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To test whether college youth smoking risks are independently associated with community patterns of alcohol availability and control.Hierarchical multilevel multivariable modelling of cross sectional survey data. Outcomes included self reported current (past 30 day) cigarette smoking and heavy episodic (binge) drinking.120 nationally representative US colleges.10 924 randomly selected students.Individual risks for smoking and binge drinking are independently associated with community patterns of alcohol availability, policy enforcement and control over and above individual perceptions about these factors, student and college characteristics, and school binge drinking rates. Youth exposed to high levels of alcohol availability are at higher risk of smoking (OR 3.61, 95% CI 1.75, 7.44) and binge drinking (OR 4.22, 95% CI 2.25, 7.93) than youth not so exposed; youth exposed to strongly enforced alcohol policy environments are at lower risk for smoking (OR 0.30, 95% CI 0.16, 0.57) and binge drinking (OR 0.17, 95% CI 0.10, 0.31) than youth not so exposed; youth exposed to communities with strong parental controls are at lower risk for smoking (OR 0.05, 95% CI 0.01, 0.23) and binge drinking (OR 0.06, 95% CI 0.01, 0.21) than youth not so exposed. Individual risks related to environmental exposures differ for youth with varying perceptions about alcohol availability and policy control.Drinking environments in US college communities comprise strong independent risks for smoking. Smoking prevention models should be tested that include environmental drinking prevention strategies tailored to underlying perceptions and experiences of college youth.

The present study examined if identification with mainstream American culture (acculturation) and heritage culture (enculturation) are differentially associated with blackouts and other drinking consequences among male and female college students of color.Participants were college students (N = 150) who self-identified as a racial/ethnic minority and endorsed blackouts in the past year.Regression models were used to examine gender-by-acculturation/enculturation interaction effects on alcohol-induced blackout and other alcohol-related consequences.While acculturation was not significantly associated with either drinking outcome, enculturation showed a significant relationship with blackout frequency. Gender moderated this relationship; greater enculturation was associated with increased blackout frequency among male but not female students.The present findings suggest the importance of considering the interplay between enculturation and gender in understanding alcohol use among college students of color. Men who endorse high levels of enculturation may be at an increased risk of experiencing negative drinking-related consequences.

AbstractPublic understanding about complex issues such as climate change relies heavily on online resources. Yet the role that online instruction should assume in post-secondary science education remains contentious despite its near ubiquity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective here was to compare the performance of 1790 undergraduates taking either an online or face-to-face version of an introductory course on climate change. Both versions were taught by a single instructor, thus, minimizing instructor bias. Women, seniors, English language learners, and humanities majors disproportionately chose to enroll in the online version because of its ease of scheduling and accessibility. After correcting for performance-gaps among different demographic groups, the COVID-19 pandemic had no significant effect on online student performance and students in the online version scored 2% lower (on a scale of 0–100) than those in the face-to-face version, a penalty that may be a reasonable tradeoff for the ease of scheduling and accessibility that these students desire.

Most medical faculty receive little or no training about how to be effective teachers, even when they assume major educational leadership roles. To identify the competencies required of an effective teacher in medical education, the authors developed a comprehensive conceptual model. After conducting a literature search, the authors met at a two-day conference (2006) with 16 medical and nonmedical educators from 10 different U.S. and Canadian organizations and developed an initial draft of the "Teaching as a Competency" conceptual model. Conference participants used the physician competencies (from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education [ACGME]) and the roles (from the Royal College's Canadian Medical Education Directives for Specialists [CanMEDS]) to define critical skills for medical educators. The authors then refined this initial framework through national/regional conference presentations (2007, 2008), an additional literature review, and expert input. Four core values grounded this framework: learner engagement, learner-centeredness, adaptability, and self-reflection. The authors identified six core competencies, based on the ACGME competencies framework: medical (or content) knowledge; learner- centeredness; interpersonal and communication skills; professionalism and role modeling; practice-based reflection; and systems-based practice. They also included four specialized competencies for educators with additional programmatic roles: program design/implementation, evaluation/scholarship, leadership, and mentorship. The authors then cross-referenced the competencies with educator roles, drawing from CanMEDS, to recognize role-specific skills. The authors have explored their framework's strengths, limitations, and applications, which include targeted faculty development, evaluation, and resource allocation. The Teaching as a Competency framework promotes a culture of effective teaching and learning.

