Content – KVCC Docs

Online Bachelors Degree – Beat the Competition

It’s never too late to go back to college. More and more people are learning how easy it is to continue their education through distance learning. So when you get your online bachelor’s degree, you may well beat the competition!

While web-based education is available at the elementary and high school levels, college-level and professional online courses are much more in demand. These are especially popular with mature learners who are either too self-conscious or too busy to attend a conventional university, yet still want a college degree.

Not everyone can afford or wants to attend a regionally accredited college after graduating from high school. Some people go to college but don’t graduate. Financial circumstances, personal preferences, or other factors may lead them to pursue a career or choose a different path.

Taking the GED Test Online as an Adolescent

Adolescence can be a difficult stage of life, and quite a few high school students drop out before graduating. To continue their academic education and work towards a fulfilling career, they have an alternative to earn a secondary education credential.

That is the GED (General Education Development) pathway, a state-specific assessment consisting of four modular, independent subtests covering math, science, language, and social studies. Check out this video about Onsego and what it takes the take the GED test online:

In most states and territories, you can take the GED exam online from home or in a certified GED test center. In this post, we talk about what requirements apply when you take the exam from the comfort of your home.

You must have a computer, a webcam, a secure and reliable internet connection, and a testing room with closed doors and without any distractions.

The Effect of Gender, Ethnicity, and Income on College Students’ Use of Communication Technologies

This is a summary of The Effect of Gender, Ethnicity, and Income on College Students’ Use of Communication Technologies
Authors: Reynol Junco, Dan Merson, and Daniel W. Salter
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This study was done a few years back (as shown in the content), but it is still relevant. It examined how gender, ethnicity, and income shape college students’ ownership and use of communication technology.

The authors focused on three tools: cell phones, text messaging, and Instant Messaging (IM). They framed the research around digital inequality, a concept that covers both unequal access to technology and unequal patterns of use once people have it.

Onsego – How to Get your GED Quickly

Onsego GED Prep is an online program that prepares students efficiently for the entirely computer-based GED exam.

The courses are delivered online, and students can progress at their own pace. Check out this video that explains how to pass the GED test faster with Onsego Pro:

Onsego GED Prep is entirely aligned with the latest edition of the GED exam. GED Testing Service recognizes Onsego as fully compliant with the GED test.

There are multiple Onsego Advantage Plans to provide GED students with the best possible instruction to meet their needs and wishes. Some students may get optimally prepared in just a few weeks or months, while others require more time.

The Purnell Model for Cultural Competence

This is a summary of The Purnell Model for Cultural Competence
Author: Larry Purnell, PhD, RN, FAAN
Publisher: Journal of Multicultural Nursing & Health (Riley Publications)

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This article presents the Purnell Model for Cultural Competence, a framework designed to help healthcare workers understand and respond to cultural differences among patients, families, and communities. Purnell built the model in 1991 while teaching undergraduate nursing students. He noticed that students and staff lacked a consistent framework for thinking about their own culture and the cultures of the people they served. The model grew out of that gap.

Culture: the sum of behaviors, beliefs, values, and customs

Purnell opens by defining culture as the sum of behaviors, beliefs, values, and customs that a group learns and passes down, mostly through family, school, and community. He stresses that culture is largely unconscious and shapes how people think about health and illness without them realizing it.

Personal Construct Psychology, Radical Constructivism, and Social Constructionism: A Dialogue

This is a summary of Personal Construct Psychology, Radical Constructivism, and Social Constructionism: A Dialogue
Authors: Jay S. Efran (Temple University), Sheila McNamee (University of New Hampshire), Bill Warren (University of Newcastle, Australia), Jonathan D. Raskin (SUNY New Paltz), moderator
Published in: Journal of Constructivist Psychology

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This article is a transcript of a panel discussion from the 2011 International Congress on Personal Construct Psychology in Boston. Three scholars each represent a different branch of constructivist thought. McNamee speaks for social constructionism. Efran speaks for radical constructivism. Warren speaks for personal construct psychology (PCP). Raskin moderates and pushes each speaker to clarify where their views overlap and where they split.

Effectiveness of Critical Thinking Instruction in Higher Education: A Systematic Review of Intervention Studies

This is a summary of the Effectiveness of Critical Thinking Instruction in Higher Education: A Systematic Review of Intervention Studies
Authors: Dawit T. Tiruneh, An Verburgh, Jan Elen (KU Leuven)
Published in: Higher Education Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2014

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This study reviews 33 empirical studies on teaching critical thinking in college classrooms. The researchers searched three databases and found 88 candidate articles. They narrowed that list to 33 studies that met strict criteria: each had to include a real instructional intervention, a control or pretest-posttest comparison, and a measure of critical thinking skills or dispositions.

Classrooms That Inspire: 8 Conditions That Make a Difference in College Teaching

This is a summary of Classrooms That Inspire: 8 Conditions That Make a Difference in College Teaching
Authors: Sara E. Quay, Ph.D., Russell J. Quaglia, Ed.D., Beverly Dolinsky, Ph.D.

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This handbook gives college professors a framework for building classrooms where students want to learn. The authors argue that course content alone does not drive student satisfaction or success. Connection does. Students need to feel a sense of belonging, build confidence, and see real opportunities to grow. The book translates Russell Quaglia’s aspiration research, originally built for K-12 schools, into a guide for higher education.

Eight Critical Conditions

Civic Prompts: Making Civic Learning Routine Across the Disciplines

This is a summary of the article Civic Prompts: Making Civic Learning Routine Across the Disciplines
Author: Caryn McTighe Musil, Ph.D.
Publisher: Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)

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This report grew out of a McCormick Foundation-funded project called “Civic Inquiry and Action Across the Disciplines.” AAC&U worked with seven Chicago-area colleges and universities to explore how civic learning fits into every academic major, not just political science or history. Musil directs Civic Learning and Democracy Initiatives at AAC&U and also authored the 2012 report A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future, which forms the intellectual backbone of this publication.

Constructionism and Deconstructionism

This is a summary of the article Constructionism and Deconstructionism
Author: Pavel Boytchev, Sofia University, Bulgaria.
Publisher: Constructivist Foundations

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Constructionism and Deconstructionism

Boytchev studies how constructionism works in real classrooms. He tests it at two levels: a university course and a secondary school program. He finds a hidden phase in learning that gets ignored: deconstruction.

Constructivism says people build knowledge through experience. Teachers guide rather than transmit facts. Dewey and Montessori pioneered this idea. Piaget extended it, describing learning as a process where students absorb new information into existing mental models.

Seymour Papert built on Piaget’s work and called it constructionism. His key claim: building physical objects helps build mental understanding. He also stressed that construction should happen in public, where others can see the process.