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The cost of textbooks is a financial burden on many college students. Fortunately the advent of open educational resources (OER) has allowed for the development of textbooks and other materials at significantly reduced costs to students. Many faculty are using OER to develop customized textbooks for their students, usually published digitally online. These faculty desire high fidelity feedback from their students to help them improve their texts. However, there is no general model of what digital textbook quality means to college students. Such a model would allow for the development of a measure of digital textbook quality that could provide highly valid and reliable student feedback for faculty to use in improving their open textbooks. This study describes a mixed-methods approach for developing a model of digital textbook quality from the college student perspective. An instrument for measuring the components of this model is also described. This dissertation can be freely accessed and downloaded from http://etd.byu.edu/ or from http://tjbliss.org/dissertation.

The purpose of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of ultra-distance runners' experiences of running ultra-distance races. The study is based on six interviews with participants who have ever run an ultra-distance race, a race with a distance longer than 42,195 meters. Through a qualitative approach, a semi-structured interview guide and thematic analysis as an analysis tool, the collected data has been generated in four themes; nutrition and energy - to physically cope all the way, social support and cooperation during the race - a sense of belonging, goal-oriented behavior and self-control to confirm self-efficacy and test boundaries. The first theme aims to tell about the participants' reflections on energy and nutrition to cope all the way, as the stomach is often a common reason why you need to interrupt a race. The second theme explains the importance of social support and cooperation during the course of, among other things, the distraction of other challenges. The third theme describes goal-oriented behavior and the need for self-control among the participants. The fourth and final theme explains testing limits, which includes their need to test the body's mental and physical abilities to the limit. The study's conclusion shows that the participants' experiences have many common aspects in terms of their experiences. Their experience is characterized by stressors in the form of physical pain, lack of energy, mental strain and doubt. At the same time, social support and cooperation was the clearest theme throughout all interviews. Their experiences of running ultra-races stand out when it comes to testing limits. They seek to get through challenges and to test what the body can accomplish, and are happy to do so in community or in collaboration with others. It is based on confirmation of one's own ability to cope with something that is difficult and to feel group affiliation with other ultra runners. / Syftet med studien var att få en djupare förståelse om ultradistanslöpares upplevelser av att springa ultradistanslopp. Studien utgår ifrån sex stycken intervjuer med deltagare som någon gång har sprungit ett ultradistanslopp, alltså ett lopp med längre distans än 42195 meter. Genom kvalitativ ansats, semistrukturerad intervjuguide och tematisk analys som analysverktyg har den insamlade datan genererat i fyra teman; näring och energi - för att fysiskt klara hela vägen, socialt stöd och samarbete under loppet - en känsla av samhörighet, målinriktat beteende och självkontroll för att bekräfta självförmågan och testa gränserna.   Det första temat avser berätta om deltagarnas reflektioner kring energi och näring för att klara hela vägen, då magen ofta är en vanligt orsak till att man behöver avbryta ett lopp. Det andra temat förklarar vikten av socialt stöd och samarbete under loppet för bland annat distraktion av andra utmaningar. Det tredje temat beskriver målinriktat beteende och behovet av självkontroll hos deltagarna. Det fjärde och sista temat förklarar att testa gränser, vilket omfattar deras behov av att testa kroppens mentala och fysiska förmågor till det yttersta.    Studiens slutsats visar att deltagarnas upplevelser har många gemensamma aspekter vad det gäller deras upplevelser. Deras upplevelse präglas av stressorer i form av fysisk smärta, bristande energi, psykisk påfrestning och tvivel. Samtidigt som socialt stöd och samarbete var det mest tydligt genomgående temat i alla intervjuer. Deras upplevelser av att springa ultralopp utmärker sig vad det gäller att testa gränser. De söker att ta sig igenom utmaningar och att testa vad kroppen klarar av att åstadkomma, och gör det gärna i gemenskap eller i samarbete med andra. Det grundar sig i bekräftelse av den egna förmågan att klara av något som är svårt samt att känna gruppsamhörighet med andra ultralöpare.

