Educational innovation in large groups. Design of an experimental study implemented at the Polytechnic University of Madrid

The present paper shows de design of an experimental study conducted with large groups using educational innovation methodologies at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Concretely, we have chosen the course titled "History and Politics of Sports" that belongs to the Physical Activity and Sport Science Degree. The selection of this course is because the syllabus is basically theoretical and there are four large groups of freshmen students who do not have previous experiences in a teaching-learning process based on educational innovation. It is hope that the results of this research can be extrapolated to other courses with similar characteristics.

Open Educational Resources for Development of University Courses

Open Education Resources are educational materials purposely made available for free use by others. They offer tremendous potential for reducing costs and increasing access to education especially in the developing world. This paper discusses issues of quality, localization, adaptation and integration that need to be addressed in order to make OER adoption a successful strategy.

Document Management in the Open University of Catalunya (UOC) Classrooms

A través dels seus serveis de gestió documental a les aules de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, UOC), la Biblioteca de la UOC actua com un veritable facilitador de l'aprenentatge i l'ensenyament i té un paper central en el model de aprenentatge de la universitat. A més a més, serveix com un model a seguir per altres biblioteques universitàries en termes del que s'espera d'elles en el marc del nou Espai Europeu d'Educació Superior (EEES) i la creixent necessitat que funcionin com a centres de recursos d'aprenentatge. Contribuint a l'èxit de la biblioteca, el model d'aprenentatge i ensenyament de la UOC crea un entorn d'aprenentatge virtual i asíncron per als estudiants, i permet a la biblioteca de la UOC ser present en totes les seves aules.

Virtual Library Services for a Virtual University : User-Oriented Virtual Sites in an Open Library

La llegada de las tecnologías de la información, y su uso cada vez mayor y generalizado que se está haciendo de ellas, ha permitido para que una nueva situación aparezca que, a su vez, ha originado - de hecho, que ha precipitado - una serie de cambios de gran importancia en todos los niveles, pero especialmente en los niveles sociales, económicos y culturales. Este nueva escena ha tenido una gran influencia en el entorno pedagógico. De hecho, la aparición de nuevos modelos educativos como resultado de este cambio ha estado sucediendo de una manera continuada e ininterrumpida durante la década pasada. Estos cambios recientes en los sistemas actuales de enseñanza y de aprendizaje han significado un aumento y un cambio en el tipo de demandas hechas desde las bibliotecas y los centros de documentación.

Virtual Library Services for a Virtual University

Es presenta el concepte de biblioteca virtual tal com es desenvolupa a la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya una institució d'educació a distància que proporciona educació universitària. La UOC basa l'organització del seu model educatiu en l'explotació del paradigma del Campus Virtual i en l'ús de les darreres tecnologies disponibles en telemàtica, ordinadors personals i multimèdia. En aquest context, la Biblioteca Virtual de la UOC s'ofereix com un nou model del servei de biblioteca, flexible i dissenyat de manera que els usuaris puguin aprofitar-se de les noves tecnologies de la informació i accedir a les dades registrades i emmagatzemades a qualsevol lloc del món.

Sociodemographic and occupational risk factors associated with the development of different burnout types: the cross-sectional University of Zaragoza study

BACKGROUND: Three different burnout types have been described: The "frenetic" type describes involved and ambitious subjects who sacrifice their health and personal lives for their jobs; the "underchallenged" type describes indifferent and bored workers who fail to find personal development in their jobs, and the "worn-out" in type describes neglectful subjects who feel they have little control over results and whose efforts go unacknowledged. The study aimed to describe the possible associations between burnout types and general sociodemographic and occupational characteristics. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out on a multi-occupational sample of randomly selected university employees (n = 409). The presence of burnout types was assessed by means of the "Burnout Clinical Subtype Questionnaire (BCSQ-36)", and the degree of association between variables was assessed using an adjusted odds ratio (OR) obtained from multivariate logistic regression models. RESULTS: Individuals working more than 40 hours per week presented with the greatest risk for "frenetic" burnout compared to those working fewer than 35 hours (adjusted OR = 5.69; 95% CI = 2.52-12.82; p < 0.001). Administration and service personnel presented the greatest risk of "underchallenged" burnout compared to teaching and research staff (adjusted OR = 2.85; 95% CI = 1.16-7.01; p = 0.023). Employees with more than sixteen years of service in the organisation presented the greatest risk of "worn-out" burnout compared to those with less than four years of service (adjusted OR = 4.56; 95% CI = 1.47-14.16; p = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to our knowledge that suggests the existence of associations between the different burnout subtypes (classified according to the degree of dedication to work) and the different sociodemographic and occupational characteristics that are congruent with the definition of each of the subtypes. These results are consistent with the clinical profile definitions of burnout syndrome. In addition, they assist the recognition of distinct profiles and reinforce the idea of differential characterisation of the syndrome for more effective treatment.

