Education for an Aging Planet

As low income societies experience rapid aging of their populations, they face major challenges in developing educational policies to prepare their workforce for the future. We review modest efforts undertaken to assist colleagues in three societies: Mexico, China, and Jamaica. Graduate education in gerontology has an important opportunity to expand research, training, and service-learning programs in global aging.     

How much of the decline in sound recording sales is due to file-sharing?

Although most studies of file-sharing have concluded that file-sharing has decreased record sales, the extent of the decreased sales often seems uneven. This paper demonstrates that the results are more uniform than previously understood once a consistent metric is used to provide easy comparability across studies. This paper uses the percent of the decline in record sales that is due to file-sharing as a metric to translate the results of the literature into a common framework and then summarizes those results. What has not been previously noted is that the estimates from most studies imply that the impact of file-sharing was sufficient to have caused the entire decline in record sales that occurred from the advent of Napster up to about 2005. A smaller number of studies using post-2005 data indicate that the shift to digital formats may also have contributed to the sales decline that continued after 2005.     

A risk‐analysis approach to implementing web‐based assessment

Computer‐Based Assessment is a risky business. This paper proposes the use of a model for web‐based assessment systems that identifies pedagogic, operational, technical (non web‐based), web‐based and financial risks. The strategies and procedures for risk elimination or reduction arise from risk analysis and management and are the means by which the quality of the system is measured. A comparison is made between the severity of risks for non‐web based systems and web‐based systems.     

Fostering oral presentation performance: does the quality of feedback differ when provided by the teacher,peers or peers guided by tutor?

Previous research revealed significant differences in the effectiveness of various feedback sources for encouraging students’ oral presentation performance. While former studies emphasised the superiority of teacher feedback, it remains unclear whether the quality of feedback actually differs between commonly used sources in higher education. Therefore, this study examines feedback processes conducted directly after 95 undergraduate students’ presentations in the following conditions: teacher feedback, peer feedback and peer feedback guided by tutor. All processes were videotaped and analysed using a coding scheme that included seven feedback quality criteria deduced from the literature. Results demonstrate that teacher feedback corresponds to the highest extent with the majority of the seven identified feedback quality criteria. For four criteria, peer feedback guided by tutor scores higher than peer feedback. Skills courses should incorporate strategies focused on discussing perceptions of feedback and practising providing feedback to increase the effectiveness of peer feedback.     

University Advertising and Universality in Messaging

University and college institutional advertisements, which typically are broadcast as public service announcements during the halftime of football games, were the subject of a quantitative analysis focused on commonality in messaging and employment of the semiotic theory of brand advertising. Findings indicate advertisements focus on students’ social lives at the expense of depictions related to an academic focus and that, at statistically significant levels, smaller universities are more likely than large ones to depict their research as having an impact beyond their own campus. Findings suggest that institutions recruit out-of-state students in pursuit of revenue rather than using the advertisements in service of efforts to raise funds.     

A Model for Computer-based Assessment: The catherine wheel principle

The success of computer-based assessment systems is based on a structured approach to design and implementation together with a model that generates efficient and effective standards and procedures. This paper proposes a model that utilises a step-wise approach to assessment design and implementation within which the management and assessment of operational, technical, pedagogic and financial risks are made explicit. It is the strategies for risk elimination that form the basis for the standards and procedures adopted.     

Young people and alternative provision: Perspectives from participatory–collaborative evaluations in three UK local authorities

This article reports the findings of four separately commissioned evaluations of alternative provision (AP) undertaken in three local authorities in the UK. The evaluations were specifically predicated on the principles of children's rights and used a combination of qualitative research methods and documentary analysis to elicit the experiences of young people in conjunction with the viewpoints of key stakeholders. Data from each evaluation was gathered over a total period of 6 years. The sites and time scales for each evaluation varied from 6-month authority-wide strategic reviews to a 3-year evaluation of an AP free school and an evaluation of pupil referrals in a large school partnership. The evaluations involved 200 participant children and young people, 30 managers and stakeholders, 8 parents of non-attending pupils and local authority officers and school governors. The evaluations report the complexity of needs amongst children and young people; the continuing problem of unsuccessful transitions between key phases/stages of education and the profound consequences of this for young people; assumptions around mainstream reintegration and managed moves; and the curriculum challenges of vocationalism and academic emphasis. While the research data confirms the positive value of multi-agency approaches in AP, it also shows a more recent troubling increase in the number of young people now being referred to AP as a consequence of their exposure to performative school cultures.