Academic and Professional Development Fund (APDF) Awards
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/440
2024-03-29T13:59:25Z
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Representing Race in the Public Sphere – Contrasting the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) with research presented via Edmonton Public Library Theatre
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3438
Representing Race in the Public Sphere – Contrasting the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) with research presented via Edmonton Public Library Theatre
Spencer, Bruce
The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which “race” or ethnicity has been, and can be, represented in Canada and to make a number of other observations that challenge the “Central/Eastern” representation of the formation of “two-nations” Canada. Therefore this is not just a critique of how the CBC ignored ethnicity in a major piece of “public pedagogy” but a lament for a missed opportunity to present the multi-ethnic, multicultural origins of Canadian experience – a missed opportunity which is sadly repeated almost daily. Finally, we will discuss how community engagement as “public pedagogy” can be a major component of university research.
The paper discusses the failure of the CBC to use a black actor to portray Sir James Douglas (known as a “Scotch-West Indian”) and sets this failure within the history of racialization in Canada. The paper also discusses “race” theory, identity, and culture together with the social, civil and educational intersections that can be explored through research and public representation – all of which can help illuminate issues of hybridity and complexity when considering community and nation-building.
The latter section of the paper explores how educators can engage community in developing a play about their experience in coming to Canada, forming a community, and becoming Canadians of Caribbean descent (African Canadians). It also records the success of the 3 performances of the play before a total audience of 400 – a local example of an alternative public pedagogy portraying race and representation.
2014-03-11T10:29:41Z
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Causes of Banking Crises: Deregulation, Credit Booms and Asset Bubbles, Then and Now
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3432
Causes of Banking Crises: Deregulation, Credit Booms and Asset Bubbles, Then and Now
Roy, Saktinil
We examine similarities in the run-up to banking crises using two essential criteria for their predictability: i) the percentage of a specified number of years prior to a crisis correctly called; and ii) the percentage of true alarms of total alarms for a crisis. Using panel logit models we find that a banking crisis will be sparked by the collapse of a real asset bubble. While such bubbles are associated with popular stories of a new era and an increasingly deregulated financial system, in most cases, this would occur even in the absence of sustained surges of capital inflow, accumulation of public debt, central banks’ low interest rate policies, or structural shocks retarding growth. We also find that a protracted increase in income inequality in the US and other countries helped to inflate the recent housing bubble.
It was a pleasure as well as an opportunity to attend the Allied Social Sciences Association meetings in Philadelphia, held on January 2 –5.
I presented my paper, “Causes of Banking Crises: Deregulation, Credit Booms and Asset Bubbles, Then and Now” on January 3rd at the session, “Growth and Socioeconomic Policy.” The analysis and the results of the paper received appreciation from the session participants. I also heard some useful comments that are expected to enrich my next paper on a similar topic.
The annual meetings of the Allied Social Sciences Association, organized mainly by the American Economic Association, is one of the largest conferences in the whole world held annually in my field. Academics, researchers and professionals from around the globe attended and presented at the conference. It was, therefore, also an opportunity to attend other sessions and hear how economics and finance researchers from different countries are analyzing the recent global crisis and the ongoing policy debates in Europe and North America. I also attended a very important panel discussion on the current macroeconomic policy issues. The experience and knowledge gained from these sessions will be useful, as my current research is also in these areas.
2014-02-06T18:34:43Z
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Never too Old for Hope: A Group Education Initiative in Long-term Care
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3431
Never too Old for Hope: A Group Education Initiative in Long-term Care
Moore, Sharon L.
This presentation provides an overview of a project in which an innovative curriculum designed to foster hope and make hope more visible in long-term care was implemented. An outline of the curriculum and its implementation will be presented along with an overview of the resident responses.
2014-02-06T18:30:02Z
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Accidental Plagiarism in Higher Education, Part II
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3430
Accidental Plagiarism in Higher Education, Part II
Kier, Cheryl A.
Earlier research found only about half of 423 university psychology students correctly answered four questions involving recognizing plagiarism, and only a minority was able to rephrase a passage without producing plagiarized content. A more representative study of 125 undergraduates and 103 graduate students reported similar difficulties. The most common mistakes involved the presence of citations and word reversals. Results suggest many cases of plagiarism are inadvertent, so skill development rather than punishment may be appropriate.
Alarming numbers published in academia and in the media produce the perception that plagiarism is a widespread and urgent problem (e.g., Briggs, 2009). This project explores the potential extent of accidental plagiarism by assessing Canadian distance education students’ knowledge of the concept. Four pieces of evidence are analyzed: (1) students’ attempts to select plagiarised passages from a number of choices; (2) paraphrases these students produced; (3) results from a simple exercise aiming to improve plagiarism understanding; (4) the types of errors made in identifying and writing paraphrases.
Two different groups of university students were asked to recognize plagiarised work in which wording from the original had been changed in various ways. Students from the online Psychology course received feedback on their recognition attempts and then were asked to paraphrase a passage. The prediction is that with feedback and practice, this group should improve over time. A second group of more diverse students was tested to see if the results generalize. For the second group, undergraduate and graduate students were selected from throughout the university rather than from a single course. All four multiple choice scenarios included a proper citation.
This study found that almost half of the students in a third-year psychology course did not recognize plagiarised material consistently. The evidence does not support the prediction that student scores would improve over time given feedback and practice, as more students got the first question correct than the fourth question. Furthermore, the majority of these students did not correctly paraphrase a passage they were asked to write in their own words, even after they had received feedback on their recognition quizzes. This suggests more extensive instruction is needed.
Undergraduate and graduate students from throughout the university also failed to recognize many plagiarised passages that included word strings, reversals, substitutions, additions, and deletions. The poor ability of students to identify plagiarised passages may imply poor understanding of the concept (Hochstein et al., 2008). Therefore, when these students write their course essays, they may not be able to recognize their own tendency toward plagiarism and thus engage in it accidentally.
Rather than perceiving plagiarism as a type of cheating, it may be more appropriate to identify it, particularly poor paraphrasing, as a weakness in skills. The remedy for committing plagiarism should be sending students to tutorials or other methods of learning to read, write, and reference at the level required for the discipline (Briggs, 2009).
References available from author.
2014-02-06T18:17:03Z
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An Interactive OER Course Development at Athabasca University based on ODL Principles
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3429
An Interactive OER Course Development at Athabasca University based on ODL Principles
Yan, Hongxin
Failure rates in first year calculus courses are high in most post-secondary institutions across North America and other parts of the world. This Inukshuk-funded open education project involved the development of five stand-alone pre-calculus learning modules. These modules were designed to increase retention and completion rates for learners in first year calculus courses and to support learners enrolled in first year calculus by providing just-in-time instruction in five areas. One of the major challenges of the project was developing dynamic activities that could support the display of a variety of mathematical formulas. To this end an open source Flash-based authoring tool was developed called the Athabasca University Tutor Authoring Tool (AUTAT). This paper explores the design and development of the AUTAT based on the needs assessment and design principles discussed.
On October 16-18, I attended ICDE 25th 2013 conference hosted in Tianjin of China. At the conference I presented a paper titled: “An Interactive OER Course Development at Athabasca University based on ODL Principles to Increase Completion Rates in Calculus”, which was written by Dr. Sandra Law and me. This paper documents an Inukshuk Wireless-funded project that involved the design and development of an authoring tool (Athabasca University Tutor Authoring Tool or AUTAT) that was used to create a set of standalone learning modules intended for use by students struggling in first-year calculus courses. Introductory calculus is a popular course at universities across Canada but has one of the lowest completion rates of all courses offered at the introductory level. Interactive components of the just-in-time learning modules were designed using the AUTAT.
This paper was awarded as a) The Honorable Mention of the Best Paper of ICDE25th; b) ICDE Prizes for Innovation and Best Practices of 2013; This award recognizes all of the work done by a team of AU employees (learning designers, editors, web specialists, visual designers, Flash specialists, and faculty) to move mathematics instruction into the online environment and to participate in the open education movement (by providing the learning modules and the AUTAT to the world at large through the AU OCW site http://ocw.lms.athabascau.ca/course/view.php?id=5). We would like to acknowledge the assistance of content experts and instructional designer from member institutions within the Canadian Virtual University (CVU) for their reviews of the modules. The work completed on this project has informed course design in mathematics, e.g. use of MathML (W3C recommended format for displaying mathematics online).
2014-02-06T18:12:09Z
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Preparing Learners for Online Doctoral Study: Readiness App
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3428
Preparing Learners for Online Doctoral Study: Readiness App
Koole, Marguerite
The origins of the doctoral degree can be traced back to guilds in the Middle Ages in Europe. There are now a variety of doctoral degrees such as professional, applied, practitioner, and clinical. Completion routes may be research-based, module-based, publication-based, portfolio-based, and exhibition-based. Students can enroll in doctoral programs conducted fully or partially at a distance. Regardless of modality, statistics show that current completion rates (within a 10-year period) in doctoral programs across universities range anywhere from 30 to 70 percent. Low completion rates are not only harmful to learners at a personal level, but may also bring into question the societal value of supporting doctoral-level research. So, how can learners prepare for doctoral study, particularly online programs? One solution is to help potential doctoral students reflect upon their readiness—prior to applying. To this end, I have begun development of an app based upon the results of recent research.
The objective of my research was to explore the variety of social discourses that shaped doctoral students’ views of themselves and how these discourses affected their positioning within their social, personal, professional, and academic contexts. Understanding the learners’ sources of support and social positioning could help to identify stressors that may affect dropout and/or persistence. Ultimately, the main goal is to help learners to better succeed in their doctoral programs through the development of tools designed to increase awareness of the demands of doctoral study and their personal readiness for doctoral study.
The main theoretical lens used in this study was Harré’s (2010) social positioning theory in which social interaction is viewed as the foundation of behavior and learning. Within this view, identity formation is viewed as a cyclical learning process within social contexts. Nineteen doctoral students were interviewed. The resulting transcripts were subjected to discourse analysis and open coding for thematic categories. The results guided the design of a doctoral readiness app.
Six main areas of social positioning emerged: general-societal, friends-family, professional, cohort, academic-department, and the academy. Each of these “social locations” presented opportunities for support as well as potentially troublesome challenges to their persistence. Participants described alienation, indifference, hostility, encouragement, and a variety of other reactions.
The ability to identify sources of troublesomeness, ultimately, may aid in increasing completion. Although the participants described their experiences of positioning in varied ways, it was clear that at various positions in time their commitment to their doctoral studies was challenged in some way. This app is being developed to assist potential doctoral students to reflect upon and assess their personal situations prior to application. The questions are based upon the areas of social positioning identified in my research. In this presentation, I plan to demonstrate the app and how I will use it for further research on doctoral student readiness.
In October 2013, I attended the 25th World Conference in Tianjin, China of the International Council for Open and Distance Education. I presented a paper entitled “Preparing Learners for Online Doctoral Study: Readiness App”. The paper described a mobile application that I have been designing for purposes of aiding potential doctoral students in preparing for or determining their readiness for online doctoral studies. I received feedback that I will incorporate and consider in the ongoing development of this application. I am planning on some re-programming using different technologies. In addition, I will be applying for some funding to further develop and enhance the application. My intent is to offer the application to potential students for free and to invite users to participate in research on doctoral student readiness.
2014-02-06T18:09:29Z
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The Accumulation of Capital” – Economic Underpinnings of Rosa Luxemburg’s Democratic Socialism
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3427
The Accumulation of Capital” – Economic Underpinnings of Rosa Luxemburg’s Democratic Socialism
Schmidt, Ingo
Left critics of the statist policies pursued by social democrats and Soviet communists often drew inspiration from Rosa Luxemburg’s critique of union and party bureaucracies and her uncompromised commitment to the self-emancipation of the working class. But usually they neglected, or even rejected, her economic theory. Contrary to such a separation between Luxemburg’s political and economic ideas, this paper argues that the latter are an indispensible part of any strategy that aims at a democratic alternative to the statist socialisms represented by social democrats and Soviet communists.
In ‘Accumulation of Capital’, Luxemburg shows that accumulation relies on the capitalist penetration, or colonization, of non-capitalist economies. Politically, this points at the necessity of building strategic rather than just tactical coalitions between workers struggles and anti-colonial struggles, whereby the latter also include significant parts of the women’s and environmental movements. Luxemburg also explains that the limits to capital accumulation lead to prolonged periods of struggles. These periods also include the moments of decision that can ultimately lead to socialism or barbarism. The paper concludes that the War on Terror and the Great Recession opened such a period similar to that beginning with the outbreak of WWI in 1914, a year after the publication of ‘Accumulation of Capital’
I attended the International Rosa Luxemburg Conference at the Sorbonne on October 4-5, 2013 and had the privilege to present my research, and a new book, on the relations between Rosa Luxemburg’s economic theory and her activities in the international labour movement to a group of distinguished scholars from Europe, Asia, and North America. The organizers had to book a larger room twice; an attendance of about 200 people indicates that there is a strong interest in rethinking the theory and practice of labour to which Rosa Luxemburg contributed so much in her days. These contributions seem to be widely recognized as a good starting point for a reorientation of labour after a long period pf decline and in the face of ongoing economic crises and political attacks.
2014-02-06T18:00:28Z
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Reconstructing History in Vassanji's 'The Magic of Saida'
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3425
Reconstructing History in Vassanji's 'The Magic of Saida'
Pivato, Joseph J.
M.G. Vassanji's novel, The Magic of Saida (2012) deals with the return journey of Kamal Punja, a Canadian medical doctor searching for his past in Africa. The novel has two narrators: The first is Kamal who recalls the story of his early life in Tanzania and his search for the mysterious woman, Saida. The second narrator is Martin Kogoma, a publisher, who listens to Kamal's story and comments on past and present events in Africa. In trying to remember his life Kamal also reconstructs the lost history of the Indian communities in Tanzania.
The paper tries to critically examine the relationship between Kamal's life story and the reconstructed history of communities in Tanzania. Using post-colonial theories we will consider the following topics: the phenomenon of the return journey among immigrants; identity and ethnic duality; memory and the loss of memory; and different perspectives in writing history.
The narrative framing of dual narrators may remind the reader of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, however the relationship between Canada and African is different from that of European countries. There are many references in The Magic of Saida to the German colonization of the Tanganyika territory and the later occupation by the British. The literary links between Canada and African include Margaret Laurence's This Side Jordan (1960) and The Tomorrow-Tamer (1963) and Dave Godfrey's The New Ancestors (1970). Vassanji also reminds us of the South Asian migrations to East Africa.
The A&PDF travel funding enabled me to go to London, U.K. to make a presentation at this international conference on M.G. Vassanji, a Canadian writer of East African and South Asian origins.
The paper was well received. There were many other quality papers at this international conference. The organizers are planning to collect some of these papers along with others from commonwealth countries to produce an edited volume of critical essays on the works of novelist, M.G. Vassanji.
2014-01-16T21:12:18Z
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Equity, Opportunity and Inclusion for all – including those with multiple disabilities
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3424
Equity, Opportunity and Inclusion for all – including those with multiple disabilities
Pivato, Emma
The presenter will share many practical ideas for helping people who have both cognitive and severe physical challenges to do more and communicate better than they thought they could. One part of the presentation will be about a wheelchair with a built-in lift and commode unit which allows individuals with no voluntary control of their limbs to develop and maintain toileting skills despite bathroom and care giver limitations, even when traveling.
With sufficient imagination and some modest financial investment, even many or most individuals with multiple and severe disabilities can enjoy a reasonable quality of life. Various techniques for facilitating this quality of life are described in this presentation ranging from how to create tasty meals specialized to accommodate swallowing difficulties to various methods for maintaining and enhancing mobility to ways to provide toileting access even in the absence of upper body control.
2014-01-16T20:51:56Z
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Working Anytime Anywhere: Mobile Knowledge Workers
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3423
Working Anytime Anywhere: Mobile Knowledge Workers
Ng, Cheuk
Recent advances in mobile technologies and the popular use of mobile devices in our daily lives suggest that knowledge worker can now work from anywhere at any time, or while on the move. Is this true? Research suggests that only a small percentage of teleworkers work full-time from home; most teleworkers work from multiple sites including their organizational workspace, their home, and other public and private spaces (e.g., client’s offices and “third places”). While growing research efforts have been on the impact of teleworking from home on knowledge workers’ family and personal life, productivity, and job satisfaction, research on understanding working from multiple sites, “mobile work”, is just beginning. The proposed paper will review research and theoretical perspectives that explore mobile work performed by knowledge workers in organizations. Who are these mobile teleworkers? Where, when, and how do they work? The focus will be on the inter-relationships between the physical and social environment of a diversity of workplaces, particularly “third spaces” – public and private spaces that had not been considered as workplaces -- and work behaviours and well-being. How do they transform the physical environment of these public spaces to accommodate their work activities? Future research and practical implications for the design of these spaces and organizational policies will be discussed.
I made the presentation entitled “Mobile knowledge workers working anytime anywhere?” to an audience with various disciplinary backgrounds from around the world at the 2nd World Social Sciences Forum in Montreal, Quebec, on October 15, 2013. The theme of the Forum was Social Transformations and the Digital Age, covering a wide range of topics such as big/open data, research libraries’ role in data stewardship, intergenerational communication, and privacy and surveillance. My presentation was part of a symposium on New Forms of Work. The other presentations at the symposium ranged from understanding work, family, and technology figurations in the home, corporate crisis management in times of social media, to immaterial labour, monetization, commodification and the political in social media. The international audience showed general interest in telework and mobile work as changes in the world of work. My presentation was received well, with several colleagues sharing related work or requesting for a copy of my presentation and related papers for use in their teaching and research. Participation in other sessions at the Forum provided further food for thought for my teaching and research as our society is being transformed in many ways in this digital age.
2014-01-16T20:48:53Z
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Coping self-efficacy mediates the influence of generalized control beliefs on physical activity behavior and intentions to be active: A population based sample
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3422
Coping self-efficacy mediates the influence of generalized control beliefs on physical activity behavior and intentions to be active: A population based sample
Murray, Terra C.
Generalized beliefs about one’s control are thought to affect behaviors and behavioral intentions (BI). We sought to examine how a sense of mastery and constraints contribute to a specific control belief, exercise self-efficacy (SE), as well as BI and physical activity (PA) behavior in the Alberta population. We thought SE would partially mediate the effect of mastery and constraints on exercise and BI, with constraints showing a direct influence on PA. A random digit dialing survey of 1210 Albertans was conducted in Calgary, Edmonton and elsewhere. Participants were asked about control beliefs (mastery and constraints) and SE for coping with barriers to PA as well as their PA behavior and their BI to engage in PA. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the role of mastery and constraints on SE and BI and then on behavior. Mastery was positively related to SE and those reporting higher constraints were less confident in the ability to cope with the demands of exercise. Coping SE fully mediated the relationship between mastery and constraints and behavior, as well as BI. Standardized direct effects between SE and PA behavior and BI were .47 and .21, respectively. General beliefs people hold about the extent to which they can control their lives influences specific beliefs, such as coping self-efficacy. Perceiving broader barriers in one’s life lead to less confidence in one’s ability to cope with the demands of regular PA, and consequently less PA. Broader beliefs about one’s control may serve as a target to influence behavioral specific control beliefs such as coping SE for exercise, in future interventions to improve SE.
2014-01-16T20:42:19Z
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Designing a Multiagent System for Course-Offering Determination
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3421
Designing a Multiagent System for Course-Offering Determination
Lin, Fuhua (Oscar)
This paper describes the design of a multiagent system that facilitates course-offering decision making for a program in an institution. We first model course offering determination for upcoming semester as a multi-winner election with exogenous constraints which is a problem for computational social choice in multiagent systems, which has rarely been considered. Then, the paper describes the architecture and models of the multiagent system for course offering determination with Gaia role model methodology, TROPOS strategic actor diagram, Agent Unified Modeling Language (AUML) sequence diagram for a multi-agent negotiation interaction protocol, and Pseudo-code algorithms for generating fractional votes and course election protocol. A novel course selection preference model for students has been proposed and described formally. The effectiveness of the approach and the implemented system has been showed with the initial experimental results.
I attended a doctoral symposium of the conference. It was very good to know about how to guide PhD students to conduct high-quality research and complete PhD program.
I attended all the keynote sessions of the conference. The presentation on Computational Disaster Management by Professor Pascal Van Hentenryck was very insightful and encouraging. The talk on “Agents might not be people” by Professor Nigel Gilbert was illuminating.
The talk on “Satisfiability to Linear Algebra” by Professor Fangzhen Lin was revealing.
I attended almost all sections of PRIMA 2013 and some presentations of AI 2013. They reflect the advancement of the field. The discussions with the people on-site were very interesting and helpful to my future research.
Also, it was great to talk to active researchers in the field and exchanged ideas of our research and explored the possibility of collaboration.
2014-01-16T20:40:07Z
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English Proficiency and Participation in Online Discussion for Learning
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3420
English Proficiency and Participation in Online Discussion for Learning
Leung, Steve
Does English proficiency affect participation in online discussion? This study polled 14 students from a postgraduate online course that require online discussion. The students are divided into groups according to their home language spoken and self-assessed English proficiency, and measure against their participation level in the required discussion forums. It is found that students who speak English at home posts more and longer, and students who rate themselves proficient in English post more and longer. However, literature suggests that factors affecting participation are multi-faceted. Although the current findings suggest a significant relationship between English proficiency and participation level, more work is required to understand the mechanism
The CELDA conference is organized to address issues of learning process in digital ages. In the conference, educational researchers and practitioners presented their findings and experiences in different context. In the session regarding Technology, Learning and Expertise, I presented my work on the language barrier faced by non-native English speakers in online discussion. The presentation receive a couple of feedback, including one suggestion to look for relationship between perceived English proficiency and home language spoken. It will be investigated in the next round of the study.
2014-01-16T20:29:56Z
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Vorkuta: Three Chapters in the Making of a Working Class
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3419
Vorkuta: Three Chapters in the Making of a Working Class
Kellogg, Paul
In the 1930s, Vorkuta in Siberia emerged as one of the Soviet Union’s principle sources of coal. It was also the principal site of the final horror of Stalin’s extermination of the politicized workers who had raised the Bolsheviks to power in 1917. Before their extermination, the prisoners at Vorkuta, followers of Leon Trotsky, organized a magnificent hunger strike, which became the stuff of whispered legend in the years which followed.
By the 1950s Vorkuta was the principal supplier of coal to Leningrad – and the miners who dug that coal were almost all forced labourers. In 1953, several thousand of these forced labourers organized a massive strike against the slave labour system, serving in large measure as the final blow ending forced labour in the Soviet Union.
By the late 1980s, the mines of Vorkuta were operated by “free” wage labourers, and in 1989 a series of strikes by these miners – some of them the grandchildren of the 1930s Vorkuta workers –accelerated the collapse of “communism” and served as a buttress against the return of the old regime during the attempted coup in 1991.
The paper will suggest that a) the 1930’s era of strikes revealed clearly the class nature of the Soviet Union; b) the 1950’s era of strikes were shaped by and helped to end the moment of “primary accumulation” in the Soviet Union; and c) the 1980’s and early 1990’s era strikes were harbingers of the 21st century Russian working class, emergent in an era of neoliberalism.
Since 2010, I have been engaged in a research project under the heading “Self-emancipation: Work, Organization and Resistance in the Global Workplace,” research which from 2010 until 2013 was facilitated by a Research Incentive Grant from Athabasca University. One aspect of this research focused on North America, resulting in several conference papers and a peer-reviewed article on the 1990s-era “Days of Action” in Ontario. Another aspect of this research focused on Latin America and the Caribbean, and resulted in several conference papers and a book contract on the 21st century emergence of Regional Integration Initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean. The third aspect of this research focused on the decomposition and recomposition of class relations in the territories formerly known as the Soviet Union. It was this third aspect of my research which was facilitated by the Academic and Professional Development Fund.
The research focuses on three moments or chapters in the history of an Arctic city in the Komi Republic (formerly part of the Soviet Union), a city known as Vorkuta. In the 1930s, Vorkuta was the site of the most extreme moments in the decomposition of the old working class – through first internment and then execution, by Stalin’s secret police, of the working class activists who had opposed the rise of Stalinism. Before their liquidation, these activists engaged in a very long, very arduous hunger strike, a strike which became the stuff of whispered legend in the following decades.
In the 1950s, Vorkuta again emerged to prominence. It had, in the 1940s and 1950s as part of the “gulag” system of camps in the Soviet Union, been transformed from a concentration/execution camp to a forced labour camp. The forced labourers worked primarily in several enormous coal mines, the coal from which becoming a crucial component in the energy supply of the Soviet Union. In 1953, after the death of Stalin, these forced labourers overcame many internal divisions, and launched a strike movement against conditions in the camps. Without question, this strike movement played a central role in the dismantling of the bulk of the forced labour camps in the years which followed.
In the 1980s, Vorkuta was still producing coal, but now employing “free” labour as opposed to forced labour. In 1989, 1990 and 1991, these coal miners engaged in mass strike actions. From these strikes, new trade unions emerged – trade unions independent of the Stalinist state. Without question, these strikes and the emergence of independent trade unionism, played a crucial role in the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of Stalinism in 1991.
The study’s organizing framework is that provided by E.P. Thompson, who insisted that classes are not automatic products of the economy, but that in fact classes “make themselves” through struggle, debate and organization.
2014-01-16T20:26:57Z
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Increase in daily steps after a 6-month lifestyle intervention for adults with type 2 diabetes in primary care: a controlled Trial
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3418
Increase in daily steps after a 6-month lifestyle intervention for adults with type 2 diabetes in primary care: a controlled Trial
Johnson, Steven T.
Background: Healthy eating and active living are cornerstones of diabetes management, yet due to a number of systematic factors, patients in primary care settings don’t often receive adequate support for lifestyle change. Our aim was to determine the effectiveness of a certified exercise specialist led behavioral support program for adults with recently diagnosed type 2 diabetes when implemented in primary care.
Methods: Eligible participants from four large non-metro primary care networks in Alberta, Canada were assigned, using a controlled time-series “On-Off” allocation, to either a usual care control group or a pedometer-based walking program led by a certified exercise specialist. The program targeted increased daily walking for the first 3 months followed by a brisk walking speed target and increased substitution of low- relative to high-glycemic index foods over the next 3 months. The primary outcome was physical activity at 6-months, ascertained objectively using pedometers. Secondary outcomes included dietary and relevant clinical markers (e.g, A1c, blood pressure, BMI). We compared outcomes using random effects models, with intent-to-treat analyses.
Results: Of 1000 eligible patients contacted, 198 were enrolled. Of these, 96 were allocated to control and 102 to the intervention. Overall, 50% women, mean age 59.5(SD 8.3) years, A1c 6.8% (SD 1.1), BMI 33.9 kg/m2 (SD 6.8), systolic pressure 125.7 mmHg (SD 16.1), average daily caloric intake 1285.8 (SD 458), average glycemic index 51.1 (4.6), average daily steps 5879 (SD 3130). The control group was older (3.3 years; p=0.005), otherwise no other group differences were observed at baseline. Mean daily pedometer steps increased for the intervention compared to the control at 3-months (1293 [SD 2698] vs. 418 [SD 2458] and 6-months (1481 [SD 2631] vs. 336 [SD 2712]; adjusted p=0.004). No significant differences were observed for diet or clinical outcomes.
Discussion: A 6-month behavioral support program delivered in primary care by a certified exercise specialist can be effective for increasing daily physical activity among adults with recently diagnosed diabetes. Given that the enrolled patients were generally already at recommended clinical targets, the increase in daily steps was not, however, associated with improved metabolic outcomes.
My work on healthy eating and active living for diabetes in primary care networks was presented with a poster. My work was well received among a large international community at the International Diabetes Federation World Diabetes Congress meeting in Melbourne Australia. The opportunity to discuss our health care system and how service delivery takes place for diabetes self-management was of interest to many of international delegates. The international presence at the conference permitted recognition of my research, and Athabasca University.
2014-01-16T20:18:53Z
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The ‘success’ of formal diversion programs for youth: Understanding why alternatives to court are so popular among youth and law enforcement.
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3417
The ‘success’ of formal diversion programs for youth: Understanding why alternatives to court are so popular among youth and law enforcement.
Greene, Carolyn
The diversion of young people from the traditional court process has been supported for many years. Much of the research on diversion policies and program has focused exclusively on how diversion programs operate, such as whether programs actually divert and the types of youth who are diverted. While many have speculated on how young people might view and experience diversion, a thorough examination of how the young people perceive diversion, is noticeably absent from the literature. Using data from interviews with 119 police officers; 106 young offenders who participated in one of two pre-charge diversion programs; and 54 youths who were sent to court (and later diverted from the court process), this paper explores how these youth viewed their experiences in diversion
2014-01-16T20:15:27Z
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Writing for Publication and Nurse Practitioners Readiness for Practice
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3416
Writing for Publication and Nurse Practitioners Readiness for Practice
Fraser, Debbie
Writing for Publication: Debbie Fraser
An integral component of furthering nursing knowledge, scholarly writing is a part of any advanced practice nursing role. Too often however, as busy professionals we find reasons to allow a writing project to fall off the side of the desk. Sitting down in front of a blinking cursor and an empty screen can be a daunting prospect. This session will provide some insight into the world of publishing and will address selecting a topic and a journal as well as the nitty gritty of the writing process.
Nurse Practitioners Readiness for Practice
Submitting authors: Dr Kimberley Lamarche, RN NP, DNP; Debbie Fraser, RN NP, MN; Dr Jennifer Knopp-Sihota, RN NP, PhD; Tina MacNamara, RN NP, MN; Dr Roberta Heale, RN NP, DNP
Background: Appropriate training and educational programs need to reflect changing and increasing clinical performance expectations and meet the changing needs of the NP student in a modern-day, online learning environment. This research provides information describing how newly graduated NPs perceive that their graduate education has prepared them for practice. When discussing the significance of understanding these perceptions based on the NP Preparedness tool, Hart (2007) reflected that “practicing NPs are the basis of the NP profession, and their views need to be sought, listened to, and reflected upon as we advance toward expanded preparation.”
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to ascertain the perceived level of preparedness of NP program alumni for practice. Specific levels of perceived preparation in select clinical content areas as well as students perceived barriers to online education were determined.
Data Sources: 50 participants responded to a two separate surveys: Nurse Practitioners Preparedness for Practice Survey and Survey of Student Barriers to eLearning. Data will be presented to describe the level of perceived preparedness as an NP upon graduation, factors during the first year that affected their ability to integrate into the practice setting (i.e. mentoring, clinical support), and barriers to eLearning.
Implications for Practice: A clear need for more data relating to NP preparedness for professional practice is obvious (Keough et al, 2010; Hart et al, 2007, Woolsey, 2006; Dunaway & Running, 2009). This study provides valuable information on how students perceive their preparation for practice as they exit their formal education and transition to working professionals. Further, with a solid understanding of changing NP student needs within the modern-day context of e-learning, faculty, administrators, and nursing peers can appropriately guide the continuing development of NP professional training programs for the betterment of advanced nursing practice in Canada.
Writing for publication is an important part of academic and professional practice. This presentation provides a brief review of important points to consider when writing an article to be submitted for publication. Topics addressed include reasons for publishing, selecting a topic and journal and issues such as referencing, plagiarism and overcoming writer’s block.
2014-01-16T20:12:24Z
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Next Stop Recommender
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3415
Next Stop Recommender
Chang, Maiga
User wandering behaviours may involve many location visits in different order. The research team has proposed an algorithm which can provide users recommendation for their next visit according to the behaviour pattern similarity amongst users and the connections amongst locations. In order to test the effectiveness of proposed algorithm the research team develops a mobile app – Next Stop Recommender – for Android platform. This paper focuses on the app itself and discusses the potential use of the app and the directions for the algorithm enhancement.
The earlier precedent research had designed an algorithm which is capable of finding a user’s wandering behaviour pattern and further comparing the extracted pattern with other users’. With the similarity measurement, the precedent research can recommend a user next stop(s) that he or she might be interested according to his or her past wandering behaviours. This research further developed an Android mobile app which integrates different positioning technologies such as QR Code and GPS and the proposed algorithm to provide users a personalized service which can be used in a variety of application domains such like tourism, field trips, and mobile learning. Some participants of the presentation argued that the system should record users’ wandering behaviours in local time instead of the time on their mobile devices. The argument is thoughtful and useful. The next stop of this research will be categorizing users’ wandering patterns based on time and event as well as point of interests. This research is also looking for partners to use the mobile app and to give the research team the feedback in terms of its usability and user perceptions; looking for partners to use the next stop recommender algorithm or app in their existing and prospective research and/or system/app.
2014-01-16T20:07:55Z
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Development of an Introductory Financial Accounting OER at Athabasca University
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3414
Development of an Introductory Financial Accounting OER at Athabasca University
Annand, David
A project underway at Athabasca University to develop an Introductory Financial Accounting text as an open educational resource will be described. The resource will be used in one of the University’s largest undergraduate courses, Introductory Financial Accounting. The course has more than 1,700 registrations per year. Over 1,000 pages and 13 chapters of instructional and supplementary material have been developed. The genesis of the project, and the general writing process and challenges encountered, will be discussed. Plans to concurrently produce paper-based and online, enhanced versions of the text will be discussed.
The development process of the OER text was described in a 40 minute parallel session on October 24 as part of the seventh annual COHERE conference entitled Open Resources, Open Courses: Their Impact on Blended and Online Learning. The presentation generated a broad-ranging discussion about Athabasca University’s OER and e-text initiatives. The text was mentioned in the keynote address of David Porter on October 25 as a new example of OER development work.
2014-01-16T20:03:40Z
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Large Scale Deployment of Tablet Computers in K-12 Schools in Brazil
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3413
Large Scale Deployment of Tablet Computers in K-12 Schools in Brazil
Ally, Mohamed
Different sectors of the society of many countries have been demanding for significant improvements in their education systems and teaching and learning practices in recent years (Keller, 2008; Latchem & Hanna, 2001). The need of keeping or developing competitiveness has been the main reason for these calls. These countries has been faced some challenges in terms of lack of skilled works, capacity of resilience from the labor market to deal with dramatic economic changes, and the pursuit for more productivity based on the use of technology. Brazil is a good example of these countries. It has been struggling to improve its public basic education in order to keep the conditions for developing. One of the initiatives to do it is changing the education paradigm in K12 schools with the use of tablet computers in a large scale deployment. This paper describes the social scenario that has leaded to this initiative and how it has been made in a huge country, involving hundreds of thousands of tablet computers for K12 schools.
The presentation provided information on the large scale implementation of tablet computers for teachers in Brazil. The Brazilian project offers a very interesting research scenario for western countries, since this country is fairly aligned with the western culture, tradition and behavior. However, the Brazilian experience can be replicated in very different countries of the world, even those that are culturally different. Few countries in the world have an organized and somehow centralized education system, with such number of students (8 million), to propitiate the opportunity to research on large scale deployment of the use of tablet computers in classroom. When the research is completed, the results will be published for wide dissemination.
2014-01-16T20:01:43Z
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Connecting Learners in Self-Paced Undergraduate Study: Practitioner Cases
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3412
Connecting Learners in Self-Paced Undergraduate Study: Practitioner Cases
Thiessen, Janice K.
Enabling students to take responsibility for and make choices about aspects of their learning is an important affordance of distance education. Distance learners determine the time and place for their studies—those engaged in self-paced study may also choose the rate at which they proceed through their courses. Self-paced study at a distance provides learners with opportunities for increased independence and self-direction, while offering educators the potential to reach large audiences and reduce per student costs. However, in the absence of cohorts working through courses together, it is difficult to incorporate purposeful learner-learner interaction into self-paced study. This challenge exemplifies the tension inherent in the theoretical divide between independence and interaction. This session, of interest to distance education professionals and faculty, presented preliminary results of a multiple-case study of learner-learner interaction in three universities that offer self-paced undergraduate study at a distance. Session participants learned about case-specific issues and strategies of how and why course developers (learning/teaching specialists and faculty) deal with the challenges of incorporating such interaction into self-paced study at a distance, including the ways in which social software is providing opportunities for self-paced learners to interact. Participants also reflected on the ways their own practice acknowledges and addresses the importance of both learner interaction and independence.
My session at the 29th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning was well attended (about 60 people). I presented the preliminary results of a multiple-case study of how academics and learning/teaching specialists at three universities are incorporating learner-learner interaction into self-paced undergraduate study at a distance. In the Q&A period following my presentation I responded to the following questions:
- Have my ideas about the relative importance of independence and interaction changed during the course of conducting my research study?
- How did I determine the issues for each of the three cases I investigated? What factors might account for the emergence of different issues from each case?
- How might an individual faculty member integrate a social software/networking element in their online classroom? What are the pedagogical, logistical, privacy, and other issues that need to be addressed?
Informal feedback was positive and I shared contact information with several participants who would like to know when my research results are published.
Participants at this major distance teaching and learning conference found the topic of practitioner cases of learner-learner interaction in self-paced study relevant and timely. While social software and networking offer opportunities for learner-learner interaction, practitioners in self-paced as well as imposed-pace settings are interested in learning about knowledge and practical suggestions from the field.
2014-01-16T18:59:06Z
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Testing under Pressure
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3411
Testing under Pressure
Loken, Geoff
“For most of us, testing shares more in common with emergency response than with airplane maintenance. In a perfect world we’d check the torque on every bolt, and leave the runway with 100% certainty every flight. Most testers don’t have that luxury; we’re thrown at problems, and have to solve them as quickly as we can, with whatever tools we have. We’re expected to quickly understand new contexts, to deal with high pressure, low resources, and rapidly evolving situations. I’ll be comparing my experience as a firefighter to my experience with testing. We have to imagine the worst case: we enter a scene with little or no information, an urgency of action, and limited resources. It’s imperative to get in and out quickly, to prioritize the critical, high impact response, and to handle whatever unexpected challenges the job is going to throw at you. Every situation is different, and there’s never enough information, so how do you prepare for the unknown?”
The CAST conference is an annual conference hosted by the Association for Software Testing, out of the United States. The theme this year was on experiences, with an intention to draw many new speakers. I submitted an application, trying to apply lessons learned in the emergency services to the test industry.
In the end, much of the presentation focused on the role of Best Practices, a term stolen from the business world, and how they impact the work we do. I advocated instead for an approach tailored on our own context and situation, and discussed methods of minimizing risk when dealing with limited information and high pressure situations.
The format is critical to understanding the outcomes of the conference. 45 minutes speaking, followed by a 30 minute question period. The audience was highly engaged and the room near full. It’s a very open setting, which shaped the format and content of the talk in what I think were positive ways.
2014-01-16T18:54:34Z
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A Framework for Enabling Incidental Learning on the Web
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3410
A Framework for Enabling Incidental Learning on the Web
Wang, Hongxue (Harris)
Incidental learning is learning something without intent, which usually happens at the time that is not dedicated to learn that thing. Examples of such time include work, game play and activities for leisure. In today’s life of many people, a lot of time is spent on the surfing the Web. Should incidental learning be effectively implemented for individuals using the Web, it would make learning more effective for many. This can be especially true for adult learners since they most likely have less time dedicated to learning, or don’t have any dedicated time for learning at all. In this paper we present a framework for enabling incidental learning on the Web. The framework identify six key elements for incidental learning on the web, describe a general process of incidental learning, two types of incidental learning and nine scenarios of incidental learning on the web. Finally, the framework prescribes a list of theories and essential technologies that are important for enabling incidental learning on the web.
With the support of this A&PDF fund, I was able to attend International Conference on Cyber Crime and Computer Forensic 2013The 2013 International Conference on e-Learning, e-Business, Enterprise Information Systems, and e-Government held in Las Vegas, USA, and presented a paper titled A Framework for Enabling Incidental Learning on the Web. From the feedback's from the attendees, I see both the values of the research and the challenges ahead. This has made me become more diligent to work on the topic.
2014-01-16T18:50:01Z
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Location-Based Learning Management System for Adaptive Mobile Learning
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3409
Location-Based Learning Management System for Adaptive Mobile Learning
Tan, Qing
E-learning and distance learning are all forms of learning that take place outside of a traditional learning environment and can be alternatives for learners who are not able to study in a traditional environment for various reasons. With advancement in technologies and increased use of smart phone, mobile learning has gained popularity as another form of learning and has enabled learners to learn anywhere and anytime. Ubiquitous learning takes mobile learning to another level by providing contents that are context and location aware. There is therefore the need to provide mobile devices with the right learning contents for the right users. The right learning contents should be adaptive to the learner’s location, as well as learning style and device etc. To be able to implement the learning, learning management systems play the important role in creating, managing, and delivering the learning contents. In this paper, a location-based Learning Management System for adaptive and personalized mobile learning is presented. The systems makes use of 5R Adaptation Framework for Location based Mobile learning, the location-based dynamic grouping algorithm, and concepts of the IMS Learning Design model to produce a location-based adaptive mobile learning setting.
2014-01-16T18:46:03Z
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Subaltern Approach and the “Sense” of History in Global Studies
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3408
Subaltern Approach and the “Sense” of History in Global Studies
Shrivastava, Meenal
In the 1980s, the scope of enquiry of Subaltern Studies was applied as a corrective to the dominant Eurocentric history writing, particularly in the South Asian postcolonial historiography. In its early commitment to social history, Subaltern Studies re-invented ‘subalternity’ by divorcing itself from Engel and Gramsci to invent a distinctive subalternity in which the nation was being re-configured, re-imagined, and re-theorised, exposing the breach between popular and national history. Subaltern Studies became an original site for a new kind of history from below, a people’s history free of national constraints, a post-nationalist re-imagining of the Indian nation on the underside, at the margins, and outside nationalism. Additionally, the intellectual efficacy of the term “Subaltern” enabled its adoption in fields such as anthropology, sociology, cultural studies and literary criticism.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, as the Cold War came to an end, critical attacks on the public sector under Reagan and Thatcher widened what many scholars began to see as a permanent rift between people and states. In more contemporary times, the gulf between the peoples and states has been widening worldwide as global capitalism fights states for power over national resources; through the emergence of the processes of globalization and the concentration of capital on a new level that is apparently outside the effective control of the state machinery; and the emergence of a new plurality of sites of resistance, social groupings, movements, regions, and subcultures. In this milieu, the paper will explore if the social history approach of early Subaltern Studies could enrich the texture and interpretation of contemporary global history? In particular, it will explore the usefulness of engaging with our interconnected global experience through individual historical narratives such as those provided by The Book of Negroes (Lawrence Hill, 2007), Kiss of the Fur Queen (Tomson Highway, 1998) and Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe, 1958).
From July 10 to 12, 2013, I attended the annual conference of the European Global Studies Association at Roehampton University, London, UK. The theme of this year’s conference was “The Cosmopolitan Ideal: Challenges and Opportunities”. It was a small conference of nearly 200 delegates and aimed to critically interrogate the idea of cosmopolitanism as a notion that emphasizes the multiplicity of identities, belongings, and memberships that are possible across a plurality of communities. Aside from my ongoing research, publications, and program development within the field of Global Studies, this theme resonated with my ongoing project dealing with the significance of individual historical narratives towards inculcating a “sense of history”. My paper argues that a “sense of history” in terms of engagement with the past, as well as the construction of history, is often a process that is driven from above, by the social and political elite of the time. However, as the gulf between the histories of peoples and the state widens in this era of rapid globalization and the neoliberal retreat of the state, there is a greater need to bridge the gap between historical theory and the study of historical memory. My paper advocates for the social history approach of Subaltern Studies to broaden and deepen the understanding of global history and explores the significance of historical narratives such as The Book of Negroes (Lawrence Hill, 2007), Kiss of the Fur Queen (Tomson Highway, 1998) and Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe, 1958) to bring back the focus on peoples and processes, not only on events. There was a lot of gratifying discussion related to my project during and after my presentation, setting a very positive stage for the archival work that I embarked upon after the conference. Since this is an ongoing research, I am unable to share the draft paper in the public domain, however, the abstract of the paper follows below and I welcome any questions or suggestions through private communication.
Title: Subaltern Approach and the “Sense” of History in Global Studies
Abstract: In the 1980s, the scope of enquiry of Subaltern Studies was applied as a corrective to the dominant Eurocentric history writing, particularly in the South Asian postcolonial historiography. In its early commitment to social history, Subaltern Studies re-invented ‘subalternity’ by divorcing itself from Engel and Gramsci to invent a distinctive subalternity in which the nation was being re-configured, re-imagined, and re-theorised, exposing the breach between popular and national history. Subaltern Studies became an original site for a new kind of history from below, a people’s history free of national constraints, a post-nationalist re-imagining of the Indian nation on the underside, at the margins, and outside nationalism. Additionally, the intellectual efficacy of the term “Subaltern” enabled its adoption in fields such as anthropology, sociology, cultural studies and literary criticism.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, as the Cold War came to an end, critical attacks on the public sector under Reagan and Thatcher widened what many scholars began to see as a permanent rift between people and states. In more contemporary times, the gulf between the peoples and states has been widening worldwide as global capitalism fights states for power over national resources; through the emergence of the processes of globalization and the concentration of capital on a new level that is apparently outside the effective control of the state machinery; and the emergence of a new plurality of sites of resistance, social groupings, movements, regions, and subcultures. In this milieu, the paper will explore if the social history approach of early Subaltern Studies could enrich the texture and interpretation of contemporary global history? In particular, it will explore the usefulness of engaging with our interconnected global experience through individual historical narratives such as those provided by The Book of Negroes (Lawrence Hill, 2007), Kiss of the Fur Queen (Tomson Highway, 1998) and Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe, 1958).
2014-01-16T18:43:03Z
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Program Experiences of Men Completing the Reaching for a Good Life Program
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3407
Program Experiences of Men Completing the Reaching for a Good Life Program
Nielsen, Karen
This presentation will report the findings of a qualitative investigation into the experiences of thirty-one men completing the Reaching for a Good Life program as well as post-group quantitative measures of executive functioning and anger/hostility. The men were interviewed immediately after completing the four-month program. The semi-structured interview prompted the men to consider what was helpful (or not) for them in the program and to reflect on where they experienced the most growth. In addition, the quantitative measures were discussed with the men and this initial post-group program evaluation data suggests that participation in the program appears to be correlated with positive outcomes at group completion. The major themes emerging from the qualitative reflected on program design, the changes in their interpersonal relationships and areas of personal growth. The use of this qualitative data in further program design will be discussed.
The Reaching for a Good Life program is a therapy group for men who are abusive within the context of their intimate relationship. It offers a non-shaming approach to help the participants to make the change they need in order to live a violence free “good life”. This presentation was an invited presentation and given at the 33rd International Congress of Law and Mental Health
2014-01-16T18:39:57Z
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The utility of portable optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) readers in providing temporal contexts in clastic depositional systems: opportunities in geomorphology
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3406
The utility of portable optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) readers in providing temporal contexts in clastic depositional systems: opportunities in geomorphology
Munyikwa, Ken
The recent development ofa functional portable optically stimulated luminescence (POSL) readers has ushered in new opportunities in geomorphology. Although POSL readers do not necessarily provide absolute ages as in regular OSL dating, they can be used to readily acquire luminescence signals from clastic sediments. Such signals can be used to construct luminescence profiles which depict the variation of the luminescence signal with depth within a depositional sequence. Luminescence signals depend on dose rate, sensitivity of the mineral grains, mineralogy, degree of bleaching and burial age of the sediments. When all these parameters apart from burial age are held constant, the luminescence profile can serve as a proxy for the chronostratigraphy.
A number of studies we have carried out on the Canadian prairies with a POSL reader developed by the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre serves to illustrate the utility of the readers. Their portability means that the device can be carried to the field and analysis can be performed on bulk samples, negating the need for time-intensive mineralogical separations, as is required in regular OSL dating. In one study we used the POSL reader to profile Holocene eolian dune sequences to determine the relative ages of the depositional units as well as ascertain whether any lengthy depositional hiatuses exist within the sequences. In another study we profiled postglacial dunes that overlie glaciofluvial sands in an effort to delineate the interface between the two depositional facies. In a third study we used luminescence profiling to identify eolian dune sands that were still intact from those that had experienced post-depositional mixing. In all three cases, luminescence profiling afforded an enhanced temporal context of the stratigraphy, permitting better sample targeting for regular OSL dating. Overall the studies underscore the breadth of geomorphological settings in which the POSL readers can be used.
This outline summarizes a presentation I made on August 28, 2013 at the 8th International Conference on Geomorphology organized by the International Geomorphological Association at the Cite des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris, France. The presentation was titled “The utility of portable optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) readers in providing temporal contexts in clastic depositional systems: opportunities in geomorphology”
Luminescence readers are devices that are used to detect low levels of light emitted by geological samples when stimulated by heat or another light source. The light from the samples comes from energy that accumulates in mineral grains such as quartz or feldspar as a result of low level radioactivity that occurs naturally in earth materials. This energy accumulates over time as long at the samples are shielded from light. Therefore luminescence signals can be used to measure burial age of the samples. Over the last 5-6 years, portable versions of the regular lab-bound luminescence readers have been developed and while these are simpler devices, they can be used to obtain luminescence signals much more rapidly than with the lab-bound OSL readers.
Our presentation in Paris outlined three case studies that we have carried out in Alberta that illustrate the utility of portable OSL in geomorphology, which is the study of the shape of the earth’s surface. In the first study, we used the portable OSL reader to determine relative ages of depositional units in a dune landscape in southern Alberta. In the second study we used the portable reader to demarcate basal sections of wind deposited dunes that overlie glacial sands in central and northern Alberta. In the third study we used the portable reader to differentiate between sedimentary units disrupted by human activity (oil and gas related pipeline work) and those that are still naturally intact.
