Developing e-assessment using the quiz activity within Moodle: empowering student learning

Using formative assessment within Moodle has been shown to encourage self-directed learning (Bromham & Oprandi, 2006). Our experience of using formative assessment quizzes as stand alone entities, as well as within Moodle lessons, has been used to introduce Moodle assessment quizzes over the past year in Level 1 and Level 2 Life Sciences courses. This experience has been distilled to inform the content of this workshop. Some advantages of incorporating assessments in the form of Moodle quizzes are that they allow for quick, reproducible and flexible assessment with a relatively small initial set-up cost, and substantial long-term staff and administration savings. One significant advantage is that staff and room pressures can be reduced as students can attempt the assessment at a time and location of their choice within a specified time period. This flexibility can help to reduce student stress associated with completion of a continuous assessment for their course. It is also a relatively simple process to account for students entitled to extra time during assessments. Providing clear instructions beforehand and at the start of the quiz ensures that students understand their responsibilities for completion of this assessment and ultimately the course. There are some disadvantages and limitations to the system as it currently exists, for example there is the perceived ability for students to “cheat” by completing the assessment as a group, accessing books and the internet. Strategies to account for these can be put in place and will be discussed in detail during the workshop. This workshop aims to take the participants through the initial set up of a quiz, highlighting the various question types and how these can be used to create a challenging assessment that can be quickly graded and prove informative for staff and course development. Reference Bromham L. & Oprandi P. (2006) Evolution online: developing active and blended learning by using a virtual learning environment in an introductory biology course. Journal of Biological Education 41 (1): 21-25

Hidden History: The role of Great Britain in the American Civil War As told by cultural artifacts

What do statues and songs tell us about the Civil War? If the monuments are in the United States – a marker on a battlefield for instance- it is easy to decipher the context and historical significance. Soldiers passed their time with song and their lyrics are preserved to this day, performed by both pop artists and living historians. But what if these cultural artifacts reside outside the United States? Why is there a statue of Abraham Lincoln in the city of Manchester? How does a monument dedicated to the martyrs at the Lune Street Riots on Preston, Lancashire relate to the Civil War? Why does a sea shanty about one of the arguably most famous and successful ships in the Confederate Navy make mention of British individuals and geography? The quick answer is that all these fragments reveal the complicated role the British had in the American Civil War

The Development of Religious Pluralism in Brazil

This thesis considers the character and growth of religious pluralism in Brazil and the direction and status this plurality has taken and acquired in the C20th. Attention is focused on the development and formation of folk Catholicism, the Afro cults and Spiritualist oriented religions - Macumba, Umbanda and Kardecism. Primarily, it delineates and describes those specific historical and contemporary socio-structural and religious circumstances in which the differing religious groups have emerged, maintained themselves, and become modified. Secondly, it considers transformative implications that the various religious groups have had for Brazilian society, and discusses the role of these groups as initiators or mediators of change. On the one hand, it explains the religions varied attempts to make paradoxical or incomprehensible aspects of daily life intelligible and morally acceptable, and describee their efforts to relate both ordinary and unexpected occurrences in the natural and social universe to imminent or transcendent principles of order. On the other hand, this thesis is also concerned with the politico-economic conservative or radical qualities of these religious innovations. Although membership of the various religious groups in Brazil does improve the social status of the individual amongst his peers and often within wider society, I consider whether such improvements tend generally to act as bulwarks against change at a more extensive level, or can be explicitly directed to action in the political sphere. Initially, these above considerations are introduced through an analytical framework that uses the observations of Peter Berger, Mary Douglas and Victor Turner as a theoretical base. Thus in chapters I and II, I explain how the specific, internal dynamic, or the internal articulation, construction and maintenance of a religious organisation and its corresponding beliefs, is the focal point for illustrating how a particular religious group is both a "model of" and a "model for" the social conditions out of which it originally arose. In contrast, chapters IV, V, VI, VII and VIII describe the effect and impact that this peculiar development of Brazilian Catholicism has had on the emergence of alternative religious groups and their followings over the centuries. Finally, chapter IX assesses the main conclusions reached in this thesis. Although it is demonstrated that the responses of alternative religious groups in Brazil have been limited and restricted by background socio-structural conditions and are constantly being modified in light of differing socio-economic experiences, folk Catholicism, the Afro cults and the Spiritualist groups have all asserted alternative world views which reject the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. All have their own religious framework of beliefs about the supernatural and salvation, and all advocate correct patterns of religious and secular social relationships and roles through which these concepts are made tangible and meaningful. These beliefs provide the ethical and intellectual grounds for concrete existential and moral judgements on the appropriate action necessary to bridge the gap between experiences and aspirations. The problems associated with the former therefore become either tolerable or alterable, and moral imperatives make difficult situations endurable. This thesis affirms that a consonance of structure exists between the actual construction of a religious group (the articulation of its beliefs and organisation) and the character of its socio-structural origins. In general, the less structured a group of people (e. g. folk catholics and the Afro cult members) in relation to the whole of Brazilian society, the less formal and organised their religious response, and therefore the less influential their religion on wider social structures. For the most part, the consonance displayed between the internal dynamics of these groups and their socio-structural origins brings about social change only at the individual level within the established status quo and acts as a brake or conservative force on religious resolutions or proposals for change at the wider secular level. However, the Spiritualist religions of Umbanda and Kardecism have a wider social influence and are currently gaining popular and middle class support, over and a gainst official Roman Catholicism. Although their political and economic transformative potential is limited by State surveillance, these Spiritualist groups today are beginning to gain a greater national following that fosters a growing awareness of their adherents social and political positions within Brazil. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

