Virtual Education Goes Mainstream

There's a new page on the Chronicle of Higher Education, a special report about Online Learning: Virtual Education Goes Mainstream

Browse the page for links to articles on various aspects of online education, including its evolution, case studies about specific programs, The role of video, Faculty training and more.

Some of the articles require a subscription. If you find an article you would like to read in the online version of the Chronicle of Higher Education but lack your own subscription, current GGU faculty, students and staff can contact the University Library for an e-mail copy of the full-text.

Confessions of a custom-essay writer

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a rather unsettling story by the man who writes your students papers. This is a must-read for anyone concerned about plagiarism and academic integrity. Some of the more disturbing pieces of information he shares include the fact that none of his "clients" have ever complained about getting caught.

The anonymous writer boasts of how much money he makes, how business is booming. Then he adds the usual invective the dishonest use to deflect responsibility for their actions: he blames us.

I live well on the desperation, misery, and incompetence that your educational system has created.

Don't worry - it gets worse:

For those of you who have ever mentored a student through the writing of a dissertation, served on a thesis-review committee, or guided a graduate student through a formal research process, I have a question: Do you ever wonder how a student who struggles to formulate complete sentences in conversation manages to produce marginally competent research? How does that student get by you?

Like it or not, "Ed Dante" poses a valid question. Do students here at Golden Gate University "get by us" using unique, custom-made papers? Do you have in-class writing assignments that allow you to compare "live" writing samples to finished assignments? What other strategies do you use to detect or deter plagiarism? How do they relate to custom-written papers? Please share your thought in the comments.

Plagiarism has grown into a major problem given the ubiquitous and anonymous nature of internet and internet-based businesses. To give you some perspective, the company Dante works for employs about 50 writers. And there are many more such companies "out there." What do we do about this?

Google scooping up WiFi info

Recently, Google was caught by "German data authorities" acquiring confidential information from its fleet of street mapping vehicles. According to Google it was gathering information to improve its service to WiFi users, but it also scooped up e-mail addresses and passwords. While Google apologizes for the mistake,

Google said its cars were supposed to collect only the names of and identifying information from Wi-Fi routers, which it uses as an ad-hoc GPS system to localize searches for mobile users. The company said it inadvertently captured internet traffic as well, but never looked at it. While it has apologized for the collection, Google is arguing in court that Wi-Fi sniffing is not illegal.

Although the Federal Trade Commission has closed its investigation without bringing charges, Google faces other government investigations and class actions suits around the world.

Read the story on Wired

4 Steps to a Memorable Teaching Philosophy

The Chronicle of Higher Education online has an article by Prof. James M. Lang that may interest faculty and DBA students:

4 Steps to a Memorable Teaching Philosophy.

This article contains practical advice for avoiding the usual boiler-plate statements Prof. Lang has read over the years as he has served on many search committees.

Any who experience difficulties accessing this article please contact the library for assistance.

Trends in College Spending Online Data System

Check out Trends in College Spending Online, a data system that allows "institutional-level comparisons with ... national data" regarding revenue, expenditures, enrollments, and other metrics.

Quote above and excerpts below are from
http://www.tcs-online.org/Home.aspx

Excerpts from website follow:

"Trends in College Spending (TCS) Online is an interactive web-based data system that gives higher education stakeholders easy access to information on finance, performance, and enrollments for individual institutions, groups of institutions, or the nation as a whole. Recent patterns in higher education finance are presented using six primary "metrics" compiled by the Delta Cost Project .... The TCS system allows institutional-level comparisons with those national data.

Six Metrics:
Revenue: Where Does the Money Come From?
...
Expenditures: Where Does the Money Go?
...
Performance: Outcomes and Spending
Spending Comparisons: Prices and Enrollments vs. Spending
...
Enrollment: Where Do Students Go?
...
Full-time equivalent (FTE) student enrollments and headcount enrollment by undergraduate/graduate level, full-time/part-time status, race/ethnicity are shown.


Data
TCS Online presents select data from the Delta Cost Project IPEDS Database from 2002 forward. The Delta Database was compiled from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) surveys; all higher education institutions that participate in federal student financial aid programs are required to submit data on enrollments, finance, staffing, and completions each year. In some instances, the Delta Cost Project has adjusted the reported data to allow for more consistent comparisons over time and across different reporting standards (see the documentation tab of the TCS system). All financial data in TCS are reported per full-time equivalent (FTE) student and can be shown in current or inflation-adjusted dollars."

