Book review : Social evolution, political psychology, and the media in democracy : the invisible hand in the U.S. marketplace of ideas

Book revie

Managing investment in teaching and learning technologies

Information and communications technologies are radically changing the way that teaching and learning activities are organised and delivered within HE institutions. A wide range of technologies is being deployed in quite complex and interactive ways, including virtual learning environments (VLEs), mobile communication technologies, digital libraries and on-line resources. A key challenge for university leaders is to maximise the benefits derived from these investments for all institutional stakeholders (not just teachers and learners), while at the same time minimising cost and risk (Ford et al, 1996). This requires not only co-ordinated strategies for change management but also new approaches to decision-making and to the evaluation of changes resulting from these decisions

Globe: All Ireland Programme for Immigrant Parents: Final Evaluation Report

In 2007, the Child and Family Research Centre, NUI Galway, was commissioned by the PMC to evaluate Globe: All Ireland Programme for Immigrant Parents. From 2007 - 2009 a number of interim evaluation reports were submitted to the PMC on the development phase of the project and its resources. In 2009, following the extension of the project, the objectives of the evaluation were revised. These objectives, which underpin this final evaluation report, are as follows:Examine and assess the pilot phase;Examine and assess the uptake and use of the Information Packs by parents and practitioners;Examine and assess the partnership working and development on a multi-sectoral and crossborder basis of the PMC, and more generally in meeting the needs of immigrant parents;Examine and assess the mainstreaming of learning and good practice; andExamine and assess the training/awareness raising and support of practitioners in delivering the programme

A model for evaluating the institutional costs and benefits of ICT initiatives in teaching and learning in higher education

Significant investments are being made in the application of new information and communications technologies (ICT) to teaching and learning in higher education. However, until recently, there has been little progress in devising an integrated cost‐benefit model that decision‐makers can use to appraise ICT investment options from the wider institutional perspective. This paper describes and illustrates a model that has been developed to enable evaluations of the costs and benefits of the use of ICT. The strengths and limitations of the model are highlighted and discussed

The importance of cost‐benefit analysis: A response

The critique by Draper raises some interesting points that we did not have space to discuss in our published paper. As he points out, taking a purely quantitative approach to the evaluation of ICT investments in teaching and learning is wholly inappropriate. However, in this transitional period, where ICT applications are new and the effects on operational processes within higher education institutions are unknown, it is not only qualitative issues that need to be investigated but also the potential changes to the scope and nature of the costs incurred by institutions. While the small-scale, and localized, introduction of ICT in teaching might only affect the time and effort of a few individual academics, large-scale deployment of the same methodology may require substantial institutional investment (for example, in network infrastructure, hardware, licenses, support staff). The CBA model encourages institutions to consider and record all the cost implications of their strategies, not in an attempt to quantify the outputs (benefits) of these new learning processes but to identify and quantify the inputs to these processes. These quantitative inputs can then be evaluated in the context of qualitative outputs

Chameleon pluralism in the EU: an empirical study of the European Commission interest group density and diversity across policy domains

This paper contributes to the discussion surrounding interest groups in the European Commission. We inspect the Commission's lobbying register and assess the density and diversity of the interest group population per policy domain. The results suggest that while at the system level élite pluralism with its preponderance of business interests is a credible hypothesis, this is not the case at the sub-system level, where chameleon pluralism better conceptualizes variation of the interest group populations as a function of the age of the Directorate General (DG), capacity of the DG, nature of the policy domain, and involvement of member states. Bridging theoretical considerations on input/output legitimacy with informational approaches, we argue that different policy domains demand different types of legitimacy that are supported by the provision of different types of information (technical/political)

Information management and governance in UK higher education institutions : bringing IT in from the cold

In the 21st Century, IT Governance is, within the broader corporate governance context, critical for all organisations. Those without an IT governance strategy face significant risks; those with one perform measurably better (Calder 2005). There has been little field based research on IT governance, and few publications help managers understand the issues involved in designing effective governance structures and processeshellip (Weill and Ross 2004