From High School to Higher Degrees: Teaching and Supporting Learning for Students entering Postgraduate Professional Study without Undergraduate Degrees.

Purpose – This paper reports research into motives and concerns of non-graduate students accessing a two-year, part-time, professional, post-graduate programme via recognition of prior learning, and tutor efforts to engage them and support learning and achievement. Design/methodology/approach – Five secondary sources provided data on 72 students. Research instruments were; a background questionnaire, student performance profiles, mock exam participation data, an online survey on the student-centred approach to delivery, and a generic module evaluation survey. Findings - Regardless of prior academic exposure, most students were driven by extrinsic career related motives, most worried about work and family pressures as potential barriers to academic achievement, but few worried about individual ability to meet academic standards. Graduates out performed non-graduates and were more likely to engage in formative assessment. Efforts of tutors to implement student-centred learning were well received and engagement in formative assessment and feedback activity impacted positively on performance. Research limitations – Research relied on secondary data and was limited to students on two cohorts. Therefore there are limits to what might be extrapolated from the data. Practical implications - Tutors should recognise the gap between graduate and non-graduate performance and whilst making active interventions to close the gap, be more explicit with non-graduates about the demands of post-graduate study. Originality/value – Relatively little research is available on the experiences and achievement of non-graduates accessing post-graduate study via RPL. Keywords - Non-graduates; post-graduate study; recognition of prior learning (RPL); student-centred learning (SCL); barriers and enablers to learning. Paper type – working paper

Non -participation in formative assessment: a study of post-graduate professional students

Formative assessment is used by proponents of student centred learning to facilitate summative attainment. This study uses a phenomenological approach to explore the experiences of a number of students who were admitted to a post-graduate professional programme through recognition of prior learning (RPL) and who have not engaged with the formative process. Informal conversations were used to capture the essence of their experiences and findings were discussed against a framework provided by Cross’s (1981) dispositional, institutional and situational barriers to learning. Implications for future research include exploring interventions to help RPL students overcome barriers and ease transition into higher education at post-graduate leve

THE USE OF PEER ASSESSMENT ON A BUSINESS MODULE: WORKING TOWARDS AN EFFECTIVE SYSTEM

As an experienced teacher and former course leader on a large undergraduate business programme the author was aware of students’ reluctance to engage in group assessment, especially on modules where the outcome would have an impact on final degree classification. However the same students were seeking employment in graduate positions in the corporate environment, where “In the list of the highly ranked skills, team working skills (67%) are followed by sector-specific skills and communication skills.” (Europa 2010). Accepting that group assessed assignments should continue to be a feature of assessment in the business school as a means of enhancing graduate employability, the author sought to explore ways of improving perceptions of group work via the peer assessment process. The focus of the study was a module in the subject area of Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour. As it was ‘elective’ in that students had chosen to study it as part of their degree programme, it was reasonable to assume a degree of willingness to engage in group work, as students opposed to the concept would have chosen an alternative module with different assessment methods. The assessment component of the module that was subject to peer assessment was a training programme, which comprised 40% of the marks for the module. The remaining marks were allocated to individual assessment elements. Participants were drawn from a range of business, accounting, marketing and HR related courses in the business school and the author aimed to survey their views on collaborative assessment with a view to incorporating improvements in the peer assessment model for the module, disseminating findings amongst academics involved in peer assessment at the business school and thus instigating discussion on a common model of peer assessment. A literature review and issues arising from the author’s own experience on the module informed the nature of the primary research which comprised a questionnaire survey and follow up interviews. Findings were that most students viewed peer assessment positively for its impact on motivation and learning and perceived it to be a fairer process than tutor allocated group marks alone, but that a significant minority of mainly non-native English speaking students were wary of peer assessment in terms of their competence in implementing it and their treatment by native English speaking students. Also students were willing to provide additional feedback to supplement the current ratings but were not interested in devising their own assessment criteria and not enthusiastic about implementing a common system of peer assessment throughout the business school