Excerpt above is from http://www.tcs-online.org/Home.aspx retrieved August 9, 2010

We learned of this site through The Chronicle of Higher Education's e-mail alert from today@chronicle.com

Key Characteristics of Higher Ed Schools that Graduate More Students

Grant Makers for Education report
From Access to Success: A Funders Guide to Ensuring More Americans Earn Postsecondary Degrees
http://edfunders.org/downloads/GFEReports/GFE_FromAccessToSuccess_FundersGuide.pdf

indicates:
"Postsecondary institutions that graduate significantly higher percentages of students share several key characteristics:
1. They use data consistently and from the start, reviewing performance data starting in the first six weeks of the semester. They act quickly on the data to get students (and faculty and staff) the support they need, from the first moment it’s clear they need it.
2. They’re redesigning the courses where they lose a lot of students, often introductory classes that have become early barriers rather than
early entry to college success.
3. They require what matters: anything that contributes to student success——such as attendance in lectures, labs and tutoring sessions——becomes required. When students know they are held accountable for particular activities, they are more likely to complete those activities, and thus more likely to graduate.
4. They clearly assign responsibility for student success. At the department level, at the advisory level, at the leadership level——people look at, talk about and act on student progress, because they know they are accountable for it.
5. Their leaders focus on student success as an institutional priority, with presidents and provosts making it clear in their speeches, in meetings and throughout the institution’s activities that improving graduation rates is the very core of their institutional mission.
6. They don’t give up on students, which keeps students from giving up on themselves. Schools reach out to students who have left, asking them to come back and providing the supports they need to succeed once they return."

Quote from report, p, 4, retrieved July 22, 2010

Postsecondary Education --Progress towards 2025 Goals

Greetings, for reports on progress towards Postsecondary Education Goals in the US for 2025, see


http://completionagenda.collegeboard.org/reports

Website includes links to

2010 Progress Report
"The commission’s goal of 55 percent of young adults receiving a postsecondary credential by 2025 can be measured on a regular basis. The 2010 Progress Report identifies measures that give some indication of the current status and future changes that impact the goal and recommendations, and illustrates the degree to which the nation is moving toward - or away from - the necessary steps for ensuring an educated and enlightened citizenry."



State Policy Guide
"The College Board and the National Conference of State Legislatures joined together to produce a practical policy guide to help state legislators to pursue each of the commission’s recommendations. The State Policy Guide offers a road map toward increasing the number of Americans who attain a postsecondary degree, and empowers legislators to be an even more positive and active force in education reform."


Quotes from website retrieved July 22, 2010

Changes in Higher Education Enrollment

In
"The End of Admissions As We Know It"
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/The-End-of-Admissions-as-We/25677/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Eric Hoover alerts us to
a new white paper, “The End of Higher Education Enrollment as We Know It,” written by "Greg Perfetto, vice president for research and development at Admissions Lab (formerly 422 Group), a higher-education consulting firm."

Mr Perfetto predicts "tomorrow’s students will be more 'employment oriented' than before; and that near-term financial considerations (as opposed to the perceived long-term value of an education) will probably shape colleges choices more than they do today." and “The future college prospect … will have a very different orientation toward technology, information, and, most of all, creditability.”

The full report is available via http://www.admissionslab.com/portals/0/white-papers/The-End-of-Higher-Education-Enrollment.pdf

The Web Means the End of Forgetting, in New York Times

Check out
"The Web Means the End of Forgetting"
By JEFFREY ROSEN
in The New York Times, 7/25/2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-t2.html?th&emc=th

Jeffrey Rosen discusses "a challenge that, in big and small ways, is confronting millions of people around the globe: how best to live our lives in a world where the Internet records everything and forgets nothing — where every online photo, status update, Twitter post and blog entry by and about us can be stored forever."

Rosen also mentions in passing that "the Library of Congress recently announced that it will be acquiring — and permanently storing — the entire archive of public Twitter posts since 2006."

Quotes are from the article, accessed July 22, 2010 via http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-t2.html?th&emc=th

Morningstar Methodologies for rating funds, stocks, ETFs and corporate bond ratings

Ever wonder how Morningstar determines its ratings for funds, stocks, ETFs and corporate bonds?

The most recent Morningstar Library Edition,* alerts us that Morningstar methodologies for rating funds, stocks, ETFs and corporate bonds are now available under the Help & Education page of the Morningstar database, which GGU students and faculty can access through the University Library database pages. You can also access the methodolgies from the callout box icon on the data pages themselves, or from the Morningstar Rating Tab on the "left side navigation bar for all stocks, funds, and ETFs. From there you can get the Star Ratings and access the data definitions." Quote is from Morningstar Investment Research Center E-Newsletter by Susan Dziubinski Vol. 9, Issue 8 July 13, 2010


Following is an excerpt from this Morningstar Library Edition,

"The Help & Education page contains documents that explain the rationale and calculations that make up the Morningstar Ratings for funds, stocks, ETFs, and corporate bonds. You can find these PDFs in the lower right corner of the Help & Education page, just below the glossary."

