Wichita State News: Research

PODCAST: Cheating in school continues to rise

This WSU Newsline Podcast is available at http://www.wichita.edu/newslinepodcast. See the transcript below:

You're listening to the podcast edition of the Wichita State University audio newsline. Learn more about WSU — the home of Thinkers, Doers, Movers and Shockers — on the Web at wichita.edu.

Cheating in school is not a new problem, but it appears to be a growing one. According to a study by Duke University's Center for Academic Integrity, if the cheating rate in the United States continues to increase, nearly 80 percent of college and high school students will cheat in 2010. William Vanderburgh, director of the faculty development office at Wichita State University, agrees that technology has made it easier for students to cheat.

Vanderburgh: "I think cheating is probably a little bit more prevalent today than it used to be, just because technology makes it so much easier for students to cheat. They can go to the Internet, find information that they want."

Vanderburgh says there are a number of reasons students cheat.

Vanderburgh: "I think one of the main reasons that students cheat is that they are underprepared. They don't have prerequisites or they haven't done the work.

"Another reason that students cheat is an overemphasis on credentialing, which is to say students don't often care so much about getting knowledge as getting a degree."

Most teachers agree that the Internet didn't invent cheating, but it sure has made it much easier.

Vanderburgh: "Students often use the Internet as their main or only source of research, and that makes it easy for them to cut and paste information into essays. They also can use cell phones and graphing calculators to bring notes into class in a surreptitious way."

Vanderburgh explains one way professors can help students experience academic success without resorting to cheating.

Vanderburgh: "Students often cheat when they're in a high-stakes situation, where the test is half of their grade, or the essay's a third of their grade. Professors can mitigate cheating in those kinds of situations by offering smaller assignments and more of them over the period of the semester. That way, students can succeed and gain confidence in the material."

And Vanderburgh says professors have ways to deter students who cheat during tests.

Vanderburgh: "I know a lot of professors who just simply ban cell phones during tests, similarly baseball hats. So, technology helps students to cheat sometimes, but it's not the only way."

Even so, some students will try to beat the system and cheat. When that happens, Vanderburgh says, professors usually have a couple of options for dealing with those students.

Vanderburgh: "Professors and departments normally set their standards before the semester begins, but a very typical response would be to fail a student for the assignment or to fail them in the course. Professors also report students who cheat to the department chair and to the dean of students so that those students can be tracked."

It appears that the fight against cheating is an uphill battle. Earlier this year, an Ohio school district says it uncovered a cheating scheme so pervasive that it had to cancel graduation ceremonies for 60 seniors. Superintendent Dorothy Holden said so many students were involved that it was impossible "to separate the wheat from the chaff" in terms of deciding who could graduate. Instead, all students were mailed their diplomas.

The answer, some experts and administrators say, is convincing students that high-tech cheating is still cheating. Parents have long taught their children right from wrong at the earliest ages. It has been suggested that maybe it's time to add a new lesson plan — right from wrong in the digital age.

Thanks for listening. Until next time, this is Joe Kleinsasser for Wichita State University.

CCSR hosting workshops for small grant awards

The Center for Community Support and Research at Wichita State University will kick off its sixth year of the Compassion Kansas initiative in October with informational workshops.

Attendance at one of these workshops is required for qualifying organizations interested in applying for small grant awards and technical assistance. Workshops are held from 1-5 p.m. in various locations throughout Kansas on the following dates:

• Tuesday, Oct. 27, WSU Hughes Metropolitan Complex

• Wednesday, Oct. 28, Garden City Community College

• Monday, Nov. 2, Capitol Plaza Hotel in Topeka

• Tuesday, Nov. 3, WSU Marcus Welcome Center

A maximum of two people per organization may attend. To register, e-mail the date of the workshop you would like to attend along with your name, organization, telephone and e-mail address to angela.gaughan@wichita.edu.

Registrations are also accepted at (316) 978-3843 or (800) 445-0116.

