Learning analytics: a case study of the process of design of visualizations

The ability to visualize student engagement and experience data provides valuable opportunities for learning support and curriculum design. With the rise of the use of learning analytics to provide actionable intelligence [1]on students\u27 learning, the challenge is to create visualizations of the data which are clear and useful to the intended audience. This process of finding the best way to visually represent data is often iterative, with many different designs being trialled before the final design is settled upon. This paper presents a case study of the process of refining a visualization of students\u27 learning experience data. In this case the aim was to create a visual representation of the continuity of care students were exposed to during a longitudinal placement as part of a medical degree. The process of visualization refinement is outlined as well as the lessons learnt along the way

Addressing Disciplinary Literacy: An Examination of Teachers’ Instruction in First Grade

Disciplinary literacy instruction during kindergarten through second grade enables students to begin developing facility with consuming, producing, and learning from texts in academic disciplines across their school careers and for full civic participation. Extant intervention studies and descriptions of practice in the primary grades offer understanding of disciplinary literacy instruction when it is enacted with researchers’ help and/or by teachers with expertise in disciplinary literacy. To address disciplinary literacy in the primary grades, insight into what primary teachers focus on and how they support students’ disciplinary literacy learning during their naturally-occurring instruction is needed. This exploratory collective case study examined the disciplinary literacy learning opportunities available in first-grade teachers’ instruction. Participants included four teachers in four elementary schools situated in a large city in the Midwest. Audio records and field notes were collected over a period of five months during teachers’ literacy instruction. Open coding, progressive refinement of codes, and categorical analyses revealed limited instructional emphasis on disciplinary literacy. When learning opportunities were observed, teachers’ foci and support centered on the social foundations of disciplinary literacy and included sharing of information and student practice. Also, problematic disciplinary literacy learning opportunities were noted. This study underscores the urgent need for additional attention to disciplinary literacy as it is situated within the primary grades, with particular import for how first-grade teachers enact disciplinary literacy instruction

Participants' perspective on maintaining behaviour change: a qualitative study within the European Diabetes Prevention Study.

BACKGROUND: The European Diabetes Prevention Study (EDIPS) is an RCT of diet and exercise interventions in people with impaired glucose tolerance. We undertook a qualitative study, nested within the EDIPS in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, aiming to understand the experience of participants who maintained behaviour change, in order to inform future interventions. METHODS: Participants were purposively sampled, according to success criteria for diet and physical activity change maintenance, and invited to attend individual semi-structured interviews. Fifteen participants completed an interview and reflected on their experience over three to five years. We used the Framework method to analyse the transcribed data. RESULTS: Main themes were identified as factors that help (props) and those that hinder (burdens) behaviour change maintenance at different organisational levels: individual (both physical and psychological), social and environmental. Pre-existing physical conditions (such as arthritis) and social demands (such as caring for an ageing relative) hindered, whereas the benefits of becoming fitter and of having social and professional support helped, participants in maintaining behaviour change. Participants' long term experiences highlighted the salience of the continuous change in their physical, social and environmental conditions over time. CONCLUSION: The construct of props and burdens facilitates a holistic view of participants' behaviour. Efforts to encourage behaviour change maintenance should take account of context and the way this changes over time, and should include strategies to address these issues. The experience of participants who maintain behaviour change highlights the challenges for the wider implementation of diabetes prevention strategies. TRIAL REGISTRATION: (ISRCTN 15670600).The European Diabetes Prevention Study in Newcastle was funded by the Wellcome Trust

Small-scale eruptive filaments on the quiet sun

A study of a little known class of eruptive events on the quiet sun was conducted. All of 61 small-scale eruptive filamentary structures were identified in a systematic survey of 32 days of H alpha time-lapse films of the quiet sun acquired at Big Bear Solar Observatory. When fully developed, these structures have an average length of 15 arc seconds before eruption. They appear to be the small-scale analog of large-scale eruptive filaments observed against the disk. At the observed rate of 1.9 small-scale eruptive features per field of view per average 7.0 hour day, the rate of occurence of these events on the sun were estimated to be greater than 600 per 24 hour day.. The average duration of the eruptive phase was 26 minutes while the average lifetime from formation through eruption was 70 minutes. A majority of the small-scale filamentary sturctures were spatially related to cancelling magnetic features in line-of-sight photospheric magnetograms. Similar to large-scale filaments, the small-scale filamentary structures sometimes divided opposite polarity cancelling fragments but often had one or both ends terminating at a cancellation site. Their high numbers appear to reflect the much greater flux on the quiet sun. From their characteristics, evolution, and relationship to photospheric magnetic flux, it was concluded that the structures described are small-scale eruptive filaments and are a subset of all filaments

Cost-effectiveness of initial stress cardiovascular MR, stress SPECT or stress echocardiography as a gate-keeper test, compared with upfront invasive coronary angiography in the investigation and management of patients with stable chest pain: Mid-term outcomes from the CECaT randomised controlled trial

Objectives: To compare outcomes and cost-effectiveness of various initial imaging strategies in the management of stable chest pain in a long-term prospective randomised trial. Setting: Regional cardiothoracic referral centre in the east of England. Participants: 898 patients (69% man) entered the study with 869 alive at 2 years of follow-up. Patients were included if they presented for assessment of stable chest pain with a positive exercise test and no prior history of ischaemic heart disease. Exclusion criteria were recent infarction, unstable symptoms or any contraindication to stress MRI. Primary outcome measures: The primary outcomes of this follow-up study were survival up to a minimum of 2 years post-treatment, quality-adjusted survival and cost-utility of each strategy. Results: 898 patients were randomised. Compared with angiography, mortality was marginally higher in the groups randomised to cardiac MR (HR 2.6, 95% CI 1.1 to 6.2), but similar in the single photon emission CT-methoxyisobutylisonitrile (SPECT-MIBI; HR 1.0, 95% CI 0.4 to 2.9) and ECHO groups (HR 1.6, 95% CI 0.6 to 4.0). Although SPECT-MIBI was marginally superior to other non-invasive tests there were no other significant differences between the groups in mortality, quality-adjusted survival or costs. Conclusions: Non-invasive cardiac imaging can be used safely as the initial diagnostic test to diagnose coronary artery disease without adverse effects on patient outcomes or increased costs, relative to angiography. These results should be interpreted in the context of recent advances in imaging technology. Trial registration: ISRCTN 47108462, UKCRN 3696

The Vector Population Monitoring Tool (VPMT): High-Throughput DNA-Based Diagnostics for the Monitoring of Mosquito Vector Populations

Regular monitoring of mosquito vector populations is an integral component of most vector control programmes. Contemporary data on mosquito species composition, infection status, and resistance to insecticides are a prerequisite for effective intervention. For this purpose we, with funding from the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC), have developed a suite of high-throughput assays based on a single “closed-tube” platform that collectively comprise the “Vector Population Monitoring Tool” (VPMT). The VPMT can be used to screen mosquito disease vector populations for a number of traits including Anopheles gambiae s.l. and Anopheles funestus species identification, detection of infection with Plasmodium parasites, and identification of insecticide resistance mechanisms. In this paper we focus on the Anopheles-specific assays that comprise the VPMT and include details of a new assay for resistance todieldrin Rdl detection. The application of these tools, general and specific guidelines on their use based on field testing in Africa, and plans for further development are discussed