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.     

Academic entrepreneurship (re)defined: significance and implications for the scholarship of higher education

Over the past several decades higher education scholars have conducted a significant amount of research aimed at understanding the implications of enhanced interactions between the academy and the private marketplace. Accordingly, a voluminous literature that includes conceptualizations and discussions of academic entrepreneurship has emerged. This paper used content analysis to examine how researchers have conceptualized entrepreneurship in five leading higher education journals. The analysis revealed notable patterns in the application of theoretical and conceptual frameworks of entrepreneurship to higher education phenomena, as well as observable distinctions in how entrepreneurial models are applied in specific organizational, institutional, and geographical contexts. Results suggest that there is a paucity of attention paid to the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of entrepreneurship within higher education scholarship. We introduce a framework for strengthening the application of entrepreneurial models to higher education research that is grounded in the theoretical constructs of entrepreneurship as articulated in the economic and management literatures.     

Assessing heterogeneous student bodies using a methodology that encourages the acquisition of skills valued by employers

This work compares the results of three assessment systems used in two Spanish universities (the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the Universidad Católica de Ávila): the traditional system based on final examinations, continuous assessment with periodic tests and a proposed system (specially designed for heterogeneous student bodies) orientated towards motivating students. This third system involved dividing the syllabus into two different parts: a common core assessed by multiple choice tests, and a specialisation assessed by a literature review, the writing of an article and an oral presentation. The latter skills are highly valued by employers. The proposed system led to a greater pass rate than that achieved by students taking similar courses assessed by the more conventional systems. In addition, the results show that involving students in the assessment process increases their participation in their studies and generates a feeling of satisfaction and justice.     

A comparison of the cycling performance of cyclists and triathletes

The aim of this study was to compare the cycling performance of cyclists and triathletes. Each week for 3 weeks, and on different days, 25 highly trained male cyclists and 18 highly trained male triathletes performed: (1) an incremental exercise test on a cycle ergometer for the determination of peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak), peak power output and the first and second ventilatory thresholds, followed 15 min later by a sprint to volitional fatigue at 150% of peak power output; (2) a cycle to exhaustion test at the VO2peak power output; and (3) a 40-km cycle time-trial. There were no differences in VO2peak, peak power output, time to volitional fatigue at 150% of peak power output or time to exhaustion at VO2peak power output between the two groups. However, the cyclists had a significantly faster time to complete the 40-km time-trial (56:18 +/- 2:31 min:s; mean +/- s) than the triathletes (58:57 +/- 3:06 min:s; P < 0.01), which could be partially explained (r = 0.34-0.51; P < 0.05) by a significantly higher first (3.32 +/- 0.36 vs 3.08 +/- 0.36 l x min(-1)) and second ventilatory threshold (4.05 +/- 0.36 vs 3.81 +/- 0.29 l x min(-1); both P < 0.05) in the cyclists compared with the triathletes. In conclusion, cyclists may be able to perform better than triathletes in cycling time-trial events because they have higher first and second ventilatory thresholds.     

Reasoning about Social Conflicts in Different Cultures: Druze and Jewish Children in Israel

This study examined how children of different cultural backgrounds weigh competing considerations in complex social situations. 351 children from Druze and Jewish communities in Israel (mean ages 8-10, 10-9, 12-11, 14-11, and 16-8) were presented with conflicts between 2 concerns: ( a ) Justice-Authority, ( b ) Justice-Interpersonal, ( c ) Personal-Interpersonal, and ( d ) Personal-Authority. For each conflict, subjects selected the course of action to be followed and evaluated the desirability of each behavioral alternative. Both similarities and differences were found in the ways children from each group weigh social concerns and change their priorities with age. Furthermore, judgments in both groups were complex and heterogeneous. These findings demonstrated that the weighing of social concerns in conflict situations is not done solely according to an overriding cultural orientation.