In 2008, researchers at the Library Research Service (LRS) undertook the "U.S. Public Libraries and the Use of Web Technologies" study, with the intent to document the use of various Internet technologies on the websites of public libraries throughout the nation (Lietzau, 2009). The results of that study set a baseline for the adoption…

Linguistic properties of writing prompts have been shown to influence the writing patterns contained in student essays. The majority of previous research on these prompt-based effects has focused on the lexical and syntactic properties of writing prompts and essays. The current study expands this research by investigating the effects of prompt…

Clinical Decision Support is one of the only aspects of health information technology that has demonstrated decreased costs and increased quality in healthcare delivery, yet it is extremely expensive and time-consuming to create, maintain, and localize. Consequently, a majority of health care systems do not utilize it, and even when it is…

This article discusses how a special library can meet the needs of a specific industry. The author focuses on India's National Insurance Academy (NIA) Library, which serves the insurance industry of India and some neighboring countries. It is where the author serves as the chief librarian.

This study investigates the acquisition of the L2 French vowel /y/ in a mobile-assisted learning environment, via the use of automatic speech recognition (ASR). Particularly, it addresses the question of whether ASR-based pronunciation instruction using a mobile device can improve the production and perception of French /y/. Forty-two elementary…

Many people think of automation as laborsaving technology, but it sure keeps Jim Duffell busy. Defined simply, automation is a technique for making a device run or a process occur with minimal direct human intervention. But the functions and technologies involved in automated manufacturing are complex. Nearly all functions, from orders coming in…

In this paper, an automated lesson generation system for guiding beginners to learn basic dance movements is proposed. It analyzes the dance to generate a two-phase lesson which can provide a suitable cognitive load thus offering an efficient learning experience. In the first phase, the dance is divided into small pieces which are patterns, and…

This study investigates students' essay revising in the context of an intelligent tutoring system called "Writing Pal" (W-Pal), which combines strategy instruction, game-based practice, essay writing practice, and automated formative feedback. We examine how high school students use W-Pal feedback to revise essays in two different…

Writing researchers have suggested that students who are perceived as strong writers (i.e., those who generate texts rated as high quality) demonstrate flexibility in their writing style. While anecdotally this has been a commonly held belief among researchers and educators, there is little empirical research to support this claim. This study…

The 2015 Thought Leaders symposium focused on the topic of "Facilities & Technology: The Transformation of 'Campus.'" Educational institutions that master new technologies will have an edge in the increasingly competitive higher education landscape. This report discusses the factors related to integrating technology and the campus…

Writing researchers have suggested that students who are perceived as strong writers (i.e., those who generate texts rated as high quality) demonstrate flexibility in their writing style. While anecdotally this has been a commonly held belief among researchers and educators, there is little empirical research to support this claim. This study…

This is the third in a series of eight articles on project management (PM) in the academy. In this article, the authors describe the step-by-step implementation of a structural change to Indiana State University's (ISU's) Office of Registration and Records (ORR). The process described may vary as it is implemented elsewhere, but the authors…

The e-rater[R] automated essay scoring system is used operationally in the scoring of TOEFL iBT[R] independent essays. Previous research has found support for a 3-factor structure of the e-rater features. This 3-factor structure has an attractive hierarchical linguistic interpretation with a word choice factor, a grammatical convention within a…

With the rapid development of Internet technologies, distance education has become a popular educational mode. In this paper, the authors propose an online image automatic annotation distance education system, which could effectively help children learn interrelations between image content and corresponding keywords. Image automatic annotation is…

Purpose: There are many library automation packages available as open-source software, comprising two modules: staff-client module and online public access catalogue (OPAC). Although the OPAC of these library automation packages provides advanced features of searching and retrieval of bibliographic records, none of them facilitate full-text…