The normalisation of Food Aid: What happened to feeding people well?

In the UK, food poverty has increased in the last 15 years and the food aid supply chain that has emerged to tackle it is now roughly 10 years old. In this time, we have seen the food aid supply chain grow at a rate that has astounded many.  Recently that growth has been aided by a grant of £20m from a large supermarket chain. It appears institutionalisation is just around the corner, if not already here. It also appears that there is far greater emphasis on dealing with  the symptoms as opposed to solving the root causes of the problem. As an opinion piece, this paper reflects on some of the prevalent issues, and suggests some ways forward

Opportunities and Challenges in Using Learning Analytics in Learning Design

Educational institutions are designing, creating and evaluating courses to optimize learning outcomes for highly diverse student populations. Yet, most of the delivery is still monitored retrospectively with summative evaluation forms. Therefore, improvements to the course design are only implemented at the very end of a course, thus missing to benefit the current cohort. Teachers find it difficult to interpret and plan interventions just-in-time. In this context, Learning Analytics (LA) data streams gathered from ‘authentic’ student learning activities, may provide new opportunities to receive valuable information on the students' learning behaviors and could be utilised to adjust the learning design already "on the fly" during runtime. We presume that Learning Analytics applied within Learning Design (LD) and presented in a learning dashboard provide opportunities that can lead to more personalized learning experiences, if implemented thoughtfully. In this paper, we describe opportunities and challenges for using LA in LD. We identify three key opportunities for using LA in LD: (O1) using on demand indicators for evidence based decisions on learning design; (O2) intervening during the run-time of a course; and, (O3) increasing student learning outcomes and satisfaction. In order to benefit from these opportunities, several challenges have to be overcome. We mapped the identified opportunities and challenges in a conceptual model that considers the interaction of LA in LD.SURF Foundation & NRO under the REFLECTOR project grant

Participatory instructional redesign by students and teachers in secondary education: effects on perceptions of instruction

Könings, K. D., Brand-Gruwel, S., & Van Merriënboer, J. J. G. (2011). Participatory instructional redesign by students and teachers in secondary education: effects on perceptions of instruction. Instructional Science, 39(5), 737–762.Students’ perceptions of instruction are important because they direct the learning of students. The fact that teachers have only limited knowledge of these perceptions is likely to threaten the effectiveness of learning, because congruence between interpretations of an instructional intervention is necesarry for its optimal use. This study examines participatory design as a strategy for taking student perceptions into account in instructional re/design. Participatory design meetings of groups of teachers and seven co-designing students in a secondary education setting identified changes to improve the regular education process. The results on changes in student perceptions, perceived-desired discrepancy, and teacher-student disagreement showed some improvement for the co-designers but, unexpectedly, limited or even negative effects for the non-co-designing students. Possible causes are discussed. Participatory design seems to have potential for improving education, but further research is needed

Food Consumption and its Impact on Cardiovascular Disease: Importance of Solutions Focused on the Globalized Food System A Report From the Workshop Convened by the World Heart Federation

Major scholars in the field, based on a 3-day consensus, created an in-depth review of current knowledge on the role of diet in CVD, the changing global food system and global dietary patterns, and potential policy solutions. Evidence from different countries, age/race/ethnicity/socioeconomic groups suggest the health effects studies of foods, macronutrients, and dietary patterns on CVD appear to be far more consistent though regional knowledge gaps are highlighted. There are large gaps in knowledge about the association of macronutrients to CVD in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), particularly linked with dietary patterns are reviewed. Our understanding of foods and macronutrients in relationship to CVD is broadly clear; however major gaps exist both in dietary pattern research and ways to change diets and food systems. Based on the current evidence, the traditional Mediterranean-type diet, including plant foods/emphasizing plant protein sources, provides a well-tested healthy dietary pattern to reduce CV