A webometric analysis of Australian Universities using staff and size dependent web impact factors (WIF)

This study describes how search engines (SE) can be employed for automated, efficient data gathering for Webometric studies using predictable URLs. It then compares the usage of staffrelated Web Impact Factors (WIFs) to sizerelated impact factors for a ranking of Australian universities, showing that rankings based on staffrelated WIFs correlate much better with an established ranking from the Melbourne Institute than commonly used sizedependent WIFs. In fact sizedependent WIFs do not correlate with the Melbourne ranking at all. It also compares WIF data for Australian Universities provided by Smith (1999) for a longitudinal comparison of the WIF of Australian Universities over the last decade. It shows that sizedependent WIF values declined for most Australian universities over the last ten years, while staffdependent WIFs rose

The OU Linked Open Data: production and consumption

The aim of this paper is to introduce the current efforts toward the release and exploitation of The Open University's (OU) Linked Open Data (LOD). We introduce the work that has been done within the LUCERO project in order to select, extract and structure subsets of information contained within the OU data sources and migrate and expose this information as part of the LOD cloud. To show the potential of such exposure we also introduce three different prototypes that exploit this new educational resource: (1) the OU expert search system, a tool focused on fnding the best experts for a certain topic within the OU staff; (2) the Buddy Study system, a tool that relies on Facebook information to identify common interest among friends and recommend potential courses within the OU that `buddies' can study together, and; (3) Linked OpenLearn, an application that enables exploring linked courses, Podcasts and tags to OpenLearn units. Its aim is to enhance the browsing experience for students, by detecting relevant educational resources on fly while reading an OpenLearn unit

Rankings Matter: Nurse Graduates from Higher-ranked Institutions Have Higher Productivity

Background Increasing demand for baccalaureate-prepared nurses has led to rapid growth in the number of baccalaureate-granting programs, and to concerns about educational quality and potential effects on productivity of the graduating nursing workforce. We examined the association of individual productivity of a baccalaureate-prepared nurse with the ranking of the degree-granting institution. Methods For a sample of 691 nurses from general medical-surgical units at a large magnet urban hospital between 6/1/2011–12/31/2011, we conducted multivariate regression analysis of nurse productivity on the ranking of the degree-granting institution, adjusted for age, hospital tenure, gender, and unit-specific effects. Nurse productivity was coded as “top”/“average”/“bottom” based on a computation of individual nurse value-added to patient outcomes. Ranking of the baccalaureate-granting institution was derived from the US News and World Report Best Colleges Rankings’ categorization of the nurse’s institution as the “first tier” or the “second tier”, with diploma or associate degree as the reference category. Results Relative to diploma or associate degree nurses, nurses who had attended first-tier universities had three-times the odds of being in the top productivity category (OR = 3.18, p \u3c 0.001), while second-tier education had a non-significant association with productivity (OR = 1.73, p = 0.11). Being in the bottom productivity category was not associated with having a baccalaureate degree or the quality tier. Conclusions The productivity boost from a nursing baccalaureate degree depends on the quality of the educational institution. Recognizing differences in educational outcomes, initiatives to build a baccalaureate-educated nursing workforce should be accompanied by improved access to high-quality educational institutions

Conceptions of excellence in teaching and learning and implications for future policy and practice

Within a diverse and expanding system of higher education (HE), such as in the UK, discourse on teaching and student learning highlights tensions between different notions of excellence. For example, excellence as a positional good for students, an aspirational target for continuous quality enhancement, a form of reputational advantage for HE institutions or a means of achieving governmental economic and social goals. Concepts of excellence such as these also operate differently at the level of the individual, the academic unit, the institution and an HE system. Discussion about excellence usually focuses on teaching, and there is much less attention given to excellence in student learning, or even students’ perceptions of excellent teaching. The emphasis tends to be on process and form rather than content; so, what is being taught and learned has become increasingly obscured by concerns over whether teaching and learning are performed excellently. In the literature on pedagogy, there is a large body of writing that employs psychologised understandings of teaching and learning processes and which focuses on micro-level transactions between teachers and students. Though there is some conflicting evidence surrounding the idea of a hierarchy of approaches to learning and teaching – surface, deep and strategic – there seems to be consensus that excellence in pedagogy is associated with more sophisticated conceptions of learning and even, perhaps, of knowledge and its construction. However, it is clear that the dynamics of the relationship between teaching and learning are mediated by students’ perceptions of their environment and by their own motivations to study: excellence in student learning may or may not require excellent teaching. Concepts of teaching excellence are linked to two other notions, viz. the scholarship of teaching and the expert teacher, with some suggestion that excellence should be an attribute of any professional teacher – perhaps confusing excellence with notions of good (enough) teaching or even ‘fitness for purpose’. Much has also been written about institutional mechanisms for recognising and rewarding excellent teaching and the need for these to reflect an institution’s values, missions and culture. A recurring critical theme within the literature contends that the current focus on teaching (and to a lesser extent learning) excellence is symptomatic of a ubiquitous contemporary desire to measure HE performance by means of standardised criteria and quasi-scientific practices. Reinforced by the marketisation of HE and the repositioning of students as consumers, commercial publishers draw on these performance measures to compile institutional rankings, which construct broader notions of ‘excellence’ and ‘world class’ qualities in particular ways. These aggregations of available data appear to be biased towards research reputation and academic prestige, and reduce teaching ‘excellence’ to the numerical ratios between students and academic faculty, and learning to the results of student satisfaction surveys. The biases in favour of particular notions of ‘excellence’ are even more apparent in the increasingly influential world rankings of institutions: with Western, English language and ‘big science’ values predominating. This paper draws on two recent research studies undertaken by the UK Open University’s Centre for Higher Education Research and Information: a review of literature on teaching and learning to elicit conceptions of excellence; and research on league tables (rankings) and their impacts on HE institutions in England. It looks at how the term ‘excellence’ is used in the context of teaching and the student learning experience in: policy documents, research literatures, guidance material and the publicity surrounding commercially published institutional rankings. It examines the key concepts underlying such usage and considers the implications of these for future policies for developing and promoting excellence in a diverse system as it moves beyond mass to universal HE

