Informe del seminari Library and Information Science Education in Europe: "Issues in joint curriculum development and Bologna perspectives" (Copenhaguen, Dinamarca, 11-12 d'agost de 2005)

Els dies 11 i 12 d'agost va tenir lloc a Copenhaguen, Dinamarca, el seminari de treball Library and Information Science Education in Europe: ¿Issues in joint curriculum development and Bologna perspectives¿. Aquest seminari, que va estar coordinat per la Royal School of Library and Information Science de Dinamarca, amb la col·laboració de l'European Association for Library and Information Education and Research (EUCLID), es va organitzar en el marc d'un projecte europeu subvencionat pel programa Sòcrates. La Facultat de Biblioteconomia i Documentació de la Universitat de Barcelona, present entre 2001 i 2005 en la Junta de Govern de l'EUCLID, va participar-hi com a soci del projecte. L'objectiu del seminari era aplegar una cinquantena d'experts europeus de l'àrea de Biblioteconomia i Documentació ¿tots ells professors d'escoles i de facultats d'universitats europees¿ per discutir qüestions relacionades amb els plans d'estudis dels ensenyaments des de la perspectiva del procés de Bolonya. El seminari consistí en dues conferències i en les reunions de treball de dotze grups formats per experts que examinaren dotze grans temes ¿prèviament acordats pels organitzadors de l'esdeveniment¿ relacionats amb els plans d'estudis d'aquells ensenyaments.

Doctoral education's reform in Switzerland and Norway : a public management analyis

This doctoral thesis examines a recent phenomenon in European higher education, namely the reform of doctoral education. On the basis of a number of case studies, consisting of Swiss and Norwegian doctoral schools, and their institutional, national and international context, it demonstrates to what extent changes appear in doctoral education and its governance. Findings indicate new practices regarding doctoral students' recruitment, curricular component, supervision, scientific exchange, follow-up and their career. Doctoral education's character is not anymore exclusively determined by individual supervisors, but increasingly by interdisciplinary and interinstitutional colleges of academics. Finally, general governance patterns are identified: according to the type of scientific discipline and higher education institution, the institution's size and national political system, the field of higher education is more or less dominated by New Public Management or Network Governance characteristics.

The development and pilot-testing of a training curriculum in adolescent medicine and health.

PURPOSE: To select and propose a set of knowledge, attitudes, and skills essential for the care of adolescents; to encourage the development of adolescent health multidisciplinary networks; and to set up training programs in as many European countries as possible. METHODS: The curriculum was developed by 16 physicians from 11 European countries with various professional specializations. In line with modern guidelines in medical education, it is a modular, flexible instrument which covers the main teaching areas in the field, such as basic skills (i.e. setting, rights and confidentiality, gender and cultural issues) as well as specific themes (i.e. sexual and reproductive health, eating disorders, chronic conditions). It consists of 17 thematic modules, each containing detailed objectives, learning approaches, examples, and evaluation methods. RESULT: Two international one-week summer schools were used to assess the feasibility and appropriateness of the curriculum. The overall evaluation was good, with most of the items surpassing three on a four-point Likert scale. However, it pointed to several aspects (process and content) which will need to be refined in the future, such as an increase in interactive sessions (role playing), and a better mix of clinical and public health issues.

Open source software in translator training

La formació de traductors implica l´ús de procediments i eines que permetin els estudiants familiaritzar-se amb contextos professionals. El software lliure especialitzat inclou eines de qualitat professional i procediments accessibles per a les institucions acadèmiques i els estudiants a distància que treballen a casa seva. Els projectes reals que utilitzen software lliure i traducció col·laborativa (crowdsourcing) constitueixen recursos indispensables en la formació de traductors.

