Developing Online Tutorials to Improve Information Literacy Skills for Second-Year Nursing Students of University College Dublin

This article explores the process of developing online tutorials for a specified student group, in this case Second-Year Nursing students in University College Dublin. The product was commissioned by the Health Sciences Library and the UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery, and Health Systems. It was developed as a “Capstone Project” for part fulfillment of the MLIS in UCD.

We focused our research on three areas of scholarship to assist in the development of our product, namely Information Behavior, Learning Technologies, and Learning Science and Design. Flemings VARK model was used to inform the team of the four different learning styles (visual, auditory, reading, and kinesthetic) and to match the presentation style to these.

An initial difficulty in the assessment phase was one of access to a large group of students, as the students were on clinical placements. We created personas and a profile of nursing students to try and compensate for this. The tutorial was developed to cater for this specific group of students and later to act as a valuable support to the Library, which is under severe pressure in terms of staff availability to support student learning.

The product is relatively straightforward to produce (and maintain) and is something the Library will be able to develop and add to in future years.     

Media Production

BROADCAST WRITING: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES by Roger L. Walters (New York: Random House, 1988—$17.00, paper)

WRITING BROADCAST NEWS: SHORTER, SHARPER, STRONGER—A PROFESSIONAL HANDBOOK by Mervin Block (Chicago: Bonus Books, 1987—$22.95)

HANDBOOK FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITING by Thomas Bivins (Lincolnwood, IL: NTV Business Books, 1988—$14.95, paper)

PUBLIC RELATIONS CASES by Jerry A. Hendrix (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1988—price not given, paper—also available is a 100 page instructor's manual for adopters)     

Fostering thinking through science in the early years of schooling

The purpose of this research was to investigate and describe concrete examples of Year 1 students engaged in good thinking and to generate assertions about the ways teachers can foster habits of good thinking through science. The research design was a multiple case study of 32 lessons, of which four are analysed in detail in this paper. The results suggest that young children engaged in good thinking are likely to explain and demonstrate their ideas and actions and to make suggestions for solving problems. Children engaged in good thinking also are likely to highlight discrepancies, adopt new ideas, and work collaboratively. The results indicate that teachers can foster habits of good thinking through science; first, by accepting difficulty as an integral part of the learning process, second, by encouraging children to explain and talk about their ideas and, finally, by creating an environment where thinking is a valued classroom process.     

A scholar's journey: Using the internet for adult and distance education research

Web‐Based Instruction. Badrul H. Khan, ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications, 1997, 480 pp., $89.95/Hard, $59.95/Soft).

Distance Learning: A Step‐by‐Step Guide for Trainers. Karen Mantyla and J. Richard Gividen (Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training and Development, 1997, 179 pp., $45.00).     

Corporate social responsibility and social partnerships in professional football

Within the professional football industry one of the most prominent ways to address corporate social responsibility is through a social partnership involving a range of organizations such as a Community Sports Trust (CST), a professional football club, business organizations and local authorities. These partnerships are responsible for the delivery of community initiatives around a range of social issues. This article seeks to understand the managerial aspects of this type of social partnership, and in particular the objectives and motivations for partnering, by drawing on three analytical platforms that take into account how differences between sectors affect social partnerships. Based on a series of interviews, it is shown that organizations get involved in social partnerships for different reasons and perceive the partnerships in different ways; that from an individual organizational perspective it is difficult to perceive a social partnership entirely in the context of one of the theoretical platforms; and that despite what would appear to be a strong sense of homogenization of organizational form across the sector there are significant differences between social partnerships. The article concludes by arguing that further research is needed to better understand the differences between social partnerships.