Learning requirements engineering within an engineering ethos

An interest in educating software developers within an engineering ethos may not align well with the characteristics of the discipline, nor address the underlying concerns of software practitioners. Education for software development needs to focus on creativity, adaptability and the ability to transfer knowledge. A change in the way learning is undertaken in a core Software Engineering unit within a university's engineering program demonstrates one attempt to provide students with a solid foundation in subject matter while at the same time exposing them to these real-world characteristics. It provides students with a process to deal with problems within a metacognitive-rich framework that makes complexity apparent and lets students deal with it adaptively. The results indicate that, while the approach is appropriate, student-learning characteristics need to be investigated further, so that the two aspects of learning may be aligned more closely

A Framework for Integrating Oncology Palliative Care in Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Education

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) faculty play a critical role in preparing students to meet the complex needs of the nation as the number of cancer rates and survivors rise (National Cancer Institute, 2018) and as an unprecedented number of older Americans enter into the healthcare system with complicated comorbidities (Whitehead, 2016). Palliative care has dramatically expanded over the past decade and has been increasingly accepted as a standard of care for people with cancer and other serious, chronic, or life-limiting illnesses. Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are recognized as important providers of palliative care (Walling et al., 2017). A 2-day course was held with support from the National Cancer Institute to enhance integration of palliative oncology care into DNP curriculum. The course participants (N = 183), consisting of DNP faculty or deans, practicing DNP clinicians, and students, received detailed annotated slides, case studies, and suggested activities to increase student engagement with the learning process. Course content was developed and delivered by palliative care experts and DNP faculty skilled in curriculum design. Participants were required to develop goals on how to enhance their school\u27s DNP curriculum with the course content. They provided updates regarding their progress at integrating the content into their school\u27s curriculum at 6, 12, and 18 months post course. Results demonstrated an increase in incorporating oncology palliative care in DNP scholarly projects and clinical opportunities. Challenges to inclusion of this content in DNP curricula included lack of: perceived time in curriculum; faculty educated in palliative care; and available clinical sites

Business Process Management Education in Academia: Status, challenges, and Recommendations

In response to the growing proliferation of Business Process Management (BPM) in industry and the demand this creates for BPM expertise, universities across the globe are at various stages of incorporating knowledge and skills in their teaching offerings. However, there are still only a handful of institutions that offer specialized education in BPM in a systematic and in-depth manner. This article is based on a global educators’ panel discussion held at the 2009 European Conference on Information Systems in Verona, Italy. The article presents the BPM programs of five universities from Australia, Europe, Africa, and North America, describing the BPM content covered, program and course structures, and challenges and lessons learned. The article also provides a comparative content analysis of BPM education programs illustrating a heterogeneous view of BPM. The examples presented demonstrate how different courses and programs can be developed to meet the educational goals of a university department, program, or school. This article contributes insights on how best to continuously sustain and reshape BPM education to ensure it remains dynamic, responsive, and sustainable in light of the evolving and ever-changing marketplace demands for BPM expertise

A New Leadership Development Model for Nursing Education

Background Leadership competency is required throughout nursing. Students have difficulty understanding leadership as integral to education and practice. A consistent framework for nursing leadership education, strong scholarship and an evidence base are limited. Purpose To establish an integrated leadership development model for prelicensure nursing students that recognizes leadership as a fundamental skill for nursing practice and promotes development of nursing leadership education scholarship. Method Summarizing definitions of nursing leadership, conceptualizing leadership development capacity through reviewing trends, and synthesizing existing leadership theories through directed content analysis. Discussion Nine leadership skills form the organizing structure for the Nursing Leadership Development Model. Leadership identity development is supported via dimensions of knowing, doing, being and context. Conclusion The Nursing Leadership Development Model is a conceptual map offering a structure to facilitate leadership development within prelicensure nursing students, promoting student ability to internalize leadership capacity and apply leadership skills upon entry to practic

Innovating for skills enhancement in agricultural sciences in Africa: The centrality of field attachment programs

Africa remains an intensely agrarian continent, with two-thirds of its people directly or indirectly deriving their livelihood from agriculture. Higher agricultural education has thus emphasised production of graduates with the requisite skills to drive agricultural development. Despite these efforts, too few graduates in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have the employable skills necessary to transition to the labour market. A similar situation is observable among agricultural science graduates, who are vital to serving rural smallholder farmers. Most Colleges of Agriculture in Africa offer field attachment internships in agriculture and related fields but they are largely designed to cater for undergraduate students and are not part of the training programs at graduate level. To ameliorate this gap, the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), a network of 55 member universities in SSA, designed and rolled out an innovative field attachment program award (FAPA), launched in 2010, to serve graduate students. The FAPA is competitively based and designed to encourage students to follow through with the dissemination of their research and to enable them to link more closely with the communities and agencies working in the geographical area where the research was undertaken.During the period 2010–2015, five grant cycles were successfully implemented and 114 graduate students from 17 countries in SSA awarded. This article discusses the lessons learned during this period by examining two key areas: (1) the application process and implementation of the awards; and (2) the reported outcomes and challenges for grantees. Establishing the award has generated key technical and implementation lessons that the network and individual universities have been able to use to improve and institutionalise processes. Grantees have reported gaining a range of cross-cutting skills in personal mastery, initiative leadership and innovativeness, proactivity, flexibility, communication, analytical capacity, teamwork, networking and advocacy, and technical capacity, particularly in engaging with smallholder farmers. They have also noted significant challenges, in particular around establishing productive and sustainable engagement with smallholder farmers. These outcomes have influenced curricular reviews by member universities, with particular emphasis on these skills sets. Keywords: graduate employability, internships, sub-Saharan Africa, university

