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An Investigation of the Generation Cohort, Self-Efficacy, and Innovation of Faculty Teaching with ChatGPT in Texas Higher Education Institutions
Full text linkGenerative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT has been transforming higher education (Adiguzel, Kaya, & Cansu, 2023). ChatGPT is a "general-purpose conversation chatbot based on the GPT-3 language model developed by OpenAI" (Zhai, 2023, p. 1). ChatGPT offers benefits to higher education users such as experiential learning, problem-solving capacities, and personal tutoring (Hin Hong, 2023). From the uncertainty involving the effects (whether positive or negative) of ChatGPT in higher education, some faculty may lack the self-efficacy or confidence in using ChatGPT in their courses (Twyford, Le Fevre, & Timperley, 2017). The theoretical frameworks of Rogers' (1962) diffusion of innovations, technological pedagogical content knowledge, and Bandura's (1998) self-efficacy will provide the foundation to investigate the generation cohort and faculty ranking of faculty in the use of ChatGPT in their classrooms. Furthers, teachers' self-efficacy and innovation are two factors that help explain teachers' behavior. As such, our study will be the first to examine both predictors of teachers' use of ChatGPT in their classroom. The objectives of this study are to examine the generational cohort and faculty rank differences in the types of generative AI used by higher education faculty, ChatGPT learning approaches, and the integration of ChatGPT into their course assignments. Additionally, this study examined the predictors (teachers' self-efficacy and innovation) of the use of ChatGPT in the classroom.
Data collection methodology is survey methods using Qualtrics.Generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT is challenging the status quo of higher education institutions. In this study, the frameworks of diffusions of innovation, self-efficacy, and technological pedagogical content knowledge provide insights in the investigation of the use of ChatGPT in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to examine the generational cohort and faculty rank differences based on the types of generative AI used, learning approaches, and the integration of course assignments. Further, we examine the predictors of the use of ChatGPT in the classroom. Findings reveal generation differences in the use of ChatGPT. Further, both self-efficacy and innovation were significant predictors of the use of ChatGPT in the classroom
Effect of Time of Estrus on Pregnancy Rate for Sexed Semen Artificial Insemination in Beef Cows
Full text linkSexed semen artificial insemination in combination with estrous synchronization may allow producers to shorten breeding seasons, enhance genetics through use of superior sires, control gender of offspring, and increase profitability. However, sexed semen technologies have yet to be widely used within the beef cattle industry due to decreased sperm cell numbers in comparison to conventional semen, increased expenses, and lower pregnancy rates. The hypothesis of this study was to determine the most effective time to inseminate multiparous beef cows (post-estrus), using sex-sorted semen and artificial insemination. The objective was to evaluate estrus synchronization protocol and time of insemination on pregnancy rates within a fixed-time artificial insemination (FTAI) protocol using sex-sorted semen. Synchronization treatments included a 14 d controlled internal drug releasing device (CIDR), in which first administration of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) was delayed 24 h in the 8 & 6 protocol, compared to the 7 & 7 Synch. The 8 & 6 protocol resulted in no difference between estrual status compared to a 7 & 7 Synch in either experiment 1 or 2 (P = 0.79, 0.07). However, the 8 & 6 protocol did result in increased pregnancy rates to FTAI for both experiment 1 and 2. Delaying FTAI to 72 h following CIDR removal allowed for an increased number of animals exhibiting signs of estrus before FTAI. Time of estrus did not significantly affect pregnancy rates to FTAI utilizing sex-sorted semen (P = 0.31). FTAI less than 11 h after the onset of estrus resulted in decreased pregnancy rates for both experiments 1 and 2. Evidence suggests that acceptable pregnancy rates from sexed
semen and fixed-time artificial insemination may be achieved regardless of synchronization protocol or time of estrus
Environmental Drivers of Water Quality Variability in Lake Meredith, Texas
No full textThis objectives of this research project were to improve our understanding of the meteorological and hydrological drivers of water quality variability on Lake Meredith, which is the premier recreational lake on the Texas Panhandle, that provides swimming, boating, and camping for thousands of visitors each year. Lake Meredith is also a major source of drinking water for Amarillo and Lubbock, Texas overseen by the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority. The lake is subject to low water levels due to water demand and high evaporation rates (Zhu et al. 2021). However, water quality has been reduced in recent years with low water levels, to the point that only limited water can be pulled from Lake Meredith for drinking purposes due to high salinity from the high evaporation and low river inflows into the lake. This objectives of this study were to improve general understanding of meteorological, hydrological, and chemical factors impacting the lake water quality through detailed monitoring of the lake physiochemical properties over time. Clean water is important for human health, agriculture and the environment, all key concerns for the Texas Panhandle. While water pollution has not historically been that much of concern in West Texas, the increase in ash runoff from recent mega-wildfires in eastern New Mexico, salt loading from agriculture and high evaporation rates make the need for improved understanding of what drives water quality variations important. Zhu, John, Nelun Fernando, and Carla G. Guthrie. "Estimate of Long-Term Water Availability for a Reservoir in Texas Using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo Method with Paleo Drought and Trend Consideration." World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2021.
