Troubles with information overload—Moving from quantity to quality in information provision

The authors view the phenomenon of information overload as a result of a general failure in the business community to recognize the ways in which information processes add value to information. They present a conceptual model based on the broad information attributes of truth, guidance, accessibility, scarcity and weight, and apply the model to a number of information-oriented initiatives undertaken in Standard Life. The roles of both information providers and information users are discussed, with particular emphasis on the needs of managers and decision makers for high value-added, or ‘quality’, information. The authors argue the need to bridge a long-standing gap between information providers and users in their respectice views of what the role, competences and requirements of the other is in information terms. Their value-added information model provides a way for both parties to begin communicating in meaningful terms on these issues.     

Journal clustering using a bibliographic coupling method

The classification of journal titles into fields or specialties is a problem of practical importance in library and information science. An algorithm is described which accomplishes such a classification using the single-link clustering technique and a novel application of the method of bibliographic coupling. The novelty consists in the use of two-step bibliographic coupling linkages, rather than the usual one-step linkages. This modification of the similarity measure leads to a marked improvement in the performance of single-link clustering in the formation of field or specialty clusters of journals. Results of an experiment using this algorithm are reported which grouped 890 journals into 168 clusters. This scope is an improvement of nearly an order of magnitude over previous journal clustering experiments. The results are evaluated by comparison with an independently derived manual classification of the same journal set. The generally good agreement indicates that this method of journal clustering will have significant practical utility for journal classification.     

Intellectual property protection mechanisms in research partnerships

A set of US-based companies is investigated regarding the effectiveness of intellectual property protection mechanisms (IPPMs) in the formation of research partnerships. Patents are the most frequently used IPPM to protect both background and foreground knowledge in partnerships. Other IPPMs are used to protect know-how, especially in the early, forming stages of a partnership. Existing IP titles are quite useful when negotiating new partnerships. IPR negotiations are reported to be more complex in horizontal partnerships and when universities are involved.     

高等教育中国家与市场的关系

欧洲大学现在失去了昔日的光彩,公共和私人教育支出水平较低是造成其衰败的部分原因;而高度集中的国家管理体制抑制了大学之间的有效竞争,从而使得大学在教育和研究两方面都缺乏进步的动力。对这一体制加以改革都会面临三个问题:政府对大学的掌控程度、政府对大学的资助程度和大学之间的竞争程度。这三个问题既是相互关联的,在一定程度上又是彼此独立的;既可能存在有公共资助但没有公共产权的情况,也可能存在有公共资助和公共产权同时还保持了高度竞争的情况。高等教育不同于其他产品和服务,具有“连带性”特征,这使得大学竞争与效率和公平问题之间存在着紧密而复杂的关系。     

The battered-child syndrome

The battered-child syndrome, a clinical condition in young children who have received serious physical abuse, is a frequent cause of permanent injury or death. The syndrome should be considered in any child exhibiting evidence of fracture of any bone, subdural hematoma, failure to thrive, soft tissue swellings or skin bruising, in any child who dies suddenly, or where the degree and type of injury is at variance with the history given regarding the occurrence of the trauma. Psychiatric factors are probably of prime importance in the pathogenesis of the disorder, but knowledge of these factors is limited. Physicians have a duty and responsibility to the child to require a full evaluation of the problem and to guarantee that no expected repetition of trauma will be permitted to occur.     

Learning objectives for science practicals at traditional and distance universities

This study is designed to determine whether, and to what extent, the perceived importance of objectives of undergraduate practicals in the Natural Sciences is dependent upon the type of institute at which practicals are given. The two dimensions used in this research to discriminate between types of institutes are type of education offered (face‐to‐face versus correspondence) and type of programme offered (monodisciplinary versus interdisciplinary). For this reason, distance universities throughout the world (DUs) and more traditional, residential universities (RUs) in The Netherlands were compared. Special attention has been paid to the Open university of The Netherlands (OuN). The results show that RUs and DUs approach practicals in a very similar manner with both of them differing in a number of respects with the OuN. Implications of this research for the use of practicals in a curriculum in the Natural Sciences are presented.     

Electronic Course Surveys: Does automating feedback and reporting give better results?

This paper discusses an electronic course survey system designed to support evaluation of a modular programme in management taught through distance education. The scale and communication issues raised by distance education, when compounded by a complex rolling modular programme, make conventional evaluation complicated, slow and expensive. To overcome these problems, an automated evaluation process was introduced, partly based on web-based surveying, but significantly emphasising the reporting process and allowing performance indicators and complex analyses to be embedded in high quality word-processed reports, that can be quickly and easily generated after each presentation of a module. The paper discusses the system and the impact that it has had on the evaluation process, before looking to future opportunities for developments in this field, and discussing some of the implications - both expected and unanticipated - that have come out of using automation in the evaluation process.     

Separating arguments from conclusions: the mistaken role of effect size in educational policy research

ABSTRACT

Effect size is the basis of much evidence-based education policymaking. In particular, it is assumed to measure the educational effectiveness of interventions. Policy is being driven by the influential work of John Hattie, the Education Endowment Foundation, and others, which is grounded in this assumption. This article demonstrates the assumption is false and notes that, when criticized, proponents either attempt to inoculate themselves by listing (without checking) assumptions or use the specious reasoning that, however flawed their argument, no-one has disproved their conclusions.