Instructional Design and Powerful Learning

Skillfully executed, instructional design can result in effective and efficient means to meet learning goals. However, more powerful learning experiences seem to go beyond effectiveness, efficiency, appeal, and even predetermined goals. This study sought to identify the key features of instructional design, to determine the nature of powerful learning experiences, and to explore how the two might relate. A survey of experts and a series of interviews with adult learners revealed overlap in some areas, for example, in the perceived importance of active engagement in authentic situations, and clear differences in others, most significantly the importance placed by learners on continual face‐to‐face personal interaction with a mentor/expert teacher. Speculations are offered on what similar results from additional studies might imply with regard to design actions and choices, and questions for further research are posed.     

An analysis of the vitamin D overtesting in a tertiary healthcare centre

IntroductionVitamin D testing is excessively used in clinical practice, despite of the clinical guidelines statements against population screening for vitamin D deficiency. This study aimed to assess an annual number of performed 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) tests that were unsupported by the national guidelines for prevention, detection and therapy of vitamin D deficiency in adults and to calculate associated financial burden for the publicly funded healthcare.Materials and methodsA representative sample of requested 25(OH)D tests in 2018 (N = 474) was formed after selection and randomisation of data set (N = 5298) collected from the laboratory information system database of the Clinical Department for Laboratory Diagnostics, the Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka. Records were classified in two groups depending on associated medical condition(s) according to the national guidelines. An annual cost of the total and group specific vitamin D testing was calculated on the base of a single test price reimbursed by the Croatian Healthcare Insurance Fund (CHIF).ResultsMedical conditions with high-risk for vitamin D deficiency were detected in 43% (206/474) of vitamin D requests (group 1). Conditions not associated with vitamin D deficiency were detected in 57% (268/474) requests (group 2). A total cost of 25(OH)D testing for the CHIF was 58,729.50 EUR (25,523.79 EUR in the group 1 and 33,205.71 EUR in the group 2).ConclusionsMore than half of all 25(OH)D tests performed in the clinical laboratory represent avoidable cost for the public healthcare. Prevention of population screening by vitamin D testing is needed.     

Do parents,teachers, and psychoeducational evaluators agree in their perceptions of the problems of black and white emotionally disturbed children?

The aim was to examine the agreement among parents, teachers, psychologists, and educational diagnosticians in their perceptions of the problem behaviors of emotionally disturbed children. The sample of 194 emotionally disturbed boys and girls included 129 whites and 65 blacks. The use of measures of relationship showed that there was significantly greater consensus among the raters in perceptions of white than of black children; agreement was particularly poor between parents and teachers of black youngsters. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Tertiary Education and Management (TEAM)

Instructions for Authors

Tertiary Education and Management (TEAM)     

Interpretation of the separate WPPSI tests for boys and girls at three age levels

The aim was to aid the clinician's interpretation of the six Verbal and five Performance tests constituting the WPPSI. Analyses were conducted for separate groups of boys and girls at ages $\text{4?4}\text{1}\text{2}$, $\text{5?5}\text{1}\text{2}$, and $\text{6?6}\text{1}\text{2}$ to determine the amount of specificity (reliable unique variance) for each test. Test specificity provides empirical evidence either for or against interpreting the specific traits or abilities that are presumed to be measured by a particular test. Most WPPSI tests were found to have enough specificity to warrant specific clinical interpretation for boys and girls across the age range. The clinical implications of the results are discussed.     

JIME: an interactive journal for interactive media

How can new media positively transform scholarly practices? In this article, we describe the Journal of Interactive Media in Education (JIME). JIME's peer-review process is designed to promote multidisciplinary dialogue through the use of a purpose-designed web document–discussion interface. This innovative peer-review model and the resulting enriched digital documents illustrate some of the possibilities for promoting knowledge construction and preserving intellectual products in digital scholarly publications. We present JIME's technical infrastructure, editorial policy, and peer-review process, and discuss how these features are used to support the journal's goals. Finally, we conclude by considering what aspects of our approach might be suitable for e-journals in other disciplines.