Syftet med föreliggande forskningsprojekt var att undersöka upplevelser av karriärövergångar hos elitidrottande studenter, på högsta nationella nivå, som strävar efter att etablera sig även på internationellt högsta nivå inom sin idrott, samtidigt som de börjar studera vid universitet/högskola och så småningom tillägnar sig en examen. Semistrukturerade intervjuer användes för att kartlägga och undersöka de elitidrottande studenternas upplevelser. De kategorier som identifierades genom tematisk innehållsanalys var upplevda förändringar i övergången, karriärstöd, resurser för att anpassa sig till den nya nivån i idrotten, upplevd tillfredsställelse med situationen, strategier för att anpassa sig till den nya nivån i idrotten, upplevda förändringar under en dubbel karriär (studier och idrott), upplevelsen av att kombinera studier, idrott och ett “vanligt” liv, och strategier för att hantera detsamma. De elitidrottande studenterna lyfte fram kontinuerligt karriärstöd, interpersonligt stöd och betonade behovet av att utveckla coping strategier som stresshantering och time- management. Åtgärder för att underlätta framgångsrika karriärövergångar för elitidrottande studenter diskuteras. / The main purpose of this research project was to examine perceptions of within-career transition, as experienced by student-athletes striving to reach the international level. Interviews were used to examine the perceptions of student-athletes practicing individual sports at the national elite level. Eight categories were identified through thematic content analysis: changes experienced in the transition, career assistance, resources for adjusting to the new level in sport, satisfaction with their current situation, strategies for adjusting to the new level in sport, changes during a dual career, combining studies and everyday life, and strategies for adjusting to a dual career. The student-athletes emphasised prolonged career assistance, interpersonal support, dedication, and commitment, and recognised the need for coping strategies such as stress and time management. Suggestions for promoting successful within-career transitions for student-athletes are discussed.

Sommarskolan används för att uppnå godkänt betyg för de elever som ej har uppnått godkänt betyg under den ordinarie skolan. Det finns statistik på hur många som går på sommarskola, och hur många som klarar av att uppnå godkänt betyg, men det finns väldigt lite forskning om vad det är för undervisning och lärande som sker på sommarskolan. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att få bättre kunskap om matematikundervisningen på sommarskolan, vilket lärande som möjliggörs där och elevers uppfattningar om sitt lärande. En kvalitativ studie av matematikundervisningen på en sommarskola i Sverige har utförts, där data består av intervjuer, observationer och en skriftlig utvärdering. Tematisk analys har använts för att hitta mönster inom studiens data. Analysresultatet pekar på att elevernas arbetsinsats är mycket bättre på sommarskolan jämfört med den ordinarie skolan och uppfattas av eleverna själva som mycket bättre på grund av högre motivation och bättre studiemiljö. Den högre motivationen kan relateras till att eleverna har en kort och tydlig målsättning. / Summer schools in Sweden are used to achieve a pass grade for those students who have not achieved a pass grade during the regular school. There are statistics on how many people go to summer school, and how many people achieve pass grades, but there is very little research on what kind of teaching and learning takes place at summer schools. The purpose of this thesis is to gain better knowledge of mathematics teaching at summer schools, what learning is made possible there and students' perceptions of their learning. A qualitative study of mathematics teaching at a summer school in Sweden has been performed, where the data consists of interviews, observations and a written evaluation. Thematic analysis has been used to find patterns within the study data. The analysis results indicate that the students' work effort is much better at summer school compared to the regular school and is also perceived by the students themselves as much better because of higher motivation and a better study environment. This higher motivation can be related to the students having a short and clear objective.

