Applying findings from a systematic review of workplace‐based e‐learning: implications for health information professionals

Objectives: To systematically review the UK published literature on e‐learning in the health workplace and to apply the findings to one of the most prolific UK e‐learning initiatives in the health sector—the National Library for Health Facilitated Online Learning Interactive Opportunity (FOLIO) Programme. Methods: Sensitive searches were conducted across assia , Australian Education Index, British Education Index, cinahl , CSA Abstracts, Dissertation Abstracts, Emerald, eric , ibss , Index to Theses, lisa , medline , Psyc Info and Social Science Citation Index. Additional citations were identified from reference lists of included studies and of relevant reviews; citation tracking and contact with experts. Twenty‐nine studies met the inclusion criteria and were coded and analysed using thematic analysis as described by Miles & Huberman (Qualitative Data Analysis: A Sourcebook of New Methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1984). Results: Five broad themes were identified from the 29 included studies: (i) peer communication; (ii) flexibility; (iii) support; (iv) knowledge validation; and (v) course presentation and design. These broad themes were supported by a total of eleven sub‐themes. Components from the FOLIO Programme were analysed and existing and proposed developments were mapped against each sub‐theme. This provides a valuable framework for ongoing course development. Conclusion: Librarians involved in delivering and supporting e‐learning can benefit from applying the findings from the systematic review to existing programmes, exemplified by the FOLIO Programme. The resultant framework can also be used in developing new e‐learning programmes.     

The dynamics of exchanges and references among scientific texts,and the autopoiesis of discursive knowledge

Discursive knowledge emerges as codification in flows of communication. The flows of communication are constrained and enabled by networks of communications as their historical manifestations at each moment of time. New publications modify the existing networks by changing the distributions of attributes and relations in document sets, while the networks are self-referentially updated along trajectories. Codification operates reflexively: the network structures are reconstructed from the perspective of hindsight. Codification along different axes differentiates discursive knowledge into specialties. These intellectual control structures are constructed bottom-up, but feed top-down back upon the production of new knowledge. However, the forward dynamics of diffusion in the development of the communication networks along trajectories differs from the feedback mechanisms of control. Analysis of the development of scientific communication in terms of evolving scientific literatures provides us with a model which makes these evolutionary processes amenable to measurement.     

Rulers of the zodiac

Everybody thinks they know what science is, but pinning down a definite time and place for its origins is more problematic.     

Performance-based university research funding systems

The university research environment has been undergoing profound change in recent decades and performance-based research funding systems (PRFSs) are one of the many novelties introduced. This paper seeks to find general lessons in the accumulated experience with PRFSs that can serve to enrich our understanding of how research policy and innovation systems are evolving. The paper also links the PRFS experience with the public management literature, particularly new public management, and understanding of public sector performance evaluation systems. PRFSs were found to be complex, dynamic systems, balancing peer review and metrics, accommodating differences between fields, and involving lengthy consultation with the academic community and transparency in data and results. Although the importance of PRFSs seems based on their distribution of universities’ research funding, this is something of an illusion, and the literature agrees that it is the competition for prestige created by a PRSF that creates powerful incentives within university systems. The literature suggests that under the right circumstances a PRFS will enhance control by professional elites. PRFSs since they aim for excellence, may compromise other important values such as equity or diversity. They will not serve the goal of enhancing the economic relevance of research.     

Disaster Information Specialist Pilot Project: NLM/DIMRC

Medical librarians have often been overlooked as important contributors to hospital disaster preparedness. Recognizing the importance of medical libraries and their potential in disaster planning and management, the National Library of Medicine (NLM), Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC), formed a pilot Disaster Information Specialist Project. This paper describes the preliminary activities of Bishopric Medical Library's Director, Patricia Reynolds, at Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, as a disaster information specialist in the hospital's disaster planning and preparedness.     

Coping Strategies of Caribbean “Problem Students”

Abstract   The coping strategies of middle adolescents (14–16 years) generate interest amongst educators, parents, school psychologists and school counsellors. This study, using a phenomenological approach, examined the coping strategies of ‘problem’ adolescents in the Caribbean in regard to their interactions with peers and teachers. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of twenty middle adolescents in Barbados. The adolescents’ efforts to manage problems in the school environment suggested that they actively sought to prevent problems from progressing to a maladaptive level. An apparent sequence of coping behaviours emerged from the qualitative data analysis. The sequence involves a dynamic process of seven cognitive decision-making and behavioural steps that the adolescents engaged in, in their quest to manage and effectively cope with daily problems. Based on the findings, recommendations are presented for working with adolescents who demonstrate problem behaviours within the school environment.     

The motivating opportunities model for performance SUCCESS: Design,development, and instructional implications

This article develops the motivating opportunities model from its previous conceptual framework to its design, development, and instructional implications. It includes building the utility of the model for implementation around the acronym SUCCESS, representing a systematic approach to analyzing and designing motivation for situational, utilization, competence, content, emotional, social, and systemic factors. Furthermore, it details the considerations and questions included in each of the seven components of a process of analysis and design using SUCCESS as a tool and procedural guide. Accompanying each component are specific strategies that support implementation by generating the motivating opportunities that the model supports using, with examples to illustrate cases of use. Following the development and strategies of the model are research questions that may illuminate motivation in instructional design and human performance technology, and the utilization of the model.     

Crossing disciplinary,institutional and role boundaries in an interdisciplinary consortium

To illuminate barriers to collaboration, this study examines who participates in cross-boundary scholarly collaboration most often and which types of boundary crossing (disciplinary, institutional, role) are engaged in most often. The data of this study came from an interdisciplinary consortium with five partner institutions, including one Historically Black College and University (HBCU). The core disciplines involved in the consortium are life sciences, computer science and math and engineering. Through statistical analysis, we determined that members of the consortium engaged more in interdisciplinary research than inter-institutional research. Participation in all boundary crossing collaborations was greater at the HBCU and students and postdocs were less likely than academics to cross-institutional boundaries.