Percepciones de estudiantes sobre el Aprendizaje móvil; la nueva generación de la educación a distancia

Durante años, muchas instituciones y universidades han comenzado a experimentar con los dispositivos móviles en el aprendizaje a través de diferentes proyectos como parte de su metodología de aprendizaje. La experiencia adquirida con el empleo de estrategias y enfoques en la educación a distancia puede facilitar la conceptualización del aprendizaje móvil, así como el desarrollo de aplicaciones para este nuevo medio de aprendizaje. Los dispositivos móviles abren además nuevos caminos para el aprendizaje y una nueva generación para la educación a distancia, y los investigadores conocen estos nuevos caminos para el aprendizaje y oportunidades de llegar a un público más amplio. Este trabajo, muestra los resultados de un grupo de discusión que se llevó a cabo entre 20 estudiantes de licenciatura con el fin de explorar las percepciones, y en general todo aquello que afecta a la interpretación subjetiva de los individuos y su interacción con un fenómeno social como el aprendizaje móvil.

The organizational structure of online academic advising

Academic advising is a key element for learning success in virtual environments that has received little attention from researchers. This paper focuses on the organizational arrangements needed for the delivery of academic advising in online higher education. We present the general dimensions of organizational structures (division of labor, hierarchy of authority and formalization) and their possible forms when applied to academic advising. The specific solution adopted at the Open University of Catalonia is described and assessed in order to draw general conclusions of interest for other institutions.

A methodological approach to identify teacher's ICT competencies in online learning environments in Higher Education

Aquest article pretén descriure el procés metodològic d'identificació i mesurament de les competències TIC dels professors i com a formadors en les TIC en un entorn d'aprenentatge en línia en l'Educació Superior portat a terme en el marc del Projecte Europeu Elene-TLC.La revisió de la recerca en les competències en línia del professor demostra que, en primer lloc, el mètode més utilitzat per a identificar aquestes competències és el focus group. En segon lloc, la tècnica Delphi és la tècnica més utilitzada per reunir el consens d'experts sobre quines són les competències principals per al professor en línia entre els que s'indiquen.La proposta metodològica descrita en aquest document consisteix en la creació de 7 grups de discussió en línia, l'objectiu dels quals era identificar les competències formatives dels professors en línia i les dels professos en línia. La llista de competències obtingudes posteriorment es va oferir als experts europeus que participaven en l'aplicació de la tècnica Delphi. A aquests experts se'ls va demanar que ordenessin les competències d'acord amb el seu grau d'importància.Els resultats mostren que els grups de discussió en línia i el mètode Delphi són les metodologies apropiades per a identificar les competències TIC dels professors universitaris en els entorns d'aprenentatge en línia.

Redefining dropping out in online higher education: a case study from the UOC

In recent years, studies into the reasons for dropping out of higher education (including online education) have been undertaken with greater regularity, parallel to the rise in the relative weight of this type of education, compared with brick-and-mortar education. However, the work invested in characterising the students who drop out of education, compared with those who do not, appears not to have had the same relevance as that invested in the analysis of the causes. The definition of dropping out is very sensitive to the context. In this article, we reach a purely empirical definition of student dropping out, based on the probability of not continuing a specific academic programme following several consecutive semesters of "theoretical break". Dropping out should be properly defined before analysing its causes, as well as comparing the drop-out rates between the different online programmes, or between online and on-campus ones. Our results show that there are significant differences among programmes, depending on their theoretical extension, but not their domain of knowledge.

¿Es eficaz especializar la actividad de tutoria? Análisis de una experiencia online

En un entorno online la actividad de tutoría de los estudiantes juega un papel fundamental. Su eje central es el acompañamiento del estudiante a lo largo del programa académico que curse, desde el momento en que muestra su interés en matricularse hasta que se titula. La literatura disponible sobre cómo organizar la actividad tutorial en entornos virtuales es escasa. En esta comunicación, basada en la experiencia de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), se analizan dos niveles de especialización de la acción tutorial online. En un primer nivel organizativo, se presenta y evalúa una especialización de la coordinación de la tutoría en función del tipo de conocimiento necesario para ejercerla, académico o administrativo. Esto genera una estructura organizativa de tipo matricial que aporta flexibilidad y conocimiento especializado a la actividad tutorial, y que es valorada muy positivamente por las partes implicadas. En un segundo nivel, se analiza la separación de dos tipos de tutoría especializadas, una de inicio y otra de seguimiento, en función de la antigüedad del estudiante tutorizado. Los resultados de los análisis cualitativos y cuantitativos realizados no permiten concluir que esta segunda forma de especialización contribuya claramente a la mejora de los objetivos de la función tutorial.

