Designing educational tasks for success in industry: a reflection on the evolution of business communication studies in tertiary education

This paper is the result of a &quot;Rip Van Winkle&quot; experience I had concerning the teaching of Business Communication. The paper focuses on the remarkable expansion in the curriculum of the traditional &quot;Business Communication&quot; or &quot;Business Writing&quot; course offered by many tertiary institutions around the world. Based on 25 years of personal observation and experience in a number of educational settings, the paper will trace the increasing sophistication and complexity of the study of business communication from one that covered little more than lessons in the design of hardcopy memos, letters, and reports to one that now covers a broad spectrum of topics such as &quot;emotional intelligence,&quot; &quot;intercultural communication,&quot; &quot;effective public speaking,&quot; as well as the effects of purpose and audience on the design of a wide variety of business communications.An example of an effective task that involves a number of on the job activities is provided in the form of a ready to use assignment that is applicable in a number of contexts.<br /

Mental tactility: the ascendance of writing in online management education

A qualitative study of online management education and the role of writing as an indicative measure of thinking and learning. Established educational models, such as Dale\u27s Cone of Experience, are expanded and redeveloped to illustrate the central role of writing as a critical thinking process which appears to be increasing, rather than decreasing, with the advent of online multimedia technology. In an environment of increasing reliance on audiovisual stimulus in online education, the authors contend that tertiary educators may witness an ascendance or re-emergence of writing as central to the academic experience. This may be both supply and demand driven. Drawing on a study of two undergraduate units in the Bachelor of Commerce and applying hermeneutics to develop challenging insights, the authors present a case for educators to remain conversant with the art of teaching writing, and to promote writing to improve educational outcomes. <br /

Some volcanologic aspects of Columbia River basalt volcanism relevant to the extinction controversy

The Columbia River Basalt Group is the youngest and most thoroughly studied flood-basalt province known; information about it should be relevant to questions about the possible relation of flood-basalt volcanism to mass extinctions. The group has a total volume of about 174,000 cu km and covers an area of about 164,000 sq km. It was erupted between 17.5 and 6 Ma, as measured by K-Ar and Ar-40/Ar-39 dates. Early eruptions formed the Imnaha Basalt. More than 85 percent of the group was produced during a 1.5 my period between 17 and 15.5 Ma, forming the Grande Ronde and greatly subordinate Picture Gorge Basalts. Later flows formed the Wanapum Basalt, which includes the well-known Roza Member, and the Saddle Mountains Basalt. Linear vent systems for many of the flows are known and are located only in the eastern third of the Columbia Plateau. No systematic migration of vents occurred throughout the 11.5 my period of activity; this and other considerations make it unlikely that the province is related to a hot spot. Model calculations based on observations that little cooling occurred during flow of hundreds of kilometers suggest eruption and emplacement durations of a few days. Some voluminous flows occur in all formations, but most such flows apparently were erupted during Grande Ronde time. The eruption and emplacement of more than 1,000 cu km of 1100 C basaltic lava on the surface within several days doubtless had at least local meteorologic effects. Whether the effects were broader can at present only be hypothesized. Grande Ronde Basalt and Picture Gorge Basalts contain moderately common but thin sedimentary interbeds between flows, whereas earlier and later formations contain numerous, locally thick sediment accumulations. Volcaniclastic debris derived from extra-plateau sources commonly occurs in the testbeds

An Analytical Study of the Common Elements in Silent and Oral Reading

This paper will give in a preliminary way a brief summary of a new approach and a new technique for the diagnosis of reading difficulties at the college freshmen level. The oral reading of 70 poor silent readers has been recorded phonographically. Scores in the lowest quartile on the Iowa Silent Reading Test and Whipple\u27s High School and College Reading Test were used as the criteria of inferior silent reading. The subjects thus selected were inferior in comprehension and in rate of silent reading and in vocabulary. Intelligence as approximated by the University Qualifying composite scores ranged between percentiles 1-60

