Building Accessible Cyberinfrastructure in the Global Disability Community: Evaluating Collaboration Readiness and Use of the DID Policy Collaboratory

This study is focused on better understanding the socio-technical infrastructure required to enhance participation of the global disability community in key global governance processes. It explores the impact of a virtual organizational platform, called the Disability Inclusive Development (DID) Policy Collaboratory on the participation of the UN Disability Inclusive and Accessible Urban Development (DIAUD) Network in the preparatory processes for the UN Habitat III Conference. This paper asks four broad questions about the DIAUD network: (1) what is its origin, composition, and structure; (2) to what degree does it represent a transnational advocacy network; (3); what is its baseline “collaboration readiness”; and (4) how effectively does it use the Collaboratory? Data are drawn from surveys and participant observation at virtual and face-to-face network meetings. Key findings include: (1) DIAUD is organized as a TAN; (2) has important linkages with epistemic communities; and (3) has made substantive and sustained policy contributions

Virtual learning for health care managers

The health industry in Canada, as well as in other industrial countries, has been in the process of reform for many years. While such reform has been attributed to fiscal necessity due to increased health costs, the underlying causes are far more complex. Demographic changes, new technologies, expanded health care procedures and medications, increased demand and the globalization of health services have all contributed to the change and complexity of the industry. Health reform varies from country to country. In Canada, with a publicly funded health industry, the main reform method has been regionalization. This decentralized reform method arranges health services under a regional corporate management structure. The primary objective of this study was to assess the effects of health reform on the educational development of health-care managers in British Columbia, a western province of Canada. The study had a two-fold approach; to ascertain how health reform had changed the skill needs of health-care managers, and whether e-learning could benefit health management education. The key research questions that guided the study were: How might recent changes in the health industry have affected the learning needs and priorities of health-care managers? What factors might hinder attempts to meet any learning needs and priorities of health-care managers? and What benefits might e-learning provide in overcoming hindrances to effective health management education?A combination of quantitative (survey closed questions) and qualitative (survey open-ended questions, interviews and stakeholder feedback) methods was employed in this study. Overall, this study is described as productive social theory research, in that it addressed a recognized change in learning needs for health-care managers following a period of health reform, a socially significant phenomenon in the health industry. Relying on such tools as a survey, interviews, and stakeholder discussions, data was collected from over five hundred health-care managers. The data collected in this study provided valuable insight into the paradigm shift occurring in the educational needs of these managers. The study found that health reform had expanded the management responsibilities of healthcare managers and increased the complexity of service delivery. Restructuring of the health industry decreased the number of managers, support systems, and career opportunities for managers and increased the manager’s workload, communication problems and the need for new knowledge and skills. In addressing the learning needs of health-care managers, the study found there were limitations in health management educational opportunities available to health-care managers. The findings also show that current health management education was focused on senior managers leaving the majority of industry leaders with limited learning opportunities to upgrade their knowledge and skills at a time of great organizational change.In addition, a classroom format dominated the learning delivery options for many managers. A list of fourteen management skills was used in the survey instrument to ascertain what new skills were needed by health-care managers following thirteen years of health reform. The findings show that of the fourteen skills, twenty-nine percent of health-care managers had no training and fifty-seven percent received their training through in-service, workshops and seminars. Irrespective of gender, age, working location and education the data showed that healthcare managers were mainly receiving training in change and complexity and people skills with less training occurring in planning and finances. Using the same fourteen skills, health-care managers priorized their immediate learning needs, listing the top three, as: evidence-based management, change and complexity and financial analysis. While evidence-based management and financial analysis could be attributed to the introduction of a corporate management structure in the health industry, change and complexity was an anomaly as managers were already receiving training in this skill. Health industry stakeholders believed this anomaly was due to continued uncertainties with ongoing health reform and/or a need for increased social interaction during a time of organizational change. In addressing the many learning needs of health-care managers a new health management education strategy was proposed for the province which included the need for an e-learning strategy.The e-learning approach being proposed in this study is an integration of skill training and knowledge sharing directly blended into the workflow of the managers, using a variety of learning technologies. To support this idea, the study found that the majority of health-care managers were not only familiar with e-learning, they also felt they had the computer and Internet skills for more learning delivered in this manner. While a strong need for face-to-face learning still remained, a blended e-learning strategy was proposed for skill training, one that would accommodate the learning needs of managers in rural and remote areas of the province. Knowledge sharing technologies were also proposed to improve the flow of information and learning in small units to both newcomers and experts in the industry. Since this would be a new strategy for the province, attention to quality and costs were identified as essential in the planning. The study found that after years of health reform a new health management educational strategy was needed for the health industry of British Columbia, one that would incorporate a number of learning technologies. Such a change in educational direction is needed if the health industry wishes to provide their leaders with a responsive learning environment to adapt to ongoing organizational change

