Rubrics as a way of providing transparency in assessment

This paper reports on a study where rubrics have been used to convey assessment expectations to students (n?=?176) in three different assessment situations in professional education. These situations are: (1) the development of a survey instrument, which was part of a course in statistics and epidemiology; (2) an inspection of a house, which was part of a course about the functions of buildings for real estate brokers and (3) a workshop in communication with patients, which was part of a course in the evaluation of diagnostic procedures and treatments of oral infections in dental education. In all situations, students’ perceptions and uses of the rubrics were investigated. Findings suggest that it is indeed possible to convey expectations to students through the use of rubrics, in the sense that students not only appreciate the efforts to make assessment criteria transparent, but may also use the criteria in order to support and self-assess their performance. Important features of the rubrics, which were found to facilitate students’ understanding and use of the criteria in these situations, are presented and discussed.     

End of journey,end of story? A longitudinal study of involuntary work transitions among laid-off workers

The purpose of this study is to increase knowledge regarding involuntary work transitions among laid-off workers. It is part of an ongoing cooperation with two outplacement agencies enrolling white-collar workers. The particular arrangements, which are based on collective agreements, include relatively generous support, both economically and regarding the educational and counselling arrangements offered. A narrative research approach is used and the analysis is based on interviews with 15 people, conducted on two occasions with about a year in between. Conceptualizing the transition as a biographical learning process, the findings point out a great variety within and between cases. While the basic distinction is drawn between people who have changed their status and those who have not, a number of rhetorical varieties are identified, pointing to different modes of biographical learning. The originality of the paper lies in its narrative approach and the particular conceptual framework showing that biographical learning is a vital part of enforced work transitions.     

Evaluation of thermal imaging system and thermal radiation detector for real-time condition monitoring of high power frequency converters

We have carried out at laboratory test to study the feasibility of using thermal radiation detectors for online thermal monitoring of electrical systems in wind turbines. A 25 kW frequency converter is instrumented with a thermal camera, operating in the 8-14 μm wave- length range, and a single-pixel thermopile sensor, operating in the 4-8 μm wavelength range, to monitor the temperature development of the power electronics under various load sequences. Both systems performed satisfactorily with insignificant temperature deviations when compared to data from calibrated point contact sensor. With spatial averaging over a 7 mm × 7 mm for the camera and temporal averaging over 60 s for the thermo- pile sensor, we reduce the root mean square noise to 45 mK and 68 mK respectively. The low cost and simple operation of the thermopile sensor make it very attractive for condition monitoring applications, whereas the attractive feature of the camera is the possibility of multi-point or distributed temperature measurements.     

Framed School – Frame Factors,Frames and the Dynamics of Social Interaction in School

This paper aims to show how the Goffman frame perspective can be used in an analysis of school and education and how it can be combined, in such analysis, with the frame factor perspective. The latter emphasizes factors that are determined outside the teaching process, while the former stresses how actors organize their experiences and define shared situations. In this light, an analysis of framing of and in Swedish compulsory school, based on governing documents, is carried out. Since the frame factors are contradictory, different possibilities to frame school in the Goffmanian sense present themselves to the school actors. In spite of frame factors, school can be framed in different and inconstant ways, for example, as an institution, an organization, a movement, or a seminar. Such nuance shifts show different dynamics of social interaction in school and can be used to understand variations between and within schools.     

To be or not to be a technical university: organisational categories as reference points in higher education

Higher Education - Classifications of higher education institutions into categories that are more or less clearly differentiated through prestige and status are legion in the world of higher...     

Understanding Nonuse of Interactivity in Online Newspapers: Insights From Structuration Theory

While some online newspapers have embellished their online presence with a variety of interactive features, most online newspapers still appear to take on the role of cautious traditionalists, adopting a mostly conservative stance toward the new medium. Correspondingly, most audience members appear to act in a similar way. This article shows how concepts related to structuration theory can be utilized to further our theoretical understanding of the use (and nonuse) of interactive features in the online newspaper context. It employs concepts from the structuration theory to provide another interpretation of the existing empirical research. The paper concludes by suggesting that “nonuse” in this regard can be understood as part of reproducing what might be called a “structure of audiencehood” rather than a “structure of prosumerism.”     

