The Edinsost2-SDG project: introducing SDGs in higher education

The main objective of the EDINSOST2-SDG project is to introduce sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Higher Education. The project focuses on Engineering degrees, Education Degrees, and the Business Administration and Management degrees of the Spanish university system. The project has four main objectives: (O1) Identify the SDGs in the EDINSOST sustainability competency maps (SCM); (O2) Improve the learning outcomes of sustainability and SDGs in the degrees related to the project; (O3) Faculty training in Education for Sustainability and SDGs; and (O4) Analyse the students’ learning in Sustainability and SDGs during their training at the university. The current project began in 2019 and is scheduled to end in December 2022. This paper presents the main results achieved so far in the O1. SDGs have been included in the SCMs previously designed by the EDINSOST project. Each SCM learning outcome is related to a set of UNESCO learning objectives and UN indicators of the SDGs. As EDINSOST2-SDG results, the SCM has been simplified to make it easier for teachers. A pilot project is currently being carried out at the UPCBarcelonaTech to analyse ten engineering degrees using this simplified SCM. The results of the pilot project will be presented in June 2022, but the preliminary results show that the reduction in the number of learning outcomes has been a key aspect to motivate those responsible for the different degrees involved in the pilot project to use the SCM as a tool to introduce sustainability in their degrees

On the different "worlds" of intra-organizational knowledge management: Understanding idiosyncratic variation in MNC cross-site knowledge-sharing practices

This qualitative field study investigated cross-site knowledge sharing in a small sample of multinational corporations in three different MNC business contexts (global, multidomestic, transnational). The results disclose heterogeneous "worlds" of MNC knowledge sharing, ultimately raising the question as to whether the whole concept of MNC knowledge sharing covers a sufficiently unitary phenomenon to be meaningful. We derive a non-exhaustive typology of MNC knowledge-sharing practices: self-organizing knowledge sharing, technocratic knowledge sharing, and best practice knowledge sharing. Despite its limitations, this typology helps to elucidate a number of issues, including the latent conflict between two disparate theories of MNC knowledge sharing, namely "sender-receiver" and "social learning" theories (Noorderhaven & Harzing, 2009). More generally, we develop the term "knowledge contextualization" to highlight the way that firm-specific organizational features pre-define which knowledge is considered to be of special relevance for intra-organizational sharing. (authors' abstract

An Investigation into Ontology-Based Enhancement of Search Technologies for E-Government: Literature Review

Services provided by E-government are no longer considered as a new topic, there is a continuous evolution of the level of services provided by the E-government that matches the development of the techniques and technologies used. The success or failure of E-government builds mainly on providing different services to citizens in a suitable and effective manner. This research study aims at providing an empirical and evaluation study of the effects and the opportunities of implementing various techniques in the development of E-government. The research focuses on the impact of using ontology technique on the success or failure of the services provided by E-government. The services provided to citizens are expanded from information extraction to vote, tax, and other services. It becomes necessary to provide a detail description of the most appropriate technologies in order to reach to a successful E-government which provides effective services

CHORUS Deliverable 2.2: Second report - identification of multi-disciplinary key issues for gap analysis toward EU multimedia search engines roadmap

After addressing the state-of-the-art during the first year of Chorus and establishing the existing landscape in multimedia search engines, we have identified and analyzed gaps within European research effort during our second year. In this period we focused on three directions, notably technological issues, user-centred issues and use-cases and socio- economic and legal aspects. These were assessed by two central studies: firstly, a concerted vision of functional breakdown of generic multimedia search engine, and secondly, a representative use-cases descriptions with the related discussion on requirement for technological challenges. Both studies have been carried out in cooperation and consultation with the community at large through EC concertation meetings (multimedia search engines cluster), several meetings with our Think-Tank, presentations in international conferences, and surveys addressed to EU projects coordinators as well as National initiatives coordinators. Based on the obtained feedback we identified two types of gaps, namely core technological gaps that involve research challenges, and “enablers”, which are not necessarily technical research challenges, but have impact on innovation progress. New socio-economic trends are presented as well as emerging legal challenges

Using competency maps for embedding and assessing sustainability in engineering degrees

This paper features a methodology for embedding and assessing a competency in an academic curriculum using competency maps. This methodology enables embedding and assessment of any competency in any curriculum, regardless of the educational level, as long as the competency is correctly described by means of a competency map. As an example of the application of this methodology, a proposal for embedding and assessing sustainability in engineering degrees is presented. A competency map embodies the set of learning outcomes of the competency that students should have acquired upon completion of their studies. This information allows the designers of the curriculum to determine the learning outcomes that should be developed in the degree and to distribute them appropriately among the subjects. The presence map can be constructed from the competency map. It contains information regarding the extent to which each learning outcome of the competency map is being developed in the degree. This paper proposes the construction of a presence map in two steps: (1) perform a survey and (2) conduct a semi-structured interview with professors. The interview, which is conducted by one or several experts in the competency, allows the different criteria used by the professors when filling out the questionnaire to be unified, whereas the presence map shows whether a particular competency is correctly embedded in the curriculum and the aspects that could be improved. Finally, to validate that the students are achieving the learning outcomes of the competency map, we propose a survey to measure the students’ perception about their own learning in the competency. These results can be compared with the presence map to help determine whether, from the students’ point of view, the expected learning outcomes are being achieved in the corresponding subjects. The aim of this process is to provide the information necessary to indicate any changes in the curriculum that may improve the embedding of the competency.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), from study design to submission, under grant number RTI2018-094982-B-I00.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

