What should learning designers learn?

There is widespread interest in employing designers who focus on learning, performance and education technology in many industries at a global level. In Australia, learning designers are in demand in Education, Corporate Training, Finance, Charity, Non-Government Sectors, and also in Start-Ups and Entrepreneurial arenas. This demand is despite the fact that the role of the Learning Designer is incredibly varied, contextually-based, and also unclear to many employers - and students! This suggests that there is currently an opportunity for learning designers and academics who deliver learning design content to define what it means to be a learning designer. This paper presents an Australian case study which uses design-based research methods in a pre-production mode to identify the key principles that informed the development of a course of study (what others may refer to as a program). How those principles were operationalised within the course design and more are discussed in an effort to reposition understandings of knowledge, skills and abilities for this field

Faktor – Faktor Yang Menyebabkan Cost Overrun Pada Proyek Konstruksi

Pada Pekerjaan proyek konstruksi biasanya terjadi kendala, baik kendala yang sudah diperhitungkan maupun yang belum diperhitungkan. Sehingga proyek yang dikerjakan biasanya terlaksana dengan hasil yang tidak sesuai yang direncanakan. Oleh sebab itu penelitian ini sebagai upaya untuk mendapatkan dan mengetahui faktor-faktor apa saja yang mengakibatkan terjadinya cost overrun yang berpengaruh terhadap peningkatan kinerja biaya akhir proyek. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan cara penyebaran kuesioner dan responden pada pembangunan gedung markas komando daerah militer Manado Sulawesi Utara, yang berlokasi di kota Manado pengolahan data kuesioner ini menggunakan program SPSS. Dari hasil penelitian didapatkan urutan rangking-rangking tiap faktor yang menjadi penyebab pembengkakan biaya pada penyelesaian proyek. Dengan menggunakan analisa Faktor- faktor yang menjadi penyebab utama yang mempengaruhi kelebihan biaya penyelesaian proyek pembangunan gedung markas komando daerah militer Manado Sulawesi Utara, yang berlokasi di kota Manado

Not ‘Islands, Entire of Themselves’: Exploring the Spatial Context of City-level Robbery Rates

The current study examines spatial dependence in robbery rates for a sample of 1,056 cities with 25,000 or more residents over the 2000–2003 period. Although commonly considered in some macro-level research, spatial processes have not been examined in relation to city-level variation in robbery. The results of our regression analyses suggest that city robbery rates are not spatially independent. We find that spatial dependence is better accounted for by spatial error models than by spatial lag models. Further exploration of various spatial weights matrices indicates that robbery rates of cities within the same state are related to robbery rates of other cities within the same state, regardless of their proximity. Our analyses illustrate how systematic inquiry into spatial processes can alert researchers to important omitted variable biases and identify intriguing problems for future research

A close-pair binary in a distant triple supermassive black-hole system

Galaxies are believed to evolve through merging, which should lead to multiple supermassive black holes in some. There are four known triple black hole systems, with the closest pair being 2.4 kiloparsecs apart (the third component is more distant at 3 kiloparsecs), which is far from the gravitational sphere of influence of a black hole with mass $\sim$10$^9$ M$_\odot$ (about 100 parsecs). Previous searches for compact black hole systems concluded that they were rare, with the tightest binary system having a separation of 7 parsecs. Here we report observations of a triple black hole system at redshift z=0.39, with the closest pair separated by $\sim$140 parsecs. The presence of the tight pair is imprinted onto the properties of the large-scale radio jets, as a rotationally-symmetric helical modulation, which provides a useful way to search for other tight pairs without needing extremely high resolution observations. As we found this tight pair after searching only six galaxies, we conclude that tight pairs are more common than hitherto believed, which is an important observational constraint for low-frequency gravitational wave experiments.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures. Published online by Nature on 25 June 2014. Extremely minor differences with published version exis

Cost-effectiveness of health-related lifestyle advice delivered by peer or lay advisors: synthesis of evidence from a systematic review

