Enhanced Access to Chronicle of Higher Education

The University Library has provided online access to The Chronicle of Higher Education to GGU faculty, students and staff for over a year now. We now have an enhancement to the online service.

The University's email domain "@ggu.edu" has been added to the authentication database. As a result, anyone who has, or creates, a free Chronicle account using this email domain, will now be able to do a number of things, including,

1. Access premium content posted at Chronicle.com from any location without going through your institution's proxy server
2. Access premium content from one's smart phone
3. E-mail articles to colleagues.
   

Just a reminder, the GGU subscription also provides the following:

• Sign up for any of our free e-newsletters such as Academe Today,
• Chronicle Review, the Global Edition, and others
• Sign up for job alerts
• Participate in Chronicle forums
• Comment on Chronicle articles

You can use the link above to go to the web site to create your personal account now.

How to read a paper

Although this relates to "hard" science, the basic principles of reading an academic or purportedly academic paper remain true. Perhaps this may serve as a reading assignment for a brief introduction to critical reading?

How to read a paper, by Ben Goldacre.

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