OCSLD guide to blogging

A quick guide to some of the uses of blogs in HE, and how to get started with your own blog

The DIP-approach:Student-staff partnerships as a vital tool for learning developers and educators to develop academic [and digital] literacies

Student-staff partnerships can be used to support the development of contextualised digital learning and teaching practices. This can be done by shifting the focus from IT skills to addressing a priority in learning and teaching using a digital approach that is appropriate for that discipline. The development of a formal ‘Digital Innovation Partnership’ (DIP) scheme at the University of Leicester brings students’ digital confidence, perspectives and motivation to enhance learning and teaching. It also recognises the valuable contribution and expertise of student and staff participants. This draws on the academic literacies work of Lea and Street (1998; 2006) and digital literacies work of Sharpe and Beetham (2010) to appreciate that staff and students are developing social practices that are situated within a discipline and intertwined with social, cultural and political factors, power and identity. The reasons for the success of the scheme are explored here, with recommendations for how the model can be applied more generally to educational design to support students’ academic literacies development

From Creating Spaces for Civic Discourse to Creating Resources for Action

In this paper, we investigate the role of technology to address the concerns of a civil society group carrying out community-level consultation on the allocation of £1 million of community funds. We explore issues of devolved decision-making through the evaluation of a sociodigital system designed to foster deliberative virtues. We describe the ways in which this group used our system in their consultation practices. Our findings highlight how they adopted our technology to privilege specific forms of expression, ascertain issues in their community, make use of and make sense of community data, and create resources for action within their existing practices. Based on related fieldwork we discuss the impacts of structuring and configuring tools for ‘talk-based’ consultation in order to turn attention to the potential pitfalls and prospects for designing civic technologies that create resources for action for civil society

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

Guide to Flickr

OCSLD guide to getting started with photo sharing with Flickr

The Internet as a medium for qualitative research

With an estimated 200 million Internet users, the Internet has created communities that would /could not have formed otherwise providing access to interdisciplinary, heterogeneous groups. New modes of contacting research subjects as well as the social mobility provided by the new technologies confronts researchers with the need to revisit concepts such as interview, subject, field site, and informed consent. This paper will identify and elaborate these and other issues around using the Internet as a medium for qualitative research. The questions addressed by the paper include: What are the specific strengths and limitations of the Internet together with its related synchronous and asynchronous and both ‘push ’ and ‘pull ’ services that might impact on it as a research medium? What bearing does the global nature of the Internet as well as the changing technology have on ethical issues such as ensuring privacy and confidentiality, distinguishing between private vs. public information, incorporating informed consent without confounding the dynamics of the on-line target group and providing full disclosure of the possible risks when these may be changing as the technology advances? With an anticipated billion Internet users by 2005, what are the implications for sampling given the rapidly changing demographics of those wh

The sensory retail environment of small fashion boutiques

PurposeThe literature holds few contributions regarding the sensory environment of small, privately‐owned retail stores. Hence, this paper seeks to explore the sensory experience of patrons of a small boutique.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses photo‐elicitation to examine the experience of the sensory retail environment of patrons of a small fashion boutique in the North West of England. Participants were asked to “show me how it feels to shop here” by taking photographs to depict their sensory in‐store experiences. Follow up interviews were carried out to explore the participants’ sensory experiences and then qualitative content analysis was used to identify the typical “likes” and “dislikes” regarding aspects of the sensory environment.FindingsThe findings reveal that it is not just tangible things that can affect a shopper's experience, but store traits such as smell, lighting and presence of owner‐manager can also influence a consumer's experience.Research limitations/implicationsBy providing an illustration case study, this paper provides a visual method for researching shopping experience from a sensory perspective. This research concerned small fashion boutiques. Other research as well as this study indicates that studies of sensory environments in other kinds of boutiques could produce different findings.Practical implicationsThe paper is intended not only to equip small fashion retailers with an understanding of why some customers dwell and return to browse, but also to help them discern what it is that shoppers want to experience while shopping. Managerial implications are offered with the aim of converting patronage into sales to support survival of small fashion retailers.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature on small to medium‐sized enterprise fashion retailing and the sensory experience of fashion shopping. The identification of sensory touch points in small fashion boutiques helps owner‐managers to understand female shoppers and provides a handrail for thinking up new ways of improving shopping experiences.</jats:sec