EVALUATING A STUDENT CENTRED APPROACH TO TEACHING AND LEARNING ON A POST-GRADUATE PROFESSIONAL MODULE

The paper explores the impact of embedding a student centred approach to teaching and learning on a post-graduate professional module with a mixed cohort in terms of previous academic experience and cultural background. It was the first module on the programme and student performance was assessed by summative examination. The student-centred approach was characterised by interactive discussion based delivery, group work and formative assessment and feedback on a weekly basis. In addition students were invited to undertake a mock exam as independent study and formative audio feedback was provided. Student views on the process were surveyed and responses were highly positive. As assessment data suggests that students who engage with the formative process do better at summative assessment, the next step for the tutors will be to explore ways of engaging the students who do not currently participate

First year student experience

The application was made on behalf of the undergraduate courses team who sought to enhance the first year experience by engaging students in the practice of business. The intention was to develop and signpost enterprising qualities and characteristics in first year learners and develop confidence as well as competence. The undergraduate review for FBL commenced in September 2009. This offered an opportunity to innovate and build good practice in enterprise learning as a pilot to inform the undergraduate review. The team sought to provide a coherent and relevant set of learning experiences that could be achieved outside structured curriculum that would enable learning through live projects

Analyses of associations between three positionally cloned asthma candidate genes and asthma or asthma-related phenotypes in a Chinese population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Six asthma candidate genes, ADAM33, NPSR1, PHF11, DPP10, HLA-G, and CYFIP2, located at different chromosome regions have been positionally cloned following the reported linkage studies. For ADAM33, NPSR1, and CYFIP2, the associations with asthma or asthma-related phenotypes have been studied in East Asian populations such as Chinese and Japanese. However, for PHF11, DPP10, and HLA-G, none of the association studies have been conducted in Asian populations. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to test the associations between these three positionally cloned genes and asthma or asthma-related phenotypes in a Chinese population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Two, five, and two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the identified top regions of PHF11, DPP10, and HLA-G, respectively, were genotyped in 1183 independent samples. The study samples were selected based on asthma affectation status and extreme values in at least one of the following three asthma-related phenotypes: total serum immunoglobulin E levels, bronchial responsiveness test, and skin prick test. Both single SNP and haplotype analyses were performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that DPP10 was significantly associated with bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) and BHR asthma after the adjustment for multiple testing; while the associations of PHF11 with positive skin reactions to antigens and the associations of HLA-G with BHR asthma were only nominally significant.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study is the first one to provide additional evidence that supports the roles of DPP10 in influencing asthma or BHR in a Chinese population.</p

A novel miniature in-line load-cell to measure in-situ tensile forces in the tibialis anterior tendon of rats.

Direct measurements of muscular forces usually require a substantial rearrangement of the biomechanical system. To circumvent this problem, various indirect techniques have been used in the past. We introduce a novel direct method, using a lightweight (~0.5 g) miniature (3 x 3 x 7 mm) in-line load-cell to measure tension in the tibialis anterior tendon of rats. A linear motor was used to produce force-profiles to assess linearity, step-response, hysteresis and frequency behavior under controlled conditions. Sensor responses to a series of rectangular force-pulses correlated linearly (R2 = 0.999) within the range of 0-20 N. The maximal relative error at full scale (20 N) was 0.07% of the average measured signal. The standard deviation of the mean response to repeated 20 N force pulses was ± 0.04% of the mean response. The step-response of the load-cell showed the behavior of a PD2T2-element in control-engineering terminology. The maximal hysteretic error was 5.4% of the full-scale signal. Sinusoidal signals were attenuated maximally (-4 dB) at 200 Hz, within a measured range of 0.01-200 Hz. When measuring muscular forces this should be of minor concern as the fusion-frequency of muscles is generally much lower. The newly developed load-cell measured tensile forces of up to 20 N, without inelastic deformation of the sensor. It qualifies for various applications in which it is of interest directly to measure forces within a particular tendon causing only minimal disturbance to the biomechanical system