Assessment for Learning: How Plagiarism could be used as an Efficient Learning Tool

Instructors should consider the role of responsible feedback as one of the main priorities of their teaching and learning strategies. It is well known that feedback is the bridge between students and instructors, as students’ work is reviewed and put into an appropriate learning context. In this context, we argue that detecting plagiarism should be an additional vehicle to allow students achieve settled academic standards. Plagiarism detection tools should be used to encourage students to follow best practices, and at the same time inspire and guide students to work harder. In this regard, quality feedback plays a crucial role in identifying areas of weaknesses in standards of writing, which should be considered carefully by instructors when guiding their students to comply with academic rules and standards. We must not forget that students are learners that need tutoring, mentoring, objective and clear guidelines that keep them focused and motivated, and this also applies to adhering to academic integrity. Accordingly, we argue that instructors’ feedback should also address academic integrity in an efficient and constructive manner. Plagiarism has very negative connotations in academia, and must be monitored. However, in this context, the following questions remain pertinent: What kind of action is required to prevent plagiarism? How can instructors use plagiarism as another tool to motivate and guide their students? What way can plagiarism be used for constructive learning and not as a way to punish students? We believe that the answers lie in responsible feedback. We explore the use of plagiarism as a constructive tool that can make a difference in the learning experience. We aim to offer an initial view of how instructors could shift from using plagiarism as a source of punishing students to a more constructive and positive end

Using eportfolios to encourage responsible feedback

This article aims to look at the value that ePortfolios can add to business studies, specifically in the financial field. In order to answer the question, Do ePortfolios contribute to the development and enhancement of responsible feedback in the classroom?, the study analyzed the work done by postgraduate students pursuing a Master’s degree in finance. A total of 151 ePortfolios were reviewed and analyzed, and a selection of comments from students is presented in order to support the main findings of the literature review. The authors considered this approach to be appropriate in order to offer an objective analysis on existing research and how their own students’ views blend with developed literature in the area. The authors also offer their own know-how on how ePortfolios can be integrated as part of the postgraduate learning experience. The researchers identified ePortfolios as being a complementary tool that help educators and students to get a better understanding of the course material and offer students an opportunity to reflect on their own learning and course performance. They also identified a lack of research on how ePortfolios can be used as part of the students learning experience in postgraduate education specialised in finance.DOI: 10.18870/hlrc.v5i3.24

A Reflection on the Use of ePortfolios in Business Studies Programmes

Work placement aims to enhance a professional development and allow students to apply knowledge and skills from their programme of study. Students can struggle with both conceptualising work in terms of academic knowledge and the reverse process of transforming tacit knowledge from the workplace into a form they can verbalise. Additionally, they are isolated from their peer support group. To address these issues, we have implemented a blog assessment in Dublin Institute of Technology to actively encourage reflection and also foster peer-to-peer learning through providing an opportunity to share experiences of the diverse range of activities during work placement. A pilot was implemented for Pharmacy Technician students using the Institute’s virtual learning environment. As a result of this pilot and subsequent modifications made in the following years, we identified key requirements and resources to prepare, support and engage students in all aspects of the work placement assessment. Examples that we discuss include an assessment rubric, instructional videos and reflective writing resources, a pre-placement reflective writing workshop, feedback mechanisms, and assessment strategies that activity promoted student interaction with their peers. Evaluation results including the main benefits, recommendations, limitations and suggested improvements are also included. It has also been demonstrated that this assessment is transferable to a different programme of study as it was extended to the placement module for BSc (Nutraceuticals). Further work will include additional measures to guide students to focus on critical points during reflection, and will include increased emphasis on graduate attributes

