Evaluation and social impact measurement amongst small to medium social enterprises : process, purpose and value

In recent years, the imperative to communicate organisational impacts to a variety of stakeholders has gained increasing importance within all sectors. Despite growing external demands for evaluation and social impact measurement, there has been limited critically informed analysis about the presumed importance of these activities to organisational success and the practical challenges faced by organisations in undertaking such assessment. In this paper, we present the findings from an action research study of five Australian small to medium social enterprises’ practices and use of evaluation and social impact analysis. Our findings have implications for social enterprise operators, policy makers and social investors regarding when, why and at what level these activities contribute to organisational performance and the fulfilment of mission.

Analysis of distance learner value assessment of distance education in engineering

Numerous research studies have evaluated whether distance learning is a viable alternative to traditional learning methods. These studies have generally made use of cross-sectional surveys for collecting data, comparing distance to traditional learners with intent to validate the former as a viable educational tool. Inherent fundamental differences between traditional and distance learning pedagogies, however, reduce the reliability of these comparative studies and constrain the validity of analyses resulting from this analytical approach. This article presents the results of a research project undertaken to analyze expectations and experiences of distance learners with their degree programs. Students were given surveys designed to examine factors expected to affect their overall value assessment of their distance learning program. Multivariate statistical analyses were used to analyze the correlations among variables of interest to support hypothesized relationships among them. Focusing on distance learners overcomes some of the limitations with assessments that compare off- and on-campus student experiences. Evaluation and modeling of distance learner responses on perceived value for money of the distance education they received indicate that the two most important influences are course communication requirements, which had a negative effect, and course logistical simplicity, which revealed a positive effect. Combined, these two factors accounted for approximately 47% of the variability in perceived value for money of the educational program of sampled students. A detailed focus on comparing expectations with outcomes of distance learners complements the existing literature dominated by comparative studies of distance and nondistance learners.

The power of naming : the multifaceted value of learning students’ names

The modern day Australian law school is expected to educate and engage law students. Ideally law school will instil a sense of passion (or at least appreciation) for the law, promote a positive professional identity, foster a sense of community, and provide general support to law students. Collectively, the Australian legal academy is struggling with these goals. Significant numbers of students feel isolated, disconnected and unengaged throughout their tertiary legal education. Teaching students from increasingly diverse backgrounds, who spend less time on campus and less face-to-face time in class, many law academics feel ill-equipped to respond to the challenge of engaging law students in time and cost efficient ways. Intentionally learning and using student names has potential to humanise the law school experience, build community, and positively impact upon the wellbeing of students and staff.

Considering the economic value of natural design elements at city scale

With increasing signs of climate change and the influence of national and international carbon-related laws and agreements, governments all over the world are grappling with how to rapidly transition to low-carbon living. This includes adapting to the impacts of climate change that are very likely to be experienced due to current emission levels (including extreme weather and sea level changes), and mitigating against further growth in greenhouse gas emissions that are likely to result in further impacts. Internationally, the concept of ‘Biophilic Urbanism’, a term coined by Professors Tim Beatley and Peter Newman to refer to the use of natural elements as design features in urban landscapes, is emerging as a key component in addressing such climate change challenges in rapidly growing urban contexts. However, the economics of incorporating such options is not well understood and requires further attention to underpin a mainstreaming of biophilic urbanism. Indeed, there appears to be an ad hoc, reactionary approach to creating economic arguments for or against the design, installation or maintenance of natural elements such as green walls, green roofs, streetscapes, and parklands. With this issue in mind, this paper will overview research as part of an industry collaborative research project that considers the potential for using a number of environmental economic valuation techniques that have evolved over the last several decades in agricultural and resource economics, to systematically value the economic value of biophilic elements in the urban context. Considering existing literature on environmental economic valuation techniques, the paper highlights opportunities for creating a standardised language for valuing biophilic elements. The conclusions have implications for expanding the field of environmental economic value to support the economic evaluations and planning of the greater use of natural elements in cities. Insights are also noted for the more mature fields of agricultural and resource economics.

