Combined degrees introduced

trevor.kenney — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:58:34 +0000

Three ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge faculties are collaborating on two new, innovative combined degree programs that will bring a management focus to Health Sciences (Public Health) and Fine Arts (New Media).

Open to all current or incoming students beginning in September, 2012 these first-in-Canada degrees are designed to bring the best of all three groups' academic and career-related processes together so students can earn a Bachelor of Management and either a Bachelor of Fine Arts, New Media or a Bachelor of Health Sciences in Public Health.

Graduates would be granted two degrees after meeting the requirements of both programs.

"This is a great example of our faculty members recognizing an opportunity, driven in part by requests from our students, to bring added value to three completely different degree programs," says Dr. Andy Hakin, the U of L's Vice-President, Academic and Provost.

"Cross-campus collaboration happens in many places at the U of L, formally and informally, and these new combined degrees show the type of creativity, innovation and co-operation that helps our students achieve their full potential. I commend the Management, Fine Arts and Health Sciences teams that put these programs together."

Co-operative and applied study opportunities are available in all three faculties so students can further enhance their skills and work experiences in Canada or internationally.

As well, merit-based and entrance scholarships are available in Management, Public Health and Fine Arts.

For Dr. Bob Ellis, the Dean of the Faculty of Management, the chance to work with his colleagues in two different degree streams was an opportunity that further reinforces his interest in collaboration.

"We have excellent programs in our respective Faculties, and graduates of these dual degree programs will possess exceptional knowledge and skills that employers will seek out," says Ellis.

FINE ARTS/MANAGEMENT

The dual Fine Arts/Management degrees combine new media, film and video production, art, drama, and music with marketing, information technology, and management practice.

"The B.F.A. (New Media)/B.Mgt. combined degrees makes graduates even more competitive in the marketplace, giving them skills in interactive technologies, marketing in digital media and social networking sites, as well as business and people management," says Dr. Desmond Rochfort, the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts.

"This unique combination of business and new media expertise opens up more professional opportunities for our fine arts students, and also for those management students who are looking to add the creativity of new media to their degrees."

HEALTH SCIENCES/MANAGEMENT

The combined Public Health/Management degree will see students taking courses in ethics, psychology, ecology of health and disease, human geography and addictions, combined with finance, organizational behavior, global management and labour relations, among other courses.

"Given that policy and administration are key streams of Public Health, an option to combine the B.H.Sc. (Public Health) degree with a Management degree provides an excellent opportunity for students to gain knowledge in both areas," says Dr. Christopher Hosgood, the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences.

"By focusing the skills of management in the field of public health, graduates will be able to seek opportunities in administrative positions in a variety of areas of public health practice. Our program is developing a good track record of placing students with employers upon graduation, in public, private, and not-for-profit sectors that require specialists in public health who know how to manage people and resources and understand strategic and policy issues."

Finding a new reality on Facebook

trevor.kenney — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:35:30 +0000

Is your new Facebook 'friend' really a friend or someone using a fake identity to get your personal information? How easy is it to convince someone to accept a completely made–up person as his or her friend?

A group of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Faculty of Management students – all active users of social media such as Facebook – recently tested those two ideas on a group of their peers and found some surprising answers.

"With more than 300 million users, Facebook and many other social networking sites pose a growing concern for the safety of individuals who use these sites and services," says Sarah Lajeunesse, group spokesperson who worked on the term-long project with team members David Ho, Kirk Patterson, Lauren O'Dwyer and Tony Melicchio. "Our primary concern with the increasing popularity of these sites is the consequences and dangers that we, as users, are potentially facing."

With that idea in mind, their assignment for the Information Systems component of the Integrated Management Experience (IME) program – under the supervision of IME Director Dan Kazakoff and Management Information Systems Professor Gordon Hunter – turned into a research-based episode of the popular MTV program Punk'd, where average people are fooled by sophisticated stunts.

In this case it was frighteningly simple.

"We have all heard about people putting up fake identities for criminal or revenge purposes, but we wanted to actually test how easy it could be to fool Facebook users," says Lajeunesse. "Our group created an imaginary female, who in less than 24 hours managed to entice more than 25 users to become her 'friends' – including complete strangers and many students from our more than 50-person research group. What really surprised us was the speed with which the 'friendship' requests were accepted, and also that one-third of the respondents who accepted this fake person as a friend started up an online conversation. As well, at least two people expected to have dates with our fake person within the week."

Lajeunesse adds the male-to-female ratio of acceptances was 65 to 35 per cent.

Their work raises concerns about the overall validity of online identities, and serves as a warning for people of all ages to be more careful about who they accept as friends or interact with online.

While the idea of people being so easily conned into accepting a completely fake person as a friend seems absurd, Lajeunesse says that as Facebook and other social networking sites are increasing in popularity at an exponential rate, so too are the number of false identities.

"Unfortunately, the social networking sites lack the technology, the legal power, or, in some cases, the will to prevent these abuses," she says. "Learning about this issue was a huge wake-up call for our group and our class. We really want people to know about our results, because this was very easy for us to do. It is not a stretch to assume that it is equally easy for others who might have bad intentions to do as well. We hope that by learning more about this issue – and talking about it – parents can increase their level of supervision to protect the young, our most vulnerable, yet least cautious, users."

The fact that young adults and teenagers are being taken in by fake Facebook pages is not a surprise to Dr. Mary Dyck.

A researcher in the U of L's Kinesiology and Physical Education department who is an expert on cyber bullying and inappropriate use of online communities, Dyck collaborated on Canada's first-ever study on rural teens' online social communication with U of L Faculty of Education researchers Dr. Pamela Adams and Dr. Robin Bright.

"Our research supports that the more information someone puts online, the more vulnerable they become to bullying, targeted marketing, predators, unwanted harassment and intrusions, and feelings of discomfort," says Dyck. "Facebook is an online community. Nothing is safe online. We can only make every attempt to be safer online by restricting our images and information, setting privacy settings for content and applications, and continually being aware of our own behaviour – and the information presented by the IME student group confirms that."

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Combined degrees introduced

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