Overall, the three studies illustrate the usefulness of portable OSL readers in providing a better insight with regards to the timing of deposition in young sedimentary systems, especially in those emplaced by wind. Understanding such contexts is central to the study and interpretation of geological processes that take place near the earth’s surface.
2014-01-16T18:37:14Z
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Be Like Winifred: Transferring Images of Colonial Africa to the South Pacific
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3405
Be Like Winifred: Transferring Images of Colonial Africa to the South Pacific
Ellerman, Evelyn
European colonial history is filled with examples of attempts to transfer cultural values, attitudes and beliefs from the metropolis to the colonies. European publishers at first sent textbooks to the colonies without altering image or text, as if the colony was an intrasystemic cultural extension of the metropolitan. Such cultural transfer practices might present Wordsworth’s canonic poem about daffodils to African children who had never seen that flower, or begin African history lessons with the words, “Nos ancêtres, les gaulois….” Gradually colonial practices began to recognize intersystemic differences by accommodating the colonial situation. Language might be “translated” through adoption of a simpler form; images might be altered to reflect the geographic locale of the reader; and content translated to represent what was meaningful to subject peoples.
Although these decolonization practices are reasonably well documented in the flow of information from metropolis to colony, there are few studies that examine how such print culture practices operated between colonies. This paper contends that, between the wars and for a variety of reasons, including the success of demonstration schools in West Africa and Lord Lugard’s transfer of indirect rule to Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa became a model for other colonies of innovative British colonial philosophy and practice. What this meant for the colonies of Papua and New Guinea was that Africa not only provided colonial administrators with models of development practice, but that Melanesians were urged to be like Africans. Images of successful Africans began to appear in administration journals, school textbooks and magazines. At first photographs of Winifred, an African nurse, are identified as African; but intrasystemic assumptions gradually masked her identity to that of a “black” nurse in the obvious hope that Melanesian women might imitate her example. Other photos of African children and African villages and agricultural practices were used to illustrate similarities between PNG and Africa, but also to demonstrate the more progressive attitudes of Africans. This process of transferring, rather than translating one colonial situation to another continued throughout decolonization in Papua and New Guinea and into the early years of independence. It is part of a decolonizing strategy of model, mask, and shadow that was widely used not only for development purposes, but for the devolution of power. Inevitably, resistance developed to these intrasystemic incursions, as proponents of “The Melanesian Way” replaced images of Africa with those of Papua New Guinea.
2014-01-16T18:24:39Z
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An Analysis of Client Realism, Virtue Ethics and Comprehensive Justice
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3404
An Analysis of Client Realism, Virtue Ethics and Comprehensive Justice
Dewhurst, Dale
In this paper I assert that at the foundations of Therapeutic Jurisprudence and the Comprehensive Justice Movement (Comprehensive Law Movement / Non-Adversarial Justice) lies in the interplay between client realism and the natural law virtue theory of justice. This paper seeks to examine that relationship in more detail by expanding our understanding of what is involved in client realism and examining how it harmonizes with Aristotelian virtue ethics and more contemporary conceptions of virtue ethics.
This analysis follows upon my previous argument that Therapeutic Jurisprudence (TJ) can be seen as a normative system on two of three important levels. At Level 1 – Legal Practice, TJ asserts normative standards of practice. At Level 2 - Legal Theory, TJ delineates systemic developments that are required to achieve higher order goals of the justice system. However, at Level 3 – Legal Order, TJ does not mandate higher order normative standards, dictate overall purposes of law or define the overarching norms of justice. This is due to TJ’s respect for client realism: i.e. the idea that justice must be determined from clients’ needs and values, based upon clients’ choices regarding which rights to pursue or waive and which vectors are best employed to achieve the desired ends.
Through a better understanding of client realism and contemporary analyses of natural law virtue theories of justice, it is hoped that the normative status of TJ at Level 3 will be clarified and TJ’s relationship amongst the various vectors of the Comprehensive Justice Movement will be more fully understood.
In this paper I assert that at the foundations of Therapeutic Jurisprudence and the Comprehensive Justice Movement (Comprehensive Law Movement / Non-Adversarial Justice) lies in the interplay between client realism and the natural law virtue theory of justice. This paper seeks to examine that relationship in more detail by expanding our understanding of what is involved in client realism and examining how it harmonizes with Aristotelian virtue ethics and more contemporary conceptions of virtue ethics.
This analysis follows upon my previous argument that Therapeutic Jurisprudence (TJ) can be seen as a normative system on two of three important levels. At Level 1 – Legal Practice, TJ asserts normative standards of practice. At Level 2 - Legal Theory, TJ delineates systemic developments that are required to achieve higher order goals of the justice system. However, at Level 3 – Legal Order, TJ does not mandate higher order normative standards, dictate overall purposes of law or define the overarching norms of justice. This is due to TJ’s respect for client realism: i.e. the idea that justice must be determined from clients’ needs and values, based upon clients’ choices regarding which rights to pursue or waive and which vectors are best employed to achieve the desired ends.
Through a better understanding of client realism and contemporary analyses of natural law virtue theories of justice, it is hoped that the normative status of TJ at Level 3 will be clarified and TJ’s relationship amongst the various vectors of the Comprehensive Justice Movement will be more fully understood.
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This is the 4th in a series of presentations at the International Academy of Law and Mental Health congresses (2 of which have now been published) that shape the theoretical foundation for the therapeutic jurisprudence and comprehensive justice frameworks.
2014-01-16T18:21:42Z
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Counsellor and Practicum Supervisor Critical Incidents in the Development of Multicultural and Social Justice Competency
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3403
Counsellor and Practicum Supervisor Critical Incidents in the Development of Multicultural and Social Justice Competency
Collins, Sandra
In many countries, counselling psychology has increasingly attended to the diverse needs of clients within multicultural societies. In North America, emphasis has been placed on nondominant populations, whose experiences of discrimination, cultural oppression, and social, economic, and political marginalization, have a significant impact on psychosocial wellbeing. Counsellors are expected to engage in social justice action, with or on behalf of clients, to effect change in organizations, communities, or broader social systems. The purpose of this study was to examine how well counsellor education programs in Canada are preparing counsellors for both multicultural counselling and social justice. Most research has focused on curriculum content; less attention has been paid to how that content is taught and the efficacy of those learning processes in facilitating competency. The critical incident technique was used to solicit examples of effective and less effective learning processes from graduate students. The qualitative data was analyzed to isolate, cluster, and relate emergent concepts; a critical lens also highlighted missing constructs. The most common learning contexts were the multicultural counselling course and the applied practicum. Four themes emerged that reflect current research: fostering of self-awareness, application of theory to practice, engagement of affect through experiential exercises, and exposure to diversity. Infusion of multicultural and social justice competency throughout curricula is also widely advocated, but was reflected in only four percent of the critical incidents. Engagement in social justice roles and activities was also missing. Enhancements to both curriculum content and process are required to support the social justice agenda.
The purpose of these two presentations was to highlight some of the outcomes of an Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded research project designed to answer the following questions: 1. How well are graduate counsellor education programs doing in preparing practitioners for working in multicultural contexts and addressing social justice issues? 2. What are the most influential learning contexts, processes, or activities in the development of multicultural counselling and social justice competency?
The two presentations funded through this A&PDF award focused on the critical incidents in development of multicultural counselling and social justice competency identified by three groups of research participants: graduate students, counsellors, and practicum supervisor. One of the central differences across the groups was that, unlike current counselling students, most counsellors and practicum supervisors had little or no training in these areas as part of their graduate education. They were educated in a context and within a particular theoretical model that did not embrace the importance of cultural diversity to counselling in the way most programs currently do. They developed competence through their interactions with diverse clients, their own self-study, and consultation with others in the field. Current students, on the other hand, had considerable exposure to multicultural issues in their programs and noted, in particular the importance of experiential, consciousness-raising, and applied practice learning activities. However, their learning experiences seemed to impact attitudes and knowledge more profoundly than specific skill acquisition. In particular, they noted deficits in skills for advocacy and other forms of social justice action. Students also noted that most of their learning emerged from one course on multicultural counselling, rather than being integrated across all courses.
There are a number of important implications of this research, particularly given the increased support in the counselling literature of both the need and the ethical imperative of competency in these areas:
1. Current practitioners and practicum supervisors may lack competency in these areas, unless they have been exposed to, and motivated towards self-study, by the cultural diversity of their clients.
2. These existing practitioners and supervisors are role models for new practitioners and practicums students, which suggests that continuing education and professional development opportunities may need to be provided to match their awareness and competency to current professional expectations.
3. The importance of exposure to diverse clientele during graduate counsellor education training also suggests that university programs may need to take a more active role in both ensuring appropriate role modeling and diversity of clientele in student practicum placements.
4. There is a need to increase learning opportunities that foster the development of skills competencies for multicultural counselling and, more particularly, social justice action.
5. The integration of theory and practice and the infusion of multicultural and social justice competency development across all courses in graduate counsellor education programs offer the best hope of optimizing student competency development.
These presentations have now been published in the following journals:
Collins, S., Arthur, N., Brown, C. (2013). Counsellor and practicum supervisor critical incidents in the development of multicultural and social justice competency. International Journal of Social Sciences, 2(2), 16-32.
Collins, S., Arthur, N., Brown, C. (2013). Critical incidents in graduate student development of multicultural and social justice competency. Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2(9), 105-115. doi:10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n9p105
2014-01-16T18:19:00Z
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Two School-Based Mental Health Services: One Systemic Approach
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3402
Two School-Based Mental Health Services: One Systemic Approach
Chang, Jeff
This presentation focuses on the development, operation, and evolution of two school-based, mental health consultation services operating in private and charter schools in Calgary, AB, Canada. First, I describe the Family-School-System Consultation Service, a targeted mental health consultation service available for over 100 private and charter schools in Calgary, AB, which has operated since 2001. I will: examine the challenges inherent in providing services to a diverse constellation of schools; describe the family systems foundations of the consultation service; describe the consultation process, including ethical challenges, and rationale for who attends; and describe the service delivery and staffing model, and how each position/skill profile supports systemic support.
Secondly, I will describe the Wellness Empowerment Program, a whole school mental health program serving two schools that exclusively educate Muslim students. I will examine: the community engagement and development process; describe the tiered service delivery approach, and provide some service examples, featuring family support and family counselling.
Finally, I describe a model for conceptualizing systemic service delivery in schools, which has emerged from our project team’s experience delivering services: the InterSSCT (“intersect”) approach. The elements of InterSSCT are:
interfaces between social systems, including formal and informal social structures (school and cultural communities);
systems, the context in which services are delivered;
skills – capacity building in students and school personnel, and school-based family counselors’ role in doing so;
connections – school-based family counselors’ work to maximize connection between family members, between school and family, and within the school, to facilitate a sense of belonging and connection;
transitions -- faltering through transitions (within the school day, throughout the school year, or between family life cycle stages) can contribute to problems.
Participants will discuss how school-based counsellors can use “InterSSCT” to conceptualize and plan interventions.
2014-01-16T18:14:27Z
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Matroreform: Evolving to a “New” Motherhood”
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3401
Matroreform: Evolving to a “New” Motherhood”
Wong-Wylie, Gina
“New” motherhood is initiated through everyday maternal practices and evolves motherhood at its most fundamental level. In a process called matroreform, women unwittingly and/or intentionally choose what they do and do not want to replicate from their own experience of being mothered. From a broader perspective, how we enact mothering and who we are as mothers indicates and represents acceptable and non-acceptable motherhood practices to ourselves and to society. The term matroreform was coined by feminist maternal scholar, Dr. Gina Wong. It is a transformative maternal practice and is “an act, desire, and process of claiming motherhood power … a progressive movement to mothering that attempts to institute new mothering rules and practices apart from one’s motherline” (Wong-Wylie, p. 135, 2006). Preliminary qualitative research data will demonstrate how mothers reform motherhood. This presentation will explore ideas and generate discussion on a ‘new’ motherhood.
2014-01-16T17:47:22Z
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N/A
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3400
N/A
Ross, Lynda
Chair the Section on Women and Psychology (SWAP) annual business meeting, organize and attend the (SWAP) Executive dinner, organize and Chair the (SWAP) Executive Business breakfast meeting at the 74th Annual Convention of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) in Quebec City, Quebec, June 12-15, 2013.
Chair the Section on Women and Psychology (SWAP) annual business meeting, organize and attend the (SWAP) Executive dinner, organize and Chair the (SWAP) Executive Business breakfast meeting at the 74th Annual Convention of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) in Quebec City, Quebec, June 12-15, 2013.
In addition, I attended a 1-day SWAP Workshop focused on discourse analysis, which was an excellent learning experience for me. As chair of SWAP, I also attended the Annual CPA business meeting and dinner.
Events provided an excellent venue to meet other SWAP members, as well as other CPA section chairs.
2014-01-16T17:44:15Z
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Kaska Elders’ Perception of Environmental Change
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3399
Kaska Elders’ Perception of Environmental Change
Johnson, Leslie
Vegetation change can be driven by recurrent disturbances, such as wild fire, landslips and avalanches, which are recognized by Kaska. Other changes may be driven by climatic change and shifts in weather extremes. All Elders agreed the long periods of extreme cold they experienced in their youth no longer occur. Kaska Elders in the Southern Yukon have also been observing shifts in the timing of seasonal changes, the seasonal growth of plants and the fruiting of the berries in response to climate change, and in response to industrial activities. Elders noted an increase in the variability of the weather from year to year and season to season, making prediction of environmental conditions difficult. This variability also affects the animals. Diminishing song bird abundance was particularly noted, and may relate either to global climate change or to pervasive changes and loss of habitat in the environments where these birds winter.
2014-01-16T17:42:00Z
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The Platonic and Aristotelian Mimetic Paradigms In Light of Gans and Heidegger
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3398
The Platonic and Aristotelian Mimetic Paradigms In Light of Gans and Heidegger
Foshay, Raphael
There is an inherent tension in the imaginal scene of representation between its mediating, violence-diffusing role and its sublimatory rendering of alternative satisfaction. A clearer understanding of the way this is negotiated near the beginning of the theoretical tradition, in the work of Plato, would be helpful.
For Gans, language emerges as a mediation of mimetic rivalry by shifting the confrontation over the object of desire to the imaginary scene of representation. Both Gans and Girard see the work of Plato, who first formalizes mimesis as a construct, as playing a similarly mediating, representational, and scapegoating role in providing a rational alternative to arbitrary violence and power, and to the sophistic use of language and rhetoric as a means to political influence. The difference between the assertive grasp of the desired material (economic or political) object and the ostensive gesture of language enables the mediation of violent conflict and the preservation of peace in community.
In the work of both Girard and Gans, Plato plays a foundational role in the history of theoretical awareness of mimetic violence in being both the first to formalize theoretical discourse, as such, and for the role played by mimesis in that founding formalization. For Girard, while Plato is unique in his awareness of the hidden dangers of mimesis, he is also “deceived by mimesis because he . . . never uncovers its empirical reason for being” (15). Similarly, for Gans: "To eliminate the ostensive," as he claims Plato does through the doctrine of ideas and the abstraction of the concept, "is to expunge the local historicity of deferral of collective violence by means of the sign" (81). In an earlier essay (2009), I argued that there is a remarkable degree of explicit awareness in Plato of the material and political dangers of mimesis. In that essay, I focused primarily on The Republic and on the performative sophistication of Plato’s highly innovative use of the genre of the philosophical dialogue. In the present paper, I would like to pursue this line of investigation further by examining one of Plato’s later dialogues, The Sophist, where he deepens and refines a number of the central preoccupations of The Republic in relation to his quarrel with the Sophists, the role of mimesis, and the foundational nature of metaphysical forms or ideas. My aim will be to gain a clearer understanding of the relation between the empirical (Girard), the local and historical (Gans), and the metaphysical (Plato) approaches to the role of mimesis in the imaginary scene of representation.
This essay develops a comparison between the treatments of mimesis (imitation) in Plato and Aristotle, and also the critique of Plato in the work of Martin Heidegger, in light of the clear bias that Heidegger displays toward an Aristotelian interpretation of Plato. The Generative Anthropology of Eric Gans, and its situating of language in relation to culture as a whole, provides a context for my treatment of mimesis, contributing an important perspective on the underlying purposes of Plato’s differentiation of philosophical from rhetorical discourse, and the ways in which that illuminates Plato’s view of mimesis. Likewise, given that Plato was the first to bring to mimesis a philosophical examination, a clearer understanding of the key role played by the construct of mimesis in Plato’s work, I argue, sheds light on the interpretation of mimesis in the theoretical model of Gans’ Generative Anthropology.
interpretation of
2014-01-16T17:07:20Z
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Complexity, Healthcare Systems and the Aporias of Healthcare Reform
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3397
Complexity, Healthcare Systems and the Aporias of Healthcare Reform
Crawford, Mark
Paradoxically, “complexity” in health care systems has spurred both an application of complexity theory to health care organizations and a greater assertion of health care’s essentially political nature. This “increasingly stark dialectic between technical complexity and democratic expectation” ( Fierlbeck, Health Care in Canada: A Citizens’ Guide to Policy: 319) in the health field is part of what lies behind Frank Fischer’s Deweyan call in Democracy & Expertise for more “deliberative forms of interactive inquiry” and promotion of “practical knowledge that brings technical findings together with the political values and social assumptions to which they relate” (2009:6-7).
This paper examines the applicability of complexity theory in health care organizations, and reviews such preliminary assessments that are contained in David Kernick’s empirical survey Complexity And Healthcare Organization (2004), Sturmberg and Martin’s, Handbook of Systems and Complexity in Health, (2013) . The paper then draws lessons for health care reform, with due attention to common themes as well as disagreements between analysts and theorists of health care complexity. One firm conclusion is that complexity theory is a valuable antidote to economic analysis and rational policy models the value of which is greatest when applied to relationships characterized by high predictability and linearity.
The First International Conference on Public Policy was a three day conference at Sciences PO in Grenoble that afforded me a unique opportunity to hear about general trends, and cutting edge approaches to public policy analysis. About 900 scholars from around the world attended and, despite the 8 am to 8pm schedule on each of the three days and the beautiful setting, all sessions that I saw were well-attended and usually generated vibrant discussions. I believe that I contributed to both the mission of the conference and the mission of my own university by representing AU at this inaugural event.
My own paper was well received, and while there were some hard questions asked about the theoretical approach used (that of Complex Adaptive Systems, or CAS) and its application to health care. On the positive side, one firm conclusion is that complexity theory is a valuable antidote to economic analysis and rational policy models, the value of which is greatest when applied to relationships characterized by high predictability and linearity, but which can produce sub-optimal results when applied in the “zone of complexity”, where consequences of actions are not so predictable and not so prone to agreement. By supplying a methodology (agent-based modeling) that can be used in place of short-term efficiency, complexity analysis can greatly aid health policy decision-makers.
On the negative side, the point was stressed that advocates of complexity theory often speak of “rational policy making” and “managerialist approaches” in stereotypical terms, and complexity approaches such as the one sketched in my paper need to accept that there is a place for top-down, as well as bottom –up (or “emergent”) approaches to health care analysis.
The over-all result of this activity is that there was widespread agreement that I had demonstrated the promising nature of CAS and complexity theory, but further specification of problems and clearer demonstration of its added value will be needed in the future if this is to become a major paradigm within health policy analysis.
2014-01-16T17:04:53Z
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Leading Pedagogical Change
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3396
Leading Pedagogical Change
Cleveland-Innes, Martha
According to Keller (2008), changes in many things including technology “constitutes [sic] the most consequential set of changes in society since the late nineteenth century, when the nation went from a largely domestic, rural, agrarian mode of living to an industrial, international, and urban economy” (Preface xi). Consequently, for higher education, “this set of circumstances is going to force all academic enterprises to rethink their place and purpose not just in philosophical terms but in very pragmatic ways as well.” (Beaudoin, 2003, p. 520). As education is changing, so, too, are our notions about leadership. How will we take strides to make things happen in education – who takes the lead, doing what? Leadership in academia is often different from leadership in other contexts. As Ramsden (1998) says like good teaching academic leadership is not telling or transmitting information and ideas; it is a sort of conversation aimed at helping people to change and develop. Gibbs, Knapper & Picinn (2007), confirm that leadership plays an important role in creating teaching excellence.
Administrators, teaching development staff, leaders and faculty in higher education are invited to review a comparative case study of current pedagogical changes in select Canadian universities, in comparison to the transformation underway at The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden. Their development plan states that KTH will house a virtual campus as effective and prestigious as its place-based campus by 2027. KTH’s strategic plan and leadership functions will be described in reference to similar and disparate Canadian examples.
Technological advancement has a dramatic effect on every-day life in contemporary society and its many social institutions, from the workplace to entertainment. Higher education is not immune to these changes, but the exact impact, nature and scope of changes is still unclear (Gumport & Chun, 2005). According to Keller (2008), changes in many things including technology “constitutes [sic] the most consequential set of changes in society since the late nineteenth century, when the nation went from a largely domestic, rural, agrarian mode of living to an industrial, international, and urban economy” (Preface xi). Consequently, for higher education, “this set of circumstances is going to force all academic enterprises to rethink their place and purpose not just in philosophical terms but in very pragmatic ways as well.” (Beaudoin, 2003, p. 520). In the past two decades, higher education has, if not embraced new technology, reached out to utilize the Internet and other forms of technologically-mediated learning. This has transformed interaction opportunities among students and between student and faculty, particularly through online learning.
Online learning offers the opportunity to examine and rethink the teaching and learning enterprise in education broadly. Online learning can be conceived of as the new pedagogy, where strategies such as interaction and dialogue are introduced back into the higher education model. Regardless of education delivery mode – face-to-face, online, distance or some combination through blended learning – teaching (and learning) is changing. Key to this change is the new ways of being as a teacher in higher education – a central part of the role of faculty member in universities. The additional duties, responsibilities, and changing role of faculty can create a high level of dissatisfaction, particularly if they feel they are not well supported (Satterlee, 2010).
As education is changing, so, too, are our notions about leadership. How will we take strides to make things happen in education – who takes the lead, doing what? Leadership in academia is often different from leadership in other contexts. As Ramsden (1998) says, similar to good teaching academic leadership is not telling or transmitting information and ideas; it is a sort of conversation aimed at helping people to change and develop. Gibbs, Knapper & Picinn (2007), confirm that leadership plays an important role in creating teaching excellence. This paper presentation will consider examples of leadership for learning from the Canadian and Swedish higher education context.
We present an argument which rests on three interrelated premises regarding pedagogical change in higher education. The first is that the phenomenon of blended and online learning is dramatically effecting faculty roles in higher education, whether faculty are engaged in teaching with technology or not. The second is that the role of faculty member is saturated with requirements and adding a teaching process that requires advanced teaching expertise in relation to technology, and additional time commitments, will not fit into the current role of faculty; this is so for blended and online learning. Finally, we suggest that leadership strategy which will resolve this issue, and afford students the benefits of such new pedagogies, will take an embedded, distributed leadership approach.
At the same time technological advancement is imposing itself, either because of it or in addition to it, we are currently experiencing the most consequential set of changes in society since the late nineteenth century, when nations went from largely domestic, rural, agrarian mode of living to industrial, international, and urban economy (Keller, 2008, preface). These ubiquitous changes are having significant impact on many things, including higher education institutions and the faculty who work in them. Challenges that faculty experience based on these changes and the effect on teaching must be considered by those leading higher education and responsible for its effectiveness. We recommend a new way of positioning the teaching element of faculty roles and discuss the leadership strategies that will support teaching in this new era.
The opportunity for faculty, and their practice as teachers, to remain the same and not change, is not available. This imperative to change and other challenges in education have emerged because “neither the purpose, the methods, nor the population for whom education is intended today bear any resemblance to those on which formal education is historically based.” (Pond 2002, n.p.). Such change makes it increasingly difficult for education to operate in insular ways; attention to changing demographics, global economies and new social mores is required (Keller, 2008). The reach of information and communication technology via the Internet is pervasive, and has changed society and education institutions in “the way we organize ourselves, our policies, our culture, what faculty do, the way we work, and those we serve” (Ikenberry, 2001, p. 63). In the midst of these developments, new ways of teaching and learning have emerged.
These changes, then, provide the focus for updating the academy, indicating what changes are on the way or at the door step, and what is not or will not work because of these changes. Common institutional challenges fall under the headings of economics issues, changing demographics, the demand for accountability, new teaching and learning models and emerging technology. Net-based educational opportunities, the result of the last two of these institutional challenges listed here, emerged in the early 90s, most often with a promise of ameliorating problems within education, but also as an educational revolution. This revolution is in response to demands for education reform, particularly in reference to teaching and learning (Kanuka & Brooks, 2010). This reform can begin with faculty role change and careful attention to the structure and process of leadership activities to support it.
2014-01-16T17:00:15Z
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ED.D. Orientation Week
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3380
ED.D. Orientation Week
MacIsaac, Peggy Lynn
Orientation Week for the Doctorate of Education in Distance Education students is a workshop focusing on instruction, distance education theory, program planning, discussions with faculty and colleagues, community-building activities, and technology-related tutorials.
This in-person workshop was pivotal in initiating the development the community of distance education learners into a highly functional cohort. It provided me with an introduction to the various personal responses to graduate level study undertaken at a distance. The workshop furthered my knowledge of recent research conducted by AU faculty members. The information and ideas will be invaluable to my continued expansion of understanding of AU’s position in the historic context and contemporary practices within the field of distance education. This opportunity allows me to improve my delivery of services to AU learners and researchers.
2013-09-03T19:54:53Z
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N/A
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3376
N/A
Shouldice, Michael
Conference description
The purpose of this conference is to bring together researchers whose interests in the digital economy are positioned at the intersection of social media and the engaged university. Social media enable social interaction through connectivity on the Internet, and therefore lend themselves to any and all aspects of social communication, including those at the university. Given that social media (Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.) are very popular and ubiquitous, it is advantageous to submit their use in universities to a close scrutiny. The main aim of the conference, therefore, is to analyze, discuss, and answer the following four questions:
1. Can universities substantially change the manner in which they achieve their mission by using social media?
2. What are the opportunities, impacts, and challenges of social media on the workings of the university?
3. How innovative and effective is the use of social media for the purposes of research, teaching, and administration in a university setting?
4. Do social media have a critical function in the mobilization and dissemination of knowledge?
Social Media: Implications for the University was York University’s first attempt at a conference of this nature. They are following up next year with Social Media: Implications for Politics, Religion, Gender.
A trailer for this year’s conference is available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTcn-GeglRM&list=PLB9D30B1B5E99C66E&index=1
Also available is a googledoc where live note taking occurred.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZRUTuYzp3GKB4dO4ecwb2GKgSPEoihj9-2gVV8rHSpI/edit?pli=1
The conference had over 20 sessions that were meant to explore the implications of social media to the university. Personally I found this to be a stretch for many of the sessions. This is perhaps a result of my participation in Social Media and my wanting to know more than what the presenters had experienced.
For example one of the sessions I felt would be most helpful was about building community on twitter. When I asked the presenters which kinds of tweets they found had the best responses and how many times someone on twitter interacted with a given stream before following it they replied that they did not have that data available to them. Their presentation really hinged around the difficulty in knowing who is behind a twitter account and the value of a well branded logo. Neither of which I found to be helpful in building community.
There was a session on how social media offers tools for engagement in which the presenter stressed the fact that one should pick a platform get good at it and then start developing a complementary platform. Pretty basic but good advice
A third session of particular interest stressed the challenge of authorship and identity creation which gave some food for thought.
All in all this was likely a very interesting conference for those beginning their social media journey but for those of us who have already embarked on the journey it didn’t appear tight enough. I am certain that the conference planners will be able to learn from this experience and make their 2nd conference next year a great success.
2013-07-10T14:54:48Z
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N/A
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3375
N/A
Kariel, Doug
CLA is very excited to launch the program for the 68th CLA National Conference and Trade Show.
Outstanding sessions, networking opportunities and more await the attendees in Winnipeg. We look forward to welcoming you. Program at a Glance >>
Preconference Cataloguing with RDA May 28-29, 2013
This pre-conference features training modules developed by the Pan-Canadian Working Group on Cataloguing with RDA. The workshop will provide in-depth training on cataloguing with RDA delivered by practicing cataloguers from across Canada, and will cover the full breadth of the cataloguing process from theoretical structure to practical application and implementation.
I attended the Canadian Library Association annual conference in Winnipeg, May 28-June 1, 2013.
The first 2 days I attended a pre-conference about Resource, Description, and Access (RDA) which is the new context for cataloguing resources. This workshop provided the theoretical constructs behind the changes to the cataloguing rules as well many practical examples on how to apply them in the AU Library catalogue and other metadata schemas. RDA will be implemented over the course of the next year.
The rest of the time was spent at the regular conference covering topics such as “linked data”, application of library research, management of e-books in libraries, online security and library security, and other topics concerning current library practice.
There was a great session on “SWOT vs SOAR” (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Results) that I found very interesting. It is a very positive way of creating a climate for change and implementing change that can be applied in many situations.
2013-07-10T14:47:13Z
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Collaborating Towards a Global Community: Bridges to the Future Workshops
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3374
Collaborating Towards a Global Community: Bridges to the Future Workshops
Fabbro, Mark
“Collaborating Towards a Global Community: Bridges to the Future”
Workshops and sessions at the AACRAO Annual Meeting will demonstrate the development and implementation of a vision that guides decision makers toward student and institutional success. Attend the Annual Meeting and invest in your professional development, your students and institution, and the future of higher education.
This conference was very informative, and although focused principally on admissions and registration functions and related tasks, future attendance could be of benefit to AU staff in other areas of the University given the wide array of session topics offered. Although I am not engaged in formal research, the information, tools, and ideas provided through the conference will allow me to more effectively fulfill my current and future responsibilities at AU – that’s why I attend AACRAO regularly.
2013-07-10T14:44:33Z
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Sharpest Knives in the Drawer: Culture at the Intersection of Oil and State
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3373
Sharpest Knives in the Drawer: Culture at the Intersection of Oil and State
Wall, Karen
The infusion of the petroleum industry into the social and cultural imaginary goes deep in Alberta, where the oil economy and provincial governments have together shaped discourses of prosperity, identity and citizenship for generations. Cultural production and consumption is deeply implicated in these processes, and art has been instrumental as well as oppositional in the shaping of meanings around environment, natural resources, and extractive industries. This paper considers the potentially paradoxical role of the visual arts in practices of democratic dissent and social change in the context of oil capitalism.
The paper presented, “’Sharpest Knives in the Drawer’: Culture at the Intersection of Oil and State”, is an expanded version of a chapter written for a book collection on Oil and Democracy currently under review with AUP (Eds. L Stefanick and M. Shrivasteva). The presentation also drew on previous work in the area of Alberta cultural history, and visual arts in particular. The text was supplemented for the presentation with slides of historical and contemporary works created with the oil industry as subject matter and as context of production. Compilation of this visual presentation helped to develop some of the ideas behind the theoretical framework and supplemented discussion to expand upon ideas. These ideas will be developed further in subsequent work on the topic. Conference participation was valuable in allowing new perspectives on the theme of the panel and on my own paper from an audience composed mainly of political scientists, which is not usually a primary area of my own research. Two of the audience members also approached me later with instances of oil industry visual culture that they had collected or remarked upon, which I will acquire for my project.
2013-07-09T20:49:40Z
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Information Access, Transparency, and Good Governance: the Alberta record
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3372
Information Access, Transparency, and Good Governance: the Alberta record
Stefanick, Lorna
Access to information is recognized worldwide as a crucial component of a democratic state because transparency helps to expose corruption, ensures due process in law, and encourages the citizen engagement that is central to citizen participation (Stefanick 2011). For newly emerging democracies, the concept of “open government” challenges previously accepted notions that the interests of society as expressed through the power of the state take precedence over the interests of individual citizens. Institutions such as the World Bank and the UN Development program identify transparency as a critical component of good governance (Shrivastava and Stefanick 2011); access regimes are where the “rubber hits the road” for creating transparency.
An evaluation of the functioning of access to information regimes provides not only an indicator of the “openness” of any particular government; it also can be used as an indicator of democratic health. Alberta has a long history as an early adopter of mechanisms to support government transparency – in 1967 it became the 3rd jurisdiction in the world to establish an administrative Ombudsman, and it established an access to information law a decade before the UK, Switzerland, and Germany. Nonetheless, the province has not escaped the criticism that it receives poor grades with respect to openness and transparency. This paper will evaluate the success of the Access to Information regime in Alberta in fostering the accountability that is crucial to good governance.
This paper was presented at the Canadian Political Science Association meeting in Victoria June 2013. It was part of a panel called: Rights Claims, Identity, and Citizenship in an Oil Economy. This panel explored the impact of having a resource economy on democracy in Alberta in three areas: transparency, culture, and worker safety. A robust conversation ensued after the paper presentations.
2013-07-09T20:46:46Z
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Making Inequality Visible in Management Education, the Academy and the Global Workplace
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3371
Making Inequality Visible in Management Education, the Academy and the Global Workplace
Spencer, Bruce
Neoliberalism
The neoliberal argument is essentially an economic and political philosophy advocating free markets, deregulation, privatization of public assets, more unencumbered free trade, and less government “interference” in economic (and social welfare issues). Neoliberalism promotes a free market economy approach to social issues, to public provision of services and to public spending generally. It has been referred to as “supply-side economics” and for example rejects the view that governments should try and create more employment directly through industry policy or overall “demand management” in favour of a sole focus on the supply of a flexible skilled yet cheap workforce – hence the importance of “work and learning.”
Neoliberal economics supports greater freedom and recognition of the captains of corporations but has now become unstuck with the argument that some financial institutions are “too big to fail” – which means in effect they are “so big that they can depend on society (that is taxpayers) to prop them up when they topple” (Patel, 2009, p19). This is a clear contradiction of the neoliberal philosophy of no government interventions in the market.
Inequality
We live in societies (some would argue in one global society) in which the gap between the richest and the poorest, between those who live full lives in the economically developed countries and those who live “half lives at best” in the less developed countries, is growing (Honderich, 2002, p6). Many workers in Western countries (or the economic North) have experienced a decline in the value of real wages, and they must struggle to stay abreast of inflation even at low inflation rates, while the incomes of the rich continue to climb. The fallout from the 2008 global financial crisis and the 2010-12 attack on national debt will ensure that the “social wage” (public services, education, health care etc) and public pensions will decline in real terms: but not the corporate and bankers bonuses. The following quote is from Macleans magazine (Canada’s oldest current affairs publication and a long-time proponent of free enterprise)
2013-07-09T20:44:10Z
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Dynamic Pricing for Subscription Services
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3370
Dynamic Pricing for Subscription Services
Sigue, Simon
This paper investigates the use of pricing schemes in subscription services that consist of various combinations of activation, subscription, and cancellation fees as applied in certain industries. It is assumed that customer attrition limits the diffusion of the service, but may also generate revenues. The authors demonstrate that, depending on the size of the service network, and the industry and market characteristics, such as customer activation and maintenance costs and customer sensitivities to different pricing components, the monopolist may find it optimal to choose any of the following pricing schemes: activation, subscription and cancellation fees; subscription and cancellation fees; subscription and activation fees; activation and cancellation fees; and a single activation fee, and a single subscription fee. Using a parametric model, the authors further show that, regardless of the chosen pricing scheme, when customers disregard the effect of the cancellation fee at the subscription and the effect of the activation fee at the termination stage, the activation fee starts low and increases as the network grows (penetration strategy), whereas the cancellation fee starts high and decreases as the network grows (skimming strategy). The activation and cancellation fees can take various other forms when customers consider their full effects. The subscription fee remains very low at the early stages and starts increasing only when a reasonable number of subscribers is secured. Finally, the authors discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of their findings.
This paper investigates the use of pricing schemes in subscription services that consist of various combinations of activation, subscription, and cancellation fees. When customers exclusively consider what is directly perceivable, the activation fee starts low and increases as the network grows (penetration strategy), whereas the cancellation fee starts high and decreases as the network grows (skimming strategy). The activation and cancellation fees take various other forms otherwise. The subscription fee remains low at the early stages and increases only when a reasonable number of subscribers is secured. Finally, the authors discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of their findings.
2013-07-09T20:41:27Z
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2,4-D and Glyphosate affect aquatic biofilm accrual, gross primary production, and community respiration
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3369
2,4-D and Glyphosate affect aquatic biofilm accrual, gross primary production, and community respiration
Shaw, Lawton
2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and glyphosate are widely used agricultural herbicides commonly found in surface waters near cultivated land. Field experiments were conducted to determine the effects of 2,4-D and glyphosate on biofilms in a pond next to agricultural land in Athabasca, Alberta. Diffusing substrates consisted of specimen jars filled with agar that contained low levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, and different concentrations (15, 9.0, 1.5 mM) of either 2,4-D or glyphosate. A circular hole in the lid of the jar was covered with either a GF/C glass fiber or a cellulose filter paper which functioned as the biofilm substrate. Nutrients and herbicide diffused freely through the agar to the substrate surface. Arrays of diffusing substrates were suspended 15 cm below the water surface for 22 days, after which O2 production and consumption were measured to give the rates of primary production and respiration. Biomass was measured as Chl-a. 2,4-D and glyphosate caused significant decreases in rates of biomass accrual, primary production, and respiration. For both compounds, dose responses were highest at the highest concentrations.
This activity involved the presentation of a poster titled “2,4-D and Glyphosate affect aquatic biofilm accrual, gross primary production, and community respiration”, at the 2013 conference of the Society for Freshwater Sciences. The research that was presented was significant because it was the first report of how common herbicides 2,4-D and glyphosate affect algal biofilms that grow on surfaces in freshwater ecosystems.
2013-07-09T20:39:02Z
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The Ethics of Internet-Based Counselling Services
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3368
The Ethics of Internet-Based Counselling Services
Nuttgens, Simon
The rapid growth of Internet technologies has brought new opportunities for the design and delivery of counselling services. As little as 10 years ago e-counselling and similar services were at the periphery of the profession; now almost all counsellors use technology in their practice in some capacity. It is important for counsellors to be aware of the myriad ethic considerations that accompany the use of web technologies in counselling. In this presentation, I will identify these considerations and through a review of relevant literature and ethical codes and standards, suggest ways for counsellors to address ethical concerns when using internet-based services in their practice.
At the 2013 Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Annual Conference I gave a 45-minute presentation on the ethics of online counselling. The presentation was based on a recent chapter on this topic written for the revised Canadian Handbook of Counselling Ethics. The presentation was very well received drawing comments such as “thorough”, “leading the pack”, and “applicable to my practice”.
2013-07-09T20:36:11Z
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Growth and Regional Trade in Africa: Some Empirical Evidence
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3367
Growth and Regional Trade in Africa: Some Empirical Evidence
Musila, Jacob
The formation of regional trade agreements among countries at different levels of economic development poses the question of whether the composition of trade, rather than trade itself, is relevant for growth (Splimbergo, 2000). This question has not been thoroughly and conclusively investigated, especially for trade between developing countries. This paper analyzes the empirical relationship between growth and intra-African trade as observed through an inter-country cross-section. A production function model is specified and estimated using cross-sectional data from 46 African countries for the period 1985-2005.
The formation of regional trade agreements among countries at different levels of economic development poses the question of whether the composition of trade, rather than trade itself, is relevant for growth. This question has not been thoroughly and conclusively investigated in the case of trade between developing countries. This paper analyzes the empirical relationship between growth and intra-African export trade as well as exports to other parts of the world as observed through an inter-country cross-section. A production function model is specified and estimated using cross-sectional data from Sub Saharan African countries for the period 1985-2010.
The estimated results show that the trade ratios for aggregate exports, exports to HIC enter the growth equation positively and are statistically significant. The positive and significant coefficients of SSA-HIC export trade support the view that the SSA growth benefits more from trading with HIC (the North). On the other hand, the estimated coefficients of the intra-Africa exports and other exports to LDCs are negative or insignificant. This suggests that exports of SSA countries to other SSA or LDCs have played an insignificant role in the growth of SSA economies.
2013-07-09T20:26:24Z
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Philosophical Critique and Perceived Practical Irrelevance
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3366
Philosophical Critique and Perceived Practical Irrelevance
Morito, Bruce
In a fascinating paper, “Ask the Philosopher,” Dimitrios Dentsoras shows how philosophers were once integrally engaged in society as agents of practical advice on how to govern and indeed on how to live. Over the centuries, beginning in Roman times, this social role has diminished to a point where professional philosophers are largely socially irrelevant. What has changed?
This paper outlines an argument that identifies a central contribution to its own demise that professional philosophy itself has made. That contribution has to do with how philosophical critique is conceived and operates. Philosophical teaching and publishing focus is on undermining opposing positions, or on eliminating opposition, rather than seeking deeper and genuine understanding. Examining certain elements of this eliminative function presents a possibility of seeing a renewal of philosophy’s previous functions of truth-seeking and accessing the Good.
The main activity was to offer a criticism of the way professional philosophy conceives of critical thought and how professional philosophy has contributed to its own decline as a voice in public affairs and indeed in the university system, a system that originates in philosophy (Plato’s Academy). The type of rigour espoused by philosophy is analyzed as one-sided and, as a consequence, eliminates from its purview modes of thought and awareness that are central to individual and collective life. This leads to a focus on highly specialized areas of research and thought whose relevance to what matters to people and communities has become increasingly attenuated.
2013-07-09T20:23:52Z
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Creating an Inter-Organizational Electronic Health Record in Kibera – Challenges and Solutions
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3365
Creating an Inter-Organizational Electronic Health Record in Kibera – Challenges and Solutions
May, Alain
Electronic health records (EHR) are widely seen to hold great potential for improving health outcomes in the Global South. This research-in-progress paper looks at the creation of an inter-organization EHR in Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya. The ability to share patient care records across independent clinics is expected to allow patients to seek care wherever appropriate medical expertise or resources are located, supported by the sharing of patient care data. This is particularly important in resource-constrained settings where necessary healthcare resources may exist within communities but is distributed across many care organizations. While this objective offers an opportunity to improve both healthcare outcomes in resource-constrained settings, it creates new challenges to implementation. This report looks at these challenges and the solutions that are currently being considered.
This funding supported travel to the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 9.4’s conference on the Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries. At the conference, I presented, on behalf of co-authors, Drs. Pamela Njuguna and Abdullah Saleh, our paper, “Creating an Inter-Organizational Electronic Health Record in Kibera – Challenges and Solutions”.
This research, looking at the critical success factors of implementing an electronic health record in a particularly resource-constrained setting, is in-progress. Therefore, it was important to present early data to a community of researchers interested in similar questions and similar settings. The feedback and network connections obtained through my attendance will be critical in shaping the ongoing research.
2013-07-09T20:13:05Z
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Fashion, Freedom, and Female Agency: Iranian Women’s Deconstruction of Identity in Citizen Journalism
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3364
Fashion, Freedom, and Female Agency: Iranian Women’s Deconstruction of Identity in Citizen Journalism
Mannani, Manijeh
For close to a century in Iran, the female body has been the site for authorities to assert and exercise their political and ideological control over half of the population. Our paper explores how women in the Islamic Republic of Iran imagine and enforce their agency in the virtual space and redefine their identity by creating distinctively individualized styles in garments in the 21st century. While the representation of women and outfits used in photographs in the virtual space do not always take up the dress code boundaries formulated by the Islamic government, they are deliberately depicted in the Internet to contest the image of the Muslim woman that was preferred and propagated by theologians. Iranian women’s deconstruction of dress codes and recreation of an individualized fashion is a reactive ideological tool. The reconstructed image challenges the state sponsored depiction of the Muslim Iranian women, wrapped up from head to toe in the quintessentially Shi’a, Iranian fashion statement, the black chador, as devoted and modest. The modified fashion also contests the homogenized narratives of suppression and muteness reinforced by the veil as used by Western media to portray Iranian, Muslim, and Middle Eastern women.
I had the opportunity to meet colleagues with similar research interests at the ACLA Conference. We exchanged ideas and discussed possibilities to publish our papers together. This is one of the many advantages of having completed this A&PDF activity. The outcome of this research and other scholarly activities associated with it reflect positively on AU and raise the profile of the institution.
2013-07-09T20:07:06Z
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Exploring the Usability of Online Courses: The Student Experience
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3363
Exploring the Usability of Online Courses: The Student Experience
Krell, Kari
Online education is becoming a more feasible option for students as an increasing number of courses are being offered by distance through the Internet. Today, students and teachers often interact entirely in virtual learning environments. Because teachers are not in the same physical space as students, they are unable to observe how students navigate through, and otherwise use, the online course. We assume that because students complete courses with passing grades that the courses are "user friendly" and providing an optimum learning experience. Potential problems with usability are not captured by teachers because students are engaged in their learning online. Course usability testing is one way that online course designers and instructors can assess courses. This research project explores the usability of selected online undergraduate nursing courses currently being offered by the Center for Nursing and Health Studies to determine their usability from the students' perspective. This information is important as it can inform future course development and assist in making online courses more effective. This evidence will support knowledge mobilization through thoughtful consideration to promote best practice for user engagement and more meaningful student tutor connections.
Online educators from Athabasca University’s Post LPN BN Program presented a poster entitled “ Exploring the Usability of Online Courses: The Student Experience” at the Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI) 6th International Barcelona Conference on Higher Education from May 13-15/13. Researchers are employing usability testing as a strategy to examine how students approach and navigate their online courses in the Post LPN BN program. This information will be used to identify specific features in online courses that enhance the student’s learning experience and provide evidence to inform online teaching and learning.
2013-07-09T20:02:46Z
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Listening with mobile devices: An ecological approach to context-embedded learning
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3362
Listening with mobile devices: An ecological approach to context-embedded learning
Hoven, Debra
This presentation discusses a design-based research (DBR) study into effective design for teaching listening in the real world using mobile devices. An emergent theory of learning, ecological constructivism (EC), was chosen as the theory that best fit the learner interactions, as well as the affordances and constraints presented by the real-world learning environment. This DBR project was an ideal vehicle to iteratively test and refine the EC theory and its various constituent principles. EC is discussed as a theory that both accommodates and explains context-embedded language learning. A brief overview of the study and its results is also presented.
This presentation at the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO) conference discussed a design-based research study which investigated and refined the best design principles for listening tasks using mobile devices. The participants in the study were overseas-trained professionals needing to improve their English listening skills in order to better and more fully participate in Canadian society and as professionals in their areas of training. By using mobile devices, participants were able to interact with real language, real people and in real-life contexts, in which they collected samples of English being used outside of the classroom and interacted with both classmates and people in the streets using support accessed through their mobile devices. The theoretical basis for the design approach taken used a newly emerging theory called ecological constructivism to describe and predict how these learner-participants interacted using English and learned new vocabulary, expressions and information about the city in which they live.
2013-07-09T19:59:37Z
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Telling Alberta Workers' Story
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3361
Telling Alberta Workers' Story
Finkel, Alvin
Alvin Finkel, "Telling Alberta Workers' Story": This paper will deal with the strengths and weaknesses of the Alberta Labour History Institute's efforts to work closely with the union movement in "Project 2012" to tell the story of 100 years of the Alberta Federation of Labour and the working class more generally. Project 2012 involved a variety of initiatives including a peer-reviewed book on the history of working people in Alberta, a number of pamphlets dealing with important themes in Alberta labour history, a series of videos, and various public events throughout the province. On the one hand, the collaboration meant financial help from the Fed and individual unions, easier access to workers for interviews, and easier dissemination of our research to working people. On the other hand, it raised issues of self-censorship to please our funders.
I continue as an executive member of the Alberta Labour History Institute as well as president of the Canadian Committee on Labour History. The labour history work is an important part of my professional development at AU. This includes my role as co-editor of the CCLH series for AU Press.
2013-07-09T19:51:06Z
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Pop culture in the classroom: Inspiring students to take action against intimate partner violence
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3360
Pop culture in the classroom: Inspiring students to take action against intimate partner violence
Corcoran, Lynn
Working with families is fraught with complexity, including dealing with issues such as intimate partner violence. Faculty teaching within a family-newborn course with undergraduate nursing students sought innovative strategies to engage and support students to broach this difficult topic with families in acute care and community settings. Faculty noted that students in clinical experiences reported that nurses were not accurately assessing and consistently screening for intimate partner violence. However, assessing and screening for violence is part of the role of all nurses and falls within the standards of practice for community health nurses. The purpose of this presentation is to share several innovative teaching strategies undertaken by faculty working with undergraduate nursing students to explore and examine intimate partner violence.
Faculty employed teaching strategies integrating popular culture as a medium to explore intimate partner violence through relevant music videos and you tube clips. These strategies were followed by large group discussion surrounding the messages around gender and violence imbedded in the words and images shown. With the students engaged by the popular culture references, theory and evidence-based practice regarding assessment, screening, and intervention around intimate partner violence was offered. The foundation of these innovative teaching strategies is to invite undergraduate nursing students to: (1) examine their personal values, beliefs and assumptions around gender and violence; (2) consider the contexts for assessment and screening of families for intimate partner violence across community health nursing practice settings.
The key learning outcomes for this presentation are:
1) influencing undergraduate nursing students to situate their nursing practice in the context of their values, beliefs and assumptions
2) influencing nursing educators to consider innovative teaching strategies using popular culture to engage and inform undergraduate nursing students
3) inspiring the current and future generation of nurses to accurately assess and consistently screen for intimate partner violence across community health settings.