The project was conducted with almost no deviation from the original Kilgore proposal. A suite of water quality and temperature sensors were deployed in March 2023 at Lake Meredith to improve understanding of how environmental variability (e.g., weather, lake level variations) impact the water quality. The only deviation is that several of the temperature sensors were either stolen or lost at various locations around the lake. So, the main sampling site at Sanford-Yake marina was successful. However, we did not obtain the full time series of temperature data from the other locations around the lake. In addition, we conducted monthly vertical temperature profiles of pH, conductivity/salinity, dissolved oxygen, from the surface to 60 feet depth at the Sanford-Yake Marina, to support understanding of changes in surface water quality and microbiology populations (this activity was not included in the original proposal). Monthly data water sampling and data download trips from the deployed sensors led to numerous opportunities in educating WT students on sampling of water quality (5 students participated in the research study) and enhanced the Environmental Sampling and Interpretation course ENVR 4404/5404 for undergraduate and graduate students in Spring 2023 (graduate students helped set up the instruments as part of their laboratory work, and the entire 19 students from ENVR 4404/5404 visited Lake Meredith as a field trip.An ongoing study on water quality that began in March 2023 has resulted in unprecedented data to improve understanding of how environmental variability impact the water quality of Lake Meredith, Texas, the premier recreational and municipal and agricultural storage reservoir on the Texas Panhandle that provides crucial water supplied to both the Amarillo and Lubbock metropolitan areas. The runoff from heavy rains in May and June 2023 raised the level of Lake Meredith by over 10 feet and decreased the Salinity by over 30%. Strong gradients in salinity and temperature were found to result in unusually strong vertical stratification of Lake Meredith in summer 2023, which has implications for water usage and lake biology. Surface and depth profiles of lake physiochemistry (temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity and salinity) were collected monthly beginning in March 2023 at 6 locations on the north and south sides of Lake Meredith, and every 10 minutes at the Sanford-Yake Marina. This study has provided novel data on understanding how environmental forcing mechanisms impact water quality as well as microbiological communities at Lake Meredith
ADDRESSING DISPARITIES IN STEM DEGREE ATTAINMENT FOR UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITY STUDENTS
No full textThis paper synthesizes insights from two scholarly articles focused on the critical issue of STEM degree attainment among underrepresented minority students. The first scholarly article was a case study titled “Disparity in STEM Degree Attainment for Underrepresented Minority Students,” that explored the overarching challenges faced by one racially minoritized female student while pursuing a STEM degree at a predominantly white institution. Second was an empirical case study titled “Disparity in STEM Degree Attainment for Underrepresented Minority Students: How One Community College is Working to Increase Participation and Persistence for Degree-Seeking Underrepresented Minority Students.” This study provided a detailed examination of the strategies implemented by a community college to address this disparity, along with an overview of the current landscape and potential pathways for improvement. Through a review of documents provided by the college, secondary data from focus group interviews with students, and a factual interview with a faculty member, five themes emerged that may be instrumental in shaping a program’s successful implementation: faculty support, family support, teaching style, learning approach, and inclusivity. The findings aim to inform educators, policymakers, and stakeholders interested in advancing initiatives that promote diversity and success in STEM fields
The Dalhousie Manuscripts Project: Navigating the Ethics of Digital Editing
No full textTwo manuscripts containing the largest corpus of poems of the famous sixteenth-century poet John Donne are held in the Southwest Collections Library at Texas Tech University. The DMSS contain what many scholars consider the "definitive" versions of Donne's poems - poems that have been edited and included in well-known poetry collections and in textbooks designed for survey courses. In addition to Donne's work, the DMSS contain poems by Francis Bacon, Francis Beaumont, and others, including unique English and Scottish Renaissance lyrics. A black and white facsimile of the manuscripts was edited and published in 1988 by Ernest W. Sullivan II and David J. Murrah. Sullivan's edition shed new light on Donne's authorship practices, on the dissemination of his poetry, and on issues of reader response. However, the quality of the images in the facsimile is poor, which is a serious impediment to scholarship. TTU currently has low-res images of the DMSS available online, though there is no critical apparatus, transcription provided with them. Much has changed in the world of Renaissance studies and book historical scholarship in the 30 years since the facsimile. Revisiting the MSS, situating them in current scholarly conversations, and rendering the manuscripts more accessible by using contemporary technology will open new dialogues and lead to new