e-Authentication for online assessment: A mixed-method study

Authenticating the students’ identity and authenticity of their work is increasingly important to reduce academic malpractices and for quality assurance purposes in Education. There is a growing body of research about technological innovations to combat cheating and plagiarism. However, the literature is very limited on the impact of e-authentication systems across distinctive end-users because it is not a widespread practice at the moment. A considerable gap is to understand whether the use of e-authentication systems would increase trust on e-assessment, and to extend, whether students’ acceptance would vary across gender, age and previous experiences. This study aims to shed light on this area by examining the attitudes and experiences of 328 students who used an authentication system known as adaptive trust-based e-assessment system for learning (TeSLA). Evidence from mixed-method analysis suggests a broadly positive acceptance of these e-authentication technologies by distance education students. However, significant differences in the students’ responses indicated, for instance, that men were less concerned about providing personal data than women; middle-aged participants were more aware of the nuances of cheating and plagiarism;while younger students were more likely to reject e-authentication, considerably due to data privacy and security and students with disabilities due to concerns about their special needs

A mixed method for Dirichlet problems with radial basis functions

We present a simple discretization by radial basis functions for the Poisson equation with Dirichlet boundary condition. A Lagrangian multiplier using piecewise polynomials is used to accommodate the boundary condition. This simplifies previous attempts to use radial basis functions in the interior domain to approximate the solution and on the boundary to approximate the multiplier, which technically requires that the mesh norm in the interior domain is significantly smaller than that on the boundary. Numerical experiments confirm theoretical results

Multigrid Methods for Hellan-Herrmann-Johnson Mixed Method of Kirchhoff Plate Bending Problems

A V-cycle multigrid method for the Hellan-Herrmann-Johnson (HHJ) discretization of the Kirchhoff plate bending problems is developed in this paper. It is shown that the contraction number of the V-cycle multigrid HHJ mixed method is bounded away from one uniformly with respect to the mesh size. The uniform convergence is achieved for the V-cycle multigrid method with only one smoothing step and without full elliptic regularity. The key is a stable decomposition of the kernel space which is derived from an exact sequence of the HHJ mixed method, and the strengthened Cauchy Schwarz inequality. Some numerical experiments are provided to confirm the proposed V-cycle multigrid method. The exact sequences of the HHJ mixed method and the corresponding commutative diagram is of some interest independent of the current context.Comment: 23 page

From Fun to Nightmare. Measuring Students’ Senior Trip Experiences Through a Mixed-method Approach

From Fun to Nightmare. Measuring Students’ Senior Trip Experiences Through a Mixed-method Approac

Enhancing Care Transitions for Older People through Interprofessional Simulation: A Mixed Method Evaluation

Introduction: The educational needs of the health and social care workforce for delivering effective integrated care are important. This paper reports on the development, pilot and evaluation of an interprofessional simulation course, which aimed to support integrated care models for care transitions for older people from hospital to home. Theory and methods: The course development was informed by a literature review and a scoping exercise with the health and social care workforce. The course ran six times and was attended by health and social care professionals from hospital and community (n=49). The evaluation aimed to elicit staff perceptions of their learning about care transfers of older people and to explore application of learning into practice and perceived outcomes. The study used a sequential mixed method design with questionnaires completed pre (n=44) and post (n=47) course and interviews (n=9) 2-5 months later. Results:Participants evaluated interprofessional simulation as a successful strategy. Post-course, participants identified learning points and at the interviews, similar themes with examples of application in practice were: Understanding individual needs and empathy; Communicating with patients and families; Interprofessional working; Working across settings to achieve effective care transitions. Conclusions and discussion:An interprofessional simulation course successfully brought together health and social care professionals across settings to develop integrated care skills and improve care transitions for older people with complex needs from hospital to home

Religious faith and psychosocial adaptation among stroke patients in Kuwait: A mixed method study

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2012 Springer Science+Business Media.Religious faith is central to life for Muslim patients in Kuwait, so it may influence adaptation and rehabilitation. This study explored quantitative associations among religious faith, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction in 40 female stroke patients and explored the influence of religion within stroke rehabilitation through qualitative interviews with 12 health professionals. The quantitative measure of religious faith did not relate to life satisfaction or self-efficacy in stroke patients. However, the health professionals described religious coping as influencing adaptation post-stroke. Fatalistic beliefs were thought to have mixed influences on rehabilitation. Measuring religious faith among Muslims through a standardized scale is debated. The qualitative accounts suggest that religious beliefs need to be acknowledged in stroke rehabilitation in Kuwait