Assurance Views of Testimony

Assurance theories of testimony attempt to explain what is distinctive about testimony as a form of epistemic warrant or justification. The most characteristic assurance theories hold that a distinctive subclass of assertion (acts of “telling”) involves a real commitment given by the speaker to the listener, somewhat like a promise to the effect that what is asserted is true. This chapter sympathetically explains what is attractive about such theories: instead of treating testimony as essentially similar to any other kind of evidence, they instead make testimonial warrant depend on essential features of the speech act of testimony as a social practice. One such feature is “buck-passing,” the phenomenon that when I am challenged to defend a belief I acquired through testimony, I may respond by referring to the source of my testimony (and thereby “passing the buck”) rather than providing direct evidence for the truth of the content of the belief. The chapter concludes by posing a serious challenge to assurance theories, namely that the social practice of assurance insufficiently ensures the truth of beliefs formed on the basis of testimony, and thereby fails a crucial epistemological test as a legitimate source of beliefs

What is that thing called internal quality assurance system?

Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to explore and to propose a comprehensive definition and conceptualization of an Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS) for Higher Education Institution (HEI) by using Work Systems Theory (WST) as a theoretical lens. Design/methodology/approach: The paper follows a multiple method research approach by grounding on a literature review and validating against a published study case. Findings: After analysing a number of IQAS definitions, the paper shows how these systems can be defined as a specific case of a “work system”, the main unit of analysis and conceptualization provided by WST. To further demonstrate the academic relevance and practical applicability of the proposed conceptualization, we provide a concrete instantiation as a “work system” of the IQAS implemented in a real HEI case. Research limitations: Additional instantiations of IQAS implemented in other different real contexts should be conducted to foster the generalizability of the proposed framework. Practical implications: Using the same theoretical lens as a reference point, the paper provides insights and directions for further research as well as potential future uses and practical applications of the derived conceptualization. Originality/value: To our best knowledge, this is the first comprehensive formal IQAS definition and first WST-based conceptualizing an IQAS for HEIs.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Assuring NASA's Safety and Mission Critical Software

What is IV&V? Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) is an objective examination of safety and mission critical software processes and products. Independence: 3 Key parameters: Technical Independence; Managerial Independence; Financial Independence. NASA IV&V perspectives: Will the system's software: Do what it is supposed to do?; Not do what it is not supposed to do?; Respond as expected under adverse conditions?. Systems Engineering: Determines if the right system has been built and that it has been built correctly. IV&V Technical Approaches: Aligned with IEEE 1012; Captured in a Catalog of Methods; Spans the full project lifecycle. IV&V Assurance Strategy: The IV&V Project's strategy for providing mission assurance; Assurance Strategy is driven by the specific needs of an individual project; Implemented via an Assurance Design; Communicated via Assurance Statements

Implementing a system to evaluate quality assurance in rehabilitation in Greece.

BACKGROUND: Use of a widely accepted quality assurance tool is an essential procedure of effective and result-oriented quality management in the rehabilitation sector, and generally in health care and social services, but is still lacking in Greece. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore to what extent a Quality Assurance System in Rehabilitation (QASR) in the Greek setting could respond to the needs for quality evaluation of the facilities for people with a disability and to discuss possibilities of its use in rehabilitation organizations, sites and hospitals. METHODS: The European Quality in Social Services (EQUASS) Assurance self-assessment questionnaire was officially translated and used as the basis for the new tool, which consisted of 110 questions in 11 sections on development and 6 questions on its evaluation. This tool was tested in 15 specialized centers. RESULTS: The study received a high (93.75%) response rate. Overall score ranged from 11% to one perfect 100%; 53.3% of the facilities fell short of the preset qualification standards, while 4 (26.7%) were qualified for level-1 accreditation. Evaluation of the QASR questionnaire for the function of the rehabilitation facilities for the disabled was extremely positive. CONCLUSIONS: The EQUASS assurance-based Greek QASR has received proper attention in its first implementation and it was shown promising to assess the needs of sites that would like to improve their services. The next steps are to establish its validity and reliability so that it can significantly emerge as the standard system for guiding policy in the rehabilitation sector in Greece

