MOOCs Not a Threat to Traditional Business Schools
Demographics Drive Fitness Partner Decisions Online
Low Lead Levels Increase Child Emotional and Behavior Problems
Drinking Alcohol, Even Light-to-Moderate Amounts, Provides No Heart Health Benefit
MOOCs Not a Threat to Traditional Business Schools
Data from a University of Pennsylvania study of massive open online courses (MOOCs) offered by Penn’s Wharton School suggest that MOOCs are not a threat to traditional business programs, but rather an opportunity to expand to underserved markets. The findings were published in the Harvard Business Review.
The study is the first of its kind to focus on MOOC participants taking business classes. The researchers were Ezekiel Emanuel, vice provost for global initiatives; Gayle Christensen, executive director of Penn Global; and Brandon Alcorn, Penn Global project manager. They surveyed more than 875,000 students enrolled in nine MOOCs offered by Wharton. They found that business MOOCs do not appear to be cannibalizing existing programs but are reaching at least three new student populations: those from outside the United States, especially those in developing countries; foreign-born Americans; and under-represented American minorities.
Seventy-eight percent of individuals who registered for the Wharton MOOCs came from outside the US, with about 45 percent hailing from developing countries. By comparison, 45 percent of two-year MBA students and 14 percent of executive MBA students are foreign. Thirty-five percent of all US individuals enrolled in the Wharton business MOOCs are foreign-born. By comparison, only 12.9 percent of the US population is foreign-born. Nineteen percent of Wharton’s American MOOC students are under-represented minorities compared to 11 percent of students enrolled in traditional MBA programs at nine of the top US business schools.
The study also found that, for the majority of the Wharton MOOCs students, completing an online course is not the most important outcome. Just 43 percent of respondents to a pre-course survey indicated that receiving a certificate of accomplishment was “extremely important” or “very important.” The implication, researchers suggest, is that schools should move away from a business model of charging for certificates of completion.
Demographics Drive Fitness Partner Decisions Online
Who would you rather have as a fitness partner: a paragon of athleticism and dedication who could motivate you to exceed your current level of fitness or an equal, with whom you could exchange tips and encouragement on the road to better health? Or neither?
According to a study led by Damon Centola, associate professor in Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication, participants in an online fitness program ignored the fitness aptitude of their potential partners.
“Instead they chose contacts based on characteristics that would largely be observable in regular, offline face-to-face networks: age, gender and body mass index,” Dr. Centola said.
As more people turn to the internet to help them improve their health and fitness, Dr. Centola wanted to examine how people sought out health partners in an online forum. He coauthored the study with Arnout van de Rijt, an associate professor at Stony Brook University. The paper was published online in the journal Social Science and Medicine.
The researchers partnered with an existing online fitness website to recruit 432 participants to be part of their new “Health Improvement Network.” All of the participants shared ten pieces of information: their age, gender, ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), fitness level, diet preferences, goals for the program and favorite exercise, as well as their average exercise minutes and intensity level.
The researchers divided the participants into six groups. Each participant was then randomly partnered with six “health contacts” in their group with whom they could exchange information. Over a five-week period, the participants were given the opportunity to select new health contacts and drop existing ones. The only information on which they had to base their choice was the set of ten characteristics that the other members of the group had shared. Participants had no knowledge of who each other’s health contacts were, or whether there were any “highly connected” individuals.
The researchers anticipated that group members would select health contacts who shared similar exercise routines or interests, or even fitness “leaders” who were very fit and could serve as motivational role models. Yet in five of the six communities, participants did neither. Rather, the community members showed a strong inclination to choose contacts whose age, BMI and gender were like their own.
The findings suggest that although people in online health programs are beckoned with the possibilities of meeting healthier people who can provide them with information about new kinds of exercises and better strategies for getting healthy, they self-select into networks that look very similar to the kinds of networks that people typically have offline: people with similar age, gender and BMI profiles as themselves.
Health programs can work around this human tendency, Dr. Centola noted, by actively recommending “health buddies” based on characteristics that are hard to connect to offline, but easy to find online, such as people who are good motivational partners, or partners who prefer similar exercises or are working to increase their endurance to similar levels.
