How accurately do instructors judge students’ attitudes online? A measurement of expectations and level of satisfaction with an Online Information Systems masters program

In order to run a successful educational program, instructors as well as staff members must constantly review and adapt to the expectations, concerns, demographics and satisfaction level of their student consumers. This study was conducted in order to examine these issues in an online educational setting. First, interviews were given to the program instructors in order to determine their opinions about the students’ expectations and satisfaction levels. This information was then used to create a student survey that assessed the students’ expectations and level of satisfaction. These two sets of results were then compared This comparison revealed that the online instructors did have a good grasp of the online students’ expectations, concerns, demographics and satisfaction level. The only areas where the instructors’ concepts of student views were slightly less accurate was student concerns and student feelings about the program administration, where the instructors overestimated the level of concern the students had about successfully returning to the learning environment and underestimated the students’ satisfaction with the program's administration. This leads us to conclude that, even with the added online factor, instructors strongly understand student expectations, satisfaction levels, demographics and concerns

Interpreting trends in graphs: A study of 14 and 15 year olds

Interpreting graphically displayed data is an important life skill. This thesis examines some of the problems that 14 and 15 year olds encounter when interpreting trends in cartesian graphs. A survey of errors made by 144 pupils is discussed, which shows that two of the most difficult aspects of graph work are interpreting changes in gradients, and inter-relating the graph with its context. A detailed analysis of individual pupils interpretations of changes in gradients shows that pupils conceptions of gradient can be classified according to whether they have an 'iconic' or an 'analytical' origin. iconic descriptions are concerned with the structure, shape or position of the curve, whereas analytical descriptions are concerned with more abstract notions, such as the angle or steepness of the curve, and rate of increase. The results indicate that the occurrence of different kinds of conceptions is influenced by both the form of the graph and its context. In another study, the pupils were given two structurally isomorphic graph interpretation tasks. The results of this investigation also show that the context of a graph in relation to its structural form, has a profound influence upon the way that pupils interpret it. Interpretations are described, in which the influence of metaphors, knowledge from everyday life experience and anthropomorphic reactions can be seen. Pictorial accounts show how conceptions from some of these sources are brought into the pupils interpretations

An Interactive Case Scenario For Teaching User Interface Design

The technological explosion of the 1970s has resulted in the development of very complex systems. The user interface also known as the Man-Machine Interface (MMI) became a general concern to both systems designers and researchers. The term user interface has been defined as those aspects of the system that the user come in contact with (Moran, 1981, p.4). The term user friendly was later coined to refer to a system that a user can easily interact with through its interfaces. In the mid- 1980s the developing field of user interface design began to include aspects such as organizational issues, work practices, design, implementation and evaluation amongst others. A broader term human-computer interaction (HCI) was then adopted to describe this new field. Today, HCI is taught as a course (or as part of a course) in the computer science and information systems curricula of most universities. The knowledge in the field of human- computer interface development is intertwined, with no clear beginning or end. Designers of user interfaces must draw from as many sources of information as can be obtained at reasonable cost. User interface designers try to satisfy the human requirements of a system by applying knowledge from many areas: cognitive psychology, input and output devices, guidelines and standards, dialogue types, and (because design knowledge is inadequate) prototyping methods. It is multidisciplinary (Preece et al., 1994)

In Search of Empathy Online: A Review of 100 Online Communities

Empathy, knowing, feeling and responding to the way another person feels, is so essential in some online communities that they can be described aptly as ‘empathic communities’. This paper discusses a review of 100 online communities. The aim of this review is to examine whether the existence of empathic communities is widespread and to compare these communities with a range of other online communities, whose focus includes religion, sports, pets, culture, science, etc. The results of our analysis suggest that empathic communities develop when patient support or emotional support topics are the focus of interest

The affordability of ‘affordable’ housing in England: conditionality and exclusion in a context of welfare reform

Contemporary debates around affordability have largely focused on homeownership and private renting. This article considers the affordable social rented sector in England, in which reforms to social welfare assistance, reduced security of tenure, and a shift towards midmarket rents, are changing access to ‘affordable’ housing for those on the lowest incomes. Drawing on in-depth interviews with housing associations and stakeholders, the article highlights the increasing use of affordability assessments for prospective tenants. These assessments interact with mid-market rental products to increase the potential for exclusion from affordable housing on the grounds of ability to pay. This conditionality is applied not only at the point of tenancy access, but also at renewal of fixed-term tenancies. The research highlights that the combination of welfare and housing policies, in the context of a financialising housing association sector, has the potential to erode access to social housing for those who are perceived as a financial risk, reshaping the focus of social housing

Examining the Links between Parents’ Relationships with Reading and Shared Reading with their Pre-School Children

While much is known about the benefits of shared reading activity for children, and the role of the home in cultivating shared reading practices far less is known about the factors that can influence parents’ shared reading practices with their children. Given that many young people leave school with poor relationships with reading, this study explores the links between parents’ own relationships with reading and the shared reading they practice with their own children in the home. Drawing on deep-level interview data, this paper presents data from six parents of pre-school children, who reported that they have had a poor personal relationship with reading. These parents all developed positive shared reading relationships with their children, however the importance of this study lies in understanding the interplay between these reading relationships.  The data strongly suggested that the construct of ‘reading’ was very different from the ways in which reading had previously been defined for these participants. Reading, within a shared reading context, was seen as a very flexible construct which included activities such as talking and telling stories. In some cases, parents’ own relationships with reading seemed to improve. Implications for intervention with other families are discussed

Residential mobility, work and belonging in low-income communities

This research aims to understand how people respond to post-industrial change in places that are represented through a range of official measures and narratives as ‘declining’. Against a backdrop of pervasive policy assumptions about why people move from, or remain in, ‘declining’ places, this research explores in-depth the range of responses that people make to changing labour market contexts. It particularly seeks to understand why people remain in weaker labour market areas rather than moving to places that may offer greater employment opportunities. The case study approach focused on two areas in England: Nearthorpe,Sheffield, and Eastland, Grimsby. Stakeholders were interviewed to understand the area context and official narratives of place. The main data is drawn from indepth interviews with 18 households, comprising 25 individuals, who were interviewed twice during the research. Thematic and biographical interviewing and analysis was used. The research found that experiences of working in low-paid and insecure work reduced the impetus to residential mobility for many participants. Most people adjusted to labour market changes not through mobility but by remaining in-situ and drawing on place-based support. The extent to which networks of support were utilised to find work, provide childcare, and support those experiencing illhealth strongly suggests that immobility performed an important function. Mobility decisions did not draw on a simple cost-benefit calculation of the relative economic benefits. Participants foregrounded emotional connections to people and places, embedded experiences of work and places that guided responses to opportunities in the present, and revealed multiple motivations for (im)mobility within households. This research has demonstrated the importance of understanding how people relate to the places in which they live and the active processes of distinction that are used in order to construct a place in which they can belong and adjust in-situ to a changing labour market backdrop