'Useful' civic hacking for environmental sustainability:knowledge transfer and the International Space Apps Challenge

Civic hackathons have become a popular, experimental process through which to promote public access to open government data and enable innovative civic uses for the information. The International Space Apps Challenge, led by NASA, is a high-profile event, promoting the use of space-derived data with the aim of contributing solutions to 'grand challenges' such as environmental sustainability. Central to the civic hackathons are the concepts of 'stewardship,' and 'usefulness'. The study explores the promises and realities of civic hacking through analysis of the aims of the organisers, perspectives of participants and the event's outcomes, concluding that hackathon peer processes promote networks for knowledge transfer

'Useful' civic hacking for environmental sustainability:knowledge transfer and the International Space Apps Challenge

Civic hackathons have become a popular, experimental process through which to promote public access to open government data and enable innovative civic uses for the information. The International Space Apps Challenge, led by NASA, is a high-profile event, promoting the use of space-derived data with the aim of contributing solutions to 'grand challenges' such as environmental sustainability. Central to the civic hackathons are the concepts of 'stewardship,' and 'usefulness'. The study explores the promises and realities of civic hacking through analysis of the aims of the organisers, perspectives of participants and the event's outcomes, concluding that hackathon peer processes promote networks for knowledge transfer

A Typology of Consumer Territorial Rudeness

Service settings encouraging consumers to linger and mingle are growing in popularity and functionality in the marketplace. However, as opposed to socializing, consumers often behave territorially over the space they occupy in these public settings. Judging another's territorial actions, some consumers perceive these behaviors as rude. This study explores consumer territorial rudeness as a growing aspect of consumer-to-consumer interaction in service environments. Qualitative techniques are employed to develop a typology of territorial rudeness and to suggest possible antecedents and consequences of these manifested behaviors

Against the Grain - Collecting Contemporary Art at the Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, UK

In this paper I will address the ways in which we collect contemporary art at the Whitworth Art gallery, with reference to the methods of and approaches to collecting by other public galleries in Britain. The Whitworth Art Gallery is part of the University of Manchester and as such is one of the premier University galleries in Britain, ranking alongside the Fitzwilliam at Cambridge University, the Ashmolean at Oxford, and the Hunterian at Glasgow University. It is one of a group of institutions within the University of Manchester that hold cultural collections, the others being The Manchester Museum, the John Rylands Library, Jodrell Bank radio telescope and Tabley House

Latrobe Valley: Negative Charges

The paper collapses generic boundaries to question the narrating of the country by the city. It refers to towns in the Latrobe Valley, including Moe and its depiction as backward as a result of the Leskie case

A randomised controlled trial to compare the effectiveness of ice-packs and Epifoam with cooling maternity gel pads at alleviating postnatal perineal trauma

This is the author's PDF version of an article published in Midwifery© 2000. The definitive version is available at http://www.elsevier.comOBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of standard regimes (ice packs and Epifoam) at relieving perineal trauma and compare these with a new cooling device (maternity gel pad). DESIGN: A randomised controlled trial involving three treatment groups. The women were free to choose the time of initial application (within four hours after delivery) in all treatment groups and the number of subsequent treatments up to 48 hours after suturing. SETTING: A midwifery unit in the north of England and then continued in the women's own homes. PARTICIPANTS: 120 women who had undergone an instrumental delivery and had a 48 hours post-delivery stay in a postnatal ward. MEASUREMENTS AND FINDINGS: The ordinal scale of none, mild, moderate and severe was used to determine the levels of perineal oedema and bruising at initial assessment (less than 4 hours), 24 hours and at 48 hours, by use of a newly developed visual evaluating tool. Self-assessed pain was recorded using a 10-point visual analogue scale within four hours, at 24 hours, 48 hours, and finally at five days after suturing. Women's opinions as to the effectiveness of their treatment was rated by use of a 5-point scale describing the categories; poor, fair, good, very good and excellent. A high proportion of women had some perineal oedema at initial assessment. A statistically significant difference in the proportion of women with oedema was found between treatment groups at 48 hours (p = 0.01), which was in favour of the maternity gel pad group. This was particularly noticeable for women with initial levels of mild oedema (p = 0.017). Localised treatment with the gel pad caused a significant decrease in reported pain at 48 hours in women who initially demonstrated moderate or severe pain (p = 0.048). A significant increase in the proportion of women with some bruising was seen across all treatment groups from initial assessment, through 24 hours to 48 hours (p < 0.0005). The bruising was significantly less in the gel-pad group in women who initially had no bruising (p = 0.021). There was no statistically significant effect of treatment at other initial levels of severity for oedema, bruising or pain at 24 hours, 48 hours and five days (for pain). Women in the gel-pad group rated the effectiveness of their localised treatment to be significantly higher than women in the other two treatment groups (p < 0.0005). KEY CONCLUSIONS: This trial demonstrated that a high proportion of women experience perineal oedema, bruising and pain following an instrumental delivery, which continues for at least five days for perineal pain, despite oral analgesia. Maternity gel pads, which were specially designed to cool the perineal region, were more effective in alleviating perineal trauma when compared with hospital standard regimens and were more highly rated by women.Elizabeth Clark Charitable Trus