No particular way to go

This article aims to deepen understanding of the trajectories through school and into adulthood of people who did not attain valued qualifications from upper secondary school (‘non-completers’), and explore the fruitfulness of careership theory for such analysis. It is based on interviews with 100 young Swedes: 81 non-completers and 19 who had attended special upper secondary schools catering for young people with mild cognitive disability. Their narratives portray sparse socio-economic resources and difficult family situations, learning problems and marginalisation processes in school. They commonly learned to perceive themselves as failures and ‘different’. Framed by narrow horizons of action, these young people’s careers were mostly characterised by enforced rather than self-initiated turning points. Often leading to unemployment and economic problems, leaving secondary school was less of a turning point than a continuation of failure, even if completing adult education and getting a job were regarded as self-initiated, positive shifts. We conclude that careership theory was useful for analysing and understanding the careers of the young people concerned. However, distinguishing between ‘routines’ and ‘turning points’ became especially difficult when studying lives of these young people hemmed in by sparser resources, fewer choices and less stable career trajectories than their peers.     

Reflections on International Projects in Undergraduate CS Education

Educational methods race to keep pace with the opportunities afforded by technology, and in computer science we need methods that tie together the diverse aspects of the discipline and set them in a realistic human context. Projects have the potential to address various aims and perspectives, and international projects add new dimensions to student teamwork, requiring students to handle collaboration that is remote, cross-cultural, and linguistically challenging. This paper examines some of the educational issues associated with international projects, in the discussion of two examples: PASTICS and Runestone.     

Teaching Determinants Using Rook Arrangements

Teaching determinants poses significant challenges to the instructor of a proof-based undergraduate linear algebra course. The standard definition by cofactor expansion is ugly, lacks symmetry, and is hard for students to use in proofs. We introduce a visual definition of the determinant that interprets permutations as arrangements of non-attacking rooks on an n × n chessboard. We show that under this definition, many of the usual lemmas about determinants admit natural, insightful proofs that students themselves can readily discover.     

Brainjacking in deep brain stimulation and autonomy

'Brainjacking’ refers to the exercise of unauthorized control of another’s electronic brain implant. Whilst the possibility of hacking a Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) has already been proven in both experimental and real-life settings, there is reason to believe that it will soon be possible to interfere with the software settings of the Implanted Pulse Generators (IPGs) that play a central role in Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) systems. Whilst brainjacking raises ethical concerns pertaining to privacy and physical or psychological harm, we claim that the possibility of brainjacking DBS raises particularly profound concerns about individual autonomy, since the possibility of hacking such devices raises the prospect of third parties exerting influence over the neural circuits underpinning the subject’s cognitive, emotional and motivational states. However, although it seems natural to assume that brainjacking represents a profound threat to individual autonomy, we suggest that the implications of brainjacking for individual autonomy are complicated by the fact that technologies targeted by brainjacking often serve to enhance certain aspects of the user’s autonomy. The difficulty of ascertaining the implications of brainjacking DBS for individual autonomy is exacerbated by the varied understandings of autonomy in the neuroethical and philosophical literature. In this paper, we seek to bring some conceptual clarity to this area by mapping out some of the prominent views concerning the different dimension of autonomous agency, and the implications of brainjacking DBS for each dimension. Drawing on three hypothetical case studies, we show that there could plausibly be some circumstances in which brainjacking could potentially be carried out in ways that could serve to enhance certain dimensions of the target’s autonomy. Our analysis raises further questions about the power, scope, and necessity of obtaining prior consent in seeking to protect patient autonomy when directly interfering with their neural states, in particular in the context of self-regulating closed-loop stimulation devices.