Theoretical Model of Nurse Outcomes: Associations among Nurse Characteristics, Psychological Empowerment, Generation, Quality of Work life, and RN Job Satisfaction

Background: Currently, nurse researchers have yet to clearly understand all of the factors related to registered nurse job satisfaction. Ruggiero (2005) posits that 62-67% of the variance in RN job satisfaction remains unexplained in nursing literature. Nurse characteristics, generation, psychological empowerment, and quality of work life have been found to impact RN job satisfaction. The literature lacks a comprehensive conceptual framework, which theoretically links each of these influential factors to RN job satisfaction.;Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative influence of nurses\u27 characteristics, psychological empowerment, generation, and quality of work life on RN job satisfaction. Another purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among the concepts in the Theoretical Model of Nurse Outcomes. The Theoretical Model of Nurse Outcomes was developed to guide this dissertation using the inductive and deductive theory synthesis process described by Walker and Avant (2005). The specific research questions were:;1) What relationships exist among the concepts of nurse characteristics, psychological empowerment, generation, quality of work life, and RN job satisfaction and 2) Are nurse characteristics, psychological empowerment, generation, and quality of work life predictors of RN job satisfaction?;Methods: This predictive, non-experimental study was conducted using anonymous web-based survey. The statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS)/Predictive Analytics Software (PASW) Package 18 was used for the analysis in this study. Correlations, Chi-square test for independence, t-test, ANOVA, and General linear modeling (GLM) procedures were used in this study.;Findings: The sample included 223 RNs currently practicing in the United States. The average age of the nurses in this sample was 37 years and the average total years of experience as a RN was 9 years. The majority of the nurses in the sample were female (91%), Caucasian (89.2%), married (56%), lived in the south (58%), worked full time (56%), and had a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree (51.1%). Quality of work life and age were related to RN job satisfaction. Psychological empowerment, a predictor of RN job satisfaction, was related to nurses\u27 age, experience, quality of work life, and RN job satisfaction. Quality of work life, psychological empowerment, years in current position, and generation were significant predictors of RN job satisfaction explaining 63.7% of the variance in RN job satisfaction.;Discussion: The findings of this study support the proposed relationships among the concepts in the Theoretical Model of Nurse Outcomes, offering a framework for future research including interventional studies about enhancing RN job satisfaction. In a profession in which nurses\u27 job performance is directly influenced by their perceptions, understanding the factors that predict perceived job satisfaction is necessary to create environments that support nurses

Immersive Participation:Futuring, Training Simulation and Dance and Virtual Reality

