Promoting faculty professionalism: a case-based approach.

INTRODUCTION: Professionalism is a key attribute for health professionals. Yet, it is unknown how much faculty development is directed toward skills and behaviours of faculty professionalism. Faculty professionalism includes boundaries in teacher-student relationships, self-reflection, assuring one's own fitness for duty, and maintaining confidentiality when appropriate. METHODS: For five years, we have incorporated faculty professionalism as a routine agenda item for the monthly Physician Assistant Programme faculty meetings, allowing faculty members to introduce issues they are comfortable sharing or have questions about. We also have case discussions of faculty professionalism within faculty meetings every three months. RESULTS: Faculty professionalism is important in the daily work lives of faculty members and including this as part of routine agendas verifies its importance. A faculty survey showed that a majority look forward to the quarterly faculty professionalism case discussions. These have included attempted influence in the admissions process, student/faculty social boundaries, civic professionalism, students requesting medical advice, and self-disclosure. CONCLUSION: A preventive approach works better than a reactionary approach to faculty missteps in professionalism. Routine discussion of faculty professionalism normalizes the topic and is helpful to both new and experienced faculty members. We recommend incorporation of faculty professionalism as a regular agenda item in faculty meetings.

Establishing a Baseline Measurement of Intercultural Competence of Ukrainian Faculty: Setting the Stage for Domestic and Global Intercultural Understanding

Post-Soviet Ukraine is in a time of upheaval and transition. Internal relations between pro-Western and pro-Russian supporters have deteriorated in the light of recent political events of Euro Revolution, Russia’s occupation of the Crimean peninsula, and the militant confrontations in the southeastern regions of the country. In the light of these developments, intercultural competence is greatly needed to alleviate domestic tensions and enable effective intercultural communication with the representatives of different cultures within the country and beyond its borders. This study established a baseline of psychometric estimates of intercultural competence of Ukrainian higher education faculty. A sample of 276 professors of different academic majors from one university in Western Ukraine participated in the research. The Global Perspective Inventory (GPI; Merrill, Braskamp, & Braskamp, 2012) was chosen as a research instrument to measure intercultural competence of the faculty members. The GPI takes into account cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal domains, each of which contains two scales reflective of theories of cultural development and intercultural communication – Cognitive-Knowing, Cognitive-Knowledge, Intrapersonal-Identity, Intrapersonal-Affect, Interpersonal-Social Responsibility, and Interpersonal-Social Interaction. Because the research instrument has neither been previously used as a measure of intercultural competence, nor administered in Ukraine, it was cross-validated using a Table of Specification (Newman, Lim, & Pineda, 2013) and two sets of factor analyses. As a result, a modified version of the GPI was created for use in Ukraine. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to test relationships between the participants’ GPI scores on intercultural competence, and several independent variables that consisted of academic discipline, intercultural experience, and how long the participants taught at the university. The analyses determined a positive relationship between the scores on three out of six scales of the original version and two out of five scales of the modified version of the GPI and all the independent variables simultaneously. The relationship between the faculty responses on the six scales of both GPI versions and the independent variables controlling for each other produced mixed results. A unique role of intercultural professional development in predicting intercultural competence was discussed.

Toward an Understanding of Faculty Perceptions about Factors that Influence Student Success in Online Education

This paper explores factors that faculty perceive as significant in influencing student success in online education. Technological support, degree of comfort with technology and a student’s personal characteristics were deemed by faculty as critical to success. Understanding these key factors could help to improve student success in online education.