The target audience for this presentation includes: nursing educators, nursing students, and all public health and home health nurses curious about accurately assessing and screening for intimate partner violence across community health settings.
Subtheme: CHN Capacity: Innovations and technology to advance excellence in educational preparation and workforce development
An engaging discussion followed the presentation of the paper; questions were posed by those in attendance. I received positive feedback informally, from individuals attending the conference after the presentation of the paper.
2013-07-09T19:47:26Z
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World and Nation in Humanitarian Writing
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3359
World and Nation in Humanitarian Writing
Choudhury, Romita
In spite of the imperialist spectre that continues to haunt the environment of cosmopolitanism, the desire to locate a “genuine” strand of human interconnection beyond neo-liberal defenses of globalization and official multiculturalism persists. In this paper, I explore whether humanitarianism can be seen as one such strand of cosmopolitanism. To what extent does humanitarianism provide an “edge” that marks the transcendence of the divisions of borders, cultures, and conceptions of difference? To what extent does humanitarianism provide a model for inclusivity and the respect for diversity that cosmopolitanism, as well as this year’s Congress, seeks to promote?
Since the end of the Cold War, the number and diversity of humanitarian organizations have proliferated at the same time that the humanitarian ideal has come into question. Joseph Slaughter traces the origins of humanitarianism to Henri Dunant’s narrative of his experience of the Battle of Solferino in Un Souvenir de Solferino (1862). Dunant is widely seen to have been the inspiration for both the International Committee for the Red Cross and the first Geneva Conventions. I seek to examine contemporary narratives of humanitarianism in relation to the ideal of “indifference” (to the religion, citizenship, race of the sufferer) that Slaughter argues Un Souvenir de Solferino represents; the humanitarian tradition posits neutrality, impartiality and universal humanity as its ideals. These narratives include the following: Romeo Dallaire’s They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children (2010); James Orbinski’s An Imperfect Offering (2008); Samantha Nutt’s Damned Nations (2012); and Scott Morgenson’s Three Cups of Tea (2007).
This paper is part of a panel that will be organized in a way to garner extensive audience involvement and to model critical dialogue. Each presenter will put forward a specific argument in relation to the focus questions for the panel in 10-15 minutes each. Following these brief position papers, they will engage in a discussion of approximately 15-20 minutes in which they critically engage with one another’s arguments. Then, they will open the discussion to the audience fostering a discussion of the material rather than a traditional question and answer format.
This paper was not presented in a conventional panel. The two papers on this panel were presented in the form of brief notes towards a two dialogue—between the presenters and between presenters and audience.
2013-07-09T19:40:49Z
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The iPad and Early Childhood Intervention
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3358
The iPad and Early Childhood Intervention
Chmiliar, Linda
This paper presentation focuses on an exploratory study conducted with preschool children ages 3 to 5 with disabilities ranging from mild to severe, and the use of the iPad for learning. Preschool children and their families were provided with an iPad and early learning apps to try in the home for a period of 6 weeks. The children’s use of the iPad was evaluated before and after the trial period. The parents documented the use of the iPad and provided the researcher with extensive feedback. The outcomes were very positive. Come to the session and hear about the results. The learning that the children displayed was very surprising. The practical implications of this study for implementing this tool with preschool children with disabilities will be explored and information that can be provided to parents to support the use of this tool will be shared.
This paper presentation focuses on an exploratory study conducted with preschool children ages 3 to 5 with disabilities ranging from mild to severe, and the use of the iPad for learning. Preschool children and their families were provided with an iPad and early learning apps to try in the home for a period of 6 weeks. The children’s use of the iPad was evaluated before and after the trial period. The parents documented the use of the iPad and provided the researcher with extensive feedback. The outcomes were very positive. The learning that the children displayed was very surprising in a number of areas including improvement in printing skills, receptive and expressive language skills, pre reading skills, pre math skills, and puzzle completion. There are many practical implications of this study for implementing this tool with preschool children with disabilities, as parents and children were very comfortable implementing this tools for learning without support.
2013-07-09T17:46:03Z
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A Pastoral or Academic approach to wrath in Thomas of Ireland’s dictionary of quotations, the Manipulus florum (1306)?
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3357
A Pastoral or Academic approach to wrath in Thomas of Ireland’s dictionary of quotations, the Manipulus florum (1306)?
Cels, Marc
This paper compares the discussion of anger in Thomas of Ireland’s Manipulus florum (1306) with that found in important reference works for preachers from about the same period. Richard and Mary Rouse’s major study of the text argued that Thomas’ “best-selling” and alphabetically arranged Latin dictionary of classical and Christian quotations was intended as an aid to preachers during the late medieval bourgeoning of popular preaching. The Rouses associated the MF with other genres developed during the thirteenth century to digest the Christian intellectual tradition. Through such tools, it is often assumed, the achievements of scholastics trickled down to pulpits and reached the masses of less educated clergy and lay people. Although the text remained a standard reference work for centuries, Chris Nighman has recently argued that the MF was not originally intended for popular preaching, but as an edifying anthology for university students preparing for ecclesiastical careers.
In supporting Nighman’s contention, this paper highlights the gap between scholastic teaching and more popular moral instruction relating to emotional restraint. The MF reflects the nuanced patristic approaches to emotions taken by thirteenth-century scholastics, a period in which the moral valance of emotions were subjected to academic scrutiny. Anger was frequently a paradigm for discussing human responsibility for passions. The MF’s lemma for ira contains the sorts of classical and patristic sententiae from which students built their arguments and which also provided them with guidance in both moderating vicious wrath and in cultivating virtuous zeal through reason—skills needed by aspiring ecclesiastics. Aids used by preachers, however, such as collections of distinctiones by Nicholas de Byard, or William Peraldus’ Summae de vitiis et virtutibus, were most concerned with showing the sinfulness and dangers of wrath, which was one of the seven deadly sins. Treatment of zealous anger was usually perfunctory or downplayed. This pastoral approach to wrath had a venerable tradition, since its emphasis on rhetorical force, rather than intellectual argument, was practical for popular moral instruction. Preachers drawing on such tools sought to counter sinful wrath among their listeners by eliciting feelings of disgust, shame, and fear of the dangers and punishments caused by anger. Although the MF has features useful for preachers, and overlaps with the message conveyed by other tools, it does not appear to be an artifact of popular preaching. The differences highlight the variations in religious teachings about anger in the thirteenth century.
I attended the annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Medievalists during Congress 2013. The group of about 50 scholars listened as their colleagues presented papers based on their recent research. I presented a paper that summarized medieval Christian teachings on the morality of anger, focusing on the Manipulus florum of Thomas of Ireland, a 14th-century dictionary of famous quotations. Anger could be a sin, but it could also be virtuous, when correcting sin. I argued that the dictionary’s message about anger was best suited to clerical university students. This runs counter to the dominant view that the book was intended for and reflects the needs of popular preaching. May paper was part of two panels I organized about medieval emotions, like anger. Each culture has its own rules for how to feel, and these change in response to other historical circumstances. My colleagues, from across Canada and Australia, and I explored evidence for how medieval people thought about emotions, with the implication that emotions change over time. Looking back at a distant, though well-documented, historical culture helps us to realize what is changeable in our culture—that’s the lesson of history. Several of us are considering polishing our papers and submitting them for publication by an academic journal. I also participated in a round-table discussion of a recent translation of letters by the 13th-century Bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste. He was a famous scientists, theologian, and churchman, so this translation helps make his life known to a broader audience. I suggested ways that the collection would be useful for university teachers and researchers.
2013-07-09T17:42:55Z
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Cracking the Code: Towards a Semiotic Understanding of Twitter and Its Use by Media Fans
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3356
Cracking the Code: Towards a Semiotic Understanding of Twitter and Its Use by Media Fans
Bury, Rhiannon
Since Twitter joined the social media club in 2006, its use has increased steadily, particularly since 2009 (Deller 2011). Although it has received a lot of attention in the traditional media because of its use in relation to protests in Iran and then Egypt, the percentage of users in the US context remains well below social networking sites like Facebook—8% vs 65% according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project (Madden 2011; Smith 2012). That said, Twitter has gained traction among media fans.
Between September 2010 and April 2011, I collected survey (n= 671) and interview data (n = 71) for a large-scale study on multi-screen television viewing and participatory culture. Just over 36% of the survey respondents said that they used twitter for fan-related activity. Only 10% more said that they had “liked” a TV series on Facebook. Further statistical analysis showed that younger viewers were more likely to use Twitter than older ones.
As more quantitative and qualitative data, produced by industry and the academy alike, becomes available, the time is ripe to formulate more complex understandings of Twitter as a code. Drawing on Barthes (1968) and Fiske (1982, 1987), I take a socially-oriented semiological approach, conceptualizing Twitter as a shared system of meaning in order to critically examine its underlying structural relations. Specifically I map out the syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations of Twitter at the micro-level of the tweet and then at the macro-level of the aggregation feed. As an empirical researcher, my interest in Twitter as a code is not an end in itself but rather a basis upon which to build a more rigorous analysis of its uses by media fans. To move from system to use, I draw on Barthes’ (1968) notion of second order of signification.
After outlining the structural relations of Twitter, I will focus on user aggregation and the specific pleasures fans get from following favourite television actors, reality stars, characters and showrunners. The study of fan practices helps media scholars better understand uses and meanings of new technologies in general and social media in particular.
I arrived at the conference just as it began on the morning of Wed April 10. The conference included three keynotes and a series three concurrent sessions over the course of two days. It was small conference with perhaps 50 presenters, so there were no panels, only individual presentations. This means the audience is in the room to listen solely to the presenter. I presented my paper at 9:30 on Friday April 12. My session was well attended, filling the classroom of about 30-40 seats. I also had a few people tweeting my presentation.
Overall I got a very good response. I did get questions from media fans about the data I collected. I chose to use the time to present my theoretical framework as I focused on the data in the previous conference presentation last Fall. I got some useful feedback from a couple of other researchers working with quantitative data. One in particular felt that I should collect a corpus of fan tweets from my participants to strengthen my structural analysis before submitting an expanded version of the paper to a peer-reviewed journal.
2013-07-09T17:37:34Z
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Cooperative Buyer-Supplier Relationships: The Missing Link
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3355
Cooperative Buyer-Supplier Relationships: The Missing Link
Belassi, Walid
This study examines organizational culture as a strategic determinant of cooperative buyer–supplier relationships. While historically, organizations sought lowest-bid solutions by having suppliers compete against one another, this short-term strategy has given way to one of enhancing relationships with suppliers in order to achieve competent and loyal supply chains. As a result, many organizations today are aggressively reducing their total number of suppliers, increasing their reliance on the suppliers that remain, and involving suppliers in new product developments. This study uses data from 195 organizations that are involved in developing new products to investigate the cultural determinants of this shift toward cooperative supply-chain management and suggests that organizations that have achieved more cooperative and integrative buyer–supplier relationships have specific cultural dimensions. The study relies on the cultural dimensions suggested by Hofstede when studying the relationship between organizational culture and buyer-supplier relationships.
At the 55th annual conference of the CORS I gave a presentation titled “Cooperative Buyer-Supplier Relationships: The Missing Link” I also chaired one of the Supply Chain Management sections.
My presentation went well and was well accepted by the audience. Several researches indicated interest in the topic and suggested useful (and all positive) comments. Most of the comments were about extensions to the paper and what I can do next.
The completion of the A&PDF was extremely important to me. It allowed me to network with my colleagues from other Canadian universities. I was able to present my ideas and thoughts, and more importantly, was able to listen to their ideas and research topics. Several potential research ideas were discussed and I now have a number of ideas to research and pursue further.
2013-07-09T17:29:41Z
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It's not only what we say but what we do”: Researching the rationales for the establishment of pay in five mixed sex, democratic worker cooperatives in Buenos Aires, Argentina
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3321
It's not only what we say but what we do”: Researching the rationales for the establishment of pay in five mixed sex, democratic worker cooperatives in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Oseen, Collette
As I explored in my previous SSHRC* funded research in 2006, worker cooperatives are based on the ideals of democratic participation and of egalitarianism: in general assemblies all the workers vote on the general principles under which the worker cooperatives are run, vote in [and out] their coordinators or managers and executive, and vote on capital and wage expenditures. However, what the research on worker cooperatives does not confront is how those ideals, and particularly these ideals of egalitarianism, can be subverted without careful attention to patriarchy, specifically as patriarchy circulates in rationales for pay. The purpose of this follow up project and this subsequent paper is to detail the impact of these rationales for pay on five mixed sex worker coops in Buenos Aires and their commitment to egalitarian relations between women and men: my main objective in this paper will be to explore whether the rhetoric of egalitarianism continues to match the reality of pay.
My specific objectives in this paper will be to analyse which rationales are used to justify equal pay between women and men; or conversely, which are used to justify unequal pay. This is to provide for others who are working within worker cooperatives an opportunity to learn what might work for them, given that they want to accomplish more egalitarian relations between women and men, pay as a tangible expression of that. It is also to provide other more conventional organizations an opportunity to use this information to analyse the rationales for pay, and then to construct more equal pay regimes. Pay rates between women and men and their rationales remain a problem even in the conventional academic literature, which continues to allude to the problems of analysing why women and men continue to be paid differently, the difficulty in analysing the rationales, and the difficulties of paying more equally.
This research on the rationales for pay in alternative modes of working like worker cooperatives ostensibly committed to egalitarian forms of organizing is shaped by my adherence to the legacies of Freud and Marx as they inform the work of the contemporary French philosopher Luce Irigaray [1993,a,b; 2000, 2004] and her work on rethinking our hierarchical symbolic structures as contiguous in order to make a place for sexual difference next to sexual difference, difference next to difference, rather than difference as necessarily lesser than the same or the norm [which in almost all of our organizational theory is in reality the unacknowledged male who masquerades as the same or the norm against which the different is always found to be lesser]. The uniqueness of this approach lies in my focus, informed by Irigaray, on how these rationales can be understood in terms of their expression of egalitarianism as contiguous, and the tangible expression of contiguity as paying every member, women and men, the same, or contiguous forms of organizing given tangible expression in equal pay between women and men.
As I explored in my previous SSHRC* funded research in 2006, worker egalitcooperatives are based on the ideals of democratic participation and of egalitarianism: in general assemblies all the workers vote on the general principles under which the worker cooperatives are run, vote in [and out] their coordinators or managers and executive, and vote on capital and wage expenditures. However, what the research on worker cooperatives does not confront is how those ideals, and particularly these ideals of egalitarianism, can be subverted without careful attention to patriarchy, specifically as patriarchy circulates in rationales for pay. The purpose of this follow up project and this subsequent paper is to detail the impact of these rationales for pay on five mixed sex worker coops in Buenos Aires and their commitment to egalitarian relations between women and men: my main objective in this paper will be to explore whether the rhetoric of egalitarianism continues to match the reality of pay.
2013-03-07T17:02:09Z
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Hope in Day to Day Living of Residents in Long-term Care
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3320
Hope in Day to Day Living of Residents in Long-term Care
Moore, Sharon L.
A project designed to focus on hope for residents was implemented in an ongoing support group in a long-term care facility in Western Canada. Because seniors frequently enter a care center when there has been a decline in function it is imperative to provide the necessary resources to enable them to maintain as much functional status as possible and to ensure an adequate quality of life. Hope is about envisioning a future in which they would be willing to participate, even in the face of adverse circumstances. With hope they are more willing to try things and risk participating in the programs offered. Without it they feel at the mercy of circumstances and can slip into depression. This project was implemented based on the belief that hope is a necessary element for seniors to achieve and maintain a good quality of life.
An eight session pilot project (offered twice monthly) was delivered to residents who were members of an already existing small group. Each session focused intentionally on strategies that were designed to enhance hope. During the group sessions, residents explored their own understanding and conceptions of hope and participated in activities designed to foster hope. Residents were interviewed prior to and after the completion of the eight sessions regarding their understandings of hope and how the sessions impacted them.
Hope focused strategies that were used will be presented. Since this project will be implemented during the winter of 2012 (February-May), preliminary findings will be presented.
In May/June 2012, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the IFA 11th Global Conference on Ageing, entitled ‘Ageing Connects’. As noted on the IFA website “it is taking place during the greatest demographic upheaval in the world’s history – the juncture between globalisation, urbanisation and population ageing. In the twenty years since the first IFA conference in India in 1992, the average life expectancy in the Czech Republic has increased by nearly 7% with a corresponding improvement in health status of older people in this region. Notwithstanding these improvements, today there are now more people globally living in poverty; family caregivers are an essential and expected partner in the health care system; and workforce trends across generations are volatile, as are the debates around social pensions and financial protection
Despite the growing understanding of the role older people play in the day-to-day life of communities and society – even in the gravest times of natural and man-made disasters – there is a lingering and pervasive stigma toward older people which often results in a violation of their rights. This may also be marked by the lack of sound and proactive government policies and limited evaluation of promising programs. Furthermore there is a paucity of mechanisms to exchange information and learn from one another to the extent that we are able to help shape and influence future policy with the legitimate engagement of older people.
Through the conference program the protection of human rights was expressed as the fundamental prerequisite to an effective response to population ageing. Equally critical is the recognition of important contributions older people make to the broader social and economic productivity of a nation. “Ageing Connects” provided an opportunity for the development and strengthening of powerful alliances” as academics, researchers and practitioners gathered together from across the world to share knowledge, expertise and to learn from each other.
2013-03-07T16:51:37Z
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ALBA and UNASUR – The Emergence of Counter-hegemonic Regional Associations in Latin America and the Caribbean
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3319
ALBA and UNASUR – The Emergence of Counter-hegemonic Regional Associations in Latin America and the Caribbean
Kellogg, Paul
Latin America and the Caribbean have been victims of more than 500-years of colonialism and imperialism. A key component of both colonialism and imperialism has been the denial of and/or distortion of sovereignty throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Neoliberalism has been but the most recent frame within which to continue this project. The FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) was to have consolidated neoliberalism across the hemisphere, under U.S. hegemony. But the rise of massive social movements throughout the region, prevented the launch of the FTAA in 2005. This has not stopped the attempt to institutionalize neoliberalism. Both the U.S. and Canada have turned to bilateral deals as an alternative to the FTAA. However, we have also seen the creation of regional trade and investment associations independent of the United States and Canada. This paper will examine two of these – ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas) and UNASUR (the Union of South American Nations) – and assess their impact as counter-hegemonic projects. The paper builds on earlier research published in New Political Science and forthcoming in The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization.
In June of this year, I had the privilege of being able to facilitate a speaking tour for two senior Cuban scholars. Dr. Concepción Nieves Ayús is Dean Institute of Philosophy of Havana, and Dr. Hugo Pons is Vice President Cuban Society of Economists. Working with me on this project, was Dr. Nchamah Miller who I knew as a scholar at York University in Toronto, and is now Visiting Research Professor, Institute of Philosophy, Havana, Cuba. The four of us presented papers on the theme, “Contours of anti-neoliberalism in Latin America and the Caribbean: Case studies from Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia and ALBA”.
The principal venue for the presentation of this research, was at Congress 2012, Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS), which this year took place in Waterloo, Ontario, using both the campuses of Wilfrid Laurier University, and the University of Waterloo. The response to the panel was quite positive. It was co-sponsored by two scholarly associations – Canadian Association for the Study of International Development (CASID/ACÉDI), and Society for Socialist Studies (SSS-SÉS), had a very good turnout, and sparked a lively discussion.
To take advantage of the visit to Canada by the scholars from Cuba, two other events were organized. An informal, Spanish language event in Toronto, where members of the Hispanic community in the city were able to meet with and discuss with our guests issues relevant to both Cuba and Canada, as well as an additional presentation of the Congress panel at the University of Toronto, organized by Ideas Left Out. Both of these events were also well attended and well received.
One of the challenges with these kinds of cross-border exchanges is, of course, that of language. In both Waterloo and Toronto, we were able to get the assistance of extremely professional translators, who provided English translations for the oral presentation of Dr. Nieves Ayús, and provided a wonderful written translation of her text (Dr. Pons both wrote and delivered his paper in English).
The panel’s focus was on the challenges facing small Caribbean countries in the context of neoliberalism. There were three different aspects to the discussion. Dr. Pons and Dr. Nieves Ayús provided fascinating, in-depth insights into the complex evolution of economics and politics in contemporary Cuba. Dr. Miller provided an outline and analysis of relations between Colombia and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. My paper focused on the impact in the region of the emergence of two new regional organizations, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).
In the discussions which occurred during these presentations, there was considerable interest in developing some of these papers into articles for publication, contact from a publisher interested in a book project, and discussions about how some of this material could be the basis for the development of online courses. All told, it was an extremely fruitful experience.
2013-03-07T16:46:44Z
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Who Should you write for? - Competing Literary Systems in Colonial Papua and New Guinea
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3318
Who Should you write for? - Competing Literary Systems in Colonial Papua and New Guinea
Ellerman, Evelyn
Post-war literary decolonization in the British Empire often pitted ideologies and scarce resources against one another in unanticipated ways. In any given colony there could, and often did, exist a rich mix of individual and organizational sponsors of print culture, whether these might be connected with the colonial universities and schools, newspapers, publishers and printers, NGOs, or the colonial administration itself. The motives for encouraging colonized peoples to write for publication were necessarily based in differing notions about the role of the writer in new nations and the priorities of decolonization.
The colonial case study addressed by this presentation is that of the colonies of Papua and New Guinea in the 1960s and 70s, where three literary systems developed concurrently, sponsored respectively by the colonial administration, the newly-formed university and a consortium of missions. Through a detailed examination of the practices of their literary journals, the paper follows the struggle to shape one nation out of two colonies. The argument focuses on one particular year, 1968, when a fiery literary change agent, fresh from over a decade of decolonization in Nigeria, arrived to establish the creative writing courses at the University. The advent of Ulli Beier polarized efforts to develop writers for the new nation, and created parallel, competing systems. The paper follows how this situation developed and the reactions of the colony’s first generation of creative and professional writers to it.
I gave a paper, entitled “Who Should You Write For? Competing Literary Systems in Papua and New Guinea,” which was well received. I have been invited to submit the paper for publication with Book History; I chaired a panel on “Contesting Cultures” on June 28 and was invited to participate in a workshop on “Transnationalism in Print Cultures” the day after the conference, June 30.
2013-03-07T16:39:31Z
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Is it Still Cheating if it’s Not Done on Purpose? Accidental Plagiarism in Higher Education
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3316
Is it Still Cheating if it’s Not Done on Purpose? Accidental Plagiarism in Higher Education
Kier, Cheryl A.
This project aimed to discover the extent to which plagiarism is committed unintentionally. In a study of students enrolled in an online distance education course at a post-secondary institution, slightly more than half of 423 students correctly answered four questions involving recognizing plagiarism and only a minority was able to rephrase a passage without producing plagiarized content. This suggests that most cases of plagiarism are inadvertent, so skill development rather than punishment may be appropriate.
The Hawaii International Conference on Education has been held every year since 2002. It aims to allow those involved in education to meet others from around the world to exchange ideas in ways they would not be able to otherwise. The international, cross-disciplinary focus enables input revolving around a variety of cultures, languages, politics, and geographies. In 2012 there were 1300 representatives from 35 countries. Data from the 2013 conference are not out yet. Parallel sessions start at 8:00 in the morning and go through until 6:15 at night. This is one of the friendliest conferences I have been to; participants are very eager to listen and to exchange ideas. They are keen to get to know one another. I would highly recommend this conference to those who would like to exchange ideas related to education.
2013-03-05T21:54:23Z
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Awareness and Use Of Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating: A Population-Based Study
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3315
Awareness and Use Of Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating: A Population-Based Study
Johnson, Steven T.
Background: Despite wide spread use among practitioners, little is known about the awareness and use of Canada’s Food Guide (FG). The purpose of this study was to report on general and specific awareness of the FG and to determine if demographic characteristics predict FG awareness.
Methods: Adult respondents (>18 years) from randomly selected households in Alberta, Canada completed a telephone survey. Two questions pertaining to FG awareness were included.
Results: Responses were received from 1,210 Albertans (50.2% Female). Of those responding, 86.5% indicated they were aware of the FG when prompted. Among those reporting being aware, 82.2% reported being aware of specific FG recommendations when prompted. Awareness of the FG was more likely among females (OR 4.1, 95% CI 2.7– 6.1), those with higher education (OR 4.1, 95% CI 1.8 – 9.5) and higher income (OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.2 – 2.4).
Discussion: The majority of the population reported being aware of the FG when prompted. Independent predictors of FG awareness included sex, education and income. These results may inform healthy eating promotion among practitioners.
At this conference, an oral presentation was made among a large representative population from Alberta. The oral presentation highlighted that population awareness of Canada’s Food Guide is high but behaviours like fruit and vegetable consumption do not meet guidelines. The A&PDF award substantially contributed towards the presentation of the work completed by my colleagues and myself as lead investigator. The international presence at the conference permitted recognition of our research, and Athabasca University.
2013-03-05T21:51:24Z
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Taking advantage of technology to engage students via distance
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3314
Taking advantage of technology to engage students via distance
Shouldice, Michael
The session begins by introducing Athabasca University, our mandate as a distance university puts extra-importance on our service delivery and we must leverage technology to ensure we meet our students’ expectations. It will target the resource freeing capacity of an online FAQ system as well as demonstrate how simple tools like excel and Google-alerts can be used to make a difference. Finally it will explore Facebook and Twitter as tools for engaging and interacting with your students and prospects. There will be ample time for discussion and Q&A. We’re all doing something in this arena and there is value in sharing our ideas.
Objectives/What will participants learn? At the end of this session participants should be able to:
• Discuss the potential of automated FAQ and Chat systems
• Explore social media for references to their institution
• Evaluate social media chatter for required action
• New content ideas to promote engagement in your social media participation
A majority of the presentation was a real time illustration of AU’s web tools. I tried to tie it all together into this storify post.
http://storify.com/Shouldice/using-web-tools-and-social-media-to-support-recrui
2013-03-05T21:45:50Z
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What a librarian can do for your open online course
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3313
What a librarian can do for your open online course
MacIsaac, Peggy Lynn
Information literacy tools used in face-to-face, blended, or online course environments are not scalable to massive open online courses, or MOOCs. We need a different approach based on the unique skills librarians bring to curriculum development of Open Education Resources, or OERs. Come explore, share, and inspire innovation on this topic.
This paper was written as the detailed research behind an academic poster presentation made to EDUCAUSE Annual Conference 2012, November 6-9 in Denver. The poster featured a librarian sticking out from a team of tall young players on a wooden gym court. The poster title and tag line was, “Want a faster, smarter team? Add a librarian.” The central photo played into the potential biases of the viewer, by creating the visual pun of the female librarian in a sleeveless dress, pearl necklace and iPad standing short amongst a tall uniformed male sports team. She sticks out from the team. At first glance she doesn’t seem to belong. The purpose of the piece is to encourage the audience to consider working with a team player who might not have been on their list of first round draft picks.
The paper discusses the varied roles and skills of librarians. It uses the six point framework of information literacy as defined by the Association of College & Research Libraries to discuss the potential challenges of delivering information literacy skills within the environment of massive open online courses.
The full paper is linked in AU Space at: http://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3218
/MacIsaac_Poster.jpg The poster can be found at: http://www.educause.edu/sites/default/files/library/presentations/E12/PS049/MacIsaac_Poster.jpg
2013-03-05T21:38:34Z
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Using Open Source Survey Tools for Qualitative Inquiries on Educational Development at a Distance Online University
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3312
Using Open Source Survey Tools for Qualitative Inquiries on Educational Development at a Distance Online University
Bosse, Corinne
This paper reports on two open source survey tools that were used to gather data related to Athabasca University’s (AU) educational development activities within a qualitative evaluation framework. First, a Moodle questionnaire module was used to assess the educational development needs of faculty. In another instance, Lime Survey served to gather qualitative information for an expert review on the usability of course learning objects from both a technical and pedagogical dimensions. A comparative review of both online tools will be provided from an educational development perspective. It aims to analyze the multiple uses of evaluative instruments as part of a broader discussion on ‘utilization-focused evaluation’ in the context of Higher Education projects.
Open education is an integral part of Athabasca University’s organizational culture as one of the pioneering online and distance teaching universities. Therefore, there is a strong institutional support for open source tools such as Lime Survey and Moodle, which is the university’s learning management system (LMS). The databases and servers for each tool are hosted within different units of the Canadian Open University. This level of technical integration within the institution makes it easier to access and use these open source survey tools as part of the academic practice for both faculty and professionals.
Within this institutional context, integrating open source tools to conduct qualitative inquiries on recent educational development initiatives sponsored by AU‘s Centre for Learning Design and Development can be viewed as a strategic alignment towards supporting innovative teaching and learning activities. In fact, one of the rationales for using Moodle to conduct a needs assessment was building on AU faculty’s familiarity with the LMS to raise their awareness about the Moodle questionnaire module. One of the outcomes is to make use of this feature to gather additional qualitative feedback from students to enhance course design and development. Similarly, the expert review conducted through Lime Survey provided an opportunity for faculty and professionals to test the tool as well as responding to the object of the qualitative inquiry focused on improving future course learning objects design.
Although both qualitative evaluation projects were different in terms of objective and scope, one of the reasons for using these Web-based open source survey tools stem from an institutional commitment to accessibility, flexibility and, ease of use. This factor could have an incidence on participants’ responses and emerging findings from both online qualitative inquiries. At this exploratory stage of the comparative review, it is anticipated that Moodle and Lime Survey will be embedded as part of AU systematic research-based responses to appropriately identify and address educational development needs and challenges.
Participating in the European Evaluation Society 2012 Conference enabled me to report on educational development evaluation projects while obtaining useful feedback from participants. It also gave me the opportunity to attend several sessions which focused on the latest trends on evaluation methodologies and the use of technology. Collecting evidence for the multiple uses of institutional open software tools in relation to teaching and learning activities will be an ongoing part of my future evaluation projects within my CLDD department.
2013-03-05T21:32:09Z
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Associations between sitting time and health-related quality of life and psychosocial health among older men
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3311
Associations between sitting time and health-related quality of life and psychosocial health among older men
Vallance, Jeff
Population based objective assessments (i.e., accelerometers) indicate that older men (>60 years) have the highest levels of sedentary time with approximately 60% of their waking time engaged in sedentary behavior. Sedentary time has been linked to mortality, type 2 diabetes, and cardio-metabolic markers. No studies have evaluated sedentary time and multidimensional HRQoL among older men. The purpose of this study was to determine associations of total sitting time with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among older men. Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, older aged men 55 years of age and older from Alberta, Canada completed a mailed survey that assessed HRQoL (RAND-12). Sitting time was assessed using five items validated by Marshall et al. (2010). Participants were asked to estimate how much time they spent sitting each day in the following situations; a) while traveling to and from places, b) while at work, c) while watching television, d) while using a computer at home, and e) at leisure not including television, separately for weekday and weekend. The primary model assessed the association between total sitting time as the independent variable of interest and our dependent variables of interest (physical, mental, and global health component scores of the RAND12). Results: Participants (N=375) averaged 9.3 hours (SD=7) of sitting time (or 557 minutes) for weekday and 8.3 hours (SD=5.2) of sitting time (or 511.6 minutes) for weekend. Quartile (Q) cut-points for weekday total sitting time were <380 (Q1), 380 to <500 (Q2), 500 to <630 (Q3), and >=630 (Q4) minutes. Cut-points for weekend total sitting time were <350 (Q1), 350 to <480 (Q2), 480 to <600 (Q3), and >=600 (Q4) minutes. For weekday, all three adjusted HRQoL models (i.e., physical, mental, and global health) indicated no significant differences in HRQoL indices across weekday sitting time quartiles (all p’s>.32). For weekend, all three adjusted models indicated significant associations. Differences were observed when comparing Q1 and Q4 on physical (Mdiff=2.3, p=0.05), mental (Mdiff=3.4, p<0.05), and global health (Mdiff=2.8, p<0.05). Discussion: While weekday sitting time was not significantly associated with HRQoL domains, weekend sitting time was associated with HRQoL domains when comparing the lowest and highest quartiles. In this sample, older men who reported less time sitting on the weekend also reported more optimal HRQoL indices.
At this conference, one oral presentation was made, and one poster was presented. Both presentations involved results from a large dataset of older men in Alberta. The oral presentation highlighted the weak associations between sedentary time and HRQoL. The poster we presented highlighted the strong associations between daily pedometer steps and HRQoL. The A&PDF award significantly helped with the costs associated with this relatively expensive trip. However, given the international presence at this, our research, and Athabasca University, certainly had a presence.
2013-03-05T21:28:17Z
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Multitenancy - Security Risks and Countermeasures
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3310
Multitenancy - Security Risks and Countermeasures
Tan, Qing
Security within the cloud is of paramount importance as the interest and indeed utilization of cloud computing increase. Multitenancy in particular introduces unique security risks to cloud computing as a result of more than one tenant utilizing the same physical computer hardware and sharing the same software and data. The purpose of this paper is to explore the specific risks in cloud computing due to Multitenancy and the measures that can be taken to mitigate those risks.
Security within the cloud is of paramount importance as the interest and indeed utilization of cloud computing increase. Multitenancy in particular introduces unique security risks to cloud computing as a result of more than one tenant utilizing the same physical computer hardware and sharing the same software and data. The purpose of this paper is to explore the specific risks in cloud computing due to Multitenancy and the measures that can be taken to mitigate those risks.
2013-03-05T21:03:52Z
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An Exploration of Factors Contributing to Compassion Fatigue in Family Caregivers Providing Care to Older Adult Relatives
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3309
An Exploration of Factors Contributing to Compassion Fatigue in Family Caregivers Providing Care to Older Adult Relatives
Perry, Beth
This qualitative research study explored factors contributing to compassion fatigue in family caregivers who were assisting paid staff by helping to provide care to older adult relatives residing in long-term care facilities. Compassion fatigue is an emotional state with negative physical and psychological consequences resulting from prolonged caregiving to people experiencing intense suffering or misfortune. Although compassion fatigue is applied in the literature primarily to health care professionals, family caregivers may be vulnerable to compassion fatigue in part because of their affectional ties with individuals for whom they are caring.
Study participants were family members who assisted staff in providing physical, emotional, and / or spiritual care to their relatives living in long-term care facilities. Data were collected by observation and through conversations with family caregivers. Narrative analysis and poetic interpretation were the routes of data analysis. The major themes identified include relentless vigilance, consistent inconsistency, and role confusion. The themes are discussed within Pearlin, Mullan, Semple and Skaff’s stress process model for family caregiving broadened to apply to the long-term care environment. Practical recommendations for preventing or minimizing compassion fatigue in family caregivers who are caring for older-adults are described.
The research study reported at this conference explored factors that contributed to compassion fatigue in family caregivers providing care to older adult relatives. Often older family members move to long-term care facilities because they are no longer able to care for themselves at home. Family members frequently remain involved in the care of the loved one in long-term care assisting paid staff with care. These family caregivers are at risk for a condition called compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue happens when caregivers watches someone they care about suffer pain, misfortune, or distress without being able to resolve the situation fully. Compassion fatigue can cause physical and mental health issues. Most research on compassion fatigue focuses on nurses and other health care givers. This study is unique because it focused on compassion fatigue in family caregivers. The investigation found that family members felt they needed to be constantly watchful of the care provided their family member and thus were not able to take needed breaks from assisting with providing care. The study also found that family members were distressed at the inconsistent care provided their loved one by paid staff. Finally, because family members were functioning as non-paid health caregivers they experienced role confusion. For example, they often longed for the husband, wife, daughter role which was their natural role but because of their need to help with the caregiving they often felt this natural role was lost. The study found that family caregivers assisting paid staff with care of their family member in long-term care were at risk for compassion fatigue. One recommendation from the study was that professional caregivers remain aware of this risk and monitor family members for signs of compassion fatigue. Further to minimize the possibility of compassion fatigue health care professionals can aim to provide excellent quality of care to relieve the anxiety of family members.
2013-03-05T20:59:05Z
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An MAS Approach to Course Offering Determination
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3308
An MAS Approach to Course Offering Determination
Lin, Fuhua (Oscar)
Course-offering determination (COD) for educational programs is the complex task of deciding what subset of courses an academic department or program should offer in a given academic term or semester. In this paper, we first model COD decision settings, e.g. modeling students as a group of self-interested agents, and then use a group decision-making protocol voting theory to aggregate the preferences of the different participants toward a single joint decision. Finally, we show how agent-to-agent negotiation techniques can be used to offer courses to mutual benefit between the department and the body of the students.
Dr Fuhua (Oscar) Lin, with his students AJ Armstrong and Alex Newcomb, presented a novel and innovative approach to Course-offering determination (COD) for educational programs at the International Symposium in Intelligent Campus held in Macau on Dec. 4, 2012. The symposium is within World Intelligence Congress 2012 organized by ACM and IEEE (http://ic12.intelligentcampus.org/).
COD is the complex task of deciding what subset of courses an academic department or program should offer in a given academic term or semester.
They first modeled COD decision settings, e.g. modeling students as a group of self-interested agents, and then used a group decision-making protocol in voting theory to aggregate the preferences of the different participants toward a single joint decision. They showed how agent-to-agent negotiation techniques in multiagent systems (MAS) can be used to offer courses to mutual benefit between the department and the body of the students.
2013-03-05T20:54:57Z
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Negating distance: Enhancing the doctoral experience through a technology-mediated cohort model
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3307
Negating distance: Enhancing the doctoral experience through a technology-mediated cohort model
Hoven, Debra
Introduction:
Canada’s first fully online doctoral program is now in its fifth year of teaching and implementation at Athabasca University and the first doctoral students have graduated. This program comprises four content courses, research seminars, a research study and written dissertation, which are supervised and examined at a distance, using ICT tools and applications appropriate for both students and supervisors.
Problem Statement:
Increasing concern has been voiced in recent years about problems in doctoral programs relating to poor supervision (Connell, 1985), lack of support structures and processes for both staff and students (Malfroy, 2005), student isolation during the conduct of research projects (Denicolo, 2004; Knight & Zuber-Skerritt, 1986) and inadequate preparation of students for dissertation writing (Kamler & Thomson, 2004; Krathwohl & Smith, 2005). Attendant to these and other problems, increases are also reported in the number of doctoral candidates either not completing their dissertations or dropping out of programs prior to commencement of, or early into their research projects.
Purpose of Study:
This study aimed to identify aspects of the design and decision-making that have contributed to the successful implementation of this program through an initial evaluation of the program and processes, leading to progressive refinement.
Research Methods:
Using a qualitative approach, interviews with graduating students and recordings of student-supervisor sessions as well as course evaluation reports were analyzed for problems, solutions and suggested refinements. All documents used in this study were collected and analyzed using communications technologies and online applications.
Findings:
It appears that solutions to some problems reported previously have been achieved through the adoption of a cohort model and the use of a range of networking and communications tools. By these means, it seems that a greater level of support, interaction and success has been made possible than was typical of either face-to-face doctoral programs or distance learning programs. Alternatively, some issues have emerged that were also not typical of other doctoral programs discussed in the literature.
Conclusions:
The formulation of guidelines and modifications and refinements of these will be presented, as they evolved in response to student questions and concerns and the study findings.
In October 2012 I attended the International Conference on Education and Educational Psychology to present on the effects of the cohort model on doctoral program completion and attitudes of doctoral students to the cohort model, post-coursework, in our distance environment. This qualitative research project represents the preliminary stages of an on-going project.
2013-03-05T20:49:53Z
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Mobile Learning Numeracy in Ontario
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3306
Mobile Learning Numeracy in Ontario
Chang, Maiga
The growth of mobile technologies and devices has penetrated the world substantially over the last 5 years, and a large percentage of these users are young users. This introduces profound changes to traditional teaching practices which may initially be seen as low-key, but it will eventually create visible side effects in the education domain that cannot be ignored. As we push for effective instruction to be differentiated, we can use mobile technologies to enhance learning. This research presents the mobile device functions suitable for mobile learning and maps it to learning topics of Ontario's K-6 Numeracy Curriculum.
The growth of mobile technologies and devices has penetrated the world substantially over the last 5 years, and a large percentage of these users are young users. This introduces profound changes to traditional teaching practices which may initially be seen as low-key, but it will eventually create visible side effects in the education domain that cannot be ignored. As we push for effective instruction to be differentiated, we can use mobile technologies to enhance learning. This research will present the mobile device functions suitable for mobile learning and map it to learning topics of Ontario's K-6 Numeracy Curriculum. At current stage, the research team has analyzed and found relationships between all mobile learning modes and all instructional modes. The results show that some mobile learning modes are more frequently considered useful and some don't.
2013-03-05T20:45:57Z
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Using mathematical modelling to understand the role the linker histone dynamics in DNA packaging
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3305
Using mathematical modelling to understand the role the linker histone dynamics in DNA packaging
Carrero, Gustavo
Nuclear proteins responsible for DNA packaging during the interphase of the cell cycle are highly mobile and their dynamics have a strong influence in the organization of the chromatic structure (DNA and associated proteins). In this talk, we will describe how mathematical modelling together with fluorescence microscopy experiments can be used to further the understanding of certain aspects of DNA packaging. In particular, we will describe the spatio-temporal dynamics of linker histones, nuclear proteins that play a major role in DNA packaging, with different mathematical models that are used to explain fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) experimental data. This analysis allows us to conclude that it is possible to describe feasible mechanisms of association of linker histones to the chromatin structure and therefore further our understanding of the role of the dynamics of these proteins in DNA packaging.
I was invited to deliver a talk at the International Interdisciplinary Science Conference on Protein Folding and Diseases during December 8-10, 2012, at Jamia Millia Islamia (Central University), Jamia Nagar, New Delhi, India. I presented my latest results on the dynamics of linker histone (a protein that plays a major role in DNA packaging) using mathematical modeling and FRAP (Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching) experiments. The mathematical aspect of this research, which is in collaboration with Dr. Michael Hendzel at the Cross Cancer Institute, University of Alberta, has been mainly carried out by Carlos Contreras, a graduate student from Universidad Simon Bolivar, Venezuela.
In the talk, I described how mathematical modelling together with fluorescence microscopy experiments can be used to further the understanding of certain aspects of DNA packaging. In particular, we described the spatio-temporal dynamics of linker histones with different mathematical models that are used to explain fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) experimental data. The analysis carried out allowed us to conclude that it is possible to describe feasible mechanisms of association of linker histones to the chromatin structure (DNA and associated proteins) and therefore further our understanding of the role of the dynamics of these proteins in DNA packaging.
2013-03-05T20:43:16Z
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Using Open Source Survey Tools for Qualitative Inquiries on Educational Development at a Distance Online University
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3304
Using Open Source Survey Tools for Qualitative Inquiries on Educational Development at a Distance Online University
Briton, Derek
This paper reports on two open source survey tools that were used to gather data related to Athabasca University’s (AU) educational development activities within a qualitative evaluation framework. First, a Moodle questionnaire module was used to assess the educational development needs of faculty. In another instance, Lime Survey served to gather qualitative information for an expert review on the usability of course learning objects from both a technical and pedagogical dimensions. A comparative review of both online tools will be provided from an educational development perspective. It aims to analyze the multiple uses of evaluative instruments as part of a broader discussion on ‘utilization-focused evaluation’ in the context of Higher Education projects.
Open education is an integral part of Athabasca University’s organizational culture as one of the pioneering online and distance teaching universities. Therefore, there is a strong institutional support for open source tools such as Lime Survey and Moodle, which is the university’s learning management system (LMS). The databases and servers for each tool are hosted within different units of the Canadian Open University. This level of technical integration within the institution makes it easier to access and use these open source survey tools as part of the academic practice for both faculty and professionals.
Within this institutional context, integrating open source tools to conduct qualitative inquiries on recent educational development initiatives sponsored by AU‘s Centre for Learning Design and Development can be viewed as a strategic alignment towards supporting innovative teaching and learning activities. In fact, one of the rationales for using Moodle to conduct a needs assessment was building on AU faculty’s familiarity with the LMS to raise their awareness about the Moodle questionnaire module. One of the outcomes is to make use of this feature to gather additional qualitative feedback from students to enhance course design and development. Similarly, the expert review conducted through Lime Survey provided an opportunity for faculty and professionals to test the tool as well as responding to the object of the qualitative inquiry focused on improving future course learning objects design.
Although both qualitative evaluation projects were different in terms of objective and scope, one of the reasons for using these Web-based open source survey tools stem from an institutional commitment to accessibility, flexibility and, ease of use. This factor could have an incidence on participants’ responses and emerging findings from both online qualitative inquiries. At this exploratory stage of the comparative review, it is anticipated that Moodle and Lime Survey will be embedded as part of AU systematic research-based responses to appropriately identify and address educational development needs and challenges.
This paper presents two open-source survey tools that were used to gather data related to Athabasca University’s (AU) educational development activities. The evaluation framework is qualitative in nature. The fiirst, an LMS-based (Moodle) questionnaire, was used to assess the educational development needs of faculty. The second, a survey (Lime Survey) served to gather qualitative information for an expert review on the usability of course learning objects from both a technical and pedagogical dimension. A comparative review of both online tools provides an educational development perspective on the process and method. The paper analyzes the multiple uses of evaluative instruments as part of a broader discussion on ‘utilization-focused evaluation’ in the context of Higher Education projects.
2013-03-05T20:33:11Z
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L1 and L2 Students Together: Online Education to the Rescue
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3303
L1 and L2 Students Together: Online Education to the Rescue
Baig, Veronica
This presentation explores a solution to the problem of L1 and L2 students taking the same course while addressing the specific needs of both. We examine the data from three courses, offered asynchronously online with both L1 and L2 students, to show how to address the challenge and achieve success.
Anyone teaching in an ESL classroom knows that, with few exceptions, it is difficult teaching both L1 and L2 students at the same time. L2 students are usually inhibited by the oral fluency of L1 learners, and their needs are different. Online education allows both groups to study in the same courses at the same with no detriment to either and allowing both groups to achieve success.
We compare students taking three different courses: an EAP course, an ESP course, both of which attract a number of L1 learners, and a preparatory Writing course that attracts many L2 learners. This session explores how methods of instruction can affect a teacher’s ability to support both groups of learners, and we look at both qualitative and quantitative similarities and differences in the learner experience and outcomes.
It is impossible to standardize all the possible variables: all students are adults, but apart from that their situations and circumstances vary widely, and we do not know all of the pertinent factors affecting their learning outcomes.
Online education, and asynchronous delivery in particular, allows all students to receive individualized instruction. While there are varying amounts of possible student-to-student interaction on the courses, most interaction is between a student and his or her instructor. In this way, instructors can tailor their responses to specific student needs instead of expecting students to fit into a general pattern or cookie-cutter mode of instruction. The results are rewarding and interesting.
2013-03-05T20:27:52Z
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Chunking and Extracting Text Content for Mobile Learning: A Query-focused Summarizer Based on Relevance Language Model
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3302
Chunking and Extracting Text Content for Mobile Learning: A Query-focused Summarizer Based on Relevance Language Model
Yang, Guangbing; Kinshuk; Sutinen, Erkki; Wen, Dunwei
Millions of text contents and multimedia published on the Web have potential to be shared as the learning contents. However, mobile learners often feel it difficult to extract useful contents for learning. Manually creating content not only requires a huge effort on the part of the teachers but also creates barriers towards reuse of the content that has already been created for e-Learning. In this paper, a text-based content summarizer is introduced to address an approach to help mobile learners to retrieve and process information more quickly by aligning text-based content size to various mobile characteristics. In this work, probabilistic language modeling techniques are integrated into an extractive text summarization system to fulfill the automatic summary generation for mobile learning. Experimental results have shown that our solution is a proper and efficient approach to help mobile learners to summarize important content quickly.
ICALT is the top-tier international conference in educational technology with excellent academic background and very high level of academic performance. During the conference, I presented a short paper (which is the result of my current research in text summarization via mobile learning) in the conference. I also discussed my research with outstanding scholars from other research groups. I had received many positive feedbacks and useful suggestions from the conference participants. I believe these suggestions will provide me significant further scholarly directions. By attending such high quality conference, I can obtain advanced knowledge in academic research. This knowledge will directly benefit my work at Athabasca University. In short, this A&PDF activity is very helpful to my research and professional development in Athabasca University.
2013-03-05T18:42:16Z
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Photo Essay Documenting Canadainas and their Interactions with Water
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3301
Photo Essay Documenting Canadainas and their Interactions with Water
MacMullin, Blaise
With 2013 designated as the UN Year of Water Cooperation, I feel that the bulk of a Canadians and Water project documented this year would offer the opportunity to release a completed project in 2013.
The scope of my project is intentionally broad encompassing many aspects of how Canadians interact with water, from work issues, to food issues, to recreation. I want to gather as much material as I can before I narrow down and select the aspects of water interactions that I’ll focus on.
The goal is to create something with strong visuals that would entice a general audience to view and interact with and in doing so, learn a bit about water issues in Canada. Through the 70’s and early 80’s the government of Canada produced a series of Water Yearbooks that were very informative on water use in Canada, but rather dense and lacking in visual enticements to engage with the content.
By creating a website with strong visuals or hopefully a publication highlighting Canadian’s enjoyment with water, I hope to reach a broad audience and to highlight some water issues that may not resonate currently with a general audience.
During July and August of 2012 I traveled across Canada from Saskatchewan to Newfoundland and documented Canadians and their interactions with water. My topic was intentionally broad in scope because I didn’t want to shape my experience too much, I wanted to document what I saw of Canadians and water as I came across it. The results are a mixture of fortunate timing and casual conversation with people along the way.
