The Time Has Come... To Build, Reflect, and Analyze Connections Between Qualitative and Quantitative Data

This paper will address the development process of a qualitative evaluation tool to aid in the thorough analysis of library resources at the University of Maryland. Specifically, our project looks at the use and added value of this tool for the building, reflecting, and analyzing the connections between qualitative and quantitative data. This will allow for more meaningful justifications of budgetary decisions compared to cost and use metrics alone. Given the necessity for meticulous review of continuing resources, our project addresses a request for enhanced transparency from the university faculty and library oversight bodies and serves as a useful tool for accountability and justification of impactful decisions for stakeholders internally and externally. We will discuss the extant literature and the need for this type of tool, the development process including the output planning and data input format, the initial reception of the project, and future goals and planning for our initial usage. Additionally, we will demonstrate the use of the tool, model output, and discuss options for visualizations, storage, and retrieval of input data

Mobile learning evaluation: the development of tools and techniques for the evaluation of learning exploiting mobile devices through the analysis of automatically collected usage logs - an iterative approach

There have been many claims as to the benefits of personal digital assistants (PDA) as tools in education, but little objective data concerning device usage patterns. The aim of this project was to overcome this deficiency by objectively investigating the use of mobile devices in teaching and learning, specifically in the process of formative assessment. A bespoke PDA application was written, which recorded in detail when PDA applications were being used and overcame a number of technical barriers in securing this information for later analysis. This data, along with information on student access to the University Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and final student examination results, formed the main objective datasets recovered in the project. Novel data analysis tools and methodologies were developed to mine the extensive, heterogeneous datasets obtained, and efficiently characterise how students used PDA applications. Finally, data analysis was performed on four cohorts of students: i) fourteen joint honours students in electronics and software engineering, where researchers learned that even for technologically adept students, simple issues (such as failure to replace batteries and resultant data loss) could significantly restrict useful research outputs; ii) five summer school students using quiz applications and question sets, where the first significant evidence of the educational benefits of using mobile devices was obtained; iii) students who failed to interact in any way with what they saw as obsolete devices, emphasising the importance of keeping student PDAs current with modern technology; iv) a full scale trial involving a 1st year cohort of BTechEd students, where the lessons learned in phases 1-3 were applied. In the trials, technical and human-computer interface barriers to securing useful data were encountered and overcome, and guidelines for future good practice, of significant use to practitioners in the research area, determined. Patterns and modes of their PDA use - considering a range of factors including overall duration of use, use as a function of time of day or time of week, and the complexity of use (e.g. frequency of application switching within a usage session) - were obtained and correlated with exam results and access to the University VLE. A number of usage characteristics of successful and unsuccessful learners were extracted from this data. In addition to these results, novel student behaviour was observed, with volunteer students actively avoiding returning data despite stated interest in the project, lowered technical barriers, significant inducements, and guarantees of data anonymity. We suggest a number of social factors, including on the nature of peer group formation in student cohorts and the socially disruptive nature of new technology, as contributing to this effect and identify the area as worthy of future investigation

Accelerating transition to virtual research organisation in social science (AVROSS) : final report

This report is the fourth deliverable of the AVROSS study (Accelerating Transition to Virtual Research Organisation in Social Science, AVROSS). The study aims were to identify the requirements and options for accelerating the transition from traditional research to virtual research organisations through e-Infrastructures. The reason for this focus is that it is clear that "soft" sciences have both much to gain and a key role to play in promoting e-Infrastructure uptake across the disciplines, but to date have not been the fastest adopters of advanced grid-based e-Infrastructure. Our recommendations to EU policy-makers can be expected to point the way to changing this situation, promoting e-Infrastructure in Europe in these disciplines, with clear requirements to developers and expected impact in several other disciplines with related requirements, such as e-Health

Located Lexicon: a project that explores how user generated content describes place

This extended conference paper explores the use and potential of location data in social media contexts. The research involved a series of experiments undertaken to assess the extent to which location information is present in exchanges, directly or indirectly. A prototype application was designed to exploit the insight obtained from the data-gathering experiments. This enabled us to develop a method and toolkit for searching, extracting and visualising mass-generated data for open source use. Ultimately, we were able to generate insights into data quality and ‘scale of query’ for emerging pedagogical research in learning swarms and distributed learners

Data ethics : building trust : how digital technologies can serve humanity

Data is the magic word of the 21st century. As oil in the 20th century and electricity in the 19th century: For citizens, data means support in daily life in almost all activities, from watch to laptop, from kitchen to car, from mobile phone to politics. For business and politics, data means power, dominance, winning the race. Data can be used for good and bad, for services and hacking, for medicine and arms race. How can we build trust in this complex and ambiguous data world? How can digital technologies serve humanity? The 45 articles in this book represent a broad range of ethical reflections and recommendations in eight sections: a) Values, Trust and Law, b) AI, Robots and Humans, c) Health and Neuroscience, d) Religions for Digital Justice, e) Farming, Business, Finance, f) Security, War, Peace, g) Data Governance, Geopolitics, h) Media, Education, Communication. The authors and institutions come from all continents. The book serves as reading material for teachers, students, policy makers, politicians, business, hospitals, NGOs and religious organisations alike. It is an invitation for dialogue, debate and building trust! The book is a continuation of the volume “Cyber Ethics 4.0” published in 2018 by the same editors

