User requirements

Boyle, E., & MacArthur, E. (2013). User requirements. CHERMUG deliverable D13.Research methods and statistics are core competences across various disciplines but pose significant challenges for many students. The CHERMUG project aims to develop a digital game to support students in acquiring methodological and statistical expertise. A key issue that has to be addressed in developing a game is to identify the desired learning outcomes for students. This deliverable describes the user requirements analysis. The aim of the user requirements analysis was to establish the general attitudes to and acceptance of higher education nursing students and staff in the collaborating countries towards the use of digital games as a component of a blended learning approach to teaching methods and statistics to nursesThe present work was carried out as part of the CHERMUG project. This project is partially supported by the European Community under the Lifelong Learning Programme project nr. 519023-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3MP. This document does not represent the opinion of the European Community, and the European Community is not responsible for any use that might be made of its content

A narrative literature review of games, animations and simulations to teach research methods and statistics

Basic competence in research methods and statistics is core for many undergraduates but many students experience difficulties in acquiring knowledge and skills in this area. Interest has recently turned to serious games as providing engaging ways of learning. The CHERMUG project was developed against this background to develop games to support students in learning about research methods and statistics. As a first step in designing the CHERMUG games a narrative literature review was carried out to establish whether similar games, animations and simulations already existed. Search terms used in the literature review included varied terms for digital games, simulations and animations, terms relevant to the twin goals of learning and engagement in games and terms for research methods and statistics. Application of the inclusion criteria led to 26 papers which were considered relevant. Synthesis of the papers suggested that there is reason to be optimistic that a game-based approach might be effective in learning in this area.This research was supported by a grant from the European Community under the Lifelong Learning Programme project nr. 519023-LLP-1- 2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3MP

Acquiring 21st Century Skills: gaining insight in the design and applicability of a serious game with 4C-ID

Despite the growth of interest in serious games, there is little systematic guidance on how to assure a game fits the instruction required. Game design frameworks are still under development and do not help to articulate the educational merits of a game to a teacher nor fit with their background. In this paper we discuss the results of a GaLA workshop which examined how a widely applied instructional design model, 4C-ID, can ease the uptake of serious games by offering teachers a model fitting their background to assess games on the applicability for their learning contexts. The paper will introduce the 4C-ID model and its use in the CHERMUG project with the design of mini-games for research methods and statistics. Next, we will discuss how workshop participants used the 4C-ID model to evaluate two games on their applicability for a given learning context. The participants indicated that the approach can support teachers in deciding if and how to use a given serious game.The work described in this paper was partially supported by the European Community under the Lifelong Learning Programme project CHERMUG nr. 519023-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-KA3-KA3MP. The paper does not represent the opinion of the European Community, and the European Community is not responsible for any use that might be made of its content

Evaluating holistic needs assessment in outpatient cancer care--a randomised controlled trial: the study protocol

Introduction People living with and beyond cancer are vulnerable to a number of physical, functional and psychological issues. Undertaking a holistic needs assessment (HNA) is one way to support a structured discussion of patients’ needs within a clinical consultation. However, there is little evidence on how HNA impacts on the dynamics of the clinical consultation. This study aims to establish (1) how HNA affects the type of conversation that goes on during a clinical consultation and (2) how these putative changes impact on shared decision-making and self-efficacy. Methods and analysis The study is hosted by 10 outpatient oncology clinics in the West of Scotland and South West England. Participants are patients with a diagnosis of head and neck, breast, urological, gynaecological and colorectal cancer who have received treatment for their cancer. Patients are randomised to an intervention or control group. The control group entails standard care—routine consultation between the patient and clinician. In the intervention group, the patient completes a holistic needs assessment prior to consultation. The completed assessment is then given to the clinician where it informs a discussion based on the patient's needs and concerns as identified by them. The primary outcome measure is patient participation, as determined by dialogue ratio (DR) and preponderance of initiative (PI) within the consultation. The secondary outcome measures are shared decision-making and self-efficacy. It is hypothesised that HNA will be associated with greater patient participation within the consultation, and that shared decision-making and feelings of self-efficacy will increase as a function of the intervention. Ethics and dissemination This study has been given a favourable opinion by the West of Scotland Research Ethics Committee and NHS Research & Development. Study findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and conference attendanc

Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) in the Continuing/Higher Education Methods Using Games (CHERMUG) Project

Research methods and statistics are core competences across various disciplines but pose significant challenges for many students. The CHERMUG project aims to develop a digital game to support students in acquiring methodological and statistical expertise. A key issue that has to be addressed in developing a game is to identify the desired learning outcomes for students. The current paper describes a cognitive task analysis (CTA) which was carried out in the CHERMUG project to identify the component cognitive skills, knowledge and competences that are required in developing a comprehensive and usable understanding of research methods and statistics. Structured interviews were carried out with research methods experts. The experts were provided with a briefing sheet which introduced them to the CHERMUG project and the aims of the CTA. In a subsequent interview, participants were asked to describe a prototypical research problem and for this problem identify and discuss the most prominent and relevant issues and difficulties they experienced with their students in working on this. They were asked to consider these for the four main steps in the research cycle: research question, data collection, data analysis, and discussion & conclusion. This approach to CTA focused on the experiences of experts teaching or supervising projects in research methods and statistics and provided valuable concrete suggestions and recommendations relevant to the design of the game

Parity Mixing of 0+ and 0- Levels in 18F

The circular polarization of the γ rays emitted in the transition from the 1.081-MeV state to the ground state in 18F has been measured to be (1.6±5.6)×10^-4, corresponding to a parity-nonconserving (PNC) matrix element |〈0+, I=1|VPNC|0-, I=0〉|=0.03±0.10 eV. The weak pion-nucleon coupling constant deduced from the weighted average of all recent 18F measurements is (0.28-0.28+0.89)×10^-7. This result, together with PNC matrix elements in other experiments, suggests that the isovector weak NN interaction may be strongly suppressed compared with the isoscalar weak NN interaction

The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: Bulge/Disc Decomposition of 10095 Nearby Galaxies

We have modelled the light distribution in 10095 galaxies from the Millennium Galaxy Catalogue (MGC), providing publically available structural catalogues for a large, representative sample of galaxies in the local Universe. Three different models were used: (1) a single Sersic function for the whole galaxy, (2) a bulge-disc decomposition model using a de Vaucouleurs (R^{1/4}) bulge plus exponential disc, (3) a bulge-disc decomposition model using a Sersic (R^{1/n}) bulge plus exponential disc. Repeat observations for 700 galaxies demonstrate that stable measurements can be obtained for object components with a half-light radius comparable to, or larger than, the seeing half-width at half maximum. We show that with careful quality control, robust measurements can be obtained for large samples such as the MGC. We use the catalogues to show that the galaxy colour bimodality is due to the two-component nature of galaxies (i.e. bulges and discs) and not to two distinct galaxy populations. We conclude that understanding galaxy evolution demands the routine bulge-disc decomposition of the giant galaxy population at all redshifts.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 23 pages, 20 figure