Linking law: practical guidelines for delivering law to rural Victoria using e-learning technologies

Provides information, analysis and practical tips for organisations seeking to use digital technologies to enhance general and professional legal education for people living in remote, rural and regional (RRR) Victoria. Introduction These guidelines provide information, analysis and practical tips for organisations seeking to use digital technologies to enhance general and professional legal education for people living in remote, rural and regional (RRR) Victoria. Given the difficulties people living in RRR areas still face in having to take time away from work and home and travel long distances to attend many legal educational events, it makes sense to explore these options. However, it can be particularly difficult for organisations seeking to engage with RRR people to choose between educational technologies and techniques, given the considerable hype and movement in the field at present. Options are plentiful and complex, with multiple practical and organisational considerations attached to each, and the situation changes frequently as technologies improve. The increasing reach of high-speed internet and mobile networks is creating opportunities for different and more engaging educational methods to be used in most regional and rural areas, but fast internet is not the be-all and end-all. There is much that can be achieved with intelligent use of a range of lower-tech options including low-speed internet, phone, DVD and regional site-based educational technologies. These guidelines aim to identify a range of practical, digitally based options that are available for different educational purposes, and provide sets of protocols for implementing these options so that RRR people can gain maximum educational benefit and organisations can access guidance on best practice. In many cases, standard good practice in the use of these technologies is all that is needed to include people living in RRR areas effectively in community and professional education. Many metropolitan participants can also benefit from the availability of low-bandwidth options, recordings, provision for individual online access to videoconferenced events and so on. This document begins with an overview of the landscape for digitally based legal community and professional education in RRR Victoria. The requirements of RRR people for legal information and assistance have been described well in recent publications. There is no doubt that digital technologies can help address some of these needs, but technical and non-technical barriers exist, and section 3, ‘Needs, capabilities and barriers in the legal digital education landscape’, sets out briefly what the relevant capabilities and barriers are for RRR people in Victoria. The major part of this document contains guidelines for choosing and implementing a wide range of digitally based education options. The guidelines highlight a range of factors reflecting important practical and pedagogical concerns, including access, cost, need for specialist IT support, cohort size, and ability to support particular learning designs and types of communication. A planning framework focusing on educational approaches is provided as a starting point in section 4, ‘Planning for learning using digital technologies’

On the Possibility of a Digital University

This book proposes a philosophical exploration of the educational role that media plays in university study practices, with a focus on the practices of lecturing and academic writing. Are the media employed in university study practices mere accessories, or rather constitutive of these practices? While this seems to be a purely theoretical question, its practical implications are wide and concern whether such a thing as a ‘digital university’ is possible. The 'digital university' has been, for a long time, a theoretical construct. However, in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, moving the university into the digital realm has become a necessity. The difficulties in transitioning to an online university during the 2020 pandemic showed the increased urgency of the questions explored in this book. The book describes lecturing and academic writing through the lens of a phenomenology of gestures and arrives at a description of the experience of university thinking as expanding the subject’s range of experiences about the world and about one’s modes of thinking about the world. The media configuration characteristic for university study practices is a movement of rendering inoperative one medium through another medium so that thinking can emerge, a movement called ‘mediatic displacement’. The question of the digital university becomes then a question whether mediatic displacement is possible on a digital screen. Although this is conceivable, digital technologies are still relatively new, and we are not used to playing with them in a profanatory way as the book discusses through the example of videoconferencing and MOOCs. The promise of the digital university seems to remain utopian until we figure out how to enact the techniques of mediatic displacement currently flourishing at the physical university

Providing education and support for rural palliative care nurses in Western Australia: An intervention study

Rural palliative care nurses (RPCNs) in Western Australia (WA) are a small population, who have embraced the specialist palliative care role since the first palliative care service in rural WA began in 1990. However, there are some challenges involved with being a specialist nurse in a generalist health care setting. fu particular, there is a suggestion in the literature that RPCNs may be professionally isolated, may be prone to burnout, and may therefore experience decreased job satisfaction and may consider leaving the palliative care field

Developing Online Communities: A Study Of The Processes That Facilitate And Foster Online Learning Communities

The purpose of this naturalistic case study was to investigate students’ perceptions of community at a mid-size American college. This study sought to identify the learning environments, interactions, and activities that are most predictive of developing and fostering a sense of community in online courses. Study participants were full-time teachers, librarians, or instructional technology facilitators working in K-12 environments. Qualitative and quantitative data included interviews; online learners’ experience surveys; transcripts of online discussions; recordings of synchronous sessions; and researcher observations. Data analysis was based in Charmaz’s (2006) constructivist approach to grounded theory. Findings revealed that 1) age and experience with online courses did not make a significant difference in perceived sense of online community for these participants; however, gender did; 2) learning environments influenced students’ perception of community; 3) shared experience and common goals contributed to the development of a sense of community; and 4) online collaboration and activities were viewed by the participants as products that inadvertently served to build community. The significance of this study lies in that it confirms that online communities can be the ideal medium for constructivist online teaching with internet and computer-mediated environments, thus ensuring success for adult learners in higher education

Telehealth in the developing world

Co-published with the Royal Society of Medicine Pres

Application of process factors to the inter-video modality : an examination of expectations and the therapeutic relationship in therapy conducted through a video-link.

