Staying the course: retention and participation in on-line learning in Singapore and the UK

In 2001 the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) in collaboration with the British Open University (OU) ran a successful presentation of the Level 1 Technology Course 'You, Your Computer and the Net'. The 30 point foundation level course was delivered to 9,000 students in 13 UK regions and simultaneously to a cohort of 200 students in Singapore. One of the striking factors about the results of this course was the difference in retention and ultimately the final pass rates of the two cohorts of students. This paper will describe the course and its delivery in the two countries, attempting to offer some explanations for this discrepancy in drop out rates using a cross cultural perspective

The Passions of Christ in the Moral Theology of Thomas Aquinas: An Integrative Account

In recent scholarship, moral theologians and readers of Thomas Aquinas have shown increasing sensitivity to the role of the passions in the moral life. Yet these accounts have paid inadequate attention to Thomas's writings on Christ's passions as a source of moral reflection. As I argue in this essay, Thomas's writings on Christ's human affectivity should not be limited to the concerns of Christology; rather, they should be integrated into a fuller account of the human passions. One upshot of this approach for Thomists is that it sharpens our vocabulary when describing human nature and the conditions for the moral life. By considering the rubrics of creation, fall, and redemption – as Thomas does – we find that our resources for analyzing the passions are greatly enriched

After a career break: supporting women returning to ICT

This is a case study of an initiative to support women returning to ICT after a career break, which was run in the UK and Ireland between 2005 and 2011.The article starts by outlining how the UK government’s concern about women failing return to SET careers led to the setting up of a national campaign (RETURN) to address this issue. A brief overview of previous research about women’s reasons for leaving ICT employment and the difficulties and barriers they encounter in returning to work, sets the context for the development of the online course Return to SET. An outline of the course and its innovative support model is then described followed by a discussion about measurement of impact and concluding with some suggestions for future developmen

Effect of nearby Pearl vortices upon the IcI_c vs BB characteristics of planar Josephson junctions in thin and narrow superconducting strips

In this paper I show how to calculate the effect of a nearby Pearl vortex or antivortex upon the critical current $I_c(B)$ when a perpendicular magnetic induction $B$ is applied to a planar Josephson junction in a long, thin superconducting strip of width $W$ much less than the Pearl length $\Lambda = 2\lambda^2/d$, where $\lambda$ is the London penetration depth and $d$ is the thickness ($d < \lambda$). The theoretical results provide a qualitative explanation of unusual features recently observed experimentally by Golod {\it et al.}\cite{Golod10} in a device with a similar geometry.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figure

Presence for professional development: students in the virtual world

This report describes virtual world activities for groups of students studying a course designed to support professional development especially following career breaks. The activity uses the virtual platform to augment the social aspect of belonging to a study cohort, exploiting the sense of presence and constructivist affordances of the 3-D environment

Vendor-specific certifications: lessons and experiences from two women’s training centres in the UK offering MCSE training

This paper will provide details of a qualitative research study undertaken by The Open University in the UK as part of the European Social Funded (ESF) funded JIVE (Joint Interventions) Partners project. It reports important results relating to lessons and experiences of women who have embarked on the process of seeking the vendor-specific certification of Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE). The research study is significant because it represents the first known academic study of vendor-specific certifications that focuses on the experiences of women. Given the small percentage of women working in network administration, it is hoped that results from this study will provide valuable insights into the challenges such certification presents to women. The paper describes the context for the study. It then outlines why the training providers, both established voluntary sector women’s training centres, and the women trainees themselves chose this particular vendor-specific certification. It outlines results from qualitative interviews with women studying at two Microsoft Academies, The Women’s Workshop in Cardiff (WWiC) and Oxford Women’s Training Scheme (OWTS). This section of the paper will focus on: Why study for MCSE certification: women’s reflections on why they embarked on this path; Issues associated with offering the MCSE pathway; Importance of a women-only training environment

Women IT Technicians: moving through the glass partition

A study of the lives and careers of women ICT technicians offers a different perspective to other research which focuses on traditional educational routes into computing professions. As part of the JIVE Partners project funded by the European Equal programme, we have recently completed a research study using a qualitative longitudinal approach that followed 20 women ICT technicians who were training to become Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers. We found that their routes into ICT were complex and varied and had often involved crossing boundaries between jobs which are usually gender segregated. Rather than reaching a glass ceiling that blocked their upward progression, these women found ways to make a lateral transition through a ‘glass partition’ into areas of work that have traditionally been dominated by men. Whilst women form significant numbers of those studying and working with ICTs, they are usually concentrated in administrative contexts rather than in technical occupations. Although precise figures are difficult to ascertain, there are few women working as ICT technicians or support staff and those that do work in these fields find that their career prospects are limited due to the attitudes and practices within this sector. Women in the study had a range of technical job roles some of which spanned traditional gender boundaries. The majority of the women did not choose ICT as their first profession, and for many of them there was an element of luck or chance in their entry into their current job roles. While formal careers advice had been minimal, family members (male and female) were important influencers, either as role models or as a source of information and encouragement. Prior to entering work in technical areas of ICT, these women had a range of educational backgrounds; they were often quite highly qualified but not in ICT subjects. Career decisions and future plans were strongly influenced by work life balance consideration

Taking a lifecycle approach: redefining women returners to science, engineering and technology

Measures to support women to return to the science, engineering and technology (SET) labour market have been implemented over the past three decades in response to the overall shortage of SET skills, as well as with the aim of (re)empowering individual women through their improved financial independence and labour market participation. Yet their needs remain poorly analysed and the impact of labour market reintegration measures appears to have been patchy. This paper examines the experiences of women re-entering the SET labour market after a break from employment in the light of assumptions made about them in UK public policy, particularly related to labour market and employment. Drawing on evidence from surveys and interview data from two groups of women returners to SET we conclude that their needs are more diverse and complex than is recognised in much policy thinking and practice, and that these differ at specific points within the lifecycle. These differences include their relationships to the labour market, patterns of employment, reasons for leaving SET and obstacles to re-entry. Our conclusion is that, to respond effectively to the needs and requirements of women returners to SET, UK public policy therefore needs to be considerably more nuanced than it currently appears to be. In particular, policy needs to reflect the diversity and changing situations of women returners over the lifecycle, and needs to provide for a range of interventions that tackle different obstacles to women's return throughout their working lives. It may also be that the very term 'returners' - which tends to evoke a single episode of exit from and reentry to the labour market – will need to be revisited in future scholarly and policy frameworks on women in SET