Disclosures of social value creation : a case study of three global social enterprises

This study seeks to fill in gap in the existing literature by looking at how and whether disclosure of social value creation becomes a part of legitimation strategies of social enterprises. By using legitimacy reasoning, this study informs that three global social organizations, Grameen Bank, Charity Water, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provide evidence of the use of disclosures of social value creation in order to conform with the expectations of the broader community—the community that wants to see poverty and injustice free world.

Integrated design and delivery solutions

Integrated design and delivery solutions (IDDS) is a priority theme of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB), which will be used to drive the global research agenda forward. IDDS will use collaborative work processes and enhanced skills together with integrated data, information and knowledge management to minimize structural and process inefficiencies and to enhance the value delivered during design, build, operation, and across projects. IDDS build on building information modelling (BIM), incorporating advances in the training and employment of people, together with supporting new technologies. The successful use of IDDS involves changes in each of the project phases from conceptual planning and business case formulation to all stages of the supply chain: design, construction, commissioning, operation, retrofit and decommissioning. For each of these phases, key changes in the structure and culture of the project team across the different collaborating firms create a favourable context for IDDS. Special for IDDS thinking is the idea of adding project and whole-life value in all phases, for all stakeholders...

The value of respect in human research ethics: A conceptual analysis and a practical guide

In order to continue to maintain public trust and confidence in human research, participants must be treated with respect. Researchers and Human Research Ethics Committee members need to be aware that modern considerations of this value include: the need for a valid consenting process, the protection of participants who have their capacity for consent compromised; the promotion of dignity for participants; and the effects that human research may have on cultures and communities. This paper explains the prominence of respect as a value when considering the ethics of human research and provides practical advice for both researchers and Human Research Ethics Committee members in developing respectful research practices.

Using value-based partnerships to support community engaged learning : benefits, challenges, stakeholder perspectives

Increasingly, the not-for-profit sector, as an emerging contributor to the creative economy, is creating a context for engaging creative practitioners in developing solutions to complex problems, triggering a demand for skills and knowledge needed to address this complexity. Across the university and community contexts alternative models of engagement are emerging to support this dynamic. This paper presents a case study of a creative project in which a value-based approach is used to foster a collaborative partnership between community partners and a multidisciplinary team of final year Creative Industries students who in the course of the project developed a range of communication resources, including a social media campaign, an interactive game and a series of short films to support volunteer engagement and leadership initiatives. The paper considers the implications this values approach has for the design of service learning curriculum for multidisciplinary creative teams and the potential it has to support meaningful collaboration between creatives and the not-for-profit sector. It further explores how it impact on student and partner engagement, learning outcomes and the benefits for the partner organisation. The paper concludes that a value-based approach to university-community engagement has the potential to support and enable a greater degree of reciprocity, deeper engagement between stakeholders and greater relevance of the final outcome.

Sex differences in the perceived value of outreach and museums/science centres in students' decisions to enrol in university science, technology and engineering courses

This paper reports a number of findings from the Interests and Recruitment in Science (IRIS) study carried out in Australia in 2011. The findings concern the perceptions of first year university students in science, technology and engineering courses about the influence of museums/science centres and outreach activities on their choice of course. The study found that STE students in general tended to rate museums/science centres as more important in their decisions than outreach activities. However, a closer examination showed that females in engineering courses were significantly more inclined to rate outreach activities as important than were males in engineering courses or females in other courses. The implications of this finding for strategies to encourage more young women into engineering are discussed.

