Invisible Pixels Are Dead, Long Live Invisible Pixels!

Privacy has deteriorated in the world wide web ever since the 1990s. The tracking of browsing habits by different third-parties has been at the center of this deterioration. Web cookies and so-called web beacons have been the classical ways to implement third-party tracking. Due to the introduction of more sophisticated technical tracking solutions and other fundamental transformations, the use of classical image-based web beacons might be expected to have lost their appeal. According to a sample of over thirty thousand images collected from popular websites, this paper shows that such an assumption is a fallacy: classical 1 x 1 images are still commonly used for third-party tracking in the contemporary world wide web. While it seems that ad-blockers are unable to fully block these classical image-based tracking beacons, the paper further demonstrates that even limited information can be used to accurately classify the third-party 1 x 1 images from other images. An average classification accuracy of 0.956 is reached in the empirical experiment. With these results the paper contributes to the ongoing attempts to better understand the lack of privacy in the world wide web, and the means by which the situation might be eventually improved.Comment: Forthcoming in the 17th Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society (WPES 2018), Toronto, AC

What are we missing here? Problematising wisdoms on teaching quality professionalism in higher education

In this discussion paper we seek to challenge prevailing wisdoms in higher education regarding the value of measuring teaching quality, prescribing standards for professionalism and using student satisfaction as an indicator of teaching effectiveness. Drawing on the literature, we explore and probe four wisdoms in an attempt to identify and problematise popular assumptions about teaching and professionalism. We suggest that externalising procedures for assessing quality can be counter-productive to effective teaching and learning and propose core values we see as central to enhancing higher education practice: collegial reflection on practice, consideration of ethical issues and risk-taking

From mentoring to monitoring: The impact of changing work environments on academics in Australian universities

Universities in many western nations are experiencing increasing performance measures for academic accountability. This paper maps the pitted pathway that has led Australian universities from mentoring to monitoring and from performance enhancement to performance evaluation, and reviews implications for teaching and learning in higher education. We explore understandings of good mentoring and its effects and examine the social and political climate out of which quality assurance processes have arisen, to articulate the aims and philosophies underpinning these approaches. Drawing on the published literature, we critique processes that have as their main goals monitoring rather than mentoring, and performance evaluation rather than performance enhancement. From our perspectives as teachers in higher education in Australia we raise issues for consideration, including the tensions between practice and promise and the roles of mentors and monitors in promoting growth or compliance. We discuss criteria and models for evaluating mentoring and monitoring. © 2008 UCU

The Impact of Hospital Costing Methods on Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: A Case Study

Background: Several methods exist to cost hospital contacts when estimating the cost effectiveness of a new intervention. However, the implications of choosing a particular approach remain unclear. We compare the use of the three main diagnosis-related group (DRG)-based national unit costs in England to determine whether choice of approach can impact on economic evaluation results. Methods: A cost-utility model was developed to compare secondary fracture prevention models of care for hip fracture patients, using data from large primary and hospital care administrative datasets in England. A healthcare and personal social services payer perspective was adopted, and utilities were informed by a meta-regression. Hospital resource use was valued using three DRG-based unit costs, and regression-based costing models were developed using data from 13,906 patients to inform the model health states. Results: Finished consultant episode (FCE)-level reference costs resulted in the highest costs on admission (£9075) and in the year of the fracture (£14,440). Relative to FCE-level costs, spell-level tariffs led to the lowest total hospital care costs per patient within 1 year of fracture (− £3691) compared with spell-level reference costs (− £2106). At a £20,000/quality-adjusted life-year threshold, using spell-level reference costs or spell-level tariffs, the introduction of a nurse-led fracture liaison service model of care was the cost-effective alternative. However, using FCE-level reference costs, usual care was the cost-effective option. Conclusions: Our results show that, conditional on the set of national unit costs adopted, the costs of hip fracture may vary considerably and different decisions may be reached regarding the introduction of new healthcare interventions

Reflecting on Users’ Strategies for Resilient Interactions

One crucial contributor to the resilience and reliability of interactions with technical and sociotechnical systems is the resilience of users themselves. While the study of human factors has traditionally focused on the negative aspects or frailties of human performance, attention is increasingly turning to also consider the proactive and positive contributions human performance can make across a range of tasks and settings. In this position paper, we introduce the notion of Resilience Strategies, summarise some of our current work in this area and discuss examples of resilience strategies we have encountered during the course of this work. We also discuss how work into resilience strategies is situated in terms of broader work into the high-level resilience of sociotechnical systems, and interactions with technical systems

Learning Lessons from Controlled Studies to Investigate Users' Resilience Strategies

This work describes the development and implementation of a controlled study into the way users form and utilise resilience strategies to overcome threats to performance. Despite a carefully considered design, participants demonstrated creative and unanticipated strategies to overcome deliberately ‘designed-in’ challenges in our task, thus circumventing the errors and responses we had predicted. We discuss the variety of unanticipated resilience strategies we observed during the course of this study, as well as methodological lessons learned as a result. Furthermore, we describe a forthcoming study which seeks to build upon the initial investigation, utilising a revised task paradigm to address and overcome its limitations

Enhancing teacher education practice through professional learning conversations

The paper discusses the value of peer observation followed by professional learning conversations for the professional development of teacher educators. The authors analyse their shared learning experiences and articulate what challenged them in these experiences. They discuss the ways in which their perceptions of this process differed or were similar. The grounding of the experience in a context of trust and professional relationship was seen as an essential part of the learning process. The authors highlight the importance of the cognitive-emotional and personal-professional aspects of teacher educators' lives in supporting their learning through the combination of peer observation and ongoing professional learning conversations. © 2008 Association for Teacher Education in Europe

Changing course: The paradox of the career change student-teacher

© 2018 International Professional Development Association (IPDA). The article reports on career change student-teachers’ (CCSTs) views and experiences regarding their teacher education programs in Australia. Data were collected through an online survey distributed to universities for dissemination to enrolled CCSTs in teacher education programs. The responses from over 500 CCSTs were analysed using an interpretive lens of inquiry and analysis. Over 80% of the responses indicated tensions and paradoxes that exist in CCSTs’ lives as they come to terms with being students again. The article explores the impact on their student lives of the characteristics, experiences and expectations they bring to their studies, mediated by their previous careers and current circumstances. The findings discuss their perceptions of their teacher education programs and consider implications for CCSTs’ professional learning needs in the light of the paradoxes that emerge from the data