Anti-Semitism is still very much alive in the United States and has increased in the pastyears (ADL, 2023). Anti-Semitic rhetoric was brought to light by the world-famousrapper Kanye West, who in the fall of 2022 committed several anti-Semitic acts on hissocial platforms. When a person with great influence on the public sphere expresseshimself anti-Semitic, people can copy the behavior and believe that it is accepted. Thestudy's purpose is to expand the understanding of how American media frames antiSemitic rhetoric depending on their political ideology. This essay examines how KanyeWest was portrayed in American media in the end of 2022, where all articles found inthe timeperiod that included Kanye and antisemitism were collected. A total of 120articles were collected from four different news sources; New York Post and Fow Newthat are righwinged as well as CNN and NBC that are leftwinged. The applied methodis a mixed method with a focus on qualitative thematic content analysis. The methodhas been applied by finding patterns (themes) in the articles to answer the study'squestions: (1) When Kanye expressed anti-Semitic rhetoric, how was he framed inAmerican media? (2) How does the media's political ideological background affect theportrayal? (3) Has Kanye's anti-Semitism influenced the rise of anti-Semitism in theUS? This study does not examine media outside of the United States and no other mediathan written articles by journalists. The limitation gives a clear result of framing in thecontext of politics in one country. Existing research of Entman (1993, 2007, 2010) isused in the study to show the impact that framing has on the public and how it affectspolitics. The result shows that Kanye was framed primarily as an artist but also as ananti-semite and half of the material had negative frames of Kanye. The comparisonbetween the rightwinged and leftwinged media, showed that the left focused more onhow Kanye affected antisemitism in the U.S. and how antisemitism has increased. Thestudy concluded that Kanye had a big part in spreading antisemitism in the U.S

Responsible consumption (SDG 12) practice is crucial to turn waste into zero and extending the usability of products through reusing from the consumer end helps to less dependent on virgin materials. People exchange second hand products which are fully functioned but not used anymore which is called re-commerce. Financial gain is not the issue but to utilize the usability of the product is significant in this aspect. This aspect is vital toestablish the cradle-to-cradle system of ensuring circular economy philosophy. Re-commerce conducts in both physical and online marketplaces. Due to the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic, where physical marketplaces have limited capacity to accommodate clients, the online Customer to Customer (C2C) marketplaces have no such boundary to limit users. Facebook is considered the most popular re-commerce platform in today’s world dueto their large number of users. The study selected Facebook as the unit of analysis to assess the re-commercepractice of Facebook users of Bangladesh to ensure circular economy. For doing the review of existing literatures, the study conducted bibliometric analysis of published research documents in social media and circular economy which were indexed at Scopus database. After conducting literature review, the study considered Social Practice Theory as the required conceptual framework. The study conveniently selected 26 Bangladeshi individuals who were familiar with re-commerce practice on Facebook and formed four focus groups based on product categories (electronics, furniture, jewelry and women’s attire) they dealt with. The study conducted focus group interview through Facebook Messenger and Zoom. The study conducted thematic analysis using NVIVO12 and developed a re-commerce practice on Facebook using the theoretical frameworkof Social Practice Theory. The study concluded that, re-commerce practice is vital to ensure the circular economy from the consumer end to encourage responsible consumption of making the future world sustainable.

