Student expectations: what is university really about?

Students spend 12 to 14 years in school learning in a carefully controlled and structured system.  It appears that many students enter university with unrealistic conceptions of what is expected of them in many aspects of teaching and learning, including assessment. Hence, when they reach university they are faced with the challenge of adjusting to radically different styles of teaching, learning and assessment. It follows that this lack of preparedness is key reason why students drop out or take longer to complete their studies.  To compound the issue, university teachers may not fully appreciate students' expectations and are unable to anticipate and address these in curriculum development and delivery.  Therefore, developing a better understanding of students’ perceptions, expectations and experiences is crucial to being able to deliver programmes of study that support students in the transition from school to university and as they move through their university life.  This paper explores the perceptions of Level 5 and Level 6 students on two LJMU programmes in the Faculty of Education, Health and Community with the overarching aim to investigate key aspects of the student experience relating to induction, support and transition.  By exploring students’ ideas around key areas we hope to be able to better understand what the student expectation is and identify strategies to bridge any gap that exists between staff and student beliefs

Student engagement with feedback and attainment: the role of academic self-efficacy

Academic self-efficacy, the belief that one can achieve desired academic goals plays an important role in learning. This study aimed to determine the extent to which academic self-efficacy mediates relationships between students’ perceptions of feedback and their academic attainment. An opportunity sample of 232 students (123 female) in their first year of higher education reported their academic self-efficacy and evaluated their assessment experience, including the perceived quantity and quality of feedback and the extent to which this feedback elicited an active response. Positive associations were observed between academic attainment and students’ confidence that they could achieve their desired grades and adopt appropriate study behaviours. A negative association was identified between attainment and confidence to talk about their studies. Attainment was not related to the perceived quantity or quality of feedback, but did bear a significant association with the reported use to which feedback was put. Positive associations were generally identified between academic self-efficacy and perceptions of feedback. Path models revealed that inter-relationships were best represented by a model wherein academic self-efficacy mediated links between students’ perceptions of feedback and academic attainment. The findings highlight the need to incorporate characteristics of the individual into an understanding of student engagement with feedback

The role of the user within the medical device design and development process: medical device manufacturers' perspectives

Copyright @ 2011 Money et al.Background: Academic literature and international standards bodies suggest that user involvement, via the incorporation of human factors engineering methods within the medical device design and development (MDDD) process, offer many benefits that enable the development of safer and more usable medical devices that are better suited to users' needs. However, little research has been carried out to explore medical device manufacturers' beliefs and attitudes towards user involvement within this process, or indeed what value they believe can be added by doing so.Methods: In-depth interviews with representatives from 11 medical device manufacturers are carried out. We ask them to specify who they believe the intended users of the device to be, who they consult to inform the MDDD process, what role they believe the user plays within this process, and what value (if any) they believe users add. Thematic analysis is used to analyse the fully transcribed interview data, to gain insight into medical device manufacturers' beliefs and attitudes towards user involvement within the MDDD process.Results: A number of high-level themes emerged, relating who the user is perceived to be, the methods used, the perceived value and barriers to user involvement, and the nature of user contributions. The findings reveal that despite standards agencies and academic literature offering strong support for the employment formal methods, manufacturers are still hesitant due to a range of factors including: perceived barriers to obtaining ethical approval; the speed at which such activity may be carried out; the belief that there is no need given the 'all-knowing' nature of senior health care staff and clinical champions; a belief that effective results are achievable by consulting a minimal number of champions. Furthermore, less senior health care practitioners and patients were rarely seen as being able to provide valuable input into the process.Conclusions: Medical device manufacturers often do not see the benefit of employing formal human factors engineering methods within the MDDD process. Research is required to better understand the day-to-day requirements of manufacturers within this sector. The development of new or adapted methods may be required if user involvement is to be fully realised.This study was in part funded by grant number Ref: GR/S29874/01 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. This article is made available through the Brunel University Open Access Publishing Fund

Public Claims about Automatic External Defibrillators: An Online Consumer Opinions Study