Model Based Mission Assurance: NASA's Assurance Future

Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is seeing increased application in planning and design of NASAs missions. This suggests the question: what will be the corresponding practice of Model Based Mission Assurance (MBMA)? Contemporaneously, NASAs Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) is evaluating a new objectives based approach to standards to ensure that the Safety and Mission Assurance disciplines and programs are addressing the challenges of NASAs changing missions, acquisition and engineering practices, and technology. MBSE is a prominent example of a changing engineering practice. We use NASAs objectives-based strategy for Reliability and Maintainability as a means to examine how MBSE will affect assurance. We surveyed MBSE literature to look specifically for these affects, and find a variety of them discussed (some are anticipated, some are reported from applications to date). Predominantly these apply to the early stages of design, although there are also extrapolations of how MBSE practices will have benefits for testing phases. As the effort to develop MBMA continues, it will need to clearly and unambiguously establish the roles of uncertainty and risk in the system model. This will enable a variety of uncertainty-based analyses to be performed much more rapidly than ever before and has the promise to increase the integration of CRM (Continuous Risk Management) and PRA (Probabilistic Risk Analyses) even more fully into the project development life cycle. Various views and viewpoints will be required for assurance disciplines, and an over-arching viewpoint will then be able to more completely characterize the state of the project/program as well as (possibly) enabling the safety case approach for overall risk awareness and communication

Expansion of quality assurance mechanism in south Asian higher education system: an empirical analysis

Higher education institutions in south Asia are faced with two fold pressure; need to expand and demand to enhance the quality. In this region mechanism of quality assurance is at very nascent stage and faced with problems of resources limitations: economic resources are insufficient and human resources are under-developed. But the expansion and implementation of QA mechanism is helping to improve the quality of higher education and better utilization of resources. Assistance of international organizations, which are working for quality assurance mechanism, is important to enhance human capacity QA mechanisms’ credibility. This study is designed to map the state of higher education and quality assurance, to investigate into the role of international organization (INQAAHE) in the expansion of QA and to probe the questions: What are south Asian countries doing for quality enhancement and assurance? How is it expanding? What are the national needs? Keywords: Higher Education, Quality Assurance, INQAAHE, South Asi

Adequate Assurance of Payment Under Section 366 of the Bankruptcy Code: A Term for Interpretive Flexibility or Judicial Confusion?

This article will focus on the interpretive struggle that the courts have encountered in making determinations of what constitutes adequate assurance of payment under section 366 and how this struggle might be eliminated so as to make compliance with the requirements of adequate assurance of payment less of a problem for the utility and bankrupt debtor. It is the thesis of this article that section 366 determinations of adequate assurance have resulted in interpretive confusion, leaving debtors and creditors with little guidance as to what criteria should be considered in negotiating an adequate assurance of payment. The recommended solution to this uncertainty and confusion as to what criteria would be most useful in section 366 determinations is an increase in judicial deference to state laws and regulations governing security deposit requirements of utilities (state-based deposit formulas). As will be discussed later, state-based deposit formulas are one of the more common criteria used by utility - creditors as evidence of adequate assurance of payment in section 366 cases. The courts, in the majority of these cases, have held that the deposit amounts based on these formulas are reasonable protection for the utility and debtor under section 366

A Case Study Evaluation of Quality Standards and Online Faculty Development

This dissertation in practice was designed to provide an evaluation case study of two institutions, one college and one university, in the field of online learning and quality assurance. The writer evaluated these two institutions of higher learning to discover what online teaching criteria are required and what quality assurance processes are being used to assess the quality of the institutions* online courses. An analysis of the data revealed that both institutions were at the appropriate stage of development, support, training and quality assurance measures for their sizes, online populations and for the length of time they have been involved in online learning. Findings revealed that both institutions had a quality assurance process in place that is appropriate to their location, population and faculty. There is much to be learned by examining the two different credentialing and quality assurance approaches to online teaching and learning that these two different institutions employ for anyone interested in improving their institutions* processes