For example, I arrived at Fort St. Joseph on the southern tip of St. Joseph Island (the second largest island in Lake Huron) 200 years to the day of the first military action of the war of 1812. I did not plan that, but I was enthralled with the reenactments that included solders, metis and indigenous peoples along with an American frigate firing canons just off shore. 200 years ago to that day British, French Canadian voyageurs and First Nation warriors gathered together, crossed that part of lake Huron that currently separates Canada and the USA, and captured the American Fort Mackinac. Water and war. I took some photos there.
I also photographed Canadians and; beaches, boats, canals, clams, ferries, fishing, float planes, mud sliding, rain, sailing, sandcastles and tidal bore rafting to name a few aquatic interactions.
Now I plan on organizing the thousands of images taken and compiling them into something coherent and worth showing.
2013-03-05T18:35:49Z
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Attend The International Wikimedia Conference 2012
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3300
Attend The International Wikimedia Conference 2012
Cao, Yang
Participate in the Wikimania 2012 The International Wikimedia Conference, explore the research and development with Wikimedia applications. Learn more about what Wikimedia community had tried and where they are going, experiments with Wikipedia at some universities, and learn how wiki is for everyone: Culture and Features at wikiHow, etc.
Wikimania is the annual international conference of the Wikimeida community. Wikimania allows the community and the general public to learn about and share their experiences with free knowledge initiatives all over the world.
I attended the Wikimania 2012 The International Wikimedia Conference and preconference events in Washington, DC and preconference events in New York City. Explored the research and development with Wikimedia applications. Learned more about what Wiki community had tried and where they are going, experiments with Wikipedia at some universities, and learned how wiki is for everyone: Culture and Features at wikiHow, etc.
Met with some people and developers who have been working on wiki projects and had some conversations regarding to their work and experiences.
I found out that many things have been going on with Wiki projects and how widely the wiki applications have been used by general public and educators. I would like to do further research on this area and set up some applications for research purpose.
2013-03-05T18:17:35Z
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Take the Challenge for Primary Health Care and Pediatric APNs: Evidence Based Strategies to Improve Support for Parents of Chronically Ill Children
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3293
Take the Challenge for Primary Health Care and Pediatric APNs: Evidence Based Strategies to Improve Support for Parents of Chronically Ill Children
Lamarche, Kimberley
Parents of children with chronic illnesses experiences tremendous burden when caring for their children at home. There are many challenges that are present throughout the course of chronic illnesses. To provide better care to the family caring for an ill child at home, clinicians must understand the expe4riences family members go through on a daily basis. The purpose of this article is to help clinicians better understand these parental experiences; by increasing clinicians' awareness, strategies can then be used, which will improve the outcome for the child, parents, and siblings.
2013-01-10T21:43:04Z
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Factors Mediating Female Viewers’ Processing of Realistic or Unrealistic Female Beauty Appeals in Movies and Affecting their Body Esteem: A Mixed Method Study
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3256
Factors Mediating Female Viewers’ Processing of Realistic or Unrealistic Female Beauty Appeals in Movies and Affecting their Body Esteem: A Mixed Method Study
Wilhelm, Pierre
This study examined female movie female viewers’ attention to onscreen relational information and their response to feminine beauty appeals that may explain why they experienced different body esteem outcomes. Body esteem researchers do not yet know what factors mediate female viewers’ internalization of a thin ideal of feminine beauty broadcast in complex television or movie programs affecting women’s body esteem. Few body esteem researchers have examined women’s response to the onscreen interplay of actors and the relational cues that may influence these movie-watchers’ processing of a thin ideal of feminine beauty. Yet, women’s focus on relational connotations is a central aspect of the social-comparative thought process engaging them in self-evaluative thoughts about their appearance. Such thoughts usually trigger a corresponding sense of self-worth and perceived social acceptance. This study relied on mixed methods to contrast viewers’ responses to the relational interplay denoted onscreen and viewers’ perceived relations with influential relatives, peers, school mates, and the mass media. College women participating in this study drew on internalized relational and beauty-related meaning to make sense of movie melodrama questioning a thin beauty appeal. Perceived expectations from others about a viewer’s beauty appearance, her health, and academic life were severe stressors in study participants’ life influencing body esteem outcomes. This study provided evidence of viewers’ schematic of relational information, its mediating role in increasing or decreasing body esteem, and of viewers’ self-efficacy dealing with social pressure to conform to culturally valued looks.
I attended this congress because it addressed the role of mixed methodological approaches and mixed perspectives in research. This issue is directly relevant to my research because I need to observe female viewers’ processing experience both at the group and individual levels in order to demonstrate its results.
Many research presentations in this congress showcased using mixed methods. This theme was also highlighted at the conference plenary.
I also enjoyed acting as a discussant in a July 27, 2012 session addressing gender-related issues.
2012-11-15T23:11:37Z
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Use of a computer controlled spectrophotometer in home chemistry experiments
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3255
Use of a computer controlled spectrophotometer in home chemistry experiments
Shaw, Lawton
Home lab experiments in general chemistry often involve simple chemical manipulations, general chemical observations, and measurements of volume and mass. A mass balance is often the most complex piece of lab equipment that is required. On the other hand, campus teaching laboratories are often equipped with a broader range of simple instrumentation that can be used by general chemistry students, including simple spectrophotometers. We have attempted to bridge the divide between home and on-campus lab experiments by implementing a home lab colorimetry experiment that makes use of a simple, portable, computer controlled spectrophotometer (Vernier SpectroVis Plus). The use of this type of instrument allows students to learn about instrument control, data acquisition, and data processing – functions that are common to a large number of experimental techniques in chemistry and other sciences. This presentation will describe the instrument, the experiment, and our experience with durability, reliability, data quality, and student feedback.
This A&PDF activity was centered on participation at the 2012 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, held at Pennsylvania State University. I organized and chaired the symposium titled “ Home Laboratory Programs and Student Accessibility”. The symposium included a range of home laboratory programs, from relatively simple experiments, to those involving computer data acquisition and even remotely-operated instrumentation. As part of the symposium, I also made an oral presentation titled “Use of a computer controlled spectrophotometer in home chemistry experiments”. The symposium was well attended, and feedback on all the talks was very positive.
2012-11-15T23:09:17Z
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The Short-Term Effects of Hurricane Richard on Diet, Behaviour, and Sub-grouping Patterns of Spider Monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) at Runaway Creek Nature Reserve, Belize
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3254
The Short-Term Effects of Hurricane Richard on Diet, Behaviour, and Sub-grouping Patterns of Spider Monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) at Runaway Creek Nature Reserve, Belize
Notman, Hugh
“The Short-Term Effects of Hurricane Richard on Diet, Behaviour, and Sub-grouping Patterns of Spider Monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) at Runaway Creek Nature Reserve, Belize”
Studying the effects of natural disturbances such as hurricanes on primate populations provides valuable insight into species adaptability and their resiliency to major climatic events. We compared activity, diet, and sub-grouping patterns in a community of spider monkeys three months before and after a category 2 hurricane hit central Belize in October, 2010. Due to extensive damage to fruiting trees, we predicted that the monkeys would alter their diet to include more leaves, and that they would forage in smaller subgroups to reduce feeding competition. We also predicted that the monkeys would spend more time travelling in search of scattered resources post-hurricane, and allocate less time to social activities. Paired-sample t-tests determined that consumption of ripe fruit did decrease post-hurricane (P<0.001), while consumption of leaves, unripe fruit and flowers significantly increased relative to pre-hurricane levels. Average subgroup size decreased post-hurricane (P<.001), and sub-groups were more stable, as indicated by a decrease in the hourly rate of subgroup fissions/fusions. Contrary to our predictions, the monkeys spent significantly more time feeding (P=.001) and engaging in social activities (P=.023) post-hurricane, while the amount of time spent traveling and resting did not change. Our study suggests that dietary and grouping flexibility are critical to mitigating the immediate after-effects of major habitat disturbances, and that fission-fusion species such as spider monkeys may exhibit more short-term resiliency to such disturbances.
Two presentations were made concerning the behaviour and ecology of spider monkeys at our research site at Runaway Creek Nature Reserve, Belize. The first looked at patterns of aggression, and in particular female-directed aggression in spider monkeys (directed from males and other females). The second paper addressed the effects of a hurricane (Richard) on the study population. Spider monkeys are ripe fruit specialists and, as a result, are considered extremely vulnerable to habitat disturbance that disrupts the production of their food supply. Our expectation was that the hurricane would have devastating impacts on the monkeys in the short term. However, we were able to show that spiders may use flexible dietary and social strategies by relying on other fall-back foods like leaves, and by adjusting group size to mitigate feeding competition. Our results suggest that spider monkeys may be more resilient to habitat disturbance than previously thought, at least in the short term.
2012-11-15T23:06:57Z
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Patterns of aggression in spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyii yucatanensis) at Runway Creek Nature Reserve, Belize
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3253
Patterns of aggression in spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyii yucatanensis) at Runway Creek Nature Reserve, Belize
Notman, Hugh
“Patterns of aggression in spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyii yucatanensis) at Runway Creek Nature Reserve, Belize”
K. Hartwell¹, H. Notman1, 2, & M.S.M. Pavelka¹
¹University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada ²Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada
Presenter’s Email: kaylahartwell@gmail.com
A number of studies looking at aggression in Ateles describe high rates of both male aggression directed at females (female-directed aggression by males, or M-FDA), as well as female aggression toward other females (or F-FDA). M-FDA may be an expression of feeding competition, direct sexual coercion, or indirect sexual coercion, and F-FDA may function to limit scramble competition. We collected detailed data on all observed incidences of aggression (N=193) in two spider monkey communities between January 2008 and August 2011. Of these, 154 were instances of M-FDA, and 29 incidents were F-FDA. Oneway ANOVA shows that adult and subadult males are significantly more likely to initiate aggression, and that subadult females are the most common targets. In instances of F-FDA, subadult females were the targets in 53% of the cases. Nonparametric tests show that contexts of aggression differed between M-FDA and F-FDA; M-FDA occurred most often during subgroup fusions (males joining subgroups containing females who were not feeding) and during feeding (37% and 31% respectively, N = 154); in contrast, F-FDA aggression rarely occurred during fusions but was more likely during feeding (14% and 41% respectively, N=29). Our results support the hypothesis that M-FDA is a form of indirect sexual coercion, and as a result may encourage sexual segregation as females try to avoid potentially aggressive males.
Two presentations were made concerning the behaviour and ecology of spider monkeys at our research site at Runaway Creek Nature Reserve, Belize. The first looked at patterns of aggression, and in particular female-directed aggression in spider monkeys (directed from males and other females). The second paper addressed the effects of a hurricane (Richard) on the study population. Spider monkeys are ripe fruit specialists and, as a result, are considered extremely vulnerable to habitat disturbance that disrupts the production of their food supply. Our expectation was that the hurricane would have devastating impacts on the monkeys in the short term. However, we were able to show that spiders may use flexible dietary and social strategies by relying on other fall-back foods like leaves, and by adjusting group size to mitigate feeding competition. Our results suggest that spider monkeys may be more resilient to habitat disturbance than previously thought, at least in the short term.
2012-11-15T23:05:00Z
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Designer - Supporting Teachers Experience in Learning Management Systems
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3252
Designer - Supporting Teachers Experience in Learning Management Systems
Graf, Sabine
In the lifelong learning context, the efficiency of learning is measured according to the users’ achievement of the target competences. However, in a virtual learning environment supporting the competence development process ends up being an elusive and time-consuming task for teachers or instructional designers. Furthermore, tailoring courses to the individual learner’s needs and preferences has high potential to improve the learning process of learners. However, again, this is a time-consuming and complex task for teachers and instructional designers. In this paper, we introduce Designer, an approach for teachers to help them in designing courses via a semi-automatic design process based on dynamic user modeling and adaptive learning design generation. A qualitative and quantitative evaluation demonstrated the effectiveness of Designer in supporting teachers to create adaptive courses.
Our paper entitled “Designer - Supporting Teachers Experience in Learning Management Systems” has been accepted for presentation at the International Conference on Web-based Learning in Sinaia, Romania. This conference is one of the top conferences in the area of technology enhanced learning and the acceptance of our paper at this conference provided us with the chance to present our work to leading researchers in our area.
In our paper, we introduced Designer, an approach for teachers to help them in designing courses via a semi-automatic design process based on dynamic user modeling and adaptive learning design generation. In a virtual learning environment supporting the competence development process as well as providing students with personalized/adaptive courses ends up being an elusive and time-consuming task for teachers and/or instructional designers. Our proposed tool, Designer, aims at addressing this issue by supporting teachers to create adaptive courses based on students’ competencies and learning styles. A qualitative and quantitative evaluation demonstrated the effectiveness of Designer in supporting teachers to create such adaptive courses.
The presentation of our paper was received very well and leaded to many questions after the presentation, further discussions during the conference, many ideas for future research, and a potential collaboration with an international research group.
2012-11-15T23:00:04Z
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‘Derrida’s “Economimesis’ and Laruelle’s Onto-Photo-Logical Critique of Photography Theory
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3251
‘Derrida’s “Economimesis’ and Laruelle’s Onto-Photo-Logical Critique of Photography Theory
Foshay, Raphael
In a key passage in his Copy, Archive, Signature, Derrida reflects on the hinge between the active and passive senses of the rhetorical trope of invention as it bears on the photographic act: “There is a concept of photography as the simple recording of the other as he was, as he appeared there, but it is immediately contaminated by invention in the sense of production, creation, productive imagination. One produces the other there where he is not. . . . I invent him, then, in the sense in which one invents what is not there. These two concepts of invention lie at the heart of photography” (43).
In this paper, I will explore the sense in which the photographic apparatus configures and probes--brings into focus--the undecidable differentiation between observation and construction of the realm of objects. To this end, I will pursue a close reading of Derrida’s “Economimesis”, his important early essay on the productivity of mimesis in The Critique of Judgment. I will probe Derrida’s explication of Kant’s econopolitical construction of the aesthetic realm as a point of reference for a consideration of Derrida’s take on photography theory, in relation to the work of Barthes, Flusser, and, in particular, Laruelle. Derrida’s concluding argument in “Economimesis” fixes on the dynamics of what he calls “the hierarchizing authority of logocentric analogy” at work in the structuration of “judgments of taste” in the Kantian aesthetic. I am especially interested in the implications of Derrida’s explication of “disgust” in the Third Critique in relation to Laruelle’s argument in The Concept of Non-Photography for the photographic as “a realism of immanence”, rather than of transcendence or objectivation.
This paper focuses on the photography theory of Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida, with reference also to the theoretical work on photography by Villem Flusser and Francois Laruelle. The central construct explored here is Derrida’s response to Barthes’s distinction between studium and punctum in the photographic image and Derrida’s coinage of the term acti/passivity to capture the inseparability of the active and passive valences of the inventive relationship between the photographer/audience and the camera/object photographed.
2012-11-15T22:57:24Z
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Limiting facades of conformity and its impact: The role of supportive employment relationships
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3250
Limiting facades of conformity and its impact: The role of supportive employment relationships
Devine, Kay; Luchak, Andrew A.; Hunter, Karen H.
This research investigated whether perceived organizational support and leader member exchange affect employees’ use of facades of conformity, and how facades of conformity affect employee outcomes such as emotional exhaustion and work engagement. We present results from two studies: a cross-sectional survey of 155 North American Doctoral Students, and a longitudinal study of 286 working adults. The findings from both studies extend previous research by demonstrating that high levels of perceived organizational support and leader member exchange significantly reduce facades of conformity. A positive relationship between facades of conformity and emotional exhaustion was observed, but results for the relationship between facades of conformity and work engagement were inconsistent.
This research investigated whether perceived organizational support and leader member exchange affect employees’ use of facades of conformity, and how facades of conformity affect employee outcomes such as emotional exhaustion and work engagement. We present results from two studies: a cross-sectional survey of 155 North American Doctoral Students, and a longitudinal study of 286 working adults. The findings from both studies extend previous research by demonstrating that high levels of perceived organizational support and leader member exchange significantly reduce facades of conformity. A positive relationship between facades of conformity and emotional exhaustion was observed, but results for the relationship between facades of conformity and work engagement were inconsistent.
Results of the research were presented at the annual Academy of Management meeting in Boston.
2012-11-15T22:53:16Z
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The Contextual-Functional Meta-Framework: Developing Your Unique Approach to Clinical Supervision
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3249
The Contextual-Functional Meta-Framework: Developing Your Unique Approach to Clinical Supervision
Chang, Jeff
In this workshop, participants will learn the six components of the Contextual-Functional Meta-Framework (CFM) for Clinical Supervision, and the nine roles of supervision. Participants will use the CFM in articulating and refining their personal approach to clinical supervision across settings, theoretical models, and phases of supervisee development.
In this workshop, participants learned how to apply the Contextual-Functional Meta-Framework (CFM) for clinical supervision to develop their personal supervision approach. We considered the cultural, social, and administrative context where supervision and counseling occur, then clarified how the participants are positioned culturally. The CFM next attends to the supervisory working alliance. The supervisor carries out nine functions of clinical supervision (clinical educator, skill development coach, professional mentor, advocate/system change agent, gatekeeper for the profession, ethics/risk management consultant, catalyst, organizational/administrative supervisor, and personal supporter), based on the motivation of the supervisee, organizational/administrative context, and the supervisory working alliance. The supervisor’s and supervisee’s respective theories of client change, which form an ecology of ideas, are the next component of the CFM. In the CFM, the supervisor carefully assesses the isomorphism in the client-supervisee-supervisor system. Finally, the supervisor considers the phase of supervisee development. The CFM provides a framework for coherently organizing supervisory interventions in counseling.
2012-11-15T22:51:02Z
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Engaging Students with Mobile Learning
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3248
Engaging Students with Mobile Learning
Ally, Mohamed
The current and upcoming generations of learners are comfortable using mobile technology, and the technology is becoming second nature and an extension of these learners. Learners are using mobile technology to socialize, to access information, to complete financial transactions, to shop, for entertainment, etc. The question educators have to ask is ‘How can education be changed to integrate mobile technology so that students can be engaged and learn from anywhere and at anytime?’ Learning materials must be designed properly to engage students using mobile technology. Teachers must take advantage of the capabilities of mobile technology to build interactivity into learning to achieve high-level learning outcomes. Students should be encouraged to use their existing expertise in social media to build learning communities where they can learn from each other and share information. Students have mobile technology in their hands and pockets, so they should be empowered to use the technology. The use of mobile learning in education will reach out to students to meet their needs, which could result in lower dropout rates and the achievement of high-level learning outcomes. As we move into the 21st century the technology will become ubiquitous, with students learning from anywhere and at anytime. Education institutions must prepare for ubiquitous learning to deliver education to upcoming generations. With proper planning and change-management strategies, the transition to mobile learning and ubiquitous learning will be successful. However, there must be a sense of urgency to make this transition before we lose the motivation of students.
The current and upcoming generations of learners are comfortable using mobile technology, and the technology is becoming second nature and an extension of these learners. Learners are using mobile technology to socialize, to access information, to complete financial transactions, to shop, for entertainment, etc. The question educators have to ask is ‘How can education be changed to integrate mobile technology so that students can be engaged and learn from anywhere and at anytime?’ Learning materials must be designed properly to engage students using mobile technology. Teachers must take advantage of the capabilities of mobile technology to build interactivity into learning to achieve high-level learning outcomes. Students should be encouraged to use their existing expertise in social media to build learning communities where they can learn from each other and share information. Students have mobile technology in their hands and pockets, so they should be empowered to use the technology. The use of mobile learning in education will reach out to students to meet their needs, which could result in lower dropout rates and the achievement of high-level learning outcomes. As we move into the 21st century the technology will become ubiquitous, with students learning from anywhere and at anytime. Education institutions must prepare for ubiquitous learning to deliver education to upcoming generations. With proper planning and change-management strategies, the transition to mobile learning and ubiquitous learning will be successful. However, there must be a sense of urgency to make this transition before we lose the motivation of students.
2012-11-15T22:48:06Z
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An Analysis of the Alternatives to Traditional Static Alphanumeric Passwords
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3247
An Analysis of the Alternatives to Traditional Static Alphanumeric Passwords
Abaza, Mahmoud
2) An Analysis of the Alternatives to Traditional Static Alphanumeric Passwords
This paper focuses on one-time password systems, certificate-based authentication systems, biometrics, and non-alphanumeric passwords as potential replacements for traditional alphanumeric passwords. It also focuses on several enhancements for traditional alphanumeric passwords, namely enhanced password creation mechanisms, password storage and management systems, single sign on systems, and secondary identity verification mechanisms. This paper judges these enhancements and replacements as candidates for superseding traditional passwords based on how easy they are to use, to implement, and how secure they are compared to traditional passwords, as well as commenting on each method’s versatility. Ultimately, it determines that properly picked traditional alphanumeric passwords currently work better than any of the other available options. However, this will not remain the case for too much longer. The advances in technology such as SoftTokens, synchronizing password systems, and single sign on systems definitely have the potential to replace traditional passwords in the not-too-distant future.
I had presented two papers at International Conference on Computer Science and Engineering (ICGST) – CSE-Dubai-12. The papers were the effort of research I have done at AU. Graduate students were involved in this research. One paper was about data de-duplication in network storage. This paper has a practical value and will enable researchers, as well as decision makers to value claims made by network storage vendors. The second paper explained that traditional passwords as a method of authentication will continue to be with us. Efforts to replace passwords with other means have been proved to be expensive, not friendly, and not very practical. Suggestions have been made to improve existing authentication methods to insure better security.
2012-11-15T22:45:35Z
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1) Understanding the Benefits and Costs of Deduplication of Data on Mass Storage .
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3246
1) Understanding the Benefits and Costs of Deduplication of Data on Mass Storage .
Abaza, Mahmoud
1) Understanding the Benefits and Costs of Deduplication of Data on Mass Storage
Quite likely, there is a great deal of duplicate data in your workstations, servers, and backups right now. In addition to storage space, duplicate information consumes valuable network bandwidth as we back up data from our satellite offices to the data center, and from our data center to remote sites for disaster recovery. Deduplication is the process of identifying and eliminating duplicate data. Eliminating duplicate data could have a direct effect on the amount of storage and network hardware that is required company-wide. This paper’s intention is not to provide a definitive answer, but to discuss the concepts of this topic and present some of the underlying costs so one can make educated decisions while evaluating and testing various solutions.
I had presented two papers at International Conference on Computer Science and Engineering (ICGST) – CSE-Dubai-12. The papers were the effort of research I have done at AU. Graduate students were involved in this research. One paper was about data de-duplication in network storage. This paper has a practical value and will enable researchers, as well as decision makers to value claims made by network storage vendors. The second paper explained that traditional passwords as a method of authentication will continue to be with us. Efforts to replace passwords with other means have been proved to be expensive, not friendly, and not very practical. Suggestions have been made to improve existing authentication methods to insure better security.
2012-11-15T22:43:26Z
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Certificate in Translation.
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3245
Certificate in Translation.
Stashko, Shirley
N/A
n/a
2012-11-15T22:39:33Z
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A Social Constructionist Approach to Phenomenographic Analysis of Identity Positioning in Networked Learning
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3244
A Social Constructionist Approach to Phenomenographic Analysis of Identity Positioning in Networked Learning
Koole, Marguerite
The aims of this research are to explore how doctoral students on networked learning courses experience challenges to their identities, norms, values, and relationships. Within a relational, social constructionist perspective towards identity and positioning amongst individuals, an individual's identity is shaped through a continual interaction of dialogue with others; they shape each other in a mutual and cyclical process. This process is at work equally in Networked Learning as in face-to-face interaction with the difference that the medium through which communication occurs is different but influences the construction of identity. The author briefly describes the Vygotsky Cycle (Harré, 2010), threshold concepts (Meyer & Land, 2005), and with particular relevance to doctoral learners, conceptual threshold crossings (Kiley & Wisker, 2010). These three elements underlie the idea of 'identity positioning thresholds'--that is, the process in which a learner is confronted by conflicting opinions, behaviours, and/or perspectives that, if sufficiently critical, may cause them to examine these conflicting experiences or re-evaluate their own opinions, behaviours, and perspectives within their own social, academic, and/or professional contexts. The main interest of this research is to explore the kinds of critical stories or troublesome experiences that might lead to identity repositioning and the variations in which this can be experienced. To this end, the primary methodology being used is phenomenography. The main method of data collection is the semi-structured interview. One participant was interviewed for a brief pilot study. Then, 18 participants were interviewed for the main phase of data collection. Although the study is currently underway at the time of writing, the author describes the next steps in the study. Supplementary methods will be used to help the researcher develop an in-depth and sensitive understanding of the interview transcripts. These secondary methods include both discourse analysis and two-person interviews. After describing the data collection procedures, the author identifies and discusses a variety of issues both arisen and arising. These issues are related to the abstract nature of the topic itself, the co-constructed nature of phenomenographic interviews, the de-contextualizing and re-contextualizing of transcripts, and issues to be aware of when the times comes for analysis and the development of the outcome space. Finally, the author then briefly discusses some approaches to trustworthiness in the phenomenographic research process.
At the Networked Learning conference in Maastrict, NL in April 2012, I presented my current work in my doctoral research. My PhD research in networked learning on the topic of identity repositioning thresholds; that is, critical stories leading to threshold experiences that challenge doctoral students’ conceptions of their current sense of identity, agency, and relationships within professional, personal, and educational contexts. The research questions I set out to answer were threefold: 1) to explore the kinds of critical stories or troublesome experiences that lead to identity repositioning, 2) to discern the variations in identity repositioning thresholds that doctoral students experience, and 3) to examine whether or not these variations are related to the learners’ field of study. The study takes a social constructionist perspective in which learners’ identities are shaped discursively and relationally in a continuous cycle of discernment, construction and re-construction. Theoretically, the study draws upon theories of threshold concepts and crossings (Kiley & Wisker, 2010; Land, Cousin, Meyer, and Davies, 2005), the Vygotsky cycle, and social positioning theory another (Harré, 2010). An important goal of this research is to provide rich descriptions reflecting multiple perspectives of conceptions rather than reductionist, quantified data and generalizations. Phenomenography was selected in order to explore and describe the range of learners’ perceptions of experiences as they may approximate or differ from those of other learners. Discourse analysis was a secondary methodology chosen to complement phenomenographic methodology by highlighting underlying, subliminal meanings. During the presentation, I described my use of the methodology and the issues that I have been encountering along the way.
2012-11-15T22:28:31Z
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Attend Canadian Library Association (CLA) 2012 National Conference and Trade Show and Organize, facilitate, and moderate the session "Current Issues in Technical Services"
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3243
Attend Canadian Library Association (CLA) 2012 National Conference and Trade Show and Organize, facilitate, and moderate the session "Current Issues in Technical Services"
Kariel, Doug
I organized the “Current Issues in Technical Services and Serials” session. About 40 people attended. The group was divided among 3 groups.
1. Implications of RDA implementation for Technical Services staff,
2. Changes in managing authority control in library catalogues, and
3. Future trends in Technical Services.
Attendees were given the opportunity to participate in any of the 3 groups. After 25 minutes, they were invited to switch groups if they wanted to. As the session was 90 minutes, participants could participate in all 3 groups if they wanted to do so. The groups were general discussions on the topics led by a speaker/facilitator. I facilitated the Future Trends group. The participants in my group very much enjoyed discussing where the Technical Services work is going in the future and how library staff working in this area can be prepare for changes in the future and plan to have an important role in libraries as they evolve over the next 5-10 years.
The facilitators of the two other groups told me that there was lively discussion and that participants really appreciated the opportunity to talk about these issues as they have direct bearing on their work.
In addition, I attended many other sessions, met with vendors, and talked with colleagues. Sessions relating to RDA (Resource Description and Access), government information, and planning for the future were the most interesting. All the sessions I went to were interesting and helpful.
They are keen to do this again next year.
I organized the “Current Issues in Technical Services and Serials” session at the Canadian Library Association conference in Ottawa. About 40 people attended. The group was divided among 3 groups.
1. Implications of RDA implementation for Technical Services staff,
2. Changes in managing authority control in library catalogues, and
3. Future Trends in Technical Services.
Attendees were given the opportunity to participate in any of the 3 groups. After 25 minutes, they were invited to switch groups if they wanted to. As the session was 90 minutes, participants could participate in all 3 groups if they wanted to do so. Each group had great discussions. The participants felt that they had good quality information that they would be able to use in their work.
2012-11-15T22:22:22Z
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Tales from the Alberta Triangle: The United States, China and the Evolving Dynamics of Canadian Energy Exports
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3242
Tales from the Alberta Triangle: The United States, China and the Evolving Dynamics of Canadian Energy Exports
Grant, Iain
Canadian natural gas has been exported to the United States, in fits and starts, since the beginning of the 20th Century. Depending on whom you ask, the relationship today is either a testament to faith in open markets, or the folly of a short-sighted exporter selling its endowment to the most convenient (and expedient) bidder. But the dynamics are shifting. The development of shale gas resources in the U.S. has drastically reduced American dependence on foreign gas. Similar discoveries in Alberta and British Columbia have given Canadian producers and governments something new to ponder, and China’s ongoing thirst for energy has led to discussion of a pipeline and liquefaction capability on Canada’s Pacific coast. This paper seeks to evaluate these new dynamics, their effect on Canadian resource decisions, and their implications for the politico-economic relations among the three countries.
Presentation at EPOL 2012 in Antalya, Turkey, of my report “Tales from the Alberta Triangle: The United States, China, and the Evolving Dynamics of Canadian Energy Exports.” This presentation marked my first effort to address the international politics of Canadian energy exports, and the results were very positive, generating a lively discussion from attendees who were well versed in European, Middle Eastern and Asian energy dynamics, but who knew little about North American ones. From an International Relations perspective, there is something counter-intuitive about the ease with which Canada has been able to plan its Asian exports of oil and natural gas – the United States, for example, appears to have little difficulty with such an initiative, despite its status as a strategic rival of the most significant prospective buyer. Conventional IR theory suggests that this should cause friction in Canada-US relations but, by and large, this has not been the case. The most compelling explanations for this, I maintain, are (a) that energy has a ‘logic’ of its own that serves frequently to mitigate rather than aggravate international tensions and rivalries; and (b) that even in conventional IR terms, the US has little reason to be concerned about this development, as it may well work to American advantage as well. The Northern Gateway pipeline, for example, would – if completed – allow for crude shipments to refineries in California as well.
2012-11-15T22:14:04Z
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Attend 2012 American Library Association Annual Conference & Exhibition
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3241
Attend 2012 American Library Association Annual Conference & Exhibition
Fabbro, Elaine
N/A
2012-11-15T21:54:17Z
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Flexible paths to assessment for OER learners: A Comparative Study
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3240
Flexible paths to assessment for OER learners: A Comparative Study
Conrad, Dianne
The opportunities for innovation in the developing OER world are endless. Recognizing learners’ prior experiential learning (RPL), already an innovative practice in many tertiary or post-secondary educational institutions, presents both opportunity and challenge to OER practitioners. Existing RPL practices are often deeply embedded within individual institutional policy and practice. In some cases, such practices are labor-intensive and not particularly cost-effective or scalable. The definition of RPL practices and the relationship of various types of assessments to each other are also often unique to institutions.
This presentation will highlight the findings of a research project that investigated the fit of RPL practice and related assessment and transfer protocols to projected OER use. Targeting practice in 24 countries around the world, researchers sought to determine the nature and scope of a variety of institutional RPL approaches. The project’s aim was to identify scalable solutions for post-secondary institutions to help non-traditional students gain academic credit. An understanding of how different institutions are approaching the recognition of non-formal and informal learning will provide change agents within universities with new knowledge on how to extend and expand their learning missions by creating flexible pathways to facilitate the credentialisation of students who may be deemed non-traditional given their demographic, learning mobility, and dependence on Open Educational Resources or digital learning.
This research addresses conference themes of both innovation and impact as regards researching the potential for open assessment practices as well as examining how these potential OER practices will impact learners. Highly original, it will present a body of new data and analyse it for its relevance and application to developing OER processes. It is significant is that its data will contribute knowledge that can enhance the development of public and/or institutional policy in the areas of assessment, credit transfer, and the articulation of credentials. As all outputs of the project will be published under a Creative Commons license, maximum use and accessibility of data will occur.
The disassociation of learning from formalized institutions and/or accreditation continues to “disrupt” traditional educational thinking. Spurred on in other quarters by social media overtures, Open Educational Resources (OERs) offer learners everywhere new opportunities for access to higher learning at a lower cost. The SSHRC-funded research that generated this paper and conference presentation examined how 31 post secondary institutions around the world deal with issues of assessment, particularly prior learning assessment, and its costing. The purpose of the research was to inform the structure of the OERu, a loosely-connected network purporting to offer new and flexible pathways to post secondary learning of which AU is a founding partner. The research found a well-established understanding among institutions of the nature and purpose of prior learning practices as well as the expected diversity in process and in accompanying fee structures. While the OERu concept is theoretically welcome and sound, work remains to be done in establishing parameters for assessing learners’ prior, experiential, and informal learning and for incorporating those assessments into a credential-bearing program for OER learners.
2012-11-15T21:52:00Z
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Students’ Motivation to Succeed in First-Year University Mathematics: The Role of Mathematics Self-Concept, Self-Efficacy, and Demographic Factors
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3239
Students’ Motivation to Succeed in First-Year University Mathematics: The Role of Mathematics Self-Concept, Self-Efficacy, and Demographic Factors
Acquah, Edward
Mathematics is an indispensable, core academic discipline. Mathematics, English, and Science are the core subjects required for first-year university admission. An important educational research is the motivation to succeed in first-year college mathematics. This proposal uses an econometric model to test the hypothesis that student motivation to succeed in college mathematics is predicted by their mathematical self-concept, mathematical self-efficacy, and demographic factors such as age, gender, and mathematics experience. The model was estimated using survey data completed by mathematics students. The results are discussed in relation to current theory and practical implications for learning mathematics at the University
Attended various Forum presentations including
National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE): Presentation and discussion of the previous year’s engagement survey results and the new survey instruments: NSSE 2013
Data and the College Cost Problem: Using Data to Inform Public Policy: The session discussed the Data Cost Project and how that experience and national data could be used to inform public policy, including the development of metrics and a strong focus on public communication to multiple audiences.
Economic Impacts, Universities, and National Disasters: The session addressed methodological issues in applying the Regional Input-Output Modeling System (RIMS) model in the context of estimating the economic impacts of Xavier University on the New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) during a period that includes just before and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck New Orleans.
Fifteen Years of Satisfaction and Priorities Data: Looking Back To Look Forward: The session examined the common trends that have been observed over the last fifteen years and whether student priorities have changed or remain the same for four-year public and private institutions.
Faculty Satisfaction and Assessment: Engaging the Professoriate: The paper presented an examination of factors that promote and impede faculty satisfaction with assessment using a qualitative research design. The paper reported that factors pertaining to faculty satisfaction with assessment varied across programs, including assessment methodologies, resources, institutional assessment office, and faculty participation.
IR and Gainful Employment: Policy, Report and Practice-Establishing the Linkage Between Higher Education and the Labour Market: The panel focused on the three aspects of the gainful employment regulation: policy, reports and practices, arguing that higher education institutions should utilize this policy window and make efforts to establish the linkages between higher education and the labour market.
Increasing Student Response to Faculty Evaluation: A Qualitative Study The session used a case study to understand the choice to not respond to faculty evaluations and how the institution might increase students’ participation in the assessment
Key Performance Indicators that Work: Building Quality and Accountability as a Collective Process The session involved a panel discussion of a model developed by a multi-college system to construct key performance indicators with broad participation from faculty and staff with respect to issues related to design, structure, and process, as well as methodological/technical processes involved in the development
Incorporating Benchmark Project and Survey Data into Program Review Reports: The session uses benchmarks from Noel-Levitz, Kansas Study and other data to show how benchmarks can be incorporated into campus program reviews
Why Don’t They Come: An Analysis of Student Perceptions of Online Course Evaluations? The study compared response rates in online and paper surveys and noted that online response rates have traditionally been lower than their paper counterparts. It uses interviews, focus groups and open-ended questions to survey investigate unresponsive participants and its implications for institutions and faculty
Using Alumni Surveys for Program Assessment: What We Are Learning from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP). The session provided an overview of the role alumni surveys can play in assessing and improving curricula using summarized results from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project, an annual online national survey that collects data about the educational experiences and careers of arts alumni from a wide range of institutions.
Assessing Faculty Productivity and Institutional Research Performance: Using Publication and Citation Key Performance Indicators The session used various bibliometric indicators used to measure research performance, including article output, citation count, h-index, citation impact, etc. Assessments at the institutional and researcher levels were also discussed.
2012-11-15T21:49:13Z
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Using Virtual Programming Lab for Web-based Distance Education
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3238
Using Virtual Programming Lab for Web-based Distance Education
Wang, Hongxue (Harris)
In Web-based distance education, our experience has shown that some courses are more challenging than others for both students and instructors when offered at a distance. Among those challenges, providing students with access to laboratories is a big one for some science and engineering courses. Over the years, researchers and practitioners have devised and tried different ideas to solve this problem, and virtual labs are the newest and most promising one. In computer science, such virtual labs are often called virtual computing labs or virtual programming labs. In this paper, we will discuss about the development of virtual computing and programming labs. In particular, we will present the design and implementation of A-VPL, a virtual programming lab designed and implemented at Athabasca University, and its uses in Web-based distance education.
The paper titled “using virtual programming lab in Web-based distance education” was presented on June 28 at EDMEDIA2012.
There were about a dozen of attendees, which was better than normal for a second-last day presentation. The people in the room were all interested. One person from South California State University asked how such a system can be used in their classes, and another person from Keystone technology in the States asked a very specific question about technology used in implementing the A-VPL system, which further told me that IT firms frequently send representatives to conferences to hunt for great technical ideas.
I have also attended other talks by others. It was at one of such talks I realized that I am not the only one who usually gives audience a brief introduction about AU, and hence suggested that AU should develop an official version of AU introduction for AU employees to use at such events, in order to better portrait AU to the world.
The positive feedbacks from the audience further assure me the value of the system. I will seek more funding to enhance the system.
A keynote speech I attended has led me to think about research in e-learning at AU. Compared to what has happened elsewhere such as in the UK, what has been missing from e-learning research are some good systems (I wouldn’t ask for any products that can be offered to others) that we can proudly show the world to convince people we have really done something.
2012-11-15T21:45:48Z
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Advertising for food and dietary supplements in the print media in South Africa
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3237
Advertising for food and dietary supplements in the print media in South Africa
Temple, Norman J.
Objective:
To survey advertisements for food and beverages, slimming products, and dietary supplements in South African magazines.
Methods:
We examined the 5 most popular magazines over one year. They are in 3 major languages (English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa).
Results:
We recorded 959 advertisements; 776 (80.9%) were for food and beverages, 86 (9.0%) for slimming products, and 97 (10.1%) for dietary supplements. The most common advertisements for food and beverages were for restaurants (n=126), supermarkets (119), alcoholic beverages (79), cereal products (59), confectionery items (59), vegetables (40), and fruit or fruit juices (29). Thirty-nine of them (4.1%) carried health claims; these were most common for dairy products (14), followed by non-alcoholic beverages (7), and meat and poultry (6). The most commonly mentioned health benefits were for healthy growth (18), performance claims (13), therapeutic claims (9), and non-serious risk reduction claims (6), and for and energy (6). The majority of health claims referred to iron (17), B vitamins (12), vitamins and minerals (11), essential fatty acids (11), and calcium (9).
Conclusion:
A fraction of advertisements were for healthy products (such as vegetables, fruit, and low-fat milk) but the large majorities were for unhealthy foods. Misleading advertisements for slimming products and dietary supplements are becoming common.
My colleagues and I varied out a survey advertisements for food and beverages, slimming products, and dietary supplements in South African magazines. We examined the 5 most popular magazines over one year. They are in 3 major languages (English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa). A fraction of advertisements were for healthy products (such as vegetables, fruit, and low-fat milk) but the large majorities were for unhealthy foods. Misleading advertisements for slimming products and dietary supplements are becoming common.
2012-11-15T21:39:48Z
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Work, Learning, Inequality and the Academy
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3236
Work, Learning, Inequality and the Academy
Spencer, Bruce
This paper will look at the connections between work, learning and inequality and apply these understandings to the academy as a worksite. (Theorizing from the literature)
Introduction
The connection between “work and learning” and human resource management (HRM) as a management control mechanism have been discussed previously. In this paper we want to link these arguments more closely to issues of inequality, (linking to the debates about the “Dominance of the 1%” and “Occupy Wall Street”) and finally to the structural and cultural practices of the Academy as a work-site that mirrors mainstream society.
Both authors have written previously, and separately, about the key issues referred to above but have not brought the analysis together to focus on inequality and how that plays out in work and learning literature and the academy as a worksite.
The Purpose of this Exploration/Argument
Any argument about “work and learning” in the present context should take account of, or at least acknowledge, the major changes that have resulted from the rise in the global importance of financial capital and the resulting crisis of 2008 (Nolan, 2011) and its after-shocks in European countries such as Iceland, Greece, Ireland and Italy. It can be argued that “workplace learning” as essentially an offshoot of Human Resource Management (HRM) is therefore a party to the current economic crisis. Management education in general may be more to blame for the unquestioning acceptance of hegemonic neo-liberal economic ideas but mainstream work and learning practice, teaching and scholarship has also been complicit. It has been argued that “it is an inconvenient truth that many of those implicated in the disasters that have beset Wall Street and the world’s other financial centres are MBA graduates” (Currie, Knights and Starkey, 2010, p.1-2) and we would add ditto for scholars of work and learning and indeed of the academy in general who refuse to question shifts towards corporatization and neo-liberal values that are mimicked in so many of our institutions. With reference to the HRM-workplace learning nexus, perhaps the fear is that this acknowledgement of complicity will reveal that there really is no new supportive arguments for the claimed emancipatory effect after all — what we have is not so much a new ‘progressive’ HRM and semi-autonomous phenomena of workplace learning, but a new variant on an old theme of workplace social relations: boss and worker; human resource manager and human resources; employer and employee; supervisor and supervised; and workplace coaches or leaders and workplace learners. These are a set of social relations that sustains massive inequality – the dominance of the 1% as exposed by the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and in our view is mirrored within university culture.
Fields of Study, Literature and Perspectives
This presentation will draw on adult education literature and perspectives as well as relevant literature from other fields including a critical cultural studies perspective. It also requires some understanding of what we can call “the HRM paradigm” explained below.
For nearly three decades, the term “human resource management” (HRM) has been used to describe the management of the employment relationship and is often contrasted to the early terminology of “personnel management.” The mainstream HRM discourse views the workforce as the most important asset for generating value, increasingly through the creation of knowledge, which gives organizations either a potential, sustainable competitive advantage -- perhaps through investments in enhanced “human capital” or through offering superior services (perhaps achieved via exploiting workers’ “emotional labour”). Starting from this premise, HRM decisions and practices are said to impact on strategic goals and need to be integrated into the organization’s strategy. Arguably, one of the most powerful HRM-related discourses is one that holds, “In the information age, flexible learning has become a central feature of national education policies around the globe… the ultimate value to the organization of an employee is their ability to apply their knowledge” (Garrick and Jakupec, 2000, p.1). In recent years, there has been pressure to evaluate the contribution of HRM to the corporate ‘bottom line’ (Purcell and Kinnie, 2008) resulting in a growing body of research that seeks to measure the HRM–performance relationship. The restructuring of work and work systems is intertwined with processes of globalization, including pressure to create more sustainable work systems, which increasingly define late modernity (Bratton and Gold, 2012). Most mainstream HRM textbooks describe a range of HR practices used to attract, motivate, develop and maximize the inherent potential of workers. Finally, HRM has become the favoured discourse to frame developments in globalized employment and HR practices.
For an example of this paradigm, making the case for improving Canadian productivity, the 2007 Conference Board of Canada publication, Learning and Development Outlook: Are We Learning Enough? (Hughes & Grant), argues:
Canada’s productivity is lagging behind that of its competitors. One strategy Canadian organizations are using to meet these challenges is the renewal and upgrading of their workers’ skills. By spending on TLD to build workers’ skills, organizations seek to create enough additional human capital to make themselves more competitive. (p. 1) (But they also report low spending rates on training, learning, and development (TLD) by Canadian organizations because most companies’ training needs are modest — which is a reflection of the nature of most work and capital investment in Canada: few skilled workers need apply.)
Implications for Adult Education Theory and Practice
We think the implications for adult education theory will flow naturally from the analysis but we want to also focus on our practice as educators in our institutions and hopefully provoke a discussion around a critical evaluation of our relationship to the academy as a work-site drawing on understandings of mimicked neo-liberal practices and arguments for equity.
Paper led to a good discussion on the question of “what are universities for?” plus the issues of funding and alternative structures
2012-11-15T21:36:42Z
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Downstream Horizontal Integration and Dealer Network Performance
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3235
Downstream Horizontal Integration and Dealer Network Performance
Sigue, Simon
A game theoretical model featuring a manufacturer and two dealers is proposed to investigate the effects of downstream horizontal integration on network performance. It is shown that the decision to integrate depends on both horizontal and vertical externalities. The manufacturer and dealers are mutually better off when integration leads to an increase in consumer demand through higher prices and better investments in services and national advertising. However, downstream integration harms the manufacturer's profit when the integrated dealer sets the price and service decisions in such a way as to free-ride on the manufacturer's brand. Surprisingly, under certain conditions, both the manufacturer and the dealers prefer downstream competition to integration regardless of whether it increases or reduces retail prices. The scenario in which the manufacturer prefers horizontal integration and the dealers opt for competition is not sustainable at the equilibrium. Mechanisms to implement horizontally integrated strategies such as the use of RPM and dealer cut are discussed.
A game theoretical model featuring a manufacturer and two dealers is proposed to investigate the effects of downstream horizontal integration on network performance. It is shown that the decision to integrate depends on both horizontal and vertical externalities. The manufacturer and dealers are mutually better off when integration leads to an increase in consumer demand through higher prices and better investments in services and national advertising. However, downstream integration harms the manufacturer's profit when the integrated dealer sets the price and service decisions in such a way as to free-ride on the manufacturer's brand. Surprisingly, under certain conditions, both the manufacturer and the dealers prefer downstream competition to integration regardless of whether it increases or reduces retail prices. The scenario in which the manufacturer prefers horizontal integration and the dealers opt for competition is not sustainable at the equilibrium. Mechanisms to implement horizontally integrated strategies such as the use of RPM and dealer cut are discussed.
2012-11-15T21:33:38Z
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Political Economy and History – the Case of Luxemburg’s Accumulation of Capital
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3234
Political Economy and History – the Case of Luxemburg’s Accumulation of Capital
Schmidt, Ingo
Since her assassination, Rosa Luxemburg has been treated as an icon while her political and theoretical work is largely forgotten, neglected, or rejected. Recently, though, David Harvey used her ideas on capitalist expansion to explain the new imperialism. Other elements of her work are promising for socialist studies and the left, today. Her analysis of mass strikes in Russia in 1905, for example, may cast new light on workers’ struggles in China. Luxemburg’s critical discussion of nations’ right to self-determination inform, or ought to inform, contemporary Latin American struggles against imperialist domination. Her writings on mass strikes, parties and trade unions, like her better-known writings on ‘social reform or revolution’, offer insights into the role of (weakly) organized labour in political change.
I attended the 2012 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Waterloo, ON, as Chair of the Program Committee of the Society for Socialist Studies. I presented a paper on my ongoing research on Rosa Luxemburg, which was discussed by a group of Luxemburg scholars from Canada, Germany, and the US. Together with some of the contributors to my Social Democracy After the Cold War, co-edited with Bryan Evans and coming out from AU Press this month, I took part in a ‘pre-book-launch’ and chaired a number of other sessions as well. These multiple engagements at Congress sparked a series of ideas that feed into the development of AU’s Labour Studies Program and the Centre for Inerdisciplinary Studies.
2012-11-15T21:28:46Z
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Disabling Mothers: Creating a Different Discourse for Postpartum Depression
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3233
Disabling Mothers: Creating a Different Discourse for Postpartum Depression
Ross, Lynda
Women have historically been direct targets for psychiatric “disordering”
for a variety of well documented reasons that include their biology as
well as their socially and culturally constructed gender roles. Depression and anxiety disorders, for example, have been reported to be far more prevalent among women compared to men. Compelling evidence
continues to expose how “disorders” are fabricated and to some extent created by their “treatments.” Depression with its criteria for postpartum onset is no exception. Concern for women caught in this particular therapeutic moment – their suffering must be seen as very real – cannot
overshadow the need to critique the machinery that both creates “disorder” while at the same time offers “magic bullets” as relief or cure for the illnesses it has manufactured. Many “disorders” would not exist but for the untenable social, economic, and political climates in which
people are forced to live their lives; women suffering from postpartum depression is no exception. Psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry have been able to capitalize on women’s pained responses through
pathologizing moods, feelings and behaviours that might otherwise be
seen as appropriate ways to react to motherhood in these difficult situations. This paper will interrogate the psychiatric and epidemiological
history and resulting discourses surrounding postpartum depression. By turning attention away from psychiatrically “disabling” mothers towards a focus on normalizing “depressed” responses to early motherhood, this paper will propose alternative strategies for navigating the difficult times
surrounding the challenges facing new mothers.