Low Lead Levels Increase Child Emotional and Behavior Problems
Research from the School of Nursing, published in JAMA Pediatrics, indicates that low lead levels, even at concentrations lower than the previously defined Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) level of concern, are associated with increased child emotional and behavior problems. Until now, most studies have focused on the effect of lead on children’s IQ and their externalizing behavior.
Lead is understood to lower children’s IQ at commonly encountered exposures and to increase aggressiveness and bullying. This study shows that even low lead levels in children are also associated with internalizing behavior problems and can help scientists better understand early health-risk factors and short- and long-term behavioral changes across children’s developmental milestones.
Researchers, led by Jianghong Liu, associate professor at School of Nursing, found that blood lead concentrations, even at a mean concentration of 6.4 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL), were associated with increased risk of behavioral problems in preschool children in China.
“We believe that continued monitoring of blood lead concentrations is necessary and that nurses should recommend screening for behavioral problems for children with lead exposure whose blood lead concentration is above 5 μg/dL,” said Dr. Liu. According to the CDC, there are approximately half a million US children ages 1-5 with blood lead levels above 5 µg/dL.
In the study, blood lead concentrations were tested once for each of 1,341 children in China at ages 3, 4 and 5 years. The mean blood lead concentration was 6.4 µg/dL. Children’s behavioral problems were assessed in their last month of preschool at age 6. Results showed that a 1 µg/dL increase in blood lead concentration resulted in increased emotional reactivity, anxiety/depression and pervasive developmental problems such as speech problems and avoidance of eye contact. Results also showed that while boys had higher blood lead concentrations than girls, the association with behavioral problems was stronger in girls than found in boys.
Lead undermines a range of body processes and can damage many organs and tissues, including the nervous system, reproductive system, intestines, bones, kidneys and heart. Children absorb lead at a faster rate than adults do and it is particularly damaging because it interferes with the development of the nervous system and can be the cause of lifelong learning and behavior disorders.
Drinking Alcohol, Even Light-to-Moderate Amounts, Provides No Heart Health Benefit
Reducing the amount of alcoholic beverages consumed, even for light-to-moderate drinkers, may improve cardiovascular health, including a reduced risk of coronary heart disease, lower body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure, according to a multi-center study published in The BMJ and co-led by the Perelman School of Medicine. These findings call into question previous studies which suggest that consuming light-to-moderate amounts of alcohol (0.6-0.8 fluid ounces/day) may have a protective effect on cardiovascular health.
The research reviewed evidence from more than 50 studies that linked drinking habits and cardiovascular health for over 260,000 people. Researchers found that individuals who carry a specific gene which typically leads to lower alcohol consumption over time have, on average, superior cardiovascular health records. Specifically, the results show that individuals who consume 17 percent less alcohol per week have on average a 10 percent reduced risk of coronary heart disease, lower blood pressure and a lower BMI.
“These new results are critically important to our understanding of how alcohol affects heart disease. Contrary to what earlier reports have shown, it now appears that any exposure to alcohol has a negative impact upon heart health,” said co-lead author Michael Holmes, research assistant professor in the department of transplant surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine. “For some time, observational studies have suggested that only heavy drinking was detrimental to cardiovascular health and that light consumption may actually be beneficial. This has led some people to drink moderately based on the belief that it would lower their risk of heart disease. However, what we’re seeing with this new study, which uses an investigative approach similar to a randomized clinical trial, is that reduced consumption of alcohol, even for light-to-moderate drinkers, may lead to improved cardiovascular health.”
In the study, researchers examined the cardiovascular health of individuals who carry a genetic variant of the ‘alcohol dehydrogenase 1B’ gene, which is known to breakdown alcohol at a quicker pace. This rapid breakdown causes unpleasant symptoms including nausea and facial flushing and has been found to lead to lower levels of alcohol consumption over time. By using this genetic marker as an indicator of lower alcohol consumption, the research team was able to identify links between these individuals and improved cardiovascular health.
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