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APPC Minutes – September 3, 2024
No full textMinutes of the Academic Policy and Program Committee Meeting, September 3, 2024
APPC Minutes – September 24, 2024
No full textMinutes of the Academic Policy and Program Committee Meeting, September 24, 2024
The Effects of Course Modality on Student Satisfaction and Academic Outcomes at a Liberal Arts College During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Get PDFUsing student self-reports on a survey and objective records of academic achievement, I examined the effects of course modality on student satisfaction and academic outcomes at a selective liberal arts college in spring 2021. I compared three groups of undergraduates (N = 729) based on their predominant course modality: Online-Class Group, Residential Blended Learning Group, and Residential In-Person-Class Group. After controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, class level, and socioeconomic status, course modality demonstrated significant main effects on all three satisfaction variables and sense of connection a student felt to the institution. The Online-Class Group reported the lowest satisfaction with level of academic challenge, quality of teaching, and overall quality of academic experiences; it also reported the weakest sense of connection. The Residential Blended Learning Group differed from the Residential In-Person-Class Group on one variable: satisfaction with quality of teaching, on which the former reported lower satisfaction. Course modality did not affect a student’s grade point average; although it interacted with gender in its effect on the number of course units a student passed, no subgroup difference by course modality and gender was significant. This study indicates that online classes and blended learning, especially the latter, have potential at liberal arts colleges
Perceived Naturalness Biases Objective Behavior in Both Trivial and Meaningful Contexts
Get PDFResearch shows that perceived naturalness can bias beliefs about the positivity of items such as food, human talent, and vaccines. Yet, this research focuses on self-reports, which leaves open the implications it has for behavior. In four studies (N = 492), this research team tested if perceived naturalness impacts trivial and meaningful behaviors. Participants were asked to consume a purported natural/synthetic performance drink (Study 1), test a purported natural/synthetic drug that would be injected (Study 2), eat chocolate containing a purported natural/synthetic cocoa described as causing stomach discomfort (Study 3), or choose a sticker purportedly made with natural/synthetic ink (Study 4). A significant majority of participants (66%–84%) chose and followed through with the natural versus synthetic option. Perceived naturalness guided behavior in contexts involving little (sticker choice) to substantial (drug injection) potential consequences. Self-reports can weakly predict behaviors, but the results revealed that perceived naturalness biases self-reports and behaviors in a similar fashion
Introductory Economics: Gender, Majors, and Future Performance
Get PDFBy investigating the exam scores of introductory economics classes in the business school at National Chengchi University in Taiwan between 2008 and 2019, we find three sets of results: First, we find no significant difference between genders in the exam scores. Second, students’ majors are significantly associated with their exam scores, which likely reflects their academic ability measured at college admission. Third, the exam scores are strong predictors of students’ future academic performance
It Ain’t Necessarily So: Ludwig Boltzmann’s Darwinian Notion of Entropy
Get PDFLudwig Boltzmann\u27s move in his seminal paper of 1877, introducing a statistical understanding of entropy, was a watershed moment in the history of physics. The work not only introduced quantization and provided a new understanding of entropy, it challenged the understanding of what a law of nature could be. Traditionally, nomological necessity, that is, specifying the way in which a system must develop, was considered an essential element of proposed physical laws. Yet, here was a new understanding of the Second Law of Thermodynamics that no longer possessed this property. While it was a new direction in physics, in other important scientific discourses of that time-specifically Huttonian geology and Darwinian evolution, similar approaches were taken in which a system\u27s development followed principles, but did so in a way that both provided a direction of time and allowed for non-deterministic, though rule-based, time evolution. Boltzmann referred to both of these theories, especially the work of Darwin, frequently. The possibility that Darwin influenced Boltzmann\u27s thought in physics can be seen as being supported by Boltzmann\u27s later writings
Ike: The First Inaugural Address of Dwight D. Eisenhower
No full textThis chapter describes the inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower as the nation’s thirty-fourth president, which was conducted in the midst of a stalemated war in Korea. The Korean War was one of the factors contributing to Eisenhower’s decisive victory over Democrat Adlai Stevenson in November 1952. It looks at three key themes that were central to Eisenhower’s crusade: communism, corruption, and Korea. The chapter considers the inaugural speech Eisenhower delivered as neither the longest nor the shortest of its kind, nor was it filled with florid expressions. Eisenhower highlighted the importance of the American nation’s founding documents and the watchfulness of Divine Providence and observed the struggle against atheistic communism, which was central to America’s future
Faculty Meeting Minutes - September 12, 2024
No full textMinutes of the Gettysburg College Faculty Meeting, September 12, 2024
Featured Piece: The Historians of TikTok
Get PDFThis year’s featured piece was written by Hannah Greenwald, an assistant professor in the History department. Professor Greenwald teaches classes on Latin American history, Atlantic history, and borderlands history. Her research focuses on Indigenous resistance, settler colonialism and nation-state formation