Releasing Authority Chairs: A Comparative Snapshot Across Three Decades

This report provides a comparative analysis of releasing authority chairs' views of the issues and challenges confronting them at two points in time: 1988 and 2015. Drawing from two surveys, one conducted during the tenure of an ACA Parole Task Force that functioned from 1986-1988, and the other a survey published in 2016 by the Robina Institute called The Continuing Leverage of Releasing Authorities: Findings from a National Survey, this new publication highlights both change and constancy relative to a wide range of comparative markers including, but not limited to, structured decision tools, prison crowding and risk aversion, and the myriad factors considered in granting or denying parole

The BOSS system for on-line submission and assessment of computing assignments

Practical computing courses which involve significant amounts of programming continue to suffer from increasing student numbers. This makes their delivery and management more difficult to achieve effectively with the available resources. One solution to this problem is to develop methods for automating the submission and testing of student programs to support the marking effort and to enable the division of marking tasks among several individuals while ensuring consistency and rigour throughout. We have developed such methods in our system, called BOSS, and have successfully deployed different versions of it on several courses over a number of years. Here, we describe the original system and its recent enhancements, and discuss the benefits it has provided us with, both in terms of administration and in improving the learning process

Programmes at the turning point. Challenges, activities and developments for partner regions : September 2003-March 2004

This paper looks at structural funds programmes and a range of issues relating to the mid-term of the programmes, with the completion of the mid-term evaluations, the development of proposals for allocating the performance reserve and the mid term review

An integrated approach to courseware

Software engineering is becoming increasingly important as an engineering discipline, and its teaching in universities and other higher education institutions should be of high quality. In this paper we describe a tool (BOSS — the Boss Online Submission System) which aids the education of software engineers. BOSS allows students to submit programming assignments online, and to run black-box tests on their programs prior to submission. Instructors can use BOSS to assist in marking such assignments by allowing submitted programs to be tested against multiple data sets. We describe how BOSS helps in the teaching of specific conceptual aspects of software engineering, and how it addresses some of the practical issues involved in teaching large student numbers in a pedagogically neutral manner

Educating programmers: A reflection on barriers to deliberate practice

Copyright @ 2013 HEAProgramming is a craft which often demands that learners engage in a significantly high level of individual practice and experimentation in order to acquire basic competencies. However, practice behaviors can be undermined during the early stages of instruction. This is often the result of seemingly trivial misconceptions that, when left unchecked, create cognitive-affective barriers. These interact with learners' self-beliefs, potentially inducing affective states that inhibit practice. This paper questions how to design a learning environment that can address this issue. It is proposed that analytic and adaptable approaches, which could include soft scaffolding, ongoing detailed formative feedback and a focus on self-enhancement alongside skill development, can help overcome such barriers

Hoping to Help: The Promises and Pitfalls of Global Health Volunteering

Volunteers and the organizations that send them for short periods to poorer countries often describe the trips as “missions” or “brigades.” Both words describe organized, purposeful ventures to accomplish a goal. “Mission” has been used in religious contexts; “brigade” is primarily a military term. In whatever use, both words denote a group with a purpose, a calling, and a common cause. What I am exploring here is the purpose of these missions and brigades and whether these hundreds of weekly arrivals really bring hope (or housing or health benefits) to Haiti or to the thousands of other poor communities around the world that receive international volunteers every year. It may seem obvious that the goal is to accomplish good for the communities visited, to “make a difference,” and often to “give back.” Whether this actually happens, and what other objectives might be involved in these volunteer trips, is rarely considered. These issues motivate this book. Do volunteers help or hurt? In what ways? Can these missions be handled more effectively

Lessons From the Field: Becoming Strategic: The Evolution of the Flinn Foundation

Describes the foundation's process of becoming strategically focused -- setting goals, defining metrics, implementing and communicating changes, partnering for greater impact, and measuring progress -- and the challenges and criticisms it faced

Six reasons for rejecting an industrial survey paper

Context: Despite their importance in any empirically based research program, industrial surveys are not very common in the software engineering literature. In our experience, a possible reason is their difficulty of publication. Goal: We would like to understand what are the issues that may prevent the publication of papers reporting industrial surveys. Method: In this preliminary work, we analyzed the surveys we conducted and extracted the main lessons learned in terms of issues and problems. Results: Most common critics posed to industrial surveys are: lack of novelty, limitation of the geographic scope and sampling issues. Conclusions: Most objections that led to reject a survey paper actually are not easy to overcome and others are not so serious. These objections could restrain researchers from conducting this type of studies that represent an important methodological asset. For these reasons, we think that reviewers should be less severe to judge survey papers provided that all the limitations of the study are well explained and highlighte