The Museum of Motherhood provides a unique space with opportunities to engage issues surrounding mothering. My paper interrogated
historical and current discourses about postpartum depression, offering an alternative interpretation of the "disorder."
2012-11-15T21:22:27Z
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Questions Concerning Communication Technology in Nursing Practice
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3232
Questions Concerning Communication Technology in Nursing Practice
Park, Caroline L.
Martin Heidegger's question concerning technology, initially presented in 1949, has been distilled down to the following dichotomy: Is technology a human act? or Is technology a means to an end?
Philosophers continue to debate this issue. The theoretical development of the philosophy of technology is often described as falling into one of the two camps, defined by Heidegger’s question. The “technology as a human act” stance houses substantive theories of technological determinism. The “technology as a means to an end” stance houses instrumental theories of technological neutrality. Within each of these camps there are both pro and anti-technology supporters.
In this presentation, the various theories will be presented in a four cell matrix, with the pro-and anti-technology axis being a continuum of the degree of comfort or discomfort with technology demonstrated, regardless of the sub-field (camp). Current philosophical perspectives will be described, as they are situated in the matrix. Each perspective will then be extended to explore the implications of its assumptions for the practices relating to the use of communication technology in nursing clinical education and nursing practice. This exploration will be an introduction to the types of questions that must be addressed and will be an invitation to other nurse philosophers to participate in the exposure of the moral and political questions concealed within the practices related to communication technology.
The introduction of any technology in the health field requires thought and planning. Thinking about ideas of the great philosophers leads to an understanding of two ways to situate technology, as a means to an end, a tool that does the work for us or as a technology that builds our abilities to be more thoughtful and careful in our practice. The first understanding includes the idea that the technology controls us and the second that we control the technology.
These two ways of looking at technology also contain both pro and anti technology points of view so there are really two continuums of thought about technology.
Knowing this assists in understanding various opinions about when, where and why to use technology in health care.
2012-11-15T21:18:37Z
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Dynamic Effects of African Economic Integration: Evidence from Panel Data
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3231
Dynamic Effects of African Economic Integration: Evidence from Panel Data
Musila, Jacob
This paper uses panel data to estimate the impact of AMU, COMESA, ECCAS, ECOWAS and SADC regional economic integrations on the level and rate of growth of economic activity in Africa. The impacts of each integration scheme on the level of investment and the rate of growth of real GDP per capita are estimated. The estimated results show that the impacts of COMESA, ECOWAS, and SADC on the level of investment are positive and significant while that of AMU is negative and significant. Only ECCAS has a negative and significant influence on the rate of growth of real GDP per capita. The impacts of AMU, COMESA, ECOWAS and SADC on rate of growth of real GDP per capita are insignificant. With respect to the marginal impacts, COMESA, ECOWAS and SADC are found to reduce the marginal impact of trade openness on investment, COMESA is also found to reduce the marginal impact of trade openness on economic growth while ECCAS is found to increase the marginal impact of trade openness on growth.
Presented the paper in the 1:30-3:00PM session on May 18, 2012. The paper and presentation was well received as it was a first attempt to estimate the effects of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) on growth and investment.
Questions were asked regarding the non-existent of the RTA-human capital – growth channel in the study. Discussion ensued regarding the theoretical underpinning of such a link and the practical evidence.
Questions were asked about the overall performance of the model as the Adjusted R-squares were very low. However, the low adj. R-squares is a common phenomenon in cross-section growth studies. So, it is not unique for this study.
A suggestion was made to investigate the time series properties of the panel data.
2012-11-15T21:06:29Z
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Ethics and Economics: An Internal Relation
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3230
Ethics and Economics: An Internal Relation
Morito, Bruce
The relationship between ethics and economics in the modern age is typically viewed as external. This view is most usually articulated in the notion that for economic relations to be ethical, an ethic must be imposed; otherwise, economic relations are amoral. I try to show how the relationship is actually best explained by adopting an explanatory framework of inter-dependent arising, according to which the emergence and development of both ethical and economic relations is a matter of mutual determination. Ethical values emerge in the course of developing economic relations and, in turn direct or at least implicate economic relations. The consequences of a such a view, however, are that exchange values inform moral concepts (e.g., of what is morally owed to members of a community) and moral concepts help frame economic ones.
I offer an argument that starts with a description of a historical relationship between two disparate cultures (English and Iroquoian). The interactions between these cultures were determined initially by trade and then military interests. These interests eventually underwent pressure to evolve into legal and even religiously informed arrangements that necessarily involved certain moral values. Using a presupposition analysis, I show how this evolution was no accident and did not depend on some agent(s) imposing the moral values onto the relationship. Rather, those values arose as a matter of course. In conclusion, the paper advances the idea that, since the relationship between ethics and economics is internal, the ethics of economic relations needs to be formulated more in terms of understanding what economic relations are most fundamentally to achieve.
This paper was presented in a relatively informal manner, more to initiate discussion over the ethics/economics relation. The presentation itself took about half an hour to complete, which was followed by a question period. Most questions had to do with clarification. One especially important comment addressed how the relation between ethics and economics could be established in principle, rather than in fact, as it appeared I was arguing. I did note that I intended the argument to lead to one that showed how the relationship was internal in principle, even thought the examples used in the paper suggested that I was arguing for an in fact (de facto) relationship. This part of the paper needs further development. Some comments focused on other possible bodies of evidence, but the main critical comments were formulated in relation to environmental ethics. In this area, the dominant assumption is that economic activity must be controlled externally, otherwise economic forces will run roughshod over environmental concerns. One extended conclusion as a result of discussion ran contrary to many environmental ethics views of economics, namely, that such relations must be local and bioregionally determined. My argument leads to the conclusion that economic relations need to be global, where possible, but based on fair trade principles.
2012-11-15T21:02:34Z
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Mobilization of Workers: Labour Education and Publication in Chinese Revolution: 1919-1927
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3229
Mobilization of Workers: Labour Education and Publication in Chinese Revolution: 1919-1927
McQuaide, Shiling
Chinese proletariat was young and numerically weak in the 1920s. These workers nevertheless played a decisive role in the great strike wave culminating in the mid-1920s. Western scholars have provided conflicting narratives of the Chinese labour, but they mainly worked within the same paradigm of social class, with emphasis on workers’ socio-economic and cultural lives as precondition of their emergence as a political force. This paper looks at a different dimension of Chinese labour movement through examination of workers’ activism and militancy in the context of Communist and nationalist movements. More specifically, it explores the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s propaganda and educational work as a key component of Communist labour unions’ organizational and mobilization strategy. This paper will first look at Shanghai workers’ anti-imperialist strike in 1919 as stimulation to left-wing May Fourth intellectuals’ embrace of Marxism and identification with workers. Then it traces the mass education campaign popular at the beginning of the 20th century as the prelude of the CCP’s education drive among workers. Further, two main components of CCP’s mobilization strategies—labour periodicals and workers’ school--will be discussed to show their contributions to workers’ unionization and militancy. Little work has been done on this theme both in China and in the West. Finally, this paper tries to shed light on the relation between intellectuals and workers in reference to Lenin and Gramsci’s theories on the issue.
I attended the conference from May 30 to June 2. In addition to presenting my paper, I went to a couple of keynote speeches offered by Labor Studies society and Sociology Society and several secessions organized by Socialist Studies Society. I also got chance to meet and talk to scholars in a number of fields, exchanging opinions in research and teaching with them. Furthermore, I spoke with the chief-editor of a publisher, who showed great interests in my research project on labor education in China, and agreed to publish it when it is completed. Inclusion, I deem the conference trip supported by A&PDF is very productive, and I greatly appreciate the financial support that I have received.
2012-11-15T20:51:16Z
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The Association Between Dementia Status, Co-morbidity, and Osteoporosis Treatment: A Population-Based Nested Case-Control Study
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3228
The Association Between Dementia Status, Co-morbidity, and Osteoporosis Treatment: A Population-Based Nested Case-Control Study
Knopp-Sihota, Jennifer
BACKGROUND: Increasing age and a diagnosis of dementia both dramatically increase the risk of serious osteoporosis related sequela. At the same time, there remains an overall low rate of osteoporosis treatment particularly in older, frail adults despite the availability of effective antiresorptive treatments such as bisphosphonate drugs. In addition, the frequency in which community dwelling persons with dementia are treated with osteoporosis medications has not been well described. Furthermore, existing literature does not adequately delineate whether the low treatment rates are simply age related variations (in treatments) or due to the presence of co-morbid conditions, particularly dementia.
METHODS: We performed a retrospective population based nested case-control study using de-identified administrative healthcare data from a Canadian province (pop. 4.1 million). We included patients 65 years and older, with a diagnosis of osteoporosis, who had continuous prescription drug coverage during the study period of 1991 to 2007. A multivariate logistic regression model was assembled to examine the relationship between osteoporosis medication dispensation and dementia status while controlling for age, sex, co-morbidity, and residence.
RESULTS: We included 39,452 patients in the osteoporosis cohort; the mean age of the sample was 80.1 years (SD 7.5; range 65–104 years), 79% of the subjects were female, and 34% had a dementia diagnosis. Only 5% of the sample had no co-morbid conditions; the majority of patients (52%) had at least 3 co-morbid conditions (SD 2.0; range 0–12 conditions). When stratified by dementia status, there were significant differences in age, frequency of co-morbidity, and residence by health region (P < .001) and sex (P < .05). Almost half of the total osteoporosis cohort were dispensed an osteoporosis medication during the study period (43%; P < .001). Those who had been dispensed drug treatment were more often younger, female, and had no diagnosis of dementia (P < .001). Drug dispensation was directly related to the frequency of co-morbid conditions; those with 4 or more conditions were dispensed treatment significantly more often (54%) than those with fewer co-morbid conditions (P < .001). A diagnosis of dementia was a significant negative predictor of drug dispensation (adjusted OR = 0.55; 95% CI = 0.44–0.69). Increasing age, male sex, and a more remote residence were all associated with a significant decrease in the likelihood of treatment. Increasing co-morbidity was significantly associated with receiving treatment (adjusted OR = 3.30; 95% CI = 2.88–3.78).
CONCLUSION: Despite the wide availability of osteoporosis medications, our findings suggest that the majority of older adults with a diagnosis of dementia, but not necessarily fewer co-morbid conditions, are not receiving treatment to prevent progression of the disease including fragility fractures.
Using administrative healthcare data, we examined the association between dementia, co-morbidity, and the prescription of osteoporosis medications among community-dwelling older adults. We found that despite the availability of osteoporosis medications, the majority of patients with a concurrent diagnosis of dementia and osteoporosis did not receive treatment to prevent osteoporosis complications.
2012-11-15T20:47:46Z
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Fall of the House of Euro – German capitalism and the long search for a ‘spatial fix
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3227
Fall of the House of Euro – German capitalism and the long search for a ‘spatial fix
Kellogg, Paul
From the standpoint of capitalism in Germany, the European Union and the Eurozone are but the two most recent stations on the long pilgrimage to find a spatial fix, attempts to alleviate the perennial problem of a nationally-based centre of capital accumulation, bursting the bounds of its home market, but without easy access to overseas empire. But these “spatial fixes” – from Bismarckian imperialism on – have occurred undemocratically, have fostered chauvinism and racism, and have remained trapped in the fetishized forms which are the curse of private-property. All of these superstructural impediments have become prisons, holding back social development in Germany and throughout Europe. This paper will develop these themes through a survey of three distinct “moments” in the search for a spatial fix to the contradictions inherent in German and European capitalism..
Historical Materialism is one of the newest entries into the scholarly conference circuit in Canada, but has established itself as an important one, particularly in the Humanities and Social Sciences. It is part of a network of conferences, including an annual one in Britain and a bi-annual one in the United States, organized by the editors of the Historical Materialism journal. The journal now has an ongoing collaborative relationship for book publishing with the Netherlands-based Brill, a highly-respected academic publisher, in business since 1683.
This May, Historical Materialism Toronto held its third conference, and I had the opportunity to organize one of the sessions (as well as speaking on a panel in a second session). The session I organized was entitled “Debt, displacement and dispossession in the 21st century”. In the 1980s, Latin America was the epicentre of sovereign debt crises. Today, the focus is on Europe, the very core of “old capitalism.” The panel linked these two spaces and outlined critical issues posed for theories of debt and money. The first paper, presented by Dr. Susanne Soederberg of Queen’s University, was focused on Latin America, and analyzed Mexico’s “debtfare state”, and its ties to global capitalism. The second paper, presented by Jesse Hembruff, a doctoral student at Queen’s University, focused on Greece, one of Europe’s weakest economies and on the front lines of the current EU sovereign debt crisis. The third paper – the one I presented – deployed David Harvey’s concept of the ‘spatial fix, through a focus on Germany, one of Europe’s strongest economies.
Conferences are an indispensable tool in the development of academic research. The research in my paper was first stimulated by an invitation from Ideas Left Out to speak in Toronto in January of this year, on the topic “Eurozone from Greece to Germany – Explaining the Crisis.” This then led to a panel at the 2012 Research Forum in April in Athabasca, “Histories of Capitalism: Critical Perspectives.” Through each of these iterations of the research, feedback and comments from the participants has proven very fruitful.
2012-11-15T20:41:51Z
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Challenges to Connection- Changes in the Land and in Ways of Life in Kaska Dena Territory
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3226
Challenges to Connection- Changes in the Land and in Ways of Life in Kaska Dena Territory
Johnson, Leslie
The relationship to land is crucial for the well being of Kaska people. To maintain connection to the land, skills and language are both needed. Much knowledge about the land and how to live well on the land and with other beings of the land is encoded in language. When transmission of language is disrupted, the philosophy and cosmology of the Kaska way of life become difficult to carry on, and this impacts the ability of younger generations to live on and with the land. When people are cut off from the land, physical, social and spiritual health suffer. Changes in residence patterns and changes in the land itself contribute to the difficulty of maintaining connection and health. Some change is a result of climate change, while other impacts are caused by industrial activities such as mining, which may compromise waterways, contaminate traditional foods, change animal behaviour, and contribute to social problems.
I attended the Society of Ethnobiology Annual Conference, held this year in the Denver Botanic Gardens in Denver Colorado. The session I presented in was entitled “Pursuing a ‘Good Life’ within Contested Landscapes: Ethnoecologies of Practice in Contemporary Perspective.” This session was co-organized with Dr. Iain Davidson-Hunt of the Natural Resource Institute of the University of Winnipeg. The general theme of the session deals with the relationship of mental and physical health and well being to activities on the land, and the difficulties in adapting to environmental change in continuing to seek a satisfying and healthy way of life. The papers in our session featured three Canadian First Nation groups, and one group from Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). My paper was co-authored with my Kaska collaborator and was entitled “Challenges to Connection: Changes in the land in ways of life in Kaska Dena Territory. Our paper spoke to changes in the Kaska Dena homeland in the southern Yukon, and the challenges faced by people attempting to continue to life a healthy life there. It was based in part on our 2010 Athabasca Research Grant to investigate Kaska Elders’ knowledge of environmental change. One of the challenges to connection for contemporary Kaska is loss of language, and other challenges include environmental impacts of resource development, and basic changes in the way of life because of school attendance and the wage economy. Kaska people are resilient, and are seeking to find ways forward which enable continuation of core values in the land, and maintenance of health. The paper following mine was co-presented by AU tutor Janelle Baker and her student Andrew Paul, entitled “Wehea Dayak Forest Guardians: Becoming men and practicing health.” This joint presentation described an ethnoecology project with Wehea Dayak. Mr. Paul is an undergraduate student who plans to major in anthropology, and he gave an impressive conference presentation. While at the congress I was able to hear a number of papers that dealt with a wide range of cultural knowledge of plants, animals and environments, which is the subject area of ethnobiology. Conference participants were mainly from the United States, with a strong contingent of Canadian scholars and students. I also participated in a field trip to the US Rocky Mountain National Park where I was able to learn about a range of management issues in the park around ecological balance, and incorporation of Indian activities in the park area (as well as enjoy the lovely scenery, which reminded me of Canada, and the snowy weather which also reminded me of home
2012-11-15T19:21:41Z
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Tracking Cardiovascular Responses To Anticipation Of An Exercise Test In Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Preliminary Test
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3225
Tracking Cardiovascular Responses To Anticipation Of An Exercise Test In Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Preliminary Test
Fraser, Shawn N.
Cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) refers to relatively high heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) increases in the face of a mental stressor. CVR may be a concern for heart patients since it may precede ischemic events and CVR may be an indicator of relatively poor prognosis. Anticipation of an exercise tolerance test (ETT) results in rapid increases in HR and BP and has been used as a stressor in heart patient to study CVR. However, it is not clear how CVR changes associated with an ETT change after a course of cardiac rehabilitation (CR). PURPOSE: To examine CVR, specifically HR and systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) responses, to anticipation of an exercise tolerance test before and after a course of CR. METHODS: CVR was recorded for 76 patients at baseline and for a subsample of 23 patients who completed 6 weeks of CR. Identical procedures were used for baseline and post-CR data collection. Resting HR and BP were measured 3 times, 1 minute apart, by an automated oscillometric BP monitor after the patient had been seated quietly and alone for 5 minutes. The patient was then prepped for an ETT and met in the exercise stress testing lab by the researcher. Standing HR and BP measures were taken by the same automated BP device after 1 and 3 minutes of standing on the treadmill immediately prior to beginning exercise. The mean of the 3 seated measures was considered the resting BP and HR. Peak BP and HR standing were used to calculate the cardiovascular response to anticipation of exercise. CVR was defined as peak BP and HR minus resting BP and HR, respectively. RESULTS: Anticipation of exercise resulted in significant increases (all p’s < .002) in CV parameters with an average CVR at baseline for HR, SBP and DBP of 4.0 bpm, 16.6 mmHg, and 13.5 mmHg, respectively. CVR after
a course of CR for HR, SBP and DBP were 4.3 bmp, 15.9 mmHg, and 9.2 mmHg (ps < .001). Differences between baseline and post-CR CVR was significant only for the change in DBP (p = .05). CONCLUSION: Patients responded with a predictable increase in HR and BP in anticipation of an ETT before and after a course of CR. After CR, DBP increases in anticipation of an ETT were lower in magnitude than before CR. Future research should investigate specific components of CR that may help reduce CVR.
2012-11-15T19:19:09Z
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Teaching in an Online Community of Inquiry: Faculty Role Adjustment in the New Higher Education
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3224
Teaching in an Online Community of Inquiry: Faculty Role Adjustment in the New Higher Education
Cleveland-Innes, Martha
The role change required to integrate new teaching technology into the role of faculty is unequivocally linked to the pedagogical requirements embedded in creating a community of inquiry – online, face-to-face or both. The perceived space, and transition process, available to move new teaching strategies into the current role of faculty in higher education rests on one hand with faculty themselves and in the other in the context in which faculty work. This paper considers both.
N/A
2012-11-15T19:14:52Z
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Tracing the Tradition of Medieval Parochial Peace-Making
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3223
Tracing the Tradition of Medieval Parochial Peace-Making
Cels, Marc
My paper questions a persistent paradigm in the history of Catholic confession that argues for a medieval shift, beginning with the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, from the reconciliation of community members towards greater emphasis on the reconciliation of individual sinners to God. The older tradition, it has been argued, demanded that sinners re-establish charity with their enemies before seeking forgiveness from God—especially as a prerequisite for Easter communion. This paper focuses on strongly-articulated theology of communal reconciliation that is closely associated with Diocese of Salisbury, especially in Bishop Richard Poore’s statutes and Thomas of Chobham’s Summa confessorum. However, a closer examination of these texts and their Ottonian, Carolingian and Patristic sources reveals that medieval instructions for confessors were ambiguous about the penitential reconciliation of penitents and that communal reconciliation was not universally demanded, even in the pre-Lateran IV era. It turns out, that, through the early and late Middle Ages, the literal force of Biblical injunctions to seek peace with one’s neighbour before making peace with God was tempered by Augustine’s spiritualizing interpretation: an inward, psychological preparedness to forgive or ask forgiveness was considered sufficient as reconciliation. This, no doubt, accounts for the lack of evidence for widespread penitential reconciliation that has often been considered characteristic of medieval Christianity. It also reveals that a concern for the psychological disposition of the penitent was not an innovation of the 16th century (John Bossy) let alone the 18th century (Foucault).
I presented my paper, “Tracing the Tradition of Medieval Parochial Peace-Making,” as part of a three-person session on medieval war and peace during the annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Medievalists. My paper questioned the assumption of earlier scholars about the importance of the parish priest in encouraging peace among his parishioners. It looked at the surviving instructions given to priests (manuals for confessors and episcopal statutes) and found few that insisted that priests demand that enmities be forgiven as part of penance. A theological tradition connecting peace-making to penance was found in the thirteenth century diocese of Salisbury, England. It could be connected to the eleventh-century instructions of German Bishop Burchard of Worms, and to his source, a ninth-century Carolingian Frank, Bishop Theodulf of Orleans. Nevertheless, all these sources betray an ambiguity towards the Gospel injunctions to make peace. This ambiguity can be linked to the influential interpretations of Augustine of Hippo in the early fifth century. At best, therefore, medieval Christians were encouraged to change their hearts towards their enemies as a preparation for forgiving them. Although parochial charity and concord remained an important ideal, nevertheless, the prescriptive literature did not closely associate penance with peace-making. These findings contribute to a current revision of historical thinking about the role of medieval clergy in conflict and conflict resolution, and efforts to understand peace-making in pre-modern and pre-state Europe more broadly.
2012-11-15T18:47:10Z
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Participate (as a Graduate Student Symposium Chair & Program Committee member)
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3222
Participate (as a Graduate Student Symposium Chair & Program Committee member)
Bagheri, Ebrahim
N/A
I co-chaired the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Graduate Student’s Symposium. The event attracted close to 30 researchers, professors and practitioners in the area of AI. The event consisted of paper presentations, poster presentations, panel discussions, focus group meetings and elevator talks.
2012-11-15T18:17:02Z
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Attend 2012 American Library Association Midwinter Meeting
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3164
Attend 2012 American Library Association Midwinter Meeting
Fabbro, Elaine
While at this conference, I attended numerous discussion groups and open forums and on the exhibit floor talking with vendors regarding products we subscribe to. Among the sessions that I attended were a forum on standards for libraries in higher education, a discussion on transliteracy, a panel discussion on the use of Drupal in libraries, a discussion of issues faced by heads of public services units in libraries, a forum on the value of academic libraries, and a session on trends influencing academic library systems and services.
2012-04-04T18:35:23Z
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Attend Sungard Summit 2012: Where Learning Happens
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3163
Attend Sungard Summit 2012: Where Learning Happens
Fabbro, Mark
I attended a variety of presentations and hands-on sessions at Summit related to the Banner ERP system that focused on current and future functionality, as well as user projects and experiences. A key area of focus was on attending sessions offered related to business intelligence and the ODS and EDW products due to my current role on the ASRP student project as a team lead for reporting.
2012-04-04T18:33:31Z
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Wēijī : East Asian Mothering
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3162
Wēijī : East Asian Mothering
Wong-Wylie, Gina
This conference presentation will highlight the conference theme of exploring motherhood and mothering in a global context. Wēijī represents the Chinese symbol for “crisis” and “opportunity” whereby reversing the characters changes the meaning to the other. East Asian mothering indeed is characterized by opportunity and crisis; as well as empowerment, resistance, and oppression. Examining the commonality and diversity in East Asian mothering, this presentation will posit feminist mothering practices, share narratives of mothering in this cross-cultural context from the presenter who is a Chinese Canadian mother and academic, and examine issues of empowerment and oppression. Filial piety, a Confucian virtue, dictates that children respect parents and ancestors. Yale law professor Amy Chua (2011) wrote in her best-selling memoir Tiger Moms: Battle of the Hymms about the Eastern mothering approach of the ‘Chinese tiger mom’ where filial piety is a must as children are expected to excel at all costs and to listen to their mothers at all cost. Chua proudly exposes her rigid Chinese tiger mom iron-fist and accuses Western parenting approaches for being too weak, not demanding, nor holding high enough standard of achievement for kids. Chua’s views have incited a North American debate to the extent that she received death threats and intense vitriol online from mothers while at the same time is loved and applauded by many others. This presentation will tie in discussions of the Chinese Tiger mom with an overall address into East Asian cultural and historic perspectives on mothering while examining the overall significance to academic, scholarship, and motherwork in a global context.
2012-04-04T18:27:46Z
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Overview of Modern Higher Education Management in Mainland China (1949-2010)
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3161
Overview of Modern Higher Education Management in Mainland China (1949-2010)
Wang, Eric
The promulgation of the "Outline of China's National Plan for Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020)" in July, 2010, opens a new page for higher education in China. To evaluate the significance of the Outline, it is essential to trace retrospectively the institutional origins of the policy changes in higher education management in mainland China. Against this backdrop, the paper explores the idiographic problems in higher education management that have been exposed in the Outline and provides ideas on how to resolve those problems.
At the symposium, the applicant presented a case study paper entitled “determinants for successfully internationalizing business education in a developing country – the case of the international school at Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics.” In the presentation, the author use Michael Porter’s strategic analysis framework of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) to argue why the International School was created in the first place. Then against the background of SWOT analysis, the presenter provided determining factors (higher tuition charges, selected recruiting of talent students with adequate financial resources, award programs to keep students motivated, and internationalization of course delivery and international student exchange programs) that have helped the International School to achieve a national known brand name in internationalizing its business education within a relative short time period of less than a decade. The presentation also discusses the future opportunities and threats facing the International School in particular and China’s higher education in general.
2012-04-04T18:24:06Z
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The Structure of Belief
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3160
The Structure of Belief
Peruniak, Geoff
Beliefs play a significant role in most of the work we do with clients as career practitioners. This session will examine beliefs and belief structures historically and from an interdisciplinary viewpoint although the main analysis will be psychological. In particular, there will be a focus on the hidden nature of self-beliefs and the role of transformative experiences in exposing such beliefs. Participants will be invited to join in a modest analysis of their own structure of beliefs.
2012-04-04T18:19:35Z
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Returning pedagogy to field practice through mobile technology
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3159
Returning pedagogy to field practice through mobile technology
Park, Caroline L.
Our Technology Enhanced Health Practice Education Research in the Faculty of Health Disciplines at Athabasca University has several studies underway relating to the use of mobile technology (smart phones) in the clinical education arena. For this presentation I propose to explain our theoretical model, the Mobile Enhanced Practice Education model (MEPE), a diagram of where mobile interaction by faculty members would best augment clinical instruction by preceptors and clinical staff. We believe that mobile technology can be an “umbilical cord” if you will, between faculty and students in the field. We envision it as a return of pedagogical values to a field that we no longer occupy. As well, I will share the data and analysis of two studies undertaken to test parts of the model. The first is a questionnaire, (two sets of data available) asking students and faculty for their perception of the types of information that they would like to share with each other via mobile technology. The second is an actual pilot of student and faculty texting when the student is in the clinical arena with a preceptor and the faculty is back at their office. Previous research with handheld computers (iPAQs) led us to understand that students prefer texting to voice communication with their faculty, unless the faculty has left a voice message asking for a response. We attribute this both to the current mobile culture and to the desire not to interrupt. Faculty as well were very cautious about not interrupting the students in their practice. The asynchronous nature of texting has a place in field work education.
These studies demonstrate that “the ubiquity of smart mobile devices have(s) shifted the teaching and learning landscape and the way we think about what constitutes learning environments”.
Learn how the Technology Enhanced Health Practice Education Research team in the Faculty of Health Disciplines at Athabasca University is studying smart phone technology as way to bring pedagogy back to the “bedside” for students doing field work in clinical nursing education. Our data about student and teacher perceptions of appropriate information to share via mobile technology and our practice trail with teacher-student texting will encourage brain storming and dialogue about how to proceed in this field of study.
I am attaching my URL and that provides everything. https://sites.google.com/site/autece/
2012-04-04T18:08:13Z
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Mobile Self-Efficacy in Canadian Nursing Education Programs
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3158
Mobile Self-Efficacy in Canadian Nursing Education Programs
Kenny, Richard F.
The purpose of this study was to assess the self-efficacy of nursing faculty and students related to their potential use of mobile technology and to ask what are the implications for their teaching and learning in practice education contexts. We used a cross-sectional survey design involving students and faculty in two nursing education programs in a Western Canadian college. 121 faculty members and students completed the survey in January, 2011. Results showed a high level of ownership and use of mobile devices among our respondents. Their median mobile self-efficacy score was 75 on a scale of 100, indicating that they are highly confident in their use of mobile technologies and prepared to engage in mobile learning.
This paper reported on a study of the readiness of nursing faculty and students to use mobile technologies such as iPhones and Blackberries in their teaching and learning – especially in clinical education experiences when students are off campus. In particular, we measured their self-confidence (self-efficacy) in engaging in this form of learning. To make this assessment, we carried out a survey of students and faculty in two nursing education programs at a Western Canadian college. 121 faculty members and students completed the survey in January, 2011. Our results showed a high level of ownership and use of mobile devices among our respondents. Their median mobile self-efficacy score was 75 on a scale of 100, which indicates that they are highly confident in their use of mobile technologies and prepared to engage in mobile learning.
2012-04-04T18:03:56Z
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Avatars and Open Courseware in Distance Education Freshman Physics
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3157
Avatars and Open Courseware in Distance Education Freshman Physics
Al-Shamali, Farook
Athabasca University has engaged thousands of students in for-credit, non-calculus freshman physics over the past 15 years, a success in part attributable to innovative use of home laboratory technology. In now offering calculus-based courses suited to a science or pre-med stream, we have found it advantageous to use MIT Open Courseware. Carefully selected segments provide high quality video lectures and demonstrations in a form that is suited for viewing at home or on a mobile device. Taking further advantage of the online and video-oriented aspect of the course, we have used Xtranormal© cartoon production facilities to provide continuity through use of a scriptable set of avatars, providing characters that students can relate to as they do individual home study distance education.
2012-04-04T17:59:13Z
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Addressing the Landgrab in Southern Ontario
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3156
Addressing the Landgrab in Southern Ontario
Haley, Ella
Globally, there is a growing landgrab by investors and foreign countries of prime farmland. NGOs such as Grain and the National Farmers Union have documented the landgrab throughout the world and within Canada. This paper addresses the landgrab In southern Ontario, particularly outside of the Ontario Greenbelt in Brant, Simcoe and Niagara Counties. This paper also provides a review of policies to protect prime farmland and to ensure food sovereignty.
Addressing the Landgrab in Southern Ontario
Globally, there is a growing landgrab by investors and foreign countries of prime farmland. NGOs such as Grain and the Oakland Institute have documented the landgrab throughout the world, and the efforts of social movements that are addressing this social problem. The National Farmers Union has produced a policy paper on the landgrab within Canada.
This session provided an overview of the global landgrab, and of policies to ensure food sovereignty. Speakers addressed farmland grab in Ontario, focusing on the proposed Melancthon megaquarry and “leapfrog” development pressure outside of the Ontario Greenbelt in southern Ontario (Brant, Simcoe and Niagara Counties).
2012-04-04T17:47:25Z
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Back to the future: Who cares about the NetGen if mobile technology can help the Matures?
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3151
Back to the future: Who cares about the NetGen if mobile technology can help the Matures?
Tin, Tony
On a daily basis new applications for mobile technology are being developed and released which in turn offer increased mLearning possibilities and support to various groups of people. In South Africa, the rate of adoption of cell phone technology, particularly, is much higher than other stationary types of technologies such as personal computers. Most mobile technology and applications are developed for younger and middle-aged people, as they are the fastest adopters. Unfortunately, this race is leaving the elderly behind. The mature generation needs more support in order to cope with the increasing physical challenges which accompany the process of growing older. With all the benefits that mobile technology presents, it seems reasonable to include this generation in the growing mobile community as they are an integral part of our society. This paper attempts to investigate, by means of a questionnaire, whether mobile technology is being used by the mature generation, as well as how it could potentially be used to support them.
This was a great international conference with large participation from M-learn researchers worldwide. The conference atmosphere was very inviting. I presented a poster and a long paper in the conference. Both presentations were well received by the participants. We had received many positive feedbacks and suggestions from the participants. These feedbacks and suggestions would be useful to our future research on mobile learning.
In short, It is one of the best m-learn conference that I have attended. I have found it useful to my research and professional development.
2012-01-24T18:15:08Z
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Athabasca University Mobile Learning: Delivering French Training Using Mobile Devices (Poster)
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3150
Athabasca University Mobile Learning: Delivering French Training Using Mobile Devices (Poster)
Tin, Tony
The poster illustrates how iPhone technology can be used to deliver French language training and engage students with interactive learning content. Five interactive lessons teaching basic French grammar and vocabulary were designed and pilot-tested by Athabasca University using iPhones. Students with no experience in French language training were given tests before and after studying the mobile lessons to measure changes in their French language skills. Most students improved their quiz scores. Overall, students who participated in this study found the format and content of the lessons useful. They enjoyed using the iPhone and wanted to take more lessons with this device. This study will benefit researchers and designers interested in creating language training for delivery on mobile devices.
This was a great international conference with large participation from M-learn researchers worldwide. The conference atmosphere was very inviting. I presented a poster and a long paper in the conference. Both presentations were well received by the participants. We had received many positive feedbacks and suggestions from the participants. These feedbacks and suggestions would be useful to our future research on mobile learning.
In short, It is one of the best m-learn conference that I have attended. I have found it useful to my research and professional development.
2012-01-24T18:12:32Z
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Road to Mobile Learning
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3149
Road to Mobile Learning
Elliott, Colin
To meet the needs of students, and fulfill Athabasca University’s mission to remove barriers to learning, Athabasca University (AU) Library has initiated a number of mobile learning projects. The poster “Road to Mobile Learning” examines some of the reasons why AU undertook these projects, a brief summary of some of the content, guidelines and features of AU projects, and some of the challenges and opportunities in the future.
There is a new generation of students that are technologically savvy, can adapt to technology, and want to access information quickly. To meet the needs of these students Athabasca University Library has initiated a number of mobile language projects.
The first of these projects was the English as a Second Language project (http://eslau.ca). This project delivered content to very basic mobile devices. The content was mostly text based with few images and no video or audio. Following up on ESLAU, the Workplace English website (http://wpeau.ca) was created in response to feedback on the ESL site. On this site, students are able to access learning resources, in interactive module formats with multimedia rich content (such as text, audio, and video) on demand, with the goal of increasing their motivation and interest while facilitating self-directed study.
The French as a Second Language site (http://fslau.ca), contains lessons, interactive exercises, and audio clips. It was also developed in our Mobile Knowledge Management System (MKMS) which allows for dynamic editing of content. The MKMS was a significant advance as it is now possible for anyone to create a mobile website with little effort and no specialized knowledge.
Future development offers both possibilities and challenges. Devices are becoming much more powerful and capable allowing for full multimedia content. Applications are also a good way of connecting users to content. Unfortunately, applications are fragmented between different devices and developing for all is very expensive.
While the conference was a little lacking in organization and some of the sessions were weak, there were also some great sessions and people that balanced those out. I presented a poster that highlighted much of the mobile development that we have done at AU. The poster was well received and there was a lot of lively discussion about all of the posters among a friendly group. There were many great opportunities for networking and sharing of ideas and work. The biggest impact for me was talking to Chinese colleagues. I talked to one young company vice president who talked about the scale of what his company does. They are not interested in projects that target thousands of users, their projects target millions. Talking to him and others really brought to life the massive potential of mlearning to reach so many learners.
2012-01-24T18:09:06Z
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Speaking For Freedom, Normalizing the Net
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3148
Speaking For Freedom, Normalizing the Net
Smith, Jay
An enduring perspective on the impact of digital technologies argues that these technologies can expand freedom and re-invigorate democracy. Yet, there has always been a contrary, more pessimistic perspective, that pre-Internet power brokers, governments and corporations, will normalize use of digital technologies. This paper argues that despite recent pronouncements of figures such as Hillary Clinton in favor of internet freedom a number of representative governments have, in fact, been taking steps to curtail these freedoms. Here the focus will be on actual or attempted changes , the most significant of which are international in nature, to introduce more restrictive copyright and anti-circumvention measures such as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, recent bilateral trade agreements between the US and other countries, and, in addition, reforms of national legislation. This has lead to a core struggle of the Internet age to balance the demands by powerful forces, state and corporate, for greater protection in the global digital environment with the countervailing demands to ensure that knowledge remains free, in the public domain, and accessible by the maximum number of people.
Canada, Australia, and New Zealand all have accepted in considerable part U.S. norms on digital copyright protection even though they did not have to according to existing global norms. On the other hand the United States is finding difficult if not impossible to convince other countries to accept its standards in global and plurilateral forums. Why is the U.S. successful bilaterally but not in global or plurilateral forums?
2012-01-24T17:58:19Z
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A Framework for Integrating Motivational Techniques in Technology Enhanced Learning
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3147
A Framework for Integrating Motivational Techniques in Technology Enhanced Learning
Graf, Sabine
Motivation is a key factor in education. While there exist some educational system that consider techniques for motivating students, these systems implement only one or few techniques and assume that the respective technique(s) work well for all students. However, students are motivated differently and what is motivating for one student can be demotivating for another student. In this paper, we introduce a framework of motivational techniques, which suggests motivational techniques that can be included in educational systems, discusses the relationships between these techniques, situations where the techniques might be demotivational for students, and requirements of the techniques to be integrated into a course and educational system. This framework aims at providing guidelines on how to implement a set of motivational techniques into educational systems and will be the basis for providing personalization based on motivational aspects in educational systems, presenting students only with motivational techniques that work well for them.
One of our papers, entitled “A Framework for Integrating Motivational Techniques in Technology Enhanced Learning”, has been presented at the International Workshop on Social and Personal Computing for Web-supported Learning Communities which was held in conjunction with the International Conference on Web-based Learning on December 8. In this paper, we introduce a framework of motivational techniques, which suggests motivational techniques that can be included in educational systems, discusses the relationships between these techniques, situations where the techniques might be demotivational for students, and requirements of the techniques to be integrated into a course and educational system. This framework aims at providing guidelines on how to implement a set of motivational techniques into educational systems and will be the basis for providing personalization based on motivational aspects in educational systems, presenting students only with motivational techniques that work well for them.
2012-01-24T17:53:09Z
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Stage Predicting Student Stay Time Length on Webpages of Online Courses Based on Grey Models
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3146
Stage Predicting Student Stay Time Length on Webpages of Online Courses Based on Grey Models
Graf, Sabine
To provide adaptive learning, an e-learning system needs to gather information about what student state is while the student learns online course. A student state index is the length of time the student stays on a webpage of online course. By predicting student’s stay time length, the e-learning system has potential to dynamically tailor the learning content to the students. A literature review is conducted on power law of learning and knowledge component. We assume that online course consists of knowledge components. A knowledge component crosses several successive web pages. Accordingly, an initial prediction method is proposed based on the two learning curve modes and the grey models. Based on the experimental result of this initial prediction method, construction method of grey models is modified. The results produced by the grey models based on the two construction methods are then compared and analyzed. The results show that prediction of stay time length is possible to certain degree while the students learn knowledge on web pages.
The paper, entitled “Stage Predicting Student Stay Time Length on Webpages of Online Courses Based on Grey Models”, has been presented at the main conference. By predicting student’s stay time length, an e-learning system has potential to dynamically tailor the learning content to the students. A literature review has been conducted on power law of learning and knowledge components. Accordingly, an initial prediction method is proposed based on two learning curve modes and grey models. Based on the experimental result of this initial prediction method, the construction method of grey models has been modified. The results produced by the grey models based on the two construction methods are then compared and analyzed. The results show that prediction of stay time length is possible to a certain degree while the students learn on web pages.
Both presentations were received very well and leaded to many questions after the presentation, further discussions during the conference, and two potential collaborations with international research groups.
2012-01-24T17:48:22Z
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U.S./Mexico Cultural Hybridization: The Emergence of a New Culture as Seen through the Directors Lens
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3145
U.S./Mexico Cultural Hybridization: The Emergence of a New Culture as Seen through the Directors Lens
Dabrowski, Michael
The U.S./Mexico border has long been a cultural, economic and linguistic divide and the disjunction between the two worlds has been a source of literary inspiration to many artists on both sides of the border. An ongoing literary and cinematic tradition from both sides of the cultural divide has presented the political, economic, and cultural changes occurring in the U.S./Mexico border region and the resultant immigrant life. This cinematographic documentation of border issues provides us with a window into cultural processes in a region that is politically and economically divided, and yet has a cultural coherence that ignores these borders. In analyzing the dramatic production on both sides of the border political, social, psychological, religious, and linguistic boundaries will be crossed and interwoven to approximate the hybridized tapestry envisioned by the directors of the various movies.
Sharing the interdisciplinary perspective on cultural hybridization on the U.S./Mexico border as evidenced on Film precipitated discussions with various specialists that underscored the relevance and importance of understanding how cultures fuse and transform. As a result of the sessions attended, discussions, and suggestions, I am organizing a session at the RMMLA conference in Boulder Colorado in October 2012 that focuses on the cinematographically evidence of cultural hybridization in this borderland region.
2012-01-24T17:00:51Z
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CASE: Annual Conference for Publications Professionals: New Media, Timeless Qualities
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3144
CASE: Annual Conference for Publications Professionals: New Media, Timeless Qualities
Luckay, Jennifer
The word "publications" is rapidly being redefined. What once meant putting ink on paper and distributing copies through the mail has come to describe the dissemination of information and ideas in many forms, through many channels. Yet although publications professionals have adopted new media, they have also found that doing their best work still requires timeless qualities: clear conceptual thinking, good writing and editing, bold images and strong design.
This conference is for the contemporary "publications" person who understands the audience, holds to the highest standards and seeks professional growth and change.
Three day conference with guest speakers and presenters touching on new media and ways to reach out to prospective students, as well, how to deal with the everyday stress of managing online communication. Discussions varied from: The Publicaitons Hurly Burly, The Heart of the Story, Risks and Rewards, Make Readers Love Your Magazine, Meaningful online experiences, WorkingThrough a ReDesign, The Web is Shrinking and how best to work with Illustrators plus Sustainable Living and defining the issues of our time.
I found the sessions to be rewarding and insightful, will definitely apply the knowledge with upcoming publications that need to be worked on with AU.
2011-12-15T18:09:22Z
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Canadian adult education and work and learning research
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3143
Canadian adult education and work and learning research
Spencer, Bruce
Canadian Adult Education and Work and Learning Research
The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the contributions to Canadian work and learning research from a review of the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education/ l’Association canadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation des adultes (CASAE /ACÉÉA) journal articles and national conference proceedings over the last 20 years. The paper reviews the contributions of Canadian scholars to our mapping and understanding of “work and learning” issues particularly in relation to the dominant neo-liberal economic agenda and will focus on two broad categories theory, practices and policy, and women and marginalized workers.
From 1990 on it was expected that Canadian adult educators would embrace the view that Canadians needed to accept the mantra that careers and lifetime employment had been replaced by “employment portfolios,” “job flexibility,” constant re-training and upgrading. Adult educators were to become the vehicle for delivering this message and policy and adult education scholars were expected to provide research and education to back up this new emphasis. This paper will map out how CASAE/ACÉÉA members have responded to these pressures and explore how Canadian scholars have resisted this pressure by focusing on more critical areas of scholarship.
The research is based on a year-long research project this RWL conference proposal will “drill down” from the basic research and 8 broad categories to focus on and analyze the 2 largest most dynamic groupings of articles and papers indicated above. The analysis will allow us to indicate how contributions have aided theory building and critical understandings and have added to our knowledge of marginality and gender intersects with work and learning and should allow scholars from other locations to make comparisons with their own contributions.
The paper can be presented in English and Mandarin.
2011-12-15T18:04:35Z
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Political Economy of Higher Education: South Africa in a comparative perspective
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3142
Political Economy of Higher Education: South Africa in a comparative perspective
Shrivastava, Meenal
Education is one of the major linchpins of economic, social and political development of any nation. There is overwhelming evidence suggesting that higher education can produce both public and private benefits. Thus, the role of the state in making education policy, and funding education is indeed critical, and cannot be left to be determined by market forces alone. Nevertheless, the trend of inadequate government funding for universities, loss of autonomy, infrastructural decay, falling academic standards, politicization and privatization of education, etc. appear to be a worldwide phenomenon and not just restricted to the developing world.
South African higher education shows much promise with respect to knowledge production and dissemination, to contributing to social equity, economic and social development and democracy, and to the development needs of the Southern African region and the African continent. However, higher education in South Africa is under considerable stress due to a number of reasons. The first part of the paper will provide an overview of the conditions that are exerting negative pressures on higher education in the global context, the developmental implications of investment in higher education, and compare South Africa to trends in other parts of the world to draw lessons for government policies on higher education. The second part of the paper will consider a case study to cope with large class sizes through the use of mobile technology. The paper will discuss the technological viability and the pedagogical implications of the use of mobile technology in large size classes. The paper argues that this mode of delivery can be implemented in a variety of settings, bridging the limitations of distance as well as campus-based universities.
Dr. Sanjiv Shrivastava is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) of Physics, who teaches very large classes of nearly 1000 students at the university of the Witwatersrand. He has been using the ubiquitous smart phone technology to engage students and to impart learning to large classes of First year Engineers. Due to my interest in the political economy of higher education, in terms of government and international policies that are continually putting pressure on universities worldwide to force them to become more dependent of student fees and to keep increasing the size of their classes, I was intrigued to see how this translated on the ground and how instructors were using technology in innovative ways to cope with the fundamental changes to teaching and learning in the university environment. Therefore, we co-wrote and co-presented a paper at this conference.
We had a very well attended session. The attached paper is a working draft of our ongoing research. There was lively discussion throughout the conference. Several delegates asked for copies of our paper. We were asked by the conference organizer to finalize the research and submit it as a chapter for an upcoming book. I would like to thank Athabasca University and the APDF committee for providing financial support to attend this useful conference.
2011-12-15T17:08:26Z
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Effective Teaching Behaviours in Using High Fidelity Simulation
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3141
Effective Teaching Behaviours in Using High Fidelity Simulation
Rich, Mariann
The use of high fidelity human patient simulation is increasing in nursing education programs. Simulation is used to help enhance students’ problem solving abilities, facilitate psycho-motor, communication and assessment skills, and develop their level of critical thinking. Much of the current literature focuses on the effects of simulation on critical thinking, learning outcomes, building students’ confidence, enhancing students’ satisfaction with learning, and acquiring psycho-motor skills. What is absent from the literature is research on how to use this teaching modality effectively. In a teaching-learning activity, the teacher carries out intentional behaviours to assist the student in the learning process. In these purposeful teacher-learner interactions, both verbal and non-verbal actions are carried out. The nurse educator’s actions are particularly relevant in a clinical simulation where the student is attempting to apply theory to practice, and the presence of the instructor may help facilitate the student’s learning through cueing, nodding or other verbal or non-verbal behaviours. This paper presents the initial findings of a qualitative study, an ethnography, used to examine nursing students’ perceptions of instructors’ cueing behaviours in a clinical simulation learning experience which they find effective for their learning.
Internationally, nursing programs are integrating the use of high fidelity simulation into the learning experiences offered to their students. The use of these full bodied mannequins, which resemble life- like humans, adds another teaching – learning tool for instructors. Using them effectively takes practice and awareness of how they work, and what works for students’ learning. In a teaching-learning activity, the teacher carries out intentional behaviours to assist the student in the learning process. In these purposeful teacher-learner interactions, both verbal and non-verbal actions are carried out. This presentation provided the initial findings of a qualitative study which examined nursing students’ perceptions of instructors’ cueing behaviours in a clinical simulation learning experience which they find effective for their learning. The paper was delivered at the Australasian Nurse Educators Conference in Hamilton, New Zealand in November 2011. Questions and feedback from conference attendees indicated a need to develop the research in this area to enhance the effective use of this new technology for quality teaching-learning experiences.
2011-12-15T17:04:39Z
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1st International Workshop on Technology-Enhanced Social Learning - TESL2011
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3137
1st International Workshop on Technology-Enhanced Social Learning - TESL2011
Lin, Fuhua (Oscar)
This paper presents an ongoing project that builds engaging, affectionate, and effective pedagogical agents in 3D virtual worlds for learning. Utilizing the theory of Transformed Social Interaction (TSI), we design pedagogical agents with abilities of self-representation, emotional states reasoning, and situational awareness. A prototype of virtual quiz show, QuizMASter, has been implemented to realize the abilities, and will be used to test for the effectiveness of the approach.
This paper presents an ongoing project by a research group of Athabasca University that builds engaging, affectionate, and effective pedagogical agents in 3D virtual worlds for learning. Utilizing the theory of Transformed Social Interaction (TSI), we design pedagogical agents with abilities of self-representation, emotional states reasoning, and situational awareness. A prototype of virtual quiz show, QuizMASter, has been implemented to realize the abilities, and will be used to test for the effectiveness of the approach.
2011-11-18T20:55:05Z
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Contract Management Principles and Practices
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3136
Contract Management Principles and Practices
Rea, Joy
In this course, you will learn how to manage all aspects of project procurement effectively. You will discover the logic behind contracting principles and practices, and you'll learn the terms, techniques, and tools of converting project needs into outsourced goods and services. You will learn to ensure successful procurements by gaining an understanding of the roles, responsibilities, and expectations of the internal and external stakeholders involved in the procurement chain.
In this skills-building course, you will spend 70% of class time working on contracting activities, from requirements documentation through to contract closure. Exercises include the development of a procurement strategy, contract selection, revising and updating SOWs, risk management, negotiating claims settlement, and collection of lessons learned.
