Online Examinations

A brief article in the Education Life section of Sunday’s New York Times July 27, 2008) talks about the posting of exams on the Internet—a cyber-version of the old fraternity files of past tests. But, in this case, it’s not just a few exams and a few fraternity brothers; thousands of examinations are being scanned into websites and thousands of students are consulting them. It raises lots of interesting issues: Is it ethical to study with previously used questions? Is it ethical to study with “live” questions—questions that are currently on exams? Is it ethical for schools to track students’ use of such websites? Is the honor system—at the University of Virginia, for example—that forbids students to consult previously used examinations effective? Is it fair to the students? Is consulting old questions just a good way of studying, of preparing for examinations? Does the instructor have an ethical obligation to prepare new examinations each semester?

Cover Letters

Here's the study that USA Today refers to in Snapshots (7/17/08, p. B1). Briefly, 86% of the executives surveyed said that a cover letter was very valuable(23%)or somewhat valuable (63%)to accompany the job application resume.

E-therapy

Here's an interesting article on e-mail between patient and therapist. I thought the article interesting because it identifies some of the advantages and some of the disadvantages of using e-mail in such situations.

Interpersonal Communication and . . .

Here's an interesting discussion of interpersonal conflict training for police. Also, click on "anger management" on this same page and you'll find some interesting material on fair fighting and on using communication skills to reduce stress. It seems like there's nothing we can't do with communication.

Listening

Not surprisingly most of the reviewers of Essentials of Human Communication and Interpersonal Messages stressed that listening was the skill their students were most in need of. And so in preparation for the new editions, I've been researching listening. Here is the Free Management Library's "listening" offerings. These make a great complement to the academic textbook and may even seem more credible to students:-)