M-Library in an m-University : changing Models in the Open University of Catalonia

The general perspective of M-technologies and M-Services at the Spanish universities is not still in a very high level when we are ending the first decade of the 21st century. Some Universities and some of their libraries are starting to try out with M-technologies, but are still far from a model of massive exploitation, less than in some other countries. A deep study is needed to know the main reasons, study that we will not do in this paper. This general perspective does not mean that there are no significant initiatives which start to trust in M-technologies from Universities and their libraries. Models based in M-technologies make more sense than ever in open universities and in open libraries. That's the reason why the UOC's Library began in late 90s its first experiences in the M-Technologies and M-Libraries developments. In 1999 the appropriate technology offered the opportunity to carry out the first pilot test with SMS, and then applying the WAP technology. At those moments we managed to link-up mobile phones to the OPAC through a WAP system that allowed searching the catalogue by categories and finding the final location of a document, offering also the address of the library in which the user could loan it. Since then, UOC (and its library) directs its efforts towards adapting the offer of services to all sorts of M-devices used by end users. Left the WAP technology, nowadays the library is experimenting with some new devices like e-books, and some new services to get more feedback through the OPAC and metalibrary search products. We propose the case of Open University of Catalonia, in two levels: M-services applied in the library and M-technologies applied in some other university services and resources.

The deployment of an e-book consultation and loan service : the experience of the Open University of Catalonia Library

La Biblioteca de la UOC (UOC Library) ha ofert durant tres mesos (octubre-desembre 09), en fase de prova pilot, un servei de consulta i préstec de lectors de llibres electrònics (e-readers). Aquest nou desplegament s'ha desenvolupat en consonància amb l'aposta general de la Universitat en innovació en tecnologies aplicades a l'educació, i la voluntat de potenciar les col·leccions de llibres electrònics i l'ús dels dispositius de lectura de llibres electrònics com una extensió més de la tecnologia del Campus 5.0, en el suport a l'aprenentatge dels seus estudiants durant la seva formació a la Universitat. Aquest treball presenta en detall les especificacions de la prova pilot, a més de contenir una anàlisi i avaluació dels resultats obtinguts: punts forts i punts febles, relació dels aspectes a millorar i modificar, de cara a la consolidació final del servei.

What should a virtual University Library environment look like?

Over the past year, the Open University of Catalonia library has been designing its new website with this question in mind. Our main concern has been how to integrate the library in the student day to day study routine to not to be only a satellite tool. We present the design of the website that, in a virtual library like ours, it is not only a website but the whole library itself. The central point of the web is my library, a space that associates the library resources with the student's curriculum and their course subjects. There the students can save the resources as favourites, comment or share them. They have also access to all the services the library offers them. The resources are imported from multiple tools such as Millennium, SFX, Metalib and Dspace to the Drupal CMS. Then the resources' metadata can be enriched with other contextual information from other sources, for example the course subjects. And finally they can be exported in standard, open data formats making them available for linked data applications.

Diagnosis of congenital toxoplasmosis: prenatal and neonatal evaluation of methods used in Toulouse University Hospital and incidence of congenital toxoplasmosis

The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of congenital toxoplasmosis (CT) and to assess the performances of prenatal and neonatal diagnoses. From 1994-2005, in Toulouse University Hospital, France, amniocentesis was performed on 352 pregnant women who were infected during pregnancy. All women were treated with spiramycin and pyrimethamine-sulfadoxine when prenatal diagnosis was positive. Among the 275 foetuses with follow-up, 66 (24%) were infected. The transmission rates of Toxoplasma gondii were 7%, 24% and 59% in the first, second and third trimesters, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of PCR on amniotic fluid (AF) were 91% and 99.5%, respectively. One case was diagnosed by mouse inoculation with AF and six cases were diagnosed by neonatal or postnatal screening. The sensitivity and specificity of PCR on placentas were 52% and 99%, respectively. The sensitivity of tests for the detection of specific IgA and IgM in cord blood was 53% and 64%, respectively, and specificity values were 91% and 92%. In conclusion, PCR performed on AF had the highest levels of sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of CT. This permits an early diagnosis of most cases and should be recommended.

Nouveautés thérapeutiques 2008 en médecine interne hospitalière: perspective des chefs de clinique [Highlights 2008 in a university hospital-based internal medicine: the point of view from the chief residents]

Doctors must regularly adjust their patients' care according to recent relevant publications. The chief residents from the Department of Internal Medicine of a university hospital present some major themes of internal medicine treated during the year 2008, such as heart failure, diabetes, COPD, and thromboembolic disease. Emphasis will be placed primarily on changes in the daily hospital practice induced by these recent studies. This variety of topics illustrates both the broad spectrum of the current internal medicine, and the many uncertainties associated with modem medical practice based on evidence.

What is Abstinence? Definitions and Examples of Abstinence, to Prevent the Sexual Transmission of the HIV Virus, According to Spanish University Students

Research carried out in several Anglo-Saxon countries shows that many undergraduatesidentify oral sex and anal sex as examples of abstinent behaviour, while manyothers consider kissing and masturbation as examples of having sex. The objective ofthis research was to investigate whether a sample of Spanish students gave similarreplies. Seven hundred and fifty undergraduates (92% aged under 26, 67.6%women) produced examples or definitions of the term ‘abstinence’. Spanish studentsmade similar errors to those observed in the Anglo-Saxon samples, in thatbehaviours that were abstinent from a preventive point of view (masturbating andsex without penetration) were not considered as such, while a number of studentsreported oral sex as abstinent behaviour. The results suggest that the information onrisky and preventive sexual behaviour should cease to use ambiguous or euphemisticexpressions and use vocabulary that is clear and comprehensible to everyone