The yin/yang of innovative technology enhanced assessment for promoting student learning

While mo re sophisticated and constructively aligned assessment is encouraged to promote higher level learning, it is easier to assess knowledge and comprehension than critical thinking and making judgements (Bryan & Clegg 2006). Managing the logistics and resource s required for assessing large numbers of students challenges the ethos of placing students at the heart of the learning process and helping them take responsibility for their own learning. The introduction of innovative technology enhanced assessment stra tegies contests our understanding of the purposes of assessment and affords opportunities for more integrated and personalised approa ches to learning and assessment across disciplines. This paper will examine the design, implementation and impacts of inno vative assessment strategies forming an integral part of a collaborative lifeworld - led transprofessional curriculum delivered to cohorts of 600 students in health and social work using technology to connect learners to wide - ranging, humanising perspectives on evidence for guiding practice. Innovative assessment technologies included group blogs, multiple choice electronic or computer assisted assessment (CAA), and an audience response system (ARS) affording combinations of assessment for learning and assess ment of learning. We will explore, through analys es of student assessment experie nces and student and staff evaluations, how these innovative assessment approaches contribute to effective and efficient blended education enabling students to enhance their practice through promoting and developing critical thinking and reflection for judgement - based practice (Polkinghorne 2004) . Secondly, we will debate the yin and yang of contrasting and connecting values associated with the controlled, systematic measurem ent and objectivity of multiple choice assessments, compared with the formative, iterative and subjective nature of reflective blog ging. We will consider relationships between teaching and learning strategies and experiences , breadth and depth of knowledge , passive and active approaches to learning, efficiency and effectiveness, individual and group , multiple choice and discursive assessment s , face - to - face and online, on - campus and off - campus learning and assessment experi e nces

A School Perspective on School-Embedded Initial Teacher Education

School-university partnerships have been developed to invigorate initial teacher education (ITE). Such partnerships potentially offer rich educational opportunities to pre-service teachers. This paper examines integrated and school-embedded approaches to ITE in the Australian context, drawing on a case study analysis of a three-year, ITE school-university-system partnership named inSITE. inSITE is explored from the perspective of the school educators directly involved in its design and delivery. Complexity science provided the theoretical framework for inSITE and signalled its principles of holism, integration and reflective practice. The factors that contributed to and inhibited school-based initial teacher education from a school’s perspective are identified. The paper concludes that, given conducive conditions, an integrated, embedded and reflective approach can address the prevailing theory-practice dualism of ITE and may offer an important third way to prepare new teachers. The challenges and opportunities for school-embedded ITE in Australia are highlighted

Alcohol and other drug use among children and young people in Ireland: prevalence, risk and protective factors, consequences, responses, and policies.

In most developed countries, substance use is a major public health issue, particularly among young people. Alcohol and other drug use is one of the leading risk factors for disease and injury and is also responsible for a considerable number of premature deaths. The national drugs strategy in Ireland aims to prevent early substance use and to minimise harm for those who have already started to use substances. The strategy also plans to develop existing prevention programmes, with an emphasis on tackling risk factors for vulnerable groups and improving services for young people. Using multiple information sources, this overview outlines the prevalence of alcohol and other drug use among young people in Ireland. It examines the risk and protective factors that may encourage or discourage young people to begin using such substances and/or lead to problematic use. It also examines the consequences of drug and alcohol use, such as hospitalisations, deaths, and crime. This overview outlines the responses to drug and alcohol use among young people, including treatment data and the strategies and legislation that guide stakeholders in preventing and minimising harm due to substance use

Data Reduction Pipeline for the CHARIS Integral-Field Spectrograph I: Detector Readout Calibration and Data Cube Extraction

We present the data reduction pipeline for CHARIS, a high-contrast integral-field spectrograph for the Subaru Telescope. The pipeline constructs a ramp from the raw reads using the measured nonlinear pixel response, and reconstructs the data cube using one of three extraction algorithms: aperture photometry, optimal extraction, or $\chi^2$ fitting. We measure and apply both a detector flatfield and a lenslet flatfield and reconstruct the wavelength- and position-dependent lenslet point-spread function (PSF) from images taken with a tunable laser. We use these measured PSFs to implement a $\chi^2$-based extraction of the data cube, with typical residuals of ~5% due to imperfect models of the undersampled lenslet PSFs. The full two-dimensional residual of the $\chi^2$ extraction allows us to model and remove correlated read noise, dramatically improving CHARIS' performance. The $\chi^2$ extraction produces a data cube that has been deconvolved with the line-spread function, and never performs any interpolations of either the data or the individual lenslet spectra. The extracted data cube also includes uncertainties for each spatial and spectral measurement. CHARIS' software is parallelized, written in Python and Cython, and freely available on github with a separate documentation page. Astrometric and spectrophotometric calibrations of the data cubes and PSF subtraction will be treated in a forthcoming paper.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables, replaced with JATIS accepted version (emulateapj formatted here). Software at https://github.com/PrincetonUniversity/charis-dep and documentation at http://princetonuniversity.github.io/charis-de

