An Empirical Study on Faculty Perceptions and Teaching Practices of Wikipedia

Some faculty members from different universities around the world have begun to use Wikipedia as a teaching tool in recent years. These experiences show, in most cases, very satisfactory results and a substantial improvement in various basic skills, as well as a positive influence on the students' motivation. Nevertheless and despite the growing importance of e-learning methodologies based on the use of the Internet for higher education, the use of Wikipedia as a teaching resource remains scarce among university faculty.Our investigation tries to identify which are the main factors that determine acceptance or resistance to that use. We approach the decision to use Wikipedia as a teaching tool by analyzing both the individual attributes of faculty members and the characteristics of the environment where they develop their teaching activity. From a specific survey sent to all faculty of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), pioneer and leader in online education in Spain, we have tried to infer the influence of these internal and external elements. The questionnaire was designed to measure different constructs: perceived quality of Wikipedia, teaching practices involving Wikipedia, use experience, perceived usefulness and use of 2.0 tools. Control items were also included for gathering information on gender, age, teaching experience, academic rank, and area of expertise.Our results reveal that academic rank, teaching experience, age or gender, are not decisive factors in explaining the educational use of Wikipedia. Instead, the decision to use it is closely linked to the perception of Wikipedia's quality, the use of other collaborative learning tools, an active attitude towards web 2.0 applications, and connections with the professional non-academic world. Situational context is also very important, since the use is higher when faculty members have got reference models in their close environment and when they perceive it is positively valued by their colleagues. As far as these attitudes, practices and cultural norms diverge in different scientific disciplines, we have also detected clear differences in the use of Wikipedia among areas of academic expertise. As a consequence, a greater application of Wikipedia both as a teaching resource and as a driver for teaching innovation would require much more active institutional policies and some changes in the dominant academic culture among faculty members.

An Analysis of Eye Scanpath Entropy in a Progressively Forming Virtual Environment

A sign of presence in virtual environments is that people respond to situations and events as if they were real, where response may be considered at many different levels, ranging from unconscious physiological responses through to overt behavior,emotions, and thoughts. In this paper we consider two responses that gave different indications of the onset of presence in a gradually forming environment. Two aspects of the response of people to an immersive virtual environment were recorded: their eye scanpath, and their skin conductance response (SCR). The scenario was formed over a period of 2 min, by introducing an increasing number of its polygons in random order in a head-tracked head-mounted display. For one group of experimental participants (n 8) the environment formed into one in which they found themselves standing on top of a 3 m high column. For a second group of participants (n 6) the environment was otherwise the same except that the column was only 1 cm high, so that they would be standing at normal ground level. For a third group of participants (n 14) the polygons never formed into a meaningful environment. The participants who stood on top of the tall column exhibited a significant decrease in entropy of the eye scanpath and an increase in the number of SCR by 99 s into the scenario, at a time when only 65% of the polygons had been displayed. The ground level participants exhibited a similar decrease in scanpath entropy, but not the increase in SCR. The random scenario grouping did not exhibit this decrease in eye scanpath entropy. A drop in scanpath entropy indicates that the environment had cohered into a meaningful perception. An increase in the rate of SCR indicates the perception of an aversive stimulus. These results suggest that on these two dimensions (scanpath entropy and rate of SCR) participants were responding realistically to the scenario shown in the virtual environment. In addition, the response occurred well before the entire scenario had been displayed, suggesting that once a set of minimal cues exists within a scenario,it is enough to form a meaningful perception. Moreover, at the level of the sympathetic nervous system, the participants who were standing on top of the column exhibited arousal as if their experience might be real. This is an important practical aspect of the concept of presence.