An Evaluation of Non-Formal Education in Ecuador

A logical place to begin this study was to list objectives from the original contract. The University of Massachusetts/USAID contract for this Project had some explicit objectives and contractual agreements are briefly outlined here so that we have a common background for discussing merits of this project. They are: Create and field test a range of non-formal educational techniques using local institutions to implement and support these techniques in field situation. Develop a number of non-formal educational methodologies which are feasible for use by existing Ecuadorean institutions. Implement selected methodologies with institutions, including the Ministry of Education, with on-going evaluation system designed to provide both current as well as terminal evidence of program impact. Make methodologies available to other interested agencies and provide support for their efforts. Devise and test training procedures to carry out these methodologies and use of support materials. Provide technical assistance in non-formal education to the Ministry of Education. Assist the Government of Ecuador and other Ecuadorean institutions develop non formal education projects. The Project\u27s implicit goal was learning skills and knowledge by rural people which would be directly useful to them in their lives and villages. their objective was to develop materials, create conditions of learning and environment which would be conductive to learning at the local community level. A major question of this study is whether they achieved this goal. Since traditional educational materials were found lacking by the Project, they believed new materials should be designed that were attractive, self-motivating, and usable with relatively little outside input. A major Project concern was to design and develop low cost educational materials that were relevant to lives and rural sector experiences, and that served as learning devices. They believed materials would help generate other learning materials from the community themselves; they would not be ends in themselves, but rather open ended materials that could be adapted to meet individual requirements. Since this was a core contract objective, the study concentrated on evaluating the makeup of these educational tools to discover their efficacy, acceptance, and general suitability for areas where they were introduced. A Project goal although not within the contract confines was to incorporate para-professional manpower into teaching positions in a non-formal educational system. As we shall see, the project aligned itself to an on-going program of facilitators and used these para-professionals to introduce their educational materials and methodology. Facilitators were to be trained by the Project and other professional groups, and would in turn work with community participants. It was hoped that facilitators would recruit and train other facilitators in an on-going process that would have a multiplier-effect. While this concept was initially confined to communities where other professional groups were working directly, it was hoped that this model would be applicable for other programs. Can facilitator programs work realistically, and can the process be made systemic? Can it be made systemic without damaging the initial thrust of the idea? These questions were studied in this analysis. An underlying concept running throughout the Project, although not an end in itself, was the idea of conscientization, a philosophy developed by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. This concept was defined and explained within the context of the Project, and will not be restated here. To effectively learn, program participants must have a sense of self-worth and a belief on the part of the participants that they could learn and that they could have an influence on their own life situations. Since Freire\u27s philosophy is central to the learning process in this Project, the study analyzed to what degree conscientization was taking place, what were its manifests descriptions. Concomitant with Freire\u27s philosophy of conscientization, the Project meshed the philosophy of Sylvia Ashton-Warner. The Ashton-Warner literacy philosophy encompasses a six stage process of literacy learning. It includes helping students to learn key vocabulary words that interest them and to increase learning by producing material at the students\u27 level. The project did not utilize either the Freire philosophy or the Ashton-Warner method exclusively, but rather combined both into a new method called the dialogue method. Another Project goal was to design an unconventional delivery system to match unconventional program objectives. Rather than create a bureaucratic centralized delivery system, they proposed developing learning networks, and delivery systems to match those networks. Instead of using traditional channels for diffusing materials, they preferred to cooperate with institutions desiring to implement materials, and search for alternative delivery systems. While they cooperated with formal school systems, their primary objective was to cooperate with institutions outside regular educational systems

Betts\u27 Physiological Approach to the Analysis of Reading Disabilities as Applied to the College Level

Betts has recently concluded that visual refractive errors and anomalies of binocular coordination are important causes of poor reading among first-grade entrants. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether such visual deficiencies, as revealed by Betts\u27 tests, differentiate significantly between poor and good readers at the college level

The effects of facilitation on punctuated equilibrium in e-collaboration projects

Information technology has transformed the &ldquo;heartland&rdquo; of education around the world. Classrooms are global, students international, but traditional methods and their adjacent challenges persist or are exacerbated in online schoolhouses. There is reason to believe that team performance of online students completing team projects can be significantly improved by the active participation of a facilitator. What could explain such improvement? Given the communication barriers that learners can experience using e-learning technologies, the skill of a teacher at facilitating an understanding of e-collaboration and the prescient need to facilitate collaborative skills at all times is essential to a successful educational result. There may also be generational learning style issues to consider. One practical, proven tool is progress reporting. This paper reviews the literature and reflects on author experiences in the online education of Management students at universities in the United States and Australia to draw theoretical connections with communication, leadership, and punctuated equilibrium relevant to contemporary educational practice. The implications of effective facilitation of student teams for Management education and management of student performance are explored.<br /

Managing social and intellectual capital to inform design and development of learning objects : issues, applications and technologies

The purpose of this paper is to present and analyse a case example of the development and implementation of a digital learnmg object in context with academic literature in the field. The paper\u27s content describes the creation of a multimedia learning object from conception in 2004 to completion m 2006. Provided is the rationale and outcome of a strategically funded University project aimed at illuminating an industrial case study of good management and communication practices for use in classrooms throughout the entire university. This paper is intended to act as a guide for others. Our experience as academics in successful dialogue With educational technologists will inspire and inform those embarking on similar projects, and aspects of it will generalise to development and implementation Issues for other kinds of learning objects.<br /

Power and passion:remoulded teamwork in a plastics factory

Purpose: &ndash; The purpose of this paper is to document the progress made in a specified period and the experience of managers and staff in sustaining the high performance team approach in a plastics factory.Design/methodology/approach: &ndash; Single-case analysis was conducted on data collected through semi-structured interviews and site observations made with two managers and one team of six in a multinational plastics manufacturer (Visy) headquartered in Australia.Findings: &ndash; Based on the authors\u27 experiences and literature review a successful high performance team requires clear targets and efficiency standards, communication, rules of behaviour, continual input of facts and feedback, and last but not least &ndash; recognition of successes.Research limitations/implications: &ndash; The findings are based on observations and interviews conducted in one part of a multinational organization in Australia. No follow-up interviews could be undertaken to track the progress.Originality/value: &ndash; No other similar study had been undertaken in this organisation documenting the experiences of a quality improvement team and its interactions with managers. The findings have practical implications for industrial and other kinds of organisations engaged in implementing quality improvements through enhanced teamwork. <br /