hybrid courses, which implies that they should be a combination of face-to-face teaching and online classes. Although small-scale, the findings of this pilot research can help pinpoint the weaknesses of online classes, as well as offer useful suggestions aimed at improving them in the future. For instance, since students mostly use their mobile phones to attend online classes, it would be convenient for the class activities to be accessible and manageable through different social media apps. Still, it may be argued that the findings are limited in scope since the study was conducted on the sample of students of only one faculty of the University of Belgrade; additionally, it explored the experience with only one online course these students attended. Therefore, the research may be expanded by exploring the potential of online classes in different subject courses, as well as at other faculties.

2011 BEEF FORAGE SURVEY RESULTS

EDIS ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja C. Crawford ◽  
Christa L. Kirby ◽  
Tycee Prevatt ◽  
Brent A. Sellers ◽  
Maria L. Silveira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Program Evaluation ◽  
Organizational Development ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
South Florida ◽  
University Of Florida ◽  
Development Unit ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
County Extension ◽  
Ranch Management ◽  
The University

The University of Florida / IFAS South Florida Beef Forage Program (SFBFP) is composed of county Extension faculty and state specialists.  The members, in conjunction with the UF/IFAS Program Evaluation and Organizational Development unit, created a survey in 1982, which is used to evaluate ranch management practices.  The survey is updated and distributed every 5 years to ranchers in 14 South Florida counties: Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Martin, Okeechobee, Polk, and Sarasota.  The responses are anonymous.  

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