Quality assurance for digital learning object repositories: issues for the metadata creation process

Metadata enables users to find the resources they require, therefore it is an important component of any digital learning object repository. Much work has already been done within the learning technology community to assure metadata quality, focused on the development of metadata standards, specifications and vocabularies and their implementation within repositories. The metadata creation process has thus far been largely overlooked. There has been an assumption that metadata creation will be straightforward and that where machines cannot generate metadata effectively, authors of learning materials will be the most appropriate metadata creators. However, repositories are reporting difficulties in obtaining good quality metadata from their contributors, and it is becoming apparent that the issue of metadata creation warrants attention. This paper surveys the growing body of evidence, including three UK-based case studies, scopes the issues surrounding human-generated metadata creation and identifies questions for further investigation. Collaborative creation of metadata by resource authors and metadata specialists, and the design of tools and processes, are emerging as key areas for deeper research. Research is also needed into how end users will search learning object repositories

Cabaret: A lesson in recovery

This thesis chronicles the process of Scenic Designing and Paint Charging for West Virginia University School of Theatre and Dance\u27s 2013 production of Cabaret. It details the entire process including research, design meetings, design and drafting process, construction and technical rehearsals. It discusses how the design changed due to issues such as over budgeting and time management

The Consequences of Polyandry for Sibship Structures, Distributions of Relationships and Relatedness, and Potential for Inbreeding in a Wild Population

We thank the Tsawout and Tseycum First Nations for access to Mandarte Island, Pirmin Nietlisbach, Lukas Keller, Greta Bocedi, Brad Duthie, and Matthew Wolak for helpful discussions, and the European Research Council, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and Swiss National Science Foundation for funding. Field data collected following UBC Animal Care Committee (A07-0309) and Environment Canada (Master banding permit 10596) guidelines.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Physiotherapy Students’ and Practice Educators’ Experiences of Using Placements Passports: A Tool to Enhance Collaboration on Placement

Integral to physiotherapy students’ study are their practice placements. Placements form a mandatory part of students’ programmes of study. Practice learning is seen as an essential component of the curricula and as such is a key element of the students’ learning and development. The UK health service, which continues to provide the majority of practice learning opportunities for healthcare students, is experiencing unprecedented demand on services. Practice educators are reporting increasing pressure to maintain service provision whilst trying to support students in the practice setting. To maximise learning on placement, the placement passport was developed. This aims to support a more collaborative approach to the student’s learning in practice, by promoting a partnership between the practice educator and the student, and by encouraging and enabling the students to develop their skills of self-evaluation and self-directed learning, but also giving the practice educator the opportunity to try to tailor the experience to the student’s needs and wants. This study aims to explore students’ and practice educators’ experiences of using a placement passport in physiotherapy education. Five students and four practice educators attended one-off focus groups to explore their experiences. Findings suggested that the passport is a tool to support collaborative approaches to students’ learning, helping students and practice educators to bridge the gap between academia and the reality of practice. It also provided both with the opportunity to begin early dialogue around the students’ and practice educators’ expectations of the practice placement while acknowledging prior learning and development.                                                                                                                                 &nbsp

A Survey of Analogs to Weak MgII Absorbers in the Present

We present the results of a survey of the analogs of weak MgII absorbers (rest frame equivalent width W(2796) < 0.3 A) at 0 < z < 0.3. Our sample consisted of 25 HST/STIS echelle quasar spectra (R = 45,000) which covered SiII 1260 and CII 1335 over this redshift range. Using those similar transitions as tracers of MgII facilitates a much larger survey, covering a redshift pathlength of g(z) = 5.3 for an equivalent width limit of MgII corresponding to W(2796) > 0.02 A, with 30% completeness for the weakest lines. We find the number of weak MgII absorber analogs with 0.02 < W(2796) < 0.3 to be dN/dz = 1.00 +/- 0.20 for 0 < z < 0.3. This value is consistent with cosmological evolution of the population. We consider the expected effect on observability of weak MgII absorbers of the decreasing intensity of the extragalactic background radiation eld from z~1 to z~0. Assuming that all the objects that produce absorption at z~1 are stable on a cosmological timescale, and that no new objects are created, we would expect dN/dz of 2-3 at z~0. About 30-50% of this z~0 population would be decendants of the parsec-scale structures that produce single-cloud, weak MgII absorbers at z~1. The other 50-70% would be lower density, kiloparsec-scale structures that produce CIV absorption, but not detectable low ionization absorption, at z~1. We conclude that at least one, and perhaps some fraction of both, of these populations has evolved away since z~1, in order to match the z~0 dN/dz measured in our survey. This would follow naturally for a population of transient structures whose generation is related to star-forming processes, whose rate has decreased since z~1.Comment: 45 pages, 12 figures, 7 tables ApJ accepte

Auditory Training for the Deaf

Auditory training is considered an important aspect in the education of deaf children. It is generally believed that the development, of auditory training is bringing closer the day prophesied by Isaiah when the ears of the deaf be unstopped. This paper has attempted to explain some of the goals, factors and approaches in auditory training that can be means to this end

Evolution of precopulatory and post-copulatory strategies of inbreeding avoidance and associated polyandry

Acknowledgments This work was funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant to JMR. Computer simulations were performed using the Maxwell Computing Cluster at the University of Aberdeen. We thank Matthew E. Wolak and two anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Service User Involvement in Training for the Therapeutic Management of Violence and Aggression

Involving service users in mental health education and training has increased considerably over the last few years, especially in the initial pre-registration training of mental health professionals (social workers, nurses, psychologists). There is a growing understanding of the important contribution that service users can make to developing the mental health practitioners of the future. Involving service users in the education of future mental health practitioners is seen as important in providing students with the opportunity for developing greater awareness and understanding through the unique insights of people’s lived experience of mental health conditions, and of their contact with mental health services. This paper describes the involvement of service user trainers in the development and delivery of a short training course in physical restraint for mental health professionals. It considers the impact of including service users who themselves have experience being restrained in acute mental health settings, from the perspective of course participants, tutors and the service user trainers themselves