Práticas interdisciplinares no ensino superior: a experiência do curso de graduação em administração da UNAMA - Pará

This work addresses the study of interdisciplinarity in higher administration education, a topic of great relevance in the present context, due to guidelines issued by Ministry of Education through the National Curriculum Guidelines -NCGs for undergraduate courses in Management. The attention on the subject emerges from the gained experience of a researcher and teacher working as manager of an undergraduate course in Business Administration who set up interdisciplinarity through interdisciplinary projects in a management course pedagogical project at a private university in State of Pará/Brazil. The work rebuilds and reports experiences, and studies the practice of lecturers involved in those interdisciplinary actions. The study aimed to identify changes in pedagogical practices of teachers involved in the searched interdisciplinary experience. To address the questions that directed the work and achieve proposed objectives, from a qualitative approach, a significant bibliographical and documentary work was conducted on the topic. In the survey carried out on secondary sources such as publications of major authors and scientific papers reporting interdisciplinary experiences in higher administration education, it was found that interdisciplinarity for its ambiguous character is still poorly understood by teachers, and reports on its application in administration teaching are incipient. This study also used data collected from primary sources, from dialogues through interviews with educational fellows - teachers and officers of the institution that served as locus of the research, who had the opportunity to experience the studied interdisciplinary experience. Data were processed and analyzed using content analysis technique. Research results showed that teachers of the institution of research have a good understanding of meaning of interdisciplinarity as a link between disciplines; it was also found substantial evidence of changes in teaching practices and actions of such teachers based on their participation in interdisciplinary projects. Although the experience studied can be considered innovative and challenging, much needs to be done in the course management for achievement of interdisciplinary actions in the course, particularly regarding to the removal of institutional, methodological, psychosocial, epistemological obstacles in operationalizing interdisciplinary practices, with emphasis on the need of a process of continuous and specific training aiming at developing skills for interdisciplinary acting, to the extent that these education professionals do not perceive themselves able to act as interdisciplinary lecturers

Five-year review of an international clinical research-training program

The exponential increase in clinical research has profoundly changed medical sciences. Evidence that has accumulated in the past three decades from clinical trials has led to the proposal that clinical care should not be based solely on clinical expertise and patient values, and should integrate robust data from systematic research. As a consequence, clinical research has become more complex and methods have become more rigorous, and evidence is usually not easily translated into clinical practice. Therefore, the instruction of clinical research methods for scientists and clinicians must adapt to this new reality. To address this challenge, a global distance-learning clinical research-training program was developed, based on collaborative learning, the pedagogical goal of which was to develop critical thinking skills in clinical research. We describe and analyze the challenges and possible solutions of this course after 5 years of experience (2008-2012) with this program. Through evaluation by students and faculty, we identified and reviewed the following challenges of our program: 1) student engagement and motivation, 2) impact of heterogeneous audience on learning, 3) learning in large groups, 4) enhancing group learning, 5) enhancing social presence, 6) dropouts, 7) quality control, and 8) course management. We discuss these issues and potential alternatives with regard to our research and background.

Práticas interdisciplinares no ensino superior: a experiência do curso de graduação em administração da UNAMA - Pará

This work addresses the study of interdisciplinarity in higher administration education, a topic of great relevance in the present context, due to guidelines issued by Ministry of Education through the National Curriculum Guidelines -NCGs for undergraduate courses in Management. The attention on the subject emerges from the gained experience of a researcher and teacher working as manager of an undergraduate course in Business Administration who set up interdisciplinarity through interdisciplinary projects in a management course pedagogical project at a private university in State of Pará/Brazil. The work rebuilds and reports experiences, and studies the practice of lecturers involved in those interdisciplinary actions. The study aimed to identify changes in pedagogical practices of teachers involved in the searched interdisciplinary experience. To address the questions that directed the work and achieve proposed objectives, from a qualitative approach, a significant bibliographical and documentary work was conducted on the topic. In the survey carried out on secondary sources such as publications of major authors and scientific papers reporting interdisciplinary experiences in higher administration education, it was found that interdisciplinarity for its ambiguous character is still poorly understood by teachers, and reports on its application in administration teaching are incipient. This study also used data collected from primary sources, from dialogues through interviews with educational fellows - teachers and officers of the institution that served as locus of the research, who had the opportunity to experience the studied interdisciplinary experience. Data were processed and analyzed using content analysis technique. Research results showed that teachers of the institution of research have a good understanding of meaning of interdisciplinarity as a link between disciplines; it was also found substantial evidence of changes in teaching practices and actions of such teachers based on their participation in interdisciplinary projects. Although the experience studied can be considered innovative and challenging, much needs to be done in the course management for achievement of interdisciplinary actions in the course, particularly regarding to the removal of institutional, methodological, psychosocial, epistemological obstacles in operationalizing interdisciplinary practices, with emphasis on the need of a process of continuous and specific training aiming at developing skills for interdisciplinary acting, to the extent that these education professionals do not perceive themselves able to act as interdisciplinary lecturers

