Language tutors at the OUUK – their (e)-competencies in Open and Distance Learning

The OUUK has been teaching distance courses in languages for more than ten years. Students learn by means of specially-designed course materials, increasingly web-based resources and through direct interaction with tutors, who provide personalised feedback on the students’ assignments as well as offering tutorials for communicative practice. The role of OUUK tutors embraces, however, more than just teaching and giving feedback. They play a central role in supporting students in every aspect of their learning, forming the interface between the institution and the learner. The importance of the tutor role in ODL in general has been the subject of some informative research, but much less has been written about the skills needed by tutors of languages at a distance. This international research project has been set up to address this shortfall, and to gather evidence and insights into this particular role. The project aims to investigate the skills, attributes and (e-)competencies required by language tutors of whom a substantial number deliver the tuition online. Initially, a selected group of OUUK language tutors generated what they perceived to be the knowledge, skills and attributes necessary to carry out this complex and demanding role which included the requisite skills for online tuition delivery. In the next stage the outcomes they had produced were refined and regrouped by the researchers. In the third stage a wider sample of tutors commented and added to the listings. This paper will report on the findings so far and summarise the next stages which are planned

Awareness isn\u27t good enough

See attached document RGC Awareness isn\u27t good enough.UNLV Submissio

Creating a Transformational Learning Experience: Immersing Students in an Intensive Interdisciplinary Learning Environment

The Simmons World Challenge is a unique, interdisciplinary program recently developed at Simmons College. It immerses students in an intensive winter-session course that challenges them to tackle a pressing social issue, such as poverty or hunger, and create actionable solutions to the problem. The program was conceived and designed to harness the strengths of pedagogical theories on transformational teaching and learning. This article describes the Simmons World Challenge and presents assessment findings from the program’s third iteration in 2013, as well as on the long-term impact of the program based on follow-up assessments with the first two cohorts of students. These assessment findings demonstrate the deep and positive impact of the program on students’ engagement with learning, personal growth, academic habits and attitudes, student leadership and initiative, and sense of community at Simmons College

Navigating Professional Paradigms: Transactional Sex, Behavior Change, and Structural Responses in Uganda

Professional paradigms within social work and related social service fields have been critiqued for being behaviorally focused, thereby obscuring and perhaps excusing structural determinants of health and well-being. Recent initiatives in international social work have aimed to align theory, practice, education, and research with sustainable development, reflecting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to address structural determinants. Our qualitative research examined responses to transactional sex among Ugandan youth through in-depth interviews with 23 professionals working in social services with youth who were vulnerable to HIV. Through thematic content analysis, using deductive and inductive analysis, we examined the demographics and determinants of youth transactional sex, prominent models of response delivered by and observed by providers, and the critiques or observed limitations of current practice models. We found that behavioral strategies are pervasive, which is an apparent misalignment with the economic determinants identified by social service professionals. While interviewees described some structural economic interventions, they critiqued gaps and limitations in responses influenced by internal and external pressures shaping professional practice. Our study adds critical analyses regarding social work and social service paradigms to advance structural, social justice-informed responses that align with and advance sustainable development

Single Room Maternity Care Model: Unit Culture and Healthcare Team Practices

The evidence regarding the effects of a Single Room Maternity Care (SRMC) model on women’s childbirth experiences, healthcare providers’ workplace satisfaction, and cost outcomes remains equivocal. The research questions for this focused ethnographic study are: how is culture experienced by nurses and other healthcare providers on the SRMC unit, and how do the values, beliefs, and norms of nurses and other healthcare providers on the SRMC unit influence their day-to-day practices of caring for women and their families. The aim of this qualitative focused ethnography was to explore the culture and practices of the healthcare team in a SRMC unit. Twelve healthcare providers were recruited from a Single Room Maternity Care unit located in a Western Canadian hospital. Semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and examination of unit-related documents were conducted between October 2014 and January 2015. Data were analyzed using an approach by Roper and Shapira (2000). Two main themes emerged from the data: creating and maintaining culture and the work family. The participants considered themselves a family, and made collective and conscious efforts to create a unit culture where everyone could feel supported and valued. Unit culture determined the ways members of the healthcare team functioned in their day-to-day practice. Further research is required to explore the relationship between the maternity unit and quality of patient care, as well as the impact of collaborative practices on both providers and recipients of maternal care

Black Women Survive Breast Cancer with Community-Based Care

PURPOSE Community-based breast cancer support agencies who address non-medical, social determinants of health needs that serve as barriers to maximizing breast health outcomes may play a vital role in mitigating breast cancer mortality. They share a common emphasis on addressing social, economic, and psychological needs of breast cancer survivors and those at risk of breast cancer. This paper is third in a series of papers exploring why the rate of breast cancer mortality is two times higher for African American women than white women in Memphis. We sought insights from community-based breast cancer support agencies because they have a close-up view of circumstances and decision-making among women at risk of and surviving breast cancer, and a close view of primary care, surgical, and insurance environments impacting these women. METHODS For this qualitative descriptive research study, data were collected using semi-structured in-depth focus groups with five breast cancer support agencies in Memphis. Categories and patterns were established using thematic analysis and a deductive a priori template of codes. RESULTS The main themes identified within support agencies were barriers to the use of services, education, health system support, and emotional support. Numerous sub themes included medication costs, support group supplemental programming, eligibility for mobile services, patient/provider communication, optimism, and family advice. Procrastinating, fearfulness, insurance, childcare, and transportation were barriers to care. Support agencies noted that one unique barrier that African American women who live in underserved areas of Memphis face in maintaining breast health is poor physician’s office management; in fragmented health care systems, information and patients can be lost to follow-up. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSIONS Community-based breast cancer support agencies, who focus on social determinants of health, play a critical role as connectors for women with breast cancer who live in medically underserved areas and must find their way within a fragmented medical system. GRANT SUPPORT This research was funded by the Tennessee Department of Health, grant number A17-1251

