REVIEW OF RELATED STUDY

TITLE OF THE STUDY

“Evaluating the academic advisors' communication skills according to the students living

in dormitory”

PROPONENT

According to the global definition, academic advisor is an individual who is interested in the

students' development and success, he is not only responsible for course schedules but also he is

a skillful person who clarifies goals and values for the students in universities and help them to

achieve higher goals, continue education, and get proper jobs. In addition to promoting

professional and social skills, academic advisors create grounds for the students to help them

establish the communication and make use of available resources in the society. One of the most

significant factors in the success of academic advising systems in universities is establishing the

strong relationships between students and academic advisors, which is a process through which

students actualize their utmost academic capacity through their relationship and information

exchange with their academic advisors.

Academic advisors are considered as the students' first-communication interface with the

education system; therefore, it is necessary for the academic advisors to utilize consultation

principles, and utilizing communication skills is one of the most important principles of

consultation. In their study, Ebrahimi et al. stated that interpersonal factors have the highest

effect on academic advising programs; therefore, they recommend that factors which harm

academic advising programs should be specified. Being away from the family, loneliness, and
residence in the dormitory are among the reasons for the students' dire need for consultation and

intellectual help.

METHODOLOGY

In the present analytical cross-sectional study, a sequential sampling method was employed to

select 155 students studying in North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences living

in dormitories of medicine, Para medicine, nursing and midwifery, and health faculties from June

20, 2015, to December 21, 2015. The study was carried out after the necessary permission was

obtained from the 7th Ethics Committee (March 9, 2015). Reviewing previous studies focusing

on the academic advisors' capability which was reported to be < 60%, and given P = 0.6, a = 0.05

and d = 0.05, the sample size was determined using the following formula:

Since the sample size is bigger than 5% of the population size, the following formula was

employed to reduce the sample size to 242.

To collect the required data, a researcher-made questionnaire entitled, 'Assessment of

Communication Skills of Counselors’ was used which was previously used in the study

conducted by Dehnavi et al. The questionnaire has 17 items that are designed to evaluate the

skills of counselors from the perspective of students in five areas. As for the present study, its

validity was confirmed by seeking and utilizing the opinions of eight experts and professors of

the field, and its reliability was checked by the test-retest method (r = 0.82).

To assess the validity of the questionnaire, a qualitative method was employed, in which the

questionnaire was sent to ten experts, and their comments were applied to the questionnaire. To
assess the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha was utilized. The Cronbach's alpha

coefficient for this questionnaire was 0.97.

A total of 242 questionnaires were distributed among the students who had the inclusion criteria

and were provided with an academic advisor for at least one semester. A total of 155

questionnaires were answered and returned to the researcher. To complete the questionnaires,

four questioners who had received necessary training were employed. The questioners were

provided with necessary guidelines on how to complete the questionnaires. Afterward, they

referred to the dormitories and explained the study's aims to the students and delivered the

questionnaire to those students who were consent to participate in the study. The students were

asked not to write their name on the questionnaires, and they were ensured about the

confidentiality of their information. In the beginning, the study's aim was explained, then the

participants' demographic information excluding their names was collected, and finally, the

academic advisors' capabilities were examined. The questions of the questionnaire were designed

based on the different communication skills of academic advisors in the fields of 'oral-written,'

'accepting and giving feedback,' 'understanding others,' 'being a good listener,' and

'effectiveness.' The 'oral-written' field is related to the academic advisors' ability to use the

sentences and words in oral and written forms. The questions were scored based on a 10-point

Likert scale.

In the present study, descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation)

and Pearson's correlation coefficient test were utilized to analyze the collected data. In so doing,

SPSS version 18 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA) we used, and the level of statistical significance

was set at P < 0.05.

RESULT

According to the results, 73% of the students were men and 82% of women, 7.7% were studying

for an associate's degree, and the rest for a bachelor's degree. The results also showed that 11.6%

of the students studied medicine, 74.2% nursing and midwifery (nursing, operating room,

anesthesiology, and midwifery), and 14.2% health. It was observed that 18.1% of the students

were married, 76.1% single, and 5.8 divorced.

 Different communication fields

Among the five fields that were studied, based on the students' opinions, 'accepting and giving

feedback' and 'understanding others' obtained the highest scores.

 Different communication fields in the faculties

Based on the students' views, the 'oral and written' field obtained the lowest score in the faculties,

and the fields 'accepting and giving feedback' and 'understanding others' received the highest

scores.

TITLE OF THE STUDY

“Life satisfaction of university students living at home or in the dormitory”

PROPONENT

METHODOLOGY

RESULT
TITLE OF THE STUDY

“Dorm life takes on a whole new look“

PROPONENT

METHODOLOGY

RESULT

TITLE OF THE STUDY

“Building a social learning community“

PROPONENT

METHODOLOGY

RESULT

TITLE OF THE STUDY

“Outsourcing the Dorm Network”

PROPONENT

A year ago two tin cans and a string might have worked better than the Internet connection in

Laura DeNitto's dormitory room.

A handful of students at the State University of New York College at Potsdam, where Ms.

DeNitto is a sophomore, were hogging the bandwidth in the dormitories as they swapped large

numbers of huge music files.

"There would be days or weeks when you couldn't get online," she recalls.

But today she can cruise the Web, send instant messages, and swap files with friends with no

trouble at all. "It's been incredibly amazing compared to what it was last year," she says.

