Investigating The Impact of Interaction Design on the Delivery of Online Pharmaceutical Courses: Adapting Online Course Graphic Design for Improved Content Retention

In recent years, the use of online courses has emerged as a way to quickly and easily deliver content to large numbers of trainees. In writing these courses, pharmaceutical course developers often use traditional instructional design models and techniques to design course content for online learning. But is this truly enough? Interaction design principles and practices can also be incorporated to increase the quality of learning by improving learner comprehension and retention. Using pharmaceutical content and learners, this research investigated how interaction design impacts online learning by measuring the effect of applying different graphical user interfaces. The results were surprising, as the data showed no significant improvement in retention rates between graphical treatments. However, the incorporation of graphics did slightly improve overall course satisfaction

Investigating the Impact of Interaction Design

In recent years, the use of online courses has emerged as a way to quickly and easily deliver content to large numbers of trainees. In writing these courses, pharmaceutical course developers often use traditional instructional design models and techniques to design course content for online learning. But is this truly enough? Interaction design principles and practices can also be incorporated to increase the quality of learning by improving learner comprehension and retention. Using pharmaceutical content and learners, this research investigated how interaction design impacts online learning by measuring the effect of applying different graphical user interfaces. The results were surprising, as the data showed no significant improvement in retention rates between graphical treatments. However, the incorporation of graphics did slightly improve overall course satisfaction

A New System of Classifying Out-of-School Time Job Responsibilities

Out-of-school time (OST) is a burgeoning field with both research and policy implications. Efforts to improve professional development for OST staff members are of particular interest, as funding streams increasingly target interventions which promote positive changes in student outcomes. Professional development evaluation in particular is hindered by a lack of consistency among job titles and responsibilities across OST organizations. This mixed-method study utilizes original data to explore underlying patterns of job responsibilities within the field and offers a new classification system based on exploratory factor analyses. The classification includes five categories, each with a unique combination of common job responsibilities to assist survey respondents in choosing the appropriate category: upper-level administration, mid-level administration, direct-service, capacity-building, and “other.” Results suggest this new system is user-friendly to both respondents and researchers, and will garner more accurate and comparative information for future OST research and application

Proposição de indicadores de mobilidade urbana sustentável no contexto do transporte de cargas

Orientadora: Prof.ª Dra. Márcia de Andrade Pereira BernardinisDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Tecnologia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Planejamento Urbano. Defesa : Curitiba, 28/02/2019Inclui referências: p.104-109Resumo: A temática do transporte de cargas integrado ao planejamento urbano é vista ainda como não explorada nacional e internacionalmente, tanto no campo da pesquisa quanto no contexto político mais amplo. Aliando tal problemática à generalização e superficialidade do tema em políticas de mobilidade e aos impactos causados por este modo de deslocamento de mercadorias, este trabalho teve como objetivo, no campo das metodologias de avaliação e monitoramento da mobilidade, identificar indicadores a partir de uma abordagem inédita no transporte de cargas. Para isso, foram realizados levantamentos teóricos, pesquisas com especialistas da área, uma avaliação multicritério para identificação do nível de importância de cada indicador e, por fim, a quantificação dos indicadores propostos a partir de um sistema de normalização. Como resultado, foram concebidos 32 indicadores divididos em 6 temas, incorporados nas três dimensões da mobilidade urbana sustentável: ambiental, social e econômica. Pôde-se, desta forma, compreender o papel fundamental do transporte de mercadorias para o desenvolvimento das cidades, em especial as com características industriais e portuárias, e as consequências da falta de planejamento de tal modalidade. Este fato vai de encontro com a necessidade de sistemas mais efetivos de avaliação e monitoramento por meio dos indicadores aqui propostos. Palavras-chave: Mobilidade urbana sustentável, Transporte de cargas, Indicadores.Abstract: The freight transportation theme integrated with urban planning is still seen as not explored national and internationally, both in the field of research and in the broader political context. Combining this issue with the generalization and superficiality of the theme in mobility policies and the impacts caused by this mode of goods transportation, this work had the objective, in the field of mobility evaluation and monitoring methodologies, to identify indicators from an unpublished approach in the freight transportation. For that, theoretical surveys, researches with specialists in the area and a multicriteria evaluation were carried out to identify the level of importance of each indicator and, finally, the quantification of the indicators proposed from a standardization system. As a result, 32 indicators were conceived, divided into 6 themes, incorporated into the three dimensions of sustainable urban mobility: environmental, social and economic. In this way, it was possible to understand the fundamental role of freight transport for the development of cities, especially those with industrial and port characteristics, and the consequences of the lack of planning of this mode. This fact meets the need for more effective evaluation and monitoring systems through the indicators proposed here. Keywords: Sustainable urban mobility, Freight transportation, Indicators

