Peer mentoring to secure student placements

Purpose This paper describes a case study where student peer mentors were employed to motivate and assist undergraduates to secure optional professional placement positions. Design/methodology/approach The paper describes the reasons for establishing the project and the recruitment of mentors. It outlines a survey of students who had not undertaken placements the previous year to try to identify the activities that would be most effective on the part of the mentors. It then describes the mentoring that was conducted. The mentors, together with the placement co-coordinator, devised support ranging from one to one mentoring, drop in ‘clinics’, online support through a social network and large group talks. It discusses the results of this work and evaluates the oral and written responses of both mentors and mentees. Findings Those mentees who took part in the mentoring were typically those who were already enthusiastic about placement opportunities. The majority of students did not take advantage of mentoring support either face to face or online. It was found that the mentoring scheme did not significantly affect the proportion of students seeking or securing placements. However, the mentors themselves gained tremendous benefits from the mentoring scheme in particular developing their communication skills and confidence. Research limitations A thorough survey of potential mentees was not carried out after the project to ascertain the reasons for their lack of engagement. Practical implications There are two separate implications of this project: 1) The mentoring scheme was valuable primarily for the mentors and not the mentees and 2) The level of support provided by the University is not the main factor in the low take up of optional placement opportunities. If such learning opportunities are felt to be sufficiently valuable for the student learning experience they need to be compulsory with appropriate support available – a mentoring scheme might then be of far more value to mentees. Originality/value There is very little published concerning the use of mentoring to facilitate work based learning. Furthermore most published work on mentoring is located in the ‘best practice’ school of pedagogical research where it is implicitly assumed that one must report on the success of an intervention. Frequently it is more valuable to examine more unexpected results of an intervention. This paper however shows much greater benefits achieved by the mentors than the mentees

Employability and entrepreneurship embedded in professional placements in the business curriculum

Purpose This paper explains the practice of professional placements in a large UK Business School, grounded in literature and research concerning the relationship between professional experience and employability. It explores possible further developments of this practice into student entrepreneurship. Design The paper outlines the relevant literature and then describes the operation of the scheme in practice. It identifies relevant problems and discusses opportunities for both development and research. Findings Professional experience is of immense value to both students and the organisations that host them. Despite reluctance on the part of some of these two key stakeholders, it has the potential for further expansion in terms of number of students on placement, their location, their experience and integrating placements with entrepreneurship education. Practical implications Organisations may see the benefit of employing students on one year or shorter contracts, Universities not currently offering professional placements within the curriculum to their students may wish to adopt best practice, and those that are already involved may wish to consider the optional/compulsory element of the placement experience in order to address the reticence of many students to secure this experience. The paper suggests solutions to the well established question ‘Can entrepreneurship be taught?’ by investigating the idea of Enterprise Placements. Originality/value This work helps to explain, in a practical way, the opportunities and problems associated with the implementation of a placement scheme in the context of relevant literature

Analysis of existing effectiveness and method to enhance the lightning, shielding and earthing protection schemes applied on the Parit Raja’s Telecommunication Tower System

Lightning, one of nature’s most destructive forces, continues to wreck havoc on lives and property especially in today’s electronic environment. It has been shown by field experiences that telecommunication towers are one of the preferential points for direct lightning strike. This is mainly connected with the specific features of their construction where the presence of high telecommunication towers and their topographical location mostly at an open area or at hills. The potential of lightning strike toward communication tower is high. A telecommunication tower located at Parit Raja town was chosen as a case study. The location of the tower is good to channel the coverage toward the community. Unfortunately this tower is very vulnerable to lightning strike and can giving impact to the surrounding buildings located nearby the tower itself such as mosque, petrol pump, post office and the Bank Simpanan National (BSN) bank. This thesis presents work that look at the current protection scheme against the lightning strike and the effect on a telecommunication tower system and the surrounding. Analysis study had been made towards existing protection component or system and their effectiveness in mitigating the lightning strike impact on the Parit Raja tower system. The investigation of the lightning protection system used by the communication tower is sufficient enough to direct the overload voltages of a lightning strike. Also, the analysis on the existing grounding earthing system is able to accommodate and dissipate the surge current to the earth. The method such as rolling sphere and cone protection had been used to identify the safety area on the site due to direct strike. Some suggestions to enhance the tower system protection such as installation external ground bus bar, radial system, and new installation for connection of coaxial cable and underground cable. Overall from this project, the weaknesses of system protection were identified in the tower Parit Raja and the proposal as improvement for the protection scheme in the future

Online communication and information technology education

Blended Learning, a learning facilitation that incorporates different modes of delivery, models of teaching, and learning styles, introduces multiple media to the dialog between the learner and the facilitator. This paper examines online communication as the link between established theory of learning and literature on e-learning in order to better understand the appropriate use of blended learning in an actual Information Technology course. First, previously defined theoretical constructs that utilize communication as a facilitator for learning are considered. Then, using the Interpretivist standpoint, we examine data gathered from focus groups and interviews to gauge the experience of staff and students who were participants in a Blended Learning course. There are four previously defined theoretical constructs of greatest relevance to blended learning. Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development highlights the importance of communication with capable peers who can provide stimuli and feedback to a learning individual. Wegner’s Communities of Practice are groups of individuals who share a common practice interest and rely on a dialogue to facilitate learning. Laurillard’s Conversational Framework includes a pragmatic 12- step model that teachers can use to structure their learning facilitation. Finally, Salmon’s EModeration considers five stages of online communication in terms of how the moderator might facilitate dialogue among learners. These four theoretical models form the basis for understanding the implementation of blended learning discussed here. The course studied was a part-time Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology (IT), delivered using Blended Learning. Students were required to attend one evening per week and make substantial use of Web based learning over a period of five years. Students were mature, some already working in the IT field. Forty students in a first cohort and eighteen students in a second cohort were studied during the first year of their course. While students in the first cohort who succeeded in the course often found the discussion boards to be of considerable value in discussing assignments and sharing learning, the boards also could discourage those with less technical backgrounds. There is data to suggest that a high rate of dropouts and failures among the first cohort after just one year may have been influenced by discouragement felt by those who could not keep up with the technical level of the discussion board posts. As a result of this data, for the second cohort, the number of online communications was reduced to one assessed online discussion that was closely monitored. As a result, discussions were more on-topic; however students reported significantly less sense of community. Again, a high dropout rate resulted. Our results suggest that communication is both a challenge and an enabler for facilitating a successful blended learning course. Blended learning is not simply a matter of the combination of face-to-face and online instruction, but it has to have elements of social interaction. It appears to be important to allow students to bond together and to socialize. Knowing each other eases the communication barriers and reduces the fear of posting messages into an open forum. At its best, online communication can provide study help, social interaction, and a sense of community. We have evidence that when students are required more frequently to cooperate online, they share a common problem and on some level create their own “problem solving” community. However, our data from the first cohort indicates that unguided communication of a Community of Practice can lead to undesirable effects. At the same time, our data from the second cohort indicates that a very structured approach is also undesirable. The ideal situation, it seems, is somewhere in the middle. However, the middle is not easily defined. Because the community depends on the individuals who are the main components of it, it is difficult to predict how the same environment would influence different individuals or different cohorts. Thus, the ultimate responsibility is on the lecturer to listen to the students and engage in continuous dialogue

MICE target issues during run 2nd-5th August 2013

A summary of issues arising during operation of the MICE target during the MICE data taking in the period 2-5th August 2013