Analysis of Public Recreational Needs by User Population in South-Eastern Nigeria

This paper examined the recreational needs of the user population in South-eastern Nigeria. The study considered educational status, public awareness, degree of awareness, public recreational options, extant open space services, and reasons for low usage of available recreational facilities. The study was carried out using descriptive statistics, use of weights and relative mean scare analysis. The study showed a general loss of interest in the available public recreational facilities and services, thus leading to disregard of public recreational open spaces. This fact prompts a high rate of conversion of public recreational spaces in South-Eastern Nigeria for other uses. There is therefore the need to provoke users’ interest through classical advertisements, posting of bills and publication in both local and national dailies, particularly on the implication of converting recreational spaces in the areas being advertised. This calls for the need for public enlightenment plans in the likes of orientation programs, seminars, symposiums, recreation outreach courses and educating the masses at various levels, on the need to recreate and participate actively on public open space activities. Keywords: Recreation, open space services, public recreation, users, recreational facilities.

User’s Perception about Orientation Program of Academic Library

This study examines the awareness of the orientation program of the academic library towards the attainment of performance of undergraduates. The research exposes the facts to both students and academic staff on the importance of the library orientation towards understanding the right information usage to aid performance and also create awareness of the image to the social, economic, and educational value of library orientation in Nigerian universities. Five Research objectives were formulated; they are: to know the perception of users about the library orientation programs, to find out how orientation programs are designed towards helping the need of students on proper information utilization, to find out how orientation program impacted to student's academic performances, to examined the challenges occurring in academic library orientation, to formulate solutions to challenges occurring in academic library orientation. The instrument was subjected to face and content validation by three experts, from Library and Information Science, requesting to examine the clarity of expression used as well as the appropriateness of the language used in the instrument. Cronbach alpha method was used to determine internal consistency of the questionnaire items and a coefficient of 0.978 was obtained. With this reliability coefficient yielded, it was deem fit for the research to be conducted using the questionnaire designed for the data collection. The study took a survey of orientation programme of Federal University of Lafia using a descriptive method to analyse data collected, selecting one hundred and thirty-nine (139) research instruments distributed out of which 132 copies were collected for analysis. The population was sampled using simple random sampling technique, and questionnaire was distributed to the selected sampled respondents. The findings of the results obtained from the analysis are that user orientation has an impact vividly on students' academic programs. The orientation has introduced students to libraries around the University for the Information Resources and services provided therein, including the way of accessing and uses. It particularly enhance and improved the use of the library for students in pursuance of their education 100(75.8%) opine that Orientation confirms students access, while 108(81.8%) posits that it creates awareness on how to use the library. It also finds out challenges associated with the exercise; such as unqualified personnel to handle the program, inadequate time to treat all programs, more alarming the lack of collective curriculum amongst universities, uncooperative attitudes of some staffs 86(65.2%) indicated inadequate time to treat all programs. 96(72.7%) considered the use of unqualified personnel. In conclusion, user orientation and instruction has become important in all the tertiary institution in Nigeria, more so it’s assist patrons to know how to maximize the use of our libraries for self-motivated and self –reliant clientele.

One Busy Day! A Critical Analysis of New Faculty Orientation Programs

New faculty orientation programs can serve as an important introduction to an academic community. They can create expectations, provide exposure to technical assistance, and welcome faculty members to new communities. The current study explored new faculty orientation programs, cataloging their activities to identify the most common practices in research-centered universities. Findings revealed a strong reliance on one-day programs that often host a variety of speakers from different offices, yet they rarely were found to have any sort of outcomes based approach to their design. To be effective, these programs should possibly incorporate longer activities that might last an entire semester or academic year. Further, these programs might include virtual as well as in-person opportunities to learn about the institution, the students they serve, and the offices and other tools that the institution provides to help faculty be successful. Further study on the effectiveness of different models is also recommended.

Role of Librarians and Information Scientists in Plagiarism Control A Study of NIRF Ranked Engineering Institutions Ranked in 2020

The study was conducted to ascertain the role played by librarians and information scientists in controlling plagiarism in NIRF ranked engineering institutions ranked in 2020. With the application of knowledge of various types of resources and technological tools, librarians and information scientists play vital roles in making the awareness and fighting the disease of plagiarism. The students, research scholars and more importantly the faculty should be aware of plagiarism and its detrimental effects on their practices on their study & research and future career as well. The major objective of this study was to recognise the role played by librarians and information scientists in curbing plagiarism. Keeping this in view, a few research questions were framed. The study surveyed 200 NIRF ranked engineering institutions ranked in 2020 where engineering programs are being conducted. The researchers of this study found that majority of the librarians and information scientists (81.82 %) think that awareness about plagiarism is quite important while 89.92 per cent of them also ascertained that their institutions have plagiarism policy, and most of the institutions are using Turnitin and/or Urkund Anti-Plagiarism detection tool as well. The Librarians and Information Scientists make their users aware about plagiarism by promulgating the information through various activities through the library portals/websites as well as social media services. It was found that total 68.18 per cent respondents believe that ‘Orientation Programs and training’ is quite significant methods to make them aware about regulations against plagiarism and can discourage such intellectual theft and infringement. The study also reveals that the librarians should frequently conduct meetings with Head of Department, Faculty members and educators to discuss the issue and also deliver lectures to the faculty members, researchers as well as students.

Designing Effective Online Orientation Programs for First-Year University Students

While asynchronous, self-paced online orientation programs are not brand new in the field of orientation, transition and retention, COVID-19 forced many institutions to rapidly create a program for the first time to help welcome fall 2020 students. Using the community of inquiry model as a framework, this literature review explores the research related to orientation and online learning in an effort to identify the principles, practices and processes that can help a student affairs professional to design an effective and engaging online orientation program, or enhance an existing program.

Reimagining OTR during COVID-19 through Transformative Practices

COVID-19 was a catalyst that provided orientation professionals the opportunity to reimagine their programs and challenge the status quo. AUTHOR INSTITUTION utilized Mezirow’s (1991) transformative learning framework and concepts from Davies’s (2017) work on transitional justice in education to make impactful programmatic changes. Through the process of truth telling, critical reflection, and addressing failures, this article provides an example of applying scholarly frameworks to in-person and virtual orientation programs over the course of three orientation cycles to ensure each program is more equitable and student centered than the past.

Bridging Systems, Building a Coalition, and Centering Students: A Collaborative Multi-Campus Approach to Orientation in the Time of COVID-19

This manuscript tells the story of how a multi-campus, public, Research I institution in the Mid-Atlantic pivoted from in-person orientation to a Virtual Orientation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We share how our university came together to offer a Virtual Orientation for twenty undergraduate campuses and 17,000 students in less than 100 days, review lessons learned, and offer insight into how planning for future orientation programs will be influenced because of this unusual year.

An Examination of Social Capital in Outdoor Orientation Programs

Social capital offers campus recreation professionals a framework to conceptualize the impacts of outdoor orientation programming (OOPs). Using data from The Outdoor Orientation Benchmarking Survey (TOOBS), researchers explored results of participants’ ( n = 1,154) responses to two constructs conceptually related to social capital: group trust and network closure. Researchers used factor analysis to examine the psychometric properties of TOOBS, finding group trust and network closure represented different aspects of social capital. Results of the study confirms trust and network closure are related, yet unique aspects of the social capital construct. The results provide an empirically-supported measure for evaluating social capital in outdoor orientation programs.