BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF NVIVO QSR APPLICATION

NVivo is the QSR International product that can be used for data analysis. NVivo multimedia based application has been widely used by researchers and scholars in western academic contexts. However, very little information is on the application of NVivo within Indonesian contexts. This paper aims to address the gap and contributes to a growing body of literature that explores the use of multimedia application tool for data analysis. The data for this analysis were taken from 10 participants as NVivo users. The findings of this study have implications for the success of similar applications and the ways to use NVivo for researchers, scholars and educators

Diverse perspectives on interdisciplinarity from the Members of the College of the Royal Society of Canada

Various multiple-disciplinary terms and concepts (although most commonly “interdisciplinarity”, which is used herein) are used to frame education, scholarship, research, and interactions within and outside academia. In principle, the premise of interdisciplinarity may appear to have many strengths; yet, the extent to which interdisciplinarity is embraced by the current generation of academics, the benefits and risks for doing so, and the barriers and facilitators to achieving interdisciplinarity represent inherent challenges. Much has been written on the topic of interdisciplinarity, but to our knowledge there have been few attempts to consider and present diverse perspectives from scholars, artists, and scientists in a cohesive manner. As a team of 57 members from the Canadian College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada (the College) who self-identify as being engaged or interested in interdisciplinarity, we provide diverse intellectual, cultural, and social perspectives. The goal of this paper is to share our collective wisdom on this topic with the broader community and to stimulate discourse and debate on the merits and challenges associated with interdisciplinarity. Perhaps the clearest message emerging from this exercise is that working across established boundaries of scholarly communities is rewarding, necessary, and is more likely to result in impact. However, there are barriers that limit the ease with which this can occur (e.g., lack of institutional structures and funding to facilitate cross-disciplinary exploration). Occasionally, there can be significant risk associated with doing interdisciplinary work (e.g., lack of adequate measurement or recognition of work by disciplinary peers). Solving many of the world’s complex and pressing problems (e.g., climate change, sustainable agriculture, the burden of chronic disease, and aging populations) demand thinking and working across long-standing, but in some ways restrictive, academic boundaries. Academic institutions and key support structures, especially funding bodies, will play an important role in helping to realize what is readily apparent to all who contributed to this paper—that interdisciplinarity is essential for solving complex problems; it is the new norm. Failure to empower and encourage those doing this research will serve as a great impediment to training, knowledge, and addressing societal issues

Effective Online Lecturing in Islamic Business School During a New Normal Era

The purpose of this study was to assess platform preservation in online learning based on subject type and skills to be achieved. A challenge in the new normal era that requires online learning, but internet access is still considered expensive to reach financially. The new in this research is a topic that examines online learning for Islamic business schools under the ministry of religion, which, of course, has different characteristics from other business schools in Indonesia. Research Methods is using a mixed-method. Descriptive statistics using 86 respondents were used to explore the right platform to improve competence. Qualitative methods are used to find out the reasons for the preference for platforms and explore the problems that exist in using learning platforms. The use of digital platforms as online learning media in Islamic business schools needs to pay attention to the conditions of the ability to access the internet and gadgets, interactions, features that help to learn, and human factors. Necessary to collaborate with several learning media according to the needs and learning objectives

Diverse perspectives on interdisciplinarity from Members of the College of the Royal Society of Canada