The engineering design process can underutilize nature-based solutions during infrastructure development. Instances of nature within the built environment are reflections of the human-nature connection, which may alter how designers ideate solutions to a given design task, especially through virtual reality (VR) as an embodied perspective taking platform. Embodied VR helps designers "see" as an end-user sees, inclusive of the natural environment through the uptake of an avatar, such as a bird or fish. Embodied VR emits empathy toward the avatar, e.g., to see as a bird in VR, one tends to feel and think as a bird. Furthermore, embodied VR also impacts altruistic behavior toward the environment, specifically through proenvironmental behaviors. However, limited research discovers the impact of embodied VR on the human-nature connection and if embodied VR has any impact on how designers ideate, specifically surrounding nature-based solutions as a form of a proenvironmental behavior during the design process. This research first presents a formal measurement of embodied VR's impact on the human-nature connection and maps this impact toward design-related proenvironmental behaviors through design ideas, i. e., tracking changes in nature-based design choices. The design study consisted of three groups of engineering undergraduate students which were given a case study and plan review: a VR group embodying a bird (n=35), a self-lens VR group (n=34), and a control group (n=33). The case study was about a federal mandate to minimize combined sewer overflow in a neighborhood within Cincinnati, OH. Following the plan review, VR groups were given a VR walkthrough or flythrough of the case study area of interest as a selected avatar (embodied:bird, self-lens:oneself). Participants were tested for their connectedness to nature and a mock-design charrette was held to measure engineering design ideas. Verbal protocol analysis was followed, instructing participants to think aloud. Design ideation sessions were recorded and manually transcribed. The results of the study indicated that embodiment impacts the human-nature connection based on participants' perceived connection to nature. Only the bird group witnessed an increase in connectedness to nature, whereas the self-lens and control groups did not report any change. This change in connectedness to nature was also confirmed by engineering design ideas. The bird group was more likely to ideate green-thinking designs to solve the stormwater issue and benefit both nature and socioeconomic conditions, whereas the control group mostly discussed gray designs as the catalyst for minimizing combined sewer overflows. The self-lens group also mentioned green design ideas as well as socioeconomic change, but mostly placed the beneficiary of the design toward people rather than nature in the bird group. The mode of analysis for these findings was driven by thematic content analysis, an exploration of design space as a function of semantic distance, and large language models (LLMs) to synthesize design ideas and themes. An LLM's performance lent accuracy to the design ideas in comparison to thematic content analysis, but struggled to cross-compare groups to provide generalizable findings. This research is intended to benefit the engineering design process with a) the benefit of perspective-taking on design ideas based on lenses of embodied VR and b) various methods to supplement thematic content analysis for coding design ideas. / Doctor of Philosophy / The use of nature in the constructed world, such as rain gardens and natural streams for moving stormwater, is underused during the design process. Virtual reality (VR) programs, like embodiment, have the potential to increase the incorporation of nature and nature-based elements during design. Embodiment is the process of taking on the vantage point of another being or avatar, such as a bird, fish, insect, or other being, in order to see and move as the avatar does. Embodied VR increases the likelihood that the VR participant will act favorably to the subject, specifically when the natural environment is involved. For example, embodying another individual cutting down trees in a virtual forest increased the likelihood that individuals would act favorably to the environment, such as through recycling or conserving energy (Ahn and Bailenson, 2012). Ultimately, this research measures the level of connection participants feel with the environment after an embodied VR experience and motions to discover if this change in connection to nature impacts how participants might design a solution to a problem. This design experiment is based on a case study, which all participants were provided alongside supplemental plan documents of the case. The case study used is about stormwater issues and overflows from infrastructure in a neighborhood in Cincinnati, OH, where key decision-makers were mandated by the federal government to minimize the overflows. The bird group (a bird avatar) performed a fly-through in the area of interest in VR, whereas the self-lens group (first-person, embodying oneself) walked through the same area. The control group received no VR intervention. Following the intervention, participants were asked to re-design the neighborhood and orate their recorded solution. Then, participants were required to score a questionnaire measuring their connectedness to nature. The results show that when people experience the space as a bird in virtual reality, they felt more connected to nature and also included more ideas related to nature in their design. More specifically, ideas involving green infrastructure (using nature-based elements, e.g., rain gardens and streams) and socioeconomic benefits were brought up by the bird group. This research presents embodiment as a tool that can change how engineers design. As stormwater policy has called for more use of green infrastructure (notably, through the Environmental Protection Agency), embodiment may be used during the design process to meet this call from governmental programs. Furthermore, this research impacts how embodiment's effects on design can be interpreted, specifically through quantitative methods through natural language processing and the use of large language models to analyze data and report back on design-related findings. This research is intended to benefit the design process with a) using different avatars in embodiment to impact design ideas and b) a comparison of thematic content analysis and large language models in summarizing design ideas and themes.

