Online Gerontology Courses: Issues of Equity

The COVID-19 Pandemic changed higher education in several significant ways. The most significant impact was on methods of course delivery. In March 2020, all educational institutions changed their methods of instruction to fully online instruction. It happened almost overnight and left the students as well as the instructors unprepared for the unanticipated metamorphosis . The sudden and unanticipated change in the method of instruction and delivery of course contents also highlighted issues of equity. There appeared to be high levels of inequity in the use of technology across school and college campuses. A survey of students conducted by the author at the University of Louisiana at Monroe revealed different types of inequity such as, lack of finances to buy equipment, lack of training in the use of technology, and lack of personal space to study from home. A significant percentage of student population at ULM consists of first-generation college students. These students were impacted the most by the new methods of course delivery. Additionally, the author looked up similar surveys at other educational institutions and conducted a meta-analysis of published studies. This paper presents these findings.

Source Information Affects Interpretations of the News across Multiple Age Groups in the United States

People have access to more news from more sources than ever before. At the same time, they increasingly distrust traditional media and are exposed to more misinformation. To help people better distinguish real news from “fake news,” we must first understand how they judge whether news is real or fake. One possibility is that people adopt a relatively effortful, analytic approach, judging news based on its content. However, another possibility—consistent with psychological research—is that people adopt a relatively effortless, heuristic approach, drawing on cues outside of news content. One such cue is where the news comes from: its source. Beliefs about news sources depend on people’s political affiliation, with U.S. liberals tending to trust sources that conservatives distrust, and vice versa. Therefore, if people take this heuristic approach, then judgments of news from different sources should depend on political affiliation and lead to a confirmation bias of pre-existing beliefs. Similarly, political affiliation could affect the likelihood that people mistake real news for fake news. We tested these ideas in two sets of experiments. In the first set, we asked University of Louisiana at Lafayette undergraduates (Experiment 1a n = 376) and Mechanical Turk workers in the United States (Experiment 1a n = 205; Experiment 1b n = 201) to rate how “real” versus “fake” a series of unfamiliar news headlines were. We attributed each headline to one of several news sources of varying political slant. As predicted, we found that source information influenced people’s ratings in line with their own political affiliation, although this influence was relatively weak. In the second set, we asked Mechanical Turk workers in the United States (Experiment 2a n = 300; Experiment 2b n = 303) and University of Louisiana at Lafayette undergraduates (Experiment 2b n = 182) to watch a highly publicized “fake news” video involving doctored footage of a journalist. We found that people’s political affiliation influenced their beliefs about the event, but the doctored footage itself had only a trivial influence. Taken together, these results suggest that adults across a range of ages rely on information other than news content—such as how they feel about its source—when judging whether news is real or fake. Moreover, our findings help explain how people experiencing the same news content can arrive at vastly different conclusions. Finally, efforts aimed at educating the public in combatting fake news need to consider how political affiliation affects the psychological processes involved in forming beliefs about the news.

Member spotlight

In this feature of the Bulletin, we highlight members of the SIGCSE community. In this issue, Bulletin co-editor Jeffrey Miller interviewed Dr. Karen Davis, Associate Professor in the Department of Software Engineering and Computer Science at Miami University in Oxford, OH. Dr. Davis received a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Loyola University, New Orleans in 1985 and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette in 1987 and 1990, respectively. She was a Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the University of Cincinnati prior to joining the faculty at Miami in 2017. Her research interests include data modeling, query optimization, and computing education. In 2016, she received the ASEE Sharon Keillor Award for Women in Engineering Education. In 2021, she received Miami's MAC Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success.

JHET INTERVIEWS: ROBERT F. HÉBERT

Robert F. Hébert was the eighteenth president of the History of Economics Society, from 1991 to 1992. He studied at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge from his undergraduate degree (completed in 1965) to his PhD (obtained in 1970). During his academic career he taught economics in the US at Clemson University (South Carolina, 1970 to 1974), Auburn University (Alabama, 1974 to 2000), and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (2000 to 2005); and in France at Université de Paris 1 (Sorbonne, 1995) and at the University of Caen (2004). Currently Professor Hébert is Russell Foundation Professor of Economics (Emeritus Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies) at Auburn University, and he resides in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This interview was done in writing from November 6 to December 18, 2019.

JHET Interviews: Robert F. Hébert

Robert F. Hébert was the eighteenth President of the History of Economics Society, from 1991 to 1992. He studied at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge from his undergraduate degree (completed in 1965) to his PhD (obtained in 1970). During his academic career he taught economics in the U.S. at Clemson University (South Carolina; 1970-1974), Auburn University (Alabama; 1974-2000), and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (2000-2005); and in France at Université de Paris 1 (Sorbonne; 1995) and at the University of Caen (2004). Currently Professor Hébert is Emeritus Russell Foundation Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Auburn University, and he resides in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This interview was done in writing from November 6 to December 18, 2019.

Compete LA

Postsecondary education has never mattered more than it does presently. It is critical for adults, particularly for non-credentialed adults, to complete postsecondary pathways, ensuring they are prepared to compete in the global economy. Despite the well-documented benefits of a postsecondary degree, nearly one-fourth of adults in Louisiana have college experience, but no degree. Adult learners experience barriers to navigating higher education that negatively impact their ability to return and persist to graduation. Recognizing these challenges, the University of Louisiana System and their nine member institutions created Compete LA, a program designed to re-engage adult learners and create equitable academic pathways to obtaining a college degree. This chapter will serve as a case study by focusing on the creation and scaling of the Compete LA initiative. It will explore the characteristics of the team, the structural composition of the program, as well as the efforts to dismantle the systemic barriers that exist in higher education that make adult student re-entry challenging.

Wiley Cash

Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Wiley Cash grew up in Gastonia, North Carolina. He earned a BA from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, an MA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a PhD from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. At Louisiana, he studied with Ernest Gaines, an influence on his thinking about the importance of place in fiction. Cash identifies early twentieth-century Appalachian author Thomas Wolfe and southern authors William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Bobbie Ann Mason as other sources of his interest in place....