Neuroanatomy Learning: Augmented Reality vs. Cross-Sections

Neuroanatomy education is a challenging field which could benefit from modern innovations, such as augmented reality (AR) applications. This study investigates the differences on test scores, cognitive load, and motivation after neuroanatomy learning using AR applications or using cross-sections of the brain. Prior to two practical assignments, a pretest (extended matching questions, double-choice questions and a test on cross-sectional anatomy) and a mental rotation test (MRT) were completed. Sex and MRT scores were used to stratify students over the two groups. The two practical assignments were designed to study (1) general brain anatomy and (2) subcortical structures. Subsequently, participants completed a posttest similar to the pretest and a motivational questionnaire. Finally, a focus group interview was conducted to appraise participants’ perceptions. Medical and biomedical students (n = 31); 19 males (61.3%) and 12 females (38.7%), mean age 19.2 ± 1.7 years participated in this experiment. Students who worked with cross-sections (n = 16) showed significantly more improvement on test scores than students who worked with GreyMapp-AR (P = 0.035) (n = 15). Further analysis showed that this difference was primarily caused by significant improvement on the cross-sectional questions. Students in the cross-section group, moreover, experienced a significantly higher germane (P = 0.009) and extraneous cognitive load (P = 0.016) than students in the GreyMapp-AR group. No significant differences were found in motivational scores. To conclude, this study suggests that AR applications can play a role in future anatomy education as an add-on educational tool, especially in learning three-dimensional relations of anatomical structures.     

Symbolic Management of the Degree of Information Security by Integer Splitting

This paper demonstrates the application of module arithmetic for controlling the level of information security by a new technique referred as integer splitting. The basic definitions and concepts of the method are provided. The mathematical function of arising transformation is described in detail; its properties were studied and the basic theorems were proven that justify the use of splitting in practical applications. An active system was designed and characteristic cases of its operation are considered.     

How do Higher Education Institutions Enhance their Financial Autonomy? Examples from Finnish Polytechnics

Numerous studies have addressed how state authorities and public funding bodies control, regulate, steer, supervise or oversee higher education institutions. There are fewer studies on how higher education institutions respond to the actions of the mentioned authorities. States have aimed at increasing the autonomy of higher education institutions. At the same time institutions are expected to generate social benefits and economic growth. There is an endless tension between a policy that will strengthen the autonomy and simultaneously retain a space for state steering. The Finnish polytechnic and university sectors have very different origins from which their financial autonomy takes its shape. This article sheds light on how six Finnish polytechnics aspire to enhance their financial autonomy. The polytechnics operate under two separate steering systems, the state and local owners, and both of these actors exercise their own steering. This article shows that polytechnics are willing and able to enhance their financial autonomy. They calculate their advantages and habitually engage with the Ministry of Education or their owners depending on the case in question. The financial autonomy of polytechnics does not culminate in a form of diversified funding sources, but as balancing between the two masters on whose resources they are heavily dependent.     

Guiding Low Spatial Ability Individuals through Visual Cueing: The Dual Importance of Where and When to Look

Research suggests that spatial ability may predict success in complex disciplines including anatomy, where mastery requires a firm understanding of the intricate relationships occurring along the course of veins, arteries, and nerves, as they traverse through and around bones, muscles, and organs. Debate exists on the malleability of spatial ability, and some suggest that spatial ability can be enhanced through training. It is hypothesized that spatial ability can be trained in low-performing individuals through visual guidance. To address this, training was completed through a visual guidance protocol. This protocol was based on eye-movement patterns of high-performing individuals, collected via eye-tracking as they completed an Electronic Mental Rotations Test (EMRT). The effects of guidance were evaluated using 33 individuals with low mental rotation ability, in a counterbalanced crossover design. Individuals were placed in one of two treatment groups (late or early guidance) and completed both a guided, and an unguided EMRT. A third group (no guidance/control) completed two unguided EMRTs. All groups demonstrated an increase in EMRT scores on their second test (P < 0.001); however, an interaction was observed between treatment and test iteration (P = 0.024). The effect of guidance on scores was contingent on when the guidance was applied. When guidance was applied early, scores were significantly greater than expected (P = 0.028). These findings suggest that by guiding individuals with low mental rotation ability “where” to look early in training, better search approaches may be adopted, yielding improvements in spatial reasoning scores. It is proposed that visual guidance may be applied in spatial fields, such as STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine), surgery, and anatomy to improve student's interpretation of visual content. Anat Sci Educ. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.     