discoveries about Donne's poetics, early modern reading practices, and early modern manuscript creation. We plan to produce a digital facsimile and edition that will make available not only high-res, full-color facsimile images of the DMSS, but also a new transcription, translation, and edition of its contents. This digital edition will include a descriptive bibliography, annotations and notes, a critical bibliography that will be periodically updated, a search function, side-by-side features for images, transcriptions of the poems, editions of the poems, imaging of the binding, and the collation information. This digital edition will make widely available a resource for teaching, scholarly study, and public perusal. We intend to seek certification of the edition from the Modern Language Association's Committee on Scholarly Editions via external review by Donne scholars. This digital edition serves as the basis for our ongoing research project, the product of which will be a book that considers the full contents of the manuscripts. This book project asserts the value of lesser-known poets as well as the critical importance of manuscript context to the study of Renaissance texts. Most critically, we argue that the manuscripts were produced in Scotland by a group of aristocratic scribes who left behind their own lyrics, jokes, and poetry. Rather than wresting the DMSS away from Donne scholars, we intend to open these manuscripts up to the field more broadly for those interested in early modern Scotland, systems of punctuation, and literature as social activity. These manuscripts, we argue, highlight social engagement in the 17th century and the ways in which the Scottish aristocracy both consumed and lampooned news from England. By virtue of the Donne poems included and the sequential order of the MSS' contents, the DMSS are closely related to British Library Lansdowne MS 740, as well as to Huntington Library MS 198. Helen Gardner and Herbert Grierson believed the Donne poems in these three MSS belong to the Group II Donne MS tradition and must have been copied from a now-missing exemplar. However, because scholars focus primarily on Donne as the value indicator of these MSS, the rest of the poems have not received much (if any) attention. Our desire to contextualize the Donne poems within the holistic structure of the DMSS yields some interesting finds. A plentitude of Scottish orthographical evidence, author attributions, and ownership marks prompted us to hypothesize that the manuscripts were not, in fact, transcribed in London and then transported to Edinburgh as previously supposed. Instead, we wondered: What if the DMSS had been transcribed in Scotland all along?
The data collection methodology was Archival research; transcription, translation, and editing.The objectives of this project are to produce a digital edition of a pair of manuscripts held at Texas Tech University's Special Collections collectively called the Dalhousie Manuscripts. This edition features high-resolution images of the manuscripts in a IIIF viewer, TEI-coded diplomatic editions of the text, bibliographies, and critical apparatus
CONCURRENT VALIDITY EVIDENCE OF THE ImPACT™ AS AN ASSESSMENT OF PROCESSING SPEED IN UNIVERSITY SOCCER ATHLETES
No full textExecutive Function (EF) is a crucial element in athletes' performance. It involves many different subcomponents, including Processing Speed (PS). The study underlines the vital role of sport and physical activity on cognition and indicates the imperative role of cognition in athletes' performance. Due to the lack of investigation in sport cognition in college athletes, the aim of the study is to validate a feasible and accessible assessment (i.e., Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing; [ImPACT]) of EF and PS in collegiate soccer athletes. Participants were 18 male collegiate soccer student athletes (Mage = 21; range = 19-24). Two EF assessments were completed: Trail Making Test (TMT) and Tower Test. Correlation analysis was conducted between the scores of the two EF assessments and ImPACT scores. Results indicated a strong correlation between TMT composite and the ImPACT visual motor speed composite (r = .76, p < .01). However, a significant correlation between the Tower Test and the ImPACT test was not evident. The results can function as a door opener to further investigate sport cognition among collegiate athletes. Moreover, the results allow use of the ImPACT test as a valid PS assessment in collegiate soccer athletes
The Effects of Relationship Quality on Probation/Parole Officer Communication Orientation and the Occupational Self-Efficacy of Women on Probation/Parole
No full textThis study investigates the communication outcomes of the relationship between probation/parole officers and their clients.The relationship between probation/parole officers (POs) and their clients under community supervision plays a crucial role in successful reintegration. This study investigates how POs’ communication orientations influence relationship quality and the occupational self-efficacy of women impacted by the justice system, drawing on family communication patterns and self-efficacy theories. A public dataset of 402 women on probation or parole in Michigan, USA was recruited using a cross-sectional snowball sampling approach. Regression analyses revealed that POs’ communication orientation predicts women’s occupational self-efficacy and relationship quality. Equally important, caring and trust mediate the positive relationship between POs’ conversation orientation and women’s self-efficacy in their job-related abilities, while trust also moderates this relationship. These findings have important implications for POs, counselors, and educators in correctional systems, and inform future research directions on PO-client relationships and career development for justice-involved women