Impact of College Rankings on Institutional Decision Making: Four Country Case Studies

Examines how global or national rankings influence colleges' strategic positioning and planning, staffing and organization, quality assurance, resource allocation and fundraising, and admissions and financial aid in Australia, Canada, Germany, and Japan

Should Top Universities Be Led By Top Researchers and Are They? A Citations Analysis

[Excerpt] This paper addresses the question: should the world’s top universities be led by top researchers, and are they? The lifetime citations are counted by hand of the leaders of the world’s top 100 universities identified in a global university ranking. These numbers are then normalized by adjusting for the different citation conventions across academic disciplines. Two statistical measures are used -- Pearson\u27s correlation coefficient and Spearman\u27s rho. This study documents a positive correlation between the lifetime citations of a University’s president and the position of that university in the global ranking. Better universities are run by better researchers. The results are not driven by outliers. That the top universities in the world -- who have the widest choice of candidates -- systematically appoint top researchers as their vice chancellors and presidents seems important to understand. This paper also shows that the pattern of presidents life-time citations follows a version of Lotka’s power law. There are two main areas of contribution. First, this paper attempts to use bibliometric data to address a performance- related question of a type not seen before (to the author’s knowledge). Second, despite the importance of research to research universities -- as described in many mission-statements -- no studies currently exist that ask whether it matters if the head of a research university is himself or herself a committed researcher. Given the importance of universities in the world, and the difficulty that many have in appointing leaders, this question seems pertinent

Utilising content marketing metrics and social networks for academic visibility

There are numerous assumptions on research evaluation in terms of quality and relevance of academic contributions. Researchers are becoming increasingly acquainted with bibliometric indicators, including; citation analysis, impact factor, h-index, webometrics and academic social networking sites. In this light, this chapter presents a review of these concepts as it considers relevant theoretical underpinnings that are related to the content marketing of scholars. Therefore, this contribution critically evaluates previous papers that revolve on the subject of academic reputation as it deliberates on the individual researchers’ personal branding. It also explains how metrics are currently being used to rank the academic standing of journals as well as higher educational institutions. In a nutshell, this chapter implies that the scholarly impact depends on a number of factors including accessibility of publications, peer review of academic work as well as social networking among scholars.peer-reviewe

Testing the Finch Hypothesis on Green OA Mandate Ineffectiveness

We have now tested the Finch Committee's Hypothesis that Green Open Access Mandates are ineffective in generating deposits in institutional repositories. With data from ROARMAP on institutional Green OA mandates and data from ROAR on institutional repositories, we show that deposit number and rate is significantly correlated with mandate strength (classified as 1-12): The stronger the mandate, the more the deposits. The strongest mandates generate deposit rates of 70%+ within 2 years of adoption, compared to the un-mandated deposit rate of 20%. The effect is already detectable at the national level, where the UK, which has the largest proportion of Green OA mandates, has a national OA rate of 35%, compared to the global baseline of 25%. The conclusion is that, contrary to the Finch Hypothesis, Green Open Access Mandates do have a major effect, and the stronger the mandate, the stronger the effect (the Liege ID/OA mandate, linked to research performance evaluation, being the strongest mandate model). RCUK (as well as all universities, research institutions and research funders worldwide) would be well advised to adopt the strongest Green OA mandates and to integrate institutional and funder mandates.Comment: 6 pages, 1 table, 4 figure

A study into the factors influencing the choice-making process of Indian students when selecting an international university for graduate studies using grounded theory

Paper presented at the conference in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, July 2007.Universities operate in an increasingly competitive market place facing new and complex socio-technical and economical challenges. For many universities international student recruitment is desirable and necessary for survival. Universities knowledge in this area is often an imperfect tool as the changing environment and diversity of cultures with which it must interact challenge previous assumptions and common wisdom. The overall goal of this study is to identify those factors responsible for influencing Indian students’ choice of international university for graduate studies. The results are based on a longitudinal study that was carried out using the Grounded Theory research method. This qualitative methodology provides a good framework for rigorous and relevant research of emerging phenomena in student mobility. Primary data consisted of unstructured interviews, focus groups and questionnaire surveys among participants of the sample population. The literature was used as a source of secondary data. A narrative style and thick description were used to report the research findings. Four major influencers emerged from the analysis, which are referred to as programme content, international reputation, funding and job prospects and quality. Drawing together these findings the study examines the implications for recruiting graduate students from India and reveals that there are a number of ways in which the university can influence the choice-making process. The results clearly provide a sound basis for future study