Various multiple-disciplinary terms and concepts (although most commonly interdisciplinarity, which is used herein) are used to frame education, scholarship, research, and interactions within and outside academia. In principle, the premise of interdisciplinarity may appear to have many strengths; yet, the extent to which interdisciplinarity is embraced by the current generation of academics, the benefits and risks for doing so, and the barriers and facilitators to achieving interdisciplinarity, represent inherent challenges. Much has been written on the topic of interdisciplinarity, but to our knowledge there have been few attempts to consider and present diverse perspectives from scholars, artists, and scientists in a cohesive manner. As a team of 57 members from the Canadian College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada (the College) who self-identify as being engaged or interested in interdisciplinarity, we provide diverse intellectual, cultural, and social perspectives. The goal of this paper is to share our collective wisdom on this topic with the broader community and to stimulate discourse and debate on the merits and challenges associated with interdisciplinarity. Perhaps the clearest message emerging from this exercise is that working across established boundaries of scholarly communities is rewarding, necessary, and is more likely to result in impact. However, there are barriers that limit the ease with which this can occur (e.g., lack of institutional structures and funding to facilitate cross-disciplinary exploration). Occasionally, there can be significant risk associated with doing interdisciplinary work (e.g., lack of adequate measurement or recognition of work by disciplinary peers). Solving many of the world\u27s complex and pressing problems (e.g., climate change, sustainable agriculture, the burden of chronic disease, and aging populations) demands thinking and working across long-standing, but in some ways restrictive, academic boundaries. Academic institutions and key support structures, especially funding bodies, will play an important role in helping to realize what is readily apparent to all who contributed to this paper-that interdisciplinarity is essential for solving complex problems; it is the new norm. Failure to empower and encourage those doing this research will serve as a great impediment to training, knowledge, and addressing societal issues

Benefits and limitations of text messages to stimulate higher learning among community providers: participants’ views of an mHealth intervention to support continuing medical education in Vietnam

BACKGROUND: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in 2015 to evaluate a mobile continuing medical education (mCME) intervention that provided daily text messages to community-based physicians’ assistants (CBPAs) in Thai Nguyen Province, Vietnam. Although the intervention failed to improve medical knowledge over a 6-month period, a companion qualitative study provided insights on the views and experiences of intervention participants. METHODS: We conducted focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews (IDIs) among participants randomized to receive text messages containing either simple medical facts or quiz questions. Trained interviewers collected data immediately following the conclusion of the trial in December 2015. Using semi-structured question guides, respondents were queried on their views of the intervention, positive and negative, and perceived impacts of the intervention. During analysis, after learning that the intervention had failed to increase knowledge among participants, we also examined reasons for lack of improvement in medical knowledge. All analyses were performed in NVivo using a thematic approach. RESULTS: A total of 70 CBPAs engaged in one of 8 FGDs or an IDI. One-half were men; average age among all respondents was 40 years. Most (81%) practiced in rural settings and most (51%) focused on general medicine. The mean length of work experience was 3 years. All respondents made positive comments about the intervention; convenience, relevance, and quick feedback (quiz format) were praised. Downsides encompassed lack of depth of information, weak interaction, technology challenges, and challenging/irrelevant messages. Respondents described perceived impacts encompassing increased motivation, knowledge, collegial discussions, Internet use to search for more information, and clinical skills. Overall, they expressed a desire for the intervention to continue and recommended expansion to other medical professionals. Overreliance on the text messages, lack of effective self-study, and technical/language-based barriers may be potential explanations for intervention failure. CONCLUSION: As a form of mCME, daily text messages were well-received by community-level health care providers in Vietnam. This mCME approach appears very promising in low-resource environments or where traditional forms of CME are impractical. Future models might consider enhancements to foster linkages to relevant medical materials, improve interaction with medical experts, and tailor medical content to the daily activities of medical staff

Formalising ambush marketing as a marketing communications activity: a framework for planning, implementation and control

