A Discussion on Document Conceptualization

The authors discuss two conceptual frameworks of documents and documentation: Lund\u27s complementarity theory of documentation; and Gorichanaz and Latham\u27s framework of document phenomenology. The role of documentation in conceptualizing the document is discussed, and the notions of documentation and documental becoming are compared. Through the discussion, clarity is gained regarding both methods of conceptualization

Shifting the focus from grades to reflection

What are grades for? In this interactive session, attendees will reflect on this overarching question. We will discuss our evolving practices regarding learning assessment, which can be broadly described as a shift from assigning student grades to encouraging student self-reflection. This session responds to currents across higher education, many of which were redoubled by the coronavirus pandemic: from metacognition in the classroom (ACRL, 2016; Ohtani & Hisasaka, 2018), to contemplative pedagogy (Zajonc, 2014), to “ungrading” (Blum, 2020), and beyond. Throughout the session, we will share assignments, rubrics, policies, etc., offering attendees concrete takeaways to enrich their own teaching practices. Background: Whence Grades? Educators may be surprised to learn that before the mid-19th century, universities kept no records of grades, though sometimes medals were awarded to outstanding individuals (Schneider & Hutt, 2013). Grades emerged in the late-19th century largely to coordinate the movement of students between institutions. Around this same time, research on intellectual ability appeared to show that levels of aptitude in a population conformed to a bell curve, and so experts argued that grade distributions should be synchronized likewise (Finkelstien, 1913). When attached to an assignment, grades are associated with feedback and may take two forms: evaluative (usually a letter or numerical score) and descriptive (constructive commentary) (Brookhart, 2008). As all educators in the ALISE community know first-hand, good descriptive feedback requires concentration and emotional intelligence, and can significantly increase workload on faculty (Crisp, 2007). But research has not conclusively shown that either evaluative or descriptive feedback reliably improve student performance on assignments (Schinske and Tanner, 2014). Students may be uninterested, for example, or find it difficult to act upon (Higgens et al., 2002; Weaver, 2006). Over the decades, research has shown that grades tend to diminish students’ interest in whatever they’re learning (Kohn, 2011). Grades create a preference for the easiest possible task, in which students do only what is necessary for a favorable grade and avoid intellectual risks. A grade-oriented environment is also associated with increased levels of cheating (Anderman and Murdock, 2007), and a fear of failure (Pulfrey, et al., 2011) and student anxiety and distress (Blum, 2020). Against this backdrop, educators across all subjects and institutional levels have been experimenting with alternatives to the conventional approach, often broadly put under the umbrella of “ungrading.” The book Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School (Sackstein, 2015) pointed the way, and the recent book Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) (Blum, 2020) reflects on the realities of doing away with grades in contexts big and small. Though full ungrading is far from standard as of yet, alternative strategies include: designing “grade-free” or “minimally-graded” assignments; training students in self-assessment; and centering peer feedback (Sackstein, 2015; Stommell, 2018). Moreover, many university programs have adopted emergency-response pass/fail systems during the pandemic (Johnson et al., 2020), offering another possible route for shifting the focus away from traditional grades. Given how much has changed in recent decades, we invite the ALISE community to question the validity and utility of the traditional grading system for LIS education. LIS programs are meant to prepare students to lead the information profession by constantly making the most ethical and appropriate judgements at personal, institutional, and social levels. Is it reasonable to expect an antiquated model for evaluation to help our students achieve such lofty aims? This panel will bring attendees together in a lively conversation about alternative visions of assessment and their capacity to transform LIS education for a more resilient future. Agenda - Tim Gorichanaz will welcome attendees and introduce the session (2 mins) Panelists will briefly introduce themselves (3 mins) - Tim Gorichanaz will lead the group through an activity to spark reflection and discussion on the essential purposes of grades, following the “Nine Whys” process designed by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless (15 mins) - Jenna Hartel will