Motivating the construction academic: a conceptual study

The main purpose of this study is to understand factors that motivate and demotivate a construction academic based on existing literature. An extensive examination of published literature failed to reveal any studies on motivation or demotivation of construction academics but for a few studies on motivation of academics in general. These studies revealed over 25 intrinsic and extrinsic factors which were differentiated between factors cited in conceptual and empirical studies. A further distinction was made between factors cited in studies focussed directly on motivation of academics, and factors cited in studies investigating a different topic. Factors so identified, provide a broad base for understanding ‘what’ factors affect motivation and demotivation of academics However, these studies have not taken into account discipline specific, job level, and other contextual issues or prioritised factors based on importance. Moreover, ‘how’ these factors could be used for improving organisational performance focussing on different disciplines and roles within these disciplines have not been studied either. Nevertheless, an examination of these factors revealed that most fall within the control of the university management. As such, there is a need for understanding what management styles could be used for increasing motivation and minimising demotivation, and this is an area that needs investigation focussing on construction specific issues vis-à-vis context and job roles

Guidelines: The do's, don'ts and don't knows of direct observation of clinical skills in medical education.

IntroductionDirect observation of clinical skills is a key assessment strategy in competency-based medical education. The guidelines presented in this paper synthesize the literature on direct observation of clinical skills. The goal is to provide a practical list of Do's, Don'ts and Don't Knows about direct observation for supervisors who teach learners in the clinical setting and for educational leaders who are responsible for clinical training programs.MethodsWe built consensus through an iterative approach in which each author, based on their medical education and research knowledge and expertise, independently developed a list of Do's, Don'ts, and Don't Knows about direct observation of clinical skills. Lists were compiled, discussed and revised. We then sought and compiled evidence to support each guideline and determine the strength of each guideline.ResultsA final set of 33 Do's, Don'ts and Don't Knows is presented along with a summary of evidence for each guideline. Guidelines focus on two groups: individual supervisors and the educational leaders responsible for clinical training programs. Guidelines address recommendations for how to focus direct observation, select an assessment tool, promote high quality assessments, conduct rater training, and create a learning culture conducive to direct observation.ConclusionsHigh frequency, high quality direct observation of clinical skills can be challenging. These guidelines offer important evidence-based Do's and Don'ts that can help improve the frequency and quality of direct observation. Improving direct observation requires focus not just on individual supervisors and their learners, but also on the organizations and cultures in which they work and train. Additional research to address the Don't Knows can help educators realize the full potential of direct observation in competency-based education

Malicious User Experience Design Research for Cybersecurity

This paper explores the factors and theory behind the user-centered research that is necessary to create a successful game-like prototype, and user experience, for malicious users in a cybersecurity context. We explore what is known about successful addictive design in the fields of video games and gambling to understand the allure of breaking into a system, and the joy of thwarting the security to reach a goal or a reward of data. Based on the malicious user research, game user research, and using the GameFlow framework, we propose a novel malicious user experience design approac

Career pathways in Scottish social services : a pilot study

The main aim of this study, commissioned by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), was to explore social workers' career pathways, in order to inform future workforce planning. The objectives were first, to obtain some preliminary data on the factors influencing social workers' career moves, secondly, to increase understanding of workforce mobility and, thirdly, to test out ways of gathering longitudinal data to inform future development of modelling and skills foresight

Factors Influencing the Selection of Academic Help Sources

This study extends the literature on academic help-seeking by identifying factors influencing undergraduate students’ selection of a source of help. Learners engage in intentional decisions to seek help from human and non-human sources to resolve gaps in knowledge. Decision making heuristics provide a theoretical lens to understand these intentional decisions. Previous research in academic help-seeking assumed learners sought only human sources of assistance, resulting in a narrow understanding of how learners resolve knowledge gaps. Methodological trends in help-seeking research consistently favor quantitative, survey based tools with pre-defined options. As a result, the factors that influence the selection of a source in a real world setting with both human and online sources remains unexplored. This mixed methods study documented actual help-seeking behavior. Participants recorded source utilization during an in-class problem solving activity and documented out-of-class activity through a survey. The survey also captured participant’s perceptions of a newly proposed help source classification matrix as well as a recently proposed expectancy value model of source selection. A self-selected sample (n = 25) of the participants completed semi-structured follow up interviews. Grounded theory methodology guided the qualitative phase. The results demonstrate that undergraduate students utilize online and human sources with similar intentions and confirm factors unidentified by previous research influence the source selection process. These factors include an expectation of reciprocity, relevance, domain, time, type of assignment, availability of sources and an expanded understanding of the role of faculty. The findings also demonstrate evidence of decision making heuristics. The findings of this study support and expand on important recent work suggesting the inclusion of online sources in help-seeking models and the importance of relationships as well as underscore the need for the development of an integrated framework for understanding help-seeking in a realistic setting. Information seeking may serve as an appropriate theoretical framework to integrate academic help-seeking and information-searching behavior. The study suggests that the proposed expectancy value matrix and classification matrix may not prove robust enough to integrate human and non-human source usage behavior. This study demonstrates the value of qualitative approaches towards understanding academic help-seeking behavior

Walking the Talk: The Impact of High Commitment Values and Practices on Technology Start-ups

We examine the impact of high commitment work systems (HCWS) on high-technology start-ups. We differentiate two components of a HCWS: the human resource practices and the espoused values of the firm\u27s leadership and demonstrate that both are associated with an increased likelihood of IPO and a decreased likelihood of firm failure. Importantly, there are interactions between practices and values such that the benefit of one tends to amplify the other. Implications of these interactions for future research on high commitment work systems are discussed