Jefferson Digital Commons quarterly report: July-September 2017

This quarterly report includes: Assorted articles Confronting Racism, Bias, and Social Injustice in Healthcare Lecture CREATE DAY OT Capstone presentations Grand Rounds Assorted Newsletters Nexus Maximus Posters University Wide Posters House Staff Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Posters CSHLA Scholar Day posters Student publications and presentations What People are Saying about the Jefferson Digital Common

Coping strategies for staff involved in assessment of laboratory write-ups

Laboratory-based practical exercises, which are an important and time-consuming part of many science degree courses, may be directed towards a variety of learning objectives. Some of these have traditionally been assessed by staff marking the student's written account of the laboratory experiment (the laboratory write-up) but increasing student numbers, which may have doubled or quadrupled on some modules, have made it difficult to sustain this approach. In addition, there is evidence that the formative element of the assessment (i.e. the comments written by staff on the laboratory write-up) is not fully utilized by students who are often only interested in the mark given. This paper reports on experience with the various strategies which may be used to cope with the increased marking load while maintaining or improving the learning gain from the formative element of the assessment. The adoption of a balanced mixture of strategies may present the best solution to the problem but must be tailored to local circumstances

The Electronic Health Record Scorecard: A Measure of Utilization and Communication Skills

As the adoption rate of electronic health records (EHRs) in the United States continues to grow, both providers and patients will need to adapt to the reality of a third actor being present during the visit encounter. The purpose of this project is to provide insight on “best” practice patterns for effective communication and efficient use of the EHR in the clinical practice setting. Through the development of a comprehensive scorecard, this project assessed current status of EHR use and communication skills among health care providers in various clinical practice settings. Anticipated benefits of this project are increased comfortability in interfacing with the EHR and increased satisfaction on the part of the provider as well as the patient. Serving as a benchmark, this assessment has the potential to help guide future health information technology development, training, and education for both students and health care providers

Will Formula-Based Funding and Decentralized Management Improve School Level Resources in Sri Lanka?

Using the experience of the Educational Quality Inputs (EQI) Scheme in Sri Lanka, the paper examines the distributional aspects of formula-based funding and efficiency of decentralized management of education funds in a developing country setting. The study finds that the EQI fund distribution is largely pro-poor, with the exception of expenditure at the collegial level. The study finds that allocating more funds to more disadvantaged schools alone is insufficient to reduce disparities as the inability of schools to fullly utilize the funds holds back progress. The study findings support the hypothesis that qualified principals, adequate levels of human and physical resources, and state-level monitoring and support is needed for the success of education management at the school level. The study highlights the need to better use information collected from the schools on the EQI scheme to simplify and improve its implementation and effectiveness.Education finance, Sri Lanka, formula-based funding, decentralized management of schools

Trinity Restoration Inc.: Southside Cultural Center Economic Impact Study

Economic development has shifted from location-oriented business models towards a more all-encompassing model that recognizes the advancement of human capital or intellectual property as continuously increasing in value. This microcosmic characteristic of development extends to aid in the growth of society as a whole. The Arts and Culture attract a demographic of inspired and motivated people to the area. It results in the development of the society surrounding art venues. The general population will always seek out entertainment, by installing a venue of artistic expression in South Providence that will motivate the community and propel development. This phenomena has been proven, as denoted through the historical evaluation of artistic venues across America that have generated economic growth in their respective communities

Modular eco-class: an approach towards a sustainable innovative learning environment in Egypt

Today, Egypt suffers from deterioration of education quality as a result of deficient learning spaces, insufficient governmental expenditure and funding, and lack of proper research in education developmental strategies. Additionally, 21st century learning requires innovative spaces that connect school, home, and community. Therefore, new learning spaces should increase flexibility, support hands-on and outside-class learning activities in order to motivate learners. Furthermore, they intend to encourage extra-curricular activities beyond conventional learning times. Undoubtedly, comfortable, safe and creative learning spaces can inspire and motivate users, while ugly/unsafe spaces can depress. Therefore, welldesigned learning spaces are able to support creative, productive and efficient learning processes on one hand. On the other hand, ecological design measures became an increasingly major keystone for modern sustainable learning-spaces. Thus, learning-spaces’ design process, form, components, materials, features, and energy-saving technologies can yield well-educated, environmentally-literate, energy-conscious, and innovative future-generations. This paper represents a preliminary phase of an ongoing research project that aims to create a framework for an Innovative Sustainable Learning Environment (ISLE) in developing countries, the Middle East region, and Egypt in particular. This project aims at encouraging constructive relationships between users, buildings, ecosystems and to improve quality of learning through intelligent and ecologically well designed learning-spaces. The paper proposes the concept of modular Eco-Class as a framework of learning spaces and a stepforward in the direction of ISLE. Moreover, this Eco-Class aims to educate and provide balance between building’s environmental sensitivity, high performance, initial cost, and lifecycle costs without harming the surrounding ecology. The Eco-Class not only intends to promote a positive environmental impact to improve indoor air quality and energy efficiency, it also provides on its own an environment that educates learners and elevates environmentalawareness between future generations. Finally, the study and the ongoing research project of Eco-Class aim to provide validated design-guidelines for sustainable educational buildings, and to achieve the optimum innovative and sustainable learning environment in Egypt for effective and creative future-generation learners, parents, staff, and communities