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged educational developers, like instructors across the world, to pivot their traditionally face-to-face faculty development programs to online formats. At the Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning at George Mason University (classified as research-intensive and the largest public institution in Virginia, U.S.), we faced the challenge of reimagining our annual pedagogy conference that scaled from 497 registered in 2019 when it was face-to-face to over 800 in 2020 as it was moved online. Under pressures of limited resources and increased uncertainty, leaders can find it difficult to imagine pathways toward innovation rather than just daily responses to crises, yet centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) need to take and maintain leadership roles in our institutions. Here we outline our programmatic goals, our guiding user-centered principles (from user experience frameworks;i.e., Zarour & Alharbi, 2017), and the user-centered iterative design process from learning engineering (Kessler, 2019) that enabled our evidence-based decision-making processes to select conference support technology platforms and create the conference infrastructure and workflows. We discuss a variety of data sources that informed our decision-making processes throughout the conference planning and actual event. We share assessment results and lessons learned that guide innovation in CTLs and can be applied to a range of educational development programs from large conferences like ours to small workshops and even one-to-one consultations.

Polar research plays a vital role in developing our understanding of Earth’s climate system. It is intrinsically interdisciplinary, lending itself to integration into existing undergraduate courses. Here we explore introducing undergraduates to polar research through computational guided inquiry (CGI) modules taught in a variety of courses and disciplines. Students apply course disciplinary techniques to analysis of polar data or research, in the context of climate change, by working through educational modules that include spreadsheets (ExcelTM) or interactive computer programing (Python in a Jupyter Notebook), over a few class or lab periods. The goals of this exploratory curriculum project are to determine instructor perceptions of effectiveness of the educational modules for teaching preexisting disciplinary course objectives, as well as student perceptions of enjoyment and learning. Evaluation consisted of a student questionnaire and interviews with instructors by an external evaluator. Students and instructors overall reported positive experiences with the modules, highlighted the importance of polar data and climate literacy, and noted increases in student understanding of course learning goals and comfort with the computational tools. Professors further reported that students found the modules motivating, fun and engaging. Taken together, this suggests that the modules are an effective means of bringing polar research into undergraduate classrooms while satisfying instructor goals for course learning objectives. Lessons learned include the importance of providing material such as videos to help transition to the topics of polar research and climate change and of supporting widely varying computational fluency.

Summary form only given. Three well-known and widely accepted concepts in educational psychology are revisited. These are "inventory of learning styles," "taxonomy of educational objectives," and "metacognition." Relationships among these concepts are highlighted. Often, a student can develop his/her own learning style by the process of metacognition. Ideas are borrowed from these concepts for use in a first-level power systems course. It is beyond a doubt that both cognitive and metacognitive skills are necessary for students to succeed in any course. While a semester-long power systems course leaves little time for critical thinking and passive reflection for students, certain activities may very well serve for some of these learning processes.

Complex socio-environmental challenges require interdisciplinary, team-based research capacity. Graduate students are fundamental to building such capacity, yet formal opportunities for graduate students to develop these capacities and skills are uncommon. This paper presents an assessment of the Graduate Pursuit (GP) program, a formal interdisciplinary team science graduate research and training program administered by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC). Quantitative and qualitative assessment of the program’s first cohort revealed that participants became significantly more comfortable with interdisciplinary research and team science approaches, increased their capacity to work across disciplines, and were enabled to produce tangible research outcomes. Qualitative analysis of four themes—(1) discipline, specialization, and shared purpose, (2) interpersonal skills and personality, (3) communication and teamwork, and (4) perceived costs and benefits—encompass participants’ positive and negative experiences and support findings from past assessments. The findings also identify challenges and benefits related to individual personality traits and team personality orientation, the importance of perceiving a sense of autonomy and independence, and the benefit of graduate training programs independent of the university and graduate program environment.