Increasing student attainment and engagement through the use of technology to enhance learning

Enhancing Student Attainment and Engagement through the use of Technology to Enhance Learning; Practical Ideas to Takeaway. The rationale for this workshop is to enable delegates? to have the opportunity to explore the potential of several Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) strategies for themselves, with the specific intention of enabling them to have not only an awareness, but upon leaving the conference to hold the enthusiasm and confidence to explore for themselves, and go onto embed those strategies which are appropriate within their own practice. Following a brief introduction, which will outline the context within which the TEL strategies have been employed, this session will adopt a workshop style format, practical and interactive in nature which is designed to be ?hands on?. The session will be supported by a number of current final year undergraduate students (trainee teachers) who have recently completed work, both in and outside of the University, which has incorporated a variety of TEL techniques. For the duration of the workshop each delegate will be assigned a trainee who will act as a personal TEL mentor. Through this unique approach, working in this way, irrespective of the delegate?s individual awareness or understanding of TEL, with virtually ?one-to-one? support each delegate will be able to choose which aspect(s) of TEL they would like to know more about. In addition to providing delegates? with the opportunity to explore a bespoke number of potential TEL strategies, the session will facilitate the potential for discussion between delegates and trainees, upon the direct impact TEL has had upon their engagement, attainment, motivation and employability. A range of physical and electronic resources, which will include information about each TEL strategy explored within this workshop, will be available for delegates? to take away. TEL Strategies include: QR Codes, Prezi?, Blogging and Augmented Reality (AR)

The Remote Area Safety Project (RASP): analysing workplace health and safety for remote area nurses in Australia

Laura Wright studied workplace health and safety in Australian very remote primary health clinics. She found that despite the ongoing high level of risk to staff, many of the recommended safety strategies have not been implemented. Remote health services and a peak professional body are utilising the project’s findings

Implementing an effective strategic renewal process - An IT-enabled agility perspective

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

A resilience engineering approach to safety excellence in the maintenance of oil and gas assets.

The established approach to safety management has failed to handle socio-technical systems that have become more complex. The main argument is this approach is based on assumptions that systems are protected against accidents by barriers (well-trained people, redundant mechanisms and safety devices, and procedures and safe systems of work). Complex systems, such as maintenance, are actually labour intensive; maintenance staff often works under pressure to finish tasks as rapidly as possible. They continuously adapt and make adjustments using available resources, time, knowledge, and competence to achieve success. Thus, they are accidents prone. Human factors inherent to maintenance accidents are most times difficult to identify. Research in this area in the oil and gas industry in maintenance management is limited in comparison to the aviation and nuclear sectors. Therefore, it has been suggested to overcome this lack by exploring the maintenance system and identifying appropriate methods and tools that lead a system to safety excellence. Resilience engineering (RE) approach has been found the suitable solution. Moreover, four system abilities (cornerstones of RE: ability to respond, to monitor, to anticipate, and to learn) have been identified to characterise the resilience of a system; if these abilities are known and increased, it will make the system As High Resilient As Possible (AHRAP). However, there is a need to bridge between RE theory and practice. Particularly, a tool that measures these abilities lacks in the oil and gas industry, specifically within the maintenance system. In doing so, a framework based on a Gap Analysis (GA) was outlined. A tool, the MAintenance System Resilience Assessment Tool- MASRAT, was developed to assess current system resilience and identify strategies for improvement to achieve safety excellence. The maintenance system of SONATRACH was explored by the analysis of the system documentation and processes, interviews with maintenance staff, questionnaires, field observations, storytelling, and functional analysis. MASRAT has been validated by means of congruency and principal components analysis, PCA (content validity), and Cronbachs alpha (reliability). An expert panel testing was carried out to test its usability. The exploration of the system came up with a snapshot of daily activities as well as a better understanding of the maintenance system. The study identified the most significant human factors (resources, time pressure, and supervision/coordination) and their probable impact on plant safety. The elements of the system were found tightly coupled, hence the system complex. Stories describing the continuous adaptations of people to achieve assigned objectives were collected. On the other hand, MASRAT was validated. All items were rated above 0.75 in congruency test. The results of PCA for the three selected factors confirmed the items may be clustered after extraction into four components which interpretation represents the four cornerstones of RE. The analysis showed MASRAT is reproducible. Cronbachs alpha results were found higher than what is required (0.7). MASRAT was found usable by maintenance expert panel. It was used to measure the maintenance department resilience. Strategies that may lead the system from current maturity level to excellence were identified. Eventually, recommendations were made to management to be implemented both at corporate and department levels. For the first time, the maintenance department resilience of petroleum assets was measured to fill in the gap between RE theory and practice. Besides, this can be of benefit to the petroleum industry by a better knowledge of the maintenance working environment and human factors impact on safety and by profiles determination and improvement strategies identification

