Assessing Readiness for E‐Learning

ABSTRACT Today, e‐learning is a common delivery media for education and training within many organizations. Yet, while both the supply and demand for e‐learning opportunities has risen in recent years, many professionals are beginning to question whether e‐learn‐ers are prepared to be successful in an online learning environment (e.g., Gug‐lielmino & Guglielmino, 2003; Watkins & Corry, 2005). After all, a learner's demonstrated success in a conventional education and training classroom may not be an adequate predictor of success in an e‐learning classroom. One way of gauging a potential online learner's readiness is through self‐assessment. As a first step in defining an instrument that measures an e‐learner's readiness, with the cooperation of volunteer participants from the U.S. Coast Guard, this study looked into the validity and internal consistency of items within a self‐assessment of e‐learning readiness that is under development, and provided data for the continuing development and revision of the instrument. Having demonstrated evidence of internal consistency and construct validity, the self‐assessment now provides a tool for continuing research into the prediction of e‐learning performance. Funding for this study was provided by the International Society for Performance Improvement.     

The collaborative book review as an opportunity for undergraduate research skill development

ABSTRACT

In this article, the authors, based on a process developed in the context of US higher education, demonstrate a model for undergraduate student research skill development that involves academic staff writing collaborative book reviews with undergraduate students and librarians, especially librarians that are also academic staff with relevant content expertise. This model can and should be modified to fit various disciplinary contexts and academic circumstances, potentially around the world. The authors acknowledge that this model will be more useful for academic staff in the social sciences and humanities as compared to the so-called hard or natural sciences. The authors reimagine book reviews based on the notion of ‘scholarship as conversation’ in library science. As evidence, the authors describe the origins of this unique collaborative process and document the impact of academic staff, librarians, and undergraduate students partnering to increase the academic rigor of book reviews. Contributing to scholarship at the intersection of research skill development, information literacy, and embedded librarianship, this article identifies a strategic opportunity for collaboration that makes writing reviews more engaging and educationally productive for students, academic staff, and librarians.     

Improving Performance in a Nuclear Cardiology Department

ABSTRACT Improving performance in the medical industry is an area that is ideally suited for the tools advocated by the International Society of Performance Improvement (ISPI). This paper describes an application of the tools that have been developed by Dale Brethower and Geary Rummler, two pillars of the performance improvement industry. It allows the reader to follow a step‐by‐step approach in a project conducted within a cardiology practice. The tools we used are grounded in behavioral systems analysis as well as in applied behavior analysis. The paper describes how these tools help improve the throughput of a department within a medical practice, while taking into account that this department is one part of the entire medical practice, as well as the local and national medical community. Each tool utilized is shown as it fits into the puzzle of solving the problem described by the client.     

Characteristics of the start in women's World Cup skeleton

This study characterizes key elements of the start in elite female World Cup skeleton athletes. The top 20 female competitors in three World Cup races were videotaped within a calibrated space to allow the following components of the start to be quantified: (1) acceleration (velocity at 15-m mark, time to 15-m mark), (2) capacity (time to load, total number of steps to load), and (3) load (velocity at 45-m mark). A correlation analysis was used to establish the relationship between the variables of interest and overall start time (15- to 65-m mark). Velocity at the 15-m mark accounted for 86% of the variance in overall start time at St. Moritz and 85% at Sigulda. A stepwise regression analysis revealed that approximately 89% of the variation in start time could be explained by velocity at the 15-m mark, time to load, and velocity at the 45-m mark. Of the variables analysed in this study, rapid acceleration to attain a high velocity at the 15-m mark was the most important component of a fast overall start time. The importance of the time to load and velocity at the 45-m mark vary according to the different track characteristics.     

An operational definition of learning disabilities (cognitive domain) using WISC full scale IQ and peabody individual achievement test scores

An operational index of discrepancy to assist in identifying learning disabilities (LD) in the cognitive domain was derived using the Full Scale IQ, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Wechsler, 1949, and relevant subtest scores on the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) (Dunn and Markwardt, 1970. The index was applied to all legally identified LD children (N = 60) of a Michigan county who were in the LD program (1% of the total elementary school population of 6000 children). Of the 50 males and 10 females (mean age: 9 years 2 months; mean IQ: 91), the index identified 74% and 30% respectively as may be LD in the cognitive domain. This comprised 67% of the 60 children, or 2/3 of 1 % of the total elementary school population. Of the 67% may be LD children, 93% had discrepancy low PIAT subtest scores in Reading Recognition, 88% in Reading Comprehension, 83% in Spelling, and 52% in Arithmetic. Considerable caution should be exercised when classifying children, especially females, as LD.