contextualize the discussion thus far by presenting on the history and development of the grading system in higher education, including emerging alternative possibilities (10 mins) - Panelists will each give a 5-minute presentation sharing an alternative assessment they have used in their classes, with a focus on concrete materials attendees can adapt in their own teaching; a brief Q&A may follow each presentation (25 mins) - Denise Agosto will lead the group through an activity to reveal the actions, however small, that all attendees can do immediately to make their grading more meaningful for students, following the “15% Solutions” process designed by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless (20 mins) - Kiersten Latham will moderate a closing Q&A session with the remaining time (15 mins) About the Panelists Tim Gorichanaz, PhD, is Assistant Teaching Professor at Drexel University. He teaches broadly in the LIS program and other areas at both graduate and undergraduate levels. He has implemented both minimal-grading and grade-free models in most of his classes. Denise E. Agosto, PhD, is Professor in the College of Computing & Informatics at Drexel University and the Director of the Master’s of Science in Information program. She teaches courses in social aspects of information systems, information literacy, qualitative research methods, and public library services. She is moving away from highly prescriptive assignments to give students increased agency in designing their own coursework and ways of representing their learning. Kiersten F. Latham, PhD, is the Director of Arts & Cultural Management and Museum Studies at Michigan State University. She teaches both graduate and undergraduate students across a variety of disciplines, all intersecting at the convergence of arts and museum management. For many years, she has experimented with reflective and student-led assignments, contemplative teaching, and ungrading techniques. Jenna Hartel, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. She embraces contemplative pedagogy in her classrooms and likewise employs alternative approaches to assignments and grading. Dr. Hartel allows students to submit creative deliverables (Hartel et al., 2017) such as drawing, poetry, sculpture, and even dance. Dr. Hartel won the 2016 Library Journal/ALISE Excellence in Teaching Award. References Anderman, E. M., and Murdock, T. (2007). Psychology of academic cheating. Elsevier. Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). (2016). Framework for information literacy for higher education. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework Blum, S. D. (Ed.). (2020). Ungrading: Why rating students undermines learning (and what to do instead). West Virginia University Press. Brookhart, S. M. (2008). Feedback that fits. Educational Leadership, 65(4), 54–59. Crisp, B. R. (2007) Is it worth the effort? How feedback influences students’ subsequent submission of assessable work. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(5), 571-581. Finkelstein, I. E. (1913). The marking system in theory and practice. Warwick & York. Hartel, J., Noone, R., & Oh, C. (2017). The creative deliverable. Journal for Education in Library and Information Science, 58(3), 176-183. Higgins, R., Hartley, P., & Skelton, A. (2002) The conscientious consumer: Reconsidering the role of assessment feedback in student learning. Studies in Higher Education, 27(1), 53–64. Johnson, N., Veletsianos, G., & Seaman, J. (2020). US faculty and administrators' experiences and approaches in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Online Learning, 24(2), –21. Kohn, A. (2011). The case against grades. https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/case-grades/ Ohtani, K., & Hisasaka, T. (2018). Beyond intelligence: A meta-analytic review of the relationship among metacognition, intelligence, and academic performance. Metacognition and Learning, 13(2), 179–212. Pulfrey, C., Buchs, C., & Butera, F. (2011). Why grades engender performance-avoidance goals: The mediating role of autonomous motivation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 103(3), 683–700. Sackstein, S. (2015). Hacking assessment: 10 ways to go gradeless in traditional schools. Times 10 Publications. Schinske, J., & Tanner, K. (2014). Teaching more by grading less (or differently). CBE—Life Sciences Education, 13, 159–166. Schneider, J., & Hutt, E. (2013). Making the grade: a history of the A–F marking scheme. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 46(2), 201–224. Stommel, J. (2018). How to ungrade. https://www.jessestommel.com/how-to-ungrade/ Weaver, M. R. (2006) Do students value feedback? Student perceptions of tutors’ written responses. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 31(3), 379–394. Zajonc, A. (2014). Contemplative practices in higher education: Powerful methods to transform teaching and learning. Jossey-Bass

