Connecting practice to research (and back to practice): making the leap from design practice to design research

This paper explores two questions: what skills and knowledge can be derived from research and brought back into design practice; and how can we better prepare designers to undertake research? Its aim was to enable design practitioners wishing to pursue research to understand the process and anticipate the scope and level of work. Additionally, it addressed the questions of how design education can incorporate a research-based curriculum and how professional bodies can promote the value of research to practitioners? A complementary paper was co-written and presented at the CONNECTED 07 conference, Sydney. It explores the process of undertaking a PhD within the framework of the UK design education system by examining it from a design and business perspective (Yee, J.S.R, Michlewski, K. and Bohemia, E. (2007) 'Interrogating the Academic Research Process in UK Design Education from Design and Business Perspectives', ConnectED 2007 – International Conference on Design Education, Sydney, (http://www.designdictator.com/publications/connected07.pdf). Yee’s research bridges the gap between contemporary design practice, the growth of professional knowledge and pedagogy, via empirical study and theoretical discourse. Yee is currently 2nd supervisor for a PhD, entitled; ‘The Development of a Framework to Understand Potential Relationships Between Services and Their Users’ and is contributing to the development of the Professional Practice Doctorate in Design in the CfDR

A Bibliometric Study on Learning Analytics

Learning analytics tools and techniques are continually developed and published in scholarly discourse. This study aims at examining the intellectual structure of the Learning Analytics domain by collecting and analyzing empirical articles on Learning Analytics for the period of 2004-2018. First, bibliometric analysis and citation analyses of 2730 documents from Scopus identified the top authors, key research affiliations, leading publication sources (journals and conferences), and research themes of the learning analytics domain. Second, Domain Analysis (DA) techniques were used to investigate the intellectual structures of learning analytics research, publication, organization, and communication (Hjørland & Bourdieu 2014). The software of VOSviewer is used to analyze the relationship by publication: historical and institutional; author and institutional relationships and the dissemination of Learning Analytics knowledge. The results of this study showed that Learning Analytics had captured the attention of the global community. The United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom are among the leading countries contributing to the dissemination of learning analytics knowledge. The leading publication sources are ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, and Lecture Notes in Computer Science. The intellectual structures of the learning analytics domain are presented in this study the LA research taxonomy can be re-used by teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders to support the teaching and learning environments in a higher education institution

New Developments for Journal Package Analysis and Data Visualization

What metrics are most useful for comparing journal packages? What data visualizations enable the most insight into the value of these packages? How can libraries produce these kinds of reports, including data visualizations, as efficiently as possible? Over the last several years at Minnesota State University, Mankato, we have iteratively developed standardized reports for journal collection development, outreach, and academic program support. We previously presented an early version of our package-level analysis reports, where we focused on how to use Tableau for data visualization. Now, we will demonstrate new and improved reports, with new package-level and subject-level metrics leading to additional insights, and we’ll highlight why we prefer Python/ Jupyter Notebook for data visualization. We will also stress why it is important to develop package-level analysis and comparison capabilities beyond what can be provided by UnSub or the library management system. In addition to talking about the applications of these reports for collection development, we’ll discuss how these reports contribute to a new liaison outreach project. The goals of this new project are (1) to re-affirm the value of the journal packages, (2) to prioritize them for continuing investment, and (3) to garner testimonials. Alongside ‘elevator speech’ versions of our reports, these testimonials can be shared with our university administration in order to drive home the importance of an adequate budget to support the curriculum and student success

The Global academic research organization network: Data sharing to cure diseases and enable learning health systems.

Introduction:Global data sharing is essential. This is the premise of the Academic Research Organization (ARO) Council, which was initiated in Japan in 2013 and has since been expanding throughout Asia and into Europe and the United States. The volume of data is growing exponentially, providing not only challenges but also the clear opportunity to understand and treat diseases in ways not previously considered. Harnessing the knowledge within the data in a successful way can provide researchers and clinicians with new ideas for therapies while avoiding repeats of failed experiments. This knowledge transfer from research into clinical care is at the heart of a learning health system. Methods:The ARO Council wishes to form a worldwide complementary system for the benefit of all patients and investigators, catalyzing more efficient and innovative medical research processes. Thus, they have organized Global ARO Network Workshops to bring interested parties together, focusing on the aspects necessary to make such a global effort successful. One such workshop was held in Austin, Texas, in November 2017. Representatives from Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States reported on their efforts to encourage data sharing and to use research to inform care through learning health systems. Results:This experience report summarizes presentations and discussions at the Global ARO Network Workshop held in November 2017 in Austin, TX, with representatives from Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Europe, and the United States. Themes and recommendations to progress their efforts are explored. Standardization and harmonization are at the heart of these discussions to enable data sharing. In addition, the transformation of clinical research processes through disruptive innovation, while ensuring integrity and ethics, will be key to achieving the ARO Council goal to overcome diseases such that people not only live longer but also are healthier and happier as they age. Conclusions:The achievement of global learning health systems will require further exploration, consensus-building, funding aligned with incentives for data sharing, standardization, harmonization, and actions that support global interests for the benefit of patients

Interface, Spring 2009

The Center for Children’s and Young Adult Literature is experiencing a resurgence this year as its new board of directors infuses the organization with new life, a refined mission and bylaws, and an outreach agenda that sets it on a course for national preeminence. Humanities Tennessee, a grant-making organization funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, already considers the CCYAL a well-established and effective regional advocate for children’s literature and the related intellectual capital, according to acting director Dr. Jinx Watson

Innovating the scenario of scientific publishing in design: designing “living publications”

This article presents an ongoing research project aiming at innovating the modalities and formats of scientific and academic publication of design research. The digital transformation and the open access paradigm have a considerable impact on the circulation of high-quality scientific production at global level: the challenge is to achieve innovative forms of authoritative, high-impact and effective scholarly communication, pursued with a multiscale and mixed media strategy, in order to guarantee an extended impact, while maintaining rigour and authority. In this context the scientific publication of design is taking on new forms and objectives too, so the design discipline can be a pivotal field for the experimentation and discussion of new scientific publication formats for scientific research. The article presents the proposal of Living Publications, that, stemming from a case studies research, supports the envisioning of future scenarios of scientific publishing and the development of the features of an experimental prototype in the design domain