Kody Frey and Nicolas Tatum are doctoral students in the Graduate Program in Communication at the University of Kentucky specializing in instructional Communication.

Tatum’s talk is entitled Learner Empowerment Across Cultures: The Influence of Learner Empowerment on Student Outcomes in U.S. and Turkish University Classrooms. He says, “This study answers the call for more culturally-centered instructional research by replicating previous learner empowerment inquiries and extending knowledge claims to a new cultural context. Given the increased emphasis placed on students’ instructional beliefs, the findings illuminated in this research are meaningful for faculty facing exceedingly diverse classroom in the U.S. or pursuing intercultural instruction abroad.”

Frey’s talk is entitled Mediated Misbehaviors: Investigating the Mediating Role of Online Classroom Climate. He says, “Recently, scholars have extended knowledge regarding instructor misbehaviors into the distance education classroom. Considering the lack of immediacy present in the online classroom to buffer the effects of instructor misbehaviors, the current research examines the role of online classroom climate as a mediator between misbehaviors and students’ affective learning and perceptions of instructor credibility.”

Where: Niles Gallery, Little Fine Arts Library, September 2

Robert Rice is a Ph.D. student in the College of Communication and Information. His research interests focus on risk and crisis communication, social media, exemplification, and instruction.

His research talk is entitled “The knowledge sharing gap: Differences between having safety information and sharing it through social media in crises.” Exemplification theory draws on scientific mechanisms of memory and argues that simple, iconic, concrete and emotionally arousing depictions of events (exemplars) are favored and thus more likely to be stored and used for making judgments. This discussion will look at portrayals in comments of social media, specifically looking at how exemplified accounts in user comments to a news story may influence audience perceptions. Future directions for research will also be discussed.

Where: Niles Gallery, Little Fine Arts Library, October 7

Robert Shapiro is the Assistant Director for the Research, Education & Clinical Services Division, MCL and Academic Liaison for the College of Public Health. His research interests lie at the confluence of information science, public health, and communication science.

His talk is entitled State Libraries and the State Public Health Workforce. Shapiro explains, “Despite a long history of attempts to provide access to information to the public health workforce, there still remains a great deal of uncertainty regarding how to approach information access, promotion, and use. This study investigates the resources and services that state libraries provide to state health department employees.”

Where: Niles Gallery, Little Fine Arts Library, November 4