Dance knowledge can inform the development of scenario design in immersive digital simulation environments by strengthening a participant’s capacity to learn through the body. This study engages with processes of participatory practice that question how the transmission and transfer of dance knowledge/embodied knowledge in immersive digital environments is activated and applied in new contexts. These questions are relevant in both arts and industry and have the potential to add value and knowledge through crossdisciplinary collaboration and exchange. This thesis consists of three different research projects all focused on observation, participation, and interviews with experts on embodiment in digital simulation. The projects were chosen to provide a range of perspectives across dance, industry and futures studies. Theories of embodied cognition, in particular the notions of the extended body, distributed cognition, enactment and mindfulness, offer critical lenses through which to explore the relationship of embodied integration and participation within immersive digital environments. These areas of inquiry lead to the consideration of how language from the field of computer science can assist in describing somatic experience in digital worlds through a discussion of the emerging concepts of mindfulness, wayfinding, guided movement and digital kinship. These terms serve as an example of how the mutability of language became part of the process as terms applied in disparate disciplines were understood within varying contexts. The analytic tools focus on applying a posthuman view, speculation through a futures ethnography, and a cognitive ethnographical approach to my research project. These approaches allowed me to examine an ecology of practices in order to identify methods and processes that can facilitate the transmission and transfer of embodied knowledge within a community of practice. The ecological components include dance, healthcare, transport, education and human/computer interaction. These fields drove the data collection from a range of sources including academic papers, texts, specialists’ reports, scientific papers, interviews and conversations with experts and artists.The aim of my research is to contribute both a theoretical and a speculative understanding of processes, as well as tools applicable in the transmission of embodied knowledge in virtual dance and arts environments as well as digital simulation across industry. Processes were understood theoretically through established studies in embodied cognition applied to workbased training, reinterpreted through my own movement study. Futures methodologies paved the way for speculative processes and analysis. Tools to choreograph scenario design in immersive digital environments were identified through the recognition of cross purpose language such as mindfulness, wayfinding, guided movement and digital kinship. Put together, the major contribution of this research is a greater understanding of the value of dance knowledge applied to simulation developed through theoretical and transformational processes and creative tools

Proceedings, MSVSCC 2012

Proceedings of the 6th Annual Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Student Capstone Conference held on April 19, 2012 at VMASC in Suffolk, Virginia

The Information Behaviour of Mature Online Doctoral Students at a University in the United Kingdom: A Qualitative Exploratory Case Study

Online doctoral students’ information behaviour is drawn from their experiences in the information behaviour process cycle, learning at the doctoral level and usability of information support services. It emphasises the behaviour of humans and their interaction with information, rather than the information system itself. This doctoral thesis focuses on the perceptions and experiences of the online doctoral students, as highly non-traditional adult learners, at two phases of the thesis stage: the pre-ethical and post-ethical approval phase. Wilson’s 1997 information behaviour conceptual framework is used to design this study, which identifies four main components of information behaviour: person-in-context, information-need, information-seeking, and information-processing-and-use. The research employs a qualitative single-case study design, in which 19 participants, 14 students and 5 faculty members were interviewed. The results showed there is a significant level of ‘socialness’ in the online doctoral students’ information behaviour through the information-sharing activities. As they undergo the information behaviour iterative process cycle, a transformation occurs. They acquire knowledge and skills that change their mental and emotional structures. Doctoral-level learning is transformative, wherein students experience an ontological, epistemological and methodological shift in ‘self’ (S S’). These findings help expand Wilson’s information behaviour conceptual framework by adding information-sharing as a new component. The study also found that the information behaviour process is not a linear sequential process but is one that is iterative, until a specific outcome is achieved. In addition, the study discovers Wilson’s intervening variables: social learning and self-efficacy theories are appropriate attributes of the person-in-context, rather than influencing variables in information-seeking. The outcome of information use through the person-in-context attributes changes knowledge, skills, and the mental and emotional structure of ‘self’ (S), making S = KNL (knowledge) + SKL (skill) + MTL (mental) + EMT (emotion). Further, the findings showed that information support services hold a significant influence on the students’ information behaviour in terms of user experience in the information and learning support environment, where socialness in the online information for adult learners, the adoption of usability and user experience concepts should be enhanced

Queensland University of Technology: Handbook 2007

The Queensland University of Technology handbook gives an outline of the faculties and subject offerings available that were offered by QUT

Queensland University of Technology: Handbook 2006

The Queensland University of Technology handbook gives an outline of the faculties and subject offerings available that were offered by QUT

Queensland University of Technology: Handbook 2005

The Queensland University of Technology handbook gives an outline of the faculties and subject offerings available that were offered by QUT