Potsdam's new residence-hall network, which has 30 times the bandwidth that had been available

to the dormitories a year ago, also allows the university's academic network to function better

because it is no longer bogged down by students' file sharing. What's more, Time Warner offers

24-hour technical support to students, seven days a week, under its five-year, $750,000 contract

with the university. That works out to about the same as what the college previously spent to

operate the residence-hall network.

"It's a good solution for Potsdam," says Justin D. Sipher, the university's chief information

officer.

And not just for Potsdam. A small but growing number of colleges are outsourcing residence-

hall networks, often called "resnets" for short.

Some managers of campus networks offer philosophical objections to outsourcing, arguing

that dormitory networks remain an important part of a college's core mission, and that an

institution should not turn its resnet over to an outside company. But proponents argue that
resnets have become cyber quicksand for colleges, consuming more and more money and staff

time to satisfy students' ravenous appetite for bandwidth.

An aggravating factor is the increasing legal risks of running a dorm network, as more colleges

are forced to respond to the recording and film industries' efforts in court to stop students from

pirating music. Outsourcing may be colleges' best solution for pulling themselves out of that

quicksand, these proponents say.

Wireless technology offers another alternative to providing network services in dormitories. But

Potsdam's Mr. Sipher says he didn't consider wireless networking a viable choice for

his dormitories. Wireless is better suited to extending network coverage to open areas, like

dining halls, and for allowing mobile users to gain access to the network, he says.

The Vermont State Colleges, a group of five institutions that share a computer network, also

decided against outsourcing, after discovering that it would cost about $15 per month per

student. That's more than what the colleges spend now, says Linda D. Hilton, chief information

officer.

Other college officials voice more-basic reservations to outsourcing. Jerome P. DeSanto, chief

information officer at the University of Scranton, says he would not hire a company to operate

the resnet. "It's important enough that it needs to remain under the university's direct control," he

says.

Direct control is important, he argues, because the dormitory network remains a central part of

the institution's educational mission. "I see it as integral to the whole teaching and learning

process," Mr. DeSanto says. He acknowledges that some students use the network for non-
academic purposes, but he insists that the network exists primarily to complement the classroom

experience.

METHODOLOGY

Dormitory residents can choose from three levels of service. Under the college's three-year

contract with the company, all residents get access to a basic level of Internet service, which

provides 64 kilobits per second -- slightly more than a typical dial-up connection -- at no charge.

An upgraded level of service, which provides 1 megabit per second -- almost 16 times as much

bandwidth as the basic plan -- costs students $94.91 for the academic year. The "gold" plan

provides 3 megabits per second, or four to five times as much as the typical residential digital-

subscriber-line high-speed connection can download, at a cost of $132.91 a year.

Mr. Golberstein has stuck with the free basic service because he uses the Internet connection in

his room for little more than e-mail. For tasks that require greater bandwidth, he says, he uses

computers elsewhere on campus that remain connected to the college's own high-speed network.

Mr. Fuller says he does not believe that students who use the free basic service will be at an

academic disadvantage compared with those who have higher-bandwidth connections. Apogee's

network provides all users, regardless of their level of service, with high-speed connections to

the college's academic network, including library databases and the course-management system,

he notes.

At South-western, Apogee offers four levels of service. The university pays for the basic level,

and students can elect to pay for any of the three higher levels. Garrick Pinon, a junior in

economics and communication studies, has opted for one of the higher levels of service. "I get to
decide what my need is," he says. But some students, he adds, cannot afford to pay for the

higher-quality service.

In general, the Apogee network runs well, Mr. Pinon says, although it does seem to bog down

during periods of peak demand, like late afternoon. "It's been a good experience for most

people," he says. "The main complaint is that students don't want to pay for the Internet. They

just feel that it should be included in their tuition."

RESULT

Under the college's three-year contract with the company, all residents get access to a basic level

of Internet service, which provides 64 kilobits per second -- slightly more than a typical dial-up

connection -- at no charge. An upgraded level of service, which provides 1 megabit per second --

almost 16 times as much bandwidth as the basic plan -- costs students $94.91 for the academic

year. The "gold" plan provides 3 megabits per second, or four to five times as much as the

typical residential

Last years’ experience showed that Ithaca itself could not run the residence-hall network

effectively, he says, and Apogee's track record thus far is "pretty good."

It had based its pricing on the assumption that 65 percent of the students would buy a premium

service, says Charles Brady, the company's president. Consequently, the company may end up

having to raise rates for the premium services there, he says. But Mr. Brady says he also believes

that more students will opt for the premium levels once the company starts offering new features

on the residence-hall network, like video on demand.

Overall, 48 percent of Ithaca's dorm residents have, like Mr. Golberstein, opted for the basic

level of service, while 25 percent are paying for the middle tier and 27 percent for the gold plan.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

THEORY

“New Environmental Research Findings from Harbin Institute of Technology Described

(Organophosphate Flame Retardants in College Dormitory Dust of Northern Chinese

Cities: Occurrence, Human Exposure and Risk Assessment)”

PROPONENT

MAJOR IDEA RELATED TO THE TOPIC

THEORY

“Great Expectations for a New Dormitory”

PROPONENT

MAJOR IDEA RELATED TO THE TOPIC

THEORY

“Improving Residents' Life Satisfaction”

PROPONENT

MAJOR IDEA RELATED TO THE TOPIC