Preparing Higher Education Tutors for Delivering Online Courses

This paper identifies that academic staff need to be suitably prepared to deliver wholly online courses, and outlines the steps taken towards achieving this, at one Higher Education institution in the UK. E-learning, whether partially (blended) or wholly online, is not simply about the technology, but also requires an understanding of the pedagogical considerations, and the skills that are needed, to effectively facilitate them. Through the use of a formal questionnaire, and collation of informal comments made on a social network, evaluation is made of a staff development course designed specifically to promote effective facilitation of high quality online courses. The results determined that the course is fit for purpose and achieves its aims. Future cohorts are already over-subscribed as a result of positive commentary by participants. Further developments will be made, based upon constructive feedback by participants. Whilst possibly not unique, this course demonstrates action being taken in an educational institution to recognise that effective online delivery requires specific knowledge and skills that are different from those used in the traditional classroom

How do children’s challenges to function and participation impact maternal stress? A survey of mothers of children with suspected developmental co-ordination disorder

Mothers of children with suspected developmental coordination disorder qualitatively report high levels of parenting stress. The parent-child relationship impacts on opportuni-ties for participation available to the child and family. This study used standardised measures to quantify maternal stress and to examine factors that may be associated with parenting stress (social support and coping child diagnosis, motor skills and sensory pro-cessing). Maternal stress was high but not associated with child motor impairment. In-stead, stress was correlated with child sensory processing problems, maternal social sup-port and coping. Mothers are at risk and concerns about the child should be considered in the context of family need

Relation of Classification Skills to Readiness for First Grade

Family Relations and Child Developmen

Poetry With People With Dementia: An Evaluation of a Two Year Project Engaging in Poetry Activities With Older People in Residential and Nursing Homes.

This paper is a summary of an evaluation of the first two years of a three year poetry project for older people with dementia. The project was set up with a poet in residence who mentored six poets to deliver poetry activities to older people and those with dementia in residential and care homes in Herefordshire. The project was developed and run by the Courtyards Hereford. The evaluation was undertake through the use of questionnaires that were given to staff and carers undertaking training workshops and the poets, staff and carers in the homes who facilitated the activities and finally by the residents who took part in the project. The main findings were that participants that responded to the questionnaire for staff and carers it had increased confidence and assisted them in gaining more knowledge about the residents, whilst for residents it had a number of positive effects including enhanced communication, increased self-esteem and enhanced self-worth whilst making them feel less isolated

LUCY: Large scale Urban Consumption of Energy

Model and datasets to document changes in global anthropogenic heat flux (QF) for spatial (30?? × 30?? to 0.5° × 0.5°) resolution and temporal coverage (historical, current and future). See further details in the Lindberg et al. publications linked from this record

The evaluation of Education Maintenance Allowance Pilots : three years evidence : a quantitative evaluation

This is the third report of the longitudinal quantitative evaluation of Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) pilots and the first since the government announced that EMA is to be rolled out nationally from 2004. The evaluation was commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) from a consortium of research organisations, led by the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) and including the National Centre for Social Research, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling (NICEC). The statistical evaluation design is a longitudinal cohort study involving large random sample surveys of young people (and their parents) in 10 EMA pilot areas and eleven control areas. Two cohorts of young people were selected from Child Benefit records. The first cohort of young people left compulsory schooling in the summer of 1999 and they, and their parents, were interviewed between October 1999 and April 2000 (Year 12 interview). A second interview was carried out with these young people between October 2000 and April 2001 (Year 13 interview). The second cohort left compulsory education the following summer of 2000 and young people, and their parents, were first interviewed between October 2000 and April 2001

The Promise and Limits of Cyber Power in International Law: Remarks

Hi, everyone. I am Monica Hakimi from the University of Michigan Law School, and I would like to welcome you to our panel on cyber power and its limits. The topic almost does not need an introduction. We all know just from reading the news that our collective dependence on cyberspace is also a huge vulnerability, and state and non-state actors exploit this vulnerability to do one another harm. They use cyber technologies not just to spy on one another, but also, for example, to interfere in national elections, to steal trade secrets or other valuable information, to disrupt the activities of political, military, or economic institutions, and at times to cause physical destruction or death. Moreover, because these technologies allow the perpetrators to obscure their identities or the full effects of their operations, the people and institutions that are affected do not always have the relevant information to protect themselves from future attacks or to respond

Developing personas for use in the design of dementia care environments

Context: Dementia has a high global prevalence, and the number of people with dementia (PWDem) worldwide is expected to rise in coming years. The various symptoms associated with dementia can cause difficulties for PWDem when engaging with activities of daily living (ADLs) as the disease progresses. However, designing a care environment which enables PWDem to successfully engage with ADLs is not a simple task, in part because PWDem may find it difficult to communicate their needs to a design team. For this reason, design personas which aimed to represent PWDem at different stages of the disease were created as a means of communicating these needs to designers. This paper describes an evaluation study on these personas. Objectives: To consult design stakeholders and obtain feedback on the use of the personas in the process of designing a dementia care home. Methodology: Interviews and focus groups were used to obtain feedback on the personas. Main results: Participants suggested several improvements for the personas. These included (1) diagrams (images and symbols) rather than text, (2) focusing less on specific design guidance, and (3) including a wider range of symptoms and needs. Conclusion: The wide range of suggested changes from the participants indicated both engagement with, and potential for, the initial personas. The personas have been revised and will be tested in care homes to explore how far they accurately represent the needs of PWDem both with caregivers and PWDem

Giving people with dementia a voice in research

This paper presents an exploration into the involvement of people with dementia (PWD) in research. Dementia-friendly consent documentation was developed to address the known issue of obtaining consent when involving PWD in research. Questionnaires were explored as a research method to elicit data from PWD. The documentation and method were evaluated using Reflective Practice. The dementia-friendly documentation was found to be accessible, and an adapted questionnaire method elicited the perspective of PWD, though suggestions are given to improve the approach

Twenty Years of Selected Modern Furniture Design

Housing and Interior Desig