Narratives of possession : reading for saga authorship

The aim of this thesis is to show how character analysis can be used to approach conceptions of saga authorship in medieval Iceland. The idea of possession is a metaphor that is adopted early in the thesis, and is used to describe Icelandic sagas as works in which traditional material is subtly interpreted by medieval authors. For example, we can say that if authors claim greater possession of the sagas, they interpret, and not merely record, the sagas' historical information. On the other hand, tradition holds onto its possession of the narrative whenever it is not possible for an author to develop his own creative and historical interests. The metaphor of possession also underpins the character analysis in the thesis, which is based on the idea that saga authors used characters as a vehicle by which to possess saga narratives and so develop their own historical interests. The idea of possession signals the kinds of problems of authorship study which are addressed here, in particular, the question of the authors' sense of saga writing as an act either of preservation or of creation. While, in that sense, the thesis represents an additional voice in a long-standing debate about the saga writers' relation to their source materials, I argue against a clear-cut distinction between creative and non-creative authors, and focus instead on the wide variation in authorial control over saga materials. This variation suggests that saga authorship is a multi-functional activity, or one which co-exists with tradition. Further, by emphasising characterisation as a method, I am adding to the weight of scholarship that seeks to understand the sagas in terms of their literary effects. The Introduction and chapter one lay out the theoretical scope of this thesis. My aim in these first two sections is to inform the reader of the type of critical questions that arise when authorship is approached in relation to characterisation, and to suggest an interpretive framework with which to approach these questions. In the Introduction this aim manifests as a brief discussion of the application of the term "authorship" to the medieval Icelandic corpus, a definition of the scope of this study, and an introduction to the connections, made throughout this thesis, between saga authors, the sagas' narrative style, and the style of characterisation in the sagas. Chapter one is a far more detailed discussion of our ability to make these connections. In particular, the chapter develops the definition of the analytical term "secondary authorship" that I introduce in order to delineate the type of characterisation that is of most interest in this thesis. "Secondary authorship" is a literary term that aims to sharpen our approach to saga authors' relationship to their characters by focusing on characters who make representations about the events of the saga. The term refers to any instance in which characters behave in a manner that resembles the creativity, interpretation, and understanding associated with authorship more generally. Character analysis cannot, however, be divorced from socio-historical approaches to the saga corpus. Most importantly, the sagas themselves are socio-historical representations that claim some degree of truth value. This claim that the sagas make by implication about their historicity is the starting point of a discussion of authorship in medieval Iceland. Therefore, at the beginning of chapter one I discuss some of the approaches to the social context of saga writing. This discussion serves as an introduction to both the culture of saga writing in medieval Iceland and to the nature of the sagas' historical perspective, and reflects my sense that literary interpretations of the sagas cannot be isolated from the historical discourses that frame them. The chapter also discusses possession, which, as I note above, is used alongside the concept of secondary authorship to describe the saga authors' relationship with the stories and characters of the past. At the close of chapter one, I offer a preliminary list the various functions of saga authorship, and give some examples of secondary authorship. From this point I am able to tie my argument about secondary authorship to specific examples from the sagas. Chapter two examines the effect of family obligations and domestic points of view in the depiction of characters' choices and conception of themselves. The examples that are given in that chapter - from Gisla saga Súrssonar and Íslendinga saga - are the first of a number of textual analyses that demonstrate the application of the concepts of secondary authorship and possession of saga narratives. The relationship between narratives about national and domestic matters shows how authorial creativity in the area of kinship obligation provides the basis for the saga's development of historical themes. Thus, the two major case studies given in chapter two tie authorial engagement with characters to the most influential social institution in early and medieval Iceland, the family. The remaining chapters represent similar attempts to relate authorial possession of saga characters to central socio-historical themes in the sagas, such as the settlement process in early Iceland and its influence on the development of regional political life (chapter three). Likewise, the strong authorial interest in an Icelander's journey to Norway in Heimskringla is presented as evidence of the author's use of a saga character to express an Icelandic interpretation of Norwegian history and to promote a sense that Iceland shared the ownership of regal history with Norway (chapter four). In that authorial engagement with the Icelander abroad, we witness saga characterisation being used as a basis for historical interpretation and the means by which foreign traditions and influence, not least the narratives of royal lives and of the Christianisation, are claimed as part of medieval Icelanders' self-conception. While saga authors observe the conventions of saga narration, characters are often subtly positioned as the authors' interpretive mirrors, especially clear than when they act as secondary authors. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Brennu- Njáls saga, which contains many characters who voice the author's claim to interpret the past. Even Hrútr Herjólfsson, through his remarkable perception of events and his conspicuous comments about them, acts as a secondary author by enabling the author to emphasise the importance of the disposition of characters. In Laxdœla saga and Þorgils saga ok Hafliða, authorial interest in characters' perception is matched by the thematising of learning, from the inception of knowledge as prophecy or advice to complete understanding by saga characters (chapter six). In Þorgils saga skarða, a character's inner development from an excessively ambitious and politically ruthless youth to a Christian leader killed by his kinsman allows the author to shape a political life into a lesson about leadership and the community's ability to moderate and contain the behaviour of extraordinary individuals. The portrayal draws on methods of characterisation that we can identify in Grettis saga Ásmundarson, Fóstbrœðra saga, and Orkneyinga saga. A comparison of the characterisation of figures with intense political or military ambitions suggests that saga authors were interested in the community's ability to balance their strength and ability with a degree of social moderation. The discussion of these sagas shows that character study can be used to analyse how the saga authors added their own voice to the voices passed down to medieval Icelanders in traditional narratives. Authorial engagement with characters allowed inherited traditions about early Norway and Iceland and records of thirteenth century events to be transformed into sophisticated historical works with highly creative elements. Through secondary authorship, saga authors took joint-possession of narratives and contested the power of tradition in setting the interpretive framework of a saga.

