In the Spotlight: Feb. 9, 2018

Kudos to these staff, faculty and programs

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  • Affordable Colleges Online ranked Northern Arizona University No. 1 in their Best Online Colleges Ranking 2018. The ranking was based on average in-state tuition, the number of online programs, student-teacher ratio, graduation rates, the average amount of financial aid received, availability of academic and career counseling and availability of job placement services.
  • Northern Arizona University professor Sean Parson and former NAU professor Emily Ray presented an extended interview with Against the Grain, a Berkeley-based radio program. Parson and Ray discussed the environmental damage and exploitation of women that stems from the oil industry. The full interview is available through the KPFA 94.1 website.

    Flower Darby, senior instructional designer for NAU's e-Learning Center
    Flower Darby, senior instructional designer for NAU’s e-Learning Center
  • Flower Darby, senior instructional designer at Northern Arizona University’s e-Learning Center, presented on the impact of instructional design on student success at the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative meeting on Jan. 29-31. Darby drew connections between effective learning design, excellent teaching practice and current NAU and national student support initiatives to engage higher education thought leaders in conversations about raising the profile of instructional design to promote retention.
  • Meliksah Demir, associate professor of psychological sciences, alumnus Andrew Haynes and a former REU student co-authored the article “Friendship maintenance mediates the relationship between compassion for others and happiness,” which was published in Current Psychology. The authors conducted two studies that found individuals with higher levels of compassion for others were more likely to maintain their friendships, which contributed to their own happiness.