The role of E-portfolios in higher education: their perceived value and potential to assist undergraduate computing students

Whilst not a new concept, ePortfolios embrace the interactive nature of Web 2.0 technology and are beginning to show signs of bringing about a new pedagogy in education. The wide range of commercial and open source ePortfolio and associated tools currently available allows students to maintain an online repository of digital artefacts. These tools can facilitate reflective, collaborative and lifelong learning, and allow students to showcase skills, knowledge and understanding. A key benefit identified in the literature is the ability to create a personalised and reflective learning experience. Previous research has shown that the lack of competent and effective use of ePortfolios and the inability of students fully to recognise the benefits to them as learners, are hindering their widespread use. This paper focuses on a small pilot research project, which seeks to identify the Web 2.0 tools that students following undergraduate awards in technology subjects across various levels at the authors’ institution are currently using. It investigates the extent to which students keep a digital record of their learning and how they perceive ePortfolios as a learning tool. The students were surveyed by questionnaire providing quantitative data. Qualitative information was also gained by interviewing a smaller group of those students individually to ascertain whether they were able to identify the value of an ePortfolio and how they might envisage using one in their learning. The outcome of this initial study has helped to determine whether an ePortfolio application was worthy of further development and trialling as a subsequent project

Undergraduate students: interactive, online experiences and ePortfolio development

Results of a previous study by the authors into the perceived value and potential of ePortfolios to assist undergraduate students indicated that technology was an important aspect of their everyday lives. It was also felt it to be beneficial to their learning. A large percentage of students were found to be using digital techniques to store evidence of their learning, and were also using interactive, online tools in their learning activities. There was, however, little reported structured use of ePortfolio development in their learning. Students acknowledged they were discovering for themselves the value of online technologies in learning. This paper focuses on student skills and experiences of online tools on entry to university, and considers their experience of ePortfolio development using the Wordpress personal publishing platform. Results indicate that students’ skill level of online, interactive tools was high and wide-ranging. Although previous experience of using these tools was unstructured and informal, ePortfolio creation was found to be an engaging, relevant and worthwhile activity. The ePortfolio development exercise also provided an experiential learning experience, and had a positive effect on students’ attitudes to learning

Modelling multilateral trade resistance in a gravity model with exchange rate regimes

In estimating a gravity model it is essential to analyse not just bilateral trade resistance, the barriers to trade between a pair of countries, but also multilateral trade resistance (MTR), the barriers to trade that each country faces with all its trading partners. Without correctly modelling MTR, it is impossible either to obtain accurate estimates of the effects on trade of exchange rate regimes and other variables or to perform accurate counterfactual simulations of trade patterns under other assumptions about exchange rate regimes or other variables. In this paper we implement a number of different ways of modelling MTR – both for a standard gravity model and for an extended model which includes a full range of bilateral exchange rate regimes – notably several variants of the technique developed by Baier and Bergstrand (2006), which turn out to produce broadly similar results. We then illustrate our preferred approach by carrying out simulations of the effects of the creation of an East African currency union and the effects of a withdrawal from EMU by Italy.gravity, geography, trade, exchange rate regime, currency union, transactions costs, multilateral trade resistance.

Exchange rate regimes and trade

A ‘new version’ gravity model, is used to estimate the effect of a full range of de facto exchange rate regimes, as classified by Reinhart and Rogoff (2004), on bilateral trade. The results indicate that, while participation in a common currency union is typically strongly ‘pro-trade’– as first suggested by Rose (2000) – other exchange rate regimes which lower the exchange rate uncertainty and transactions costs associated with international trade between countries are significantly more pro-trade than the default regime of a ‘double float’. They suggest that the direct and indirect effects of exchange rate regimes on uncertainty and transactions costs tend to outweigh the trade-diverting substitution effects. In addition, there is evidence that membership of different currency unions by two countries has pro-trade effects, which can be understood in terms of a large indirect effect on transactions costs. Tariff-equivalent monetary barriers associated with each of the exchange rate regimes are also calculatedgravity, geography, exchange rate regime, currency union, transactions costs, tariff-equivalent barriers

Using Taylor Rules to Assess the Relative Activism of the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve Board

This paper attempts to assess the relative activism of these three central banks, with reference to the debate on interest rate smoothing. It investigates smoothing in terms of the pattern of interest rate changes, and estimates a series of Taylor-type policy rules for each bank, using quarterly and monthly data, with ‘backward’ and ‘forward’-looking arguments, and with and without lagged dependent variables. It also examines the effect of introducing an auto-correlated error term. There is some (non-robust) evidence that the FRB is more activist, but it also seems to be more smooth; the ECB seems to adjust faster but less strongly in the long run; and the BoE’s behaviour is more difficult to identify. However, these standard policy rules are out of kilter with central banks’ own descriptions of what they do, while the long lags involved raise questions about the relevance of the Taylor principle as conventionally applied. It is therefore suggested that researchers should pay more attention to the institutional context of central banks’ behaviour, in order to produce better estimates of their policy rules which would in turn shed more light on the issues of activism and smoothing.Monetary policy, activism, interest rate smoothing, central banks.

How do countries choose their monetary policy frameworks?

This paper investigates the determinants of countries' choices of monetary policy framework (MPF). It uses a brief narrative focused on groupings of countries making similar choices to motivate an econometric analysis which also draws on previous work on the determinants of exchange rate regimes. That analysis brings in other more standard factors, as well as the trade networks of potential anchor currency blocs and the financial markets depth that are emphasised in the narrative. The model turns out to be able to predict three quarters of countries' choices of MPF, and there is no obvious systematic pattern in the errors

Supporting quality assurance and enhancement: promoting paperless approaches to collaborative quality procedures

Supporting Quality Assurance and Enhancement: Promoting Paperless Approaches to Collaborative Quality Procedure