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.     

Three team and organisational culture myths and their consequences for sport psychology research and practice

ABSTRACT

In this article, three prevailing myths about team and organisational culture – an increasingly popular topic in applied sport psychology research and practice – are identified, reviewed and challenged. These are; that culture is characterised only by what is shared, that culture is a variable and therefore something that a particular group has, and that culture change involves moving from the old culture to an entirely new one. We present a challenge to each myth through the introduction of alternative theoretical and empirical material and discuss the implications for sport psychology research and practice. The intent of this endeavour is to stimulate debate on how to best conceptualise and study culture. More broadly, we aim to encourage sport psychologists to consider team and organisational culture in new and/or varied ways, beyond current conceptualisations of consensus, clarity, integration and as a management tool to facilitate operational excellence and on-field athletic success.     

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.