Background: Development of new peer or lay health-related lifestyle advisor (HRLA) roles is one response to the need to enhance public engagement in, and improve cost-effectiveness of, health improvement interventions. This article synthesises evidence on the cost-effectiveness of HRLA interventions aimed at adults in developed countries, derived from the first systematic review of the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, equity and acceptability of different types of HRLA role. Methods: The best available evidence on the cost-effectiveness of HRLA interventions was obtained using systematic searches of 20 electronic databases and key journals, as well as searches of the grey literature and the internet. Interventions were classified according to the primary health behaviour targeted and intervention costs were estimated where necessary. Lifetime health gains were estimated (in quality-adjusted life years, where possible), based on evidence of effectiveness of HRLAs in combination with published estimates of the lifetime health gains resulting from lifestyle changes, and assumptions over relapse. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios are reported. Results: Evidence of the cost-effectiveness of HRLAs was identified from 24 trials included in the systematic review. The interventions were grouped into eight areas. We found little evidence of effectiveness of HRLAs for promotion of exercise/improved diets. Where HRLAs were effective cost-effectiveness varied considerably: Incremental Cost effectiveness Ratios were estimated at £6,000 for smoking cessation; £14,000 for a telephone based type 2 diabetes management; and £250,000 or greater for promotion of mammography attendance and for HIV prevention amongst drug users. We lacked sufficient evidence to estimate ICERs for breastfeeding promotion and mental health promotion, or to assess the impact of HRLAs on health inequalities. Conclusions: Overall, there is limited evidence suggesting that HRLAs are cost-effective in terms of changing health-related knowledge, behaviours or health outcomes. The evidence that does exist indicates that HRLAs are only cost-effective when they target behaviours likely to have a large impact on overall health-related quality of life. Further development of HRLA interventions needs to target specific population health needs where potential exists for significant improvement, and include rigorous evaluation to ensure that HRLAs provide sufficient value for money

MESMER: MeerKAT Search for Molecules in the Epoch of Reionization

[Abridged] Observations of molecular gas at all redshifts are critical for measuring the cosmic evolution in molecular gas density and understanding the star-formation history of the Universe. The 12CO molecule (J=1-0 transition = 115.27 GHz) is the best proxy for extragalactic H2, which is the gas reservoir from which star formation occurs, and has been detected out to z~6. Typically, redshifted high-J lines are observed at mm-wavelengths, the most commonly targeted systems exhibiting high SFRs (e.g. submm galaxies), and far-IR-bright QSOs. While the most luminous objects are the most readily observed, detections of more typical galaxies with modest SFRs are essential for completing the picture. ALMA will be revolutionary in terms of increasing the detection rate and pushing the sensitivity limit down to include such galaxies, however the limited FoV when observing at such high frequencies makes it difficult to use ALMA for studies of the large-scale structure traced out by molecular gas in galaxies. This article introduces a strategy for a systematic search for molecular gas during the EoR (z~7 and above), capitalizing on the fact that the J=1-0 transition of 12CO enters the upper bands of cm-wave instruments at high-z. The FoV advantage gained by observing at such frequencies, coupled with modern broadband correlators allows significant cosmological volumes to be probed on reasonable timescales. In this article we present an overview of our future observing programme which has been awarded 6,500 hours as one of the Large Survey Projects for MeerKAT, the forthcoming South African SKA pathfinder instrument. Its large FoV and correlator bandwidth, and high-sensitivity provide unprecedented survey speed for such work. An existing astrophysical simulation is coupled with instrumental considerations to demonstrate the feasibility of such observations and predict detection rates.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of "Astronomy with megastructures: Joint science with the E-ELT and SKA", 10-14 May 2010, Crete, Greece (Eds: Isobel Hook, Dimitra Rigopoulou, Steve Rawlings and Aris Karastergiou

The Transfer Playbook: Essential Practices for Two- and Four-Year Colleges

Most students entering community college aim to earn a bachelor’s degree. But, as shown in a study released by CCRC, The Aspen Institute, and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center earlier in 2016 (see: Tracking Transfer: New Measures of Institutional and State Effectiveness in Helping College Students Attain Bachelor’s Degrees), a relatively small portion of these students transfer and earn a bachelor’s degree within six years. This playbook is a practical guide to designing and implementing a key set of practices that will help community colleges and their four-year college partners improve transfer outcomes. The playbook is based on the practices of six sets of community colleges and universities that together serve transfer students well. These institutions have higher than expected rates of bachelor’s degree attainment for degree-seeking students who start at community college and transfer to a four-year institution—after accounting for their student demographics and institutional characteristics. The playbook is organized around three broad strategies observed in these partnerships: (1) Make transfer student success a priority; (2) Create clear programmatic pathways with aligned high-quality instruction; (3) Provide tailored transfer student advising. Included in the playbook are essential practices underlying each of these three strategies, a discussion of the next frontiers of practice, and a list of activities for community colleges and four-year colleges to undertake in order to implement the strategies

Salmonella Pathogenesis and Processing of Secreted Effectors by Caspase-3

The enteric pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium causes food poisoning resulting in gastroenteritis. The S. Typhimurium effector Salmonella invasion protein A (SipA) promotes gastroenteritis by functional motifs that trigger either mechanisms of inflammation or bacterial entry. During infection of intestinal epithelial cells, SipA was found to be responsible for the early activation of caspase-3, an enzyme that is required for SipA cleavage at a specific recognition motif that divided the protein into its two functional domains and activated SipA in a manner necessary for pathogenicity. Other caspase-3 cleavage sites identified in S. Typhimurium appeared to be restricted to secreted effector proteins, which indicates that this may be a general strategy used by this pathogen for processing of its secreted effectors