Qualifying organizations include faith-based and community organizations in Kansas that serve (or plan to serve) at least one of the following target populations: the homeless, elders in need, at-risk children, those in transition from welfare to work, intensive rehabilitation populations (such as addicts or prisoners), and/or marriage education and preparation.

Priority will be given to organizations with annual operating budgets of less than $500,000 that have not previously received funding from the federal government.

Compassion Kansas, funded by the federal Compassion Capital Fund, is designed to offer qualifying Kansas faith-based and community organizations small grant awards and a variety of technical assistance opportunities that include strategic planning, facilitation, leadership skills, collaboration, service expansion, communication, evaluation research and efficiency improvement.

For information about Compassion Kansas, call Sarah Jolley at (316) 978-5487.Robin Fertner, (316) 978-6746 or robin.fertner@wichita.edu.

PODCAST: Economy changes boomers retirement plans

This WSU Newsline Podcast is available at http://www.wichita.edu/newslinepodcast. See the transcript below.

You're listening to the podcast edition of the Wichita State University audio newsline. Learn more about WSU — the home of Thinkers, Doers, Movers and Shockers — on the Web at wichita.edu.

Rick LeCompte

The 77 million Americans in the baby boom generation face an economic storm: The Wall Street meltdown trampled retirement nest eggs and many are struggling to get back into the work force. Rick LeCompte, a personal finance expert at Wichita State University, says the economy certainly has changed the thinking of many boomers.

LeCompte: "There was a fear in the 1990s that due to the stock market gains, we'd be set up with a mass level of early retirements by baby boomers. Now we're looking at baby boomers actually working past, actually having later retirements maybe than their parents."

The recession will end, the economy will recover and the aftershocks will subside. But it may take longer to repair some long-held assumptions about investing and retirement planning.

While the economic crisis has forced baby boomers to rethink retirement, there may be a positive result. The financial crisis has forced them to look ahead. And, as LeCompte notes, many boomers will live longer and be healthier than their parents' generation.

LeCompte: "The big issue in retirement planning is longevity risk. Longevity risk is a situation where a person outlives their retirement savings. The longer our life expectancies are, the more likely that is to happen, so that requires individuals to probably save more and plan for a longer life."

LeCompte explains some options for the baby boom generation.

LeCompte: "Options available to hedge your retirement risk would be a person could save more, which would require you to spend less. Some people might take on second jobs. Others may choose to invest in less risky portfolios to make sure that the money they have is there when they get to retirement age."

LeCompte says those younger than 60 probably can afford to take some financial risks to get a potentially higher return on investments.

LeCompte: "For individuals under 60, it may not be the best time for them to move all their money out of more risky investments, because they're going to need some return, but they need to consider their portfolio choices and what they invest in. You may want to move to a less risky portfolio, but you still have to have some risk in order to get the return you need to finance your retirement."

So, what have we learned from the economic meltdown and its impact on retirement planning? LeCompte explains.

LeCompte: "The lesson from the meltdown in markets over the last year and a half should be that anybody getting close to retirement doesn't want to have 100 percent of their investment in common stock or equities, because by the time they retire, if they retired at that point of time in March of 2009, they would be having 50 percent less than they had planned to retire on."

If a national survey is any indication, baby boomers are making some changes in their retirement planning. One in four affluent 60-year-olds are changing their retirement plans and 40 percent are downsizing their lifestyles, according to a national survey from Bell Investment Advisors conducted in 2008.

Those who will be hurt the most are those who are not saving for retirement. According to the third Real Life Retirement Survey by Charles Schwab:

1. Almost 40 percent of Americans are not saving for retirement at all.

2. Despite market losses, 60 percent of the Americans who are saving have not altered their thinking about at what age they will retire.

3. Survey respondents have, on average, saved less than 20 percent of what they acknowledge they will need in retirement.

The lack of preparedness is not limited to young people, as those age 55-63 have on average just a quarter of what they acknowledge is needed for retirement.

The Schwab survey concludes that Americans need a reality check on what they can actually accomplish in terms of when they can afford to retire, and as to the level of comfort and security that will exist. Greater savings are needed to avoid what will otherwise be inevitable results.

