The student evaluation of teaching and the competence of students as evaluators

When the college student satisfaction survey is considered in the promotion and recognition of instructors, a usual complaint is related to the impact that biased ratings have on the arithmetic mean (used as a measure of teaching effectiveness). This is especially significant when the number of students responding to the survey is small. In this work a new methodology, considering student to student perceptions, is presented. Two different estimators of student rating credibility, based on centrality properties of the student social network, are proposed. This method is established on the idea that in the case of on-site higher education, students often know which others are competent in rating the teaching and learning process.Comment: 20 pages, 2 table

A new gorgonian genus from deep-sea Antarctic waters (Octocorallia, Alcyonacea, Plexauridae)

Mesogligorgia scotiae gen. nov., sp. nov. is described and illustrated from a colony collected in the Scotia Sea, 2,201–2,213 m in depth, on the ANDEEP-I cruise. The new taxon is placed in the family Plexauridae because of: 1) the presence of a horny axis with a crosschambered central core and numerous loculi, 2) retractile polyps in calyces with distinct spicular components, and 3) armed polyps with large sclerites with a poorlydeveloped collaret and eight well-developed points. The irregularly distributed sclerites running along the axis, into a thick mesogloeal coenenchyme, and the elongated spindles with irregular ends are the most distinctive characters of the newly proposed genus

Between Planning and Heritage: Cultural Parks and National Heritage Areas

The number of cultural parks and heritage areas is increasing in Europe and the United States. Those are spreading over other areas where the economic sectors related to tourism and leisure gain weight. Heritage areas or parks are heterogeneous initiatives that place cultural heritage at the heart of spatial planning policy and economic development, aiming at the reinvention of large territories and local community participation in planning. Their relevance stems from their potential influence on the territorial configuration of broad regions and their impact upon the articulation of traditional protected areas. Notwithstanding this, they have attracted scant academic attention so far