Securing the commercial internet: Lessons learned in developing a postgraduate course in information security management

This paper describes the inception, planning and first delivery of a security course as part of a postgraduate ecommerce program. The course is reviewed in terms of existing literature on security courses, the common body of knowledge established for security professionals and the job market into which students will graduate. The course described in this paper is a core subject for the e-commerce program. This program was established in 1999 and the first batch of students graduated in 2001. The program is offered at both postgraduate and undergraduate level. The work described here relates to the postgraduate offering. Students on this program are graduates of diverse disciplines and do not have a common e-commerce or business background.

Workplace Weight Management course

The aims of this intervention are: To observe a weekly weight loss of 0.51 kg, over the 8 weeks, in those completing the weight management intervention To sustain behavioural changes achieved at 8 weeks for the long term, at 6, 12 and 24 month after course completion Objectives: To increase average daily consumption of fruit and vegetables by 15 percent, from baseline, after 8 weeks of intervention To decrease consumption of foods high in fat and sugar, by 15 percent, from baseline, after 8 weeks of intervention To increase number of minutes individuals spend doing moderate physical activity each week by at least 30 minutes from baseline, after 8 weeks of intervention To reduce number of minutes individuals spend sedentary each week by at least 30 minutes from baseline, after 8 weeks of intervention

Free-and open source software for a course on network management: authoring and enactment of scripts based on collaborative learning strategies

This paper describes a Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) case study in engineering education carried out within the context of a network management course. The case study shows that the use of two computing tools developed by the authors and based on Free- and Open-Source Software (FOSS) provide significant educational benefits over traditional engineering pedagogical approaches in terms of both concepts and engineering competencies acquisition. First, the Collage authoring tool guides and supports the course teacher in the process of authoring computer-interpretable representations (using the IMS Learning Design standard notation) of effective collaborative pedagogical designs. Besides, the Gridcole system supports the enactment of that design by guiding the students throughout the prescribed sequence of learning activities. The paper introduces the goals and context of the case study, elaborates onhow Collage and Gridcole were employed, describes the applied evaluation methodology, anddiscusses the most significant findings derived from the case study.

“Flipped Classroom” for Teaching Business Research in a Business Management Course

This presentation will report on a cross-department collaboration between the library and the business/economics department at Lehman College to conduct information literacy instruction as a “flipped classroom.”

Effect of different management intensities on natural and human-induced carbon fluxes in a golf course in northern Italy

Turfgrasses are ubiquitous in urban landscape and their role on carbon (C) cycle is increasing important also due to the considerable footprint related to their management practices. It is crucial to understand the mechanisms driving the C assimilation potential of these terrestrial ecosystems Several approaches have been proposed to assess C dynamics: micro-meteorological methods, small-chamber enclosure system (SC), chrono-sequence approach and various models. Natural and human-induced variables influence turfgrasses C fluxes. Species composition, environmental conditions, site characteristics, former land use and agronomic management are the most important factors considered in literature driving C sequestration potential. At the same time different approaches seem to influence C budget estimates. In order to study the effect of different management intensities on turfgrass, we estimated net ecosystem exchange (NEE) through a SC approach in a hole of a golf course in the province of Verona (Italy) for one year. The SC approach presented several advantages but also limits related to the measurement frequency, timing and duration overtime, and to the methodological errors connected to the measuring system. Daily CO2 fluxes changed according to the intensity of maintenance, likely due to different inputs and disturbances affecting biogeochemical cycles, combined also to the different leaf area index (LAI). The annual cumulative NEE decreased with the increase of the intensity of management. NEE was related to the seasonality of turfgrass, following temperatures and physiological activity. Generally on the growing season CO2 fluxes towards atmosphere exceeded C sequestered. The cumulative NEE showed a system near to a steady state for C dynamics. In the final part greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions due to fossil fuel consumption for turfgrass upkeep were estimated, pinpointing that turfgrass may result a considerable C source. The C potential of trees and shrubs needs to be considered to obtain a complete budget.

Developing and Integrating the Management of Elder Abuse in Primary Practice: A Case Study Using A Web-Based CME Course Format

Introduction: As the population in the United States continues to age, more attention in primary practice settings is now devoted toward managing the care of the elderly. The occurrence of elder abuse is a growing problem. It is a condition many professionals in primary care may be ill prepared with the knowledge or resources to identify and manage. [See PDF for complete abstract]