Background. This thesis reports the findings of four studies that examined the effect of different variables (e.g., video-link use, shame, therapist eye-contact) on expectations and the therapeutic relationship in the context of Inter-video therapy. Results are discussed with respect to promotion of Inter-video therapy, improvement of clients’ Inter-video therapy experience, and recommendations regarding therapist style of eye-contact. Method. One survey study and three experimental studies were performed. Study 1 (N = 197), a survey study, examined Inter-video therapy preferences and expectations. Study 2 (N = 36) evaluated the effect of therapist-participant physical similarity on Inter-video therapist expectations. Study 3 (N = 19) manipulated therapist eye-contact to evaluate the effect of eyecontact on the therapeutic relationship. Study 4 (N = 49) examined both the effect of eye-contact on the therapeutic relationship and the influence of expectations on this relationship and on outcome. Study 4 also evaluated the association between session measures (empathy, alliance, session evaluation) and outcome. Results and implications. There was a clear discrepancy between participants’ perception of Inter-video therapy (hesitant) and their experience of it (positive), indicating more positive information about this e-therapy modality may be important to enhance expectations and hence use. Therapist rather than therapy expectations had an effect on Inter-video therapy experiences and outcome. As reported in the studies, more visual, factual and personal information about the therapist may increase Inter-video therapist expectations. Therapist-participant physical similarity did not appear to have a positive influence on expectations; indeed it had a negative influence for males with prior therapy experience. Consistent with prior research, participants rated their Intervideo therapy experiences positively, reflected in high rating of working alliance and empathy across the eye-contact conditions. There was no clear positive effect of more direct eye-contact. Instead, there was an interaction effect between eye-contact and shame, indicating the downcast eye-contact associated with video-link communication might assist initial engagement with clients who struggle with shame. Unexpectedly, there was a significant difference in the relationship between the session measures and one of the outcome measures as a function of eye-contact. The difference indicated eye-contact might moderate the relationship between alliance and outcome and this might be important for future research to consider. Conclusions. Participants in this research experienced Inter-video therapy very positively, and results indicated the eye-contact distortion associated with Inter-video therapy should not be a cause for concern regarding the therapeutic relationship. Indeed the downcast eye-contact might facilitate therapy engagement for some clients and could be one reason why some clients perceive Inter-video therapy as more comfortable than in-person therapy. However, the research also indicated participants’ perceptions and expectations toward Inter-video therapy were tentative, especially as compared to perceptions and expectations toward in-person therapy. This latter finding will be important to address to further develop the use and outreach of Inter-video therapy

Pre-sessional English language courses: university telecollaboration as a driver of Global North / South student-contact for engineers

Combining empirical evidence and conceptual argument I argue that online project-work with the Global South can become a pillar for future pre-sessional language support at UK higher education institutions. The evidence-based nature of this work is key, but the papers presented in this submission move beyond methodology, examining the ethical and institutional prerequisites for (and potential barriers to) reciprocal North-South benefits in projects of this nature

Exploration of the optimal model of family member outreach in patients with cancer predisposition syndrome

Background Individuals with a family history of cancer predisposition syndrome are at an elevated risk of multiple cancers. However, approximately 50% of at-risk individuals do not attend genetic counselling and, therefore, cannot benefit from risk-reducing strategies that could decrease the occurrence of cancers associated with the condition. Consequently, it is imperative to explore options to increase hereditary cancer risk communication within affected families for more optimal uptake of genetic counselling. Methods A national cross-sectional study was conducted using an online survey to investigate how probands (the first member in a family to have genetic testing) would like to inform their relatives of the risk of hereditary cancer. Relatives also had the opportunity to respond to questions on how they would like to be informed. Results Generally, there was a high level of acceptance for the health care professionals’ involvement in risk communication among the study’s participants. Preferences for family member outreach in hereditary cancer syndrome were related to demographic characteristics such as education level, annual income, marital status and geographic location. In addition, having a previous cancer diagnosis and other factors such as confidence in speaking with relatives, support from family members and concerns about causing distress were also related. Similarities were noted between the probands and relatives on outreach preferences related to demographic characteristics. Conclusion Even though the family-mediated approach is currently standard care, this method might not be sufficient in cancer risk communication and alternative options that allow for the probands’ involvement with the healthcare provider’s assistance should be explored

How do I create a living theory of leadership development for e-learning as an explanation of educational influence in improving training practice?

In this thesis I outline my living theory (Whitehead 1989) of leadership development for e-learning as an explanation of educational influence in improving training practice. This proceeds from a four-year action research self-study of my professional development as a civil servant in the context of my participation in the Professional Doctorate in Education (Leadership) programme at Dublin City University. The study involved a systematic enquiry into the development of my knowledge and practice as I addressed myself to the question: ‘how do I integrate my studies in the field of educational leadership research with my work as a civil servant in order to improve it?’ In this manner the study bridges the theory-practice gap, exploring the nature of professional development through reflection on the actions undertaken to interrogate theoretical and conceptual ideas from study within training practice and vice versa, and on how new knowledge was produced through this dynamic interplay. The study also develops conceptual understanding about the nature of elearning as an educational leadership issue in the context of three action research cycles in which I tried to support training colleagues to explore the educational potential of information and communications technologies for the development of their practice. This represents a lacuna in the research literature, which has largely treated e-learning in instrumental terms, as an issue of technical innovation or top-down strategy. My claim to knowledge is that I can explain the nature of my professional development and my educational influence in my own learning. The originality of this contribution lies in how I re-conceptualise leadership development for e-learning as an epistemology of professional development in which ontological values are transformed into living standards of accountability. Potential significance lies in its contribution to the development of a knowledge base of practice for training and development