Re-imagining competencies in North Carolina community colleges: integrating certifications into academic programs at two community colleges

Once a community college graduate completes an associate’s degree, the institution is committing to the public that the graduate possesses a prescriptive set of knowledge, skills, and abilities either gained through, or enhanced by, their college attendance. At most institutions, these skill sets are assessed almost exclusively through internal measures by the same faculty who delivered the course content. But what if the institution could also provide the student, and their future employer, another level of assurance regarding the quality and depth of instruction? In this disquisition, we present two different approaches to address increasing the integration of credentialing into the curriculum programs at a community college. One strategy examines intra-institutional articulation between continuing education and curriculum, while the other presents a method to integrate external certifications into curriculum programs as a validation of established learning outcomes

Distribution Extensions of the Milliped Families Conotylidae and Rhiscosomididae (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida) into Northern Coastal British Columbia and Southern Alaska

Two samples of the chordeumatidan family Rhiscosomididae (Rhiscosomides mineri Silvestri, 1909) and 35 of the Conotylidae establish these taxa in the Alexander Archipelago and continental parts of the Alaskan Panhandle, USA, and northern coastal British Columbia (BC), Canada. Rhiscosomides mineri is also recorded from southwestern BC and, for the first time, from Washington State, USA. Two conotylids were recovered, a juvenile male of ?Bollmanella Chamberlin, 1941, and 3 males and 33 females of a possibly parthenogenetic form of Taiyutyla Chamberlin, 1952, conforming generally to T. shawi and T. lupus, both by Shear, 2004, on Vancouver Island. Diplopoda are predicted to inhabit the southern Yukon Territory

Short-term safety outcomes of mastectomy and immediate pre-pectoral implant-based breast reconstruction:Pre-BRA prospective multicentre cohort study

Background: Prepectoral breast reconstruction (PPBR) has recently been introduced to reduce postoperative pain and improve cosmetic outcomes in women having implant-based procedures. High-quality evidence to support the practice of PPBR, however, is lacking. Pre-BRA is an IDEAL stage 2a/2b study that aimed to establish the safety, effectiveness, and stability of PPBR before definitive evaluation in an RCT. The short-Term safety endpoints at 3 months after surgery are reported here. Methods: Consecutive patients electing to undergo immediate PPBR at participating UK centres between July 2019 and December 2020 were invited to participate. Demographic, operative, oncology, and complication data were collected. The primary outcome was implant loss at 3 months. Other outcomes of interest included readmission, reoperation, and infection. Results: Some 347 women underwent 424 immediate implant-based reconstructions at 40 centres. Most were single-stage direct-To-implant (357, 84.2 per cent) biological mesh-Assisted (341, 80.4 per cent) procedures. Conversion to subpectoral reconstruction was necessary in four patients (0.9 per cent) owing to poor skin-flap quality. Of the 343 women who underwent PPBR, 144 (42.0 per cent) experienced at least one postoperative complication. Implant loss occurred in 28 women (8.2 per cent), 67 (19.5 per cent) experienced an infection, 60 (17.5 per cent) were readmitted for a complication, and 55 (16.0 per cent) required reoperation within 3 months of reconstruction. Conclusion: Complication rates following PPBR are high and implant loss is comparable to that associated with subpectoral mesh-Assisted implant-based techniques. These findings support the need for a well-designed RCT comparing prepectoral and subpectoral reconstruction to establish best practice for implant-based breast reconstruction

Learning to teach online or learning to become an online teacher: an exploration of teachers' experiences in a blended learning course

A key role in the successful implementation of any learning approach is played by teachers, so how well blended learning works will depend largely on how well teachers make the transition from their traditional face-to-face classroom roles to the wider more complex role that blended learning requires. The additional skills and the forging of a new professional identity might not come easily to all practitioners. This paper evaluates the impact that the introduction of blended learning in a distance language learning course has had on teachers. It presents and discusses findings from a small-scale evaluation study which compared quantitative and qualitative data gathered through a survey and a small number of interviews with participant observations from the researcher and the institutional end-of-course debriefing report. The paper argues that whilst technological challenges and the sheer amount of change that teachers were faced with were largely responsible for some of the negative attitudes reflected in teachers’ opinions about the course, a less obvious, broader explanation for the difficulties that teachers encountered might be found in the way that learning, teaching and training are conceptualised by both teachers and the institution. It is proposed that a transmission of knowledge approach to training fails to acknowledge and properly support the transformation of teachers’ identity that results from moving from traditional classroom-based teaching to online teaching. The shift goes beyond the acquisition of ICT skills and requires a pedagogical understanding of the affordances of the new medium and an acceptance by the teacher of his or her new role and identity