Photometric Variability in Kepler Target Stars: The Sun Among Stars -- A First Look

The Kepler mission provides an exciting opportunity to study the lightcurves of stars with unprecedented precision and continuity of coverage. This is the first look at a large sample of stars with photometric data of a quality that has heretofore been only available for our Sun. It provides the first opportunity to compare the irradiance variations of our Sun to a large cohort of stars ranging from vary similar to rather different stellar properties, at a wide variety of ages. Although Kepler data is in an early phase of maturity, and we only analyze the first month of coverage, it is sufficient to garner the first meaningful measurements of our Sun's variability in the context of a large cohort of main sequence stars in the solar neighborhood. We find that nearly half of the full sample is more active than the active Sun, although most of them are not more than twice as active. The active fraction is closer to a third for the stars most similar to the Sun, and rises to well more than half for stars cooler than mid K spectral types.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, accepted to ApJ Letter

Techniques in helical scanning, dynamic imaging and image segmentation for improved quantitative analysis with X-ray micro-CT

This paper reports on recent advances at the micro-computed tomography facility at the Australian National University. Since 2000 this facility has been a significant centre for developments in imaging hardware and associated software for image reconstruction, image analysis and image-based modelling. In 2010 a new instrument was constructed that utilises theoretically-exact image reconstruction based on helical scanning trajectories, allowing higher cone angles and thus better utilisation of the available X-ray flux. We discuss the technical hurdles that needed to be overcome to allow imaging with cone angles in excess of 60°. We also present dynamic tomography algorithms that enable the changes between one moment and the next to be reconstructed from a sparse set of projections, allowing higher speed imaging of time-varying samples. Researchers at the facility have also created a sizeable distributed-memory image analysis toolkit with capabilities ranging from tomographic image reconstruction to 3D shape characterisation. We show results from image registration and present some of the new imaging and experimental techniques that it enables. Finally, we discuss the crucial question of image segmentation and evaluate some recently proposed techniques for automated segmentation

Visualisation of CP-violation effects in decay-time-dependent analyses of multibody B-meson decays

Decay-time-dependent CP-violation effects in transitions of neutral B mesons to CP-eigenstates can be visualised by oscillations in the asymmetry, as a function of decay time, between decay yields from mesons tagged as initially having B or B flavour. Such images, for example for B0 → J/ψK0 S decays where the magnitude of the oscillation is proportional to sin(2β) with β being an angle of the Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa Unitarity Triangle, provide a straightforward illustration of the underlying physics. Until now there has been no comparable method to provide visualisation for the case of decays to multibody final states that are not CP-eigenstates, where interference between CPeven and -odd amplitudes provides additional physics sensitivity. A method is proposed to weight the data so that the terms of interest can be projected out and used to obtain asymmetries that visualise the relevant effects. Application of the weighting to B0 s decays, where effects due to non-zero width difference are not negligible, provides a novel method to observe CP violation in interference between mixing and decay without tagging the production flavour

Comparing the dynamics of party leadership survival in Britain and Australia: Brown, Rudd and Gillard

This article examines the interaction between the respective party structures of the Australian Labor Party and the British Labour Party as a means of assessing the strategic options facing aspiring challengers for the party leadership. Noting the relative neglect within the scholarly literature on examining forced exits that occur; and attempted forced exits that do not occur, this article takes as its case study the successful forced exits of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, and the failure to remove Gordon Brown. In doing so the article challenges the prevailing assumption that the likely success of leadership evictions are solely determined by the leadership procedures that parties adopt. Noting the significance of circumstances and party cultures, the article advances two scenarios through which eviction attempts can be understood: first, forced exits triggered through the activation of formal procedures (Rudd and Gillard); second, attempts to force an exit by informal pressures outside of the formal procedures which are overcome by the incumbent (Brown)

Variation in pre-PCR processing of FFPE samples leads to discrepancies in BRAF and EGFR mutation detection: a diagnostic RING trial.

Aims Mutation detection accuracy has been described extensively; however, it is surprising that pre-PCR processing of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples has not been systematically assessed in clinical context. We designed a RING trial to (i) investigate pre-PCR variability, (ii) correlate pre-PCR variation with EGFR/BRAF mutation testing accuracy and (iii) investigate causes for observed variation. Methods 13 molecular pathology laboratories were recruited. 104 blinded FFPE curls including engineered FFPE curls, cell-negative FFPE curls and control FFPE tissue samples were distributed to participants for pre-PCR processing and mutation detection. Follow-up analysis was performed to assess sample purity, DNA integrity and DNA quantitation. Results Rate of mutation detection failure was 11.9%. Of these failures, 80% were attributed to pre-PCR error. Significant differences in DNA yields across all samples were seen using analysis of variance (p<0.0001), and yield variation from engineered samples was not significant (p=0.3782). Two laboratories failed DNA extraction from samples that may be attributed to operator error. DNA extraction protocols themselves were not found to contribute significant variation. 10/13 labs reported yields averaging 235.8ng (95% CI 90.7 to 380.9) from cell-negative samples, which was attributed to issues with spectrophotometry. DNA measurements using Qubit Fluorometry demonstrated a median fivefold overestimation of DNA quantity by Nanodrop Spectrophotometry. DNA integrity and PCR inhibition were factors not found to contribute significant variation. Conclusions In this study, we provide evidence demonstrating that variation in pre-PCR steps is prevalent and may detrimentally affect the patient's ability to receive critical therapy. We provide recommendations for preanalytical workflow optimisation that may reduce errors in down-stream sequencing and for next-generation sequencing library generation