The educational value of student generated podcasts

Podcasting is becoming a well established technology in Higher Education (HE). However, most applications tend to use staff-developed content to provide material to supplement lectures. The use of learner-generated podcasts and its impact on the learning of both student producers and listeners are under researched. This paper reports on a pilot study of student-created podcasts. The podcasts were developed by a group of medical students at the University of Leicester who chose to study a genetic module in their second year. The content of the podcasts was entirely generated by students. Their topics covered a range of ethical issues surrounding genetics. Five student-developed podcasts were made available in early 2007 for other medical students to access through the Medical School Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). The study focused on the impact of these student-developed podcasts on student producers’ learning. It demonstrated how podcasting can empower learners and help them become more active and independent learners, and how student developed podcasts can promote engagement and motivation for learning, improve cognitive learning and develop transferable team-working skills among student producers. This paper offers an example of student-generated podcasts from practice and insights on how this practice might be expanded and transferred to other learning contexts with HE sectors

University teachers’ conceptions of “Changemaker”: a starting point for embedding social innovation in learning and teaching

Purpose: This paper reports on a study aimed at understanding the different conceptions that University of Northampton teachers hold of “Changemaker”, an institutional initiative to develop capacities for social innovation. Design/methodology/approach: The study took a phenomenographic approach to identify a small number of qualitatively different conceptions of Changemaker among teaching staff. Face-to-face, phenomenographic interviews were carried out with 30 teachers across the university. Transcript data were analysed using thematic inductive analysis. Findings: Five different conceptions of Changemaker were found: 1) Changemaker as university strategy; 2) Changemaker as critical thinking, perspective shifting and problem solving; 3) Changemaker as employability; 4) Changemaker as social betterment and 5) Changemaker as personal transformation. Research limitations/implications: The outcome space of conceptions represents the beliefs of teaching staff at the University of Northampton. The approach to research and plans for the practical application of findings may be of direct benefit to other education providers as they develop their own models for teaching and learning. Practical implication—The findings from this study will inform the next phase of the project, which involves the development of a skills/attributes/behaviours matrix for Changemaker. Originality/value: The findings of this study will address the absence of literature on teachers’ conceptions of phenomena related to social innovation, social entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. Understanding teachers’ beliefs of such phenomena is relevant to the growing number of universities that address these subjects in the curriculum

Embedding social innovation and social impact across the disciplines: identifying "Changemaker" attributes

Purpose—This paper proposes an attributes framework for embedding “Changemaker”—a university initiative for promoting social innovation and social impact—across the disciplines at the University of Northampton. Design/methodology/approach—The study is based on the authors’ (2014) phenomenographic study that proposed five different conceptions of Changemaker held by academic staff: 1) Changemaker as institutional strategy; 2) Changemaker as critical thinking, perspective shifting and problem solving; 3) Changemaker as employability; 4) Changemaker as social betterment and 5) Changemaker as personal transformation. The present study explores pedagogic literature to identify skills, behaviours and attributes associated with each of these five categories. Findings—Findings from this literature review inform a taxonomy of Changemaker attributes, which offers a catalogue of skills and behaviours associated with the five conceptions of Changemaker. Research limitations/implications—The conceptions of Changemaker, that form the basis of the Changemaker attributes, represent the beliefs of teaching staff at the University of Northampton. Despite inherent limitations, the approach of using practice-based empirical findings to develop pedagogical tools may be of direct benefit to other education providers as they develop their own models for teaching and learning. Practical implications—The Changemaker attributes will be used by the University of Northampton during the design, approval and review of courses to ensure that social innovation and social impact is embedded across the disciplines. Academic staff can refer these attributes when designing assessments and for inspiration toward innovative teaching practice. Originality/value—The findings of this study will provide a point of reference for other higher education institutions as they look for guidance on embedding social innovation and social impact into their curriculum

