Expectations and use of feedback in first year university: improving student and educator outcomes with FRAMEwork

A common student perception of feedback in higher education is that it is often lacking in detail, usability, and timeliness; however, many staff members resent the lack of investment students place in engaging with, or even collecting, feedback on work. Despite increasing recognition of the role of feedback in student learning and course satisfaction, few studies have sought to contrast student and academic perspectives of feedback in a discipline to identify reasons why inconsistencies between student and staff perceptions occur. Similarly, few comprehensive feedback interventions have been devised to improve both staff and student engagement in the feedback process. The research reported in this thesis seeks to address these deficits, beginning with a comprehensive exploration of engagement with feedback at a tertiary level. Two exploratory studies were conducted initially to identify key similarities and differences in the conceptualization, use and preference for feedback observed amongst staff and students in the Discipline of Psychology at RMIT University, following a detailed survey of their feedback practices. Within this Discipline, 202 first year undergraduate students (Study 1) and 25 staff members (Study 2) were surveyed regarding their preferences and engagement with feedback in the tertiary setting. Results indicated that there were several key differences in the way students and staff conceptualize and utilize feedback, suggesting that these differences may account for dissatisfaction with the feedback process. In addition, an emphasis on summative feedback and an embedded perception of feedback as a passive linear process were discovered amongst staff and students. Following these studies, a semester-long intervention intended to improve student and staff engagement and satisfaction with feedback was devised and implemented. The basis for this intervention was the FRAMEwork manual (a comprehensive guide to shaping feedback as an interactive dialogue between staff and students) that was designed based on the observations and recommendations of Study 1 and Study 2. An experimental design was used to evaluate the FRAMEwork manual using 90 first year undergraduates enrolled in Psychology at RMIT University (Study 3). Preliminary analyses of the intervention outcomes were promising, particularly in regard to enhancing feedback utility and student academic performance; however, further modifications and replications are required. In particular, it is recommended that the FRAMEwork program be delivered across the length of a program rather than within a single course

Field observations of swash zone infragravity motions and beach cusp evolution

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2005. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 110 (2005): C02018, doi:10.1029/2004JC002485.Fluid flows consistent with low-mode edge waves were evident in video observations of swash motions during a field experiment in which beach cusps developed on an initially smooth beach. As beach cusps grew, energy lying along low-mode dispersion curves increased. The most energetic edge-wave propagation direction changed from upcoast to downcoast as the orientation of the cusp horns rotated. These observations suggest a coupling between morphodynamics and hydrodynamics, and are evidence that beach cusp evolution might control low-mode edge wave dynamics.This work was performed while Y. C. was a visiting scientist at NIWA funded by UPC. Y. C. thanks NIWA for its kind hospitality. G. C. is supported by the (New Zealand) Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (contract C01X0401). S. E. was supported by ONR, NSF, and ARO

Lidar and pressure measurements of inner-surfzone waves and setup

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2015. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 32 (2015): 1945–1959, doi:10.1175/JTECH-D-14-00222.1.Observations of waves and setup on a steep, sandy beach are used to identify and assess potential applications of spatially dense lidar measurements for studying inner-surf and swash-zone hydrodynamics. There is good agreement between lidar- and pressure-based estimates of water levels (r2 = 0.98, rmse = 0.05 m), setup (r2 = 0.92, rmse = 0.03 m), infragravity wave heights (r2 = 0.91, rmse = 0.03 m), swell–sea wave heights (r2 = 0.87, rmse = 0.07 m), and energy density spectra. Lidar observations did not degrade with range (up to 65 m offshore of the lidar) when there was sufficient foam present on the water surface to generate returns, suggesting that for narrow-beam 1550-nm light, spatially varying spot size, grazing angle affects, and linear interpolation (to estimate the water surface over areas without returns) are not large sources of error. Consistent with prior studies, the lidar and pressure observations indicate that standing infragravity waves dominate inner-surf and swash energy at low frequencies and progressive swell–sea waves dominate at higher frequencies. The spatially dense lidar measurements enable estimates of reflection coefficients from pairs of locations at a range of spatial lags (thus spanning a wide range of frequencies or wavelengths). Reflection is high at low frequencies, increases with beach slope, and decreases with increasing offshore wave height, consistent with prior studies. Lidar data also indicate that wave asymmetry increases rapidly across the inner surf and swash. The comparisons with pressure measurements and with theory demonstrate that lidar measures inner-surf waves and setup accurately, and can be used for studies of inner-surf and swash-zone hydrodynamics.Funding was provided by the USACE Coastal Field Data Collection (CFDC) and Coastal Ocean Data Systems (CODS) programs, the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, and the Assistant Secretary of Defense (R&E).2016-04-0

Socioeconomic inequalities in health among Swedish adolescents - adding the subjective perspective

