Erasmus Language students in a British University – a case study

Students’ assessment of their academic experience is actively sought by Higher Education institutions, as evidenced in the National Student Survey introduced in 2005. Erasmus students, despite their growing numbers, tend to be excluded from these satisfaction surveys, even though they, too, are primary customers of a University. This study aims to present results from bespoke questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with a sample of Erasmus students studying languages in a British University. These methods allow us insight into the experience of these students and their assessment as a primary customer, with a focus on language learning and teaching, university facilities and student support. It investigates to what extent these factors influence their levels of satisfaction and what costs of adaptation if any, they encounter. Although excellent levels of satisfaction were found, some costs affect their experience. They relate to difficulties in adapting to a learning methodology based on a low number of hours and independent learning and to a guidance and support system seen as too stifling. The results portray this cohort’s British University as a well-equipped and well-meaning but ultimately overbearing institution, which may indicate that minimising costs can eliminate some sources of dissatisfaction

Reading religion in Norwegian textbooks: are individual religions ideas or people?

Different religions are treated in different ways in Norwegian sixth form textbooks. We carried out an exhaustive content analysis of the chapters devoted to individual religions in textbooks for the Religion and Ethics course currently available in Norway, using rigorous indicators to code each word, image and question according to whether they were treated the religion as a set of ideas or a group of people. After adjusting for trends in the different kinds of data (word, image, question), we found that Buddhism and Christianity receive significantly more attention for their ideas than Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, which are treated more as people. This difference cannot be explained by the national syllabus or the particularities of the individual religions. The asymmetry also has implications for the pupils’ academic, moral and pedagogical agency for which teachers play a critical role in compensating.acceptedVersio

Risk Dynamics throughout the system development Life Cycle

[[abstract]]Risks must be controlled during the development of a new system in order to best promote success. However, resources that can be dedicated to controlling risks are often limited. To best design an effective and efficient portfolio of controls, it is important to understand if and how risks change during the course of a system development. Using a framework developed from socio-technical theories, we conduct a multiple case study to determine the pattern of risk dynamics through the stages of the development life cycle. Risks associated with structural concerns dominate and increase as the life cycle progress, while technology risks are not very common early, but become so later. Risks associated with tasks and actor are common and do not change much in incidence. The results indicate the value of the sociotechnical model in identifying risks and how control portfolios should change over the course of a system development.[[notice]]補正完畢[[booktype]]紙