Communicating learning: evaluating the learning experience of distance learning students

Drawing upon research into students’ perceptions of their learning experience as distance learners, this paper explores what works well and what doesn’t. How to more effectively support the learning process through better directive and interactive communication emerges as a key theme

Fostering Scholarly Approaches to Peer Review of Teaching in a Research-Intensive University: Strategic Development of a Departmental SPRoT Protocol

This article draws on a 10-year institutional initiative and examines whether and how a strategic departmental Summative Peer Review of Teaching (SPRoT) Protocol was implemented at a Canadian research-intensive university. A peer review of teaching initiative (2010-12), led by a team of UBC national teaching fellows, was prompted by institutional concerns about the quality of student learning experiences and the effectiveness of teaching in a multi-disciplinary research-intensive university context. Canadian universities have long recognized the importance of attending to the evaluation of teaching practices in their particular contexts; however, the enactment of localized scholarship directed at these practices remains very much in its infancy. Traditional approaches to the evaluation of university teaching have often resulted in the over-reliance on student evaluation of teaching data and/or ad-hoc peer-review of teaching practices with numerous accounts of methodological shortcomings that tend to yield less useful and less authentic data. Using a case study research methodology, this paper examines the strategic development of a departmental SPRoT protocol at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Issues addressed in this article include contemporary approaches to the evaluation of teaching in higher education, faculty “buy-in” for the evaluation of teaching in a research intensive university, scholarly approaches to summative and formative Performance Reviews of Teaching (PRT), faculty-specific engagement in summative and formative (informal to formal) PRT training and implementation, and strategic institutional supports (funding, expertise, mentoring, technological resources)

Henrik VIII. i Marulićev Evanđelistar

This paper examines Henry VIII’s ownership and reading of Marko Marulić’s Evangelistarium. In order to explain the context in which the Evangelistarium entered the Royal Library, the first part of the paper provides an overview of the transformation that Henry’s library underwent in the late 1520s and early 1530s, when royal agents and scholars searched for evidence to justify Henry’s growing doubts about his marriage to Katherine of Aragón. The second part of the paper focuses on Henry’s marginalia in his personal copy of the Evangelistarium, one of the most heavily-annotated books to survive from Henry’s library, and demonstrates that an examination of the King’s marginal comments provide important insights into his theological concerns and the development of his thinking concerning his marriage, papal authority and his relationship with god.Britanska knjižnica posjeduje primjerak Marulićeva Evanđelistara iz 1529. koji je bio osobno vlasništvo engleskoga kralja Henrika VIII. Uz Henrikov osobni psaltir, Marulićev Evanđelistar je knjiga s najvećim brojem vlastoručnih bilježaka među sačuvanim svescima Henrikove knjižnice; stoga ona može mnogo otkriti o vlasnikovim najskrovitijim razmišljanjima na prekretnici njegova životnog i vladarskog puta. Rad započinje razmatranjem promjena što ih je Henrikova knjižnica doživjela u kasnim dvadesetim i ranim tridesetim godinama 16. st. Tijekom tog razdoblja kraljevskim je posrednicima i učenjacima naloženo da prikupljaju knjige i rukopise u kojima bi se mogli naći podatci koji bi opravdavali Henrikove rastuće dvojbe o valjanosti braka s Katarinom Aragonskom, udovicom njegova brata. Potvrdu da je Evanđelistar nabavljen i čitan upravo u tom kontekstu pruža svečani primjerak djela Gravissimae academiarum censurae, što su ga Henrikovi učenjaci objavili 1531. godine u prilog njegovu pravu na razvod, temeljeći to pravo na Levitskom zakoniku, koji zabranjuje da se za ženu uzme bratova udovica. Gravissimae censurae sadrže ulomak iz Evanđelistara (1,8: De lege et euangelio) o važnosti i trajnoj valjanosti moralnih propisa sadržanih u Starom zavjetu. U Henrikovu osobnom primjerku Evanđelistara upravo uz taj ulomak nalazimo kraljevu zabilješku koja nedvojbeno potvrđuje kako je knjigu čitao prije nego što su Gravissimae censurae bile tiskane. Drugi dio rada nudi detaljne podatke o Henrikovim marginalijama u Evanđelistaru. Učestalost rubnih bilježaka i komentara otkriva nam da su kralja ponajvećma zanimala poglavlja o proučavanju svetih tekstova, o slušanju riječi Božje, o deset zapovijedi, o pokornosti Bogu i o izboru supruge. Kraljevi rubni komentari omogućuju važan uvid u njegove teološke preokupacije i u razvoj njegova razmišljanja o statusu vlastitoga braka, o papinskom autoritetu i o odnosu prema Bogu

