The online virtual world Second Life (www.secondlife. com) has multiple potential uses in teaching. In Second Life (SL), users create avatars that represent them in the virtual world. Within SL, avatars can interact with each other and with objects and environments. SL offers tremendous creative potential in that users can create content within the virtual world, including buildings, environments, and objects. Psychology instructors can use SL as a space to meet with students, and to create labs, buildings, and objects that can be used to learn psychology content and skills. Students' engagement with course content and sense of community with the class can be enhanced using interactions within SL. Potential drawbacks include learning time required and technological issues involved in using the program. We suggest that instructors using SL formulate clear objectives, start with simple activities, and involve their students in designing and assessing learning activities in the virtual world.
Numerous changes in higher education (e.g., the demand for accountability, threats to tenure, new modes of instruction) and discontent with narrow definitions of scholarship have created the need for a broader and more precise definition of the nature of scholarship in psychology. The 5-part definition that we propose includes ( a ) original research (creation of knowledge), ( b ) integration of knowledge (synthesis and reorganization), ( c ) application of knowledge, ( d ) the scholarship of pedagogy, and ( e ) the scholarship of teaching in psychology. Scholarly activities require high levels of discipline-specific expertise, are innovative, can be replicated, are documented, can be subject to peer review, and have significance. This broader conceptualization of scholarship will benefit all stakeholders in higher education-students, faculty, colleges and universities, the community, and society at large.
Performance benchmarks are proposed to assist undergraduate psychology programs in defining their missions and goals as well as documenting their effectiveness. Experienced academic program reviewers compared their experiences to formulate a developmental framework of attributes of undergraduate programs focusing on activity in 8 domains: curriculum, assessment issues, student learning outcomes, program resources, student development, faculty characteristics, program climate, and administrative support. A continuum of performance was conceptualized for each attribute in each of the domains to characterize underdeveloped, developing, effective, and distinguished achievement for undergraduate programs. The authors hope to inspire a national conversation about program benchmarks in psychology in order to improve program quality, encourage more effective program reviews, and help optimally functioning programs compete more successfully for resources on the basis of their distinguished achievements.[A]lthough outcomes assessment and educational standards can aid in improving quality, in isolation they will fail. To succeed, they must be part of an integrated strategy with a heavy emphasis on the use of formative assessment for both teacher and learner.
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