The purpose of this study is to examine which feelings arise within the counsellor in the meeting with patient, how they handle these and what challenges and/or opportunities exist with the space of their feelings. This study has been carried out with the help of a qualitative method in the form of semi-structured interviews with eight counsellors with degrees in social work, who work in health centres. The interviews have been analysed based on a thematic analysis method. The results reveal five different themes based on what is emphasized in the interviews. In summary, the themes describe how emotions are an inevitable part of social work and that it is not unusual for the counselor to have strong feelings in the meeting with the patient. Feelings can represent both a challenge where the counselor needs to adapt their feelings in order to maintain their professional role and not to shift focus from the patient, while emotions also constitute a tool where the counselor can use their emotions to support the patient moving forward. The counselors also say that it is not unusual that the patient’s feelings transfer on to themselves, where the example is given that the patient's sorrow can arouse the counselor's own perceived sorrow. Furthermore, the study describes how the counselors give different emotions different space and that they sometimes postpone their feelings that are not helpful in the meeting to reflect on them after the meeting with the support of supervisors and colleagues.

OnlyFans is a relatively new digital platform where fans subscribe to content that a creator publishes. Everything from food recipes to workouts is published, but the platform is best known for its content of sexual material. There are currently a limited number of evidence-based studies regarding OnlyFans. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the Swedish media portrays OnlyFans, focusing on how the media's portrayal of OnlyFans can have relevance for social work. The study is qualitative, and the choice of method is thematic analysis. The study analyzed 53 articles from six different Swedish news sites. The result shows that the Swedish media presents a divided and complex image of OnlyFans. Media contributes to the marketing and normalization of the platform by highlighting how success and wealth can be achieved through the platform and that celebrities publish content. Media contribute to an acceptance of the platform through the way OnlyFans and its creators are portrayeded. Some creators who express themselves in media seem to want to distance themselves from the fact that their sexual content is pornography. The platform is presented as a way for women to take power, but media also testify that this is not the case and that the platform can be a gateway to prostitution. Media also depicts that the platform is not risk-free. Children appear on OnlyFans and are therefore at risk of being exposed to crime. The technological development creates new forums where people are at risk of being exposed, which contributes to new challenges for social services work with vulnerable groups. / OnlyFans är en relativt ny digital plattform där fans prenumererar på innehåll som en kreatör publicerar. Allt från matrecept till träning publiceras, men plattformen är mest känd för sitt innehåll av sexuellt material. Det finns idag begränsat antal evidensbaserade studier gällande OnlyFans. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur svensk media framställer OnlyFans, med fokus på hur medias framställan av OnlyFans kan ha relevans för socialt arbete. Studien är av kvalitativt slag och metodvalet är tematisk analys. Studien har analyserat 53 artiklar från sex olika svenska nyhetssidor. Av resultatet framkommer att media framställer en delad och komplex bild av OnlyFans. Media bidrar till en marknadsföring och normalisering av plattformen genom att belysa hur framgång och rikedom kan nås genom plattformen samt att flertalet kändisar publicerar innehåll. Genom hur media framställer OnlyFans och dess kreatörer bidrar de till en acceptans av plattformen. Vissa kreatörer som uttrycker sig i media tycks vilja ta avstånd från att deras sexuella innehåll är pornografi. Plattformen framställs som ett sätt för kvinnor att ta makten, men media vittnar även om att det inte är så och att plattformen kan vara en inkörsport till prostitution. Media framför även att plattformen inte är riskfri, barn förekommer på OnlyFans och riskerar därmed att utsättas för brott. Den teknologiska utvecklingen skapar nya forum där människor riskerar att utsättas, vilket i sin tur bidrar till nya utmaningar för socialtjänstens arbete med utsatta grupper.