An Exploration of the Influence of Nursing Education Culture on the Integration of Nursing Informatics Competencies Into a Collaborative Nursing Program Curriculum

Information communication technologies are becoming a customary part of the way in which nurses provide care. Consequently, it makes good sense to ensure that nursing informatics competencies are integrated into nursing curricula to prepare graduates for practice. However, few schools of nursing within Canada have fully integrated nursing informatics competencies into their curricula. Nursing education culture appears to influence decision-making, and the development of organizational priorities. Nonetheless, there are no known studies examining how nursing education culture impacts nursing informatics curriculum development endeavours. Therefore, this study aimed to address the following research questions: 1) In what ways does a nursing education culture (the shared values, assumptions and behaviours of two schools of nursing) and the practices and policies within the two schools of nursing affect the incorporation of nursing informatics competencies in a collaborative undergraduate nursing program curriculum? 2) How is the incorporation of competencies related to nursing informatics in the collaborative program curriculum influenced by the systems and subsystems within two schools of nursing? 3) How do the subsystems within the two schools of nursing interact to affect the incorporation of nursing informatics competencies in the undergraduate nursing curriculum? and 4) In what ways do resources within these two schools influence the curriculum development process and incorporation of nursing informatics competencies within the curriculum? These questions were explored using a focused ethnography framed with a systems theory perspective. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and document review. The culture under investigation was a collaborative undergraduate nursing program culture, offered jointly through a partnership between a University and College. Findings identified external and internal systems and subsystems had a significant influence on how values, beliefs, and priorities within the collaborative program were determined and this ultimately influenced the selection of curricular content. Subsequently, findings suggest that commitment and priority for the topic of nursing informatics need to be established within the nursing education culture. Until faculty value the use of information communication technologies to support nursing practice, nursing informatics as a topic area will be undervalued and its incorporation within the curriculum will remain limited

Development of predicting model for safety behaviour based on safety psychology and working environment

The increasing trend of occupational accident due to unsafe act and unsafe condition especially in construction site suggests the need for more proactive safety assessment model. Therefore this research aimed to establish a prediction model of safety behaviour based on safety psychology and working environment factors in construction site. Theory of Planned Behaviour (TpB) was adapted to examine on the prediction model of safety behaviour among construction workers using safety psychology representing unsafe act and working environment factors representing unsafe condition. A modified perception questionnaire named Safety Psychometric Model (SPM) was proposed based on TpB questionnaire and safety attitude questionnaire (SQA). Previously, the approach has successfully applied in health care and manufacturing sector. The questionnaire has been validated by three industrial and academic experts. A total of 554 respondents among 92 construction site were selected as the subjects for analysis. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) was use for analysis purpose which involve correlation, regression and structural equation analysis. The results demonstrated that safety psychology and work environment factor was related positively with safety behaviour intention. The elements of workers’ attitude, subjective norm and perceived control that form the safety psychology context found to be significantly has the ability to predict safety behaviour. The demographics variances of personal and education background, working experiences and training background also determine as the factors of safety behaviour of the construction workers. The research also successfully established a safety behaviour prediction model that named Safety Psychometric Model. The model can be benefited by safety practitioners, organizations and researchers to explore the safety behaviour prediction. It also enhanced the knowledge in the area of employee behaviour prediction and modelling

Mapping of Sustainability Education to Construction Related Curricula: A Case Study of Quantity Surveying (QS) Degree Programme

An effective response is required to climate change and the steady diminution of resources of our natural world. We are all situated within and dependent upon the Built Environment for our survival. We all benefit from buildings and infrastructure. The creation, refurbishment and maintenance of this environment is a £100 Billion industry. Each new build operation, every refurbishment and the operation of existing systems all consume resources, in many cases scarce and non-renewable. What is vital is awareness in those actually responsible for the creation and renewal of the facilities referred to above? There can only be a concerted effort at sustainable building when there is genuine, informed, concern on the part of all members of the construction team. Perhaps we should look to our providers of construction-related education to instil students with increasing awareness of the issues. The current study examines the extent to which there is appreciation of issues of sustainability amongst educators and the extent of their inclusion within the curricula of (in this case) Quantity Surveying students at a northern university chosen for the study. The literature review findings and results from the content analysis of the series of interviews conducted suggest the level of inclusion appears to be low. This supports findings from the recent RICS research, which suggested that sustainability may be evident across only 3-5% of the curricula of most Quantity Surveying programmes, and incorporated at a basic level only