Imagined intergroup contact facilitates intercultural communication for college students on academic exchange programs

Imagined intergroup contact (Crisp & Turner, 2009) is a new cognitive intervention designed to improve intergroup relations. In two studies, we examined whether it could also facilitate intercultural communication among international students and host country natives engaged in a college exchange program. In Study 1, international students who had recently arrived in Italy and participated in an imagined contact session displayed increased self-disclosure toward, and improved evaluation of, host country natives. In Study 2, Italian students mentally simulated positive contact with an unknown native from the host country prior to leaving for the exchange. Results from an online questionnaire administered on their return (on average, more than 7 months after the imagery task) revealed that participants who imagined contact reported spending more time with natives during the stay and enhanced outgroup evaluation, via reduced intergroup anxiety. Implications for enhancing the quality and effectiveness of college student exchange programs are discussed.

The green campus is also a virtual one

This paper analyses the role of education for sustainability as enabling future sustainability practitioners to become key change agents and leaders. It is important that generic skills and understandings are married to a capability to lead beyond one's disciplinary or professional authority. 'Academic' education for future (and current) sustainability professionals should focus on transdisciplinary learning and research, new media affordances and distributed learning. This raises important questions about the nature of experiential learning and the meaning of 'living sustainability'. With reference to various developments in e-learning, including the European Union's aim to establish a virtual campus for a sustainable Europe, this paper argues that the digital environment is an integral part of our lifeworld connecting people to place, with each other and to possibilities for creative transdisciplinary inquiry. The role of new media in education for sustainability is rarely discussed, is under theorised and its potential largely ignored. © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

The attitudes of students and academic staff towards electronic course support:are we convergent?

The present study investigates the views and attitudes of both the students and staff with regard to the usefulness of electronic course support throughout all four years of the MPharm programme at Aston University. Students were sampled between January and March 2001 using a self-completion questionnaire administered during the start of a practical or tutorial class. All internal academic staff were interviewed using a semi-structured interview format. Response rates were 100 and 89.5%, respectively. The study found that students rapidly embraced the use of electronic course support within the undergraduate programme, although they view its role as augmenting traditional course delivery. This view was mirrored by the academic staff, although only around a half currently place their material on the University's virtual learning environment (VLE), WebCT. The failure of staff to completely embrace the VLE is grounded in a lack of confidence and ability in its use. A majority of the academic staff indicated that they wish to be trained further in the use of information technology. Academic institutions need to understand and meet these needs in parallel with the introduction of any electronic course support.

The framework of the virtual laser tracker - A systematic approach to the assessment of error sources and uncertainty in laser tracker measurement

Laser trackers have been widely used in many industries to meet increasingly high accuracy requirements. In laser tracker measurement, it is complex and difficult to perform an accurate error analysis and uncertainty evaluation. This paper firstly reviews the working principle of single beam laser trackers and state-of- The- Art of key technologies from both industrial and academic efforts, followed by a comprehensive analysis of uncertainty sources. A generic laser tracker modelling method is formulated and the framework of the virtual tracker is proposed. The VLS can be used for measurement planning, measurement accuracy optimization and uncertainty evaluation. The completed virtual laser tracking system should take all the uncertainty sources affecting coordinate measurement into consideration and establish an uncertainty model which will behave in an identical way to the real system. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.