Contract Management Principles and Practices was a 4 day webinar held on August 29, 30, 31 and September 1, 2011. There were 5 other participants, 2 others from within Canada and 2 from the USA. Due to the nature of the webinar, my participation was remote from AU Central, Athabasca, Alberta.
The contents of this seminar was broken into 6 sections;
• Introduction to Procurement Management
• Project Analysis
• Plan Procurements
• Conduct Procurements
• Administer Procurements
• Close Procurements
Contract Management Principles and Practices course work was well managed over the 4 days and informative, the instructor kept the right pace for the flow of the instruction.
The webinar’s instructor was very knowledge regarding Canadian and US contract laws and regulations. The participating Canadian students also provided Canadian procurement issues and solutions. A classroom environment is preferred over a webinar, when the student has a chance to develop resource contacts for future networking.
2011-11-18T20:45:40Z
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Effective SQL Injection Attack Reconstruction Using Network Recording
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3135
Effective SQL Injection Attack Reconstruction Using Network Recording
Tan, Qing
Utilizing the location-awareness of mobile devices in developing innovative mobile application system has attracted much attention of academic researchers and commercial application developers. Location-based mobile learning systems have taken the advantage of the mobile devices to enhance learner’s interaction with the learning context. This paper presents the 5R adaptation framework for location-based mobile learning system, which takes learner, location, time, and mobile device into learning contents generation process and implements a wide-ranging adaptation in the mobile learning environment. As a result, a standard structure for adaptive mobile learning system is proposed.
During the research visits, I have made several presentations at the universities in Taiwan and China, including National Cheng Kung University (Tainan), Chai-Nan University of Pharmacy Science (Tainan), National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology (Kaohsiung), The Open University of China (Beijing), and Chongqing University (Chongqing). The presentation titles are: The 5R Adaptation Framework for Location-Based Mobile Learning Systems , Location-Based Mobile Computing and Applications, and Location-based Mobile Computing and application for Distance Learning. The 5R Adaptation Framework for Location-Based Mobile Learning Systems is published and was presented on MLearn2011 conference, Beijing and it received Outstanding Paper award. (URL: http://mlearn.bnu.edu.cn/Awards.html). The research visits and presentations were very successful, which give me a great opportunity to disseminate my research work on Location-based mobile computing and to discuss and enhance collaborations with international researchers and scholars. It also gave me a great opportunity to promote AU’s research and education.
2011-11-18T20:42:47Z
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Attend a three-week residency component for an MA degree.
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3131
Attend a three-week residency component for an MA degree.
Ypma, Florene
The MA in Professional Communication program consists of two years of study with an annual three-week on-campus residency each year. Faculty with expert, real-world experience provide a solid foundation of advanced professional and technical skills that underpin effective leadership in an increasingly communication-driven world.
The MA in Professional Communication program provides a broad understanding of communication as a human activity. Graduates will be able to function in environments that require effective team-work, adaptability, strategic planning, intercultural mediation, and a sophisticated understanding of interpersonal discourse. Additionally, they will excel in the integration of written and verbal communications with digital technologies.
One or more “thematic tracks” that may be selected are
• Media and cultural studies
• Communication for sustainable communities
• Organizational communication
• Communication for influence
• Communication for personal development
Learning Model
• Two-year program delivered through online courses and an annual three-week face-to-face residency held on campus in Victoria, BC.
• Distance learning component – One course at a time (except during residency); 8-10 weeks per course; ~ 6 courses per year; total credits for program: 38. Estimated time commitment: 22 hours/week; grouped study, cohort-based.
• Delivery methods: variety—textbooks, articles, case studies, videotapes, and interactive Internet learning, including discussion groups (bulletin boards) for correspondence with classmates.
I attended classes in Communication Theory, Organizational Communication, and Research in Communication Studies, and completed a variety of individual and team-based assignments. So far, the evaluation on my for-credit submissions has been very positive.
2011-11-03T19:54:51Z
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Accreditation, Benchmarks, and Competition: The ‘ABC’s’ of Quality Assurance in Open and Distance Learning
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3130
Accreditation, Benchmarks, and Competition: The ‘ABC’s’ of Quality Assurance in Open and Distance Learning
Parker, Nancy
Communicating quality to various publics remains a challenge for higher education institutions engaged in open and distance learning. The quality assurance tools and approaches developed in the past decade have largely failed to remediate the negative impacts of disreputable operators in the sector. Associations which allow for peer review have demonstrated success within particular subject areas but there seems to be less confidence in institutional level accreditation processes for distance education institutions. Indeed, it is not uncommon for some of the requirements of subject based accreditors to preclude cost effective ODL delivery.
Several different frameworks have been developed to assist ODL institutions to compare their operational processes and resources with accepted good practices. The degrees to which these comparisons can be codified into distinct frameworks and/or effectively communicated to regulators and the general public are limited. Although institutions may prefer to establish member directed quality markers, it is more likely that published rankings would carry greater weight for the lay observers of the higher education sector. This paper will apply common criteria from available assessment schemes to the publicly available information from a number of large distance and dual mode universities to assess the coverage available for a specialized league table. It will then discuss the need for institutions to compete with the public accountability of campus based institutions.
Conference Description:
The theme of the 24th ICDE World Conference was “Expanding Horizons – New Approaches to Open and Distance Learning”. This conference provided a forum for sharing of ideas on redefining the roles and strategies of ODL in promoting cross-nation human capacity building under the following sub-themes:
• ODL and human capacity building
• ODL in a changing world
• Quality and ODL – the way forward
• Management and strategic development of ODL
• Open Educational Resources (OER) in a global world
• International development and distance learning
The 24th ICDE World Conference featured 8 keynote speeches, over 200 paper presentations in 9 parallel sessions, and about 150 posters. Over 600 people attended from around the globe.
This paper confronts a number of the reputational issues facing Open and Distance Learning and summarizes some of the approaches taken to communicating quality to higher education’s publics. It then draws upon the criteria of several benchmarking tools and the mechanisms of university rankings to identify data elements which should be made publically available by accountable ODL institutions seeking to compete with online offerings sponsored by campus based universities.
2011-11-03T19:46:41Z
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Chaos and Organizational Emergence: Towards Short Term Predictive Modeling to Navigate a Way Out of Chaos
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3129
Chaos and Organizational Emergence: Towards Short Term Predictive Modeling to Navigate a Way Out of Chaos
Houry, Sami
Organizational emergence from chaotic events has often been described as unpredictable and random, at least when observed over the long term. Through a literature review this paper paves the path for the possible development of a forecasting model for making short term predictions during chaotic events so as to assist business practitioners in navigating their way out of chaos, thereby facilitating organizational emergence. As such, the paper builds on chaos and complexity theory, as its foundational theory, and identifies the most important factors and mechanisms cited in current literature that influence organizational emergence so as to potentially incorporate the factors in the future development of a short term forecasting model.
The paper titled “Chaos and Organizational Emergence: Towards Short Term Predictive Modeling to Navigate a Way Out of Chaos” was presented at the Second International Conference on Complexity Science Management and Intelligent Information System held in Beijing-China from October 14th to October 16th 2011.
The paper argued that although organizational emergence from chaotic events has often been described as unpredictable and random, at least when observed over the long term, through a literature review the path could be paved for the possible development of a forecasting model for making short term predictions during chaotic events so as to assist business practitioners in navigating their way out of chaos, thereby facilitating organizational emergence. As such, the paper built on chaos and complexity theory, as its foundational theory, and identified the most important factors and mechanisms cited in current literature that influence organizational emergence so as to potentially incorporate the factors in the future development of a short term forecasting model.
Feedback on the ten minute presentation and the paper was received from international academics. The feedback is expected to eventually make its way to a doctoral dissertation on the topic. Generally the paper was well received and was awarded the third prize of the Xu Xusong Complex Science Management Award.; This paper is available at:
2011-11-03T19:43:22Z
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Moral Distress within the Counselor - Supervisory Relationship
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3128
Moral Distress within the Counselor - Supervisory Relationship
Nuttgens, Simon
Moral distress, an ethical concern that runs across many health professions, is described as the experience of knowing the morally right thing to do, yet not doing it due to personal, social, or institutional constraints. For interns, moral distress can resemble the old adage, “do as I say, not as I do”. Within the supervisor-intern relationship moral distress can foster disconnection, distrust, and isolation. In this presentation I discuss the theoretical and empirical foundations of moral distress, its impact on counselling interns/practicum students, and practices that help address this concern such that connection and safety thrive in the supervisory relationship.
For this A&PDF sponsored activity, I presented a poster titled, “Moral Distress Within the Counselor- Supervisory Relationship” at the Association for Counsellor Education and Supervision in Nashville. The poster presentation was very well received. Onlookers noted that moral distress with among counsellor interns has been seriously neglected within the counsellor education literature and that research ought to be undertaken to address this shortfall. Most conference attendees had never heard of moral distress, though once aware of it, its importance to counsellor education was readily realized. A few attendees spontaneously reported their own experience of moral distress as a counselling intern. Overall, feedback was very positive, and through this, I was able to make some important collegial connections.
2011-11-03T19:36:08Z
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Implementing Mobile Learning Across Cultures Globally: Opportunities and Challenges” and to present a poster entitled, "Athabasca University Mobile Learning: Delivering French Training Using Mobile Devices
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3127
Implementing Mobile Learning Across Cultures Globally: Opportunities and Challenges” and to present a poster entitled, "Athabasca University Mobile Learning: Delivering French Training Using Mobile Devices
Ally, Mohamed
Because of the rapid growth in the use of mobile technology globally, there is the potential to reach learners around the world to help them become more educated and to improve the quality of life. Mobile technology allows citizens, many of whom are underserved, to access both formal and informal education using their existing technology. There are many global initiatives to help people around the world achieve a basic educational level. For example, one of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals is to achieve universal primary education by 2015. One important strategy to achieve the Millennium Development Goals is to design and deliver learning materials using mobile technology since many people already have mobile devices. Another important reason to deliver learning materials on mobile technology is because in some developing countries, a large percent of the population is young people who will be the next generation of students. The current and future generations of students are very comfortable using mobile technology and they expect that mobile technology will be used in the learning process. This diverse panel, which consists of mobile experts, has global experience in the implementation of mobile learning using mobile technology, including smartphones and tablets. They will describe global mobile learning projects and discuss opportunities and challenges when implementing mobile learning projects globally.
The panel session was attended by approximately 60 participants from 30 different countries. The poster session was attended by many conference participants. I made many contacts after the panel session and during the poster session and will be following up on some of the contacts.
2011-11-02T17:57:30Z
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Seasonal Variation in Sexual Segregation in spider Monkeys (Ateles GeoffroyI Yucatanensis) at Runaway Creek Nature Preserve Belize
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3126
Seasonal Variation in Sexual Segregation in spider Monkeys (Ateles GeoffroyI Yucatanensis) at Runaway Creek Nature Preserve Belize
Notman, Hugh
Sexual segregation, the separation of males and females socially or by habitat, has been recognized as a dimension of the socio-ecology of many vertebrates, but has not been quantified or systematically examined in primates. We investigated temporal patterns of sexual segregation in a population of spider monkeys in Belize. Using data collected over a 23 month study, we applied the Sexual Segregation and Aggregation Statistic to test three hypotheses: i) the sexes segregate, ii) the sexes aggregate, or iii) the sexes associated at random. Our analysis revealed that spider monkeys live in primarily sex-segregated societies, but that patterns of segregation varied within and between years: males and females segregate most of the year, except when food availability is lowest. Males and females had significantly different activity budgets; males spent more time travelling, and less time resting and feeding, than females. However, same-sex groups were less synchronous in their behavioural activities than were mixed groups. Males had a higher proportion of ripe fruit in their diets than females did, who ate more leaves and unripe fruit. We propose that sexual segregation in spider monkeys is primarily a form of social segregation that results from males and females pursuing different strategies for optimizing sex-specific energy requirements and reproductive demands. We suggest that the fission-fusion social patterning typical of spider monkeys in which males and females often form same-sexed subgroups emerges from social segregation. Supported by NSERC and Athabasca University research funds
I attended the annual meeting of the American Society of Primatologists in Austen, Texas during September 15-20. This meeting brings together society members, many of whom (despite the regional focus implicated in the society’s name) are internationally renowned in the discipline. I presented a paper in a symposium entitled “Ecology of Behaviour” on research that I and my current PhD student are working on – the mechanisms for, and variation in sexual segregation in spider monkeys. The data are derived from our on-going primate research site in Belize.
The paper was well-received as this phenomenon has not been formally analyzed in this species. The originality of our approach involved the use of an index that has been applied to a similar phenomenon in ungulates, but never before in primates. We did receive feedback concerning other mechanisms to explore (as hypotheses to be tested) regarding the function of sexual segregation, and this is something Kayla Hartwell, my PhD student and co-author on the paper, will incorporate into her thesis project.
2011-11-02T17:51:07Z
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Luminescence profiling of postglacial eolian dunes in central and northern Alberta using a portable OSL reader
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3125
Luminescence profiling of postglacial eolian dunes in central and northern Alberta using a portable OSL reader
Munyikwa, Ken
Regular luminescence dating is a lengthy procedure that entails elaborate sample preparation as well as multiple measurements to arrive at an age of a given sample. In practice, not all samples that may appear datable in the field actually yield useful information in the lab. Consequently, because sample luminescence measurement is only carried out near the end of the dating procedure, a significant amount of time and resources could be expended on samples that ultimately produce no useful data. A technique that can be used to discriminate between samples that could potentially yield useful information and those that would not is luminescence profiling (Bishop et al., 2006; Burbidge et al., 2007; Sanderson and Murphy, 2010). Luminescence profiling does not necessarily provide an absolute age. Instead, it enables one to construct a profile that shows a variation of the luminescence signal with depth. The luminescence signal is dependent on variables such as the burial age and luminescence sensitivity of the sediment, as well as the local dose rates and level of bleaching experienced prior to burial. Where the burial age is the main variable, the luminescence profile could be seen as a proxy for the chronostratigraphy and it enables one to identify changes such as significant age differences between successive strata within a given section, or age variations across erosional contacts. Luminescence profiling measurements can be carried out rapidly in the lab or in the field using a portable OSL reader. Analysis can be done on bulk samples, negating the need to perform time consuming mineralogical separations. In this study, a portable OSL reader is employed to construct luminescence profiles of postglacial eolian dunes from selected sites in central and northern Alberta. In places, the dunes are underlain by glaciofluvial sands but it is often difficult to distinguish between the eolian deposits and the glaciofluvial sediments based on their physical appearances alone. Results from the study show that luminescence profiling can differentiate between the two types of deposits because of differences in their depositional ages and this enables the demarcation of the bases of the dunes. The identification of the dune bottom permits appropriately targeted sample collection for regular luminescence dating in order to constrain the timing of the initiation of eolian deposition in the region. Luminescence profiling is also used in this study to identify depositional breaks of extended duration within the eolian sequences.
Session: Quaternary Paleoenvironments
My oral presentation at GEOHYDRO-2011 was at 11:00 am (Tues, Aug 30, 2011) in the session Quaternary Geology, Paleoenvironments and Geomorphology. After my power point presentation (30 slides) the floor was opened for questions. Colleagues who are doing similar geochronological dating work in Canada asked questions which essentially wanted to know about our methodological approaches and how they related to protocols they were using in their labs. In particular they wanted to know about the following:
• what methods we use to normalize our samples (weight or irradiation)
• what sources we use for irradiating our samples
• if we have problems with signal contamination from feldspar when using post –IR blue-OSL stimulation with the portable OSL reader on bulk samples
These were very constructive questions and, following my responses, I got some very interesting feedback. We will incorporate some of this feedback as we proceed with our research.
Later during the conference I also had the opportunity to talk at great length with colleagues from the University of Quebec at Montreal who also have a luminescence dating lab. The exchanges we had where educative and we plan to continue with the interaction in future.
2011-11-02T17:47:28Z
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Workers social wage struggles in the Great Depression and the era of Neo-Liberalism: International Comparisons
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3124
Workers social wage struggles in the Great Depression and the era of Neo-Liberalism: International Comparisons
Finkel, Alvin
This paper looks globally at the ways in which workers attempted to win a degree of income stability through state guarantees of social entitlements in two periods: first, the Great Depression, when income stability via jobs proved untenable, and the period of neo-liberalism from 1975 onwards when social wage programs won from the Depression onwards came under steady attack from conservative forces who alleged that they limited economic growth. The paper suggests reasons why workers in some countries and on some continents made more gains than other during these two periods.
The paper was presented in a session with one other paper and with about 50 people in attendance. There were three commentators on the paper chosen by the conference organizers and they were all very generous in their comments. The following day I was approached by the key conference organizer who indicated that he was attempting to have the better publications from this conference published as a book. He was writing the proposal to Duke University Press, and wanted to include two papers that would give the Press an indication of the likely quality of the articles overall. Mine was one of the two that he wished to send. In several sessions after I presented my paper, presenters and commentators referred to my paper. So, on the whole, this was a great success.
2011-11-02T17:42:39Z
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Artistic Pedagogical Technologies: Innovative Teaching Strategies for Online Nursing Education.
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3123
Artistic Pedagogical Technologies: Innovative Teaching Strategies for Online Nursing Education.
Edwards, Margaret
Introduction -Technology allows us to transcend time and space. Our world has become essentially without boundaries. Nursing education has changed, and will continue to evolve as technology advances. Already many nurses, especially in master’s programs, learn in virtual classrooms with students and teachers separated by geography. To be effective, online education must be different in presentation and approach than face-to-face teaching. To help students who study online achieve learning outcomes nurse educators need to develop and effectively use technologically-based teaching strategies.
Objectives - The objective of this presentation is to share research focused on a category of online teaching strategies called artistic pedagogical technologies (APTs). APTs are teaching activities based on the arts. They can include elements of music, drama, literature, movies, poetry, and handicrafts. APTs help teachers create effective online educational environments. APTs were developed by the presenters and have been used in online graduate courses in nursing and health studies.
Methods - This qualitative study included a convenience sample of nurse educators who completed an online master’s course in which APTs of reflective poetry, photovoice, conceptual quilting, movie reviews, story-telling, and photostory were used. Participants completed an online questionnaire based on Purkey’s (2007) Elements of the Invitational Classroom which captured their views on the effect of APTs on trust, respect, and optimism in the online classroom. Some nurses also participated in a teleconference focus group which was recorded and transcribed. Data were hand-coded for themes and secondary analysis was achieved using NVivo.
Results - Data analysis continues. Preliminarily findings indicate that APTs have a role in enhancing the invitationality of online courses because of the positive effect they seem to have on trust, respect, and optimism. Through participation in APTs, trust is established as participants learn to accept each other and themselves. As the term proceeded the quality of the contributions improved and students became more able, and thus even more valued by their colleagues and teacher. The cycle continued and respect resulted. Based on the student responses, the APTs helped move student potential to greater heights thus increasing optimism. While APTs may be effective strategies, preliminary findings suggest that the way in which the teacher presents the activities is also important. That is, teachers need to invite learners to participate in APTs, describe each activity clearly, indicate to learners how it can contribute to their learning, and provide support and encouragement to students as they engage in these novel learning activities.
Conclusion - In summary, we found the classroom environment changed in positive ways in part because of the APTs. Research participants reported that APTs increased the quality of interactions, enhanced the sense of community, and furthered the application of course content. Purkey’s (1997) invitational theory, specifically the propositions of trust, respect, optimism, and intentionality, help to explain these findings. Practical ideas for educators regarding the use of APTs in teaching and course design were reviewed.
Keywords - online education, exemplary teaching, artistic pedagogical technologies, Purkey, invitational theory, technology, technologically-based teaching strategies
All papers and posters were presented. There were many questions related to our work. We have made contact with several international researchers who may be potential collaborators in the future. The comments on our papers and posters reinforced the timeliness of our research and its applicability to a variety of fields.
2011-11-02T17:39:08Z
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Analyzing the Normative Nature of Therapeutic Jurisprudence
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3122
Analyzing the Normative Nature of Therapeutic Jurisprudence
Dewhurst, Dale
Recent writings have debated TJ’s normative nature. Some proffer TJ as the potentially dominant legal paradigm, capable of reinventing law and justice systems at their core. Critics assert that TJ: violates zealous representation and the right to effective assistance of counsel; is inappropriately patronizing; allows indeterminate sentencing; raises due process issues; and violates individual rights. Strong arguments are presented on both sides of the debate but the conclusions are far from final or ultimately convincing. I have recently argued that adopting an Aristotelian natural law virtue theory of justice and drawing clear distinctions between three different normative levels (legal practice, legal theory, and legal order) provide the necessary tools to clarify these debates and support more definitive conclusions. In keeping with this approach, this paper argues that TJ is normative at the level of legal practice and perhaps at the level legal theory. However, TJ doesn’t provide a higher order source of legal order norms. Further, the refutation of TJ as a source of legal order norms is critical for TJ to remain respectful of people’s individual and cultural values; and, to uncover the relationship between TJ and the adversarial system as two parallel vectors in the comprehensive justice movement.
The presentation was exceptionally well received with one of the originators of Therapeutic Jurisprudence (David Wexler) using the terminology I introduce to frame subsequent questions and discussions with others. Participants at subsequent Therapeutic Jurisprudence panels also asked question using my suggested terminology and analysis as frameworks for their questions.
2011-11-02T17:31:11Z
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Study of mobile collaborative information system using distributed database architecture
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3121
Study of mobile collaborative information system using distributed database architecture
Abaza, Mahmoud
This paper examines the feasibility of communal information sharing between mobile devices using a distributed architecture for the underlying database topology, through research aimed at satisfying two primary objectives: i. Examination and review of available technologies and products currently supporting distributed mobile database functionality, and ii. Development of a prototype groupware solution utilizing distributed database architecture to implement information-sharing functions.
I have presented this paper as scheduled at the conference. There was a good presence in the lecture hall with audience coming from four contents. The audience had shown interest as they listened. There were no researchers working exactly in same area, and therefore I did not get any hard questions. Some procedural questions and recommendations, in particular asking for more details.
I will post some ideas of this paper to MS students for our graduate students to follow on. Also, I will consider future work expanding the ideas.
2011-11-02T17:26:59Z
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The InterSSCT Model: Systemic Cross-Cultural School-Based Mental Health Programming
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3103
The InterSSCT Model: Systemic Cross-Cultural School-Based Mental Health Programming
Chang, Jeff
This paper describes the InterSSCT (“intersect”) approach to the delivery of school-based counselling services. The InterSSCT approach is a transcultural, transtheoretical, systemic heuristic to assess needs, plan, execute, and evaluate school-based counselling initiatives. The elements of InterSSCT are:
Interfaces. This refers to the interfaces between social systems, including formal organizations (e.g., mental health services and school, school and religious communities), informal social structures (school and cultural communities). The InterSSCT model asserts that effective school service delivery relies on functional interfaces between social systems.
Systems. Counselling services are delivered in a context, the dynamics of which counsellors must understand. Ultimately, counsellors are obligated to serve the needs of the systems in which they are embedded.
Skills. School counsellors’ efforts should focus on the development of skills (capacity building) in students and school personnel.
Connections. Attachment theory indicates that children are more resilient when they experience a sense of connectedness. Accordingly, school counsellors can work to create a school context in which children feel a sense of belonging and connection.
Transitions. Faltering through transitions (within the school day, throughout the school year, and between school years [e.g., elementary to middle school, middle school to high school]) can contribute and maintain problems. Accordingly, counsellors can work to develop programming that assists children through transitions.
This conference session will describe how counsellors can focus on interfaces, systems, skills, connections, and transitions can support children’s development.
The session was presented as a portion of a working group session on school-based mental health, which was attended by 26 participants. The presentation was well-received, with many participants commenting on the applicability of this model to settings in other countries and service delivery contexts.
This presentation supports my scholarship in the area of school-based mental health programming. The development work for this presentation will permit me to develop a manuscript for submission by October 2011.
2011-08-25T20:55:49Z
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Suzhi (Quality) Discourse and Laid-off Workers: The Role of Trade Unions in Post-Maoist China
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3102
Suzhi (Quality) Discourse and Laid-off Workers: The Role of Trade Unions in Post-Maoist China
McQuaide, Shiling
Over the last 20 years, “suzhi” discourse pervaded government speeches, official media, and mainstream publications across China. This phenomenon attracted attention of western scholars, and their comments are mainly negative. A number of China observers see the promotion of “suzhi” a neoliberal governmentality, arguing that the emphasis of rural migrants’ lack of Suzhi has allowed the party-state to conceal the fact that China’s economic success was achieved at the expense of interior rural areas that supply cheap resources and labor. Some others focusing on women and minority groups indicate that the significant feature of “suzhi” discussion is its obsession with improving people’s quality, while neglecting the structural inequities created by the development strategies of the post-Maoist state. Inspired by western scholarship on Suzhi, this paper looks at Chinese trade unions’ activities in face of the massive layoffs caused by the economic restructure during the late 1990s. Largely endorsing government policy of development, the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) viewed unemployment as a normal consequence of market economy, a price that workers had to pay in order for the country’s economy continuing to grow rapidly. Unable to protect workers from unemployment and ineffective in bargaining better compensation deals for the layoffs, ACFTU and its grass root branches instead focus on running training sessions to enhance laid off workers’ skills as well as “moral values”. Drawing upon archive research of official documents, journals and newspapers issued by the ACFTU, this paper attempts to reveal how the trade unions had greatly enhanced its educational function in the context of economic restructure in the late 1990s. Trying to help workers improve their “suzhi” and adapt to the market economy, ACFTU was eager to placate discontented workers and prevent or defuse confrontational labor actions, making contributions to social harmony, the top priority of the party-state.
A paper “Suzhi (Quality) Discourse and Laid-off Workers: The Role of Trade Unions in Post-Maoist China” was presented on June 18. (See attached schedule). Feedback inspired me to continue working on and revising the paper. More specifically, I plan to hire a research assistant in Beijing, China to verify my sources, and conduct interviews with a number of laid-off workers based on the questionnaire I provided. The final version of the paper will be submitted to a journal for publication.
In addition to presenting the paper, I attended a number of sessions on China and other Asian countries, and met with scholars from the USA and countries across the world.
2011-08-25T20:47:01Z
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Creating an “Invitational Classroom” in the Online Educational Milieu
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3101
Creating an “Invitational Classroom” in the Online Educational Milieu
Perry, Beth
Parker Palmer, a scholar who studied effective face-to-face teaching, introduced the term the “invitational classroom” (1993, p. 71). In particular Palmer emphasized that “an air of hospitality” facilitated the inviting environment (p. 71). Hospitality in Palmer’s words means “receiving each other, our struggles, our newborn ideas, with openness and care” (p. 74). Palmer concludes that both teachers and learners experience positive consequence when the classroom is invitational. This paper explores a category of innovative teaching strategies, called artistic pedagogical technologies (APTs) (Perry & Edwards, 2010) that could facilitate the experience of an invitational classroom in online courses. APTs are teaching strategies founded in the arts. APTs described in this paper include photovoice, parallel poetry, and conceptual quilting. A study of the effect of these APTs on graduate students and instructors from a Canadian online university is discussed. Ethical approval for the study was granted by the Research Ethics Board of the host university. Study participants included a convenience sample of 3 course instructors and 26 students. The instructors had each just finished teaching one section of an online graduate course into which APTs had been introduced. The student participants had just completed one of these three study courses. All data were gathered after the study courses were completed and final grades submitted. Data were collected using one-on-one semi-structured interviews with participating students and instructors. Additionally student participants completed an online questionnaire featuring a 5 point Likert scale that assessed the effects of APTs on their experience in a particular course. Data analysis involved hand-coding of interview transcripts coupled with analysis using NVivo software and descriptive statistics. In summary, both students and instructors found the classroom environment changed in a positive way in part because of the APTs. Research participants reported that APTs initiated, motivated, sustained, and enhanced interactions between students, and between students and the instructors. These findings are further analyzed using Palmer’s concepts of hospitality and the invitational classroom and Vygotsky’s (1978) Social Development Theory. Practical ideas for educators regarding the use of APTS in teaching and e-course design are reviewed.
Conference participants may be able to use the ideas presented in this paper to enhance their online courses development and teaching. The teaching strategies discussed are adaptable to different topics and disciplines, economical to create, and effective. The presentation could be of interest to e-course designers and teachers.
The presentation was well received. There were 37 countries represented at this conference. Many participants were leaders in e-learning in their home countries. Approximately 50 people attended my presentation. There were many questions and comments and the entire time allotted (30 minutes) was used. Additional attendees talked with my about my presentation following the presentation. The keynote speaker for the conference – Dr. David Kaufman from Simon Fraser University attended my presentation and commented that he found it consistent with the message of his opening address, that is that we need to find new methods for enhancing student engagement in e-learning. The abstract for the paper was published in the conference proceedings and all participants received a CD with a copy of all the full papers from the conference. All papers presented are currently being considered for publication in the Journal of E-Learning.
I made several connections with online educators from other countries who may be interested in collaborating on research related to artistic pedagogical technologies in the future. Additionally it was affirming to have supportive comments from the keynote speaker and others in attendance and this will fuel our motivation to continue our research in this interesting and important area of e-learning.
2011-08-25T20:42:34Z
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Academic Program Life Cycles: An Application of a Dynamic Growth Model
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3100
Academic Program Life Cycles: An Application of a Dynamic Growth Model
Acquah, Edward
The basic mixed-influence diffusion growth model was extended by including economic factors (GDP, Recruitment Expenditures) deemed potentially to influence enrollment demand for academic programs. The regression analysis of the dynamic model yielded better parameter estimates, including magnitude and timing of enrollment peaks. The dynamic model explained variations in the growth of academic programs better than the basic model, and its long-term predictions of enrollments were more accurate than the predictions of the basic model. Parameter estimates were theoretically correct as to their signs and magnitudes. In summary, the dynamic model showed considerable improvement over the basic growth model.
SATURDAY MAY 21, 2011
1. Early Arrivers Reception (Special Event) 5:30-7:30pm –(Attended & Participated)
Highlights: at Waterfall Garden, Toronto Downtown sponsored by Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, and afterwards organized into dinner groups for a tour of Toronto Downtown to experience a flavour of the City’s night life.
SUNDAY MAY 22, 2011
2. Focus Group meeting 1:00-1:45pm(Attended and Participated):
Highlights: Planning Group met to finalize arrangement for collecting information about the Forum and getting attendees to participate in the Focus Group sessions to evaluate the Forum
3. Open Session with Miriam Carver at Conference B Hall 2:00-3:00pm: Information session on institutional research professional development opportunities. Attended and participated.
4. Newcomers Reception and Mentor/Mentee Gathering, City Hall, Sponsored by Inclusive Analytics. 3:30 – 4:15pm (Attended)
Highlights: This reception provided an opportunity for AIR newcomers to meet the Newcomers Committee and AIR Board as well as socializing and networking.
5. Plenary Session 4:30 – 6:00pm Undergraduate Learning and Post-College Outcomes: Findings from the CLA Longitudinal Project, Grand Ball Room presented by Dr. Richard Arum Sponsored by SAS (Attended)
6. Forum Opening Reception Sheraton Hall Sponsored by Digital Measures Inc. 6:00 –7:30pm (Attended)
MONDAY May 23, 2011
7. Special Interest Group: 7:30-8:15am: Canadian Institutional Research & Planning Association (CIRPA) at York Room (Attended and Participated)
Highlights: Introduction of CIRPA members present with current institutional research focus and activities at Canadian institutions. Discussion of the next CIRPA Conference at Halifax, NS, and invitation for volunteers
8. Panel Session: Creating Ongoing Communication and Collaboration Between Institutional Research Personnel and Faculty to Foster an Environment for Program Improvement: 8:30 -9:30am (Attended)
Highlights: The session discussed the communication and collaboration that occur between the Institutional Research Department and Departmental Faculties in an effort to gather and analyze data and then use the data to evaluate and improve programs.
9. Presentation: Foundations of Excellence: A Self-Study and Planning Process that Yields Improved Retention 9:45 – 10:25am: (Attended)
Highlights: The study examined the self-study and planning process for the first college year at a large US university. It provided information about the process and its outcome for institutional participants.
10. Presentation: A Not-Too-Difficult Way to Study Classroom Space Utilization- 11:00–11:40noon (Attended).
Highlights: The session reviewed the motivation and research design for a classroom utilization study at a US community college. The results allowed college administrators to better understand how well the college classroom space was being used by the academic departments.
11. Presentation: An Examination of Master’s Degree Student Retention and Completion 11:55 – 12:35pm (Attended)
Highlights: The session discussed the factors which are likely to predict the retention and graduation of Master’s degree students in the context of doctoral degree enrolments using a logistic regression.
12. Presentation: Is More Always Better? A Consideration of Response Rates and Bias in Higher Education Surveys 12:50 – 1:30pm (Attended)
Highlights: The study explored survey response bias through a review of the literature and examples from the presenter’s own experience conducting a survey of higher education faculty at institutions throughout the US.
13. Presentation: Predictors of Faculty Research Productivity: A Literature Review 1:45 – 2:25pm (Attended)
Highlights: The session reviewed faculty research productivity studies, models, and predictors. A university’s productivity is measured by the performance of its faculty and one measure of faculty performance is its research productivity. Faculty research productivity is variable and the session presented two set of factors that could predict this variance.
14. Presentation: Integrated Campus Planning: Using Cross-Institutional Collaboration to Promote the Alignment of Strategic Directions. 3:00-3:40pm (Attended)
Highlights: The session explored integrated campus planning from an institutional research and organizational development perspective. Results are shared from a survey of colleges and universities across America concerning implementation of campus planning and IR’s roles.
15. Presentation: New Roles for Institutional Research: Planning and Resource Utilization Support in the Emerging Economy. 3:55-4:35pm (Attended).
Highlights: The session presented new perspectives on the roles and functions of the Institutional Research office, which include planning and institutional resource allocation in support of achieving critical institutional goals such as enrollment management.
TUESDAY MAY 24, 2011
16. AIR A Plenary Session: Take Centre Stage: The Role of Institutional Research in Helping More Students Succeed. 8:00 – 9:30am (Attended)
Highlights: The session examined the challenges surrounding the completion of credentials past high school which present opportunities requiring to be taken advantage. Proposals for taking advantage of these opportunities include innovative technologies, creative student supports, dynamic delivery models, cross-sector partnerships, and data-informed policies.
17. Presentation: analyzing Your Financial Health: A Model for Applying Long-Range Planning Scenarios. 9:45 – 10:25am (Attended)
Highlights: The session demonstrated the use of a strategic panning model for developing long-range planning for decision making by connecting enrollment, human resources, and budgetary assumptions of trends. The sample project used a combination of a pilot study, cross-unit collaboration, and training.
18. Scholarly Paper: Measuring Persistence Versus Retention Among Non-Traditional Students. 11:00 – 11:40am (Attended)
Highlights: The study illustrated how institutions that serve non-traditional students who do not enroll continuously through graduation can measure persistence versus retention. While retention is the common measure of student progress, persistence may be the more appropriate measure for students who stop out and re-enroll prior to graduation.
19. Presentation: Establishing An Academic Program Review to Ensure Viable Academic Programs. 11:55am – 12:35pm (Attended)
Highlights: The session explained how a viable academic review was developed and who was involved at a large university in the US. It explained a six factor categories that ensures a comprehensive program review.
20. Technology: Monitoring the University’s Strategic Plan and Integrating Assessment Activities Using Task-Stream: One University’s Experience. 12:50 – 1:30pm (Attended)
Highlights: The session discussed the reasons for purchasing and installing the Task-Stream soft-ware for purposes of monitoring the goals and objectives set forth in the strategic plan. The session addresses the successes and challenges of adopting the soft-ware.
21. Targeted Affinity Group: Dynamic Parameters of Educational Opportunity: Demographics, Labour Markets, and Globalization. 2:00 – 3:00pm (Attended)
Highlights: The session discussed opportunity in higher education in terms of access, choice, persistence, and attainment. While access looks good, choice, persistence, and attainment tend to look bad. Past educational policies have ignored the new demographics, changing labour market requirements for skilled labour, and globalization. The failure to create policy in the context of these realities has produced predictable and consequential results.
22. Presentation: Evaluation of Institutional Financial Aid Policies 3:15 – 3:55pm (Attended)
Highlights: The session presented the effects of institutional financial aid policies on several outcomes such as stop-out behaviour, drop-out behaviour, academic performance, and financial returns for the institution in which the policy is embedded. The session shed lights for university administrators on how to reduce stop-outs and drop-outs and increase academic achievements.
23. Presentation: Exploring the Utility of an Engagement-Based Student Typology in Studying College Outcomes 4:10-4:50pm (Attended)
Highlights: Using data of the 2006 cohorts, the session presented a student typology based on student responses to survey items in the NSSE and then examined the utility of this typology in understanding learning outcomes, self-reported gains, GPAs, and persistence from the first to second year.
WEDNESDAY MAY 25, 2011
24. Research In Motion: Becoming a Published Author: Options, Requirements, and Strategies 8:30 – 9:30am (Attended)
Highlights: This session provided an overview of AIR publications, the emphasis and desired submission format for each publication, and the review and selection process used by each. The panelists shared suggestions about preparing to be submitted for consideration. (I met the Editor for the publication of my Chicago paper as a Professional File monogram).
25. TECHNOLOGY: Creating a Dashboard for Institutional Strategic Planning and Effectiveness. 9:45– 10:25am (Attended)
Highlights: In a climate of high demand for information, it is critical to provide leadership with a vast array of data at their fingertips. Researchers from Missouri State University present the process of creating a new business intelligence dashboard for use by academic administrators. Discussion includes determining types of material to include in a dashboard, combining data from disparate sources, preparing information for presentation, creating a consistent, user-friendly interface, data tables, charts, and advanced features such as OLAP analysis. Discussion is designed to apply to all types of business intelligence tools; specifically, Evisions’ Argos is demonstrated.
26. SCHOLARLY PAPER: Academic Program Life Cycles: An Application of a Dynamic Growth Model: 10:40 – 11:20am (Presented by me) Highlights: The basic mixed-influence diffusion growth model was extended by including economic factors (GDP, Recruitment Expenditures) deemed potentially to influence enrollment demand for academic programs. The regression analysis of the dynamic model yielded better parameter estimates, including magnitude and timing of enrollment peaks. The dynamic model explained variations in the growth of academic programs better than the basic model, and its long-term predictions of enrollments were more accurate than the predictions of the basic model. Parameter estimates were theoretically correct as to their signs and magnitudes. In summary, the dynamic model showed considerable improvement over the basic growth model.
27. Presentation: Assessing the Assessments: A Methodology for University-wide Reporting. 11:25 – 12:15am (Attended)
Highlights: No one-size-fits-all model for assessment in higher education exists. Instead, assessment is often “by committee” or as an add-on responsibility. The table topic discussion focuses on the ways in which campuses organize their assessment work, as well as innovative techniques to enhance assessment capacity such as certification programs. Handouts are provided on examples of in-house assessment certification programs for divisions and frameworks that can guide the work of building assessment capacity. Attendees can expect to leave the table discussion with tangible strategies that they can employ on their campuses to nurture and grow assessment capacity.
28. SPECIAL EVENT: AIR Awards Luncheon12:30 – 2:30pm (Attended)
Highlights: 2011 Forum celebration luncheon, recognition of accomplishments of AIR award recipients, and preview of the 2012 Forum in Louisiana, USA..
THURSDAY MAY 26, 2011
Flight back Home from Toronto, ON, to Edmonton, AB AIR CANADA FLIGHT AC123
Edmonton International Airport; journeyed by road to Athabasca
AIR 2011 FORUM RELEVANCE
The Forum workshops on program assessment, dashboard construction, research in action, scholarly papers, and plenary sessions, special events and social activities were very informative intellectually and professionally as the activities provided insights into the theory and practice of institutional research; building collaboration in higher education for data collection, research, policy analysis and information sharing, as well as new developments/innovations and methods of doing institutional research to inform institutional planning and management, assessment and academic program review, as well as alumni, faculty, staff and student satisfaction surveys. The resources, ideas and knowledge I acquired would greatly provide guidance and direction to inform my institutional studies work at Athabasca University, particularly as Institutional Studies Office is looking forward to building a data program assessment and dashboard to increase opportunities for data analysis and reporting.
My scholarly paper presentation on the life cycle of academic programs: an application of a dynamic growth model was a continuation of my last year’s paper, which has been sent to press for publication as a professional monogram. It should be out in the fall.
2011-08-25T20:39:01Z
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Beyond The Label: Triumphs, Trials and Tribulations of Women with ADHD in a Post Secondary setting
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3099
Beyond The Label: Triumphs, Trials and Tribulations of Women with ADHD in a Post Secondary setting
Cole, Mary
Recent literature has finally begun to acknowledge that women diagnosed with ADHD can experience unique challenges compared to their male counterparts. Mary and Bonnie will present case studies of women with ADHD in a post-secondary environment based on their work in Student Services at Athabasca University and Mount Royal University. Scenarios will include women previously diagnosed with ADHD; women with attention regulation challenges who learn of their ADHD during their undergraduate experience; and women with co-existing diagnoses. These women have granted permission for Mary and Bonnie to share each woman’s complex experience via a short video documentary and interactive discussion with the audience. Insights as to what strategies and supports have helped them in their lifelong journey will be shared. Students have given written permission to share their experiences at this conference.
Additional Information:
There is a short video documentary used in the presentation chronicling the experience of 3 women with ADHD who work or learn in a post-secondary environment. Two of the women are undergraduate students, and one woman works as an Accessibility Advisor for Mount Royal University. The focus of the video is on strategies and supports which have helped them experience success. Bonnie Blankert is the professional who participated in the video and will also be co-presenting. Bonnie is also the president of CADSPPE, The Canadian Association of Disability Service Providers in Post Secondary Education. CADSPPE is under the umbrella of CACUSS (the association offering this conference). The video was made outside of my work at Mount Royal University (where I worked at that time) via my private practice - Cole & Associates Counseling Services - the women who participated in the video gave full, written permission for this video to be viewed in conference settings.
My presentation consisted of four parts: First, Bonnie (co-presenter) and I offered a brief overview of ADHD and how the features of this diagnosis in woman can present differently from men.
Secondly, I provided a very thorough powerpoint detailing many of these features for consideration to offer a user-friendly “take-away” resource for front-line service providers who may be encountering this diagnosis in their student population. The powerpoint was made available on the CADDSPE portion of the CACUSS website for participants to download.
The videodocumentary was then presented, followed by a discussion, including a question/answer opportunity with Bonnie specific to her personal/professional experiences as a woman with ADHD in a post-secondary setting. The powerpoint will be sent for review.
There were approximately 70 people who attended my presentation. Of those participants, the following support services were reported to be present: the Disability/Accessibility Service providers, Counsellors, Directors/Managers of Learning Service Centres, Academic Advisors, staff from Residence, Peer Mentorship Coordinators, Student Union, Directors of Counselling Centres, Learning Strategists/Academic Strategists, Tutors, and several students (two of which were diagnosed with ADHD and currently in programs) from Ryerson University.
I received 50 evaluations, mostly indicating “very satisfied”. The majority of anecdotal comments fit three general themes: pleased to hear an overview of features more prevalent in women with ADHD; appreciation for the resource available to download; and compliments on the videography for conveying the unique truths of 3 women. Two evaluations indicated in their anecdotal comments that while they felt the presentation and video were “excellent”, they would have liked more opportunity for discussion at the end of the presentation to consolidate what they learned and to hear from other university/college settings. Interestingly, five people approached me privately to disclose their diagnosis and to reflect on the presentation and how it fit with their personal experiences as a student or staff member at a post-secondary institution.
In my opinion as a presenter, I was very satisfied with both the turnout and the response to my presentation. I do wish there had been more time as one-hour was not sufficient to provide opportunity for a more in-depth follow-up conversation with workshop participants. I did not articulate learning outcomes in a clear enough manner and I will address this in future presentations.
Bonnie and I briefly addressed common themes we have heard students with ADHD in distance learning settings versus traditional classroom settings. For instance, distance learning requires the student to be able to manage their time, organize their schedule, prioritize and approach coursework in a relatively systematic way. A great deal of independence is required in distance learning. A person with ADHD may find this lack of structure and need for systematic planning more challenging than an individual without ADHD. Students with ADHD in a more traditional setting have an external structure already in place (for example, class times are set, exam schedules are in place, and there is opportunity to immediately request clarification or interact with other students to clarify next steps). However, students with ADHD have also suggested that distance learning can be very beneficial and tremendously appealing once they learn more about their personal strengths and develop learning strategies to assist with time management, organization, prioritization and so forth. Generally we have heard students feel they often enjoy the varied pace available through distance learning, the opportunity to move around/take physical breaks while learning, the reduced need for extensive listening, and the prospect for more flexible scheduling around other activities. This is just one example for your interest. Several individuals approached me after my presentation which segued into an animated 2-hour follow up conversation discussing the strengths and potential opportunities for students with ADHD to combine traditional and distance learning coursework. From this, several university representatives (two Directors from Counselling Centres and one Director from Accessibility Services) approached me to discuss possible opportunities for future collaboration with AU Counselling Services and possible professional development opportunities (i.e., present to their departments and to engage in some type of ongoing discussion to help guide best practice) to better accommodate and serve students in their institutions who maybe enrolled in both distance and traditionally-delivered coursework or programs.
As well, the central focus of this conference was diversity, and within that, learners with more complex mental health issues. Many students diagnosed with ADHD may also have co-existing challenges related to mental health. I facilitated a pre-conference discussion with other interested institutions regarding various challenges, including: students in crisis who do not readily access support services; methods for supporting students with diverse needs via distance learning; and, the emerging use of on-line forums to offer education, resources and support for students in an e-campus/distance learning program.
A particular point of discussion continued over a 3-day period with several representatives (both staff from universities as well as students attending the conference) regarding the benefits and opportunities of a more integrated learning services approach (e.g., learning strategists, counsellors, accessibility services, academic advisors tend to collaborate more as a team for students), versus more traditional settings where teams may tend to work independently and without much overlap. A summary of comments from these conversations include perceived (and reported) benefits of a more integrated approach to be: increased student retention, particularly first year students; aligning of services and therefore more efficient use of time/less redundancy of service; improved efficiency for students seeking support in a timely manner; increased communication and opportunity to problem-solve challenges between different support services; and, increased overall student satisfaction with support services.
The information, ideas and considerations which surfaced for me in this conference has provided occasion for discussion with the AU counselling team regarding best practice and future directions. To guide our team’s conversation, we are reviewing my collected notes and resources, as well as a position paper developed by CACUSS in 2005 entitled: Personal Counselling in a Canadian Post-Secondary Setting. This paper was written by Connie Coniglio, Graham McLean, and Todd Meuser.
Finally, based on the response to my presentation and my overall experience at the CACUSS 2011 conference, some possible future directions (presentations, position papers, posters) from AU at future conferences may include:
1. Counselling from a Distance: Review of methods for appropriately and ethically supporting students with mental health issues.
This was a major topic of discussion throughout the conference, and many university/college representatives approached me as an AU staff member to discuss working with students in an e-campus/distance learning environment as opportunities for students to engage in online coursework is increasing in many institutions. As a burgeoning field, the prevalent assumption at the conference from other institutions was that AU has refined its approach in this area because of its longitudinal history/experience in the area of distance learning. I believe that there is an important opportunity for AU to be a leader in this emerging area, as well as to continue to refine its approach and understanding of what counselling is and can be in our unique environment.
2. Retention Issues and Counselling: Role of counsellors in a distance learning environment in assisting with the retention of students.
Two workshops I attended focused on the changing role of counsellors in post-secondary institutions with the emergence of more complex mental health concerns. The topic of the role of counsellors and other support services in retention was prevalent and several universities have conducted (I believe) more informal studies to determine the role of counselling in assisting with the retention of all students, including those with more complex needs. Much of that focus appeared to revolve on financially viable ways in which support service personnel may contribute to retention and the need for increased manpower to effectively play this role. The role of counsellor at AU is somewhat unique as it blends short-term, solution-focused counselling with learning strategy support as well as prospective student contact to assist with choosing programs to fit career goals. Significant interest from other institutions was expressed to learn more about AU’s choice to blend these services. As well, the development of this would help to guide best practice for AU counselling services.
3. Counselling, ASD, and Academic Advising: Challenges, limitations and potential opportunities for increased collaboration of services in a distance learning environment for students with complex needs.
Informal discussions, as I mentioned earlier, focused on the differences amongst institutions in the way they interact and collaborate with other support services to provide student support. Many opportunities emerged in these discussions (in particular with two other institutions). I believe a position paper or presentation based on a literature review of current best practice, as well as a reflection on an organized discussion amongst the three institutions regarding different approaches would be of great interest to our post-secondary community. AU would offer the collective perspective of the unique challenges and potential benefits within a distance learning environment.
4. Peer Mentorship: Potential benefits and methods for providing online peer mentorship to students in a distance learning environment.
Throughout the conference a theme emerged from Peer Mentor staff as well as attending students of the success of integrating peer mentors with certain support services, particularly for first year students. I believe it would be interesting to explore what AU currently offers to students via this approach, review current literature and then develop a workshop/presentation to reflect on information to guide future discussion and possible research opportunities. Examples of guiding themes: general ethical implications of on-line forums, manpower and criteria for those who may oversee/supervise; maintenance of blogs/forums; consideration of diversity within an online forum; confidentiality/privacy issues; student response, participation and retention; effectiveness of forums already in place at other institutions…
5. Students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Benefits and challenges with online/Distance learning versus the traditional classroom experience.
