Background/purpose: Mathematics education develops critical thinking and problem-solving skills, yet middle school students often face challenges, including didactical, epistemological, and ontogenic obstacles, that influence their academic orientation. This study investigates how Self-Organizing Maps (SOMs) can address these challenges by…

Research-based learning motivates students to identify with different subjects. The orientation program MINTgrün at Technische Universität Berlin offers two study semesters for open choices of teaching modules, including a series of specially designed laboratories covering topics like robotics, construction, environmental research, programming,…

A team of instructional designers, educators, and the School of Liberal Arts (SLA) academic program coordinator from a nonprofit online college, collaborated on producing short voice-over videos with interactive elements that address the most common technology frustrations of beginning students. These videos were inserted into the "Start…

Today most colleges and universities practice shared governance, where the trustees, the administration, the faculty, and the staff all must have a say in how their institutions should operate. Today's institutions are more complex than those of the past, and the expertise of all of those constituencies should be in the mix for the best decisions…

Due to a shortage of librarians to teach classes coupled with a growing student body, librarians at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) decided to explore alternative means to deliver instruction. Their charge was to supplement traditional classroom instruction by utilizing ETSU's course management system (Desire2Learn, D2L) to inform students…

An effort was made to determine freshmen student perceptions of academic advisory programs, pre-registration material, and summer orientation. To ascertain these perceptions a questionnaire was sent to all freshmen on the Orono Campus of the University of Maine. Approximately half of the students found the summer orientation program to be helpful,…

Developed and tested the Psychotherapy Questionnaire to determine whether clients (N=62) had attended to and understood a pretherapy videotape presentation and whether they recalled the information one month later. Results indicated that the clients were able to understand the presentation. (LLL)

Offers suggestions for publishing a special orientation issue of the school newspaper that introduces the publication and the school to new students. (GT)

As a replacement of the conventional staff-guided group tour for new students at Mercer County Community College, a self-guided tour method was developed. This method utilized a recorded cassette tape and number coded floor plan. With this method, students can be oriented in a meaningful way within their library, at their own pace with no loss of…

This report by the Committee on Library Orientation at the University of Virginia reviews the need for a unified, well designed sign system to assist users of the university libraries and discusses the categories and functions of such signs as identified in the relevant literature. A discussion of the current situation at the university and…

Both faculty and students need guidance so that problems in the use of computer assisted instruction (CAI) are minimized and benefits are maximized. To introduce new or unfamiliar faculty to CAI, it would be beneficial to hold a seminar where the novices in computer use could learn from staff members who had already taught computer-assisted…

The purpose of this article is to assist librarians who are preparing a video-tape orientation program suitable for large audiences, composed mainly of college freshmen. It results from the authors' experiences of planning and taping a television library orientation program and is directed toward the librarian who is required to prepare such a…

This pamphlet, the first of three library skills modules for college students, describes a library tour designed to familiarize students with the physical facilities, services, and materials of the library. Unit I also includes brief discussions of the card catalog, classification systems, circulation procedures, interlibrary loan policies, and…

Compiled for newly installed library trustees and commissioners in the state of California, this publication provides guidelines designed to assist new board members in learning their jobs. Chapters discuss the nature of public library boards in California, board duties and responsibilities, board operations, special challenges for board members,…

The findings of the study suggest that materials mailed to students to enhance the effects of orientation programs are of questionable value if the same content is covered at the orientation program itself. (Author)