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| Instructional and Professional Issues |
| Saturday, May 29, 2004 |
| 2:30 PM–3:50 PM |
| Liberty C |
| Area: OBM |
| Chair: Gerald L. Shook (Shook and Associates) |
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| A Natural History Of A University Course Management System |
| Domain: Applied Research |
| DAVID RUSSELL FEENEY (Temple University) |
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| Abstract: This research focuses on diffusion of an education innovation in a large, traditional University. In March 1999, the Blackboard digital course management system was installed for enterprise-wide availability at Temple University, the 39th largest university in the United States. The web-enabled database of Temple Blackboard logs the adoption date, course ID, and course title for every Blackboard course, unobtrusively, twenty-four hours a day. Temple Blackboard serves as a digital approximation of the cumulative recorder pioneered by B. F. Skinner, recording more than 2800 course adoptions across 30 months, in real time. Temple Blackboard course records provide unprecedented quantity and quality of objective measures of innovation diffusion in a large education organization. The whole population of digital cumulative records may be analyzed, making statistical sampling optional. Digital cumulative recording of Temple Blackboard course adoption facilitates comparisons with other Temple course management systems, while reducing pro-innovation bias. Blackboard rates of adoption for Temple University as a whole, per college, per department, and per faculty may be visualized, compared, ranked, and analyzed, answering pressing questions about educational technology diffusion with precision and economy. |
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| Optimizing Professional Development: Application of Behavioral Tools to Career Planning |
| Domain: Applied Research |
| LISA S. GURDIN (The May Institute), Karen E. Gould (The May Institute), Beth Howard (The May Institute) |
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| Abstract: Professional development is one of the most critical aspects of a human service organization. It assures that the organization maintains a high level of clinical expertise and that its consumers have access to the most effective treatment. The skills comprising a professional repertoire can be defined behaviorally, assessed and used to develop professional development plans that achieve both employee career goals and organizational objectives. Two tools, the Skill Profile and the Individualized Career Plan, were developed to assist employees in conducting self-assessments of their professional skills, identifying target behaviors, and developing plans to achieve professional goals and objectives. Through the Skill Development Profile, professionals identify skills they have mastered and those they would like to acquire. These skills are categorized according to areas and are defined behaviorally. Desired areas of skill growth are converted into an Individualized Career Plan (ICP) that includes goals, objectives, action plans, and outcome measures. Examples will be provided of Skill Profiles and ICPs. Their use in advancing both personal and organizational objectives will also be illustrated in the context of an organization-wide system of professional development. Outcome measures will document the effectiveness of the tools on both the employee and organizational levels. |
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| The Case for the Profession of Behavior Analysis and the Current State of Affairs |
| Domain: Applied Research |
| GERALD L. SHOOK (Shook and Associates) |
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| Abstract: The presentation will provide a rationale for having a profession of behavior analysis, identify barriers and support mechanisms to professionalism, review the current status of the professional, and offer suggestions for future development. |
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