Critical evaluation of the features on one student dashboard

This poster critically evaluates the implementation a particular undergraduate student dashboard. The evaluation uses Scheffel et al.’s (2014) five criteria for judging learning analytical quality (objectives, learning support, learning measures and output data aspects and organisational aspects). It presents the findings of the evaluation and identifies further questions for further research in the emergent area of learning analytics and dashboard design

Laying Down the Foundations for International Student Journey. Students as Academic Partners Project Report.

The aim of this project was to explore the lived experiences of being an international student studying at a University within the UK and to make recommendations for future provision. There are increasing numbers of international students studying at Universities within the UK. Positive learning environments and arrangements are the responsibility of the host University and international students’ needs should be taken into consideration. This project was led by international students in collaboration with academic staff. It involved a qualitative exploration of international student perspectives and their experiences of studying within the UK. Ten international students completed a questionnaire that was designed by international students. Respondents were asked questions in relation to three areas: coming to the UK, arriving in the UK and studying in the UK

Understanding the potential of learning design to support university teachers’ design processes

Abstract LAMS 2008 conference, June 26th, Cadiz, Spain.In this paper the authors clarify the notion of the learning design as a potential approach to supporting teaching practice. They present the conceptual basis for the learning design approach currently being explored in a major Australian research study and present a simple but systematic approach to describe teaching and learning experiences using a formalism that is readily understood by university teachers. The complementary relationship between this formalism and international standards, such as IMS-LD, is also explained.The work on this publication has been sponsored by the TENCompetence Integrated Project that is funded by the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme, priority IST/Technology Enhanced Learning. Contract 027087 [http://www.tencompetence.org

It’s About Time: working towards more equitable understandings of the impact of time for students in higher education

Higher education experiences are increasingly intensified by competing imperatives of study, work, and personal commitments. However, despite significant change, the assumption persists that time is a neutral and linear framework in which all students are equally positioned. This report documents our research into how experiences of ‘time’, as well as dominant discourses about ‘time management’, impact on the attraction, retention, and performance of students in higher education. The study engaged 46 students from undergraduate programs at three regional universities, one in Australia and two a small regional town in the United Kingdom, where the student population includes significant cohorts of equity groups including students from regional and rural backgrounds

Laboratory based experiments to assess the use of green and food based compost to improve water quality in a Sustainable Drainage (SUDS) device such as a swale

Many tonnes of compost are generated per year due to door step composting of both garden and kitchen waste. Whilst there are commercial outlets for the finer grade of compost (< 10 mm) in plant nurseries, there is little demand for the coarser material (> 25 mm). This paper reports part of a WRAP-sponsored (Waste Resources Action Programme) study which investigated the potential for green (GC) and mixed green and food (MC) composts to be incorporated into Sustainable Drainage (SUDS) devices such as swales, and replace the topsoil (TS) onto which turf is laid or grass seed distributed. However, it is not known whether compost can replace TS in terms of pollutant remediation, both the trapping of polluted particulates and in dealing with hydrocarbons such as oil, but also from a biofilm development and activity perspective. Using laboratory based experiments utilising leaching columns and an investigation of microbiological development in the composts studied, it was found that many of the differences in performance between MC and GC were insignificant, whilst both composts performed better in terms of pollutant retention than TS. Mixed compost in particular could be used in devices where there may be oil spillages, such as the lorry park of a Motorway Service Area due to its efficiency in degrading oil. Samples of GC and MC were found to contain many of the bacteria and fungi necessary for an active and efficient biofilm which would be an argument in their favour for replacement of TS and incorporation in swales