Patients are no longer passive recipients of health care, and increasingly engage in health communications outside of the traditional patient and health care professional relationship. As a result, patient opinions and health related judgements are now being informed by a wide range of social, media, and online information sources. Government initiatives recognise self-delivery of health care as a valuable means of responding to the anticipated increased global demand for health resources. Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), designed for the treatment of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA), have recently become available for 'over the counter' purchase with no need for a prescription. This paper explores the claims and argumentation of lay persons and health care practitioners and professionals relating to these, and how these may impact on the acceptance, adoption and use of these devices within the home context. METHODS: We carry out a thematic content analysis of a novel form of Internet-based data: online consumer opinions of AED devices posted on Amazon.com, the world's largest online retailer. A total of 83 online consumer reviews of home AEDs are analysed. The analysis is both inductive, identifying themes that emerged from the data, exploring the parameters of public debate relating to these devices, and also driven by theory, centring around the parameters that may impact upon the acceptance, adoption and use of these devices within the home as indicated by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). RESULTS: Five high-level themes around which arguments for and against the adoption of home AEDs are identified and considered in the context of TAM. These include opinions relating to device usability, usefulness, cost, emotional implications of device ownership, and individual patient risk status. Emotional implications associated with AED acceptance, adoption and use emerged as a notable factor that is not currently reflected within the existing TAM. CONCLUSIONS: The value and credibility of the findings of this study are considered within the context of existing AED research, and related to technology acceptance theory, and current methods and practice. From a methodological perspective, this study demonstrates the potential value of online consumer reviews as a novel data source for exploring the parameters of public debate relating to emerging health care technologies

Common genetic variants in the CLDN2 and PRSS1-PRSS2 loci alter risk for alcohol-related and sporadic pancreatitis

Pancreatitis is a complex, progressively destructive inflammatory disorder. Alcohol was long thought to be the primary causative agent, but genetic contributions have been of interest since the discovery that rare PRSS1, CFTR, and SPINK1 variants were associated with pancreatitis risk. We now report two significant genome-wide associations identified and replicated at PRSS1-PRSS2 (1×10-12) and x-linked CLDN2 (p < 1×10-21) through a two-stage genome-wide study (Stage 1, 676 cases and 4507 controls; Stage 2, 910 cases and 4170 controls). The PRSS1 variant affects susceptibility by altering expression of the primary trypsinogen gene. The CLDN2 risk allele is associated with atypical localization of claudin-2 in pancreatic acinar cells. The homozygous (or hemizygous male) CLDN2 genotype confers the greatest risk, and its alleles interact with alcohol consumption to amplify risk. These results could partially explain the high frequency of alcohol-related pancreatitis in men – male hemizygous frequency is 0.26, female homozygote is 0.07

Patient perceptions and expectations of an anticoagulation service: a quantitative comparison study of clinic-based testers and patient self-testers

"Wir sind hier vorübergehend seit 1996 untergebracht" Christian Brenk, Stadtarchiv Bernburg Quelle: Mitteldeutsche Zeitun

Application of analytic hierarchy process for user needs elicitation : a preliminary study on a device for auto-injection of epinephrine

Understanding user needs is essential to design biomedical devices that are efficacious in real life (clinically effective). Few studies propose analytic quantitative methods to elicit user needs. This paper presents a preliminary application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to elicit user needs. As a case study we focused on the use of a biomedical device for auto-injection of epinephrine to treat severe allergic reactions. Although the study presented is on-going, the methods we describe provide valuable insights into how quantitative methods can be applied to user needs elicitation

Gymnastics: collaborative CPD - what has the impact been on pupils' learning

In this study we aimed to provide a (Continuing Professional Development) CPD course using the serial method of delivery, as well as also an insight into how each session and the course as a whole has changed the way in which gymastics was taught and pupil reaction to those changes

Undergraduate student expectations of university in the United Kingdom: What really matters to them?

Abstract: Students spend 12 to 14 years in school settings learning in what could be considered a carefully controlled and structured environment. Higher education may not offer the same landscape to students and it appears that many enter with unrealistic conceptions of what is expected of them and are faced with different approaches to aspects of teaching, learning and assessment. This qualitative study explores the perceptions of second-year and final-year students in relation to their expectations whilst studying at university. Focus groups were used across two programmes in one university faculty to ascertain student expectations and what they perceived as important. From the thematic analysis, four areas were highlighted by the students as key to the transition into university these were directed time, non-directed time, support and relationships. Overall these students where positive about the university experience and the levels of support offered to them, particularly noting that working in peer learning groups (PLGs) was beneficial. Issues were raised around the timetabling of face-to-face contact time and the value of the experience and this is an area that needs further research as is understanding the complexity of the students&apos; lives outside of the institution