Open Educational Resources: an opportunity for virtual learning institutions

The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC, Open University of Catalonia) is involved inseveral research projects and educational activities related to the use of Open Educational Resources (OER). Some of the discussed issues in the concept of OER are research issues which are being tackled in two EC projects (OLCOS and SELF). Besides the research part, the UOC aims at developing a virtual centre for analysing and promoting the concept of OERin Europe in the sector of Higher and Further Education. The objectives are to makeinformation and learning services available to provide university management staff,eLearning support centres, faculty and learners with practical information required to create, share and re-use such interoperable digital content, tools and licensing schemes. In the realisation of these objectives, the main activities are the following: to provide organisationaland individual e-learning end-users with orientation; to develop perspectives and useful recommendations in the form of a medium-term Roadmap 2010 for OER in Higher and Further Education in Europe; to offer practical information and support services about how to create, share and re-use open educational content by means of tutorials, guidelines, best practices, and specimen of exemplary open e-learning content; to establish a larger group ofcommitted experts throughout Europe and other continents who not only share theirexpertise but also steer networking, workshops, and clustering efforts; and to foster and support a community of practice in open e-learning content know-how and experiences.

Effective corporate governance : experimental evidence on international auditors'judgments and the contribution of financial accounting education

1 Summary This dissertation deals with two major aspects of corporate governance that grew in importance during the last years: the internal audit function and financial accounting education. In three essays, I contribute to research on these topics which are embedded in the broader corporate governance literature. The first two essays consist of experimental investigations of internal auditors' judgments. They deal with two research issues for which accounting research lacks evidence: The effectiveness of internal controls and the potentially conflicting role of the internal audit function between management and the audit committee. The findings of the first two essays contribute to the literature on internal auditors' judgment and the role of the internal audit function as a major cornerstone of corporate governance. The third essay theoretically examines a broader issue but also relates to the overall research question of this dissertation: What contributes to effective corporate governance? This last essay takes the perspective that the root for quality corporate governance is appropriate financial accounting education. r develop a public interest approach to accounting education that contributes to the literature on adequate accounting education with respect to corporate governance and accounting harmonization. The increasing importance of both the internal audit function and accounting education for corporate governance can be explained by the same recent fundamental changes that still affect accounting research and practice. First, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX, 2002) and the 8th EU Directive (EU, 2006) have led to a bigger role for the internal audit function in corporate governance. Their implications regarding the implementation of audit committees and their oversight over internal controls are extensive. As a consequence, the internal audit function has become increasingly important for corporate governance and serves a new master (i.e. the audit committee) within the company in addition to management. Second, the SOX (2002) and the 8th EU Directive introduced additional internal control mechanisms that are expected to contribute to the reliability of financial information. As a consequence, the internal audit function is expected to contribute to a greater extent to the reliability of financial statements. Therefore, effective internal control mechanisms that strengthen objective judgments and independence become important. This is especially true when external- auditors rely on the work of internal auditors in the context of the International Standard on Auditing (ISA) 610 and the equivalent US Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) 65 (see IFAC, 2009 and AICPA, 1990). Third, the harmonization of international reporting standards is increasingly promoted by means of a principles-based approach. It is the leading approach since a study of the SEC (2003) that was required by the SOX (2002) in section 108(d) was in favor of this approach. As a result, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) commit themselves to the development of compatible accounting standards based on a principles-based approach. Moreover, since the Norwalk Agreement of 2002, the two standard setters have developed exposure drafts for a common conceptual framework that will be the basis for accounting harmonization. The new .framework will be in favor of fair value measurement and accounting for real-world economic phenomena. These changes in terms of standard setting lead to a trend towards more professional judgment in the accounting process. They affect internal and external auditors, accountants, and managers in general. As a consequence, a new competency set for preparers and users of financial statements is required. The basil for this new competency set is adequate accounting education (Schipper, 2003). These three issues which affect corporate governance are the initial point of this dissertation and constitute its motivation. Two broad questions motivated a scientific examination in three essays: 1) What are major aspects to be examined regarding the new role of the internal audit function? 