Thanks for listening. Until next time, this is Joe Kleinsasser for Wichita State University.

Grant to Wichita center will allow for more innovation, faster

Thursday afternoon, the Knight Foundation awarded more than $2 million to a research institute based in Wichita.

The Center for Innovation for Biomaterials in Orthopaedic Research (CIBOR) conducts research inside the National Institute for Aviation Research on the Wichita State Campus.

The Knight Foundation granted CIBOR $2.1 million dollars over the course of 5 years to help the center engineer better medical instruments from airplane materials.

Read full story and see video.

Cash versus noncash

Ever since the federal TARP bailout of banks and insurance companies led to a huge public and political backlash against incentive travel, the industry has become galvanized by the realization that there is very little hard research that backs up its long-held beliefs about the power and value of non-cash incentives.

In our September cover story, Incentive will look at one new piece of research set to be published in the Journal of Economic Psychology next year. "Preference Reversals in the Evaluation of Cash Versus Noncash Incentives," by Prof. Victoria Shaffer of Wichita State University, is among the first examples of scholarly research comparing the cash and non-cash awards in corporate incentive programs. And the news is generally good.

Go to the Incentive Insights Podcast Web site (click the "here" link at the bottom to hear the podcast).

Stimulus could pay for CIBOR site

Wichita scientists trying to reinvent medical implants worldwide have applied for a $15 million grant from federal stimulus money to build their research building, a move they say will create hundreds of construction jobs locally.

The city of Wichita has donated 43 acres of land worth $1.2 million for the scientists, who hope to build a 50,000-square-foot research structure next door to the National Center for Aviation Training, now being built near Jabara Airport.

Paul Wooley and other scientists from the Center of Innovation for Biomaterials in Orthopaedic Research hope to hear from federal officials in February whether they will get the money, said CIBOR's interim director, John Moore. Construction could begin within six months if the grant is approved.

Moore said John Tomblin, executive director of Wichita State University's National Institute for Aviation Research, found out the government was providing money for research buildings.

"One of the beauties of working at NIAR is that you can spot a federal opportunity like this, and this one was really interesting," Tomblin said. "Rarely does a federal opportunity come along to build a building."

CIBOR is already up and running, with five labs operating in temporary locations all over Wichita, including at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus, at NIAR and at WSU.

Read full story.

WSU lab building stellar reputation

Wichita State University may be known internationally for its aviation research program, but it is also quietly building another engineering research powerhouse.

The 7-year-old Advanced Networking Research Center is set to nearly double in size over the next 18 months because of interest from major technology companies and university officials' ambitious plans.

"The potential is extraordinary," said Gary Miller, WSU's provost and vice president for academic affairs and research. "There are networks in everything."

Wichita benefits from that growth by retaining and attracting more top students at WSU, by producing better-trained workers for local industry and, eventually, university officials say, by seeing an economic boost from new companies that develop out of the center.

Read full story.

Sweat equality

Charlie Hardesty is a personal trainer in Quincy, Mass., with a lot of female clients, and he's not too impressed with the older ones.

"Most of them have never exercised in their lives," said Hardesty, referring to women 50 and up. "As far as they're concerned, going to the mailbox is exercise."

For today's older women, "the level of (exercise) education and awareness hasn't been there their entire lives as it has been for women 40 and younger," said Michael E. Rogers, research director of the Center for Physical Activity and Aging at Wichita State University in Kansas.

Read full story.

NIAR brings on new research engineer

John Saunders

John Saunders has joined the staff of Wichita State University's National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) as a research engineer and nondestructive testing (NDT) instructor.

Upon completion of the National Center for Aviation Training, he will teach NDT courses at the center, which is set to open in Wichita in several months.

Before he came to NIAR, Saunders worked for the U.S. Air Force ND Program Office on contract from Karta Technologies Inc.

He served as supervisor of non-missile support personnel and writer/editor of 33B series NDI technical orders; Allied Services Group as lead technician of nondestructive testing, lead analyst of the predictive maintenance department and process engineer; and for 21 years in active duty with the U.S. Air Force (7 years as NDI Laboratory supervisor and one year as manager of the aircraft fabrication department).