Arts education partnerships: sources of harmony and dissonance with cultural institutions’ collaborative efforts

ABSTRACT

Due to budget constraints, schools in the United States have increasingly turned to community arts organizations for support. School-community arts partnership stakeholders collaborate because of shared missions to provide students with valuable arts learning experiences. Investigations of these initiatives indicate that these partnerships improve arts learning opportunities and increase public support and resources for arts education. However, not much is known about the experiences and perspectives of the arts organizations that participate in these partnerships. Coordinating collective efforts with a multitude of institutions and interests poses challenges. In this study, we examine survey data collected from arts organization administrators who participated in a large-scale school-community arts partnership initiative. We find that these organizations are generally positive about their impacts on students’ educational outcomes, but there is substantial variation in these views. We also find that organizations differ in their levels of support for these collective efforts. Sources of this variation appear to be attributable to organizations’ preexisting resources and extent to which they are established. While this difference in levels of support is potentially inevitable, we find evidence that the operations handled by the “backbone” organization, i.e. the initiative’s facilitators and overseers, can significantly influence organizations’ levels of support for these efforts. Organizations are more likely to support these collaborative efforts when they believe the backbone organization ensures transparency with initiative operations, provides regular, effective communication, and effectively resolves competing priorities.     

Mixed Reality Lab at Mississippi State University Libraries

Virtual and Augmented Realities are advancing technologies that are becoming more popular in gaming and programming communities. However, virtual reality has been in development for decades. As libraries are often at the forefront of offering new and advancing technologies to their communities, virtual and augmented reality programs have become new additions to library services. While gaming is the prominent use of these technologies, virtual and augmented reality affords many educational opportunities. Mississippi State University Libraries have recently added a virtual/augmented reality lab as part of its library program.     

“Enactment of Sámi Past in School Textbooks: Towards Multiple Pasts for Future Making”

The article examines the use of archaeological knowledge in elementary history textbooks used in Norwegian schools today. The aim is to determine whether we can find any traces of colonialism by reviewing how these narratives perform in interrelations within and between the Sámi and Norse pasts, and how the narratives allow for hybridity and heterogeneity. Postcolonial theory turns the narrative into an object of analysis. The findings show that the Sámi material remains are outside the system of cultural change and that the temporal and spatial distances produce binary and homogeneous cultures. New material perspectives can intervene in singular performativity. Learning to enact dynamic material heterogeneity may affect the future of pupils’ participation in cultural negotiations of pastsin present.     

The entrepreneurial university and academic discourses: The meta‐synthesis of Higher Education articles

The innovative teaching, knowledge and technology production and societal service activities of academics are largely discussed within the entrepreneurial university discourse in Higher Education journals. Therefore, this research focuses on a meta‐synthesis of Higher Education articles to better understand the concepts of the entrepreneurial university and entrepreneurial academic. After the systematic elimination based on keywords and titles, 25 articles have been selected from the top 10 Higher Education journals in the SCImago Journal Rankings. Content analysis was performed on these articles to highlight the common operational areas in entrepreneurial universities and activities of entrepreneurial academics. The meta‐synthesis shows that, both for universities and academics, entrepreneurship is overwhelmingly characterised by the commercialisation of scholarly activities that enrich institutional income revenue as well as academics’ personal income. However, such an approach can distance universities from their mission of public good; so Higher Education administrators should create mechanisms that would allow both to take place in a balanced way.     

The Human Rights Approach to Education in International Organisations

In this article, the work of three international governmental organisations (IGOs) dealing with human rights will be discussed, namely the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)¹ and the Council of Europe (CoE). In the first section, the main characteristics of the three IGOs in terms of similarities and differences will be elaborated. Then, their human rights approach to education will be described, dealing with the legal foundations. In the final section, the different strategies of implementation based on both their official mission statements and their present strategy papers will be evaluated under the heading ‘competition vs. cooperation’.