Students as co-producers in a multidisciplinary software engineering project: addressing cultural distance and cross-cohort handover

This article reports an undergraduate software engineering project in which, over a period of 2 years, four student teams from different cohorts developed a note-taking app for four academic clients at the students’ own university. We investigated how projects involving internal clients can give students the benefits of engaging in real software development while also giving them experience of a student-staff collaboration that has its own benefits for students, academics, and the university more broadly. As the university involved is a Sino-Foreign university located in China, where most students are Chinese and most teaching staff are not, this ‘student as co-producer’ approach interacts with another feature of the project: cultural distance. Based on analysis of notes, reports, interviews, and focus groups, we recommend that students should be provided with communicative strategies for dealing with academics as clients; universities should develop policies on ownership of student-staff collaborations; and projects should include a formalised handover process. This article can serve as guidance for educators considering a ‘students as co-producers’ approach for software development projects.     

Ethnic Heterogeneity,Group Affinity,and State Higher Education Spending

A rich interdisciplinary literature exists exploring the determinants of state higher education funding policies. However, that work has collectively ignored an important finding from political economy literature: namely, that citizens’ preferences regarding public spending are strongly influenced by the state’s ethnic and racial context. Drawing on a unique panel of state-level data covering the years 1982–2009, we find that states demarcated by increased racial and ethnic diversity and eroding white majorities do tend to spend less on subsidies to public higher education, resulting in decreased state appropriations as well as more tepid support for financial aid programs. Critically, however, we find that the negative effects of increased ethnic and racial fractionalization can be mitigated—and in some circumstances, fully offset—by a high degree of positive social interaction between ethnic and racial groups. These results are discussed within the pragmatic context of continued state emphasis on degree attainment as a mechanism to foster economic growth as well as broader considerations about equality and social justice.     

Implementing an institution-wide electronic lab notebook initiative

Background:To strengthen institutional research data management practices, the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) licensed an electronic lab notebook (ELN) to improve the organization, security, and shareability of information and data generated by the school''s researchers. The Ruth Lilly Medical Library led implementation on behalf of the IUSM''s Office of Research Affairs.Case Presentation:This article describes the pilot and full-scale implementation of an ELN at IUSM. The initial pilot of the ELN in late 2018 involved fifteen research labs with access expanded in 2019 to all academic medical school constituents. The Ruth Lilly Medical Library supports researchers using the electronic lab notebook by (1) delivering trainings that cover strategies for adopting an ELN and a hands-on demo of the licensed ELN, (2) providing one-on-one consults with research labs or groups as needed, and (3) developing best practice guidance and template notebooks to assist in adoption of the ELN. The library also communicates availability of the ELN to faculty, students, and staff through presentations delivered at department meetings and write-ups in the institution''s newsletter as appropriate.Conclusion:As of August 2021, there are 829 users at IUSM. Ongoing challenges include determining what support to offer beyond the existing training, sustaining adoption of the ELN within research labs, and defining “successful” adoption at the institution level. By leading the development of this service, the library is more strongly integrated and visible in the research activities of the institution, particularly as related to information and data management.     

THE POSSIBLE USE OF SOCIODRAMA AS A TRAINING TECHNIQUE FOR THE MODERATELY MENTALLY HANDICAPPED IN SCHOOL,HALF ‐ WAY TRAINING CENTRE,AND SHELTERED WORKSHOP.

This is a brief inquiry into the possibility of using sociodrama as a technique for developing social skills in the moderately mentally handicapped. The acquisition of acceptable social behaviour is regarded as a central factor in the recognized aim of helping this population of the handicapped maintain independence in the end community in which they find themselves.

It is considered a serious diagnostic‐prognostic error to forecast the end community at any early period in time within the developmental cycle of any individual.

For the moderately mentally handicapped the provision of the school, the half‐way centre and the sheltered workshop must still be deemed the result of community project effort rather than the just responsibility of central political institutions.     

中国信息产业如何面对21世纪的挑战

数据库产业是现代化信息产业的基础，本文分析国内数据库和信息服务业与国外的差距，建议开发国家级的综合性大型数据库，扩大数据库的覆盖面，保证数据库质量。作者认为，我国应将数据库生产和数据库检索服务分家，由信息服务部门对数据库进行高质量的增值处理，同时建立配套的文献源服务体系。我国以ＩＮＴＥＲＮＥＴ为基础的信息服务技术起步并不算晚，应该尽快培养一批跨世纪的信息人才，首先建立我国信息服务业在亚洲的领先地位，缩小与发达国家间的差距。