His training and certification includes ASNT Level III in penetrant and magnetic particle testing and Corporate NDT Level III in ultrasonic testing, eddy current testing and radiography.

Saunders has a B.S. in Liberals Art and Management Specialty from Excelsior College and an A.S. in Metal Working Technologies from the Community College of the Air Force.

First classes for aviation training center starting

The official opening of Wichita's new National Center for Aviation Training (NCAT) is still several months away, but NCAT will begin offering nondestructive testing (NDT) courses this fall.

Through a cooperative effort between Wichita State University's National Institute for Aviation Research and Wichita Area Technical College, NCAT will offer a series of eleven NDT courses.

The week-long courses will be taught by John Saunders at WATC's Comotara Center campus. Students can work their way toward an Intro to NDT or Advanced NDT Certificate of Completion, or take select individual courses as needed.

NCAT's NDT program will produce technicians who understand the role of NDT in the aerospace industry and who have mastered coursework from the American Society for Nondestructive Testing Level I and II certification.

The technical certificate program adds hands-on experience in both conventional and composite aerospace assembly methods which will allow students to apply NDT techniques to the aviation industry.

For more information, visit http://www.niar.wichita.edu/ndt.

To enroll call Jessica Folk at (316) 677-1417.

Wichita State's CCSR to be represented at national convention

The Center for Community Support and Research (CCSR) at Wichita State University will take center stage at a national convention held by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF).

The convention, Tuesday, July 21-Thursday, July 23, will focus on the role of nonprofits and community organizations in fostering economic recovery in their local communities.

One of the features of the conference will be a presentation by Scott Wituk, director of the CCSR.

Among others, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will attend the three-day conference.

Established by former President George W. Bush and continued under President Barack Obama, the White House office provides resources and support for community organizations and nonprofits. With this support, these organizations are able to serve their communities effectively through social and economic programs.

Wituk's presentation will highlight two Kansas-based initiatives developed and implemented by CCSR: Compassion Kansas and the Wichita Youth Empowerment Partnership (WYEP).

Compassion Kansas is a statewide initiative that targets medium and small faith-based and community organizations in Kansas. This year, there were 18 organizations that received Compassion Kansas Awards. Each award provides CCSR capacity building assistance and direct financial assistance. The assistance provided by CCSR helps these organizations grow and sustain their services.

WYEP works with a variety of partnering organizations in Wichita to alleviate the social and economic problems that face youth in the city.

WYEP works to reduce youth violence and gang activity by providing positive mentors, promoting accessible academic programs and providing opportunities for Wichita youth to foster positive change in their communities. CCSR provides capacity building assistance and direct financial assistance to partnering organizations.

Wituk and CCSR have been locally and nationally recognized over the years for their innovation in providing capacity building as an intermediary organization for ACF.

Most recently, this work was highlighted in a new book, "Consulting and Evaluation with Nonprofits and Community-Based Organizations."

Kansas bankruptcy levels lower than national average

On a national level, bankruptcy filings are up 41 percent over a year ago. In Kansas, however, state bankruptcy filings are up just 10 percent, a fraction of the nation's increase.

Jeremy Hill, director of Wichita State University's Center for Economic Development and Business Research, said, "The housing chaos itself was the biggest part of bankruptcies."

Researcher studies the cost of renewable energy

This WSU Newsline Podcast is available at http://www.wichita.edu/newslinepodcast. See the transcript below:

You're listening to the podcast edition of the Wichita State University audio newsline. Learn more about WSU — the home of Thinkers, Doers, Movers and Shockers — on the Web at wichita.edu.

Most of us take electricity for granted, until a thunderstorm or ice storm knocks out power. The real challenge for researchers such as electrical energy engineer Ward Jewell at Wichita State University is helping companies meet deadlines on greenhouse gas regulations in the next five years. Jewell is among a number of researchers in the United States studying climate change regulations that challenge the way companies supply power.

