Procurement of electronic content across the UK National Health Service and Higher Education sectors. Report to JISC executive and LKDN executive.

Spink, S., Urquhart, C., Cox, A. & Higher Education Academy - Information and Computer Sciences Subject Centre. (2007). Procurement of electronic content across the UK National Health Service and Higher Education sectors. Report to JISC executive and LKDN executive. Sponsorship: JISC/LKDN

Collaboration on procurement of e-content between the National Health Service and higher education in the UK

Urquhart, C. J., Cox, A. M.& Spink, S. (2007). Collaboration on procurement of e-content between the National Health Service and higher education in the UK. Interlending & Document Supply, 35(3), 164-170. Sponsorship: JISC, LKDN

Best practices for competency development and assessment in higher education

The main objective of this article is to present the results of a study aimed at determining, classifying and evaluating practices of interest for general competency development and assessment in undergraduate programmes. The study encompassed the following phases: (1) focus group in order to establish a starting point regarding competency development and assessment, counting on the opinion of some of the best-rated teachers belonging to the participating universities; (2) collection of best practices; (3) design and validation of a scale for the assessment of best practices; and (4) scale administration (evaluation of good practices) and data analysis.

Achieving continuous professional development in higher education

Traditional higher education technology emphasizes knowledge transmission. In contrast, the Community platform presented in this paper follows a social approach that interleaves knowledge delivery with social and professional skills development, engaging with others, and personal growth. In this paper, we apply learning and complex adaptive systems theory to motivate and justify a continuous professional development model that improves higher education outcomes such as placement. The paper follows action design research (ADR) as the research method to propose and evaluate design principles.

A survey of teaching and assessment methods employed in UK higher education programmes for HCI course

A survey of teaching and assessment methods employed in UK Higher Education programmes for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) courses was conducted in April 2003. The findings from this survey are presented, and conclusions drawn.

Creating a suitable and successful solution for the integration of podcasting and vidcasting in a higher education e-learning environment

A small research project is currently taking place within a department of the University of Greenwich. The project involves using current technology (Apple’s xServe, iPhones, iPod touch, Podcast Producer application and some 3rd party capture software) with the intention to provide a solution for quick and simple podcasting. This paper also aims to investigate the use of podcasting to help promote and extend the e-learning provision within the school. In short this project aims to justify the use of podcasting as a teaching and learning tool to help enhance student learning while identifying the most appropriate manner to integrate podcasting within an e-learning environment.

New public management of Higher education, Foucault and power

The theory of New Public Management (NPM) suggest that one of the features of advanced liberal rule is the tendency to define social, economic and political issues as problems to be solved through management. This paper argues that the restructuring of Higher Education (HE) in many Western countries since the 1980s has involved a shift from an emphasis on administration and policy to one of its efficient management. Utilising Foucault’s concept of governmentality rather than the liberal discourse of management as a politically neutral technology, managerialism can be seen as a newly emergent and increasingly rationalised disciplinary regime of governmentalising practices in advanced liberalism. As such the contemporary University as an institution governed by NPM can be demonstrated to have emerged not as the direct outcome of democratic policies that have rationalised its activities (so that the emancipatory aims of personal development, an educated workforce and of true research can be fully realised), nor can it be understood as the instrument through which individuals or self-realising classes are defeated through the calculations of the state acting on behalf of economic interests, rather it can be seen as the contingent and intractable outcome of the complex power/knowledge relations of advanced liberalism. I analyse the interlocking of the ‘tutor-subject’ and ‘student-subject’ as a local enacting of policy discourse informed by the NPM of HE that reshapes subjectivity and retunes the relationship between tutor and student. I put forward suggestions for how resistance to these new modes of disciplinary subjectification can be enacted.

Celtic languages in European Higher Education: CRAMLAP - Celtic, Regional and Minority Languages Abroad Project

The Celtic, Regional and Minority Languages Abroad
Project (CRAMLAP) is funded by the European Commission
to research the provision and pedagogy of regional
and minority languages outside their national borders in
Europe. The teaching of Celtic languages across Europe
was the focus in year one (2003-2004). This article summarizes
the qualitative data received in response to
questionnaires sent to institutions across Europe offering
Celtic Studies. Responses indicated that Celtic Studies
are quite widely available across Europe. The languages
are taught in comparative linguistics, linguistics and English
departments, with few dedicated Celtic departments
or sections outside the Celtic countries. Irish is supported
abroad by Irish government grant aid which will
become more widely available in the immediate future.
Many of the teachers have considerable experience, but
limited pedagogic training. The lack of suitable teaching
resources is the most commonly expressed concern.