Making Institutional Repositories Work

Making Institutional Repositories Work takes novices as well as seasoned practitioners through the practical and conceptual steps necessary to develop a functioning institutional repository, customized to the needs and culture of the home institution. The first section covers all aspects of system platforms, including hosted and open-source options, big data capabilities and integration, and issues related to discoverability. The second section addresses policy issues, from the basics to open-source and deposit mandates. The third section focuses on recruiting and even creating content. Authors in this section will address the ways that different disciplines tend to have different motivations for deposit, as well as the various ways that institutional repositories can serve as publishing platforms. The fourth section covers assessment and success measures for all involved—librarians, deans, and administrators. The theory and practice of traditional metrics, alt metrics, and peer review receive chapter-length treatment. The fifth section provides case studies that include a boots-on-the-ground perspective of issues raised in the first four sections. By noting trends and potentialities, this final section, authored by Executive Director of SPARC Heather Joseph, makes future predictions and helps managers position institutional repositories to be responsive to change and even shape the evolution of scholarly communication.https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purduepress_ebooks/1040/thumbnail.jp

Through struggle and indifference: the UK academy's engagement with the open intellectual commons

The academy has long relied on publisher-facilitated research dissemination; yet digital dissemination has dramatically transformed the scholarly publishing field. Particularly, open access (OA) has disrupted an increasingly commodified and fetishised publishing praxis, creating an open intellectual commons. However, despite OA's public good, academics remain indifferent to its praxis. The UK academy's policy environment and cultural practices, represent a unique arena to consider these issues within. Limited research concerning the UK academy's rationales for OA engagement exists, particularly qualitative work critically evaluating influences and barriers to achieving cultural change. From a novel ethnographically-framed sociological perspective, combined with empirical investigations, this research addresses this gap in knowledge through comprehending academics' OA responses, publishing influences, actor power-relationships and related HE policy environments. A novel theoretical framework employing Marx, Foucault, Gramsci and the Italian Autonomous-Marxists' conceptualisations of power-relations, struggle and resistance, empower an ideological critique analysis. An examination of how increasingly marketised universities have embraced cognitive capitalism and academic alienation, contrasts with the tensions, events and concepts underlying UK OA's development. Extensive semi-structured interviews with different publishing actors provide cultural-native insights. OA practitioners expose the publication field's configuration, academics and other publishing actors' discourse develop further insights, while academic activists reveal how differing approaches affect dissemination praxis. Analysis indicates actors, including governmental bodies, commercial publishers and funders, dominate a hegemonic ruling-bloc, through controlling economic and symbolic esteem capital. An academy is revealed shifting from idealised OA, towards pragmatic compliance with a normative gold-OA form, although concerns about perceived cost barriers and diminished prestige capital remain. Despite ruling-bloc efforts to address the conjunctural crisis OA represents, a disaggregated counter-hegemonic resistance exists: providing platforms, sustainable publishing, and exposing inequities. While gold-OA praxis proliferates, a struggle for agency within scholarly publishing praxis continues. Hence, ostensibly future dissemination will contain OA elements, but its conformation remains uncertain

Integrating institutional repositories into the Semantic Web

The Web has changed the face of scientific communication; and the Semantic Web promises new ways of adding value to research material by making it more accessible to automatic discovery, linking, and analysis. Institutional repositories contain a wealth of information which could benefit from the application of this technology. In this thesis I describe the problems inherent in the informality of traditional repository metadata, and propose a data model based on the Semantic Web which will support more efficient use of this data, with the aim of streamlining scientific communication and promoting efficient use of institutional research output

Open access in theory and practice : the theory-practice relationship and openness

Open Access in Theory and Practice investigates the theory-practice relationship in the domain of open access publication and dissemination of research outputs. Drawing on detailed analysis of the literature and current practice in OA, as well as data collected in detailed interviews with practitioners, policymakers, and researchers, the book discusses what constitutes ‘theory’, and how the role of theory is perceived by both theorists and practitioners. Exploring the ways theory and practice have interacted in the development of OA, the authors discuss what this reveals about the nature of the OA phenomenon itself and the theory-practice relationship. Open Access in Theory and Practice contributes to a better understanding of OA and, as such, should be of great interest to academics, researchers, and students working in the fields of information science, publishing studies, science communication, higher education policy, business, and economics. The book also makes an important contribution to the debate of the relationship between theory and practice in information science, and more widely across different fields of the social sciences and humanitie