This of course stemmed from my own presentation, my past involved with Accessibility Services in another institution with students who were enrolled in both distance learning and traditionally-delivered courses. I believe there is potential to promote distance learning as part of an overall educational experience for many students, including those individuals diagnosed with ADHD. I believe a review of current literature both on educational delivery methods and ADHD as well as learning strategy support would be of interest to many institutions that are only now entering the on-line learning delivery model.
Thank you again for this tremendous opportunity.
Mary Cole, M. Couns., CCC
Athabasca Counselling Services
2011-08-25T20:33:38Z
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Return of Student Assignments in Distance Education: Various Technologies to Reduce Turnaround Time
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3098
Return of Student Assignments in Distance Education: Various Technologies to Reduce Turnaround Time
Michalski, Konrad
We evaluated five technologies that tutors could use to mark assignments and return the results to students electronically (i.e. by e-mail). The five technologies are: word processors, computer fax, scanners, graphics tablets, and touch sensitive computer screens. The last four methods would allow hand-written comments. Evaluation included feasibility, cost of equipment and software, and time taken to send various sizes of documents (1, 5, 10 and 20 pages). Project costs included (from most expensive to least): purchase of a computer with a touch-sensitive screen, wages for a research assistant to set up and test out the equipment, purchase of a graphics tablet and software, miscellaneous (i.e., contingency software, trip to examine different computers). And software for preparing paper documents to be distributed electronically (i.e. Adobe Acrobat).
Ed-Media 2011, June 27 – July 1, 2011, Lisbon, Portugal
The paper was presented on June 28, at 4:00pm. The attending audience was 20 people from around the world. I had a number of questions at the end of the presentation. There was interest and suggestions about possibility of collaboration on similar projects from people from Australia, UK, and other places. I am going to follow up with people that were interested in the paper.
2011-08-25T20:22:43Z
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Attend the Summer Publishing Workshops
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3097
Attend the Summer Publishing Workshops
Morrison, Diane
Copy Editing and Proofreading: (2 days)
This two-day workshop is ideal for anyone wanting an introduction to the world of publishing or communications, or for anyone currently called upon to improve the writing of others in their organization. The class incorporates group discussion and hands-on exercises while covering the following topics: editing marks; copyeditor’s responsibilities; finding and noting mistakes in spelling, punctuation, and grammar; striving for consistency; preparing style sheets; proofreading marks; the proofreader’s responsibilities; the proofreading process; technology and proofreading.
Fundamentals of Grammar: (1 day)
One of the best ways to increase confidence as a writer or editor is to gain a good command of grammar. If you find yourself occasionally confused by participles and gerunds, puzzled by dangling and squinting modifiers, and confounded by which and that or who and whom, this one-day workshop is for you. You will spend the morning reviewing the parts of speech, as well as phrases and clauses, punctuation, and sentence structure. The afternoon will be devoted to analyzing and correcting common errors.
Punctuation and Mechanics: (1 day)
Anyone who has agonized over a comma or a hyphen knows how tricky the details of punctuation and mechanics can be. We’ll take a systematic approach to the troublesome areas of punctuation and mechanics, focusing on commas (always the source of debate), semicolons, colons, bullet points, quotation marks, italics, apostrophes, and dashes (em and en). We’ll cover the most recent rules, discuss when more than one approach might be correct, and examine the leading style guides. Be prepared to practice, and bring along your most challenging questions. Punctuation and Mechanics will benefit editors and writers who need a refresher on the tricky areas of punctuation and mechanics.
Usage Woes and Myths: (1 day)
Word usage is an ever-changing area. First it’s wrong to use impact as a verb; then it’s okay. The distinction between fewer and less seems clear, but specific examples make you hesitate. You wonder about debated words such as hopefully and presently, and confusing words such as may and might. You’ve heard that you should never start a sentence with however, but, or because, but you’re not sure. If you are intent on preventing (not avoiding) word errors and avoiding (not preventing) usage myths, this workshop will help. Through discussion, examples, and exercises, we will review some of the most contentious points of English usage. Come prepared with your own usage questions and examples to share with the group. Usage Woes and Myths will benefit editors and writers who need an intensive review of recent changes and errors in word usage.
Clear and Concise - Guidelines for Style: (1 day)
Clear, concise writing may seem like the product of magic, instinct, or luck, but the pros know that it’s the result of learned techniques. This workshop covers tried-and-true revision techniques that improve consistency, clarity, flow, and conciseness. We’ll identify and eliminate shifts, link ideas using parallelism and subordination, trim wordy structures, and unearth the power of verbs. Through discussion, examples, and exercises, you’ll amass an arsenal of methods for making every word count. Clear and Concise will benefit writers and editors who want to know the best practical techniques for streamlining prose.
The Secrets of Syntax: (1 day)
This workshop looks at syntax from various angles, including how to shape it for different documents and audiences. Topics include subordination and coordination, periodic versus cumulative sentences, proximity of subject and verb, echo words, and special techniques such as ellipsis and isolation.
The Secrets of Syntax will benefit writers and editors who want a more systematic understanding of how reshaping language can make it clearer and more powerful.
Developmental Editing for Fiction and Non-fiction: (2 days)
This two-day workshop will demonstrate how assessment criteria, a survey of alternative options, market research, and some astute analysis can turn a half-baked idea into a fully cooked work that reaches readers. Using examples taken from students’ own works and before-and-after demos of real books and edits, you will be able to see how to apply judgment and new skills to the work at hand.
The workshops taken at the SFU Summer School were all very good and, for the most part, very applicable to my job at AU as a communication officer/writer. Six of the seven courses were equally useful for writing as they were for editing. Each successive course built on the previous ones. There was usually some useful review at the beginning of each course.
The first course was Copyediting and Proofreading. The instructor was Ruth Wilson. Copyediting comes after the substantive edit (re-writing and organizing major parts of a document) and, as such, deals primarily with correcting grammar and usage. Much of the class covered elements of grammar such as spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, number styles, punctuation, wordiness, common writing errors (and non-errors), usage, and also samples of style sheets and how to develop them. Much of this information would be repeated in subsequent courses and this served as an excellent introduction.
We learned proper editing and proofreading symbols as well as a useful list of frequently misspelled words. In this course there was a great deal of discussion of the role and responsibility of the editor and how much (and how) the editor might change the writer’s work.
The proofreading section dealt with the nuts and bolts required for proofreading (style sheet, quiet, concentration, good light, printed copy of document, ruler, dictionary, style guide) and the kinds of elements to look for in the first, second and third edits. We were also introduced to “Professional Editorials Standards” (2009) from the Editors’ Association of Canada (EAC).
The next five courses were of the greatest use to me as a writer and as an editor. The courses included grammar, punctuation and mechanics, usage, style and syntax, all of which are related. This provided more review of grammar and application.
The instructor for the grammar course was Vlad Konieczny. In any grammar course there is always something new and some review, as was the case here. My general difficulty with grammar is that while I (usually) know when something is correct or incorrect, I often don’t know the grammatical basis for it; I cannot analyze the sentence. While that is fine as a writer, as an editor, if I’m going to change someone else’s material, I should be able to justify or explain why I’m doing it. This was a very helpful course.
The instructor for the next four courses, Frances Peck, is a very knowledgeable and experienced editor and writer. She has an excellent idea of how to apply the material for professional writers and editors. She stressed the importance of consistency. A number of uses, spellings, and style issues were covered which can be correctly handled in a number of different ways. She said the important thing is to choose a style and use it consistently. It is important for an institution, writer, or editor to develop a style sheet (either for the institution or for the particular project) which outlines what style and spellings have been used and the reference material that has been used. I also learned the importance of referring to good style and usage guides such as Fowler’s Modern English Usage and the Chicago Style Guide (Communication and Creative Services at AU uses the Canadian Press Style Guide but the Chicago Style Guide is much more comprehensive.)
Usage is the correct application of grammar, how to use the elements of language, and how usage changes over time, such as;
-Do not use “action” as a verb as in; It is imperative that you action these items as soon as possible.
-You can possibly use (i.e. acceptance is in transition) “access” as a verb as in; You can access the full range of services here.
-You can now use “liaise” as a verb (meaning to interact or communicate with) as in; Diane will liaise with the department on this project.
The grammar course reviewed accurate usage, commonly misused and confused words and phrases (such as full and fulsome, historic and historical, intense and intensive) and myths, such as never starting a sentence with because and as being more correct than like.
As with all of Peck’s classes, exercises were used as the basis for teaching and discussion.
Punctuation and mechanics deals with interpretation (punctuation) and esthetics (mechanics). The course started with grammar: parts of speech; clauses and phrases; commas (when superfluous and when needed); comma splices; semicolons; colons; lists; italics; quotation marks; hyphens and dashes (em dashes and en dashes); and apostrophes.
Style started with a quick grammar review and defining the steps in the writing process. The course covered consistency (in verb tense, in voice, in person and number, in style or tone), parallelism, flow, transitions, verbs, sentence length and structure, coordination and subordination, passive and active voice, and conciseness.
Syntax is the word order within a sentence and the meaning that resides in the way the subject and verb are combined with other words and phrases. Some aspects covered were; the inverted sentence; passive and active voice; rhythm and sentence length, sentence openings, sentence type; flow and content; echo words; emphasis; and special techniques such as isolation and ellipses.
Breaking down the various aspects of writing this way was very helpful to isolate and concentrate on one subject at a time. By the end of these five courses, a good review had taken place and a solid foundation had been developed.
The last course, Developmental Editing, was the least useful only because it is not something I will ever do. I thought developmental editing was the same things as substantive editing but it is not. In developmental editing, the editor works with a subject matter expert who is not a strong writer and guides them through the writing process. Nonetheless, the instructor, Joy Gugeler, was very knowledgeable and experienced. The discussion of structure, style and organization was helpful to some extent in terms of writing. The discussion of particular books and elements such as plot, character, narrative, genre, etc., was very interesting from a reader’s point of view.
In all of the courses, there were a number of good resources (print and online) recommended which will provide excellent reference material.
Follow up for me will include the following:
-Develop a style sheet which I will use consistently for my writing and which could be used as the basis of a style sheet for the department and/or university;
-Organize the material from these courses into some format for easy reference (perhaps alphabetical list or subject matter list);
-Purchase some of the resource material for the office;
-Find ways to continue to improve my familiarity and knowledge of grammar and my knowledge of available grammar resources.
2011-08-25T17:14:07Z
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What we know and where we’re going: In medias res on self-representation and identity in university use of ePortfolios
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3096
What we know and where we’re going: In medias res on self-representation and identity in university use of ePortfolios
Conrad, Dianne
ePortfolios are slowly gaining credibility in Canadian universities as useful vehicles for a number of learning activities. In both graduate and undergraduate programs, ePortfolios are used to house and share the repertoire of students’ work. Sometimes, such portfolios are a necessary part of completing a program, or may replace other types of assessment, such as comprehensive exams. ePortfolios are also used for assignments in individual courses, both as a topic of study and as a presentation tool.. In recognition and assessment of prior learning practices (RPL, APL, APEL), ePortfolios serve as the 21st century platform within which students bring forth or demonstrate, for assessment, their prior learning.
To date, ePortfolio use has followed on the heels of older, paper-based portfolio models, providing university students with a more flexible means of demonstrating their learning, as well as contributing to their sense of self and the creation of self-identity. Extended, long-term ePortfolio use, coupled with social networking and media sites, provides continuous opportunities for learners to both engage in identity-building activities and to reflect on those types of activities, both privately and collectively, within designated collaborative groups or learning communities.
This paper examines ePortfolio use with three questions in mind:
1) What lessons, relative to ePortfolio use and self-representation and identity, have already been learned at one progressive ODL Canadian university?
2) What research directions and initiatives arise from this history? and
3) What continuity with or relationship to the more established use of portfolios can practitioners and researchers draw upon for the same purposes?
The Canadian distance education university in question uses ePortfolios in a number of ways: as formative and summative assessment mechanisms within masters programs in nursing and distance education; as the assessment vehicle for learners engaged in recognized prior learning (RPL) practice; by students in professional programs in the areas of communication studies and heritage resource management, who use ePortfolios in the compilation of their work for display and assessment; and by partnering professional development associations for the on-going certification needs of their members. Each of these uses has transitioned, or is transitioning, to ePortfolio use from more traditional, paper-based strategies.
Developing and using paper-based strategies over many years has yielded extensive experience as well as the insight and accompanying wisdom to create “new ways” of practice for reviewing and assessing the efficacy of the new products. The shorter history of ePortfolio use has added to this body of knowledge. Although the uses of ePortfolios vary, each targets precise outcomes and holds at its central core the importance of learners’ self-representation and identity.
Data to support this presentation will be brought forward from across the populations noted above in various ways: through examination and analysis of historical practice; through qualitative questioning of current learners’ experiences; and through anecdotal recollections from distance educators using ePortfolios for RPL, assessment, and pedagogical purposes.
Evelyn and I made the presentation successfully to a full house. I have since had requests for copies of the material from participants and the material will be posted on the conference website.
Following the presentation, I was asked to sit on the closing panel to address conference themes and issues. I took that to be a good thing….
Also following the conference, Evelyn and I met with the conference organizer and a Canadian colleague to discuss future work and collaborative issues. It’s probable that I will attend the conference again next year to continue in this stream of investigation.
2011-08-25T17:07:52Z
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Reaching for a Good Life – An Application of the Good Lives Model of Offender Rehabilitation with Men who are Abusive in Intimate Relationships
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3094
Reaching for a Good Life – An Application of the Good Lives Model of Offender Rehabilitation with Men who are Abusive in Intimate Relationships
Nielsen, Karen
Reaching for a Good Life (RFGL) is a program for men who are abusive within an intimate relationship. RFGL has 4 components: a weekly orientation group, individual intake interview, the 16 week group program and the exit interview. Engaging men in the therapeutic process begins with the weekly orientation session. Participants experience a brief explanation of how violence progresses in intimate relationships and are engaged in a discussion of the process. This process allows participants to make an informed choice about their fit with the group content and process. Consent forms are signed and intake assessment tools are completed at this session. Participants meet with an individual therapist who creates a Good Life Plan with participants. In the individual interview the results of the testing are discussed with the participant and the therapists hears the man’s experience that brings him to therapy. Participants then begin one of the weekly group sessions at the start of the next modules. The group itself is comprised of 4 – four-session modules. These modules are Self-awareness and Arousal Management; Emotional Communication and Conflict Management; Ethical and Moral Decision-making; Consciousness Raising: Power and control. This presentation will describe the RFGL program.
Research was received enthusiastically. We met with other people working in the field and they are now trying to arrange to have a whole day devoted to this type of research at the next conference in two years. If this happens it will be a tremendous opportunity both to get our research out there and to promote AU.
2011-08-25T16:53:12Z
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Project Management Assets and Project Management Performance: Preliminary Findings
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3093
Project Management Assets and Project Management Performance: Preliminary Findings
Jugdev, Kam
The objective of this research is to examine the degree of competitive advantage from project management assets by exploring the link between the characteristics of project management assets as independent variables and project management performance outcomes as dependent variables. This paper analyses data from responses to an online survey by 198 North American Project Management Institute® members. Factor analysis is used to identify the characteristics of project management assets and the project management performance outcome factors. Seven factors that comprised the characteristics of project management assets, three factors that comprised organizational support for project management assets, and two factors that comprised the project management performance outcomes were extracted from the data analysis. Preliminary findings are presented in the paper. We draw on the Resource Based View of the firm as a lens to examine and validate project management capabilities as a source of competitive advantage. This paper contributes an improved understanding of project management as a source of competitive advantage for scholars and practitioners interested in project management.
There were nearly 500 attendees at the Portland International Centre for Management of Engineering and Technology conference. Over 760 papers were submitted and 344 were accepted. We presented our paper in the Project/Program Management Division to an audience of 40. A number of those in attendance were masters and doctoral students. The combined feedback on our paper/presentation from the audience was extremely helpful. The feedback reinforced the methodological rigor our study and helped us in clarifying several aspects as we work on a revised version of the paper to submit to the Management Research journal. During the evening reception, several individuals thanked us for my presentation and indicated that they found it to be clear and easy to follow.
I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the A&PDF committee for the generous funding and support to attend this conference and present at it. I thoroughly enjoyed the tracks, especially the constructive dialogue we were able to engage in at the sessions to assist each other with our research endeavors. This conference also enabled me to reconnect with my close research colleague and others in the project management field. I was also able to network with and meet new colleagues.
Thank you again. I appreciate all the support from AU.
As per page 24 of the proceedings (Source: http://www.picmet.org/new/conferences/2011/Picmet11.pdf)
THE PAPERS
“Research papers and applications-oriented papers are explicitly identified in this conference. Separate evaluation criteria were used, and different referees were selected for each category to make sure that appropriate papers were included in the conference for the “Research” and “Application” categories. We emphasized research methodology, the use of the research literature, the theory behind the paper, the sample size, and the impact on the research community for the “Research Papers.” The important evaluation criteria for “Industry Applications” were the usefulness of the application, the importance of the case being discussed, the generalizability of the concepts presented, and the impact of the paper on the users of technology management. The “Research Papers” included in PICMET ’11 are listed with an [R] in front of their titles on the following pages; and the “Industry Applications” papers are shown with an [A] in front of their titles. Roughly 73 percent are in the [R] category, and the rest are in the [A] category. The Research Papers and Industry Applications are mixed in the sessions. This was done intentionally to assure effective exchange of ideas among those presenting research papers and those presenting applications-oriented papers.”
2011-08-25T16:04:21Z
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Developing and implementing a continuing competence program for professional psychologists: A Canadian perspective
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3092
Developing and implementing a continuing competence program for professional psychologists: A Canadian perspective
Jerry, Paul
Discusses the development of a continuing competence program for professional psychologists. Many North American jurisdictions have mandatory continuing education that involves collecting continuing education hours in a determined period of time. The College of Alberta Psychologists chose to develop and implement a continuing competence program that operates independent of credit hours. Psychologists engage in a self-determined and self-directed learning plan. The philosophical and theoretical assumptions behind such a program are presented, in contrast to other models of continuing education. Issues of professionalism and competence and the effect this program’s philosophy have had on the profession are discussed. Member feedback and participation data is presented as well as a discussion of the internal politics and external pressures the emerged during this development process.
This paper was included in a unique “ethics track”, which was a first for this conference. Historically, they have not grouped series of papers this specifically and my talk followed some “heavyweights” in the field of psychology and ethics from Canada, the U.S., Africa, and Europe.
The source of the material for the paper was a 7 year project of the College of Alberta Psychologists and I was a key leader in its inception, development and implementation over this time, including serving as President of the College in the year that this project came to fruition. Several key issues help place the reaction to this work in context. First, the continuing competence program referred to in the title is now in place. It took 7 years of development in this phase of development, but the movement and impetus for this type of program has been brewing since 1972. It has continually been derailed by the professional membership of the College for many, mainly political, reasons. Due to changes in Alberta’s Health Professions Act, it is now mandatory to have such a program.
What sets the program apart from others is a philosophical position that moves the responsibility for self-development as a professional from the regulator to the psychologist. Other systems have the regulator track continuing education credits whereas this system has the professional self-determine the activities for the year and track them as they are completed.
2011-08-25T16:00:24Z
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Towards a Biography of Lucy Broadwood (1858-1929): Problems and Perspectives
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3091
Towards a Biography of Lucy Broadwood (1858-1929): Problems and Perspectives
Gregory, David
Lucy E. Broadwood was one of the leading folksong collectors in England during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the founders of the (English) Folk-Song Society, she subsequently played a major role in the organization from its creation in 1898 until her death in 1929, at which time she was serving as the Society’s President. Given her importance as a song-collector, scholar, editor and administrator, it is hardly surprising that Broadwood has attracted some interest among ethnomusicologists and folklorists. Dorothy De Val and Lewis Jones have both published brief articles surveying aspects of her career, while David Gregory has provided a detailed account of her early work as a folksong collector during the 1890s. He has also written about her involvement with the foundation and early years of the Folk-Song Society (to 1903). To date, however, no scholar has explored in any detail Broadwood’s contribution to the Edwardian phase of the first English Folksong Revival and no one has yet attempted to write a book-length biography of this woman who made such an important contribution to English cultural life.
Writing a biography of Broadwood poses some challenges. While her contribution to the first English folksong revival is what she is most remembered for nowadays, she was in fact a musician and intellectual of wide-ranging interests and social connections. At first glance these sometimes appear paradoxical or contradictory. Although fiercely loyal to the Broadwood extended family, she cultivated a wide range of other social acquaintances (from peers and painters to maidservants and artisans) and formed intimate friendships with several singers, instrumentalists and composers. They included singer James Campbell McInnes, composers Ralph Vaughan Williams and Percy Grainger, and musicians Fanny Davies and Juliette Folville. As a concert singer and pianist Broadwood was heavily involved with both the activities of the Peoples Concert Music Society and the Early English Music Revival, performing a variety of songs by contemporary English composers while editing several of Purcell’s music dramas. A sometime secretary of the Quest society and disciple of G.R.S. Mead, she was involved with Theosophy and she followed closely contemporary scholarship on Gnosticism, the origins of religion, and the historical Jesus. Although fascinated with the para-normal and a believer in (and practitioner of) thought-transference, she was of a skeptical and empirical disposition, ready to challenge the conventional wisdom of her age yet sharply critical of ideas she regarded as cranky or merely speculative. For example, although convinced that the orthodox view of the authorship of the Shakespeare plays erroneous, she nonetheless subjected the rival Baconian thesis to intense scrutiny. As an independent woman (she never married) she supported the suffragist movement but was also a member of the Primrose League, voted for the Conservative/Unionist coalition, and was intensely interested in Freemasonry (a semi-secret society which, as a female, she could not join).
The challenge facing Broadwood’s biographer is not only to unravel and document these (and other) strands of her life but to understand and explain how they interrelated. How, for example, did her study of Freemasonry inform her folk-music scholarship? What relationship did she see between the music of Purcell and traditional English folksong? How could she combine her love of Irish music with her passionate hostility to Irish home-rulers and separatists? In what way did she believe folksong was an essential foundation for a renaissance of English art music? This paper aims to sketch the main themes in a putative biography of Lucy Broadwood and to offer some preliminary answers to questions such as these. It is based on both published primary sources and unpublished archival sources (including Broadwood’s diaries and correspondence) at the Surrey History Centre (Woking) and the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (London).
The 41st World Congress of the International Council for Traditional Music was held at Memorial University, St. John’s, NL, from Wednesday July 13th to Thursday July 19th, 2011. Apart from attending many of the great variety of paper sessions, workshops and concerts, I participated actively in this conference in two main ways:
1. On Sunday July 17th, at 1030am, I chaired a ninety-minute workshop titled “Singing the West: Traditional Songs and Songs in the Tradition from the Prairies and British Columbia.” This focused mainly, although not entirely, on the homesteading, logging, mining, and fishing songs in the Philip Thomas Collection. I introduced the Thomas Collection and the individual songs chosen from it, placing them in their historical and geographical contexts. The other participants in the workshop, as singers, were Rosaleen Gregory and Calgary musician John Leeder, the Honorary President of the Canadian Society for Tradiitonal Music. There was an audience of about one dozen, and there were lively discussions both during and after the song presentations. It appeared to be a very successful session.
2. On Monday July 18th, at 3.30pm, I participated in a two-hour paper session titled “Pioneering Individuals and the Construction of Musical Narratives.” As part of this session I duly delivered my paper on “Towards a Biography of Lucy Broadwood (1858-1929): Problems and Perspectives.” I accompanied the paper with a power-point presentation designed to highlight the structure of the paper and to provide visual images of Broadwood and several of her composer, musician and intellectual friends, including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Percy Grainger, Fanny Davies and Jessie Weston.
The paper was well-received, but there was time for only about five minutes of discussion. This focused mainly on Broadwood’s complicated relationship to Cecil Sharp. I was asked why I called Sharp an acquaintance of Broadwood rather than a friend since they worked closely together on a few issues of the Journal of the Folksong Society. I tried to explain the class differences between the two collectors, and the somewhat exclusive nature of Broadwood’s social networks which included many people of whom Sharp had made enemies by criticizing them publicly. However, in retrospect I think that my explanation identified only part of the truth. Personality conflicts and ideological differences about the nature of English folksong also undoubtedly played a role in keeping their relationship rather distant. Given Sharp’s central role in the English Folksong Revival this is clearly an important issue that will require exploration in some depth in my anticipated book on Broadwood. It was useful to be alerted to it. More generally, the main purpose of my writing and delivering this paper was to help me clarify some of the principal themes and issues to be addressed in that book. I believe it served that purpose admirably and was therefore a valuable and worth-while experience. I was also glad to meet Elaine Keillor (a participant in the same session) and to learn about the Tom Kines archive of which she is curator.
2011-08-25T15:46:41Z
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What we know and where we’re going: In medias res on self-representation and identity in university use of ePortfolios
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3090
What we know and where we’re going: In medias res on self-representation and identity in university use of ePortfolios
Ellerman, Evelyn
ePortfolios are slowly gaining credibility in Canadian universities as useful vehicles for a number of learning activities. In both graduate and undergraduate programs, ePortfolios are used to house and share the repertoire of students’ work. Sometimes, such portfolios are a necessary part of completing a program, or may replace other types of assessment, such as comprehensive exams. ePortfolios are also used for assignments in individual courses, both as a topic of study and as a presentation tool. In recognition and assessment of prior learning practices (RPL, APL, APEL), ePortfolios serve as the 21st century platform within which students bring forth or demonstrate, for assessment, their prior learning.
To date, ePortfolio use has followed on the heels of older, paper-based portfolio models, providing university students with a more flexible means of demonstrating their learning, as well as contributing to their sense of self and the creation of self-identity. Extended, long-term ePortfolio use, coupled with social networking and media sites, provides continuous opportunities for learners to both engage in identity-building activities and to reflect on those types of activities, both privately and collectively, within designated collaborative groups or learning communities.
This paper examines ePortfolio use with three questions in mind: 1) what lessons, relative to ePortfolio use and self-representation and identity, have already been learned at one progressive ODL Canadian university? 2) what research directions and initiatives arise from this history? and 3) what continuity with or relationship to the more established use of portfolios can practitioners and researchers draw upon for the same purposes?
The Canadian distance education university in question uses ePortfolios in a number of ways: as formative and summative assessment mechanisms within masters programs in nursing and distance education; as the assessment vehicle for learners engaged in recognized prior learning (RPL) practice; by students in professional programs in the areas of communication studies and heritage resource management, who use ePortfolios in the compilation of their work for display and assessment; and by partnering professional development associations for the on-going certification needs of their members. Each of these uses has transitioned, or is transitioning, to ePortfolio use from more traditional, paper-based strategies.
Developing and using paper-based strategies over many years has yielded extensive experience as well as the insight and accompanying wisdom to create “new ways” of practice for reviewing and assessing the efficacy of the new products. The shorter history of ePortfolio use has added to this body of knowledge. Although the uses of ePortfolios vary, each targets precise outcomes and holds at its central core the importance of learners’ self-representation and identity.
Data to support this presentation will be brought forward from across the populations noted above in various ways: through examination and analysis of historical practice; through qualitative questioning of current learners’ experiences; and through anecdotal recollections from distance educators using ePortfolios for RPL, assessment, and pedagogical purposes.
2011-08-25T15:37:47Z
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Understanding Histone H1 Binding Mechanism Through Model Comparison and FRAP Experiments
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3089
Understanding Histone H1 Binding Mechanism Through Model Comparison and FRAP Experiments
Carrero, Gustavo
Histone H1 or linker histones play an important role in the package and order of DNA in eukaryotic cell nuclei by associating to and dissociating from the chromatin structure. Thus, in order to better understand the formation and stabilization of higher order chromatin structure it is crucial to understand the binding mechanism of histone H1. It has been hypothesized that histone H1 can bind in both a strong and a weak fashion to the chromatin structure. In this work, we use Flourescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP) experiments together with model comparison criteria in order to support this hypothesis. We propose a feasible histone H1 binding mechanism, described with a system of reaction diffusion equations that is consistent with the experimental data and the existence of a weakly bound and a strongly bound population.
I was honored to be the chair of the session “Life Sciences I” and represent Athabasca University at the 7th International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM), 2011 (ICIAM 2011) that took place in Vancouver, BC. I had the opportunity to share part of my research during this session in the form of a presentation.
The audience was receptive about the application of FRAP experiments, mathematical modeling and techniques in model comparison to analyze the binding mechanism of histone H1 to the chromatin structure. Since this is still work in progress there were some useful comments and suggestions about how to improve the analysis both theoretically and experimentally. I had the opportunity to receive meaningful comments from Dr. Adriana Dawes, a colleague from Ohio State University, USA. Also, I had the opportunity to had useful scientific conversations with Dr. Daniel Coombs, from University of British Columbia, who has worked in with similar experimental data that I have worked during my research.
I expect to explore the suggestions made by my colleagues and think more deeply about the comments received during the Congress so that I can improve the analysis and design the future steps to follow in this research.
2011-08-25T15:33:55Z
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Mendicant vs Aristocratic Pedagogy in Chaucer's Summoner's Tale
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3083
Mendicant vs Aristocratic Pedagogy in Chaucer's Summoner's Tale
Cels, Marc
“The Summoner’s Tale” (1390s) in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales satirizes the hypocrisy of mendicant friars. Previous criticism has either focused on the portrait of the hypocritical character of Friar John in the first half of the tale and his bumbling sermon against wrath delivered to a local villager, or it has searched for allegorical meanings behind the tale’s scatological jokes. Less attention has been paid to the interaction between Friar John and the lord’s household in the second half. This paper argues that Chaucer not only lampoons the friars’ ineffective preaching about wrath, but also presents aristocratic elites as temperate wielders of righteous wrath and guardians of the social order. Chaucer inverts the relationship between priest and penitent as the household members interrogate the enraged friar and seek to assuage his wrath. Their arguments and conduct provide a lesson in anger management that resonates with the advice of moral theologians. They are shown as calm and rational, and they succeed in justly and temperately punishing the corrupt friar and restoring peace and order to the manor community. This portrait of aristocratic temperance would likely have appealed to Chaucer’s elite audience at the end of the fourteenth-century, in the wake of the Peasants’ Revolt, when England’s elites, including Chaucer and his readers, were zealously suppressing social unrest and competing economically with friars and clergy.
This paper was grouped with two others in a panel called “Pedagogies, some perverse.” To better reflect its theme, I adjusted the focus of my talk and modified its original title, “The Staleness of mendicant Preaching in Chaucer’s Summoner’s Tale.” My reading of the “Summoner’s Tale” was offered from my perspective as historian and reader of mendicant sermons and medieval discourse about wrath and conflict resolution. Most of the audience consisted of specialists in Middle English literature (including eminent Chaucer specialists) and their questions and critiques were very gracious and helpful. Some recalled other passages in the C.T. in which aristocrats correct clergy or even impose peace between the quarrelling Friar Hubert and Summoner. This stimulated discussion about the thread of wrath throughout the C.T. Another colleague raised questions about animal imagery in the S.T. Another wondered about the role of a parson in the imaginary manor of the S.T. which raised the issue of parochial clergy as community peace-makers. My talk stressed the aristocratic ideal of the lord as the local arbitrator and guardian of social harmony—especially against interference from ecclesiastical outsiders, namely friars, but also, by implication, summoners.
2011-06-29T22:05:06Z
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Housing of Immigrants: Some Psychological Issues
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3082
Housing of Immigrants: Some Psychological Issues
Ng, Cheuk
International migration is a common phenomenon. The housing of an immigrant’s host society can be very different from that of the society of origin. As new immigrants’ experiences of and expectation about housing (e.g., space usage and meaning of home, living arrangements) are often influenced by sociocultural contexts different from that of their host country, they may encounter barriers to seeking and maintaining housing that suits their needs. Over time, immigrants are likely to change their behaviors as they settle in their new society. Immigrants also bring with them the culture of their country of origin, which is often reflected in the design of objects and housing and over time, contributing to the cultural diversity in the urban design of their host country.
Previous research on immigrant housing tend to focus on the macro, socio-demographic and policy levels (e.g., ownership rates, core housing needs). Apart from economical factors, sociocultural and psychological factors may have important influences on immigrants’ choice, preference, use, and satisfaction with housing. The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of the research literature on housing of immigrants from several fields, primarily from cross-cultural studies, environment-behaviour studies, and environmental psychology. The focus is on the relationships between such socio-psychological processes as perception of crowding, privacy, social support, self-identity, perceived control, and place attachment and aspects of housing, such as dwelling type, density, living arrangement, home ownership, and proximity to other immigrants with similar cultural background.
I presented at a symposium entitled “Advances in Environmental Psychology” on June 3, 2011 at the 72nd Annual Convention of the Canadian Psychological Association held in Toronto, June 2- June 4, 2011. My presentation was an overview of the research literature regarding recent immigrants’ perception of and reactions to dwelling density and its effects on psychological well-being. Other presentations focused on environmental satisfaction at the workplace and promoting pro-environmental behaviors. About 30 people attended the session. My presentation was scheduled as the last presentation in the symposium and seemed to be well-received. There was only time for a few questions at the end of the session, including one question directly about my presentation, because the room needed to be cleared for attendees for the next session.
Attendance and participation in this conference has benefited me. I attended several sessions that focused on other environmental psychology topics. I also attended the business meeting of the environmental psychology section, of which I have been a member for over 20 years.
2011-06-29T17:16:51Z
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Maximizing Library Online Presence while Minimizing Maintenance
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3081
Maximizing Library Online Presence while Minimizing Maintenance
MacIsaac, Peggy Lynn
This paper presents challenges and opportunities for academic libraries to increase their online presence in learning management systems (LMS). Successful examples from Athabasca University Library will highlight the benefits of a collaborative team approach to course development and Moodle software applications. This case study demonstrates how an academic library can participate fully as an active partner in the learning process. Specific focus is given to seamless access for students from the LMS to licensed electronic resources. Thoughtful design of new initiatives to increase library exposure to students shows how ongoing web maintenance can be minimized.
The discussions which arose from the presentation included acknowledgments that the problem is significant, timely and onerous. Solutions presented included various ways learning management systems have been used, as well as, other platforms well suited to academic institutions developing online communities such as Elgg.
My paper was grounded in literature addressing, learning management systems, libraries and faculty collaborations. One area suggested for future research is that of educational media.
In other sessions at the conference, I learned of challenges and successes being faced at post secondary institutions around the world and the technological responses to address them. As a public services librarian it was valuable to spend this focused time on computer supported educational issues.
The full paper can be found at: http://hdl.handle.net/2149/3036
2011-06-29T16:54:20Z
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Technical Services Roundtable
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3080
Technical Services Roundtable
Kariel, Doug
I organized and moderated the session Technical Services Roundtable at the 2011 Canadian Library Association Conference in Halifax. The session was Friday, May 27 8:30-10:00 am.
41 people attended the session. We had 5 small groups that discussed 3 of the 7 questions that were provided. Much of the discussion was around RDA (the new cataloging rules), how the library catalog can/should work in conjunction with other discovery tools for obtaining catalog records, preparing for RDA implementation, general role of technical services departments given the many types of materials that are used by library patrons, and collaboration among libraries re catalogue records.
There was lively, animated discussion. Attendees commented that they greatly appreciated the opportunity to share challenges with people working in other libraries and in different types of libraries—academic, government, school libraries. I found the opportunity to share experiences with others working in the same area to be invaluable. Hopefully, this type of session will continue to be offered at the conferences in the future.
The rest of the conference was excellent. Sessions that I particularly enjoyed included ones about RDA, how to present library statistics information, copyright as applied to libraries, and information on the implementation of access to various mobile interfaces. The trade show was a great opportunity to learn about new initiatives and plans for the future from various vendors.
2011-06-29T16:17:36Z
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Reading Ursula Bowlby’s Letters (1939-1940): A Chronicle of First Time Motherhood
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3079
Reading Ursula Bowlby’s Letters (1939-1940): A Chronicle of First Time Motherhood
Ross, Lynda
Following the birth of her first child, Ursula Bowlby wrote numerous letters to her husband, Dr. John Bowlby. He was working away from home and returned only for brief weekend visits. Ursula’s letters express her absorption in mothering, as well as her struggles with depression, frustration, and anxiety. In a letter written shortly after the birth of her daughter, Ursula confided in John “[t]onight I feel somewhat tired and depressed...I have made the depressing discovery that Mary Hamilton is in my arms [always], so that by evening I really feel as though I never wanted to see her again.” Several weeks later, she described how“[i]t’s funny...how queer my head is these day, I can’t get really interested or contemplate on anything other than the baby.” She spoke in her letters about how “I often long for the time before M.H. came, when I was free...”.
This paper draws on this extensive correspondence to explore Ursula’s understandings of and struggles with motherhood in the context of pre-War Britain. Notwithstanding Ursula’s privileged position in British society, her expressed views and feelings about mothering are in many ways both timeless and classless. Ursula’s experience is also significant since her husband was to become the world’s leading “expert” on attachment and a staunch advocate for mothers as primary attachment figures and as selfless participants in childrearing. Ursula’s letters provide a detailed chronicle of the ordinary experiences of motherhood. Juxtaposed to the formidable influence that “attachment theory” was to have in defining motherhood, Ursula’s letters also reveal what little influence her understandings and lived experiences of motherhood would have on her husband’s theoretical writings on the subject.
As with the conference last year, this was again a fantastic focused conference with scholars, activists, and artists from around the world participating ! The 3 days were filled with excellent and diverse sessions all related to mothering practice and motherhood. The audience was generous in their interpretation and discussion of my paper. There was lots of opportunity throughout the conference to chat and discuss ideas about mothering. Since my course in mothering is still in development, as with last year, I used some of the time to gather information and ideas for the course. Meeting other scholars, as well as artists, interested in “Motherhood” as an academic discipline continued as an inspiring aspect of this conference. Several participants in my session strongly suggested that I should think about developing my presentation for publication. I am reflecting on this possibility, and considering writing up the presentation as either a book chapter or a journal article.
2011-06-29T16:02:39Z
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Recognizing the Embeddedness of Ethics and Economics
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3078
Recognizing the Embeddedness of Ethics and Economics
Morito, Bruce
The relationship between ethics and economics is far more intimate than the West, since the Enlightenment, has typically recognized. Indeed, as I will try to show, the actual relationship is best explained by adopting a Buddhist inter-dependent arising framework, in which the emergence and development of both ethical and economic relations is a matter of mutual determination. Certain ethical values, culturally and otherwise embedded, emerge from within and in turn direct economic relations; exchange values inform moral concepts (e.g., of what is morally owed to members of a community) and moral concepts help frame economic ones.
One way to formulate the dominant Western view of the relationship between economics and ethics is that they are externally related, and that for economic relations to be ethical, an ethic must be imposed. In contrast, I argue that the relation between economics and ethics is internal, such that the one has not arisen apart from the other. The relationship between ethics and economics should not then be viewed as one in which ethical norms must be imposed on economic relations. Once we understand that the ethical norms are expressed, protected and perpetuated by economic systems, I will argue that our most coherent and plausible approach to dealing with the ethics/economics relation is to disclose how the relationship can become distorted and, as a result, produce suffering. Suffering becomes the central concern of the economics/ethics relation. Suffering is caused when a particular economic system and accompanying ethic is advanced, but which excludes certain people and populations from the benefits and protections of that system. Economics, therefore, when properly conceived, addresses the need to overcome suffering. When it does not, it fails.
I spoke last on a panel of three. Questions were as anticipated. They had almost all to do with assumptions and qualifications I had to leave out of the presentation, but which I cover elsewhere, in order to make the presentation of readable length (20 minutes). What this means is that the approach I am taking and the ideas I am proposing are both communicable and defensible, even though they are quite distinct from the mainstream work in ethics.
2011-06-29T15:54:06Z
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A Place called Home: The Social and Cultural Context of Health
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3077
A Place called Home: The Social and Cultural Context of Health
Moore, Sharon L.
Background
Arts in health-care is an emerging movement that links the expressive arts with the healing arts and brings these into the mainstream of traditional health-care to promote well-being. Dr. Gene Cohen, who was an internationally renowned gerontologist lead the way with cutting-edge neuroscience and groundbreaking psychology to describe the emotional growth and wisdom that many older adults acquire through creative expression as they age. His research in this area demonstrated the significance of creativity in relation to aging such that it not only enables older people to have access to their own potential in later life, but it challenges younger age groups to think about what is possible in their later years in a different way.
Summary of methods and results
A photographic project was conducted in which data were collected at a Home for the Destitute Elderly and Children in Northern India. This visual arts project started as an endeavour to expand the scope of research, bringing together emerging fields of art, research and aging in an effort to capture the “spirit of aging” in different cultures. However, through being immersed in the culture of the Home, it became clear that the spirit of aging did not just exist in the elderly themselves, but in the rhythms of life reflected through the activities of the home. The results of the project are portrayed through an exhibit of photographs and a multimedia presentation that reflects the spirit of place.
Conclusion
Throughout the project, what became evident was the power of image to “bridge the chasm created by differences of language and alphabet” and reveal itself as a means for “universal communication” (Feinenger in Phillips, 2000, p. 25).
The accelerating increase of chronic diseases is challenging modern health care services to develop and adopt new strategies for health care provision. These changing health care strategies have major impacts on healthcare users and providers, who are pressured to adapt their understanding of their own health and their everyday practices. For example, modern health care provision increasingly presupposes the ability of every patient to self-administer his or her own health care. However, adherence to self-administering tasks is strenuous, complex and hard work, and demands a long-term commitment by the chronically ill person. New medical technologies push the boundaries of health care provision and it alters the professional roles of the health care workers. This conference was designed to critically scrutinise such changes of the social and health care systems and to examine alternative models. I presented on the final day of the conference in a concurrent session entitled Contexts of Health. The session was well received with opportunities for questions, comments and comparisons among the three presentations. Dialogues with international colleagues carried on into the coffee session following the presentations.
Feedback from the session was positive.
2011-06-29T15:46:13Z
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The Association Between Older Age, Co-Morbidity, and Treatment Status of Incident Osteoporotic Fractures: A Population-Based Nested Cohort Study
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3076
The Association Between Older Age, Co-Morbidity, and Treatment Status of Incident Osteoporotic Fractures: A Population-Based Nested Cohort Study
Knopp-Sihota, Jennifer
BACKGROUND: Despite strong evidence-based rationale for both the primary and secondary prevention of osteoporosis, there remains an overall low prevalence of osteoporosis treatment in older adults. Furthermore, there is some question whether low treatment rates in older adults are simply age related variations (in treatments) or due to the presence of co-morbid conditions. Therefore, we sought to examine the association between older age, co-morbidity, and the use of osteoporosis medications following an incident osteoporosis related fracture.
METHODS: We performed a retrospective nested cohort analysis using de-identified administrative healthcare data from the province of British Columbia, Canada (pop. 4.1 million). We included patients 65 years and older, who had continuous enrollment in the provinces’ prescription drug plan, with a study-defined osteoporosis-related fracture during the study period of April 1, 1999 to March 31, 2002. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to examine the association between the dependent variable - osteoporosis medication dispensation within six months of index fracture and the predictor variables - age, sex, co-morbidity, fracture site, year of fracture, health region, and osteoporosis treatment prior to the index fracture.
RESULTS: After exclusion criteria were applied, we identified 11,870 consecutive patients who had been hospitalized with 12,025 incident (study-defined) fractures during the study period. The mean age of the sample was 81.1 years (SD 7.7; range 65–104 years), and 74% of the subjects were women. The majority of patients (99%) sustained one fracture (range 1 to 4); the fractures were predominately of the hip (63%) followed by fractures of the wrist (17%), pelvis (9%), vertebra (7%), and ribs (4%). The majority of subjects had no co-morbid conditions or only one (63%); 31% had two to three co-morbidities, and 6% had four or more co-morbid conditions. Overall, there was a low rate of osteoporosis treatment before the incident fracture (15% treatment); this rate improved to 19% at six months post fracture. Those receiving treatment after the index fracture were significantly younger, more often female, and had fewer co-morbid conditions (P < .001). The use of an osteoporosis medication prior to the index fracture was the strongest predictor of post-fracture treatment (adjusted OR = 15.89; 95% CI = 9.69–26.04). Increasing age, more than one co-morbid condition, and male sex were all associated with a significant decrease in the likelihood of dispensing osteoporosis drugs when compared to younger and healthier women.
CONCLUSION: Despite the wide availability of osteoporosis medications, our findings suggest that the majority of older adults, many of who have at least one co-morbid condition, are not receiving treatment to prevent the progression of the disease and to prevent further fractures.
I attended and presented a poster at the International Symposium on Osteoporosis hosted by the National Osteoporosis Foundation in Las Vegas, NV. This was a very well attended conference with over 800 attendees including clinicians and researchers interested / working in the area of osteoporosis. The research I presented was well received and added to the body of knowledge related to osteoporosis and treatment of new fractures. Attending this conference allowed me to meet other researchers with similar research interests and I look forward to possible collaborations in the future.
2011-06-29T15:41:39Z
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Landscape and Ethnoecology - an Ethnobiological View
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3075
Landscape and Ethnoecology - an Ethnobiological View
Johnson, Leslie
Landscape is often taken for granted in ethnobiological work, treated as setting, described in geographic or biological terms. Landscape is productive to examine as the (literal) foundation of ethnobiological work: where are the people located, the plants and animals of interest distributed? By what categories or broad evaluations do the people describe the lands on which they move and derive their living? What are the implications of these understandings? Landscape work is intrinsically transgressive of spatial scales and levels of meaning or generality. How language structure, environmental and social characteristics shape perception, classification, and interaction with local environments and the “natural world” are important aspects of ethnobiological research. How these relationships are altered or exist within today’s globalized world of migration and dis-located networks, and the implications of contrasting visions and understandings of Nature and the Land, and human relationship to it, are of key significance in the early 21st century.
I attended the 2011 Society of Ethnobiology Conference in Columbus Ohio in early May, 2011. I presented my paper in a session on landscape in ethnobiology, which was well attended and well received. I moderated the session in addition to presenting my own paper. The three participants were able to engage in some discussions on landscape in ethnobiology, which were productive. Michael Gilmore (George Mason University, Virginia, USA) is also presenting in a session on landscape which I am co-organizing for the 2012 International Society of Ethnobiology congress which we discussed when we had the opportunity to meet I also judged the poster session together with two other judges. I participated in the Saturday field trip which was a visit to an Amish sustainable farm (an organic dairy farm) which was a very interesting and worthwhile trip. I have since discussed this in my blog on blogger and posted several images from the farm on my Flickr photostream. It is always very useful for me to attend my colleagues’ papers and I took the opportunity to discuss the progress of two books in which I have chapters with their editiors; I have recently received a reprint pdf of one of the chapters (in the volume edited by David Mark, et al.) I also was able to make the acquaintance of two young colleagues who are doing very relevant work in phytochemistry of indigenous plant remedies.
2011-06-29T15:33:20Z
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Story Not (Yet) My Own: First World War Correspondence and Prosthetic Memory
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3074
Story Not (Yet) My Own: First World War Correspondence and Prosthetic Memory
Hughes-Fuller, Patricia
In this paper I will explore the role of material culture in the convergence of narrative and memory with specific reference to a family archive of World War I letters and photos. I take as my jumping off point Michele Barrett’s insistence that her family’s war stories “do not derive from individual or cultural memory… there can be no personal memory attached to these family documents for someone my age looking at them now. But there is affect and these stories are very moving” (157, emphasis added). This speaks to the power of narrative, and, as Alison Landsberg reminds us, if the narrative is not there, or has been disrupted by the hiatuses of time and space, we may find ourselves obliged, like Quentin Compson and Shrevelin McCannon, to “make things up.” Here Landsberg is specifically writing against the assumption that “family memory, the memory handed down from a parent to a child [is a privileged and] reliable source of information about the past” (83).
In the case of my family archive, before I viewed the photos or read the letters, there was the shadow of a story, but little more than that, given the generational distances and the gaps (both literal and otherwise) in existing texts. Add to this the “great silence” that characterized the First World War and its immediate aftermath (Nicolson) and “the presumed inadequacy of language itself to convey the facts about trench warfare”(Fussell 170). The writer of the most of the letters, Corporal Walter Sangster, was killed in action and his fellow-soldiers who survived were notorious for their inability--or unwillingness-- to communicate their experiences, even to members of their own families.
Returning to Landsberg, I will argue that memories of the First World War are collective and social because they are the product of individual bereavements experienced on a mass scale (Winter 224). Photographs, letters, and similar trace objects found their way into trunks and boxes in thousands of households, and while neither commodities, nor mass media representations, they nonetheless have the capacity to evoke experiences not our own and interpellate us as “social, historical beings” (Landsberg 47). Almost a century later, and in ways not dissimilar to slavery or the holocaust, the ruptures and traumas of the First World War call for prosthetic interventions.
As per the information on my grant application, I participated in Memory, Mediation and Remediation conference (Apr-May 2011) sponsored by the Department of English and Film Studies, Wilfred Laurier University. My attendance at this conference was beneficial for the following reasons:
1) It provided an opportunity (my first) to present and receive peer feedback on my ongoing research on First World War correspondence.
2) Thematically, the conference touched on the importance of both text and visual images to the process of re/membering past events and constructing narratives across historically imposed gaps of time and space.
