Path, theme and narrative in open plan exhibition settings

Three arguments are made based on the analysis of science exhibitions. First,sufficiently refined techniques of spatial analysis allow us to model the impact oflayout upon visitors' paths, even in moderately sized open plans which allow almostrandom patterns of movement and relatively unobstructed visibility. Second, newlydeveloped or adapted techniques of analysis allow us to make a transition frommodeling the mechanics of spatial movement (the way in which movement is affectedby the distribution of obstacles and boundaries), to modeling the manner in whichmovement might register additional aspects of visual information. Third, theadvantages of such purely spatial modes of analysis extend into providing us with asharper understanding of some of the pragmatic constrains within which exhibitioncontent is conceived and designed

Collecting and using student feedback Date: A guide to good practice

The purpose of this Guide is to help higher education institutions make the best use of their student feedback. This guide is based on a HEFCE funded project undertaken by the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information (CHERI). The purpose of this Guide is to help higher education institutions make the best use of their student feedback. All institutions collect feedback from their students and in many different forms. They use it to improve the quality of the education they provide. In recent years, there has been a shift in the balance between informal and formal types of student feedback with a greater emphasis on the latter. Now, new devolved forms of national quality assurance promise to give an important role to students and there is also an expectation that information from student feedback will be used to inform the choices of students when applying to higher education. Thus, as the importance attached to student feedback increases, ensuring that feedback is collected effectively and used wisely becomes an increasing priority for higher education institutions. This Guide draws on the experiences of the sector to highlight some of the good practices that exist as well as some of the problems that institutions are experiencing in using student feedback. Its focus is upon the use of student feedback for the purpose of enhancing the quality of teaching and learning. Other purposes are acknowledged but are not the main emphasis of this publication

The English degree and graduate careers

This report provides English departments with information about the employment patterns and prospects of their graduates and suggests ways in which these might be enhanced. The report uses data gathered on English graduates three to four years after graduating. It shows that English graduates do take about four years to ‘find their feet’ on the career ladder, and that they do well in finding a job relevant to their qualification level compared to graduates in English-related fields or History. The report also examines how the skills of the English graduate are profiled by departments, by the English Benchmarking Statement, and by graduates themselves. These are compared to other disciplines to give some indication of the ‘strengths’ and ‘weaknesses’ of the English graduate

Automorphism groups of some affine and finite type Artin groups

We observe that, for each positive integer n > 2, each of the Artin groups of finite type A_n, B_n=C_n, and affine type \tilde A_{n-1} and \tilde C_{n-1} is a central extension of a finite index subgroup of the mapping class group of the (n+2)-punctured sphere. (The centre is trivial in the affine case and infinite cyclic in the finite type cases). Using results of Ivanov and Korkmaz on abstract commensurators of surface mapping class groups we are able to determine the automorphism groups of each member of these four infinite families of Artin groups

Accreditation and related regulatory matters in the UK

About the book: This volume presents a rich account of the development of accreditation and evaluation in 20 European countries. The authors are leaders in the field and they have cooperated in this effort by writing richly different, often deep and insightful analyses of the situation in their country. The two editors have added a synopsis detailing the main trends, and sketching commonalities as well as contrasts in the developments across Europe. The book shows how accreditation is becoming a main mechanism in the steering of higher education all over Europe. The book is unique in its analysis of forces driving towards the spread of different models of accreditation in the emerging European Higher Education area. Readers will obtain an up-to-date picture of the state of affairs of accreditation in the framework of evaluation activities in Europe. They will gain an understanding of why accreditation and evaluation systems have evolved the way they have, and subsequently, they will obtain more realistic views on potentialities for European comparability and cooperation in this area. This volume is of interest to researchers and policy-making staff in higher education, especially those involved at the level of national systems for quality assurance, accreditation, internationalization and the Bologna process. It is also of interest to Master/PhD students in (higher) education management

The Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Project

Everybody loves a murder mystery. Of all the historical situations researchers encounter nothing has quite the same impact as discovering an innocent person hanged, a guilty person going free. Co-directors of the GREAT UNSOLVED MYSTERIES IN CANADIAN HISTORY project located at the University of Victoria, John Lutz (Department of History, University of Victoria) and Ruth Sandwell (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto), have just received funding from the Canadian Content Online Program (CCOP) of the Canadian Heritage Ministry to move ahead with phase two including two new mysteries “What happened to Aurore Gagnon?” (Peter Gossage, Research Director) and “Nobody Knows His Name: Klatssasin and the Chilcotin Massacre” (John Lutz, Research Director) to complement the pilot “Who Killed William Robinson?”

Collecting and using student feedback on quality and standards of learning and teaching in Higher Education

This report was prepared for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) by a project team comprising SQW Limited, the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information (CHERI) at the Open University and NOP Research Group. The study had two main components: to identify good practice by higher education institutions (HEIs) in collecting quantitative and qualitative feedback from students and to make recommendations on the design and implementation of mechanisms for use by individual institutions. The focus of this part of the study is quality enhancement to make recommendations on the design and implementation of a national survey of recent graduates, the results of which would be published. This part of the study is focused on providing comparative information to assist applicants to higher education (HE). Fieldwork for the study was undertaken between September and December 2002. Written information on institutional processes was requested from all HEIs in England and visits were made to 20 HEIs. During these visits, discussions were held with staff and current students on both feedback procedures within the institutions and the potential value of a national graduate survey. More focused discussions on the National Survey were held with a further 50 students and a small pilot survey was undertaken over the Christmas period

Exploring, Engaging, Understanding in Museums

Patterns of accessibility through the space of the exhibition, connections or separations among spaces or exhibition elements, sequencing and grouping of elements, form our perceptions and shape our understanding. Through a review of several previous studies and the presentation of new work, this paper suggests that these patterns of movement form the basis of visitor understanding and that these effects can be deliberately controlled and elaborated through a closer examination of the influence of the visual and perceptual properties of an exhibition. Furthermore, it is argued that there is also a spatial discourse based on patterns of access and visibility that flows in its own right, although not entirely separate from the curatorial narrative

To tame a TIGER one has to know its nature:extending weighted angular integration analysis to the descriptionof GIS road-centerline data for large scale urban analysis

GIS databases representing urban layouts according to road centerlines spanningbetween intersection nodes (at road junctions) can be analyzed syntactically basedon the concept of angular fractional depth