OAsis: UNLV's Repository for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
Not a member yet
24968 research outputs found
Sort by
Process over Product: Rethinking Assignments in the age of AI
No full textHow do we design assignments that invite students to engage deeply with ideas rather than simply complete and submit finished products? Featuring faculty from across the University of Nevada, Reno alongside facilitators from Advancements in Teaching Excellence, this panel explores assignment design across disciplines, focusing on strategies that foreground thinking as a learning process. Panelists from across disciplines will discuss how they are rethinking assignments to emphasize process over product, using an AI-aware approach to build guardrails on the ways in which students use (or do not use) these tools while also designing assignments and activities to engage students in thinking that leads to deeper learning. Rather than framing AI as a threat to academic integrity, this session highlights ways in which we can intentionally design assignments to emphasize critical thinking, metacognition, and process-based assessment to support authentic learning.
Dr. Barker will explain how fourth-year French students, enrolled in an Open Educational Resources (OER) course, integrate AI into the course’s primary scaffolded writing project. She will outline the design of the project, clarify each step of the process, and share examples from student work to illustrate both opportunities and challenges. By highlighting the ways AI supports language learning, critical engagement, and creative expression, Dr. Barker aims to provide concrete strategies for incorporating AI into classroom practice. Attendees will gain insights into balancing innovation with pedagogy, while also considering the ethical and practical implications of student use of AI in higher education.
Dr. Munro will explore “ungrading” as a practice that emphasizes learning processes over final products, an approach particularly relevant in the age of AI. As AI tools make it easier to generate polished assignments, ungrading shifts the focus from outputs to authentic engagement, reflection, and growth. Through self-assessment, and iterative feedback, students learn to evaluate their own progress and embrace risk-taking. This approach fosters resilience, critical thinking, and adaptability while addressing AI-related concerns by valuing process and learning over easily automated products.
Using examples from his MBA courses, Dr. Perera will demonstrate how AI can be integrated into assignments not only to generate solutions, but also to refine and extend them. Drawing on cases in forecasting and quality analytics, he will illustrate how students leverage AI for faster problem-solving and for producing rich, informative visualizations through effective prompt engineering. These insights underscore a critical lesson: while AI can serve as a “smart intern” to replicate and validate business solutions, a strong foundation in the underlying concepts remains equally essential. By blending domain knowledge with AI-driven tools, Dr. Perera will highlight how students can achieve both efficiency and deeper understanding, preparing them for a future where AI is not a substitute for knowledge, but a partner in decision-making and learning
Advancing Children\u27s Mental Health in Nevada
No full textNevada ranks 51st nationally in youth mental health access and services, underscoring persistent shortages and disparities across the state. Nearly one in four youths aged 12–17 (23.5%) experienced a major depressive episode in the past year, and 73% did not receive treatment. Approximately 34,000 Nevada youths have reported suicidal thoughts—an urgent call for prevention and coordinated support.
During the 2024–2025 school year, 31.3% of Clark County School District students were chronically absent (missing 10% or more of school days), a challenge closely linked to mental health struggles and socioeconomic barriers.
