ICR: Research News
Spring 2014
ICR: Research News In this issue‌ p. 1: New ICR Grant; Upcoming events/deadlines; new easy webform for updates from you p. 2: SONA for researchers; NEW faculty research circle; teaching tip; and new publications p. 3: Research spotlights on a faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students; NEW research mentor p. 4: NCA highlights; How do your students feel about doing their own research?
Instructional Research Team Lands $200,000 Earthquake Messaging Grant ~Deanna Sellnow A research team lead by Dr. Deanna Sellnow has been awarded a grant by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to design and test early warning earthquake messages. Sellnow and her colleagues--Dr. Tim Sellnow, Dr. Patric Spence, Dr. Derek Lane, and doctoral student Nigel Haarstad--are collaborating with seismologists at the USGS and Cal-Tech, emergency managers throughout the West Coast, and graphic design specialists in Pasadena, California to gather information that to be included in hazard warnings, develop messages using principles of effective instructional risk communication, test the messages and assess the effects, and use the data to design and refine them into an actual app.
Upcoming Events and Deadlines January 17: GSA Symposium Submission Deadline February 1: Pedigogicon Conference Deadline February 21: GSA Research Symposium February 28: Faculty Research Circle March 7: Research Mentor Workshop March 26: NCA Submission Deadline April 3-5: NCUR Conference
In any natural disaster (e.g., flood, tornado, hurricane, earthquake), an effective April 25: SONA Participation due warning message is often the variable that saves lives. To be successful, however, communicators must overcome several constraints related to, for example, how risk May 16: Pedigogicon Conference level probabilities are interpreted, disparate levels of risk science literacy, and the May 22-26 : ICA Conference desires of a worried public for definite answers. Those charged with communicating risk messages (both early warning and operational forecasting) are challenged by these constraints. This project merges instructional risk and crisis communication literature and visual design techniques with seismology science information to create, test, and improve early warning and operational forecasting messages about earthquakes.
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ICR: Research News
Faculty Research Circle ~Deanna Sellnow
Mark your calendars from 12:00 – 1:00 pm on Friday, February 28th and plan to attend the first Faculty Research Circle sponsored by the ICR Research and External Funding Committee in LCLI 303. We all know that really good work can be made even better when vetted with colleagues in the form of a drafting-reviewing-revising process. At the Research Circle, participants will share current research paper drafts and provide feedback to one another for improvement before submitting them to a conference or journal. We hope you come and join in the intellectual fun!
Spring 2014
Using Research to Teach: A tip ~Brandi Frisby
Students texting during class getting you down? According to a recent study, students who are self-regulated learners are better at task switching and blocking external stimuli to be engaged in the course. However, interruptions from text messaging did decrease attention and cognitive learning. SONA for Researchers What should you do about it? The researchers ~From Don Helme and Elisia Cohen Researchers may post their studies between January 15 and March suggest using instructional strategies to 14. SONA will open to students on Monday, January 27. Data may be maintain student attention. For example, collected using SONA until April 25th, and all participation must be posted switching activities to avoid off task by April 27th (or within 7 days of a student’s participation on a rolling behavior, incorporating phones and basis). computers into discussion, and giving time limits to discussion can deter texting. While If you need to use SONA to recruit participants, requests including PI name, many people may feel the desire to ban cell study title, number of participants, whether it is grant or dissertation related, phones in class, the authors believe that whether it requires COM lab/resources, and the IRB approval number instructional strategies should be the first line should be emailed to Dr. Elisia Cohen. of defense in the classroom.