"Ratings methodologies vary for each investment type: Mutual fund ratings are calculated very differently than stock ratings. Each document will explain how the rating works and what that means for investors. The ratings have one common theme: They range from one to five stars, except for the Bond Ratings, which use a scale from AAA down to B.

"Another way to get the information on Morningstar Ratings and measures is on the data pages themselves. For example, you'll notice on a stock's quote page that there is a callout box set beside the Morningstar proprietary terms. This allows you to get the definition by just clicking on the icon. There is also a Morningstar Rating tab on the left-side navigation bar for all stocks, funds, and ETFs. From there you can get the Star Ratings and access the data definitions."

Excerpt is from
*Morningstar Investment Research Center E-Newsletter by Susan Dziubinski Vol. 9, Issue 8 July 13, 2010

For more information and guidance on using Morningstar for GGU related research, GGU students and faculty are encouraged to contact your friendly GGU Ulib librarians. You can stop by the reference desk, call 415 442-7244, e mail askalibrarian@ggu.edu, or IM us from the University Library homepage, LibGuides, or Facebook Page. We are here for you.

Wanted to share with you

Careers Slideshow:
The C-Suite: 6 Skills To Advance Your Career

http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Careers/The-CSuite-6-Skills-To-Advance-Your-Career-348014/?kc=EWWHNEMNL07192010EOAD

By Dennis McCafferty on 2010-07-14

which came through on CIO Insight today --and is relevant for other fields, as well as Information Management and Technology.

Check it out. What do you think are key skills for career advancement?

Trends in College Spending: 1998-2008

Check out
Trends in College Spending, 1 9 9 8 - 2 0 0 8 : Where does the money come from? Where does i t go? WHAT DOES IT BUY?
from Delta Cost Project

as described in NACUBO Bulletin, July 19, 2010

"New Report Examines Trends in College Spending
The Delta Cost Project on Postsecondary Costs, Productivity, and Accountability has released a report examining trends in spending and revenue at colleges and universities in the United States from 1998 to 2008. In addition, the Delta Cost Project has unveiled its Trends in College Spending (TCS) Online, a Web-based database that tracks the spending and revenue sources of 2,300 public and private colleges and universities."

Above quote is from NACUBO Bulletin, July 19 2010


The web-based database is available via http://www.tcs-online.org/Home.aspx

"Trends in College Spending (TCS) Online is an interactive web-based data system that gives higher education stakeholders easy access to information on finance, performance, and enrollments for individual institutions, groups of institutions, or the nation as a whole. Recent patterns in higher education finance are presented using six primary "metrics" compiled by the Delta Cost Project (shown below). These metrics mirror those in the Delta Cost Project’s Trends in College Spending reports, where national-level patterns and trends are presented. The TCS system allows institutional-level comparisons with those national data. " Quote from website
retrieved July 19, 2010

Report is available via http://www.deltacostproject.org/resources/pdf/Trends-in-College-Spending-98-08.pdf

"The data in this report were drawn from the Delta Cost Project IPEDS database, which
was developed using publicly available data reported to the federal government
through annual IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) surveys on
higher education finance, enrollments, completions, and student aid. Adjustments
were made to harmonize and standardize the data as much as possible to account for
changes over time in accounting standards and IPEDS reporting formats. These
adjustments ensure reasonable consistency in the patterns over time and allow broad
comparisons between public and private institutions. The data are standardized by
FTE enrollments and adjusted for inflation to further facilitate these comparisons."
Quote is from Report, p. 6, retrieved July 19, 2010

GOAL! World Cup Visualization of Data

Greetings, all you World Cup fans. Great resources available to help you track all the data include
The NYTimes Visualization of Live World Cup Football Statistics, which I was alerted to via Information Aesthetics

http://infosthetics.com/archives/2010/06/the_nytimes_version_of_real-time_football_statistics_visualization.html

The Information Aesthetics post also alerted me to the following

Visual Sport Social Visualization of (Live) World Cup Football Statistics http://infosthetics.com/archives/2010/06/visualsport_2.html

Adidas Match Tracker http://infosthetics.com/archives/2010/05/adidas_match_tracker_experience_a_soccer_game_like_a_data_geek.html


World Cup Visualizer iPAD app for all you affluent geeks
http://infosthetics.com/archives/2010/06/world_cup_visualiser_follow_real-time_football_statistics_on_your_ipad.html

and Total Football iPhone app http://www.totalfootball2010.com/


Data!
We have data!
We have loads and loads of data!

