Did you know that open educational resources (OER) can be more than simply textbooks? Many people think of a textbook, that standard tool for teaching and learning, when they think of OER. But did you know that OER can be much more than just textbooks? There are great many ancillary resources available as OER as well, and the depth and variety of what’s available is only growing.
We’re sure you do!
Continue readingAs many of you already know, Touro students have access to RefWorks through our library website. RefWorks makes citing your sources more straightforward than ever, as you can store and organize all your resources in one place. RefWorks also makes it easy to share your references with co-authors or students and create bibliographies for your article in over 6,000 different styles!
Where to start:
To use RefWorks, you must make an account using your Touro student email address. Once you have signed up, you can drag and drop your sources into RefWorks, where you can also organize them by assignment.
Touro Libraries now subscribes to PALMs in our Anatomy.tv database. PALMs allows Touro students to access a number of anatomy modules designed to combine both learning and assessment. This combination is achieved by quizzing students in a game-like fashion on identifying anatomy structures. While quizzing the student, the module is also training them to interpret anatomy images:
Continue readingFall Semester is here and, after all the holidays of September had us mostly away from our work and studies, things are starting to get into full swing at Touro. So, now is the perfect time to announce that we have a fantastic new resource to help introduce faculty to, or remind them of, all the services our Libraries offer.
Continue readingWhile many researchers rely on SPSS or SAS to handle their statistical data, many users are starting to migrate to R software. Unlike SPSS and SAS, which are propriety and costly to buy, R is a free, open source software that may be used for computing statistics while conducting research. Besides the cost, there are many advantages to R. It works with Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, and Linux platforms. It runs wide variety of functions, from basic to advanced; functions such as data manipulation, graphics, and statistical modeling are available. Because the software is open sourced, many developers have written and distributed add-on packages at no cost to the user, in order to improve functionality.
While there are many advantages to R software, it is not without its downsides. Traditional software packages, like SPSS and SAS, have a very comprehensive user interface and are easy to use. For example, SPSS interface looks very much like an excel spreadsheet, with which most people are familiar and using. In contrast, R has a large learning curve and can be less user friendly. It relies more on programming and coding knowledge, with which many researchers do not have experience. However, there are sources online to help researchers learn the programming fundamentals that are required to use R. Another area where R lacks is in technical support. Both SPSS and SAS are commercial products and have customer/technical support available to users. Since R is open sourced software, there is no official support. However, a large community of R users can help one another troubleshoot problems and offer peer support to one another. If users are not comfortable with peer support, there are third party groups that provide support for R and respond to problems rather quickly.
R software can be downloaded and installed at https://cran.r-project.org
A session about R will be offered at the SHS Faculty Research Retreat on February 12, 1:30-2:30 PM.
This post was contributed by Annette Carr, Chief Librarian, Bay Shore and was originally published in ‘Significant Results: The Research Newsletter of the School of Health Sciences’ Volume 1, Issue 1. It is reprinted here with permission.
The new reality of working from home and social distancing relies on the use of video conference platforms to connect with co-workers and customers. Zoom has recently emerged as one of the leading remote meeting platforms where users can engage in online video conferences, chat, and mobile collaboration. Zoom was founded in 2011 by software engineer Eric Yuan. The company went public on the NASDAQ in April 2019.
There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has been a boon for Zoom. Many schools, colleges, and companies across the country began downloading and using the platform just as the virus began to force people to work from home. Since March, the software has been downloaded 40 million times worldwide, and since February, the stock price for Zoom has nearly doubled from approximately $76 per share to $159 per share. But, as with many companies that find sudden success, Zoom’s flaws have been becoming more apparent to consumers.
Criticism of Zoom has revolved around its security flaws and a new phenomenon called “Zoombombing.” Zoombombing occurs when a hacker, prankster, or wrongdoer enters a Zoom meeting uninvited (aka “crashing a meeting”) and begins interrupting the meeting by posting inappropriate content or hijacking the meeting from the host. Zoombombing has led to many customers having to terminate their videoconferences, cancel meetings, and worry if their cyber security systems have been breached. One of our librarians at Bay Shore was in a webinar this week that had to be terminated due to a Zoombomber posting illicit content and disrupting the meeting.