Development of the OSTRC Conference Evaluation Toolkit

Research demonstrates that staff quality directly impacts student achievement in out-of-school time (OST) settings, and that effective staff development contributes to a skilled workforce. Evaluating OST professional development is therefore attracting increased attention from researchers, practitioners, and funding agencies. In the spring of 2004, the Out-of-School Time Resource Center (OSTRC) began searching for professional development evaluation instruments designed specifically for the OST field. Since the OSTRC could not locate research-based surveys for this genre, it implemented a pilot study to create and test such instruments. These surveys were designed to evaluate professional conferences, which are critical (but not exclusive) components of OST professional development opportunities. The overarching goal of this study was to operationalize the pathway between professional development conferences and increased student learning

Findings from Five Out-of-School Time Focus Groups: Professional Development Preferences, Experiences and Recommendations for Future Planning

Evaluating professional development can assist with designing better programs in the future, yet survey instruments may not always capture the nuances of participant’s experiences. Therefore, in order to develop better survey instruments, the Out-of-School Time Resource Center conducted a series of five focus groups. Questions pertained to participants’ job-related needs, preferred types of professional development, characteristics of both “good” and “bad” workshops, reasons why new information is not utilized, and recommendations for policymakers/funders. Findings from the focus groups have been used to revise OSTRC pilot surveys, which will be standardized and published as an Evaluation Toolkit that can be used to design and evaluate OST conferences

Findings from Five Out-of-School Time Focus Groups: Professional Development Preferences, Experiences and Recommendations for Future Planning

Evaluating professional development can assist with designing better programs in the future, yet survey instruments may not always capture the nuances of participant’s experiences. Therefore, in order to develop better survey instruments, the Out-of-School Time Resource Center conducted a series of five focus groups. Questions pertained to participants’ job-related needs, preferred types of professional development, characteristics of both “good” and “bad” workshops, reasons why new information is not utilized, and recommendations for policymakers/funders. Findings from the focus groups have been used to revise OSTRC pilot surveys, which will be standardized and published as an Evaluation Toolkit that can be used to design and evaluate OST conferences

Indicadores de mobilidade urbana sustentável para cidades de médio porte: uma aplicação em cidade de região metropolitana do Paraná / Sustainable urban mobility indicators for middle cities porte: an application in the city of Paraná metropolitan region

O crescimento urbano desordenado, provocado pelo aumento espacial, aumento excessivo no uso do automóvel, a falta de infraestrutura urbana e a poluição do meio ambiente são questões, segundo Maganini (2008), que interferem na qualidade de vida da população. Estes fatores têm contribuído para que pesquisadores e tomadores de decisão busquem novas formas de minizar, discutir e encontrar soluções para estas questões urbanas. Tendo em vista este panorama, esta pesquisa tem como objetivo adaptar um Índice de Mobilidade Urbana Sustentável (IMUS) para cidades de médio porte. Além disso aplicar os indicadores pré-selecionados em uma cidade de região metropolitana do estado do Paraná. Para tanto será utilizado o IMUS criado por Costa (2008). Este índice contém 87 indicadores distribuídos em três dimensões: ambiental, social e econômica capazes de avaliar quali e quantitativamente aspectos pertinentes a mobilidade. Após uma análise criteriosa, foram selecionados 66 indicadores referentes a cidades de médio e pequeno porte. Coletados os devidos dados foi possível aplicar o índice na cidade em estudo identificando as potencialidades e deficiências relacionadas ao sistema de mobilidade da cidade, como por exemplo: realização de pesquisa O/D, implementação de frotas de veículos que utilizem energia limpa e combustíveis alternativos, investimentos em infraestrutura dos sistemas de transportes voltados aos modos não-motorizados, etc. Dessa forma, conclui-se que o IMUS mostrou ser uma ferramenta desenvolvida para auxiliar na análise e monitoramento da mobilidade urbana e na elaboração de políticas públicas visando a sustentabilidade nos sistemas de mobilidade e a melhoria da qualidade de vida.