Enhancing curriculum design and delivery with OER

This paper reports on the key findings from the EVOL-OER project which aims to develop a deeper understanding of the reuse of open educational resources (OERs) by academics in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This paper builds on the JISC OER Impact study by exploring and expanding on the Ratified quadrant of the study’s landscape of reuse framework (White & Manton, 2011). This paper puts forward a different four-quadrant diagram called ‘OER-enhanced curriculum’ to illustrate different approaches adopted by academics to embedding OER into curriculum design and delivery. Key issues in relation to motivation and challenges in reusing OER are discussed

Control energy of complex networks towards distinct mixture states

Controlling complex networked systems is a real-world puzzle that remains largely unsolved. Despite recent progress in understanding the structural characteristics of network control energy, target state and system dynamics have not been explored. We examine how varying the final state mixture affects the control energy of canonical and conformity-incorporated dynamical systems. We find that the control energy required to drive a network to an identical final state is lower than that required to arrive a non-identical final state. We also demonstrate that it is easier to achieve full control in a conformity-based dynamical network. Finally we determine the optimal control strategy in terms of the network hierarchical structure. Our work offers a realistic understanding of the control energy within the final state mixture and sheds light on controlling complex systems.This work was funded by The National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61763013, 61703159, 61403421), The Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (No. 20171BAB212017), The Measurement and Control of Aircraft at Sea Laboratory (No. FOM2016OF010), and China Scholarship Council (201708360048). The Boston University Center for Polymer Studies is supported by NSF Grants PHY-1505000, CMMI-1125290, and CHE-1213217, and by DTRA Grant HDTRA1-14-1-0017. (61763013 - National Natural Science Foundation of China; 61703159 - National Natural Science Foundation of China; 61403421 - National Natural Science Foundation of China; 20171BAB212017 - Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province; FOM2016OF010 - Measurement and Control of Aircraft at Sea Laboratory; 201708360048 - China Scholarship Council; PHY-1505000 - NSF; CMMI-1125290 - NSF; CHE-1213217 - NSF; HDTRA1-14-1-0017 - DTRA)Published versio

Dynamic analysis of ground steering response of aircraft with electric taxi system

To provide taxi capability without the use of engines or tractor, electric landing gear drive is considered as a potential system add-on. Driving torque and nose wheel steering angle controller are established which are verified by civil aircraft examples. Quasi-steady method is applied to calculate tire forces and moments. The ground steering response of aircraft is simulated, and then different taxi conditions including powered nose wheel mode and powered main wheel mode are compared. Two conclusions are obtained: Electric taxi system helps the aircraft turn on the spot and the turning radius is smaller than the aircraft using engines; differential powered main wheel mode has the minimum turning radius while turning-circle with uniform velocity, and it has smaller difference between two vertical loads of main landing gear than powered nose wheel mode

Analysis of axial stiffness characteristics of a mechanism of fluid bag shock absorber under alternative factors

A mechanism of fluid bag shock absorber which could provide axial shock protection under small displacement and small deformation was designed. The finite element model of the mechanism was established in ABAQUS, the different types of loads imposed on the bottom of mechanism when the mechanism worked in different environment were described and the load stiffness matrix was obtained when pressure loads were imposed on the mechanism. The effects of the notch in fluid bag on axial stiffness characteristics were discussed. The results indicate that the flip of inner shell occurs as the axial concentrated load is imposed to the bottom of inner shell and the notch in fluid bag has little effects on the increment of pressure and volume variation of bag. The equivalent axial force generated by pressure loads imposed on the inner shell was calculated, the axial displacement of inner shell as well as increment of bag pressure caused by pressure loads is larger than concentrated load. The effects of different factors affecting the axial stiffness characteristics were discussed. The factor of load type has almost no effects on the axial stiffness variation, and has small impact on the increment of pressure variation of bag; Outer shell appears to be one of the crucial factors affecting the axial stiffness and increment of bag pressure variations; Fluid bag is the key factor determining the axial stiffness characteristics of mechanism, both of the axial displacement of inner shell and increment of bag pressure increase with loads when the pressure loads are imposed on the surface of fluid bag