In addition to Zoombombing, the rapid increase in Zoom usage has led to scrutiny of the company’s privacy policies and potential security flaws. In particular, Mac iOS users are vulnerable to security problems as hackers have been able to access Zoom on their computer to turn on cameras and microphones as well as install malware on their computer systems. Zoom has also come under criticism for giving user data to Facebook without users’ knowledge or permission. Zoom has since stopped giving user data to Facebook, but these problems have already led to class action lawsuits against Zoom.
While the privacy challenges need to be addressed at the company-level, Zoombombing is a threat we, as users, can take steps to combat as we continue to use Zoom throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond:
• Use the latest software: Ensure your participants are using the latest version of Zoom. The latest version has upgraded security features to block users from randomly scanning and joining meetings.
• Password protect: When creating a meeting, make sure your meetings require a password for participants to enter. Zoom has made password protection a default setting on the latest version of the platform.
• Direct invitation: Invite participants directly via email with an invitation and meeting password. Do not publicly post Zoom meeting information via social media or other public channels.
• Close your meeting: Once all participants have arrived at the meeting, close the meeting to any newcomers to avoid crashers. Hosts can close the meeting by clicking on the “Participants” tab at the bottom of the screen and choosing the “Lock Meeting” option.
• Remove/disable unwanted participants: The meeting host can remove and block crashers who are Zoombombing. The host can also disable the chat feature, mute all participants, disable participants from sharing videos, and limit screen sharing options to “Host only”.
If you experience a Zoombombing intrusion, be sure to report it to Zoom at the following link: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/requests/new
This post was contributed by Annette Carr, Librarian at the School of Health Sciences at Bay Shore
References
Andone, D. (2020). FBI warns video calls are getting hijacked. it’s called ‘Zoombombing’. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/02/us/fbi-warning-zoombombing-trnd/index.html
Hodge, R. (2020). Zoombombing: What it is and how to prevent it in Zoom video chat. Retrieved from https://www.cnet.com/how-to/zoombombing-what-it-is-and-how-to-prevent-it-in-zoom-video-chat/
Lehtonen, S. (2020). Dow Jones surges 500 points on soaring jobless claims, as coronavirus stock market correction worsens. Retrieved from https://www.investors.com/market-trend/stock-market-today/dow-jones-coronavirus-stock-market-jobless-claims-luckin-coffee/
Newman, L. H. (2020, Apr 01,). The Zoom privacy backlash is only getting started. Wired, Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/zoom-backlash-zero-days/
Peterson, M. (2020). Two more MacOS Zoom flaws surface, as lawsuit & government probe loom. Retrieved from https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/04/01/two-more-macos-zoom-flaws-surface-as-lawsuit-government-probe-loom
Wutoh, A. K. (2020). Steps for Zoom protection email. Retrieved from https://mailchi.mp/7b3f91503173/steps-for-zoom-protection-email?e=d1d4c0b48f
During the Fall 2018 semester, the Bay Shore SHS Library staff, (Chief Librarian Joan Wagner, Librarians Annette Carr and Heather Hilton, and Library Assistant Kelly Tenny) teamed up with Professor Rachelle Kirshenbaum’s (Associate Academic Director of Speech-Language Pathology) classes to work on a collaborative project. The purpose of the project was to create 3D printed educational models that would be useful to the speech pathology students. To utilize the 3D printers at Bay Shore Library, Professor Kirshenbaum’s classes had to come up with concepts for 3D printed models that would go along with their research projects. The concepts were then described to the Bay Shore Library team, who turned their concepts into reality with the help of the EnableUC Team at the University of Cincinnati. Continue reading
Everyone has heard of fake news by now. It’s seemingly everywhere, and in all types of media. How do we wade through all this incorrect information and find out what the real story is?
Last week, Library Information Literacy Director Sara Tabaei and I attended a METRO symposium entitled “(Mis)informed: Propaganda, Disinformation, Misinformation, and Our Culture.” The aim of this one-day meeting was to discuss the underlying issues and ways to teach about all of this incorrect information. It was also an opportunity to see METRO’s new location (which happens to be right by the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum!).
We recently subscribed to a database called Cabells Scholarly Analytics. The library acquired it because there is a need for a resource that provides listings of legitimate academic journals and fraudulent journals all in one place. Now, let’s take a closer look at this database. Continue reading
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