Mass production of individual feedback

Learning to program is intrinsically difficult. In addition there is a trend towards increased student diversity and larger class sizes. Student diversity increases the need for individual attention for each student, while increased class sizes decreases the amount of time a lecturer has to provide this attention. This thesis investigates an approach to help provide each student with detailed individual feedback. This feedback is important where individual attention is lacking. We used two trials to determine the effectiveness of the system. The first of these trial runs was in Autumn 2002 and the system provided the facility to the tutors to give personal and detailed feedback to each student. There was a statistically significant improvement in the weaker students’ exam results for that Semester. The system was improved for the second trial. The tutors could provide feedback as before, but also this time the students could provide feedback on each other through peer-assessment and self-assessment. The system remained popular and useful. However for the second trial we were interested in making the peer assessment aspect a success. The thesis will discuss our limited success in this area. Eighty eight percent of the students were motivated to provide feedback through bonus marks and the incentive of getting feedback from others, but many students gave absolute minimum feedback

The experience of community first responders in co-producing rural health care : in the liminal gap between citizen and professional

Non peer reviewedPublisher PD

Community hospitals – the place of local service provision in a modernising NHS: an integrative thematic literature review

Background: Recent developments within the United Kingdom's (UK) health care system have reawakened interest in community hospitals (CHs) and their role in the provision of health care. This integrative literature review sought to identify and assess the current evidence base for CHs. Methods: A range of electronic reference databases were searched from January 1984 to either December 2004 or February 2005: Medline, Embase, Web of Knowledge, BNI, CINAHL, HMIC, ASSIA, PsychInfo, SIGLE, Dissertation Abstracts, Cochrane Library, Kings Fund website, using both keywords and text words. Thematic analysis identified recurrent themes across the literature; narrative analyses were written for each theme, identifying unifying concepts and discrepant issues. Results: The search strategy identified over 16,000 international references. We included papers of any study design focussing on hospitals in which care was led principally by general practitioners or nurses. Papers from developing countries were excluded. A review of titles revealed 641 potentially relevant references; abstract appraisal identified 161 references for review. During data extraction, a further 48 papers were excluded, leaving 113 papers in the final review. The most common methodological approaches were cross-sectional/descriptive studies, commentaries and expert opinion. There were few experimental studies, systematic reviews, economic studies or studies that reported on longer-term outcomes. The key themes identified were origin and location of CHs; their place in the continuum of care; services provided; effectiveness, efficiency and equity of CHs; and views of patients and staff. In general, there was a lack of robust evidence for the role of CHs, which is partly due to the ad hoc nature of their development and lack of clear strategic vision for their future. Evidence for the effectiveness and efficiency of the services provided was limited. Most people admitted to CHs appeared to be older, suggesting that admittance to CHs was age-related rather than condition-related. Conclusion: Overall the literature surveyed was long on opinion and short of robust studies on CHs. While lack of evidence on CHs does not imply lack of effect, there is an urgent need to develop a research agenda that addresses the key issues of health care delivery in the CH setting

Examining the role of Scotland’s telephone advice service (NHS 24) for managing health in the community : analysis of routinely collected NHS 24 data

Date of Acceptance: 15/06/2015 Funding This work was supported by the Chief Scientist Office, ScottishExecutive (grant no. CZH/4/692). Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Transnational comparison : A retrospective study on e-health in sparsely populated areas of the northern periphery

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Prospectus, October 13, 2010

HOW TO AVOID THOSE CLASSROOM DISTRACTIONS; Obama hails community colleges, skirts their lack of funds; Chuck Shepherd\u27s News of the Weird; Bob Dylan is on a never-ending journey; Living their lives with HIV; 88.7 The Wave, reinventing radio stereotypes; Remember Afghan women; The right to speak offensively; What Fitness Fits Your Personality?; Prospectus Pick: Morrowind; Parkland Master Plan revised and updated; NFL owners are set to meet amid several signs labor fight could derail 2011 season; Parkland Theatre brings quality productions to the community; Political Jockshttps://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_2010/1025/thumbnail.jp

Causality in Political Networks

As the study of political networks becomes more common in political science, greater attention to questions of causality is warranted. This essay explores competing visions of causality in political networks. Independent essays address issues of statistical model specification, identification of multi-step personal influence, measurement error, causality in historical perspective, and the insights of field experiments. These essays do not agree entirely on the nature of causality in political networks, though they commonly take seriously concerns regarding homophily, time- consistency, and the uniqueness of political network data. Serious consideration of these methodological issues promises to enhance the value-added of network analysis in the study of politics

Spaces of well-being: Social crofting in rural Scotland

The transformation of nature-society relations towards conditions of wellbeing and sustainability is of major global concern and academic interest. Contributing to this important area, this research examines the interconnection between rural development, wellbeing and agriculture in Scotland through a qualitative study of ‘social crofting’. Social crofting is a type of care farming, which is increasingly prominent in the UK context and beyond, but under-developed in Scotland. Drawing from the existing literature, we apply a wellbeing lens to the unique conditions of crofting in rural Scotland through the concept of ‘spaces of wellbeing’. We show the diverse practices that constitute social crofting and enable different kinds of wellbeing within rural communities. Our findings point to the challenges and barriers for social crofting which is under-resourced and under-valued in Scotland and we contextualise this within a hybrid neoliberal policy context. Given the potential for transforming nature-society relations and contributing to the wellbeing agenda, greater support is needed for crofters to pursue social crofting in rural Scotland

Prospectus, October 20, 2010

WILL TEACHERS TWEET? NOT ANYTIME SOON.; Change in AP exams should relieve stress for high school pupils; Chuck Shepherd\u27s News of the Weird; Human Pandora, Part 1: Band of Horses; Didn\u27t your mama ever tell ya? Parkland\u27s Civility Committee hopes to enlighten students and staff; A Prospectus guide to transferring; A quiet shift in GOP stance on gay marriage; A touching example of respect for Old Glory; Fashion lads that shouldn\u27t be seen at school; How to catch up when you\u27re falling behind; Don\u27t let the flu bugs bite; Prospectus Pick: BIood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy; Hester ties NFL record for career TD returns; Do you have any secrets on staying healthy during flu season?; Twisted pumpkinshttps://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_2010/1026/thumbnail.jp