Conceptual Design of the Coronagraphic High Angular Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (CHARIS) for the Subaru Telescope

Recent developments in high-contrast imaging techniques now make possible both imaging and spectroscopy of planets around nearby stars. We present the conceptual design of the Coronagraphic High Angular Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (CHARIS), a lenslet-based, cryogenic integral field spectrograph (IFS) for imaging exoplanets on the Subaru telescope. The IFS will provide spectral information for 140x140 spatial elements over a 1.75 arcsecs x 1.75 arcsecs field of view (FOV). CHARIS will operate in the near infrared (lambda = 0.9 - 2.5 microns) and provide a spectral resolution of R = 14, 33, and 65 in three separate observing modes. Taking advantage of the adaptive optics systems and advanced coronagraphs (AO188 and SCExAO) on the Subaru telescope, CHARIS will provide sufficient contrast to obtain spectra of young self-luminous Jupiter-mass exoplanets. CHARIS is in the early design phases and is projected to have first light by the end of 2015. We report here on the current conceptual design of CHARIS and the design challenges

The Optical Design of CHARIS: An Exoplanet IFS for the Subaru Telescope

High-contrast imaging techniques now make possible both imaging and spectroscopy of planets around nearby stars. We present the optical design for the Coronagraphic High Angular Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (CHARIS), a lenslet-based, cryogenic integral field spectrograph (IFS) for imaging exoplanets on the Subaru telescope. The IFS will provide spectral information for 138x138 spatial elements over a 2.07 arcsec x 2.07 arcsec field of view (FOV). CHARIS will operate in the near infrared (lambda = 1.15 - 2.5 microns) and will feature two spectral resolution modes of R = 18 (low-res mode) and R = 73 (high-res mode). Taking advantage of the Subaru telescope adaptive optics systems and coronagraphs (AO188 and SCExAO), CHARIS will provide sufficient contrast to obtain spectra of young self-luminous Jupiter-mass exoplanets. CHARIS will undergo CDR in October 2013 and is projected to have first light by the end of 2015. We report here on the current optical design of CHARIS and its unique innovations.Comment: 15 page

ProACT: Fostering patient and public involvement within the design of digital health solutions for multimorbidity

At present in Europe there are 50 million people living at any one time with multimorbidity. However, our healthcare systems have not been designed to effectively support these people in their daily care needs. ProACT (Integrated Technology Systems for ProACTive Patient Centred Care) is a digital health research programme funded under the European Union Horizon 2020 framework that seeks to address this problem by developing and evaluating a digital integrated care system to support older adults (65 years and over) living with multimorbidity. This poster will illustrate how Patient Public Involvement (PPI) was achieved within ProACT by borrowing existing methodologies, successfully implemented, in the disciplines of Design and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). It offers an example of how the design of digital health interventions can ensure that participants become codesign partners of the final system

Interactions between the jet and disk wind in a nearby radio intermediate quasar III Zw 2

Disk winds and jets are ubiquitous in active galactic nuclei (AGN), and how these two components interact remains an open question. We study the radio properties of a radio-intermediate quasar III Zw 2. We detect two jet knots J1 and J2 on parsec scales, which move at a mildly apparent superluminal speed of $1.35\,c$. Two $\gamma$-ray flares were detected in III Zw 2 in 2009--2010, corresponding to the primary radio flare in late 2009 and the secondary radio flare in early 2010. The primary 2009 flare was found to be associated with the ejection of J2. The secondary 2010 flare occurred at a distance of $\sim$0.3 parsec from the central engine, probably resulting from the collision of the jet with the accretion disk wind. The variability characteristics of III Zw 2 (periodic radio flares, unstable periodicity, multiple quasi-periodic signals and possible harmonic relations between them) can be explained by the global instabilities of the accretion disk. These instabilities originating from the outer part of the warped disk propagate inwards and can lead to modulation of the accretion rate and consequent jet ejection. At the same time, the wobbling of the outer disk may also lead to oscillations of the boundary between the disk wind and the jet tunnel, resulting in changes in the jet-wind collision site. III Zw 2 is one of the few cases observed with jet-wind interactions, and the study in this paper is of general interest for gaining insight into the dynamic processes in the nuclear regions of AGN.Comment: accepted by Ap