Jewell: "The issues that we're faced with in electric energy, which is my field, are the cost; in renewable energy the availability, when it's available because we use electricity the instant it's generated; public policy and political expediency."

The public interest in providing energy in a more environmentally friendly way is gaining momentum. But moving toward cleaner energy isn't without challenges, according to Jewell. Renewable energy is one of the options being studied, as Jewell explains.

Jewell: "For wind and renewable, the positive sides are it is clean; there are no carbon emissions. It's reasonably cost effective, and it's abundant. On the downside, it's a variable resource. It doesn't always blow when we want it to, and not everyone likes the sight of wind farms."

Wind energy accounts for only about 3 percent of the electricity in Kansas. Meanwhile, coal continues to be the cheapest and easiest source of power.

Jewell: "In Kansas, 70 percent of our electricity was generated with coal last year because coal is cheap and quite available. On the downside of coal, it has very high CO2 emissions."

Jewell says another major source of electricity in Kansas is nuclear power.

Jewell: "Nuclear, which generated 21 percent of the electricity in Kansas last year, is technically ready to go. We could build lots of nuclear plants right away. The question is, will the public accept it, and how are we going to deal with the political or public policy question of waste disposal?"

Natural gas is another energy source, as Jewell explains.

Jewell: "The good thing about natural gas is that it is quick to build a natural gas-fired power plant, and they emit about half the CO2 as a coal-fired plant. Gas generated about 6 percent of our electricity in Kansas last year, but it is becoming a scarce resource, and as it does it's becoming much more expensive."

In the decades to come, Jewell says Kansas will need to remain diverse in its electrical generation.

Jewell: "For the future in Kansas, we'll have to remain diverse in our electric generation. We will continue to burn a lot of coal if we can figure out the CO2 capture and sequestration issue, and do that cost effectively. We'll be using a lot more wind generation, a lot more solar generation as its cost comes down. I think we'll be building new nuclear plants and we will rely on natural gas less."

Jewell says the issue is cost. It's going to cost more to generate electricity that does not emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere using either nuclear generation or renewable generation such as wind turbines, solar cells and geothermal.

Regardless of what the state and the utilities do, Jewell says homeowners can take steps to be more energy efficient.

Jewell: "The first thing homeowners should do is make sure their homes are sealed and insulated as well as they should be. They can look at replacing doors and windows next. Look into more efficient heating and air conditioning units and, if they want to continue beyond that, look at solar water heat."

Overall, Jewell said electric power is "extremely reliable and the complexity is incredible. The people and the companies that run the grid have maintained that reliability and it is really incredible from an engineering standpoint." He says "through sound research, the system will continue to meet the environmental, reliability and cost needs of our society."

Thanks for listening. Until next time, this is Joe Kleinsasser for Wichita State University.

Upcoming conference to focus on mental health

Individuals from across the state will gather together for the 9th Annual Kansas Recovery Conference, Tuesday, June 16, through Thursday, June 18, at the Century II Convention Center in Wichita. Wichita State University is one of the sponsors.

This year's conference is "Consumers Empowered: Agents of Change." It will focus on mental health education, advocacy and empowerment.

Walk-up registrations will be accepted at the Century II Convention Hall beginning Tuesday, June 16.

The conference is free for mental health consumers and $35 for nonconsumers. Meals are included.

Kansas native Don Jordan, secretary of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, will join Kansas consumers for a portion of the conference. He is scheduled to give the opening remarks for the Kansas Consumer Advisory Council Annual Meeting on the morning of Wednesday, June 17.

The conference program is built around interactive workshop sessions and daily keynote speakers' presentations. Workshops are designed to educate mental health consumers and service partners through increased understanding of recovery and recognition of hope beyond mental illness.

Workshop topics include Advocacy and Activism, Beyond Illness, Diversity and Cultural Competency, Stigma, Systems Transformation and Talking about Trauma.

Keynote speakers include Gina Calhoun, a certified peer specialist, Carlton Speight, a public health analyst, and Shery Mead, a consultant and peer provider.

The conference is the largest statewide recovery and empowerment conference for mental health consumers in the nation.

