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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the process of developing an academic library assessment plan and its relation to the furtherance of a culture of assessment.

Qualitative study of a university library’s assessment planning process; findings based on documentary evidence as well as an employee survey; analysis framed in relationship to relevant literature.

Planning for the future of assessment offered the Jerry Falwell Library a significant opportunity for organizational change. Evaluations of the planning process were mixed, but generally revealed evidence of conditions associated with the development of a culture of assessment. Participants saw planning as the product of both external and internal factors. The plan’s orientation toward value and impact, though clearly understood, was not universally appreciated. Implementation of the plan remains a substantial challenge.

Reliability is subject to the limitations inherent to qualitative methods. Single case study design limits generalizability to different contexts.

The goal of developing a culture of assessment is not to be achieved easily or quickly. Library employees may be most inclined to support an assessment agenda when it is driven by internal factors such as quality improvement and the pursuit of efficiency and effectiveness.

The study emphasizes the process of developing an assessment plan at a university with a strong teaching mission. Additionally, it provides insight into the relationship between assessment planning and a culture of assessment.

This paper aims to discuss key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the obstacles faced by the federal government in achieving its goal. The ACA is designed to provide most Americans with an access to affordable health care.

Using data obtained from government sources, case law and current literature, the paper first discusses the history and background of the ACA. It evaluates the law’s current status, the benefits it achieved and the legal, economic, political and social challenges that lie ahead.

Although the Supreme Court upheld most of the ACA’s provisions, opponents at the federal and state level are still attempting to overturn or undercut it. The ACA itself is so complicated that it has generated confusion among employers, consumers and even those who are charged with enforcing it. The extent to which the ACA can be successfully implemented is unclear, and adjustments must be made as the federal government struggles to implement key components.

This paper should be of interest to academics, health-care and legal professionals, and to anyone who needs clarification and analysis of a still-evolving law that is certain to have an impact on most Americans.

It has become increasingly apparent that one's perception of issues depends largely on his or her personal history. Human beings, professionals, and stakeholders vary in their perspectives, strategies, and solutions. Rather than arbitrarily selecting issues or seeking consensus among interdisciplinary but disparate groups, it is critical to examine the broader array of values and issues that impact learners with exceptionalities and the future of special education. In addition, it is important to conceptualize effective techniques to reverse traditional problems or difficulties while considering the “cycles” of change in general and special education. These cycles are based on the view that educational perspectives have their time since they come and go. When they are innovative, they become the status quo and become finally obsolete as the next group of methods, beliefs, and educational initiatives takes hold. In special education, we have fundamental values that must be respected and followed to deliver services to learners with exceptionalities. These values are sometimes not valued by ill prepared and unprepared professionals, especially since good professionals believe in change. This chapter focuses on how these values can be respected to protect and advance special education and education as a whole.

Business models are a key to success. This paper aims to identify the characteristics of the Now Economy, discuss the components of an effective business model, examine numerous e-commerce business models and provide an application of online learning.

The literature on business models is reviewed. E-commerce models are explored as a means for building competitive advantage in the Now Economy. An in-depth case study of remote learning in universities illustrates the development of a sound digital business model.

Business models explain where and how an organization competes and the financial feasibility of its strategy. Digital business models create market differentiation or disruption. This paper explains 20 e-commerce business models and offers an in-depth view of the opportunities and challenges in the online learning sector.

Building on the literature, this work is conceptual and presents a case study. It is not an empirical study. A three-point agenda for scholars includes research on speed and service in business models, assessing the impact of customer value and examining the market power of Big Tech.

The digital component of the economy is growing annually. Business practitioners must respond by developing winning business models. The remote learning application is particularly relevant given today’s changing educational market.

While there has been considerable research on business models, there has been limited work on digital business models, which is the focus of this article.

There has been in recent years a surge of interest about new software products that make it possible for libraries to offer assistance to online users via chat. Such software offers far more interactivity than instant messaging programs and allow for a richer experience for both librarian and user. Surveys chat reference services around the globe and analyzes trends in the provision of this new mode of assistance. Also presents discussion of why chat reference service is gathering attention as well as its limitations and drawbacks.

The purpose of this paper is to simultaneously investigate a variety of factors related to assignment completion (AC) (i.e. task orientation, cooperation, teacher feedback, time management and time spent on AC).

The study relied on a self-report survey to assess students' perceptions in relation to six variables. Participants included 1,106 undergraduate students from six public Thai universities. Analysis involved structural equation modeling.

This study provided new results related to task orientation as the strongest predictor of AC and time management. Cooperation and feedback improved AC with time management as an intervening variable. Time management and feedback did not predict time spent on AC.

Future studies might explore the potential range of assignments that, for example, count for a higher portion of the grade versus those that are less or unimportant in terms of the course. Future studies might also look at the role of group assignments in relation to completion. Semi-structured interviews or observations might provide insights into how students manage their time and why task orientation has the most effect on AC. Future research might investigate more specifically at what point time management does or does not affect completion. In general, given the growth of online learning and contexts in which students may be increasingly called on to complete assignments independently, factors such as those investigated in this study will require more attention in varying countries and contexts, generically and for individual subjects.