NON-FULL-TIME COLLEGE PROFESSORS: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY INTO THE NON-FULL-TIME FACULTY ROLE

The rate of non-full-time faculty members has increased rapidly over the last decade (Louis, 2009; MacKay, 2014; Meranze & Newfield, 2013), as the post-secondary landscape of fluctuating enrolment, fiscal and operational challenges, and the requirement to hire specialized skill sets have required institutions to rely heavily on this demographic. In the Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (CAATs) system, institutions have tried to preserve and enhance educational quality with fewer resources through greater reliance on non-full-time faculty. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of teaching and support of non-full-time faculty at one Eastern Ontario college. Employing a narrative inquiry methodology, data were collected from four participants through their writing three individual letters at the end of each month and participating in one interview at the end of the contract period. The data were analyzed and coded. This analysis revealed five themes: motivation, connection and engagement, compensation, teaching and development, and performance evaluation. Differences in the participants’ perceptions tended to reflect divergences across career stage: retired versus early career. The compensation package provided to non-full-time faculty was considered inadequate for those in the early career stage, especially comparing it to that of full-time faculty. In addition, the amount of previous teaching experience was an important indicator for the appropriate level of teaching resources and support provided by the institution. The newer faculty members required a higher level of support to combat feelings of role isolation. The temporary nature of the role made it difficult to establish a feeling of a strong connection to the institution and subsequently opportunities to engage further to deepen the relationship. Despite these differences across participants, autonomous motivators were consistent across all narratives, as participants expressed their desire to teach and share their knowledge to help students achieve their goals. Participants concluded their narratives by sharing future advice for faculty interested in pursuing the role. The narratives provided areas for improvement that would help increase the level of job satisfaction for non-full-time college faculty members: (a) establishing a more thorough performance evaluation process to align with institutional supports, (b) offering more diverse teaching resources to better prepare faculty and enhance teaching practices, (c) overhauling the compensation package to better recognize the amount of time and effort spent in the role and aligning with the compensation provided to full-time faculty, and (d) including rewards and incentives as part of the compensation package to enhance the level of commitment and availability for the role. These changes might well increase the job satisfaction and improve the retention of non-full-time faculty members.

Design of information architecture of the web site of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Tourism of the Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de Las Villas (Cuba)

The information architecture supports information retrieval by users in Web environment. The design should be center in the information user, favoring usability. The Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Tourism of the Universidad Central "Marta Abreu" de Las Villas, lacks a site that enhances the disclosure of information to its members. Are presented as objectives of the study: 1) conduct a user survey to identify information needs of users, 2) establish guidelines for information architecture for the institution focused on users, 3) designing the information architecture for the institution and 4) designed to evaluate the proposal. Are presented as objectives of the study: 1) to realize a user study to identify the information needs of users, 2) establish guidelines for information architecture for the institution focused on users, 3) to design the information architecture for the institution and 4) to evaluate the proposal designed. To obtain results are used methods in the theoretical and empirical levels. Besides, are use techniques that favored the design and evaluation. Is designed the intranet of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Tourism. Is evaluated the proposed design for the validation of the results.

