The alcoholism problem in the United States has reached proportions impossible to ignore. It follows that we need trained professionals in significant numbers to deal with the alcoholic population. Graduate programs, however, provide little or no course offerings in the area of specific training for dealing with alcoholics. In academia some attempts have been made to address this situation. However, budget restrictions, limited marketability of counselors with specialized training, and the superiority of the generalist training model are some of the main arguments that have compromised adequate chemical dependence training. The research literature, however, is replete with studies indicating the need for specialized training to prepare mental health professionals to work as competent alcohol counselors. The focus of this research was to examine the effect of specific training for counseling students in preparing them to work with alcoholic clients. The results of the analyses indicated that a training session specifically designed for working with alcoholic populations significantly increased the objective knowledge base of counseling students, although the single training session was not enough to significantly improve subjective judgment and response scores. This research emphasizes a need for specialized training in counseling programs for alcohol counselors. Further, it is implied that training programs should include at least one semester-long course on alcohol remediation for counseling students.
The focus of this study was to evaluate the use of the Blackboard™ App by students in traditional and online learning environments. The participants in this study were students in a first-year college orientation course, and undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in educational technology (EDT) courses, all at a 4-year public university in the Midwest. The orientation course is a traditional seated class with the Blackboard Learn™ learning management system supplementing the face-to-face instruction; the graduate and undergraduate EDT courses are all fully online, taught through Blackboard Learn. The study compared whether students prefer the Blackboard App over the use of email for communicating with their instructors. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the survey response data. Students’ positive responses concerning the Blackboard app and their preference for email were summarized and discussed.
Initially, many repositories developed their own tools to facilitate the indexing of learning objects, adopting the standard that best fit their users at the time. Although metadata should be the common language of learning objects, without a common standard compliance system, one repository may not interact well with another. With the increased emphasis on sharing learning objects, metadata schemas are being asked to do more than just index a learning object at a local level. This chapter reviews some of the leading object repository software, the push for RSS services, federated search capability, a clear interpretation of the fields, and the need to count usage as well as the impact on learning.
This manuscript outlines a dual approach to online best practices that includes both the administrative side and the instructional (faculty) side of distance education. The majority of best practice documents focuses almost exclusively upon instructional best practices and ignores, or only mention in passing, the needed administrative best practices. The author of this research-based best practices manuscript believes that both, working concurrently, are required for a successful and sustainable distance education program. These guidelines are intended to be not only a set of recommendations, but also a policy document that can be readily implemented.
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