Is this thing on? Determining Comfort Level with Communication Skills in a Technical Discipline

Students with a technology focus often express and demonstrate that they find it difficult to communicate their ideas and designs. Students in the Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Interactive Games and Media are further challenged in that in order to be successful in their pursuit of a career in game design and development, they need to effectively convey their game ideas and design specifications while expressing the passion for the ideas that will convince others to climb on board and work on their projects. In this paper, we discuss the way we help our students develop these skills within a course structure. Through several course offerings, the faculty and students anecdotally noted that the students communication skills improved and their comfort in communication improved as well. In order to more accurately determine if this observed improvement was measurable, a survey of comfort with communication skills was created. The paper will present the results of an exploratory study using the instrument, which involved administering the survey to the students in the course as well as students in another course without a focus in development of these skills. The results from both sets of students were analyzed to determine if there was an increase in comfort with communication skills and to begin a process of validating this new instrument

Wiki use that increases communication and collarboration motivation

Communication and collaboration can be readily enabled by the use of many ICT tools. Wikis are one such platform that provides the opportunity for students to work on group projects without the barriers that arise from traditional group work. Whilst wiki use is becoming more common, its use in education is patchy and pedagogical reasoning and evaluation of such use is under explored. This paper addresses the gap in pedagogy and evaluation in the context of accounting studies. A traditional assessment task of writing an essay that involved a research and knowledge component was redesigned to enable groups to communicate and collaborate at a distance using a wiki. Through participant observation and student reflections of the group project, a wiki was found to be an effective platform to communicate and collaborate on a group project and enabled different barriers to be broken down. Wikis provide ubiquitous access to group work, organisation and version control, levels the playing field for dominant and shy students, and provides transparency for non-performers and high achievers.Robyn Davidso

Inquiry-based learning in the arts: a meta-analytical study

This report summarises learning about inquiry-based learning (IBL) in the arts and humanities disciplines at the University of Sheffield during the period in which the Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences (CILASS) has been in operation. It draws upon impact evaluation data from curriculum development projects that have been funded by CILASS in departments in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Learning Accountability From Bologna: A Higher Education Policy Primer

Outlines issues from the European Higher Education Area's Bologna Process, a framework for standardizing degree qualifications, credits and curriculum reform, and supplementary documentation. Suggests changes to raise accountability in U.S. institutions

Working Together: Exploring the Factors that Influence Interorganizational Cooperation

Administrative and policy failures increasingly occur because of the inability of organizations to facilitate collective action in the absence of a central, hierarchical authority. I explore how organizations achieve (or fail to achieve) voluntary, self-organizing collective action that is not a direct result of external control, presenting a polycentric system of governance within a set of public, nonprofit, and for-profit agencies operating in the policy domain of emergency management. Using a complex adaptive systems framework (Axelrod and Cohen 1999), I identify the patterns of variation, interaction, and the choices made among agencies that determine whether organizations work together. I develop a model of an integrated, interdependent system of emergency management facilitated by a knowledge commons, as opposed to the established sequential cycle of disaster response. The research problem addressed, collective action without hierarchy, is fundamentally an issue of decision making. The ability of decision makers to recognize key situations in their environments and develop strategies for action, i.e. cognition, is critical. Analysis of network data and semi-structured interviews finds that urgent need, proximity, and professional capital, a concept developed in this dissertation, promote and sustain cooperation. I show how these factors increase the capacity of heterogeneous networks to accomplish shared goals. Even if the conditions of urgent need and proximity are satisfied, situations exist where agencies fail to cooperate. Key standards of professional performance—appearance, levels of staffing, past performance, response time, and the quality of equipment—influence the decisions of emergency managers to work together. I present the concept of professional capital to describe how these recognized standards of professional performance demonstrate competence and justify the decisions of managers to interact. Professional capital transcends jurisdictional and disciplinary boundaries, influencing the confidence of decision makers and shaping judgments based on expectations of performance. This concept adds a missing component to social capital theory, which currently focuses on the roles of pre-established trust and norms of reciprocity in promoting collective action

Enhancing the decision-making process of project managers in the built environment: An integrated approach

A study of the project manager’s (PM) function must be to examine: what their role is, their skills, and training needed. The project manager needs wide perspective regarding the classic management functions of control, coordination, communication, and the settling of performance standards. If the PM is a professional, their performance must be of the highest standard, and must be accountable for a high level of productivity. This is the project manager’s Achilles heel. Another problem is the absence of feedback during the early stages through to completion of the project. During the project’s life the relative importance of their responsibilities may change several times, including the constant changing of the dynamic environment. The PM will aim for a balanced emphasis; they will try to be flexible so they can adapt to new circumstances as they occur. The PM needs tried and tested methods to aid his decision making. This paper posits an integrated development and use of methods such as; scenario planning, effectuation, and reflective thinking to enhance decision making. The paper concludes with potential benefits that this method brings to the PM when fully understood and tested in the application domain

The perceived psychological responsibilities of a strength and conditioning coach

Research is limited in exploring the specific psychology-oriented responsibilities of the strength and conditioning professional. The present research explored the psychological responsibilities adopted by accredited strength and conditioning coaches. Participants comprised 10 coaches working within the United Kingdom, 3 within the United States, and 5 within Australia offering a cross-section of experience from various sport disciplines and educational backgrounds. Participants were interviewed either in person or via Skype. Thematic clustering was followed using interpretative phonological analysis to identify common themes. Over half (61%) of the respondents reported that their position as a strength and conditioning coach required additional psychology-oriented responsibilities. These comprised a counseling role in the absence of a psychologist and the use of "softer skills" in a mentoring role to the athlete during a challenging situation. The coach could play an influential role in shaping the mentality of the team. The coach identifies how the role results in working to relay information from the athlete to other support staff and similarly from the support staff to the athlete. In addition to identifying the resonant psychology-oriented responsibilities, discussion is made with specific focus on the ethical boundary within which strength and conditioning coaches must reside regarding the competencies to provide psychological support

Farm Management - Bugger the roots, where is the future?

The Farm Management discipline has long been closely aligned with agricultural economics. The question we raise is not where either discipline came from but where is Farm Management going. The impact of globalisation, the rising tide of deregulation and chain reversal mean that farm management professionals who have traditionally focused on optimisation of activities at a farm level are now commonly expected to use sociology and management science to explain economic organisation and performance on farms. They also are required to look at relationships in the value chain(s) in which the farm sits. This paper will analyse the implications of such change for Farm Management professionals.Farm Management, value chains, Farm Management,