Congratulations! New and forthcoming publications from ICR!! Frisby, B. N., Berger, E. N., Burchett, M. R., Herovic, E. & Strawser, M., (2014). Participation apprehensive students: The influence of face support and instructor-student rapport on classroom participation. Communication Education. Frisby, B. N., Booth-Butterfield, M., & Eickholt, M. (2014). Divorce doesn’t mean it’s over: Face threats and face support in co-parenting and childfree post-divorce turning points. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage. Frisby, B., Limperos, A. M., Record, R.A., Downs, E., & Kercsmar, S. C. (2014). Students’ perceptions of social presence: Rhetorical and relational goals across three mediated instructional designs. Journal of Online Teaching and Learning. Frisby, B. N., Sellnow, D. D., Lane, D. R., Veil, S. R., & Sellnow, T. L. (2013) Instruction in crisis: Targeting learning preferences and efficacy. Risk Management, 15, 250-271. Hahn, E. J., Rayens, M. K., Kercsmar, S. E., et al. (2013). Dual home screening and tailored environmental feedback to reduce radon and secondhand smoke: An exploratory study. Journal of Environmental Health. Hickson, M., Jones, M., Morse, M. A., & Wilson, B. A. (2014). Foot in the door: A typology of salesmen. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication. Kaufmann, R. & Frisby, B. N. (2013). Let’s connect: Using Adobe Connect to foster group collaboration in the online classroom. Communication Teacher. Kaufmann, R. & Lane, D. R. (in press). Examining communication privacy management in the middle school classroom: Perceived gains and consequences. Educational Research. Lee, H., Wright, K. O’Connor, M, & Wombacher, K. (2013). Framing medical tourism: An analysis of persuasive appeals, risks and benefits, and new media features of medical tourism broker websites. Health Communication. Schmierbach, M. G., & Limperos, A. M. (2014). Virtual justice: Testing disposition theory in the context of a story-driven video game. Manuscript forthcoming in Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Sellnow, D. D. (2014). The rhetorical power of popular culture: Considering mediated texts. (2nd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Shaunfield, S., Wittenberg-Lyles, E., Parker Oliver, D., & Demiris, G. (2014-in press). Virtual fieldtrips for long-term care residents: A feasibility study. Activities, Adaptation & Aging. Tilton, S. M. (March 2014). The portable academic: Tablet as researcher’s kit. REFRAME. Tilton, S. M. (2014). Facebook as a student development tool. In M. Kent & T. Leaver (Eds.), An Education in Facebook?: Higher Education and the World's Largest Social Network. London UK: Routledge. 2 of effective speaking in a digital age. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage. Verderber, R. F., Sellnow, D. D., & Verderber, K. S. (2014). The challenge
ICR: Research News
Spring 2014
Research Spotlights and Research Mentor ICR Faculty Research Spotlight Dr. Molly Reynolds is a faculty lecturer in ICR. Recently, Molly taught CIS 391 Undergraduate Research in Qualitative Methods. This course affords exceptional students with opportunities to become primary researchers. In this course, she trained students in interviewing, transcription, data collection, and research writing. The project this semester explored what it means to be a university scholar student at UK and other universities. Molly and her students are currently writing two research papers for conference and journal submission. Next semester, Dr. Jami Warren will join Molly in teaching another research course that will introduce students to both quantitative and qualitative methods. Students will become familiar with values coding, a qualitative method that Drs. Molly, Reynolds, Laura Stafford, and Rachel Price conducted research on and published in Qualitative Studies in Interpersonal Communication where they studied friends with benefits relationships. Finally, Molly is working with Dr. Deanna Sellnow on research exploring retention issues during the first semester of college. They are working on publications resulting from Molly’s dissertation work, Trapped in transition: Examining first semester college students’ discursive struggles about home and school. Graduate Student Research Spotlight Renee Kaufmann is a Doctoral Candidate who recently co-authored two published articles. The first piece explored how middle school teachers decide what to reveal or conceal with their young students and will be published in Educational Research. The study found that middle school teachers use the criterion identification rapport to disclose taboo topics like death or divorce with students in order to have students identify with the teacher and build a relationship. The second piece explained how to foster group collaboration within an online course and includes a step-by-step activity using Tuckman’s model as the guide to using web-conferencing software like Adobe Connect to help students engage and connect in realtime. Currently, Renee is writing her dissertation. 3
