Marketing education, distance learning and hypermedia : teaching 'current issues in marketing' in a virtual campus

This article reports on a project at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC: The Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona) to develop an innovative package of hypermedia-based learning materials for a new course entitled 'Current Issues in Marketing'. The UOC is a distance university entirely based on a virtual campus. The learning materials project was undertaken in order to benefit from the advantages which new communication technologies offer to the teaching of marketing in distance education. The article reviews the main issues involved in incorporating new technologies in learning materials, the development of the learning materials, and their functioning within the hypermedia based virtual campus of the UOC. An empirical study is then carried out in order to evaluate the attitudes of students to the project. Finally, suggestions for improving similar projects in the future are put forward.

Examining the sustainability issues in UKOER projects : Developing a sustainable OER ecosystem in HE

The development of open educational resources (OERs) is becoming a strategic priority for governments and education institutions around the world, in response to funding cuts and rising costs in educational provision. In the United Kingdom, a government-sponsored Pilot Programme on Open Educational Recourses (JISC/HEA, 2009) was launched in 2009 with an initial budget of £5.7m. This paper reviews the key sustainability issues identified by the projects including the different approaches and models that have been adopted in order to sustain the continuing development and release of OER once funding has ended. The analysis also considers the challenges relating to the development and implementation of policies and processes for sustainable OER practice within institutions and among academics. The paper concludes by drawing on the experiences from the wider United Kingdom and international OER communities to develop a sustainable OER ecosystem model that can facilitate discussions on future development of OER initiatives.

La escala de análisis: un tema central en didáctica de la geografía = The scale of analysis a central didactic theme in Geography

Geographical scale is not merely a technical question. The learning of geographical scale goes beyond geometricunderstanding; it implies the etymological comprehension of the concept, the recognition of the importance of scale in theelaboration of the geographical discourse. It implies placing oneself in the centre of the teaching and learning of Geographyand asking oneself, what scale? Why this scale? What progression of scales? The answer to these questions puts in doubtthe scientific discourse that is presently taught in schools especially on the scale of analysis, the sequencing of studiedspaces and the false dichotomy local and global

Comparing Governmental Agendas: Evolution of the Prioritization of Issues in the USA and Spain

This paper is the first step in a long term project investigating policy stability and change in Spain from an agenda setting perspective and comparing the Spanish policy agenda to that of other advanced democracies. Here we begin to compare the allocation of issue attention in Spain and the USA by comparing the substance of annual President and Prime Minister speeches from 1982 to 2005. Existing research argues that the public agenda has become more crowded, competitive and volatile in recent years. We find that in both countries there has been a transformation of the political agenda towards an increasing diversity of issues. However, most of the volatility in executive attention seems to be explained by salient events rather than by issue crowding. We conclude by discussing some limitations of executive speeches as a measure of governmental issue attention and directions for future research.

Beyond GDP: Methodological and measurement issues in redefining “wealth”

In the last decades; a growing stock of literature has been devoted to the criticism of GDP as an indicator of societal wealth. A relevant question is: what are the perspectives to build, on the existing knowledge and consensus, alternative measures of prosperity? A starting point may be to connect well-being research agenda with the sustainability one. However, there is no doubt that there is a lot of complexity and fuzziness inherent in multidimensional concepts such as sustainability and well-being. This article analyses the theoretical foundations and the empirical validity of some multidimensional technical tools that can be used for well-being evaluation and assessment. Of course one should not forget that policy conclusions derived through any mathematical model depend also on the conceptual framework used, i.e. which representation of reality (and thus which societal values and interests) has been considered.

Back to square one: Identification issues in DSGE models

We investigate identifiability issues in DSGE models and their consequences for parameter estimation and model evaluation when the objective function measures the distance between estimated and model impulse responses. We show that observational equivalence, partial and weak identification problems are widespread, that they lead to biased estimates, unreliable t-statistics and may induce investigators to select false models. We examine whether different objective functions affect identification and study how small samples interact with parameters and shock identification. We provide diagnostics and tests to detect identification failures and apply them to a state-of-the-art model.

Standards and specifications to manage accessibility issues in e-learning

Standards and specifícations to manage accessibility issues in e-learning

Informe del seminari Library and Information Science Education in Europe: "Issues in joint curriculum development and Bologna perspectives" (Copenhaguen, Dinamarca, 11-12 d'agost de 2005)

Els dies 11 i 12 d'agost va tenir lloc a Copenhaguen, Dinamarca, el seminari de treball Library and Information Science Education in Europe: ¿Issues in joint curriculum development and Bologna perspectives¿. Aquest seminari, que va estar coordinat per la Royal School of Library and Information Science de Dinamarca, amb la col·laboració de l'European Association for Library and Information Education and Research (EUCLID), es va organitzar en el marc d'un projecte europeu subvencionat pel programa Sòcrates. La Facultat de Biblioteconomia i Documentació de la Universitat de Barcelona, present entre 2001 i 2005 en la Junta de Govern de l'EUCLID, va participar-hi com a soci del projecte. L'objectiu del seminari era aplegar una cinquantena d'experts europeus de l'àrea de Biblioteconomia i Documentació ¿tots ells professors d'escoles i de facultats d'universitats europees¿ per discutir qüestions relacionades amb els plans d'estudis dels ensenyaments des de la perspectiva del procés de Bolonya. El seminari consistí en dues conferències i en les reunions de treball de dotze grups formats per experts que examinaren dotze grans temes ¿prèviament acordats pels organitzadors de l'esdeveniment¿ relacionats amb els plans d'estudis d'aquells ensenyaments.

Temporal issues in e-learning research: A literature review

Peer-reviewed

FOSS issues in technology transfers from the University to the Industry

FOSS has always been particularly welcome in Universities. Its spirit corresponds generally with the academic state of mind, and royalty-free technologies are particularly appreciated where money is usually lacking.But at the opposite side of the spectrum, the universities¿ TTO¿s (Technology Transfer Officers) are supposed to ¿valorize¿ the production of research departments and to enable profit making cooperations with the industry. How should FOSS licensing be tackled in such context?

Legal issues in promoting FOSS in R+D projects - Policy, Organisation and Management

Creating and using FLOSS in R+D projects raises several legal issues, which need to be managed as soon as possible - preferably during the project planning stage. Challenges in the areas of project structure and policy, licenses and licensing, exploitation strategies, community management, and FLOSS-friendliness in general all have their legal aspects, which are commented here. Some recommendations are made for assisting in the use of FLOSS in R+D projects, especially in multiple party consortiums.

Conflicto, colaboración y consenso en la enseñanza de las ciencias sociales = Conflict, collaboration and consensus in the teaching of the Social sciences

This article suggests the study of the key concept of conflict as a means of implementing a critical and communicativecurriculum based on the study of relevant social themes. To this end we put forward the principal characteristics of thecritical/communicative curriculum. We offer a didactic proposal about conflict and explain the results of its application intwo Secondary Education classrooms