Faculty Recital Robin McCabe, piano Around Robin March 2, 2015

Concert Program

New Library-curated Faculty Profile Platform Launches Through bepress

As faculty needs evolve and become increasingly digital, libraries are feeling the pressure to provide relevant new services. At the same time, faculty members are struggling to create and maintain their professional reputations online. We at bepress are happy to announce the new SelectedWorks, the fully hosted, library-curated faculty profile platform that positions the library to better support faculty as well as the institution at large. Beverly Lysobey, Digital Commons and Resource Management Librarian, at Sacred Heart University, says: “Both faculty and administration have been impressed with the services we provide through SelectedWorks; we’re able to show how much our faculty really publishes, and it’s great for professors to get that recognition. We’ve had several faculty members approach us for help making sure their record was complete when they were up for tenure, and we’ve even found articles that authors themselves no longer had access to.” With consistent, organized, institution-branded profiles, SelectedWorks increases campus-wide exposure and supports the research mission of the university. As the only profile platform integrated with the fully hosted Digital Commons suite of publishing and repository services, it also ensures that the institution retains management of its content. Powerful integration with the Digital Commons platform lets the home institution more fully capture the range of scholarship produced on campus, and hosted services facilitate resource consolidation and reduces strain on IT. The new SelectedWorks features a modern, streamlined design that provides compelling display options for the full range of faculty work. It beautifully showcases streaming media, images, data, teaching materials, books – any type of content that researchers now produce as part of their scholarship. Detailed analytics tools let authors and librarians measure global readership and track impact for a variety of campus stakeholders: authors can see the universities, agencies, and businesses that are reading their work, and can easily export reports to use in tenure and promotion dossiers. Janelle Wertzbeger, Assistant Dean and Director of Scholarly Communications at Gettysburg College’s Musselman Library, says, “The new author dashboard maps and enhanced readership are SO GOOD. Every professor up for promotion & tenure should use them!” And of course, SelectedWorks is fully backed by the continual efforts of the bepress development team to provide maximum discoverability to search engines, increasing impact for faculty and institutions alike: Reverend Edward R. Udovic, Vice President for Teaching and Learning Resources at DePaul University, says, “In the last several months downloads of my scholarship from my [SelectedWorks] site have far surpassed the total distribution of all my work in the previous twenty five years.”

IFRS 9 ‘Financial instruments’: Anticipated effects of the standard change at Kesko Group

IFRS 9 Financial instruments presents the classification and measurement, the impairment and the hedge accounting requirements for accounting of financial instruments. The standard was set by the International Accounting Standards Board to replace IAS 39 Financial instruments: Recognition and Measurement on 1 January 2018. Hence, the long-criticized and complexly experienced requirements for accounting of financial instruments will undergo the most significant reform. This thesis addresses anticipated effects of IFRS 9, focusing on the challenges the new classification and measurement requirements bring forth in the case organization Kesko. This thesis was conducted as an action research, in which, a case study method was applied. The thesis was conducted with a twofold manner, which involved general analysis of IFRS 9 and further covered distinct ambitions related to the case organization. For the general part, empirical data was gathered by interviewing two IFRS experts from KPMG and PwC, while the interviews within the case organization constituted for the case study. Further, the literature on the IFRS 9 was such scant that the theoretical examination was merged with the IFRS experts’ quotations that also strived to contribute to the overall objective of reinforcing the body of research related to the subject. This thesis indicates that IFRS 9 will most fundamentally reform the impairment and the hedge accounting requirements of financial instruments. Regard to impairment, the changes are anticipated to increase the amount of loan-loss provisions, whereas the relaxed hedge accounting requirements are expected to encourage more companies to commence the application of hedge accounting. The thesis provides empirical support on that the term business model for managing financial assets, introduced in IFRS 9, is ably hard to comprehend and remains ambiguous. It goes on to argue that the most prominent issue in defining the business model for managing financial assets is the limits set in IFRS 9 for selling financial assets. In consideration of Kesko, this thesis finds that the key effects of IFRS 9 are anticipated to be the reshaping of the organization’s treasury policy and further examination of the possibility to apply hedge accounting for foreign exchange derivatives. What is more, the thesis presumes that complying the requirements of IFRS 9 Kesko will apply the hold to collect and sell model for managing financial assets in future.

Pharmacy students’ knowledge and attitudes about antibiotics in Kosovo

Objective: The main objective of this study was to assess the knowledge and attitude among Pharmacy students of the University of Prishtina in regards to the antibiotics. Methods: 144 pharmacy students at the University of Prishtina were recruited in this study to complete a self-administered questionnaire. The total number of questions in this questionnaire was eight (8), covering two (2) major themes: self-report of the current and past antibiotic use and behavior; and anticipated prescription behavior of antibiotics upon graduation. The data was statistically analyzed through using SPSS for Windows. Descriptive analysis was employed, and the results were expressed in frequency and percentages. Results: The results showcased a good knowledge of antibiotic among students. The most common answer of students' knowledge about antibiotics was good or moderate (82 %), while 63.2% of the subjects used antibiotics by self-decision, most of them (45 %) for sore throat. Upon graduation, 56.9 % of the students will not sell antibiotics without prescription and 85.4% think that module for rational use of antibiotics is very necessary to be inside the pharmacy syllabus. Conclusion: The study showed good and moderate knowledge of pharmacy students regarding the antibiotics. Half of them use antibiotics by self-decision but the majority of them stated that they will not serve the antibiotics without medical prescription. Specific modules and training for proper antibiotic use should be implemented within the Pharmacy program in The Faculty of Medicine.