Externalized ATP in intact erythrocyte suspensions: modulation and determination

Well recognized for its role as the energy currency of cells, ATP plays an altogether different role in the mammalian vascular system. Erythrocyte-derived extracellular ATP is fast gaining recognition as a vital vasodilator in blood; stimulating a rapid widening of blood vessels when released into the circulation. Currently, the primary technique employed to determine the concentration of ATP released from erythrocytes is the luciferin-luciferase chemiluminescent assay, which is both robust in signal and specific for ATP. However, the assay is subject to interferences inherent to working with erythrocytes, such as the presence of hemoglobin, which filters the emitted chemiluminescence signal. At the outset, the current work examined the luciferin-luciferase chemiluminescent assay in the microplate format and evaluated the parameters necessary to determine ATP in suspensions of intact erythrocytes. Based on the methodological considerations which arose from the examination of the assay, the concentration of ATP in suspensions of intact erythrocytes was compared to that of their supernatants. It was determined that the ATP released into the supernatants of erythrocyte suspensions represents but a fraction of the ATP which is externalized and accessible for enzymatic reactions. Known stimuli of ATP release, including CO2 and hypo-osmotic stress, were also used to compare the sensitivity of erythrocytes obtained from humans to those from rats, a common pharmacological model organism: human erythrocytes proved to be more sensitive to stimuli than rat erythrocytes. Ultimately, a method for measuring ATP in suspensions of intact erythrocytes was developed, and the possibility of two modes of erythrocyte release was discovered. The erythrocyte has long been held as a sensor within the vasculature, and this work underscores the growing importance being placed on the erythrocyte’s role as an effector through the regulation of the release of the vasodilator AT

The Crystal Structure of the Extracellular 11-heme Cytochrome UndA Reveals a Conserved 10-heme Motif and Defined Binding Site for Soluble Iron Chelates

Members of the genus Shewanella translocate deca- or undeca-heme cytochromes to the external cell surface thus enabling respiration using extracellular minerals and polynuclear Fe(III) chelates. The high resolution structure of the first undeca-heme outer membrane cytochrome, UndA, reveals a crossed heme chain with four potential electron ingress/egress sites arranged within four domains. Sequence and structural alignment of UndA and the deca-heme MtrF reveals the extra heme of UndA is inserted between MtrF hemes 6 and 7. The remaining UndA hemes can be superposed over the heme chain of the decaheme MtrF, suggesting that a ten heme core is conserved between outer membrane cytochromes. The UndA structure has also been crystallographically resolved in complex with substrates, an Fe(III)-nitrilotriacetate dimer or an Fe(III)-citrate trimer. The structural resolution of these UndA-Fe(III)-chelate complexes provides a rationale for previous kinetic measurements on UndA and other outer membrane cytochromes

Strategic Approaches to SoEL Inquiry Within and Across Disciplines: Twenty-year Impact of an International Faculty Development Program in Diverse University Contexts

Educational leaders on university campuses around the world are increasingly required to account for the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of their undergraduate and graduate degree programs. The S Scholarship of Educational Leadership (SoEL) in higher education is a distinctive form of strategic inquiry for educational leaders with an explicit transformational agenda of educational practices within and across the disciplines in diverse university contexts. This paper examines complex institutional challenges and strategic approaches to SoEL inquiry. In an international faculty development context, data suggests that educational leaders from a variety of disciplines face significant challenges when undertaking SoEL inquiry. Strategic institutional supports and customised professional development are key to facilitating SoEL inquiry in higher education. Further, SoEL is inherently situated, socially mediated, and responsive to the professional learning needs and circumstances of educational leaders within and across the disciplines in diverse university contexts

Classroom Level Effects of Children’s Prior Participation in Child Care

Previous research indicates that children who spend many hours in early child care exhibit more externalizing behavior problems than children who spend less time in child care. Concern has been expressed regarding the cumulative effect of these problem behaviors on elementary school classes. We collected information about children’s child-care histories from parents of first through fourth graders (N = 429) and about classroom functioning from their teachers (N = 31). We analyzed associations between the proportion of children in the class who had spent many hours in care prior to school entry and teachers’ reports of the time they spent in instruction and management, the difficulty they had in teaching and managing the class and the frequency of students’ positive and negative behavior in the classroom. No significant associations were found to support the contention that prior child-care participation negatively affects classroom functioning

An investigation into the temporal reproducibility of Tryptophan metabolite networks among healthy adolescents

Tryptophan and its bioactive metabolites are associated with health conditions such as systemic inflammation, cardiometabolic diseases, and neurodegenerative disorders. There are dynamic interactions among metabolites of tryptophan. The interactions between metabolites, particularly those that are strong and temporally reproducible could be of pathophysiological relevance. Using a targeted metabolomics approach, the concentration levels of tryptophan and 18 of its metabolites across multiple pathways was quantified in 24-hours urine samples at 2 time-points, age 17 years (baseline) and 18 years (follow-up) from 132 (52% female) apparently healthy adolescent participants of the DOrtmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) Study. In sex-specific analyses, we applied 2 network approaches, the Gaussian graphical model and Bayesian network to (1) explore the network structure for both time-points, (2) retrieve strongly related metabolites, and (3) determine whether the strongly related metabolites were temporally reproducible. Independent of selected covariates, the 2 network approaches revealed 5 associations that were strong and temporally reproducible. These were novel relationships, between kynurenic acid and indole-3-acetic acid in females and between kynurenic acid and xanthurenic acid in males, as well as known relationships between kynurenine and 3-hydroxykynurenine, and between 3-hydroxykynurenine and 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid in females and between tryptophan and kynurenine in males. Overall, this epidemiological study using network-based approaches shed new light into tryptophan metabolism, particularly the interaction of host and microbial metabolites. The 5 observed relationships suggested the existence of a temporally stable pattern of tryptophan and 6 metabolites in healthy adolescent, which could be further investigated in search of fingerprints of specific physiological states. The metabolites in these relationships may represent a multi-biomarker panel that could be informative for health outcome