Epistemic fit and the mobilisation of management knowledge in health care

We discuss the mobilisation of management knowledge in health care, drawing on six qualitative case studies in a diverse range of health care settings. Drawing on theory about management knowledge and practices’ ‘fit’, and emergent theory about ‘epistemic stances’, we explain how cultural/institutional, political and epistemic fit and clashes between the norms, interests and epistemic stances of different communities affected knowledge mobilisation in these settings. We also highlight the key role of knowledge brokers in ‘fitting’ knowledge within contexts as part of their own identity work. Yet we note that knowledge brokers’ ability to mobilise and fit knowledge depended on having a senior role or senior level support, and credibility/legitimacy with dominant communities. We suggest that our novel concepts of ‘epistemic fit’ and ‘fitting’ are useful in explaining the process of knowledge mobilisation, particularly in complex pluralistic health care contexts containing multiple epistemic communities which produce, use and value knowledge in different ways

Association of white matter hyperintensities and gray matter volume with cognition in older individuals without cognitive impairment

Both presence of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) and smaller total gray matter volume on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are common findings in old age, and contribute to impaired cognition. We tested whether total WMH volume and gray matter volume had independent associations with cognition in community-dwelling individuals without dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We used data from participants of the Rush Memory and Aging Project. Brain MRI was available in 209 subjects without dementia or MCI (mean age 80; education = 15 years; 74 % women). WMH and gray matter were automatically segmented, and the total WMH and gray matter volumes were measured. Both MRI-derived measures were normalized by the intracranial volume. Cognitive data included composite measures of five different cognitive domains, based on 19 individual tests. Linear regression analyses, adjusted for age, sex, and education, were used to examine the relationship of logarithmically-transformed total WMH volume and of total gray matter volume to cognition. Larger total WMH volumes were associated with lower levels of perceptual speed (p < 0.001), but not with episodic memory, semantic memory, working memory, or visuospatial abilities (all p > 0.10). Smaller total gray matter volumes were associated with lower levels of perceptual speed (p = 0.013) and episodic memory (p = 0.001), but not with the other three cognitive domains (all p > 0.14). Larger total WMH volume was correlated with smaller total gray matter volume (p < 0.001). In a model with both MRI-derived measures included, the relation of WMH to perceptual speed remained significant (p < 0.001), while gray matter volumes were no longer related (p = 0.14). This study of older community-dwelling individuals without overt cognitive impairment suggests that the association of larger total WMH volume with lower perceptual speed is independent of total gray matter volume. These results help elucidate the pathological processes leading to lower cognitive function in aging

Dashboard literacy: Understanding students’ response to learning analytic dashboards

Dashboards are the graphical interface that manipulate and present data about students’ learning behaviours (attendance, visits to the library, attainment etc.). Although only a few UK HEIs have developed a dashboard for students, most other UK HEIs have an aspiration to develop their use (Sclater 2014). Hence it is timely and significant to understand the ways that students respond to seeing data presented to them in the form of a dashboard.&nbsp; This paper discusses and conceptualises the findings from a small scale study, funded by Society for Research in Higher Education. The study involved twenty-four final year undergraduate students in a single faculty in a UK University. The study focussed on the ways that students interpret and respond to seeing data about their learning presented via a dashboard. Sutton’s (2012) three pillars of feedback literacy: knowing, becoming and acting, were employed to understand the potential of dashboards for supporting students’ motivation towards their learning. The paper suggests that, similar to feedback literacy, there is a type of literacy associated with dashboards that has components of knowing, becoming and acting and that employing these concepts helps us to understand how students’ respond to dashboards. By identifying students' engagement with dashboards as a literacy practice rather than a technical skill or understanding, the paper argues that we need to focus on students' growing identity that is embedded into a sense of being and is individually experienced and constructed. Hence the notion of dashboard literacy suggests that institutions need to work with students to develop their personal and reflective processes to enhance the way that dashboards are interpreted.&nbsp; The paper provides evidence that students may be motivated by seeing their data presented in a dashboard format and this can lead to changes in behaviour which are likely to lead to improved student outcomes and attainment. It also illustrates how students’ engagement with dashboards is highly individual and dependent on their personal disposition and orientation to learning. Hence their use needs to be treated cautiously recognising the power that these tools have to shape impact on students' well-being alongside their potential