Insufficient research training contributes to the current shortage of researchers in the field of speech-language pathology and contributes to the dearth of multicultural and multilingual (MCML) research. There is limited information regarding how MCML issues are addressed in Research Methods courses in CSD. This research explores the extent to which MCML issues are included in CSD Research courses.Learner Outcome(s): Identify the importance of MCML in research method courses Describe ASHA MCML resources Describe strategizes to integrate MCML issues into coursework

Objective: Determine change in eating competence (EC) and factors related to EC in students enrolled in basic nutrition courses at a major private university. Design: Eating competence was measured by administering the ecSatter Inventory (ecSI) both before and after class intervention. Additional data on eating disorder prevalence, food security, and general demographics were also collected in the same structured survey. Significance identified with p value <0.01. Setting/Participants: This survey was administered to 566 students enrolled in basic nutrition courses at a major private university in the western United States. Analysis: ANOVA was used to determine relationships between ecSI end scores and participant characteristics. ANCOVA was used to determine relationships between change in ecSI scores over time and participant characteristics. Results: Enrollment in NDFS 100 is associated with an overall increase in eating competence (EC). However, students with current eating disorders had a significant decrease in EC during enrollment. Current or past eating disorders and low or very low Food Security Status were associated with lack of EC. Females and younger participants were not eating competent at the course end. Enrollment in NDFS 201 was not associated with significant change in EC. Conclusions: Basic nutrition instruction improves EC among students without eating disorders. Low food security status and presence of an eating disorder may be a barrier to improving EC.

Testing, at times, can be a complicated matter. It takes a lot of time, precision and trial and error to adequately create a valid and reliable test. When creating a test, we should be aware of the impact that it is going to have on our teaching and whether it will be positive or negative. The goal of this project was to create four good intermediate Spanish diagnostic pre-tests that could be taken at the Brigham Young University Humanities Computer Testing Laboratory. The purpose of these pre-tests was to ascertain the grammatical strengths and weaknesses of our Fall Semester 2012 Spanish 205 students' in regards to specific grammatical principles covered throughout the course. Then, the results could be used to determine how to best plan class time and promote good instructional decisions. This report covers the necessary steps it took to develop and validate said pre-tests and concludes with reviewing the results of the validity and reliability process and gives recommendations for future application of the pre-tests designed and implemented.

In recent years thousands of people worldwide have been using Massive open on- line courses (MOOCs) for various reasons, including career development and change, continuing education, lifelong learning, and training. MOOCs are free online courses that anyone can enroll in and are an affordable and flexible way to learn new skills, develop professionally, and provide quality educational experience across the globe. Having an exemplary user interface will make users prefer most MOOC platforms, which inspired this study to know which MOOC platform has usability and better user experience by using the survey evaluation. The main objective of this study is to measure the usability components(effectiveness, efficiency, and overall user satisfaction level) to determine which MOOC platform, Coursera or Udemy, has a better user experience using the heuristic principles. A quantitative research method has been used in this paper, which focuses on sta- tistical, mathematical, and numerical analysis of data collected through surveys, questionnaires, and polls. In this paper, a questionnaire to determine user satis- faction through surveys has been developed. Usability has been evaluated for each MOOC platform (Coursera and Udemy) by calculating usability components. Sta- tistical methods like variance and standard deviations has been calculated using the survey results. Responses from the survey evaluation are collected and are graphically represented in bar graphs and pie charts. Respondent’s timings and statistical method results are presented in a tabular form. The satisfaction level is calculated and represented in a Likert scale format. The usability of two MOOC platforms (Coursera and Udemy) was measured by cal- culating usability components. Better user experience among Coursera and Udemy is measured using usability heuristic principles. This study concludes that effec- tiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction level while performing eight tasks given to the user is similar in both MOOC platforms (Coursera and Udemy). From the survey evaluation, the users preferred Udemy over Coursera.

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Many medical school admissions personnel and pre-health advisors advise premedical students not to take the medical school prerequisite courses at two-year colleges because they believe the courses are less academically rigorous than the same courses at four-year institutions (Losada, 2009; Marie, 2009; Thurlow, 2008, 2009a, 2009b). According to this belief, premedical students who complete the medical school prerequisite courses at a two-year college could be at a disadvantage in regard to medical school admission compared to those students who complete the medical school prerequisite courses at a four-year institution. In an effort to analyze these perceptions, this study examined factors pertaining to the enrollment of premedical students in the medical school prerequisite courses at two-year colleges. This research study examined the enrollment statuses and grades of matriculants to medical school from the University of Central Florida between 2007 and 2011. Specifically, the type of student enrollment of the matriculants who completed any of the medical school prerequisite courses at a two-year college was examined, and both their type of institutional enrollment and grades in the organic chemistry courses were also examined. The results indicated that there were significant differences in types of student enrollment in most medical school prerequisite courses at two-year colleges, and based on these differences, the researcher identified whether completing certain prerequisite courses as certain types of enrollment were either “more acceptable” or “less acceptable” for premedical students. In addition, the results indicated that there were not significant differences in organic chemistry grades based on the type of institution where the courses iv were taken. Based on these results, the researcher could not categorize the courses at either type of institution as “more rigorous” or “less rigorous” than the other, but the researcher also recommends that these results should be perceived cautiously until additional, more in-depth research can be conducted on this topic. Finally, recommendations and implications for premedical students, pre-health advisors, medical school admissions personnel, two-year colleges, and four-year institutions were discussed.