The Recovery Conference is sponsored by the Kansas Consumer Advisory Council for Adult Mental Health Inc., in partnership with the WSU Center for Community Support & Research; Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services; Disability and Behavioral Health Services; COMCARE of Sedgwick County; and the Kansas Chapter of the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association.

For more information, call Gary J. Parker, (316) 978-5842, toll free at (800) 445-0116, or e-mail kansascac@sbcglobal.net or kscacadcord@sbcglobal.net.

Information and registration can also be accessed at www.kansascac.org.

PODCAST: The rise and fall of opera houses in Kansas

This WSU Newsline Podcast is available at http://www.wichita.edu/newslinepodcast. See the transcript below:

You're listening to the podcast edition of the Wichita State University audio newsline. Learn more about WSU — the home of Thinkers, Doers, Movers and Shockers — on the Web at

What's the first thing that comes to mind when someone says Kansas? It's probably not opera houses, yet Kansas is rich in opera house history. Jane Rhoads of Wichita State University learned a lot while visiting 432 Kansas towns during the past 17 years researching Kansas opera houses.

Rhoads: "Opera houses came in all shapes and sizes, all the way from an empty room above a grocery store to something as magnificent as the Brown Grand Theatre in Concordia. Altogether I found information concerning 903 opera houses that existed in Kansas."

Rhoads is the author of the book "Kansas Opera Houses — Actors and Community Events 1855-1925." The book has been selected as a 2009 Kansas Notable Book by the Kansas Center for the Book at the State Library of Kansas. She says there once was a time when opera houses were very popular in Kansas.

Rhoads: "Opera houses in Kansas were particularly popular from shortly after the Civil War until basically World War I. The heyday of opera houses was about 1880 to 1910."

So how did Rhoads develop an interest in studying opera houses? You could say it goes back to her roots.

Rhoads: "My great grandfather built an opera house in Eldon, Iowa, the McHaffey Opera House, and as a child I used to visit there, play on the stage and loved it. And so when my children were grown, I wanted to find out how many opera houses there were in Kansas."

Rhoads says opera houses brought entertainment and excitement to the community.

Rhoads: "Opera houses really could be thought of as community centers, and they were where churches met before they had actually built their church building. They were where traveling troupes played. The troupes brought with them, you know, entertainment, excitement to the community. They were where the various civic organizations met. So you really could think of an opera house as a community building."

Although the heyday of opera houses in Kansas has long since passed, Rhoads says a number of interesting opera houses still exist in the Sunflower State.

Rhoads: "There's a number of really interesting opera houses that still exist in Kansas. Several of my favorites would be the McPherson Opera House, which is in the process of being renovated. The Brown Grand in Concordia is certainly the most elaborate, but other communities have done a nice job with their opera houses, too — Wamego, the Columbian Opera House; Waterville; (and) Wichita, the Orpheum."

To some extent, progress is somewhat to blame for the eventual demise of Kansas opera houses, as Rhoads explains.

Rhoads: "Opera houses really were the community center and seemed to be the distinguishing moment. The end of the opera house era would be when the high school built an auditorium. Everyone remembers the opera house; that's where we graduated. And once the graduations stopped, opera houses tended to fall into disrepair. Another thing that caused the opera house era to end was fires, because this was the day when there were no fire stations. So if a fire erupted, and opera houses were lit by gas, so many of them burned down and those that didn't burn down were simply torn down."

In spite of it all, a fair number of opera houses remain in Kansas and are used in a variety of ways.

Rhoads: "Altogether, there are 54 opera houses in Kansas still standing with their stages, and, of these, 16 are still used as entertainment venues, and 18 are used as community centers. There are several opera houses then that have stages, but the building's empty. And then there are a number of opera houses that are used for a variety of community events. They are used as shopping malls, as furniture stores, commercial properties."

So if you're looking to do something a little different this summer, consider visiting some of these historical places in Kansas. You, like Rhoads, may be intrigued by the social and theatrical significance wrapped around these opera houses.

Thanks for listening. Until next time, this is Joe Kleinsasser for Wichita State University.