The power of ethical investment in the context of political uncertainty

In this paper we analyse a set of socially responsible investment (SRI) indices against their conventional counterparts in the US context. Using a data set that spans the Obama and Trump administrations, we aim to identify whether performance and volatility patterns differ when markets are exposed to political uncertainty and the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). The findings suggest that SRI indices underperform conventional indices, and that the S&P 500 has a significant impact on their behaviour. The CBOE’s Volatility Index (VIX), the US Equity Related Economic Uncertainty Index (EEUi) and the impact of the economic policy uncertainty index (EPUi) are used to consider market volatility and political uncertainty, with VIX emerging as the best indicator to capture market uncertainty. The study signals a positive and significant impact on SRI indices during the first hundred days of the Obama administration with a lack of significant findings for the Trump administration for the period of study. The results for implied volatility reveal similar patterns across all indices

Bidirectional Ventricular Tachycardia in a Women with Dilated Cardiomyopathy: A Case Report

Introduction: Bidirectional ventricular tachycardia (BVT) is a rare arrhythmia characterized by QRS complexes with an axis in the frontal plane alternating polarity in the precordial leads and right bundle branch block (RBBB) morphology. To the best of our knowledge, there is no previous report in dilated cardiomyopathy or in the context of a probable peripartum cardiomyopathy. Case Presentation: A 26-year-old, 9-month female patient, with no significant past medical history (the patient denies medication intake, herbs like aconite, trouble during delivery, any heart issues or family history of sudden death or cardiomyopathies) who presents to the emergency room due to 11 days of dyspnea, exacerbated by daily activities, orthopnea, and paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea. She presented with ventricular bigeminy and systolic dysfunction with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) <20%. The patient later developed a stable ventricular tachycardia (VT) treated with amiodarone, which resulted in hemodynamic instability and BVT rhythm with VT paroxysms. Without the possibility of ablation, the use of high dose beta blockers and an implantable cardioverter defibrillator resulted in the same rhythm with a lower heart rate, better NYHA functional class, and less episodes of VTs. Conclusion: BVT is a rare type of tachycardia that can be present in dilated cardiomyopathy. In the absence of ablation capabilities, decreasing the heart rate with beta-blockers may reduce the rate of paroxysmal VTs

Self-Regulated Learning and the Role of ePortfolios in Business Studies

Through a case study supported by observation techniques, and questionnaires to gather data, we explored the use of ePortfolios as an efficient assessment tool to assist business degree students. Our main focus was a postgraduate course in which finance modules were a major component. We analysed the role of ePortfolios in Higher Education Institutions over a period of four academic years. Our findings suggest that ePortfolios could be used to facilitate and enhance students’ selfregulated learning. The role of the instructor was found to be fundamental in the early stages of the learning process. This role diminished as students became familiar with the course requirements. Overall, students judged the ePortfolio as a tool to complement their education positively, as they noted a significant improvement in their learning experience and they benefitted from the breaks it offered from their traditional learning approach. The evidence suggests that ePortfolios could be used to support technical and complex modules in a controlled environment where support is available for students to prevent them losing focus on their core studies; at the same time ePortfolios are flexible enough to allow students to be creative and integrate their own ideas and views while they learn

Unpaid care work and women’s economic empowerment from a rights-based approach: A case study of the Dominican Republic

This qualitative case study documents the hardships that women micro entrepreneurs face in the Dominican Republic regarding their double roles as primary providers for their households as well as primary caretakers in their families. By carrying out 14 interviews and a focus group to women participants of an economic empowerment program in the province of Valverde, the goal is to document the drivers behind women engaging in economic activity, and specifically micro entrepreneurship, and to understand the challenges that they face regarding unpaid care work as single heads of household. A rights-based approach is applied to the analysis of the data, laying out how women’s income-earning responsibilities, coupled with their role as unpaid care workers can hinder their human rights. The research shows that the women are responsible of earning an income for their families while often working more than one job, and that their children and other women in their community bear the burden of unpaid work when the participants are overwhelmed. Analyzed through a rights-based approach, the data illustrates how the second shift to which these women are subjected hinders their human rights to equality and non discrimination, health, decent work, education and social security. However, the women micro entrepreneurs are very active in their communities, which contradicts the idea that the women are relegated exclusively to the private sphere. The research has shown a need to elaborate policies that transform the gender roles that generate an expectation of women as sole care providers in the household, as well as to elaborate programming that actively works to dismantle this structure

