A cross-national study of teacher’s perceptions of online learning success

This study examines success factors in online learning from the instructors’ perspective. Academic success comprises not only student satisfaction and good grades, but also perception of learning and knowledge transfer. A systemic model of inputs–process–outputs of learning was used. A total of 322 online teachers from four different universities and countries were used to study factors of attainment. Findings suggest that: (i) instructors from the University of Peking and the Autonomous Popular University of the State of Puebla reported learner factors as the most important for students on online courses, (ii) instructors from the University of New Mexico perceived institutional factors as the most important for establishing effective online learning and (iii) instructors from the Open University of Catalonia reported outcome factors as the most important for learners in online courses. Compared with other research results in online learning, instructors in this study generally reflect a greater concern about the content, social presence, instruction and their interactions than about technological matters.     

Spanish university assessment practices: examination tradition with diversity by faculty

Classroom assessment is crucial to understand how students approach course materials, even more so in a competitive environment such as higher education. Our aim was to explore the current situation of assessment in higher education to consider further institutional and training actions. Every syllabus from all public universities in Spain was entered into a database, from which 1,693 syllabi were selected completely at random for a content analysis. It was found that: (1) university teachers use a greater variety and number of assessment instruments than did their counterparts of decades ago, (2) final examination score is still the highest-weighted source of information for the final grade, (3) the cluster of assessment practices show that conventional approaches are still the most prevalent ones, (4) formal peer and self-assessment practices are still extremely rare in the classroom, (5) assessment practices barely change between first and fourth-year courses, and (6) most variations in assessment are explained by differences on faculty/academic divisions. This research has implications for European legislation, university regulation and university teacher training programmes.     

Intensification of university–industry relationships and its impact on academic research

This paper analyses the intensification of university–industry relationships and its impact on university research. The paper consists of recent follow-up research to an international comparative research project conducted in the 1990s. It deals specifically with the Québec (Canada) situation. Twenty-eight in-depth interviews were conducted in the winter of 2003 with university researchers and an additional five interviews with technology transfer officers. The interviews were conducted in six francophone higher education institutions in Québec. With regard to university–industry relationships, the interviews revealed that university researchers in scientific and technological fields conducted innovation-oriented research, which benefits their graduate students and the institution itself. Freedom of publication is somewhat conditioned by intellectual property constraints. Thus, a majority of university researchers adopt an “entrepreneurial ethos” which they find compatible with their academic values. The intensification of university–industry relationships may also have latent dysfunctional effects with regard to conflicts of interest, as some university researchers have created start-up companies which act both as research funding sources and as beneficiaries of research results. Thus, intellectual property and conflict of interest issues evolve in a grey zone and are often sources of stress and tension for researchers. However harsh some disputes may become over these issues, they are resolved, at least in the context analysed in this research, in ways that satisfy both the researcher and the institutions.

Making Our Way Through: Voices of Hispanic Counselor Educators

Through 23 open‐ended questionnaires and 8 individual interviews, this phenomenological study explored the experiences of Hispanic men and women (N = 23) who completed doctoral degrees in counselor education. Six themes were identified: family role models, educational support, parental expectations, ethnic identity, acculturation/cultural expectations, and intrinsic motivation.     

THE ROLE OF LONELINESS IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION IN CLINICAL AND SCHOOL‐BASED YOUTH

Identifying mechanisms that explain the relationship between anxiety and depression are needed. The Tripartite Model is one model that has been proposed to help explain the association between these two problems, positing a shared component called negative affect. The objective of the present study was to examine the role of loneliness in relation to anxiety and depression. A total of 10,891 school‐based youth (Grades 2–12) and 254 clinical children and adolescents receiving residential treatment (Grades 2–12) completed measures of loneliness, anxiety, depression, and negative affect. The relationships among loneliness, anxiety, depression, and negative affect were examined, including whether loneliness was a significant intervening variable. Various mediational tests converged showing that loneliness was a significant mediator in the relationship between anxiety and depression. This effect was found across children (Grades 2–6) and adolescent (Grades 7–12) school‐based youth. In the clinical sample, loneliness was found to be a significant mediator between anxiety and depression, even after introducing negative affect based on the Tripartite Model. Results supported loneliness as a significant risk factor in youths' lives that may result from anxiety and place youth at risk for subsequent depression. Implications related to intervention and prevention in school settings are also discussed.     

New concepts in reassessing mining heritage: A study and its implications from the Ancient Iron Mine of Llumeres (North Spain)

The possibility of giving a continuing value to an abandoned historic mine is not only of academic interest but can be a crucial economic and heritage issue for regions with long mining traditions but which are now severely affected by mine closures. This article suggests a different perspective on the rationale for studying, preserving and developing our mining heritage as an educational facility. To illustrate the case, the ancient iron mine of Llumeres, in the Asturias region, in North Spain, is presented as an example. A key point of our thesis is that a closed mine is not a ‘dead entity’ but simply in transition to another useful state and that after the closure, another organism arises, with very different appearance and vital signs. We suggest that this new organism be recognised for its high patrimonial value and that this heritage value be preserved. Accepting this point of view would mean an increase in efforts to identify and appropriately manage these vital signs. We propose that the particular mining-related aspects (which are usually viewed as negative, such as subsidence or groundwater modification), be considered as part of the heritage of the mining activity, considered in the widest sense. To facilitate understanding, these are discussed in comparison to those for a prehistoric cave, for which there is a broader experience and solid knowledge and recognition of heritage value. We have also analyzed the importance of recognising the geometric and functional relationships between the underground workings and the superficial signatures, in defining an extended patrimonial entity, which has been recently presented to the cultural and political authorities. For the case of the iron mine of Llumeres, we explain the methodology required to analyze and classify the documents in order to investigate and reconstruct the 3D geometric structure of the mine and how this can be integrated into a Geographical Information System (GIS) to improve management and editing of the information. Additionally, the historic mining technological methods employed in the underground workings of Llumeres have been studied and all the information integrated into a 3D visualization package and made available as a free 3D video sample of the subsurface information. In summary, this work represents a major step forward in improving our knowledge of the ancient iron mine of Llumeres and, as a consequence, it has been possible, for the first time, to consider the underground mining heritage in the framework of the better known (but as yet unrecognised) overground heritage. This new patrimonial entity offers enhanced possibilities for acceptance and recognition in a societal context and to aid that acceptance, we propose a radical conceptual change of perspective, pointing out new elements requiring research.     

Are Popular and Classical Music Listeners the Same People?

In this paper we propose a method for analysing the differences between theconsumption of popular and classical music, that we apply to Spain. Using theinformation contained in the Survey of Structure, Conscience and Biography ofClass, we estimate a bivariate probit model to characterise the audience foreach kind of music, we quantify the influence exerted by various socioeconomicfeatures on the demand for these goods and we describe the average profile ofconsumers.