Elearning: 40 years of evolution?

Cun-ent rhetoric around the use of 'eLearning' in Higher Education relates particularly to Internet-based flexible eLearning programs that focus on sustaining particular communities of practice. In this paper we argue that this contempormy view of what eLearning comprises arises from a lack of historical perspective on what the focus of educational eLearning programs has been over the past 40 years. Contemporary descriptions of eLearning as a 'new mode of learning' are fallacious and ignore its 40-year evolution from 1: 1 localised didactic models (both constmctivist and behaviourist) to many-to-many distributed social-constmctivist learning models. In addition, the historic divide between Education and Training has led to both the concurrent development of different notions, foci, and labels for technology-enhanced learning in different contexts and situations, and different conceptual origins arising in acquisitive and participatory learning metaphors. We argue that a more inclusive and historically aware conceptual framework is needed to be able to accurately describe what the full repertoire 'eLearning' really embraces

Projecting the U.S. gender wage gap 2000-40

This paper projects the gender wage gap for 25–64 year old Americans for the period 2000–40. The analysis uses data from the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (PSID) for 1995 and 1996 together with the U.S. Census Bureau demographic projections. The method combines the population projections with assumptions regarding the evolution of educational attainment in order to first project the future distribution of skills and, based on these projections, the future size of the gender wage gap. The main set of projections suggests that changing skill characteristics—specifically educational attainment—will continue to close the gender wage gap. However, even in 2040, a substantial pay gap of at least 75 percent of the size of that in 1995 will remain.

The Australian class structure and Australian politics 1931 - 40

This paper presents the results of an analysis of the class structure of interwar Australia based largely on the 1933 Commonwealth census. It reviews previous analyses by academics but although contemporary journalists and political strategists. It develops an estimate of the class composition of the electorate as distinct from the general population and attempts to define the class position of voters outside of the paid workforce. It considers the question of to what extent Labor needed non-working-class votes to secure an electoral majority and how the differing social composition of the Australian states impacted on electoral outcomes and Labor strategies. It employs the method of bounds to develop some preliminary conclusions about the electoral behaviour of different social groups and concludes with some observations on the divided nature of the Australian working class and the competing strategies that parties developed in their search for an electoral majority.

The aid effectiveness literature : the sad results of 40 years of research

The aid effectiveness literature (AEL) consists of empirical macroeconomic estimates of the effects of development aid. By the end of 2004, it comprised 97 econometric studies of three families of related effects. Each family has been analyzed in a separate meta-analysis. The AEL is an ideal subject for meta-analysis as it uses only a few formally similar models to estimate the same underlying effects. It is also an area with strong beliefs, often generated by altruism. When this whole literature is examined, a clear pattern emerges. After 40 years of development aid, the preponderance of the evidence indicates that aid has not been effective. We show that the distribution of results is significantly asymmetric reflecting the reluctance of the research community to publish negative results. The Dutch disease effect on exchange rates provides a plausible explanation for the observed aid ineffectiveness.

In the green zone : 40 years with Colonel Qaddafi

Colonel Muammar Qaddafi has been the leader of Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya since September 1969. After 40 years in control of his nation, Qaddafi is actually the world’s longest serving non‐monarchial head of state. This year’s anniversary makes it timely to review his four decades of rule. From being the leader of a successful military coup to being America’s bête noire of the 1980s and then the head of a much‐vilified rogue state under twenty‐seven years of UN sanctions, the mercurial Qaddafi has lately steered his nation to something of a rapprochement with the West, been elected to the chairmanship of the African Union and simultaneously had a very public falling out with some of his Arab leaders. This paper examines the highs and lows of Qaddafi’s leadership and where his small but prominent North African state may be heading.

A psychometric evaluation of the Learning Styles Questionnaire : 40-item version

Sixty-six English-speaking postgraduate distance-education medical students completed the Learning Styles Questionnaire (LSQ: 40-item version). This was completed while attending a residential workshop at the beginning of the semester, and 44 of these students completed the same LSQ questionnaire 5 months later at the completion of the semester. The psychometric properties of the LSQ were assessed using Cronbach’s alpha (internal consistency), test-retest, correlational analyses and factor analysis. The results indicated that the LSQ (40-item version) has poor reliability and validity, and therefore requires further development and psychometric evaluation.