GGUers, Please join us for our Data for Decisions workshop, July 14, 5-6 pm, room 5224, 536 Mission Street. And if you have questions about the data you need (or other research you are doing) please contact your friendly librarians. GOAL!

Fun video from University of Bergen on a topic dear to us all

Greetings, I am most sure you will enjoy this fun video from the University of Bergen.


http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Video-Wednesday/24622/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en


It is in Norwegian, but I am confident you will be able to get the gist of it--even if you don't speak Norwegian, as the developers have kindly provided English subtitles.

A new twist on Dicken's Christmas Carol, on a topic of vital importance for our time.

Enjoy!

Janice

The mysteries of human cognitive functions explored

Ben Goldacre, an English Science geek, reports on some interesting
research into human perception: the influence of evidence on decision
making and formation of opinions.

He describes research which show that corrections to news
articles have the effect of reinforcing the proven false allegation,
rather than removing or reducing it. No idea why yet. Test subjects
reading faux news articles which contained corrections to allegations
presented earlier in the text vs. the control group that read the
same first bit but without the corrections determined that if the
first part coincides with the test subject's existing biases then the
correction has the counter-intuitive effect of reinforcing the
information contradicted by the correction.

For more details and a link to the research study see Goldacre's Evidence based smear campaigns

Web Tool to Explore How Products Influence Stock Prices

Neat interactive tool to explore relative influence of various products on a company's stock price available from trefis.com. Once you sign up for a free account, you can alter trend lines to build your own stock price estimates.


We learned of this through Information Aesthetics e-mail alert received on April 2:

Trefis: Understanding How Products Influence Stock Price

Posted: 31 Mar 2010 10:22 PM PDT


"Trefis [trefis.com] offers visual snapshots that demonstrate the relative importance of products that comprise a specific company's stock price. People can interactively personalize any forecast using their local knowledge or expertise to build conviction in a stock price estimate or ask questions and vet opinions on specific forecasts with experts and friends."

How to Grow the Bottom Line in a Down Economy March 25, 5-6 pm free

How to Grow the Bottom Line
in a Down Economy
Turnaround Techniques with Dr. Don Bibeault, author of the bestselling book Corporate Turnaround: How Managers Turn Losers into Winners

Thursday, March 25, 5-6 pm
(Admission is free)
Golden Gate University
536 Mission Street, San Francisco, Auditorium 2202


The economy is down but your company’s results needn’t be. Get ideas on positioning your company from one of America’s premier turnaround leaders.
Dr. Don Bibeault, author of the bestselling book Corporate Turnaround: How Managers Turn Losers into Winners, will show how your company can emerge as an even stronger competitor as the economy heals.

For more information, contact Janice Carter,
jcarter@ggu.edu 415 442-7248

Green Printing - Really!

After some delays due to set-up issues, GGU's Green Printing "pay-for-print" is now live.

Green Print Information

• Cost is $0.12 per page.
• All public printers in the University Library operate by using a copy card. Cards may be purchased from the card dispenser located in the Mission Street room next to the copy machine.
• You will need to use a one dollar bill for the first copy card purchase. After you receive your card, you may add additional money to your card if you wish. Please do not insert more than one dollar bill for initial card.
• If you already have a card, insert the card in the card dispenser and add whatever amount you wish to add into bill acceptor.
• For problems with printers and refunds, see the circulation desk staff.
• Faculty & Staff should contact their departments for a copy card; library staff do not have the ability to give faculty/staff free printing or photocopies.
  

Step-By-Step Instructions

At the Computer:

1. When you are ready to print a document, click File and select Print.
2. Select desired print options and click OK.
3. At the Name prompt field, please type your full name and Click NEXT.
4. Go to the Print Release Station nearest to your computer.

At the Print Release Station:

1. Insert your Copy Card into the card reader for print job list.
2. Type in the name you entered for your print job.
3. Notice the number of pages and cost for your print job.
4. Click Print or Delete.
5. Remove your Copy Card completely from the reader after you are done.

International Industry Information

Larry notified us that Information Advisor made its article on locating International industry information, published last month, freely available via

http://informationadvisor.com/InternationalRoundup.pdf

According to Bob Berkman, editor of The Information Advisor, the article is

"a round up of some of the best sources (market research and industry
databases, international agencies like UN, OECD, World Bank, associations,
etc.); and search strategies for zeroing in on official and reputable
information on industries around the globe."

Note that the GGU University Library provides GGU students and faculty with access to the major stand alone databases the article recommends: 1) Mergent Online, 2) S&P Net Advantage, and 3) OneSource, as well as to some of the databases the article's author accesses via Dialog, ABI Inform and the Economist.

A number of the organizational links the author provides are also included in the GGU University Library Country Information LibGuide, available via http://ggu.libguides.com/country