POTENTIAL IMPACT OF THE ARCTIC GLACIER RECESSION ON OUR CLIMATE
No full textThe Arctic is warming three times faster than the rest of the world in part due to the phenomenon called Arctic amplification. The increase in de-glaciated land regions predictably leads to greater aerosol emissions and accelerates Arctic amplification by a reduced reflection of solar radiation, changing albedo. However, the role of aerosol-cloud interactions and cloud feedback is overlooked and not well understood in the Arctic. In particular, the role of clouds containing ice particles remains highly uncertain. To better understand the climate impact associated with aerosol particles emitted from de-glaciated soils, we characterized the immersion freezing efficiency of surface soil samples collected in 2019 from Southern Spitsbergen. A total of 8 samples were collected along a latitudinal transect from the top of the catchment of the Ariebreen glacier (ARB; approx. 500 m a.s.l.) to the sea shore (approx. 5 m a.s.l.), Hornsund area. Half of the samples were from the inner ARB (more recent; in the north), and another half was sampled in the outer ARB (older; in the south) de-glaciated spots. For our immersion freezing experiment, we used 0.1 wt% powder from each ARB sample, as well as heat-treated samples, to estimate the concentration of ice-nucleating particles (INPs) in a unit mass of each sample, nm (g-1), as a function of temperature (0 °C to -25 °C). Our immersion freezing results of the ARB samples indicate a gradual decrease in freezing efficiency (nm) from old/south ARB (highest) to new/north ARB (lowest). From the heat treatment analysis, we see the inclusion of heat-sensitive biogenic INPs in most samples. Besides the immersion freezing, the results of trace element analysis and ICP-MS data, full next-
generation sequencing data describing microbial communities along the sequence, for the ARB samples will be presented. Knowing the type of microorganisms for de-glaciated areas, as well as those beneath glaciers, will enable us to relate the freezing results to the chemical and biological properties of the samples
A MIXED-METHOD AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC EXPLORATION INTO THE HOMESCHOOL ATHLETE CULTURE: SPORT HISTORY AND PARTICIPATION
Full text linkSports have been exemplified across cultures and time for their plethora of
positive benefits. Homeschool athletes are a unique subset of youth competitor in the
sporting world that has been largely overlooked in the literature despite rapid growth.
Barriers to a positive sport experience for homeschool athletes include injuries,
transportation, funds, proper preparation, qualified coaches, and lack of equipment and
facilities. These issues are highly interrelated and can be tied back to lack of information
and support for the homeschool educator/coach. Through quantitative and qualitative
methods, a snapshot of the typical homeschool athlete from a West Texas homeschool
track and field team was developed to identify parental and athlete goals for sport
participation, detect barriers to a positive sport experience, compare this experience to
typical youth sport involvement, and propose solutions and suggestions for further
research. Qualitative results showed that parents value athletics for developing fitness,
friendships, character, and team work abilities in their homeschool children. Further, 39%
percent of homeschool athletes commute more than 30 minutes for practices, games, and
events. This highlighted that transportation and/or lack of local access to sport
opportunities are significant barriers to sport participation for the typical homeschooler in
this sample. Ten percent of athletes started sports for the first time after age 11, and this
was correlated with a higher incidence of injury in the last 12 months. Overuse injury
rates and amount of active time spent outside of sports were similar to those of youth
athletes in general (Brenner, 2007; National Physical Activity Plan
vi
Alliance, 2018). Further research is warranted to produce a more robust picture of the
homeschool youth athlete experience
Personal Financial Literacy in Mathematics Teacher Education
No full textThe concept and topic of Personal Financial Literacy (PFL) comes into the field of K-12 education as a relatively new discipline. This study investigates the question, what do pre-service educators know about Personal Financial Literacy? A project was developed to measure what pre-service educators know and how they mathematically calculate financial questions posed in the context of a personal financial literacy project filled with life simulated questions. Findings indicated a disconnect with conceptualizing applied mathematics in the context of finances and how to determine a procedural solution. Pre-service educators’ understanding of PFL ideas were low, especially in the area of earning income and calculating monthly credit. The recommendation is to better prepare our preservice educators with guided practice, reinforcement of PFL standards in their education-based curriculum, and more feedback on pre-service educators’ answers in PFL based learning. Informing our educators in PFL can impact the socioeconomic outlook for careers related to the pre-service K-12 industry