Category Archives: Publications

Cloud computing is the new hot topic in IT. While many are talking about it, few actually understand what it is, how it’s being used, and what benefits it could offer to higher education. In this interview from the NERCOMP 2010 Annual Conference, Rosalyn Metz, shares her thoughts on this trend toward the cloud. Metz is systems administrator for curricular support at Wheaton College. Continue reading →

This article takes an in-depth look at the NIST definition of cloud computing. Each of the NIST definition’s points is defined in greater detail, and examples of cloud-based technologies will help the reader gain a better understanding of the cloud. Continue reading →

When students write research papers they use a variety of sources in their paper. These sources range from web pages to research articles. The purpose of this study was to decide whether or not undergraduate students would choose to use scholarly or non-scholarly sources when presented with both types of sources in a set of search results. Twenty Duke University students were recruited for the study. They were given a research topic and asked to perform a search. The researcher fabricated both the search results and interface in order to control the experimental environment. The students were asked to rate the sources found in the results, choose four sources to use for their research scenario, and finally, were asked to explain reasoning behind their choices. The findings concluded that the students in this study were more likely to choose scholarly sources over non-scholarly sources and give these scholarly sources higher ratings. Continue reading →