3) Two of the keynote speakers, Alison Landsberg and Marlene Kadar, admittedly in very different ways, are engaged with scholarship that is directly relevant to my own work. Landsberg’s term, “prosthetic memory”, encapsulates the idea that, through representations (and in her work, specifically those provided via the mass media) we can experience memories that are not our own. Kadar’s extensive work on life writing and experience with archival research provide a useful guidelines for someone embarking on a project such as my own. She is also series editor of the Life Writing Series published by Wilfred Laurier University Press.
4) Finally, there were six other presentations all of which, in various ways, dealt with mediated representations of war.
I was fortunate in that three of the four keynotes (Landsberg, Hemstra and Kadar) attended my presentation (one of three concurrent sessions, on Friday April 29). The audience response seemed generally favorable, and Marlene Kadar was particularly sympathetic to the challenges faced by those trying to construct a narrative and persona (essentially, to write a life) based on fragments of texts and images. Dr. Kadar urged me to continue researching other examples of war correspondence in order to strenghthen my premise that it is the lives of ordinary infantrymen and not valorizations of exceptional individuals (i.e.heroes) that best invoke the collective experience of trench warfare.
I have attached a copy of my powerpoint presentation (images only). I have also attached the accompanying commentary (“Presentation Outline”) which was (and still is) in the form of roughly drafted “speaker’s notes”.
2011-06-29T15:22:03Z
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(Ir)responsible Government, Deliberat(iv)e Democracy and the Evasion of Democratic Constitutionalism since Meech Lake
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3069
(Ir)responsible Government, Deliberat(iv)e Democracy and the Evasion of Democratic Constitutionalism since Meech Lake
Crawford, Mark
The de-legitimation of elite representation and bargaining in constitutional politics since the mid-1980s has resulted in a more challenging environment both for the management of inter-cultural relations and the reform of our democratic institutions. Governments and citizens alike have increasingly looked away from ordinary legislative processes to referenda and citizens’ assemblies in order to achieve legitimate change but without the benefit of a coherent theory or practice of democratic constitutionalism that explains and justifies the respective roles of representative, deliberative and direct democracy. This paper argues that the way forward requires (1) a more purely deliberative model for initiating and formulating proposals for institutional change; and (2) a highly realistic model that recognizes the inescapability of power relations in deliberation on political matters. Both of these considerations point towards putting our elected representatives “back in the hot seat” of democratic deliberation.
2011-06-09T03:08:45Z
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Toward New Governance: Interest Groups and NGOs in British Columbia
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3068
Toward New Governance: Interest Groups and NGOs in British Columbia
Crawford, Mark
Chapter 10 of the textbook, BC GOvernment and Politics
2011-06-09T02:47:33Z
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Pluralism,Institutionalism and the Theories of BC Politics
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3067
Pluralism,Institutionalism and the Theories of BC Politics
Crawford, Mark
THis article looks back on the classic theories of BC politics from the perspecctive of contemporary institutionalism
2011-06-09T02:40:01Z
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Domestic Health Policies and International Trade: a Framework for Assessing Trade-Related Legal Risk
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3066
Domestic Health Policies and International Trade: a Framework for Assessing Trade-Related Legal Risk
Crawford, Mark
this was an invited talk delivered at the International Conference on Healthcare and Trade in Rotterdam Netherlands, December 10-11, 2009.
2011-06-09T02:25:11Z
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No Watertight Compartments: Trade Agreements, International Health Care Reform, and the Legal Politics of Public Sector Exemptions
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3065
No Watertight Compartments: Trade Agreements, International Health Care Reform, and the Legal Politics of Public Sector Exemptions
Crawford, Mark
Debates over the legal interpretation of trade treaty (WTO and NAFTA) exemption clauses for public services display a common pattern. Critics of trade agreements argue that these clauses are likely to be narrowly interpreted, providing scant protection from international trade rules to public health care. Defenders usually argue that they will be given a reasonably expansive definition and that trade obligations (at least the more onerous WTO national treatment obligations) will generally not apply to public health care services. This paper argues that although the optimism of trade
agreement defenders may be well-founded when viewed from a static perspective, the protection afforded by exemption clauses shrinks with the expansion of market elements in health care. Hence, the major implication of such “carve-outs” for health policy makers will not be the liberty to engage in “business as usual”, but rather the need to assess the trade-related risks associated with market-based reform in the future. This paper analyses the WTO and NAFTA provisions limiting the application of these trade agreements to the health care sector in terms of the various risk scenarios
posed by different models of health care reform.
finsihed March-April 2007
2011-06-06T18:56:58Z
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International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Accreditation course
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3062
International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Accreditation course
Biamonte, Nancy
Executive Accreditation course towards achieving the designation as an Accredited Business Communicator (ABC).
The IABC Executive Accreditation Seminar (EAS) is designed specifically for qualified senior communicators who wish to achieve the Accredited Business Communicator (ABC) designation. The EAS program combines an elegant and efficient pathway to accreditation, considered the global standard in organizational communication, with a leadership development challenge that recognizes the experience, responsibilities and strategic intelligence of the senior-level practitioner.
The process began in early January 2011 with an application review. In mid-January we were notified of acceptance, matched with a mentor and began work on our first portfolio requirement—a single project showcasing our best work. My portfolio submission was the Open project (Open magazine and Open-AU online). We worked with mentors, receiving support in preparation for the course and exam.
In May, we attended the week-long course where we participated in a challenging group leadership project, an oral exam and a four-hour written exam, which fulfilled the second portfolio requirement. The seminar modeled a sophisticated approach to the ABC through a dynamic and peer-interactive experience designed for the seasoned practitioner. The seminar included assessment of our oral skills and responses.
The seminar was led by an ABC with extensive experience in academic communication scholarship and professional practice, as well as veteran leadership instructors from Royal Roads Univ. Those of us who successfully passed through the stages of the accreditation process received our ABC designation.
2011-05-17T20:48:57Z
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Something Old, Something New: Reflective Journals and Social Networking
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3061
Something Old, Something New: Reflective Journals and Social Networking
Baig, Veronica
The practice of writing journals is a tried and tested method for developing student writing skills and reflection on the process of writing. With current technology, this method can be updated and given a new dimension and achieve additional goals. Traditionally, the dialogue has been between students and the instructor; with e-learning, students can write for a larger audience and support each other through the writing process. This is particularly relevant in an online/distance education scenario in which students are physically isolated and may be studying asynchronously. It is a successful combination.
I was able to meet with a number of colleagues from across the country both in the sessions of the conference and in the more relaxed atmosphere provided on the pre-conference tours and the Saturday lunch. At such a conference, I am always looking for ideas that I can adapt to fit my own teaching circumstance at AU.
There were several sessions in particular that generated some ideas. One on teaching pronunciation and accent reduction included valuable on-line links including some to an activity that I and the tutor for that course have discussed introducing. Within CLL, we have recently started a discussion about offering a language pedagogy course, and I found a number of interesting suggestions that would relate to that and which I will be sharing with colleagues. Also of particular interest is a project funded by the federal government for online learning with the LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers) program that provides access for students at a CLB (Canadian Language Benchmark) 2 to 7 range. It was clear, that this project is very expensive to run (mandatory instructor student interaction—teaching—each week), and the funding is very limited. My main interest was to find out how materials would or could be offered to students at these lower levels. Apparently the regular LINC materials are used and the instructors monitor student progress in the weekly calls. No instructor has more than 20 students.
With regard to my own presentation, there were about 25 attendees. As always, when I have to provide some background about how we operate at AU (the online asynchronous space) there are a number of questions about that. I think it never hurts to provide information about the niche that AU fills in the educational market space. There was also interest in the specific topic of my presentation. There were a number of questions related to the type and amount of feedback we provide to students with the online journals. There were no negative comments, and I felt that there was agreement on the usefulness of this approach and that the online journal project was well received. I felt support from my peers that this is something worth continuing and even expanding. As a result, I am considering using online journals in the next revision of Engl 155.
2011-05-17T20:41:36Z
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Cloud Computing-based IT Solutions For Organizations with Multiregional Branch Offices
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3049
Cloud Computing-based IT Solutions For Organizations with Multiregional Branch Offices
Wang, Hongxue (Harris)
One of the most significant phenomena of the new century is globalization. As business goes global, multiregional branch offices are needed and networked computing and information services must then be established for those branch offices. In this paper we investigate a cloud computing based approach to the rapid deployment of computing and information services for organizations with multiregional branch offices. We first take a look at the general process leading to the deployment of Computer and Information Technology (CIT) services for organizations, and then present some cloud computing-based solutions for organizations with multiregional branch offices, followed by discussions about their key features as well as issues and concerns surrounding the proposed IT solutions. An important contribution of this paper is a generalized view of the cloud computing-based approach, which may be used as guidance in implementing and deploying such IT solutions.
I chaired a session in the morning of April 28, and then presented my paper in the afternoon. There were exciting discussions after my presentation. People in the information and information system management area are interested in the cloud-computing scheme, but they are more concerned with the security issues that may arise. So, some critical evaluation of the new IT solution must be done fully before adopt it for an organization.
During the conference, I had talks with other attendees about AU. They are very interested in AU, often surprised at our success. Prof. Grant at the Ryerson University told me that last year she met one of our students we sent to Case IT 2010 competition at SFU, and she got a very good impression of and feedback about AU from the student. This should serve as a proof that we should more often send our students to national or international events such as Case IT (we have sent a team in two consecutive years since last year), HackUs (we sent one student to competition this year). Those students may become good convincing advocates of AU and AU programs.
She also mentioned that she had offered one session of teaching through distance learning, and she had some good feedback from the students. So, she would like to do more. This lets me wonder what would happen to AU if more and more professors at other universities start to offer their courses through DE, as an option for students who cannot attend the classes at campus.
2011-05-05T14:58:00Z
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Workers Against Austerity – Lessons from Canada’s ‘Days of Action,’ 1995-1998
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3047
Workers Against Austerity – Lessons from Canada’s ‘Days of Action,’ 1995-1998
Kellogg, Paul
Workers versus Austerity: Lessons from Canada's Days of Action, 1995-1998
The Great Recession has left in its wake an expected "age of austerity" where the deficits accumulated to stave off economic collapse, are being addressed through steep cuts to government spending, with profound implications for social services and public sector employment. This scenario is playing out across the Global North – from the U.K. to the U.S. to Canada to Greece to France. This paper will examine an earlier era in one of these countries – Canada – where in quite similar circumstances (recession, deficit-spending and austerity) there was a concerted effort by unions and social movements to mount a campaign of resistance. From December 1995, through all of 1996 and 1997, until coming to an end in 1998 – a series of mass strikes and enormous demonstrations swept through the major cities of Ontario, Canada's biggest province and the heart of its manufacturing sector. Among many other issues, this "Days of Action" campaign highlighted the difficult and important relationship between "traditional" and "non-traditional" sections of the working class. It also was characterized, within the existing workers' organizations, by periodic clashes between the energetic inexperience of newly-active union members, and the institutional experience of the movement embodied in a quite developed full-time layer of union officials.
My paper was part of a panel on the first day of the British Sociological Association conference, part of the Work, Economy and Society Stream. The panel was well attended and provoked a lively discussion. Two of the other panelists had topics that closely paralleled my own – the impact of restructuring, globalization and neoliberalism on work and the workplace. Debby Bonin from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa gave an interesting account of the evolving situation of textile designers in the post-apartheid era. Lise Hansen from Roskilde University in Denmark gave a theoretically informed exploration of evolving notions of solidarity in the context of globalization. The presentation from Rebecca Li from the College of New Jersey approached the question of globalization from a different standpoint – looking at its impact on China through the lens of “territorial disintegration.” However, the common thread was the way in which globalization and territorial disintegration (and re-integration as China recovered from the first impacts of globalization) shaped the conditions of work and the workplace.
2011-05-03T19:56:54Z
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Embodied and Embedded Intelligence: Actor Agents on Virtual Stages
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3046
Embodied and Embedded Intelligence: Actor Agents on Virtual Stages
Heller, Bob
In this presentation, we will argue that Actor Agents, a type of Animated Pedagogical Agent with embodied conversational intelligence, are well positioned to act in virtual environments with embedded intelligence and that, together, actor agents on virtual stages can greatly extend the scope of simulation pedagogy. Simulations, as defined by Sauve, Renaud, Kaufman, & Marquis (2007) may be argued as the quintessential adaptive learning system. According to Sauve et al. (2007), a key feature of a true simulation is that it behave as a dynamic model of reality which responds to user initiated actions and perceptions. Users can control the reality of the simulation in ways that reflect their learning preferences and existing knowledge. Ideally, simulations are a perfect reflection of individual learning trajectories. Users can interact with Actors and within their stage to create a dynamic model of reality that directly meets educational goals and objectives.
We will review the origins of Actor Agents within the broader Animated Pedagogical Agent field highlighting the importance of a conversational interface and the sought-after persona effect (e.g. Payr, 2005) Although the promise of APAs has been limited, we believe that Actor Agents have a special attraction as a pedagogical tool when conversational abilities are added as embodied intelligence and personas are selected to maximize engagement and motivation. Our work with Freudbot (Heller & Procter, 2009) shows promise and may yet reveal the illusive persona effect hypothesized to underlie learning gains.
An equally important development for effective simulations has been the growth of virtual worlds, like Second Life. In this part of the presentation we will review some of the some of the key features of virtual worlds, focusing on Second Life, and how these features can give rise to embedded intelligence to create a type of holodeck or virtual stage for Actor Agents. A good simulation necessarily requires some sense of immersion in order for learning to be effective (Gutiérrez , et al., 2007). Equally important in the simulation is a capacity for the virtual world to respond intelligently to user behaviour.
Finally, we hope to demonstrate the synergy that may be created if specialized spaces were developed for actors to act within. Intelligent objects that can collaborate with an actor agent and interact dynamically with a user in a well structured simulated environment can greatly extend the scope of simulation pedagogy to professions that routinely deal with people of any age, gender, or cultural status.
Our theoretical framework is eclectic although we are strongly rooted in cognitive theory and most closely aligned with Mayer’s theory of multimedia learning. We also align with framework of situated cognition and argue that past work on APAs may have downplayed the importance of situational context. Our methods of inquiry are a combination of observational and experimental approaches. Our data sources include conversational logs and self report measures.
The paper was delivered to an audience of approximately 20. Comments were directed to the symposium group with nothing specific to our paper. The symposium group went out for lunch following the presentation and plans were made to submit our papers as part of a special issue to one of three journals.
2011-05-03T19:49:08Z
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Silent Historiographers: Memories of Struggle, Scripts of Resistance
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3045
Silent Historiographers: Memories of Struggle, Scripts of Resistance
Choudhury, Romita
The main objective of this paper is to draw attention to the possibilities in testimonials to strengthen the decolonizing vein in postcolonial culture critique. With elements of oral history, autobiography, life story, the ethnography criss-crossing its contours, testimonials confound heenric boundaries. The heterogeneity of locations and ideologies undercut unitary perceptions of third work subjectivity. Finally, the negotiation of silence in the spaces of history compels a close and careful reading of the process of retrieving and recovering subaltern voices.
My paper was part of a panel entitled “History, Memory, and Cultural Discourses: Representations of Violence in Literature and Cinema.” The comments were very positive, particularly about the theoretical framing of the discussion.
The paper has been solicited for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Discourse, published by the University of Southern California.
This paper is part of a larger work, Beyond English, Women Writing Culture in India.
2011-05-03T19:41:37Z
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Barriers to Education: Access to Funding for Students with Disabilities
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3044
Barriers to Education: Access to Funding for Students with Disabilities
Chmiliar, Linda
Three main barriers to post-secondary education for students with disabilities: physical accessibility, financial issues, and stereotypical attitudes have been identified in the literature (Canadian Council on Learning, 2009). This paper explores the barrier of financial issues. Specifically, information provided by post-secondary institutions on their websites, for students and potential students with disabilities, regarding funds that are available to them. The websites should include information on Alberta Student
Loan, Canada Student Loan, Canada Access Grant, Canada Study Grant, Disability Related Employment Supports and other various scholarships and bursaries. Twelve post-secondary institutions in the Province of Alberta were randomly chosen to determine what information was disseminated on each website in regard to funding availability. There were a number of issues that emerged. While some websites had all
of the financial information that a student with a disability would require, others had minimal information. This lack of information can act as a deterrent to those who are seeking higher education. Little or no information may equate to lack of and/or insufficient funds. Research indicates that there are numerous funds available for students with disabilities to access, but this information was not disseminated consistently in the sample reviewed.
Darcy Jans and I presented the attached power point on Monday April 18 at 2:30 to a reasonable sized audience. A number of questions were asked following the presentation. No critique was provided.
2011-05-03T19:27:08Z
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EDPS 672 Issues in Postsecondary Education
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3042
EDPS 672 Issues in Postsecondary Education
Stovin, Derek
This course examines the challenges and opportunities posed by the complex environments in which postsecondary institutions operate. Various theoretical lenses will be used to study such aspects of colleges and universities as the institutional mission, values and societal/cultural role, teaching and research, accessibility, lifelong learning, equity and diversity, changing faculty and student roles, and curriculum.
This was an excellent graduate level course offered in a graduate seminar format. Classic and current literature on a variety of topics in postsecondary education were discussed. The content was of great relevance to both my academic and professional work. This was the second course I’ve taken that will be credited toward my PhD program in Educational Administration and Leadership at the U of A. The content revolved around themes such as: The purposes of postsecondary education; Aboriginal perspectives on postsecondary education; Globalization of education; Academic life. My specific focus in the course was on cultural and symbolic theories for understanding postsecondary organizations and leadership. While this certainly was an opportune time to study such topics given the organizational changes currently happening at AU, there were some other practical outcomes. With respect to my professional work, I’ve continued to development my professional network at other AB postsecondary institutions. With respect to my program of study I am now joining a broad cohort and developing collegial academic connections. Also, of more immediate impact, as a result of contact during this course I am formally starting my PhD program in May rather than September, 2011, I found and registered in a necessary research methods course external to the department, and I plan to take a condensed seminar in June, 2011, on postsecondary educational leadership and social justice.
2011-05-03T17:25:55Z
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Creating a Social Support Environment
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3041
Creating a Social Support Environment
Cao, Yang
Join a team of 1,600 IT service and technical support MVPs as they face off against today’s most pressing service and support challenges. Only HDI’s IT service and technical support conference, with its expansive resources, can bring you game-changing strategies for achieving service management excellence.
• Scout innovations and trends that can save you money and enhance your game plan for the coming year.
• Team up with peers to find out how they tackle day-to-day issues like performance metrics, overhead, and technology upgrades.
• Outpace the competition through performance optimization and best practices.
Receive professional coaching from industry thought-leaders, practitioners, and process experts from around the world. As the industry’s largest, most respected service management conference, we guarantee you will return to your office with a game plan for creating a champion IT service and technical support team.
This IT service and technical support conference addresses the needs of the entire team—from seasoned directors to frontline analysts—and provides valuable insight into how formal procedures, processes, and industry tools can improve service and support performance.
I attended creating a social support environment workshop which explores the fundamentals of social media and takes a firsthand look at how support organizations are bridging the gap. The workshop includes the following information and trainings:
• Learn how to actually use social media tools
• Understand the evolving role of social media in everyday life
• Learn how to embrace social media without losing your staff to Facebook
• Explore monitoring tools for social media
• Learn how to have “the talk” with senior management
• Discover why e-mails, surveys, and polls are the stuff of yesterday’s support organizations
• Learn how to create a social media policy for your organization
Technologies change the way we work and live. From this workshop I gained some hands on experience on social media tools and understood the important role of social media in everyday life. I will apply the knowledge gained from this workshop to my future work.
2011-05-03T17:21:00Z
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Defining the Vision for the Next 100 Years
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3024
Defining the Vision for the Next 100 Years
Fabbro, Mark
Despite reduced attendance numbers from previous years, this years AACRAO conference offered a solid program of sessions covering a variety of issues related to the work of Registrars and Admissions Officers. It also provided many networking opportunities to meet with colleagues and various vendors/service providers.
I attended sessions related to a wide variety of topics, and found some that dealt with change management, measuring policy training effectiveness, as well as sessions focusing on improving the transmission and security of academic data particularly useful and thought provoking. Other useful sessions that I attended related to improving mass communications and using story to communicate effectively throughout the student lifecycle. The closing plenary, with Frontline’s Martin Smith, was timely as the discussion went beyond what his recent documentary featuring for profit education providers such as the Apollo Group/U Phoenix contained, and also included a preview of an upcoming episode that will focus on how these education providers are capturing a disproportionate amount of GI educational funding, and the impact this is having.
I was also able to meet with our SunGard Account Executive and other SunGard staff for two lunch ‘n learn sessions that highlighted their CRM and course signals systems, at the request of our VP Information Technology and CIO.
My experiences at AACRAO provided me with a number of ideas that may be of use to AU, all of which I will be sharing in the appropriate forums, although the feasibility of some need further investigation. Thank you for the financial support!
2011-03-30T21:53:58Z
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1. Design, technology choices and interactive processes in an online doctoral program (poster
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3023
1. Design, technology choices and interactive processes in an online doctoral program (poster
Hoven, Debra
1. (Poster)
Athabasca University’s first fully online doctoral program is now in its third year of teaching and implementation. This program, initially in Distance Education, involves four content courses and two research seminar courses, all taught online over a period of 3-5 years, following a single 5-day face-to-face orientation session near the commencement of the first course. The remainder of the program comprises a research study and written dissertation, which are supervised and examined at a distance, using whichever technology tools and applications the students and instructors feel are appropriate.
This poster presentation provides some insights into the design and decision-making that has contributed to the successful implementation of this program and an overview of the teaching, learning and research processes involved in the program. Increasing concern has been voiced in recent years, in an expanding body of literature, about problems in doctoral programs relating to poor supervision (Connell, 1985), lack of support structures and processes for both staff and students (Malfroy, 2005), student isolation during the conduct of research projects (Denicolo, 2004; Knight & Zuber-Skerritt, 1986) and inadequate preparation of students for the process of writing their dissertations (Kamler & Thomson, 2004; Krathwohl & Smith, 2005). As a result of these and other problems, a concomitant increase is being reported in the number of doctoral candidates either not completing their dissertations or dropping out of programs prior to commencement of, or early into their research projects.
In the professional doctoral program in the Centre for Distance Education, solutions to some of these problems have been found through the adoption of a cohort model of candidacy and enrollment and the use of a range of networking and communications tools. The courses at the commencement of the program are also designed to provide all students with necessary skills and understandings across the range of professional distance education competencies from trends and issues in the field to instructional design, reflective practice, research and teaching methodologies, as well as educational leadership and management. Through this design, from both the content and process perspectives, it is possible to provide a greater level of support and interaction than was previously typical of either face-to-face doctoral programs or distance learning programs.
Details will be provided about the course content, assessment and research seminars preceding the candidacy examination and running parallel with the conduct of the research study and dissertation, including observations and reflections on the supervision process. Flow through the program will be illustrated, in particular instructor and student choices of communications technologies for different purposes and applications. The formulation of guidelines and modifications and refinements of these will be listed, as they evolved in response to student questions and concerns and as the result of experience with the first cohort through the process.
2. (Workshop)
This workshop crosses several themes of the DE 2010 Summit, including #2: Distance Education Community and Open Learning; #3: Distance Education Learning and Teaching; #4: Global Perspectives of Blended and Distance Learning; #7: Distance Education Technologies and Transformations and #8: Innovation using technology in blended and distance learning contexts. The aim is to provide participants with an overview of the breadth of uses and applicability of digital media, reflective practice, community and social networking in education. This overview and hands-on exposure will cover a range of post-secondary contexts, countries and cultures. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions throughout and the facilitator will provide a variety of tools, links and sites, mostly free or open source, to suit participants’ needs and backgrounds. Drawing on her considerable experience in Australasian, European and north American educational institutions, the facilitator will demonstrate and illustrate how digital media can and have been used in different contexts to promote experiential learning, critical reflection, transition from learning to practice, community cohesion and lifelong learning in distance and open education.
1. The poster presentation was very well-received and in fact won the “Best Poster” award for the conference. Three other Athabasca faculty members were also present at the conference and witnessed this. Considerable discussion was generated by the poster at break times throughout the conference and some possible consultancies and/or invitations to speak elsewhere may eventuate. In early March I have been invited to work with an Australian colleague on producing some videos for use with doctoral students in online environments. These videos will initially be designed for use by AU doctoral students and Capella University students in the USA.
2. The workshop on e-portfolios was well-attended – in fact it was over-subscribed. As a result, several contacts have been made, including an invitation to spend some time in South Africa as a visiting scholar at the University of the Cape during either my sabbatical or Summer break in 2012.
Since I have not yet written a paper, I am attaching the slides I used to present the workshop and a copy of the poster in Powerpoint. The workshop materials are all publically available on Wikispaces, to allow participants to access the links easily: http://desummit-eportfolioworkshop.wikispaces.com/
2011-03-30T21:49:27Z
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AUGO II: A comprehensive subauroral zone observatory
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3022
AUGO II: A comprehensive subauroral zone observatory
Schofield, Ian
A new geophysical observatory dedicated to the study of the auroral borealis will be built 25 km southwest of the town of Athabasca, in Alberta, Canada. It is anticipated to see first light in the winter of 2010/2011 and be fully operational in the fall of 2011. Based on the highly successful Athabasca University Geophysical Observatory (AUGO), opened in 2002 at the Athabasca University campus in Athabasca, Alberta, AUGO II will have expanded observational capacity featuring up to eight climate-controlled domed observation suites in which to host optical instrumentation, on-site accommodation for up to six researchers, and most importantly, dark skies free of light pollution from urban development. AUGO II will share the same advantages as its predecessor, one being its location in central Alberta, allowing routine study of the subauroral zone, auroral oval studies during active times, and very rarely of the polar cap. It will share AUGO'S connection to good roads and infrastructure plus close proximity to the city of Edmonton, some 150 km away. Opportunities are open for guest researchers in space physics to conduct auroral studies at this new, state-of-the-art research facility through the installation of remotely controlled instruments and/or campaigns. An innovative program of instrument development will accompany the new observatory’s enhanced infrastructure with a focus on magnetics and H-beta meridian scanning photometry.
The annual fall AGU meeting is an interdisciplinary event drawing in a diverse group of people working in earth and space sciences. Our research encompasses space physics, namely electric currents and magnetic fields in space driven by the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field that cause the aurora borealis.
Martin and I attended a ground based magnetometry workshop (Geospace Environment Modeling meeting -- GEM) immediately preceding the AGU meeting. This small, informal gathering brings space physics researchers who operate ground based magnetometer networks (like ourselves) up to date with current and upcoming research projects, some of which Martin may want to participate in. Of particular interest was the International Space Weather Meridian Circle Program, a Chinese initiative to build a global meridian magnetometer chain that will pass through portions of Canada.
I presented a poster announcing the impending construction of a new science facility to study the aurora and other related solar-terrestrial phenomena. Most questions directed to my poster dealt with the basic details of our new observatory – where it will be built, when it will be built, will it be built (an important point), and what kinds of instrumentation will it host. Only one criticism was raised that questioned the wisdom of placing an optical observatory in Alberta, given the poor (cloudy) weather we have experienced over the past year.
Perhaps more important is the networking aspect of attending such a high-profile conference. It is one of the few opportunities we have to meet with fellow research collaborators. For myself, it allows me to discuss some of the more technical aspects of our research activities, as well as look at new processes and technologies to further advance our research. Specifically, I met with our colleagues at UCLA who designed a web based data repository system (SPASE Tools), obtaining guidance on successfully implementing a web based virtual magnetic observatory (VMO). This is a system to share magnetic data and related metadata with similar SPASE compliant virtual observatories over the Internet. I also discussed with UCLA and others ways of expanding our metadata data set to include additional data not currently described by SPASE. This will be important once we start gathering optical and meteorological data from AUGO. From the earth and space science informatics sessions, I gathered that other research groups (particularly the Japanese IUGONET project) are expanding on the SPASE / VMO concept by developing a richer metadata dictionary (compatible with SPASE) that incorporates more diverse data types. I also had a chance to discuss with colleagues at University of Alberta our recent data sharing arrangement with the Canadian Space Science Data Portal (CSSDP).
The education and public outreach sessions showed us some innovative work being done by other groups in putting optical and magnetic auroral data on the mobile web in the form of smartphone web apps. This is something that would be useful for our own observatory for science outreach and teaching, if time and manpower permits.
Finally, AGU is one of the few opportunities where we can meet face to face with our Japanese research colleagues who use our data and/or have instruments stationed at AUGO. This is important because the Japanese have been one of the biggest supporters (users) of the AUGO observatory.
What I have found given my attendance at two previous AGU meetings is their usefulness as networking events. The poster sessions in particular seem to be the most productive. We meet face to face with our research partners, find answers to questions (in my case, typically technical ones), and learn of new and innovative projects others in the field are doing. My main purpose was to publicize our new auroral observatory, AUGO II. The abstract is now published in the AGU scientific program, so the word is out there. As time goes on, we may find new researchers step forward wanting to know what our new facility has to offer, and hopefully partner with us.
2011-03-30T20:38:14Z
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Student Publications at Athabasca University
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3021
Student Publications at Athabasca University
Newton, Heather
All in all, I feel incredibly grateful that I was able to attend the ACU PR, Marketing & Communications conference and learn from international industry leaders and peers alike. It was a fantastic networking opportunity and the marketing/recruitment knowledge gained was invaluable. I feel confident that I will be able to apply this knowledge to engage prospective students and create awareness of AU to the general public.
One of the biggest highlights at the conference was receiving the award for best “Student Publications” at the award ceremony and gala. There were only four categories (Student Publications, Corporate Publications, Websites, Outreach & Community Relations) and only one winner in each category. Hundreds of entries were received from all over the world and an international panel of experts assessed each submission. I submitted AU’s recruitment publications (AU Viewbook and Book of Answers) in the Student Publications category and was very proud to represent AU as the only Canadian university to receive an award
While the conference focused on marketing practices in higher education, its value will be applied to other areas of Advancement. This includes workshops that focused on the impact of reduced budgets, demands from staff and students for greater engagement and improved communication, and the growing importance of marketing and communications in strategic planning at an institutional level - all of which are beneficial to my colleagues within Advancement.
If there is any critique of the conference it is only that I wish there had been even more opportunities for networking and engaging in discussion outside of the presentations and workshops. The conversations I did have were so spirited and engaging that I only wish I had more of them.
Overall, the ACU PR, Marketing & Communications conference was an excellent and informative professional development experience.
2011-03-30T20:34:41Z
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13th Annual Accessing Higher Ground Conference
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3020
13th Annual Accessing Higher Ground Conference
Anton, Carrie
I learned so much including:
- Html 5 and Web 2.0 using new ARIA guidelines for accessible web design
- Accessibility and usability reviews of Moodle, Elluminate, and other apps that AU uses/will use
- Guidelines for reviewing for accessibility and usability
- Universal design guidelines and evaluation projects
- Outlines for creating an AT course for students to learn about Assistive Technology
- Creating alternate formats for documents using Acrobat, Easy Creator, Word and PowerPoint
- Creating instructional video tutorials
2011-03-30T20:29:59Z
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Mobile Self Efficacy in Canadian Nursing Education Programs
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3019
Mobile Self Efficacy in Canadian Nursing Education Programs
Kenny, Richard F.
The purpose of this study was to assess the self-efficacy of nursing faculty and students related to their potential use of mobile technology and to ask what are the implications for their teaching and learning in practice education contexts. We used a cross-sectional survey design involving students and faculty in three separate nursing education programs in Western Canada. Fifty-six faculty members and students completed the survey in March, 2010. Results showed a high level of ownership and use of mobile devices among our respondents. Their overall average mobile self-efficacy score was 72.11 on a scale of 100, indicating that they are highly confident in their use of mobile technologies and prepared to engage in mobile learning
The paper was given in the allotted time (15 minutes) and there was time for about 2 questions. No attendee discussed the paper with us afterwards, which was a bit disappointing, but likely a result of the conference organizers bundling together a series of papers on disparate topics. Our paper, however, was published in the conference proceedings:
Kenny, R.F., Park, C.L., Van Neste-Kenny, J.M.C., & Burton, P.A. (2010). Mobile Self-Efficacy in Canadian Nursing Education Programs. In M. Montebello, V. Camilleri and A. Dingli (Eds.), Proceedings of mLearn 2010, the 9th World Conference on Mobile Learning, Valletta, Malta.
We are now considering submitting an enhanced version to a special conference edition of the International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning (IJMBL), which is a partner journal to IAMLearn, which put on the conference.
2011-03-30T20:23:02Z
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Modeling Service Choreographies with Rule-enhanced Business Processes
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3018
Modeling Service Choreographies with Rule-enhanced Business Processes
Gasevic, Dragan
The research community has so far mainly focused on the problem of modeling of service orchestrations in the domain of service composition, while modeling of service choreographies has attracted less attention. The following challenges in choreography modeling are tackled in this paper: i) choreography models are not well-connected with the underlying business vocabulary models. ii) there is limited support for decoupling parts of business logic from complete choreography models. This reduces dynamic changes of choreographies; iii) choreography models contain redundant elements of shared business logic, which might lead to an inconsistent implementation and incompatible behavior. Our proposal – rBPMN – is an extension of a business process modeling language with rule and choreography modeling support. rBPMN is defined by weaving the metamodels of the Business Process Modeling Notation and REWERSE Rule Markup Language. To evaluate our proposal, we use service-interaction patterns and compare our approach with related solutions.
The participation at EDOC 2010 was overwhelming in every positive sense, and I am very thankful to the committee for this award. Our presentation was received highly positive and triggered several questions. The questions were mainly about the relations of our work with the use of ontology and vocabulary representation languages, and our plans for developing executable models rather than generating code from models. In fact, this was already in line with our previous plans and research directions. Some of these discussions even continued during the following days. In particular, we had plans for two concrete collaborations. One is related to the development of a formal semantics of the rBPMN languages by using process algebra, that is, by using the mCRL2 language in particular. Moreover, we also created a common plan for integration of semi-structured English language for defining business rules and vocabularies. This will also allow us to have a more effective way to capture rules in rBPMN process models. Moreover, our presentation of the rBPMN editor, as an practical implementation tool for the work with the rBPMN language received a special attention, and several researchers have already approached us to establish research collaboration and/or to use our tool, which is now publically available.
The overall experience was also extremely valuable. The program of the conference covered nearly all of the diverse topics in enterprise computing. That is, the selected papers cover engineering aspects in many phases of development life cycle of enterprise systems, especially those designed for distributed environments.
I have also delivered a keynote at the VORTE 2010 workshop with the audience with was the largest of all workshop keynotes at the conference. The participants very positively received my insights. In a very interactive session, we discussed some of the main research challenges important for better integration of business rules and business process modeling languages.
2011-03-30T20:17:35Z
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Multipoint Observations of the Large Substorm Associated with the Galaxy 15 Anomaly
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3017
Multipoint Observations of the Large Substorm Associated with the Galaxy 15 Anomaly
Connors, Martin
On April 5, 2010 around 09 UT, the NOAA Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) observed a large reconfiguration of the magnetospheric magnetic field in the midnight to dawn local time sector. Specifically, near midnight, the GOES-11 Hp (north-south) magnetic field increased by approximately 100 nT in 15 minutes. This is one of the largest dipolarizations of Earth:s field ever observed by GOES. At the same time, there were large increases in the flux of energetic electrons and protons and large ground magnetic perturbations. While the auroral electrojet index (AL) was extreme, being less than -2000 nT during this event, the preliminary, real-time Dst storm index was only on the order of -30 nT during the event (although it reached somewhat more intense values during the following day). The Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE) monitored currents at low altitude during this event, and these observations can be used to place the localized measurements at geosynchronous orbit in a global context. Additional measurements were made by the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) spacecraft just tailward of the GOES satellites. Minutes after the initiation of this intense substorm, at 0948 UT, Galaxy 15, located at geosynchronous orbit, just a few degrees away from GOES-11, suffered a serious anomaly and to date, contact has not been restored. At the time, it was reported that this anomaly was likely related to the solar generated event; however, the anomaly is still under investigation. The purpose of this presentation is not to evaluate the anomaly, but rather to describe the large response of the magnetosphere and ionosphere system to the solar and solar wind conditions that caused this extremely large substorm.
The work was presented a s a poster on the Monday of the meeting. There was a reasonable number of visitors to the poster and some useful discussion.
Most of the discussion of this event took place in a session on Tuesday, with two oral presentations. I was a co-author on one of them. Both of them referred to my poster, but of course since it was already gone, this did not help much. I had fruitful discussions with the main authors of both papers. Howard Singer I knew from before and had worked a bit on this with. Bill Denig I had never met and he pointed out some useful information. I will work with Howard in the near future on an article about the event and hope to also follow up with Bill.
At the meeting I did not have much time to interact with my main co-authors on this study, who are Chris Russell and Vassilis Angelopoulos of UCLA, both prominent and very busy scientists. Since in any case airfare was lower doing it that way (and covering other expenses form other funds) I came back from San Francisco via Los Angelesand had two working days at UCLA with Chris Russell. This way the groundwork for a basic change in our approach to the event by refocusing on electric fields. We had been trying to publish a general description of the event in prominent journals through the latter part of 2010 and not having much success in getting editors to send out for review (please note that this does not reflect quality but a subjective judgment by the editor on this wide significance. The refocus allowed us to submit to the letters section of Annales Geophysicae and we have submitted there and had the editor send out for review (which we await).
The feeling was reinforced at the meeting that this is a very important event to study. I also attended the THEMIS team meeting at Berkeley and made a brief (and in my opinion not very good) presentation on the event. Luckily, Howard singer made a much better presentation after mine which stimulated discussion, including questions for me. The high degree of interest means at this will be discussed at the next THEMIS team meeting in March. Howard is working on an article on more general
aspects and I will contribute that and we will see if that ends up being just one article, or possibly two with me being lead author on one that emphasizes ground magnetic perturbations.
2011-03-30T20:07:18Z
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CAMEG – A Multi-Agent Based Context-Aware Mobile Educational Game for On-the-Job Training
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3016
CAMEG – A Multi-Agent Based Context-Aware Mobile Educational Game for On-the-Job Training
Chang, Maiga
This presentation will report the research findings of the Alberta-North/Athabasca University research project, entitled “Attracting, Preparing, and Retaining Aboriginal and Low-Literacy Learners in Northern Communities”. The findings were gathered from several sources, including community consultations, learner survey results, and a review of the literature, all of which begin to suggest persistent themes, strategies, and necessities for attracting, preparing and retaining students in northern communities. Session participants will be invited to reflect on the research findings, and consider implications for practice.
The conference divided the presentation into two parts: presentation & Q/A in the morning and collaboration discussion in the afternoon. There are couple of questions and discussions:
1. How do we design and develop cross-platform mobile application? I explain how we apply multi-agent system design principle into the proposed research and the responsibility that each agent is in charge.
2. Why use multi-agent concept to develop this mobile educational game? The multi-agent system doesn’t require many resources as ordinary application does due to not all agents have to be started and loaded at the very beginning.
3. How to avoid the inaccuracy of GPS positioning methodology? The proposed research use two agents to deal with positioning task, one is Position Locator and another is Learning Activity Item Collector. The Position Locator get GPS packet and decode it in order to get user’s current location and it can work with Learning Activity Item Collector by scanning and decoding QR codes to get precise position of the user. The two agents can work together when the user is at indoor situation, which means, there is no GPS signal available.
This research is part of Dr. Kinshuk’s iCORE project on personalization and adaptivity in informatics, this research is going to add two more agents for providing the user personalized and immersive service. The two agents are Configurator and Storyteller. Also, from the discussions I made with participants in the workshop, I found that the less resource consuming is not the only benefit that the multi-agent based mobile educational game has. Tan and Kinshuk (2009) argue that there are five design principles
2011-03-30T19:38:39Z
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Demography, Diet and Range Size in a Population of Black-handed Spider Monkey's
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3015
Demography, Diet and Range Size in a Population of Black-handed Spider Monkey's
Notman, Hugh
#1
Studies of wild Ateles geoffroyi yucatensis have occurred, or are ongoing in Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica, but no sites have been established in Belize. Across study sites, group composition, average sub-group size, diet and ranging patterns vary as a function of ecological and demographic variables particular to respective locations. Here we describe the age and sex compositions, average sub-group sizes, range sizes, activity budgets and diets of two recently habituated groups of spider monkeys at Runaway Creek Nature Preserve in Belize. Habituation and data collection began in June 2007 using a combination of all occurrences recording and group scans. Two separate and adjacent monkey groups were identified – Groups 1 and 2 – numbering 33 and 31 individuals respectively. Range sizes for both groups were determined using a minimum convex polygon of GPS location points. Group 1 ranged over an area of 114.43 ha (N=678) and Group 2 over 193.67 ha (N=181). Average sub-group size for all individuals of all age/sex classes in Group 1 group was 5.16 individuals, with a mode of 2 (N=415). In Group 2, average sub-group size was 4.48 individuals, with a mode of 3 (N=106). Between June 2007 and July 2009 the spider monkeys from both groups were observed feeding from 70 different plant species. These and future data emanating from this new study site represent an important addition to a small but growing number of studies that will further our understanding of within-species variability in response to differing socio-ecological variables across the range of Ateles.
#2
Infant handling by adults other than the mother occurs to varying degrees across primate species and social organizations. Among males infant handling may reflect kinship-based affiliation, bond formation or a reproductive strategy that facilitates access to the mother. Spider monkeys (Ateles spp.) exhibit male philopatry and therefore males may preferentially handle male infants as they could be potential future allies. To investigate this hypothesis, all occurrence data were collected from January 2007 to December 2009 on a community of 35 wild spider monkeys at Runaway Creek Nature Reserve, Belize. During 555 hours of observation, 59 infant handling bouts and 12 infant handling attempts were recorded. All of the 11 infants were handled by individuals other than the mother during the study period. Handling of infants by adult, sub-adult and large juvenile males was the most common [N=48, or 81% of all bouts]. Infant handling by adult, sub-adult and large juvenile females was less common [N=11, or 19% of all bouts], but a higher proportion of handling bouts by females resulted in prolonged infant carries [0.36 for females; 0.10 for males]. Individual adult and sub-adult males varied with respect to their probability of handling an infant [Pearson X2=14.25, df=4, p<0.05]. The sex of the infant did not affect how often it was handled by males [Pearson X2=3.84, df=1, p=0.36]. As all infants born in a male philopatric group are presumed to share some degree of paternal kinship, we suggest that male infant handling in A. geoffroyi reflects kinship-based affiliation or tolerance.
#3
Sexual segregation, the social and/or spatial separation of males and females, has been characterized in many animals; however, no systematic analysis has yet been undertaken to measure sex segregation in primates. Using data from a 7-month study on a community of spider monkeys in Belize, we used the Sexual Segregation Aggregation Statistic (SSAS) to determine if the sexes segregate or aggregate. We then determined if the patterns are driven by social, habitat, or reproductive differences between males and females. SSAS values range from 0 (complete aggregation) to 1 (complete segregation). The overall SSAS value suggests that male and female spider monkeys are slightly more segregated (SSAS=0.56) than aggregated. However segregation varies monthly; there is more segregation during the dry season months (January-April: 0.66-0.85) and more aggregation during the wet season months (May-July: 0.27-0.45). Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the causes of segregation, such as the forage selection and predation risk hypotheses for habitat segregation and the social preferences and activity budget hypotheses for social segregation. Despite low levels of dimorphism in spider monkeys, high fission-fusion dynamics may lead to different activity budgets for males and females, which in turn favors segregation to meet different reproductive agendas. Males and females differ significantly in time spent traveling, feeding and socializing. Spider monkeys also prefer to associate with same-sex partners. Since males and females do not differ in habitat use, segregation in spider monkeys is best explained by sex differences in activity budgets and social preferences.
The International Primatological Society (IPS) congress takes place every two years, and this year was in Kyoto, Japan. As the name suggests, this conference brings together primate researchers from around the globe and promotes the dissemination and discussion of current research via a combination of plenary speakers, symposia, and oral and poster sessions over a week-long period. Abstracts are reviewed and published in conference proceedings, and all presentations are meant to elicit discussion and commentary.
This year, I presented pilot data from a new study site I have initiated in Belize using RIG funding. I co-authored this presentation with a research colleague at the University of Calgary, who is also one of the PIs at our site. We currently co-supervise 2 graduate students working at the site, and both students presented posters at the IPS congress. I was a co-author one both posters. One of the posters (Kayla Hartwell’s poster on sex segregation) won second place in the student competition. In addition, as these students were masters students, this was their first international conference, and I played an important role in facilitating their connecting to other researchers in the discipline.
In general, the conference was a success for all of us (me and my graduate students). We have been encouraged to continue our work on sex segregation, and indeed this has become the focus of Kayla’s upcoming PhD research.
2011-03-30T19:29:56Z
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Sea Songs from Two Oceans: A Comparative Analysis of Maritime Songs from the Coasts of Yorkshire and British Columbia
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/handle/2149/3014
Sea Songs from Two Oceans: A Comparative Analysis of Maritime Songs from the Coasts of Yorkshire and British Columbia
Gregory, David
Yorkshire folksong collector Frank Kidson did most of his fieldwork during the last two decades of the Victorian era. The fruits of his labours during the 1880s found expression in his pioneering collection Traditional Tunes (1891) but the second volume that would have showcased his collecting in the 1890s was never published in the form he intended and the best source for his later fieldwork remains the several manuscripts held in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow. Kidson obtained maritime songs from source singers in both south Yorkshire (in and near the seaport of Hull) and the north Yorkshire coast from Scarborough to Whitby. The leading Western Canadian collector Phil Thomas did most of his fieldwork three-quarters of a century later, but his impressive collection of vernacular songs from British Columbia also includes a substantial number of maritime songs obtained from source singers who made their livings on the coastal waters of the Pacific from Vancouver to Alaska. Part of Thomas’ collection was published in his Songs of the Pacific Northwest but much remains in manuscript or on tape.
The goal of this paper is to compare the different kinds of sea songs found in these two relatively unknown and under-utilized collections. To what extent do we find parallels between the songs of fishermen, tug-boat men, and ocean-going sailors braving the gales of the North Sea and Atlantic and those of their counterparts working in the Strait of Georgia and on the Pacific Ocean? Do we discover very similar shanties, songs of fishing, and ballads about shipwrecks, or are the differences in time and geography so great that each region’s vernacular songs are quite different and unique? My analysis aims to detect and delineate similarities between these two song traditions as well as to indicate the characteristic regional features of each. In the process I hope to show why the Kidson and Thomas collections are both worthy of greater attention by folklorists, ethnomusicologists, and ballad scholars.
The 2010 International Ballad Conference was hosted by the Meertens Institute, Amsterdam, which is the principal archive and research centre for the study of Dutch folklore and folk music, including balladry (narrative song). It was held between July 5th and July 10th, 2010, commencing at the Meertens Institute and then moving to the Willem Barentsz Maritime Institute on the Dutch island of Terschelling. The subject of the conference was balladry and shorter songs relating to water, including, of course, the sea. My paper was included in a session titled “Coastal Music Cultures,” chaired by Dr. Larry Syndergaard from Michigan State University. The other papers in the session were by English scholar Christopher Heppa from Chelmsford, the world expert on traditional singer Harry Cox, who presented on “An examination of the Importance of ‘Freshwater’ and ‘Saltwater’ Songs in the Repertory of the East Norfolk Traditional Singers, c. 1885-1970,” and Scottish scholar Valentina Bold from Glasgow, whose topic was “From the Farmlands of Balloway to the Lowlands of Holland: A Consideration of Martime Culture in the Ballads of South West Scotland.”
My presentation, on “Sea Songs from Two Oceans: A Comparative Analysis of Maritime Songs from the Coasts of Yorkshire and British Columbia,” was the last of the three in the session. It included a power-point presentation, in part for the convenience of scholars from Eastern Europe who were not completely fluent in the English language but whose comprehension would be enhanced by following the visuals. The power-point also gave me an opportunity of showing photographs of the two folksong collectors whose work I was discussing, Frank Kidson and Philip Thomas, and of the geographical areas in which they collected songs, the North Yorkshire and British Columbia coastal communities respectively.
Discussion after the papers centred mainly on surprising lacunae in the various collections, for example the very few number of songs about the Norfolk Broads compared with the quantity of sea songs in the repertoire of Harry Cox, and, similarly, the lack of fishing songs in the Kidson collection vis-à-vis the Thomas collection (in which they are abundant). Only one other (Canadian) participant in the conference was familiar with the Thomas collection of B.C. maritime songs, so most of the discussion involving my subject focused on parallels, implicit and explicit, between the Norfolk material presented by Chris Heppa and the Yorkshire material collected by Frank Kidson. I had not previously thought of making this comparison, although it now seems to me an obvious thing to do, so one of the benefits of the conference was to suggest this possible avenue of further research. Another useful suggestion was to analyse and explain better the different balance between occupational and non-occupation songs in the two collections. A third idea is to determine whether an analysis of water symbolism—a recurrent theme of many papers at the conference—would shed any light on the underlying meaning and function of any other ballads in either the Kidson or the Thomas collection; prima facie it would seem most relevant to the non-occupational ballads in Kidson. I am considering submitting a proposal to present a paper at the 2011 International Ballad Conference, which will be held in Portugal, and the evident interest in, by widespread ignorance of, Canadian traditional balladry among the scholars assembled at Terschelling, has encouraged me to consider an entirely Canadian focus for this presentation, although I have not yet made a final decision as to the precise topic.
2011-03-30T19:25:25Z