To nominate someone for a research spotlight or as research mentor, email a member of the research committee! Undergraduate Student Research Spotlight University scholar, Chanson Davenport, is only in his first year of the university scholar program but is already a productive member of the division. In addition to serving as a teaching assistant in several courses, he is also a tutor for the MC3 lab where he has been instrumental in delivering communication workshops to CIS 110 and 111 students. He recently presented research on undergraduate mentoring experiences at the National Communication Association convention in Washington, D.C. Additionally, Chanson is working on two new projects: 1) collecting data exploring CMC use in the college classroom with Drs. Molly Reynolds and Jami Warren and 2) collecting biophysical data during marital couples end-of-life decision making processes with Drs. Brandi Frisby and Allison Scott. Research Mentor Amy Gaffney's research is focused on the role of communication in teaching and learning as well as the teaching and learning of communication. Recent projects include the impact of communication instruction on students' self-efficacy to communicate and the influence of pedagogical expectancy violations on students' course satisfaction and learning. As the point person for the division assessment, she recently published a manuscript with Brandi Frisby in the Basic Communication Course Annual on how the CIS two-course sequence is impacting students communication and efficacy. Her current work is continuing in this area focused on assessing student affective, cognitive, and skills learning in composition and communication courses. You can seek Amy for mentoring on Tuesdays from 9:30-11:30 am in 310E or virtually. She will be offering a research workshop on March 7th in LCLI 303 on using multiple methods to explore and untangle the complexities of student learning.
Research and Information Literacy with Undergraduate Students: Beyond Google ~ Michael Pennell In a recent report from Project Information Literacy (PIL), researchers focused on how first-year college students conduct and understand research. The report shares findings from interview and survey data, pointing to the importance of the first-year in introducing and establishing college-level research strategies. CIS 110, 111, and 112 instructors factor prominently in first-year students’ research experience, as first-year composition and communication instructors and librarians prove the most helpful in students’ introduction to college-level research. Some other findings relevant to ICR: First-year students are both “overwhelmed” and “excited” by the increased number of resources found on college campuses. For example, the average college library has 9 times as many books and journals as the average high school library, as well as 19 times as many library databases. Students find online searching a daunting and complex process, leading to frustration at locating relevant sources and, in turn, understanding and tying together sources. Many find their high school experience does not translate to college-level research. Most first-year students rely on “Five Go-to Research Sources”: Google search, library databases, course readings, government sites, and instructors. The study notes an increase in Google Scholar use amongst first-year students. Ultimately, the report highlights the importance of the first-year of college in shaping and evolving students’ information-seeking behavior. In addition, the five myths of college research may resonate with many of us involved in teaching first-year students.
ICR at NCA
Link to report: http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_2013_FreshmenStudy_FullReport.pdf ~Brandi Frisby
During four days at NCA in Washington, D. C., over 30 papers and panels representing 26 different members of ICR were presented. When asked about the NCA experience Laura Brown said, “I went to NCA this year thinking that I would spend time with my friends from Texas State. Instead, I spent almost the entire weekend with my new friends from the University of Kentucky. I was rejuvenated by hearing Tim Mottet, Deanna Sellnow, Derek Lane and friends talk about the future of the division and their project ideas. There are so many exciting things happening in our division right now and I look forward to being a part of it. Renee Kaufmann added, “I will always go to NCA. There is something about a bunch of people coming together to talk about the same topics of interest to you that is so rejuvenating. I love the fact that when I am talking to someone in my sub-field it is like we are speaking code and we get excited about the potential research that we want to conduct together." Renee was also elected to a leadership position for the Basic Course Division. The next NCA submission deadline is March 26, 2014. Let’s keep up this type of representation of our division next year in Chicago for the 100th anniversary of NCA!
External Resources and Research Committee Brandi Frisby – co-chair Deanna Sellnow – co-chair Joanne Cattafesta Anthony Limperos Mary Ann Nestmann Mike Pennell Molly Reynolds Patric Spence