Instructional designers and instructors can promote task orientation through reliance on strategic scaffolding. For designing a task-oriented environment, instructors need to offer challenging assignments. Instructors should also assign work that encourages motivation, effort and achievement. To ensure that cooperative learning positively affects time management, instructors and designers can allot specific in-class time for completion of tasks, reliance on flipped classroom activities and student conversations regarding time restrictions and time-management skills. Instructors can be supported to help them provide appropriate types of feedback, as well as ideas for implementing the feedback in practice.

Little research has been conducted on AC in higher education. Those studies that have been conducted have focused on the elementary and secondary levels. Furthermore, studies have not always taken into account the complex relationships between different factors that can potentially influence AC.

This paper investigates the social online learning experiences of teacher trainees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study's model gauges the relationships between social presence, sense of community, and collaborative learning in online work-based learning environments.

This study uses a cross-sectional design, specifically an online questionnaire, to collect data from teacher-trainees in different years of their university programs.

The findings indicate significant and positive relationships between social presence and both sense of community and collaborative learning, and between collaborative learning and sense of community in a work-based online learning environment. Moreover, collaborative learning was found to mediate the relationship between social presence and sense of community in the study's model.

The use of questionnaires to collect self-reported data from a mostly female undergraduate sample is expected to affect the generalizability of the results. Experiments or observation methods and a wider sample of participants can be used in future research to build on the findings of this study.

The authors recommend that educators play an active role in improving the students' online social learning experiences, especially their social presence and collaborative learning. By using different interactive methods (e.g. encouraging students to ask questions, express emotions, share resources, and reflect on their learning in a group), educators can help students achieve a sense of community and, hence, realize the many beneficial outcomes tied to community creation in online learning environments.

The study contributes to knowledge by highlighting students' social experiences while learning online, a usually overlooked area of study. These insights are especially important in a time when online learning has become a necessity rather than a choice and when students are in dire need of social support and community. Researching the online social learning experiences of teacher-trainees lends additional value to the study, as it is necessary for future teachers to experience and master this type of learning during their pre-service training so they can apply it with higher levels of confidence and efficacy in their future classrooms.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the psychological consequences of human trafficking and to reveal the importance of appropriate post-trafficking psychological interventions. Specifically, this study provides a detailed analysis of human trafficking categories, as well as the characteristics of victims and traffickers’ motives. More recent data in the literature show that trauma-coerced attachments and complex post-traumatic stress disorder are also observed among trafficking survivors.

Each of the mentioned mental disorders is presented separately, and results are discussed throughout this study. Consequently, psychological interventions are proposed in accordance with the human trafficking category, survivors’ characteristics and needs and with the relevant personal risk factors determined among victims.

Sex trafficking can have a severe effect on a victim’s mental health, and mental health disorders are substantially higher in human trafficking victims compared to non-trafficked victims or general psychiatric population. Limitations, implications and future recommendations are discussed.

A limited number of past studies evaluated the mental health consequences and identified that survivors have a higher prevalence of anxiety disorders, depression disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder.

This article examines relationships between capitalism and democracy as perceived by contending perspectives within the liberal capitalist‐liberal democratic tradition(s). Bentham and the Mills are taken as initiating both this tradition and the core elements of the debate within it. Pre‐Benthamite theories are first reviewed. Then, after discussion of Bentham and James Mill and of John Stuart Mill, Mill's late nineteenth and early twentieth century successors are examined. We then go on to consider hypotheses concerning the “exceptional” quality of relationships between capitalism and democracy in the United States. The penultimate section of the article adumbrates the main contours of mid‐twentieth century pluralist‐elitist theories. We conclude with a summary.

The study explains why Parliamentarians in the United Kingdom (UK) focused on accountability through data during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as on how data could be used to improve the government’s response to the pandemic.

Understanding the implications of accountability for COVID-19 is crucial to understanding how governments should respond to future pandemics. This article provides an account of what a select committee in the UK thought were the essential elements of these accountability relationships. To do so, the authors use a neo-Roman concept of liberty to show how Parliamentary oversight of the pandemic for accountability was crucial to maintaining the liberty of citizens during the crisis and to identify what lessons need to be learnt for future crises.

The study shows that Parliamentarians were concerned that the UK government was not meeting its obligations to report openly about the COVID-19 pandemic to them. It shows that the government did make progress in reporting during the pandemic but further advancements need to be made in future for restrictions to be compatible with the protection of liberty.

The study extends the concept of neo-Roman liberty showing how it is relevant in an emergency situation and provides an account of why accountability is necessary for the preservation of liberty when the government uses emergency powers.

Governments and Parliaments need to think about how they preserve liberty during crises through enhanced accountability mechanisms and the publication of data.

The study extends previous work on liberty and calculation, providing a theorisation of the role of numbers in the protection of liberty.