Managing Intellectual Property to Foster Agricultural Development

Over the past decades, consideration of IPRs has become increasingly important in many areas of agricultural development, including foreign direct investment, technology transfer, trade, investment in innovation, access to genetic resources, and the protection of traditional knowledge. The widening role of IPRs in governing the ownership of—and access to—innovation, information, and knowledge makes them particularly critical in ensuring that developing countries benefit from the introduction of new technologies that could radically alter the welfare of the poor. Failing to improve IPR policies and practices to support the needs of developing countries will eliminate significant development opportunities. The discussion in this note moves away from policy prescriptions to focus on investments to improve how IPRs are used in practice in agricultural development. These investments must be seen as complementary to other investments in agricultural development. IPRs are woven into the context of innovation and R&D. They can enable entrepreneurship and allow the leveraging of private resources for resolving the problems of poverty. Conversely, IPRs issues can delay important scientific advancements, deter investment in products for the poor, and impose crippling transaction costs on organizations if the wrong tools are used or tools are badly applied. The central benefit of pursuing the investments outlined in this note is to build into the system a more robust capacity for strategic and flexible use of IPRs tailored to development goals

Adaptive and Re-adaptive Pedagogies in Higher Education: A Comparative, Longitudinal Study of Their Impact on Professional Competence Development across Diverse Curricula

This study addresses concerns that traditional, lecture-based teaching methods may not sufficiently develop the integrated competencies demanded by modern professional practice. A disconnect exists between conventional pedagogy and desired learning outcomes, prompting increased interest in innovative, student-centered instructional models tailored to competence growth. Despite this, nuanced differences in competence development across diverse university curricula remain underexplored, with research predominantly relying on students’ self-assessments. To address these gaps, this study employs longitudinal mixed-methods approaches with regard to theory triangulation and investigator triangulation to better understand how professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions evolve across varied curricula and contexts. This research emphasizes adaptive and re-adaptive teaching approaches incorporating technology, individualization, and experiential learning, which may uniquely integrate skill development with contextual conceptual learning. Specific attention is paid to professional education paths like design, media, and communications degrees, where contemporary competence models stress capabilities beyond core conceptual knowledge. Results from this study aim to guide reform efforts to optimize professional competence development across diverse academic areas

Guidelines for Effective Adaptive Learning: A Meta-Analysis

Adaptive learning adjusts to the student’s needs to improve learning outcomes, but adaptive learning platforms approach this goal in vastly different ways. When tested, these platforms also show varying levels of success in improving learning. The goal of this meta-analysis is to develop guidelines for the creation and implementation of adaptive learning based on studies where adaptive learning was utilized

Culturally and linguistically-adapted school systems: A study of promising practices in odds-beating elementary schools

This multiple case study investigated characteristics of six elementary schools in New York State with statistically significant better performance outcomes among their English language learner (ELL) students. Through documentary evidence, classroom observations, and interviews with students, teachers, and administrators, a system-wide approach to adaptations that benefit ELL students was identified. These adaptations were evident in: (a) school cultures that embrace ideals of equity of opportunity and celebrate diversity; (b) school climates that evoke a sense of safety and welcome; and (c) processes and practices that support advocacy for ELLs and their families. While the schools shared these common characteristics, educators employed some unique approaches in rural, suburban, and urban schools, holding implications for policies that take into account contextual variances in schools and communities

Using System Dynamics Models to Understand and Improve Application Landscape Design

Application landscape design has become a key challenge for enterprises. For further exploration of related enterprise architecture benefits establishing shared mental models among all application landscape designers is required, i.e. architectural thinking. Thus, to complement existing approaches by modeling human behavior and decision effects which form implicit application landscape evolution principles, we propose the use of System Dynamics. We derive five guidelines from literature for developing a corresponding method. To exemplify the approach, a concrete causal loop diagram on the topic of technological standardization is presented. A subsequent evaluation based on expert interviews demonstrates the model content validity as well as the modeling method\u27s suitability to foster communication among different communities of practice

Students’ Use of Internet Technologies for Interactions in Learning Practices: A Study from Saudi Arabia’s Higher Education

Internet technologies provide support for students’ learning practices. Some Internet technologies are supported on an organisational level such as learning management systems (LMS) while others are adopted voluntarily by academics and students such as social networking sites (SNSs). Given the unique culture of Saudi Arabia where communication and interaction norms are strictly defined by strong traditions, little is known about the use patterns of these diverse technologies to support student interactions with peers and academics within tertiary learning practices. This qualitative study was conducted in two Saudi universities where seventeen students and twelve academics from both genders were interviewed. The study showed how students tend to communicate with academics in a formal way, create their own online community and interact with external tutors through online paid websites. These interaction patterns are discussed considering the national culture, learning styles and organisational regulation

ACADEMAGOGY FOR ENHANCING ADULT ONLINE LEARNER ENGAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated the online learning revolution in tertiary education. However, the commonly applied “one-size-fits-all” paradigm poses challenges such as high attrition rates among online adult learners. This paper highlights the potential benefits and limitations of academagogy to enable the personalisation of online learning in terms of fostering better learner engagement

Improving Collaboration in Ambiguous Settings by Recognizing the Importance of a Common Domain Vocabulary: An Active Learning Exercise

This paper investigates the impact of an active learning exercise designed to help undergraduate IT/IS (Information Technology/Information Systems) and business students recognize the importance of a common domain vocabulary for collaboration in the ambiguous settings which will be endemic in their careers as IT/IS professionals. We provide preliminary results to promote further research. We also investigated and assessed the robustness of our learning exercise with students with high exam performance and with low performance, and with students in the US and China, all showing improved recognition of the importance of a common domain vocabulary for collaboration. We present relevant literature, provide a detailed description of our active learning exercise, discuss our preliminary findings, identify limitations, and suggest future research

A THEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MOOCS - 2008 TO 2018

From around 2008, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) promised a new way in which universities could better position themselves for future disruptions to the Higher Education (HE) sector. Anyone with an internet connection was now able to access vast numbers of courses, without having to pay expensive tuition fees. Now, ten years later, MOOCs as a disruptive technology, have been tried and tested. In this article, a thematic literature review is conducted to evaluate the implementation of MOOCs. The main findings are that HE institutions offering MOOCs often rate their successes or challenges in terms of the monetary returns, course uptake and completion rates, the authentication of students and the formal accreditation of courses. Other important factors include the nature and role of student engagement, the sustainability of MOOCs and the urgent need for course materials to be available and accessible. While this study focuses on the UK HE experience, future research will need to examine the usefulness of MOOCs in different country and learning contexts