This study examined the Summer Transition Program in a large suburban school district. One of the common concerns of education leaders is the number of students who choose to dropout of high school. The eighth to ninth grade Summer Transition Program has been implemented to address the high school dropout issue and was the focus of this study. The researcher examined if participation in the Summer Transition Program could be predicted by student subgroup, to what extent, if any, participation in the Summer Transition Program had on the academic success in Algebra I, and if there is a relationship with academic success in Algebra I and at-risk factors

Parental support roles in K-12 online learning differ from traditional schools. Since K-12 students typically have not developed the self-regulation skills necessary for academic engagement, parents partner with schools to provide the affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement support necessary for academic success. Through 21 semistructured interviews with parents supporting K-12 students in varied online contexts, this study delineates how parents provided support in each of these dimensions of engagement. The participants felt that in online education, parents should take the primary responsibility for behavioral engagement support, and that teachers were primarily responsible for cognitive support. Parents believed they shared affective engagement responsibilities with teachers, but that teachers should make content more interesting and engaging while parents provided for the emotional needs of their student. The findings also describe additional parental support roles, including helping students move to an online school, increasing personal availability, leveraging resources, teaching themselves, and encouraging students to develop independent engagement skills. The themes reveal how parents strengthen both themselves and other community actors to ensure their students receive sufficient engagement support. Given the importance of parental support in K-12 online education and the inequity of parental support across online learners, online schools should consider how to provide targeted help to parents in their support roles, including assuming a dual-support role for both students and parents.

Golf courses can expand hundreds of acres, making scouting for both pests and beneficial insect populations a time-consuming task. Scouting for insects is labor-intensive, potentially damaging, but is an integral part of an integrated pest and pollinator management (IPPM) plan. Virginia golf courses are currently using remote sensing and light reflectance to detect non-insect pests in turfgrass. This thesis aims to develop remote sensing and light reflectance methods to aid in a turfgrass IPPM plan, to document the phenology of ABW weevil (Listronotus maculicollis Kirby, Coleoptera: Curculionidae, ABW), and to catalogue pollinator-friendly out-of-play areas. Light reflectance, the measurement of the amount of light reflected, of plants can be used as a proxy for the health of a plant. The light reflectance of turfgrass affected by ABW stress and plants in the out-of-play areas of golf courses was collected proximally and remotely, using a backpack spectrometer and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), respectively. Mathematical light reflectance indices were applied and compared to insect populations in both areas to determine the correlation. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which uses red and near-infrared wavelengths to indicate stress, was found to highlight ABW stressed turfgrass. The Structure Intensive Vegetation Pigment Index (SIPI), which uses red and green wavelengths to highlight flowering plants, was found to highlight potential pollinator- friendly habitats in out-of-play areas. When applied to flights, NDVI could help in the targeted application of insecticides to combat the annual bluegrass weevil, therefore reducing their presence in the environment. The use of SIPI could highlight potential pollinator friendly habitats and therefore assist superintendents in the development of their IPPM plan. / Master of Science in Life Sciences / Scouting, such as completing visual monitoring or taking soil core samples, is an important part in the development of an integrated pest and pollinator management (IPPM) plan for Virginia golf courses; an IPPM plan focuses on control of a pest, while considering the needs of pollinators. The size of golf courses makes scouting for insect pests and beneficial insects a time-consuming task. Golf courses are currently using remote sensing, the use of drones in combination with other technology, to scout for other pests or disease. Light reflectance, the measurement of the amount of light reflected, is often used in combination with remote sensing as a proxy for the health of plants. This thesis developed remote sensing and light reflectance techniques not only to detect a common turfgrass pest, the annual bluegrass weevil (Listronotus maculicollis Kirby, Coleoptera: Curculionidae, ABW), but to also predict the presence of potential pollinator habitats in the out-of-play areas of Virginia golf courses. Instruments such as a spectrometer and a drone were used to collect light reflectance at the ground level and aerially, respectively. Ground data was collected through soap water flushes to detect adult ABW, and visual monitoring of potentially pollinating bees, beetles, butterflies, and flies. The light reflectance and ground data were compared using mathematical indices to determine if there was a relationship between the presence of insects and a particular index. Indices could be applied to drone flights that golf course superintendents are already performing, and they can use this information to highlight potential areas of insect presence. This will help them to take care not to apply insecticides in areas with pollinators or to only apply necessary insecticides where there is likely a presence of ABW. This will reduce the labor, other costs, and the environmental impact of insecticides.

“Greening Golf” explores how and why many golfers and tourists have come to see Pinehurst, and thousands of courses like it, as naturally-occurring landscapes and to what degree they should. It examines the tightly bound environmental and cultural history of the Sandhills to explain both the rise of the resort within a very particular environmental context in the post-Civil War rural South, and the surprising ways that golf came to have intense influence over it. Rather than viewing the growth of the sport as the result of cultural and environmental changes in American history, this dissertation treats golf as a historical force of its own. It has shaped individuals like golfers, caddies, and tourists, groups like country clubs, labor organizations, and political parties, and broad entities like economies, agriculture, and ecology. Golf as a force molded every input needed to create the physical space where it was played. Golf not only shaped the golf course but those who constructed it, maintained it, and enjoyed it. It simultaneously normalized and mystified the environment, especially at Pinehurst. Golf imposed new ideas about how landscapes should look, yet, obscured their making. Golf insisted that a course should be wherever its owner decided to build it and disassociated the intensive agricultural practices needed to maintain it. This process of shaping, imposing, and obscuring transformed the Sandhills landscape and its occupants. In the process, golf naturalized grass, the golf course, and Pinehurst in the North Carolina Sandhills.