Assessment of faculty training program for the use of e-learning platforms: analysis of current use

5th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (Barcelona, Spain. 1-3 July, 2013)

MAKING THE GROUP CATALOGUE OF PERIODICALS UNIT INFORMATION DOCUMENT OF THE FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

We present the results of the final graduation practice called "Creating the Serials Union Catalogue of Documentary Information Units of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the National University" which consisted of creating a computerized catalog for periodicals by GENISIS program. Unit of documentary information: Faculty of Social Sciences National University: CIDCSO (Documentary Information Centre of Social Sciences), FBEH (Bibliographical School of History), MA (International Relations Specialist Library "Luis and Felipe Molina ") and CINPE (Library of the National Centre for Economic Policy on Sustainable Development).

Speech by Mr. Alban Sandi Bonilla, Dean, Faculty of Arts at the Inauguration of Professional Lecture "Managing Information in Specialized Areas in Costa Rican

Friends: Although we have not devoted special sessions to discuss the matter, the truth is that in some informal occasions we talked lightly about the relevance of the School of Library, Documentation and Information is at the Faculty of Arts. We have consistently defined our School Faculty as a humanist. The human reality in all its modes of symbolic production is the object of study that brings us together as an area of knowledge. A school is that, a major academic unit, which it brings together different disciplines deserve epistemological affinity for joint development. Cooperation, ease of interdisciplinary association are elements that justify the existence of the faculties. And our conversations, I insist, casual and light, have led us to establish two positions may seem superficially divergent, but are not. The Library mates look as techniques themselves, and feel that can be placed almost anywhere Faculty, and at first glance does not explain its presence in a humanities faculty. Let me turn away from this self-image.

Using importance-satisfaction analysis in evaluating student satisfaction: a case study of economics and administration Faculty of Qafqaz University

Education is one of the main industries in the world, which needs to focus more than other types of industries. As Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world” (www.brainyquote.com). Global economic recession era put serious pressure on private Higher Education Institutions (HEI), which resulted as decrease in the university spending`s budget. Therefore, HEI forced to develop more competitive ways to find new financial resources for rapid technological and organizational changes (Savsar, 2012). Students are the motive of being of Higher Education. The aim of this study is to implement İmportance-Satisfaction Analysis (IPA) matrix to evaluate the student`s satisfaction and assess importance of different attributes in terms of student`s perception. The students that participated in this study enrolled in the present academic year, 2015/2016, in the Economics and Administration Faculty-Qafqaz University. In order to perform study, survey method applied to collect the data and number of received valid questionnaire were 266. Questionnaire used to collect demographic information of students, identify importance given to each attribute and satisfaction degree of each attribute. Descriptive analysis used to identify profile of respondents, also find satisfaction and importance degree for each attributes. To evaluate differences between groups, built association between variables, find relation between variables and answering to the research hypothesis inferential analysis applied. Moreover, IPA matrix was been used to explore the attributes that needs improvement that perceived as attributes that are more important for the students. The result showed that generally students are satisfied with service quality offered by HEI-on sample of the Qafqaz University. In addition, research found that there are no differences in overall satisfaction and importance by department, gender, academic year and grade point average. IPA matrix highlighted the main attributes, which performs well, namely Academic Services and Teaching aspects, and in another hand needs to concentrate in Undergraduate program and External Relations. In addition, research found that loyalty of students is very low and there is a negative correlation between loyalty and satisfaction.