2) How should major changes in standard setting affect financial accounting education? The first question became apparent due to two published literature reviews by Gramling et al. (2004) and Cohen, Krishnamoorthy & Wright (2004). These studies raise various questions for future research that are still relevant and which motivate the first two essays of my dissertation. In the first essay, I focus on the role of the internal audit function as one cornerstone of corporate governance and its potentially conflicting role of serving both management and the audit committee (IIA, 2003). In an experimental study, I provide evidence on the challenges for internal auditors in their role as servant for two masters -the audit committee and management -and how this influences internal auditors' judgment (Gramling et al. 2004; Cohen, Krishnamoorthy & Wright, 2004). I ask if there is an expectation gap between what internal auditors should provide for corporate governance in theory compared to what internal auditors are able to provide in practice. In particular, I focus on the effect of serving two masters on the internal auditor's independence. I argue that independence is hardly achievable if the internal audit function serves two masters with conflicting priorities. The second essay provides evidence on the effectiveness of accountability as an internal control mechanism. In general, internal control mechanisms based on accountability were enforced by the SOX (2002) and the 8th EU Directive. Subsequently, many companies introduced sub-certification processes that should contribute to an objective judgment process. Thus, these mechanisms are important to strengthen the reliability of financial statements. Based on a need for evidence on the effectiveness of internal control mechanisms (Brennan & Solomon, 2008; Gramling et al. 2004; Cohen, Krishnamoorthy & Wright, 2004; Solomon & Trotman, 2003), I designed an experiment to examine the joint effect of accountability and obedience pressure in an internal audit setting. I argue that obedience pressure potentially can lead to a negative influence on accountants' objectivity (e.g. DeZoort & Lord, 1997) whereas accountability can mitigate this negative effect. My second main research question - How should major changes in standard setting affect financial accounting education? - is investigated in the third essay. It is motivated by the observation during my PhD that many conferences deal with the topic of accounting education but very little is published about what needs to be done. Moreover, the Endings in the first two essays of this thesis and their literature review suggest that financial accounting education can contribute significantly to quality corporate governance as argued elsewhere (Schipper, 2003; Boyce, 2004; Ghoshal, 2005). In the third essay of this thesis, I therefore focus on approaches to financial accounting education that account for the changes in standard setting and also contribute to corporate governance and accounting harmonization. I argue that the competency set that is required in practice changes due to major changes in standard setting. As the major contribution of the third article, I develop a public interest approach for financial accounting education. The major findings of this dissertation can be summarized as follows. The first essay provides evidence to an important research question raised by Gramling et al. (2004, p. 240): "If the audit committee and management have different visions for the corporate governance role of the IAF, which vision will dominate?" According to the results of the first essay, internal auditors do follow the priorities of either management or the audit committee based on the guidance provided by the Chief Audit executive. The study's results question whether the independence of the internal audit function is actually achievable. My findings contribute to research on internal auditors' judgment and the internal audit function's independence in the broader frame of corporate governance. The results are also important for practice because independence is a major justification for a positive contribution of the internal audit function to corporate governance. The major findings of the second essay indicate that the duty to sign work results - a means of holding people accountable -mitigates the negative effect of obedience pressure on reliability. Hence, I found evidence that control .mechanisms relying on certifications may enhance the reliability of financial information. These findings contribute to the literature on the effectiveness of internal control mechanisms. They are also important in the light of sub-certification processes that resulted from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the 8th EU Directive. The third essay contributes to the literature by developing a measurement framework that accounts for the consequences of major trends in standard setting. Moreovér, it shows how these trends affect the required .competency set of people dealing with accounting issues. Based on this work, my main contribution is the development of a public interest approach for the design of adequate financial accounting curricula. 2 Serving two masters: Experimental evidence on the independence of internal auditors Abstract Twenty nine internal auditors participated in a study that examines the independence of internal auditors in their potentially competing roles of serving two masters: the audit committee and management. Our main hypothesis suggests that internal auditors' independence is not achievable in an institutional setting in which internal auditors are accountable to two different parties with potentially differing priorities. We test our hypothesis in an experiment in which the treatment consisted of two different instructions of the Chief audit executive; one stressing the priority of management (cost reduction) and one stressing the priority of the audit committee (effectiveness). Internal auditors had to evaluate internal controls and their inherent costs of different processes which varied in their degree of task complexity. Our main results indicate that internal auditors' evaluation of the processes is significantly different when task complexity is high. Our findings suggest that internal auditors do follow the priorities of either management or the audit committee depending on the instructions of a superior internal auditor. The study's results question whether the independence of the internal audit function is actually achievable. With our findings, we contribute to research on internal auditors' judgment and the internal audit function's independence in the frame of corporate governance.

