"The recording has started": Notes on the sudden move to online teaching

Since Garfinkel's early work (2002) in the 1970s, few researchers have studied university classroom activities to understand what is seen as the performance features of university learning. The purpose of these studies was to explicate what it is that is unique to universities about these activities. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, HEIs have moved a lot of their teaching online, thus changing the nature of the classroom. The workplace specific nature of the classroom has therefore changed to a virtual one, but the discipline specific nature of activities remains the same. For participants of these virtual classrooms to be acknowledged as vulgarly competent (Garfinkel 2002), there is a need for the activities to remain accountably recognisable to all parties. For the social order to be sustained and recognised, there is a need for this competence, but for many participants, students and lecturers alike, this was the first time of participating in their daily university activity in this virtual way. The participants may be entering the domain with a weak competence (Ikeya 2020) of the context, but with enough unique adequacy to sustain ongoing social order. This hybrid study draws on online lectures carried out in a business school, using ethnomethodological tools to understand the development of vulgar competence

A few simple steps to improve the description of group results in neuroscience

No abstract available

Performance and practice in higher education: an ethnomethodological study of everyday academic work.

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.It is widely accepted that Higher Education (HE) has gone through significant changes within the last sixty years. The effects of such phenomena as managerialism, marketization and performativity are well documented in the literature (Deem et al 2007, Molesworth et al 2011, Hussey and Smith 2010, Bell et al 2009). Often, such terms are introduced and accepted as truth without fully exploring what such phenomena really mean to the members of that community. However, policy and purpose (impact) may differ from practice, as illustrated by Weider (1974). This research uses ethnomethodology (EM) as its focus, to explore this issue further. EM is a method of inquiry which concentrates on the members’ methods to understand how they make meaning of their work environment through their daily practices. This research applies a documentary approach to lecturing, to see it as a document of accomplishment. It also draws on the method of conversation analysis (CA) and examines discussions with academic members of two post 1992 universities, which are seen to be the most affected by the neoliberal phenomena mentioned. This is to understand how they accomplish their performance of being an academic. The use of EM allows a greater appreciation of the shared understanding of the use of the social space of the university and how the organisational daily objectives are achieved by its members. Evidence from this research shows that performativity (Lyotard 1984) causes misunderstandings of purpose, and marketized approaches have increased assymetries in student-academic interactions

Intimate partner violence within LGBTQ+ samples: a systematic review

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a prominent problem within relationships (Centers for Disease Control, n.d.). As more research is conducted on IPV, it has become apparent that the prevalence of females perpetrating IPV is similar to the rates of males (Archer, 2000), which challenges the feminist theories of men’s IPV that assert it is strongly related to patriarchy. This debate over sex differences in perpetration rates means LGBTQ+ populations become ignored due to contradicting many of the popular theories for IPV perpetration and victimization, creating a gap in research. Therefore, this systematic literature review was conducted in an attempt to highlight the prevalence of IPV within LGBTQ+ relationships. The main aim of this systematic literature review is to investigate the prevalence of IPV within same-sex relationships and its behavioral manifestations. Further implications for research will also be considered

Do the different historical and cultural diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia have social and treatment implications?

The aim of this paper is to critically discuss whether different historical and cultural diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia have social and treatment implications. This paper also discusses what it means to have the diagnosis of schizophrenia and to what psychologists may gain from individuals having these diagnoses; the essay in particular discusses monetary gain for the National Health Service and government or power. Possible faults of diagnosing schizophrenia using just biological and psychological precursors due to reliability are also critically debated in an attempt to discuss the implications of this diagnosis. Furthermore, this piece of work discusses that over time as the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia changes, more people could be diagnosed. It also highlights how culture can affect diagnostic criteria; such as the fact you can be diagnosed with the condition in one culture and not have that diagnosis in another culture. After looking at the literature it appeared that the changes to the criteria does in fact have serious implications for individuals. A conclusion was drawn before suggestions for further research was made in terms ways to get a better insight into the implications when diagnosed with a condition such as schizophrenia

Implementation of electrical rim driven fan technology to small unmanned aircraft

Aircraft propeller performance is significantly reduced when tip speeds become sonic causing the maximum attainable airspeed of the vehicle to be limited by the propeller diameter. There are also performance losses attributable to miniature Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as the propeller to hub diameter ratio is reduced. The research conducted indicated that re-arranging a Brushless DC Motor and propeller configuration, so that it becomes rim-driven rather than hub-driven, would provide some performance and operational advantages and could inspire the design of novel high-speed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle configurations powered by hub-less, multi-stage contra-rotating electrical fan-compressors. This investigation involved analysis, design and testing a prototype, low cost, concept demonstrator Rim Driven Fan device in order to assess the feasibility of applying this technology to Small Unmanned Aircraft. It was demonstrated that Rim Driven Fan technology could be successfully applied to lift and propel a Small Unmanned Aircraft. However, the performance testing of the Rim Driven Fan demonstrated that in its prototype configuration it would not be as efficient as a conventional Brushless DC motor and propeller

The Language of Non-normative Sexuality and Genders

This project is about how asexual, intersex and transgender identities challenge normative ideas about what it means to be human. Our research primarily focused on how language used in the medical community influences societal perceptions of non-normative identities. Western culture is pervasively heteronormative, meaning that there is a narrow idea of what constitutes a “normal” human being, which is typically heterosexual and limited to a binary gender system. While society is making strides with accepting non-hetero sexual identities, there persists the notion that humans are inherently sexual beings. Asexuality, an orientation characterized by a lack of sexual attraction, challenges this sexual normative ideal. Gender within Western culture is strictly binary and is mapped onto physical sex. Intersex individuals are people who have some combination of both male and female characteristics or are neither male nor female. This challenges the notion that human beings are naturally categorized as either male or female. Transgender peoples, who are characterized by not having a gender identity that matches their gender assigned at birth, challenge the notion that physical sex and gender are one and the same. Through our work we have found that there is a startling and disappointing lack of research on these identities, rendering these people invisible. What research there is, shows a trend in the medical community of pathologizing and erasing the identities of people who are asexual, intersex or transgender

Curriculum development of undergraduate and post graduate courses on small unmanned aircraft

This paper describes the development of an undergraduate and a post graduate course on Small Unmanned Aircraft (SUA). Few emerging technologies provide the potential for such a diverse application of knowledge as SUA which are more commonly referred to as “Drones”. They are being used for civil purposes in a growth business sector predicted to be worth billions of pounds over the next 10 years. They are also revolutionising everything from agriculture to film-making and are increasingly being used to monitor, research and conduct data gathering missions in surveying, mining, forestry, ecology, archaeology virtual reality and computer gaming. The purpose of this paper is to present the ideas and the researched findings which informed the rationale used for the curriculum development of the first Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Drone Technology to be offered in the UK, and also that of an accompanying Master of Science Degree in Unmanned Aircraft System Technology