A systems approach to evaluate One Health initiatives

Challenges calling for integrated approaches to health, such as the One Health (OH) approach, typically arise from the intertwined spheres of humans, animals, and ecosystems constituting their environment. Initiatives addressing such wicked problems commonly consist of complex structures and dynamics. As a result of the EU COST Action (TD 1404) “Network for Evaluation of One Health” (NEOH), we propose an evaluation framework anchored in systems theory to address the intrinsic complexity of OH initiatives and regard them as subsystems of the context within which they operate. Typically, they intend to influence a system with a view to improve human, animal, and environmental health. The NEOH evaluation framework consists of four overarching elements, namely: (1) the definition of the initiative and its context, (2) the description of the theory of change with an assessment of expected and unexpected outcomes, (3) the process evaluation of operational and supporting infrastructures (the “OH-ness”), and (4) an assessment of the association(s) between the process evaluation and the outcomes produced. It relies on a mixed methods approach by combining a descriptive and qualitative assessment with a semi-quantitative scoring for the evaluation of the degree and structural balance of “OH-ness” (summarised in an OH-index and OH-ratio, respectively) and conventional metrics for different outcomes in a multi-criteria-decision-analysis. Here, we focus on the methodology for Elements (1) and (3) including ready-to-use Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for the assessment of the “OH-ness”. We also provide an overview of Element (2), and refer to the NEOH handbook for further details, also regarding Element (4) (http://neoh.onehealthglobal.net). The presented approach helps researchers, practitioners, and evaluators to conceptualise and conduct evaluations of integrated approaches to health and facilitates comparison and learning across different OH activities thereby facilitating decisions on resource allocation. The application of the framework has been described in eight case studies in the same Frontiers research topic and provides first data on OH-index and OH-ratio, which is an important step towards their validation and the creation of a dataset for future benchmarking, and to demonstrate under which circumstances OH initiatives provide added value compared to disciplinary or conventional health initiatives

Safety In Numbers: Improving the University of Texas’ Security Climate Through the Control and Transmission of Information

Campus safety and security is a concern that challenges colleges across the country. This is true also for The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). With two recent homicides, a growing awareness of rampant sexual assault, and the political polarization of the student body, the dialogue surrounding UT Austin and its safety environment has become especially urgent and energetic. Interview with campus administrators suggested that one of the most effective ways to create a secure student body is to educate its constituents so that they can make informed decisions about their safety. The purpose of this study was to investigate ways that UT Austin can enhance its ability to create that informed community. The topic was divided into three categories, information, communication, and transparency that were analyzed individually. The first section investigates what information UT Austin is disseminating, how the data are formatted, how the information is contextualized, and what data are often inaccessible to the public. Delaying or withholding information degrades administrative transparency, which can erode student feelings of safety. The final section investigates ways that the University improve that relationship through performance analysis and feedback solicitation. To conduct this analysis, research on campus safety and security from 2000 to 2017 and interviews with campus administrators were synthesized along with a dataset comparing twenty peer institutions across a series of performance metrics. The results indicate that UT Austin currently has substantial growth potential in regards to its safety environment, and the study concludes by suggesting recommendations for the University that include publishing crime data in more open formats, increasing student involvement in campus security, streamlining and formatting online resources, and ensuring the recency of security information.Plan II Honors Progra

SURVIVE TO THRIVE : How Finnish universities make use of futures knowledge in the 2021-2030 strategy

Futures knowledge refers to the understandings of a coming event generated by the change observation and interpretation of multidisciplinary viewpoints. It is a learning capability and cognition of change that influence future actions. In the era of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity), the futures knowledge can benefit organizations to prepare and strategize their behaviors to cope with uncertain future. As the higher education institutions are knowledge producers, communicators, and multipliers, the study of futures knowledge at the university level become an interesting subject. This research selects four Finnish universities as case studies to investigate three important questions: 1) to what extent futures knowledge is used in the development of 2021 to 2030 strategies at the university level, 2) how futures knowledge of Finnish universities can impact Finnish higher education at the end of 2020s, and 3) how the university futures knowledge is related to the higher education strategy of Finnish government in 2021 to 2030. The research finding shows that the futures knowledge of the Finnish universities refers to the speculation and interpretation of general and educational trends. The institutions gather futures knowledge from different sources including the university proximate and extended communities, academic and non-academic research, and the government recommendation papers. While the university communities are the most exhaustive source of futures knowledge, the government roadmap is the most influential source that determines the future action-taking of the Finnish universities. This means the change and impacts that the Finnish academic institutions will bring by 2030 correspond with the Finnish government that aim to internationalize higher education, in-crease the impacts of research, create larger networks and partnership in business sec-tors, and promote digitalization and well-being of the academic community. To survive, the Finnish universities utilizes the government roadmaps as a frame to shape their futures knowledge and develop a strategy to answer the expectation of the government to access to their financial support. To thrive, the Finnish universities may need to push forward their agenda that reflect the needs and desire of their community, the greatest contributor of the futures knowledge at the university level. This can result in the community empowerment and the better quality of futures knowledge for strategic thinking