Investigating online recognition for blood donor retention : an experiential donor value approach

Recognising that charitable behaviour can be motivated by public recognition and emotional satisfaction, not-for-profit organisations have developed strategies that leverage self-interest over altruism by facilitating individuals to donate conspicuously. Initially developed as novel marketing programs to increase donation income, such conspicuous tokens of recognition are being recognised as important value propositions to nurture donor relationships. Despite this, there is little empirical evidence that identifies when donations can be increased through conspicuous recognition. Furthermore, social media’s growing popularity for self-expression, as well as the increasing use of technology in donor relationship management strategies, makes an examination of virtual conspicuous tokens of recognition in relation to what value donors seek particularly insightful. Therefore, this research examined the impact of experiential donor value and virtual conspicuous tokens of recognition on blood donor intentions. Using online survey data from 186 Australian blood donors, results show that in fact emotional value is a stronger predictor of intentions to donate blood than altruistic value, while social value is the strongest predictor of intentions if provided with recognition. Clear linkages between dimensions of donor value (altruistic, emotional and social) and conspicuous donation behaviour (CDB) were identified. The findings provide valuable insights into the use of conspicuous donation tokens of recognition on social media, and contribute to our understanding into the under-researched areas of donor value and CDB.

The duty to report disease outbreaks : of interest or value? Lessons from H5N1

Since the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in 2003, it has been argued that there has been a substantial revision to the norm dictating the behaviour of states in the event of a disease outbreak. This article examines the evolution of the norm to ‘report and verify’ disease outbreaks and evaluates the extent to which this revised norm has begun to guide state behaviour. Examination of select East Asian countries affected by human infections of the H5N1 (avian influenza) virus strain reveals the need to further understand the mutually constitutive relationship between the value attached to prompt reporting against the capacity to report, and how states manage both in fulfilling their duty to report.

Online video in education : acquisition, value & ROI

The session explores the potential for “Patron Driven Acquisition” (PDA) as a model for the acquisition of online video. Today, PDA has become a standard model of acquisition in the eBook market, more effectively aligning spend with use and increased return on investment (ROI). PDA is an unexplored model for acquisition of video, for which library collection development is complicated by higher storage and delivery costs, labor overheads for content selection and acquisition, and a dynamic film industry in which media and the technology that supports it is changing daily. Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and La Trobe University in Australia launched a research project in collaboration with Kanopy to explore the opportunity for PDA of video. The study relied on three data sources: (1) national surveys to compare the video purchasing and use practices of colleges, (2) on-campus pilot projects of PDA models to assess user engagement and behavior, and (3) testing of various user applications and features to support the model. The study incorporates usage statistics and survey data and builds upon a peer-reviewed research paper presented at the VALA 2014 conference in Melbourne, Australia. This session will be conducted by the researchers and will graphically present the results from the study. It will map out a future for video PDA, and how libraries can more cost-effectively acquire and maximize the discoverability of online video. The presenters will also solicit input and welcome questions from audience members.