This community forum provided an opportunity to generate dialogue and amplify practical strategies to enhance Nevada’s mental health support and improve outcomes for children statewide
Online Experiential Learning in Career and Technical Education
No full textThis scoping review investigates the integration of OEL into Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. Using Arksey and O’Malley’s five-step scoping review framework, articles were identified through ERIC and Google Scholar and managed in Zotero. MAXQDA was used for coding, revealing thematic clusters related to modalities (synchronous, asynchronous, hybrid), technologies (LMS, AR/VR, simulation tools), and learner characteristics (nontraditional students, CTE-specific learning styles). The review highlights the conceptual anchors of Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory, Carver et al.’s Experiential E-Learning Model, and Baasanjav’s online experiential design. Findings reveal that while OEL in CTE remains underexplored, it offers potential to increase accessibility, inclusivity, and workforce alignment. Implications suggest the need for standardized definitions, expanded instructor training, and targeted empirical studies to assess outcomes. This review contributes to emerging scholarship at the intersection of experiential and online learning in CTE
Community-Driven Policy Solutions to Police Accountability
No full textGeorge Floyd’s death shifted public opinion as 76% of Americans agreed that incidents such as the killing of Floyd are signs of racism within law enforcement. While police reforms such as implicit bias training and body-worn cameras gained public support, they insufficiently address the structural, cultural, and organizational components of policing that can obstruct accountability and contribute to racial disparities in policing. In this lecture, Brooking Senior Fellow Rashawn Ray presents interview, survey, social media, and virtual reality data with police officers, activists, and civilians, and demonstrates state- and city-level databases on police reform legislation. Ray posits that evidence-based policy prescriptions focusing on reallocating and shifting funding, innovative training using virtual reality, and wellness programs for officers can transform policing
Housing Crisis Outlook in Mountain West Metros, 2023
No full textThis fact sheet presents 2023 data on housing market conditions in seven large metros across the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The Lending Tree report, “Portland, Ore., Has Worst Housing Crisis Outlook – Here’s Why,” includes data on the 100 largest metros in the U.S. This fact sheet focuses on housing crisis outlook data for Mountain West metros appearing among the largest 100 metros in the nation: Phoenix, AZ; Tucson, AZ; Colorado Springs, CO; Denver, CO; Las Vegas, NV; Albuquerque, NM; and Salt Lake City, UT
The Mental Health Workforce in Nevada, 2024
No full textThis fact sheet presents data on the share of workers in the mental health workforce in Nevada. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics Query System provides data on the amount of employment in all job sectors at the state and metropolitan statistical area (MSA) levels. This fact sheet focuses on employment and wage data for the State of Nevada, the Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV MSA, and the Reno, NV MSA as of May 2024
Costing Care: Unpacking the Drivers of Medicaid Spending for NICU Admissions in Nevada
No full textOverview This study examines how maternal and neonatal factors influence Medicaid spending for NICU admissions in Nevada, with an emphasis on identifying cost-driving health disparities. Approach: A retrospective analysis was conducted using linked data from Nevada’s Birth Registry and Medicaid claims (2015–2021). Infant records were analyzed using univariate and bivariate statistics, and logistic regression models identified associations between maternal/neonatal characteristics and above-median Medicaid spending. Cost trends were assessed using NICU case costs, annual growth rates, and year-to-year fluctuations. Key Objectives: Analyze trends in NICU-related Medicaid spending over a seven-year period. Identify maternal and neonatal characteristics linked to higher NICU costs. Examine how prenatal care, maternal health risks, and socioeconomic status affect spending outcomehttps://oasis.library.unlv.edu/durep_podium/1067/thumbnail.jp
Live Entertainment Tax
No full textThe Live Entertainment Taxis a 9% tax that is exclusively for casinos, nightclubs, and venues that have a minimum occupancy of 200. The Live Entertainment Tax is managed by both the Nevada Gaming Control Board, which oversees events that are held at gaming establishments, and the department of Taxation, which handles events held at all other venues. Clark County is home to the Las Vegas Strip, which is where the majority of the revenue from this tax is collected.https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/durep_posters/1263/thumbnail.jp
Relationship Closeness and Eating Disorder Pathology in Undergraduate Female Friends Dyads
No full textEating disorders (ED) are one of the leading mental health concerns among undergraduate students
Rates nearly doubled from 15% in 2013 to 28% in 2020 and 2021
Relationship closeness may play a crucial role in both development and recovery from EDs.
Limited research on platonic relationships and ED pathology, specifically relationship closeness.https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/durep_posters/1264/thumbnail.jp
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Arrests in the Mountain West, 2025
No full textThis fact sheet reveals data on the total Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests and daily average of ICE arrests between January 20, 2025 and June 10, 2025 for the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. Originally reported by the New York Times (NYT) in “Immigration Arrests Are Up Sharply in Every State. Here Are the Numbers,” this fact sheet also details each Mountain West state’s national ranking for total ICE arrests between January 20, 2025 and June 10, 2025, as well as the percentage increase in daily average ICE arrests between 2024 and 2025 for each Mountain West state