The Impact of a Character Posture Model on the Communication of Affect in an Immersive Virtual Environment

This paper presents the quantitative and qualitative findings from an experiment designed to evaluate a developing model of affective postures for full-body virtual characters in immersive virtual environments (IVEs). Forty-nine participants were each requested to explore a virtual environment by asking two virtual characters for instructions. The participants used a CAVE-like system to explore the environment. Participant responses and their impression of the virtual characters were evaluated through a wide variety of both quantitative and qualitative methods. Combining a controlled experimental approach with various data-collection methods provided a number of advantages such as providing a reason to the quantitative results. The quantitative results indicate that posture plays an important role in the communication of affect by virtual characters. The qualitative findings indicated that participants attribute a variety of psychological states to the behavioral cues displayed by virtual characters. In addition, participants tended to interpret the social context portrayed by the virtual characters in a holistic manner. This suggests that one aspect of the virtual scene colors the perception of the whole social context portrayed by the virtual characters. We conclude by discussing the importance of designing holistically congruent virtual characters especially in immersive settings.

Beyond the net generation debate: A comparison of digital learners in face-to-face and virtual universities

In the last decade, an important debate has arisen about the characteristics of today"s students due to their intensive experience as users of ICT. The main belief is that frequent use of technologies in everyday life implies that competent users are able to transfer their digital skills to learning activities. However, empirical studies developed in different countries reveal similar results suggesting that the"digital native" label does not provide evidence of a better use of technology to support learning. The debate has to go beyond the characteristics of the new generation and focus on the implications of being a learner in a digitalised world. This paper is based on the hypothesis that the use of technology to support learning is not related to whether a student belongs to the Net Generation, but that it is mainly influenced by the teaching model. The study compares behaviour and preferences towards ICT use in two groups of university students: face-to-face students and online students. A questionnaire was applied to a sample of students from five universities with different characteristics (one offers online education and four offer face-to-face education with LMS teaching support). Findings suggest that although access to and use of ICT is widespread, the influence of teaching methodology is very decisive. For academic purposes, students seem to respond to the requirements of their courses, programmes, and universities. There is a clear relationship between students" perception of usefulness regarding certain ICT resources and their teachers" suggested uses of technologies. The most highly rated technologies correspond with those proposed by teachers. The study shows that the educational model (face-to-face or online) has a stronger influence on students" perception of usefulness regarding ICT support for learning than the fact of being a digital native.

First person experience of body transfer in virtual reality

Altering the normal association between touch and its visual correlate can result in the illusory perception of a fake limb as part of our own body. Thus, when touch is seen to be applied to a rubber hand while felt synchronously on the corresponding hidden real hand, an illusion of ownership of the rubber hand usually occurs. The illusion has also been demonstrated using visuomotor correlation between the movements of the hidden real hand and the seen fake hand. This type of paradigm has been used with respect to the whole body generating out-of-the-body and body substitution illusions. However, such studies have only ever manipulated a single factor and although they used a form of virtual reality have not exploited the power of immersive virtual reality (IVR) to produce radical transformations in body ownership.

The consequences of burnout syndrome among healthcare professionals in Spain ans Spanish speaking Latin American countrie

Objectives: Identify the frequency and intensity of the perception of adverse professional consequences and their association with burnout syndrome and occupational variables. Methods: Cross-sectional sample of 11,530 healthcare professionals resident in Spain and Latin America. The association of negative work-related consequences on burnout, as measured by the MBI and work-related variables was analysed by multiple logistic regression. Results: The emotional exhaustion was the first variable associated with absenteeism, with intention of giving up profession, personal deterioration, and family deterioration. Depersonalization was most associated with the perception of having made mistakes. Conclusions: The findings indicate a considerable prevalence of adverse work-related consequences

Absence of flash-lag when judging global shape from local positions

When a flash is presented aligned with a moving stimulus, the former is perceived to lag behind the latter (the flash-lag effect). We study whether this mislocalization occurs when a positional judgment is not required, but a veridical spatial relationship between moving and flashed stimuli is needed to perceive a global shape. To do this, we used Glass patterns that are formed by pairs of correlated dots. One dot of each pair was presented moving and, at a given moment, the other dot of each pair was flashed in order to build the Glass pattern. If a flash-lag effect occurs between each pair of dots, we expect the best perception of the global shape to occur when the flashed dots are presented before the moving dots arrive at the position that physically builds the Glass pattern. Contrary to this, we found that the best detection of Glass patterns occurred for the situation of physical alignment. This result is not consistent with a low-level contribution to the flash-lag effect.