New Metropolitan Perspectives

​This open access book presents the outcomes of the symposium “NEW METROPOLITAN PERSPECTIVES,” held at Mediterranea University, Reggio Calabria, Italy on May 26–28, 2020. Addressing the challenge of Knowledge Dynamics and Innovation-driven Policies Towards Urban and Regional Transition, the book presents a multi-disciplinary debate on the new frontiers of strategic and spatial planning, economic programs and decision support tools in connection with urban–rural area networks and metropolitan centers. The respective papers focus on six major tracks: Innovation dynamics, smart cities and ICT; Urban regeneration, community-led practices and PPP; Local development, inland and urban areas in territorial cohesion strategies; Mobility, accessibility and infrastructures; Heritage, landscape and identity;and Risk management,environment and energy. The book also includes a Special Section on Rhegion United Nations 2020-2030. Given its scope, the book will benefit all researchers, practitioners and policymakers interested in issues concerning metropolitan and marginal areas

University Professors\u27 and Department Directors\u27 Perceptions Regarding Support for Freshman Academic Performance

In Chile, 50% of students who enroll in Chilean colleges do not graduate, negatively impacting their families\u27 economic situations as well as national development. The purpose of this qualitative bounded case study was to gain a deeper understanding of the perceptions held by math, English, and general education professors regarding the support provided to freshman students in a program at 1 campus of a private Chilean university. Deci and Ryan\u27s self-determination theory emphasizing internal and external motivations and social constructivism theory emphasizing development as a process comprised the conceptual framework. Both theories provide meaningful understanding of the drivers that support students in their learning process. The research questions focused on understanding the support that math, English, and general education professors and directors might provide to freshman students. A purposeful homogeneous sampling was used to identify 9 professors and 3 directors. Data collection involved semistructured interviews, peer debriefing, and member checks to triangulate the data. The findings revealed that the university could benefit from implementing a seminar program to acclimate conditionally admitted students to university studies. A 1-week seminar was developed. This study may contribute to positive social change by influencing professors\u27 and directors\u27 perceptions regarding possibilities for supporting students in improving their academic performance, thereby raising student passing and graduation rates to positively impact national development in Chile

Production of risks and local risk governance in Kathmandu Valley

This research is a part of the UKRI GCRF funded project Tomorrow’s Cities, which has the objective to encourage pro-poor risk-sensitive planning in Istanbul, Kathmandu, Nairobi and Quito. It contributes to the first of its four Work Packages (WPs). WP1, namely Understandings of Risk, broadly analyses how understandings of risks and of the root causes of risks (URRCRs) have emerged and are sustained in the city. WP1 has been further divided into four themes - Risk and Narratives (theme 1), Governance and Institutions (theme 2), Urban Change (theme 3), and Vulnerability and Capacity (theme 4). This study, belongs to theme 2 of WP1 and takes a community-level case, analyses the “gaps” between how risks are being produced at the community level and how they are managed by municipal and local governments and exposes the lines of disconnection between policy and practice

New Metropolitan Perspectives

​This open access book presents the outcomes of the symposium “NEW METROPOLITAN PERSPECTIVES,” held at Mediterranea University, Reggio Calabria, Italy on May 26–28, 2020. Addressing the challenge of Knowledge Dynamics and Innovation-driven Policies Towards Urban and Regional Transition, the book presents a multi-disciplinary debate on the new frontiers of strategic and spatial planning, economic programs and decision support tools in connection with urban–rural area networks and metropolitan centers. The respective papers focus on six major tracks: Innovation dynamics, smart cities and ICT; Urban regeneration, community-led practices and PPP; Local development, inland and urban areas in territorial cohesion strategies; Mobility, accessibility and infrastructures; Heritage, landscape and identity;and Risk management,environment and energy. The book also includes a Special Section on Rhegion United Nations 2020-2030. Given its scope, the book will benefit all researchers, practitioners and policymakers interested in issues concerning metropolitan and marginal areas