This volume includes four sections of the 2020 NORDSCI international conference proceedings: (1) Education and Educational Research; (2) Language and Linguistics; (3) Philosophy; and (4) Sociology and Healthcare. Education and Educational Research includes 15 papers covering the full spectrum of education, including history, sociology and economy…

Community-based organizations have long benefited from people's generosity and commitment to community. They engage volunteers to meet important human and community needs, or to address critical social issues. Sometimes they provide the service experience for school-based service-learning programs. At the same time, community-based organizations…

In this dissertation I examine the design, construction and implementation of an online blog ratings and user recommender system for the Claremont Conversation Online (CCO). In line with constructivist learning models and practical information systems (IS) design, I implemented a blog ratings system (a system that can be extended to allow for…

This study explored differences in eye movement on a Web page between members of two different cultures to provide insight and guidelines for implementation of global Web site development. More specifically, the research examines whether differences of eye movement exist between the two cultures (American vs. Korean) when viewing a Web page, and…

The purpose of this study is to develop a portrait of characteristics of successful First Nations college students from a mixed methods study using descriptive data gleaned from scores obtained on a Noncognitve Questionnaire (NCQ), and open-ended questions which were administered via a web site. Further descriptive characteristics will be gleaned…

Over the course of eighteen months, a project based at the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, DC, studied undergraduate programs in classics with the goal of developing a better sense of how a major in classics fit within the broader agenda of liberal education. The study adopted a student-centered approach, employing a team of six…

This study describes the empirical test of a theoretical model of knowledge building with wikis that was recently introduced by Cress and Kimmerle. The underlying assumption of this model is that both learning (as an internal, individual process) and knowledge building (as the creation of public knowledge) are based on the interplay between an…

In March 2009, Kansas State University successfully implemented the ELATEwiki website to encourage a public exchange of e-learning and teaching resources. ELATEwiki, the Electronic Learning and Teaching Exchange, facilitates the creation and documentation of innovative teaching approaches used by individuals and organizations interested in…

The award-winning website for Union Public Schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is one of the communications department's most powerful tools in building positive relationships. As with raising a child, the challenge lies in finding ways to nurture a growing entity--constantly providing it with meaningful information, adapting it to social changes, and…

How a testing agency approaches score reporting can have a significant impact on the perception of that assessment and the usefulness of the information among intended users and stakeholders. Too often, important decisions about reporting test data are left to the end of the test development cycle, but by considering the audience(s) and the kinds…

ArtsConnectEd is a Web site that is the product of a ten-year partnership between the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Walker Art Center, bringing together online the collections of the two museums specifically for K-12 teachers and students in Minnesota and beyond. This article describes the history of the partnership and important lessons…

Visual attention and visual search are the features of visual perception, essential for attending and scanning one's environment while engaging in daily occupations. This study describes the development of a novel web-based test of visual search. The development information including the format of the test will be described. The test was designed…

With celebrities discussing Twitter on television talk shows, Facebook being used by people to share pictures of their grandchildren, and academic seminars being delivered in Second Life, it is hard to get through a day without being faced with some sort of social networking tool. Librarians often talk about the importance of outreach and of…

The prose essay, case study and laboratory report, composed by individual students in isolation from their peers, used to be the mainstay of undergraduate writing. However, in recent years an array of alternative assignment types such as blogs, letters and e-posters have widened the repertoire of texts expected. This article attempts to describe…

Have you ever stopped to think about life before Google? We will make the argument that Google is the first manifestation of Web 2.0, of the power and promise of social networking and the ubiquitous wiki. We will discuss the positive influence of Google and how Google and other social networking tools afford librarians leading-edge technologies…