An analysis of the evolution of hydrometeorological extremes in newspapers: the case of Catalonia, 1982-2006

This contribution analyzes the evolution of perception of certain natural hazards over the past 25 years in a Mediterranean region. Articles from newspapers have been used as indicator. To this end a specific Spanish journal has been considered and an ACCESS database has been created with the summarized information from each news item. The database includes data such as the location of each specific article in the newspaper, its length, the number of pictures and figures, the headlines and a summary of the published information, including all the instrumental data. The study focused on hydrometeorological extremes, mainly floods and droughts, in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. The number of headlines per event, trends and other data have been analyzed and compared with "measured" information, in order to identify any bias that could lead to an erroneous perception of the phenomenon. The SPI index (a drought index based on standardized accumulated precipitation) has been calculated for the entire region, and has been used for the drought analysis, while a geodatabase implemented on a GIS built for all the floods recorded in Catalonia since 1900 (INUNGAMA) has been used to analyze flood evolution. Results from a questionnaire about the impact of natural hazards in two specific places have been also used to discuss the various perceptions between rural and urban settings. Results show a better correlation between the news about drought or water scarcity and SPI than between news on floods in Catalonia and the INUNGAMA database. A positive trend has been found for non-catastrophic floods, which is explained by decrease of the perception thresholds, the increase of population density in the most flood-prone areas and changes in land use.

When culture does (not) matter: role models and self-efficacy as drivers of entrepreneurial behavior

The correlation between facets of national culture and startup activities has received confirmation in empirical research while many mechanisms behind the correlation remain unclear. We study the interplay between the individualism-collectivism orientation of national culture, the incidence of entrepreneurial role models and selfefficacy understood as the perception of possessing relevant skills and knowledge to become a successful entrepreneur. We find that exposure to entrepreneurial role models offsets self-efficacy as a driver of entrepreneurial intentions. The effect is magnified by the individualistic character of the national culture. Key words: entrepreneurial intentions, role models, self-efficacy, individualism, multilevel regressions

A qualitative analysis of immigrant population health practices in the Girona Healthcare Region

The research we present here forms part of a two-phase project - one quantitative and the other qualitative - assessing the use of primary health care services. This paper presents the qualitative phase of said research, which is aimed at ascertaining the needs, beliefs, barriers to access and health practices of the immigrant population in comparison with the native population, as well as the perceptions of healthcare professionals. Moroccan and sub-Saharan were the immigrants to who the qualitative phase was specifically addressed. The aims of this paper are as follows: to analyse any possible implications of family organisation in the health practices of the immigrant population; to ascertain social practices relating to illness; to understand the significances of sexual and reproductive health practices; and to ascertain the ideas and perceptions of immigrants, local people and professionals regarding health and the health system. Methods: qualitative research based on discursive analysis. Data gathering techniques consisted of discussion groups with health system users and semi-structured individual interviews with healthcare professionals. The sample was taken from the Basic Healthcare Areas of Salt and Banyoles (belonging to the Girona Healthcare Region), the discussion groups being comprised of (a) 6 immigrant Moroccan women, (b) 7 immigrant sub-Saharan African women and (c) 6 immigrant and native population men (2 native men, 2 Moroccan men and 2 sub-Saharan men); and the semi-structured interviews being conducted with the following healthcare professionals: (a) 3 gynaecologists, (b) 3 nurses and 1 administrative staff. Results: use of the healthcare system is linked to the perception of not being well, knowledge of the healthcare system, length of time resident in Spain and interiorization of traditional Western medicine as a cure mechanism. The divergences found among the groups of immigrants, local people and healthcare professionals with regard to healthcare education, use of the healthcare service, sexual and reproductive healthcare and reticence with regard to being attended by healthcare personnel of the opposite sex demonstrate a need to work with the immigrant population as a heterogeneous group. Conclusions: the results we have obtained support the idea that feeling unwell is a psycho-social process, as it takes place within a specific socio-cultural situation and spans a range of beliefs, perceptions and ideas regarding symptomology and how to treat it