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.The UK is reporting record numbers of television and digital audiences of international sports broadcasts. Sponsoring these events represents highly lucrative and sought after opportunities for brands to reach these large audience numbers. However the immense costs of organising these events mean that the costs of such sponsorships are also immense. Therefore these sponsorship opportunities are accessible only to large multinational and global brands. Ambush marketing represents an alternative approach whereby brands can participate in marketing communication activities similar to sponsors without becoming official sponsors. Ambushers have to develop creative and imaginative campaigns to emulate sponsors without infringing on their rights. The aim of this study is to conceptualise the operational aspects of ambush marketing from the perspective of ambushers. It explores ambushing as an alternative strategic marketing communications activity to corporate sponsorship of sports. A systematic literature review has been conducted to discover the background and development of ambush marketing and ascertain the gap in research by comparing the extant research on ambush marketing to corporate sponsorship of sports. Where there is saturation in empirical consumer oriented research on brand recognition and recall, there is no research on the planning, development and implementation of ambush marketing or the day to day operations and strategies involved in ambushing sports. Furthermore research has so far not involved actual ambushers. In order to fulfil this gap, an exploratory, qualitative study has been designed. A single case study strategy has been applied with eight embedded units of analysis represented by eight actual ambushers of recent UK sports broadcasts. Participants in this unprecedented study are senior marketing and management officials of these companies. The study is interpretative with an ideographic philosophical stance allowing the exploration of UK ambush marketing within its own ethnographic context. A number of reliability and validity measures have been incorporated in the research design. The analysis of data in the form of interviews, documents and multimedia content found six main themes with a number of subthemes regarding the decision, planning and implementation of ambush marketing campaigns. These six themes are decision making, objective setting, developing ambush strategies, targeting ambush audiences, ambush expenditure and ambush outcomes. They represent sequential individual stages in the organisational process of ambush marketing found to be common in all participating companies. This study contributes to potential UK ambushers by providing a standardised approach to ambushing international sports broadcasts specifically from the industries represented by the participants, namely the betting industry and the food and beverage industry. Research also highlights the changing nature of ambush marketing from the traditional parasitic image to a contemporary image as a parallel, mutually beneficial activity. The benchmarking tool represented by the diagrammatic framework of the ambush marketing process will allow ambushers to chart their progress against a standardised approach while highlighting contemporary and innovative ideas and ways to avoid illegal and unethical practices. Lastly this study contributes to future research in ambush marketing by demonstrating that direct ambush marketer involvement is possible and making specific and valuable recommendations for further study

Critical Communications: A Retrospective Look at the Use of Social Media among American Sierra Leoneans during the Ebola Outbreak

This study explores perceptions of the role of social media in facilitating communication and information sharing between Sierra Leoneans in Sierra Leone and the United States during the Ebola outbreak. Using the model of identity-congruent communication as the conceptual framework, a series of focus groups revealed four major themes: social media source of information, topics of communicated information, implementation of communication strategies, and consequences of inaccurate or incomplete information. The use of WhatsApp was reported as the main source of communication with family and friends in Sierra Leone during the outbreak. Participants felt they received up-to-date information on deaths, outbreak updates, and conspiracy theory updates from the Ebola outbreak. Discussions on inaccurate and misleading information on Ebola prevention was common and fueled fear and created distrust in interpersonal relationships

Tasers and Community Controversy: Investigating Training Officer Perceptions of Public Concern Over Conducted Energy Weapons

Over the last several decades, “Tasers,” “stun guns” and other conducted energy devices (CEDs) have become a widely adopted, though publicly controversial, form of police restraint technology. While there is a growing body of research on the physiological effects of these types of weapons, less attention has been devoted to the social effects of this technology. This paper draws on in - depth interviews with a stratified random sample of police training officers from two states (n=27) to explore the effect that community controversy over the use of CEDs has had on police organizational practices. In particular, we explore how police training officers: (a ) Represent the sources of recent community controversies relating to CEDs; (b ) Characterize the effects that community controversy has on officer practices and policy development

Mothers’ and practitioners’ insights on the use of digitally-mediated social stories with children on the autism spectrum: a convergent mixed-methods study

BackgroundWhile end-user interest in digitally-mediated Social Story (SS) intervention for children on the autism spectrum is growing, research on the use of SSs in digital form is currently lacking.AimsThis study aimed to investigate how digital-mediation can influence parents’ and practitioners’ attitudes towards the SS intervention as well as impact their perceived competence in their ability to administer the intervention.Methods and proceduresThis study used a convergent mixed-method design. Nineteen participants (ten practitioners and nine mothers) participated in two focus group sessions. Participants then engaged with a digitally-mediated SS and completed a pre- and post-engagement survey measuring attitude, competence and user experience with the intervention.Outcomes and resultsThe mothers’ perceived competence ratings improved after engaging with digitally-mediated SSs. Mothers and practitioners also indicated that digitally-mediated SSs increased their perceived efficiency, while mothers felt it improved their autonomy and further empowered them as end-users.Conclusion and implicationsDigitally-mediated SS has the potential to effectively address challenges related to intervention implementation whilst also empowering further the end-user