Mind the Gap: Gender and Computer Science Conferences

Computer science research areas are often arbitrarily defined by researchers themselves based on their own opinions or on conference rankings. First, we aim to classify conferences in computer science in an automated and objective way based on topic modelling. We then study the topic relatedness of research areas to identify isolated disciplinary silos and clusters that display more interdisciplinarity and collaboration. Furthermore, we compare career length, publication growth rate and collaboration patterns for men and women in these research areas

Women's Professional Identity Formation in the Free/Open Source Software Community

We examine the formation of women’s professional identity in a particular type of male-dominated domain, the free and open source software development communities, and more broadly in information technology. Through an ethnographic analysis of interviews and online forums discussions, we find that women experience two types of discrepancies or gaps that constitute obstacles in the process of identity formation: an image gap and an identity gap. We show the strategies employed by women as they attempt to bridge these gaps; we also find that some of these strategies, while tackling one gap, may also deepen the other.Gender; Identity Formation; Self-presentation

The Distant Horizon: investigating the relationship between social sciences academic research and game development

Research in the social sciences devotes a great amount of attention to investigating the impact of video games on the individual and on society. However, results generated by this research often fail to inform game development. The present study investigated the outreach of research conducted by the academic community by interviewing 30 game developers and 14 researchers, highlighting critical aspects in the relationship between game research and game industry. Specifically, we found that the difference in priorities, speed cycles, and dissemination practices between these two contexts hinder communication. Subsequently, we carried out a focus group for a set of developers and researchers (N=6) with the aim of eliciting recommendation for improving communication between academics and developers. Among the recommendations to emerge were calls to diversify dissemination channels, promote joint conferences and develop research-production partnerships. It was felt such measures could strengthen the influence of research results outside the academic community

Accessing research literature: A mixed-method study of academics in Higher Education Institutions in Nepal

Background: Research in Higher Education (HE), particularly in health and medical sciences plays a crucial role, not only in enhancing knowledge and skills of students and academics, but also in helping to develop managers and policy makers who rely on evidence-based planning and programming. This paper reports university teacher’s knowledge and practices in accessing electronic research-based evidence in health and medical sciences in Nepal. Material and Methods: This was mixed-methods study comprising a self-administered questionnaire completed by HE teachers and informant key interviews with authorities of HE institutions. A total of 15 out of the total 40 institutions offering HE above Bachelors level on health-related subjects were included for the study. Results: The response rate was 68%; 244 out of 360 HE teachers completed self-administered questionnaire. The respondents comprised nurses (36%), followed by doctors (23%), public health practitioners (18%), dentists (17%) and pharmacists (12%). Most of the HE teachers reported that they have computer skills and possess their own computer. Two-thirds (66%) of the HE teachers had work email and almost all (93%) have a personal email ID. All institutions had a computer lab and/or library. Almost all teachers had internet access at work but the internet was reportedly slow. Each institution had a librarian to support to the students and staff but only a third of teachers sought their help. Many do not know what kind of support librarians can provide. Less than half of the staff had accessed electronic research materials. This proportion varied between HE institutions ranging from 13 to 83%. HINARI and PubMed were the mostly used research databases. Less than half of respondents (48%) had published research papers in peer-reviewed journals, and only 19% published a paper based on a systematic review. Female HE teachers were less likely to publish (32%) than males (68%). More readers and professors had published (75%) than instructors/assistant lecturers (30%) and lecturers (45%). Conclusions: Accessing electronic research literature provides an opportunity to gathering up-to-date research-based information that should be core to all health curricula. We call upon curriculum developers and university authorities in Nepal to revise health curricula and help build electronic searching skills among staff and students

Learning networks and communication skills

The project work presented in this paper is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) January‐December 1999. Our task has been to identify effective communicative practices for different technologies, in relation to the contexts in which they occur, and to feed back information about such practices to the educational community in a context‐sensitive way. The technologies at issue are: video conferencing (one‐to‐one, one‐to‐many, many‐to‐many); text‐based communication (email, bulletin boards, conferencing,) and audio conferencing (telephone tutoring, shared workspace plus audio link). The teaching and learning sites that agreed to take part in this research project provide courses to a variety of learners ‐ undergraduate, postgraduate, professional, full‐ and part‐time — in a spread of subject disciplines. The breadth and range of learning environments represented should maximize the chances of teachers in further and higher education recognizing issues and circumstances that are similar to their own and provide a rich comparative framework. The lecturers from the various teaching sites are regarded as collaborators in this research, identifying their own issues and learning needs, and providing feedback to authenticate the interpretative process. This study approach bridges the practice‐theory gap. We have completed the field work and are midway through analysing and interpreting the data in collaboration with teachers and students involved in the study. This will lead to the production of a flexible resource for individual lecturing staff which can also underpin staff development courses in good practice within networked learning environments. Further details and progress updates can be gleaned from our project web site at http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/tls/ JISC/index.html