ANÁLISE DO DISCURSO DA REPRESENTAÇAO DE CORPOS INFAMES. ESTUDO DE CASO DO JORNAL METRÔ

One of the effects of violence in Mexico is the representation of infamous bodies in the press. This article explores infamous bodies4 production based on different events (accidents, violence or extravagant behaviors), which become social facts after being recorded in language. The aim of the document is to look at the representation of the infamous body through the journalistic dis- course, conceived as an indication of society’s perspective towards “the other”. The hypothesis of the paper is that the representation of infamous bodies in the press corresponds to an unsupportive sense of solidarity as part of an immuni- zation process (ESPOSITO 2011). The article uses the concept of immunizationapplied through a semiotic and rhetorical analysis that takes into account the di- mension of language and image, proposing a hermeneutics that puts into ques- tion the ethics of journalism in its relationship with power and violence. For this end, the front pages of the Metro newspaper, whose journalistic discourse is an eloquent example of the construction of infamous bodies and the immu- nization process, were analyzed

The early phases of galaxy clusters formation in IR: coupling hydrodynamical simulations with GRASIL3D

We compute and study the infrared and sub-mm properties of high redshift ($z \gtrsim 1$) simulated clusters and proto-clusters. The results of a large set of hydro-dynamical zoom-in simulations including active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback, have been treated with the recently developed radiative transfer code GRASIL-3D, which accounts for the effect of dust reprocessing in an arbitrary geometry. Here, we have slightly generalized the code to adapt it to the present purpose. Then we have post-processed boxes of physical size 2 Mpc encompassing each of the 24 most massive clusters identified at z=0, at several redshifts between 0.5 and 3, producing IR and sub-mm mock images of these regions and SEDs of the radiation coming out from them. While this field is in its infancy from the observational point of view, rapid development is expected in the near future thanks to observations performed in the far IR and sub-mm bands. Notably, we find that in this spectral regime our prediction are little affected by the assumption required by this post-processing, and the emission is mostly powered by star formation rather than accretion onto super massive black hole (SMBH). The comparison with the little observational information currently available, highlights that the simulated cluster regions never attain the impressive star formation rates suggested by these observations. This problem becomes more intriguing taking into account that the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in the same simulations turn out to be too massive. It seems that the interplay between the feedback schemes and the star formation model should be revised, possibly incorporating a positive feedback mode.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, MNRAS in press. Minor editorial improvement

ABORDAGEM TERAPÊUTICA DA HIPOMINERALIZAÇÃO INCISIVO MOLARREVISÃO SISTEMÁTICA INTEGRATIVA

Introdução: Os defeitos de esmalte são um dos grandes desafios nos dias de hoje, em nossas clínicas dentárias, especialmente em crianças. Uma condição específica desses defeitos de esmalte é a hipomineralização incisivo molar (HIM). Existem várias possibilidades de tratamentos e vários fatores a serem analisados antes da escolha do tratamento adequado. Objetivo: O objetivo desta revisão sistemática integrativa foi procurar e avaliar os distintos tratamentos para a hipomineralização incisivo-molar nos distintos estádios da doença. Materiais e métodos: Foi realizada uma pesquisa eletrónica na base de dados PUBMED, EBSCO, SCIELO, RESEARCHGATE e JISC LIBRARY HUB DISCOVERY de publicações científicas, utilizando as seguintes palavras-chave “Dental enamel hypoplasia”, “Dental materials”, “Dental care for children”. A pesquisa limitou-se a estudos publicados em inglês entre 2012 e 2022. Discussão: O tratamento varia desde a aplicação tópica de flúor, a restaurações e extrações. As decisões de tratamento dependem do grau de envolvimento dentário da HIM. O uso de verniz fluoretado é essencial no início de qualquer tratamento para reduzir a suscetibilidade presente nesses casos. Conclusão: A prevenção e o tratamento precoce são a base para a preservação dos elementos dentários sendo necessário fazer a melhor escolha em cada estádio desta doença