Marking the Difference: An investigation of the criteria used for assessing undergraduate dissertations in a business school

Although the outcomes of a first degree are complex, UK universities continue to use a single measure for grading the student's performance—namely the degree classification. This classification has significant implications for the student, prospective employers, and for the awarding institution. There is some evidence of changing perceptions of degree classes, for example that third class (and even, in some cases, lower second class) awards are unacceptable. At the same time there is concern about maintenance of quality standards in HE, and of possible grade inflation. The final degree class, although a single measure, results from an accumulation of marks achieved throughout the degree course; it is the combined weighting of individual tutor marks which ultimately determines the student's degree class. This study focuses on the marking process, and the application of criteria within one final year module—the dissertation. The dissertation formed a significant part of the final degree weighting, and there was evidence of the use of different criteria and approaches to marking by staff within the faculty. The study employed a qualitative research methodology—including: a structured group discussion where the issue of criteria was raised and brainstormed; and a questionnaire to staff which asked open questions about the criteria which each used when marking dissertations. The responses were analysed, and common ground and differences identified. Questions are raised concerning (a) the tension which surfaces within the marking process, between individual tutor freedom and institutional demands, and (b) staff development opportunities within the marking process.     

Establishing the need for health communication research: best practices model for building transdisciplinary collaborations

The benefits of transdisciplinary collaboration for addressing complex health problems are widely accepted; however, acknowledging the bumps and twists along the road that are inherent in those collaborations is often considered taboo. Academic norms that prevent open discussion of these challenges can have counter-productive results. This essay describes the major education efforts, milestones, and footfalls in the development of an effective partnership between communication-trained researchers in a College of Journalism and Communications and medical researchers in a College of Medicine. We hope it can serve as “best practice” for understanding the value of team science and interdisciplinary research collaborations.     

Multi-sited global ethnography and travel: gendered journeys in three registers

This paper joins a barely begun conversation about multi-sited and global ethnography in educational research; a conversation that is likely to intensify along with growing interest in the links between education, globalisation, internationalisation and transnationalism. Drawing on an ongoing multi-sited global ethnography of elite schools and globalisation, this paper explores the role of travel in multi-sited global ethnography and offers a feminist engagement with it. It considers the idea of fieldwork as a travel practice through three different travel registers; the traveller’s tale, critical travel studies and travel as exile. In so doing, it illustrates the reflexive affordances each register offers with regard to the directions of our feminist inquiries into elite schools and our feminist ethnographic practices.     

Achievement of English as New Language Learners in Monitor Status: A Cross Sector Comparison from Denver

This study uses administrative data to measure the effect of attending a charter school in Denver, Colorado on the achievement of reclassified English as New Language (ENL) students during their monitor period in the mainstream classroom environment. We utilize school choice data from Denver’s Common Enrollment System (CES) to control for each school a family selected entering grade six, a typical time for a structural move, in order to better control of unobserved variable bias. Results indicate charter attendance increases achievement in mathematics and English on state testing. Charter school success in the CES environment provides insights for districts serving large numbers of ENL students.     

The Maine electronic document delivery project: a cooperative project of Maine hospital libraries and the NN/LM New England Region

The article discusses an Ariel document delivery project with seven Maine hospital libraries, the University of Massachusetts Medical School Library (UMass), and the New England Regional office of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. Funding was awarded to six network members to purchase equipment or Ariel software. UMass served as a document provider. During the test, libraries received documents from UMass via Ariel or via the Web as a PDF document. This form of document delivery was faster than standard service with better quality of delivered articles. The column describes the project and outlines possible future steps.