Abstract Background Socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health predict future inequalities in adult health. Subjective measures of socioeconomic status (SES) may contribute with an increased understanding of these inequalities. The aim of this study was to investigate socioeconomic health inequalities using both a subjective and an objective measure of SES among Swedish adolescents. Method Cross-sectional HBSC-data from 2002 to 2014 was used with a total sample of 23,088 adolescents aged 11–15 years. Three measures of self-rated health (dependent variables) were assessed: multiple health complaints, life satisfaction and health perception. SES was measured objectively by the Family Affluence Scale (FAS) and subjectively by “perceived family wealth” (independent variables). The trend for health inequalities was investigated descriptively with independent t-tests and the relationship between independent and dependent variables was investigated with multiple logistic regression analysis. Gender, age and survey year was considered as possible confounders. Results Subjective SES was more strongly related to health outcomes than the objective measure (FAS). Also, the relation between FAS and health was weakened and even reversed (for multiple health complaints) when subjective SES was tested simultaneously in regression models (FAS OR: 1.03, CI: 1.00;1.06 and subjective SES OR: 0.66, CI: 0.63;0.68). Conclusions The level of socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health varied depending on which measure that was used to define SES. When focusing on adolescents, the subjective appraisals of SES is important to consider because they seem to provide a stronger tool for identifying inequalities in health for this group. This finding is important for policy makers to consider given the persistence of health inequalities in Sweden and other high-income countries

CONDOR: a database resource of developmentally associated conserved non-coding elements

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Comparative genomics is currently one of the most popular approaches to study the regulatory architecture of vertebrate genomes. Fish-mammal genomic comparisons have proved powerful in identifying conserved non-coding elements likely to be distal <it>cis-</it>regulatory modules such as enhancers, silencers or insulators that control the expression of genes involved in the regulation of early development. The scientific community is showing increasing interest in characterizing the function, evolution and language of these sequences. Despite this, there remains little in the way of user-friendly access to a large dataset of such elements in conjunction with the analysis and the visualization tools needed to study them.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>Here we present CONDOR (COnserved Non-coDing Orthologous Regions) available at: <url>http://condor.fugu.biology.qmul.ac.uk</url>. In an interactive and intuitive way the website displays data on > 6800 non-coding elements associated with over 120 early developmental genes and conserved across vertebrates. The database regularly incorporates results of ongoing <it>in vivo </it>zebrafish enhancer assays of the CNEs carried out in-house, which currently number ~100. Included and highlighted within this set are elements derived from duplication events both at the origin of vertebrates and more recently in the teleost lineage, thus providing valuable data for studying the divergence of regulatory roles between paralogs. CONDOR therefore provides a number of tools and facilities to allow scientists to progress in their own studies on the function and evolution of developmental <it>cis</it>-regulation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>By providing access to data with an approachable graphics interface, the CONDOR database presents a rich resource for further studies into the regulation and evolution of genes involved in early development.</p

A new version of the HBSC Family Affluence Scale - FAS III: Scottish qualitative findings from the International FAS Development Study

A critical review of the Family Affluence Scale (FAS) concluded that FAS II was no longer discriminatory within very rich or very poor countries, where a very high or a very low proportion of children were categorised as high FAS or low FAS respectively (Currie et al. 2008). The review concluded that a new version of FAS - FAS III - should be developed to take into account current trends in family consumption patterns across the European region, the US and Canada. In 2012, the FAS Development and Validation Study was conducted in eight countries - Denmark, Greenland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Scotland. This paper describes the Scottish qualitative findings from this study. The Scottish qualitative fieldwork comprising cognitive interviews and focus groups sampled from 11, 13 and 15 year-old participants from 18 of the most- and least- economically deprived schools. These qualitative results were used to inform the final FAS III recommendations.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Purifying Selection in Deeply Conserved Human Enhancers Is More Consistent than in Coding Sequences

(c) 2014 De Silva et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Updating the distribution of Dicrodon guttulatum Duméril & Bibron, 1839 (Reptilia, Teiidae) with a disjunct population in the eastern slope of the Peruvian Andes

We report a disjunct population of Dicrodon guttulatum Duméril & Bibron, 1839 on the eastern slope of the Cordillera Occidental in the inter-Andean Seasonally Dry Forests of the Marañón River, in the Departments of Cajamarca and Piura in northwestern Peru. We include an updated range distribution map using records from museum specimens, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, and available photographic records on iNaturalist. In addition, we identify widespread cultivation of rice crops as the main threat to D. guttulatum in the inter-Andean Seasonally Dry Forests of the Marañón

Predicting potential distribution and identifying priority areas for conservation of the Yellow-tailed Woolly Monkey (Lagothrix flavicauda) in Peru

Species distribution models (SDMs) provide conservationist with spatial distributions estimations of priority species. Lagothrix flavicauda (Humboldt, 1812), commonly known as the Yellow-tailed Woolly Monkey, is one of the largest primates in the New World. This species is endemic to the montane forests of northern Peru, in the departments of Amazonas, San Martín, Huánuco, Junín, La Libertad, and Loreto at elevation from1,000 to 2,800 m. It is classified as “Critically Endangered” (CR) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as well as by Peruvian legislation. Furthermore, it is listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Research on precise estimates of its potential distribution are scare. Therefore, in this study we modeled the potential distribution area of this species in Peru, the model was generated using the MaxEnt algorithm, along with 80 georeferenced occurrence records and 28 environmental variables. The total distribution (high, moderate, and low) for L. flavicauda is 29,383.3 km2, having 3,480.7 km2 as high potential distribution. In effect, 22.64 % (6,648.49 km2) of the total distribution area of L. flavicauda is found within Natural Protected Areas (NPAs), with the following categories representing the largest areas of distribution: Protected Forests (1,620.41 km2), Regional Conservation Areas (1,976.79 km2), and Private Conservation Areas (1,166.55 km2). After comparing the predicted distribution with the current NPAs system, we identified new priority areas for the conservation of the species. We, therefore, believe that this study will contribute significantly to the conservation of L. flavicauda in Peru