Citizenship education in Switzerland before, during and after the First World War

Citizenship education was intensively discussed during the 1910s. Patriotic ideals and the love of the fatherland were described with diligence in teachers' journals. After the outbreak of the World War I, Swiss teachers reacted immediately to the new circumstances and published lessons in their weekly teacher journals for every day of school for different grade levels. These lessons comprised current events and civic education as well as didactical instructions for the teacher. In pupils' essays, citizens are often depicted as religious members of society who are industrious and hardworking, whereas in the journals, religious aspects are related to peace but not to citizenship education. As a multilingual and neutral country, Switzerland struggled with major domestic problems due to the cultural conflict between the French- and the German-speaking regions, especially during wartime. However, teachers promoted unity from the beginning. Therefore, changes and continuities during this decade concerning citizenship education are of crucial research interest. The practical sections of teachers' journals, including lessons and didactical instructions, and pupils' essays provide insight into what happened in the classrooms. Which forms of national identity and citizenship were taught in classrooms before, during and shortly after WW1 in public schools in Switzerland? How did pupils describe the current issues of war and citizenship?

Recursos educativos abiertos: Acceso a través de repositorios y uso educacional

Se presenta una revisión bibliográfica, estado del arte, historia, características, desarrollo, proyectos y líneas de investigación de los recursos educativos abiertos (OERs), así como su disposición en repositorios y su uso en la práctica educativa universitaria. Los OERs han tenido dos fases: una inicial, preocupada por el acceso, y otra más actual, centrada en su incorporación a la práctica educativa.

On-line teaching and Copyright : Any Hopes for an EU Harmonized Playground?

Education never fails to be mentioned ¿ and, often, mentioned first ¿ as a public interest that justifies an exception to copyright. Educational purposes were already present in the first version of the Berne Convention of 18862 and have remained there (although in revised language) ever since. The WIPO Copyright Treaty of 19963 expressly referred to education in its Preamble, when ¿Recognizing the need to maintain a balance between the rights of authors andthe larger public interest, particularly education, research and access to information, as reflected in the Berne Convention¿ (emphasis added). And morerecently, the EU Directive on Copyright in the Information Society4 stressed its goal ¿to promote learning and culture by protecting works and other subjectmatter while permitting exceptions or limitations in the public interest for the purpose of education and teaching¿ (Recital 14, emphasis added).