A UK perspective on e-learning: an overview of the "workflow" and "reusable learning object" approach in the UK eUniversities project

The UK government started the UK eUniversities project in order to create a virtual campus for online education provisions, competing in a global market. The UKeU (WWW.ukeu.com) claims to "have created a new approach to e-learning" which "opens up a range of exciting opportunities for students, business and industry worldwide" to obtain both postgraduate and undergraduate qualifications. Although there has been many promises about the e-learning revolution using state-of-the-art multimedia technology, closer scrutiny of what is being delivered reveals that many of the e-learning models currently being used are little more than the old text based computer aided learning running on a global network. As part of the UKeU project a consortium of universities have been involved in developing a two year foundation degree from 2004. We look at the approach taken by the consortium in developing global e-learning provisions and the problems and the pitfalls that lay ahead.

Foundations for paramedic practice: a theoretical perspective

Written by leading paramedics and academic subject experts, with a foreword by Paul Bates, this is the first foundation level text to introduce the main theoretical subjects studied on the new higher education paramedic science programmes. It underpins practice and links ways of working to the crucial theory base. The numerous examples and case studies focus specifically on pre-hospital and emergency care. Key topics covered include: * NHS and ambulance service history * Ethics and law for the paramedic * Communication and reflective practice * Professional issues, including evidence-based practice, anti-discriminatory practice, clinical governance and clinical audit * Psychological perspectives on health and ill health * Safeguarding children * Sociological perspectives on health and ill health and social policy * Managing change and leadership theory * Continuing professional development The text prompts you to stop and think about what you have just read and relate this to your role. Throughout the book, the author carefully considers how the theory being discussed relates to the role of the ambulance clinician. Foundations for Paramedic Practice: A Theoretical Perspective is a core text for students of paramedic science and will also provide a valuable resource for students of allied health professions. This text provides a stepping stone to further reading and investigation. - Taken from the back cover of: Amanda Blaber - Foundations for paramedic practice: a theoretical perspective

A spiritual perspective on loss and bereavement

This article investigates the experience of loss and bereavement from the point of view of a spiritual perspective on the phenomenon. It also looks at the experience of holding a marginalized viewpoint within an academic and professional community and adopts an autoethnographic approach to the inquiry. Some conclusions are drawn from the study in terms of its implications for theory and professional life.

Distress in children with learning disabilities at a respite unit: perspective on their experiences

Numerous studies have investigated the benefits of respite to families with a disabled child. Far fewer have examined the effects on the child and none have systematically compared information about this from different sources. Reports of behavioural reactions and views on distress were gathered from parents, teachers and respite staff. Children were also asked for their views. Over half the children (54%) were reported to show medium or strong negative reactions lasting for 1 or more days by a parent or teacher. Reported reactions varied widely between home and school and no concordance was found between parents, teachers and respite staff groups regarding distress. Some children's views differed from those of their parent or teacher. The findings highlight the extent of differences in perspectives and suggest the need for greater awareness of the possible distress to children attending respite. This is discussed in relation to factors such as the potential conflict of interests between parents and children, communication and behavioural difficulties, and the context in which the child is observed.

What a performance! Developing nurse teachers lecturing persona and identity: a performing arts perspective

Delivering lectures to large groups of students can provoke high levels of anxiety, particularly for new lecturers (Exley and Dennick, 2009). Further, to provide an informative and engaging lecture requires a teacher who is confident, has a sound knowledge and well developed teaching skills (Bentley-Davies, 2010). Thus, new lecturers often need experience and supervision to develop the tacit knowledge and insight into their own style and persona when teaching in order to feel confident when delivering a lecture (Quinn and Hughes, 2007). Considering this model, therefore, may potentially contribute to a lecturers’ development and performance in the classroom. This paper will present the results of the second phase of a two-stage mixed method study that investigated the similarities between lecturing and acting. Twelve in-depth interviews where undertaken with lecturers within one School of Nursing in The United Kingdom. Findings, established a model of ‘persona adoption’ that represents a series of stages that lecturers may go through to both develop and take on a persona when lecturing. This persona is often different from the way they lecturers present themselves in other parts of their working life. The first stage of this model of persona adoption is when the lecturer is subjected to a range of ‘influencing factors’ that provide not only the basic information about a lecture, but also the perceptual stimuli about giving a lecture on a specific subject, to a particular number of students, at a certain academic level. These influencing factors then inter-play with the ‘facets of the individual’, which represent the lecturer’s self-concept, subject knowledge base and philosophy of teaching. This may result in a cognitive dissonance between these ‘facets’ and the ‘influencing factors’, so affecting the lecturers’ perceptions, thoughts and feelings about having to give that particular lecture. This results in the lecturer undertaking specific ‘back stage preparation’ during which they decide on the content and modes of delivery to prepare in light of that discourse. It may result in delivering the information via single or multiple methods, which during the lecture will require various levels of interaction and participation from the students. Just prior to the lecture, the lecturer builds or ‘puts on their persona’ and gets into role, making their initial impact with the group. They use the ‘elements of acting’ as proposed by Tauber and Mester’s (1994) e.g. animated voice and body, space, props humour and suspense and surprise to portray and maintain their persona. This leads the to lecturer demonstrating either positive or negative ‘persona characteristics’ in terms of appearing confident, knowledgeable, fluent in the technical skills of delivering the lecture, being interesting and engendering interaction with the students, or not. These characteristics, may or may not, potentially heighten student interest, attention and attitudes to learning as suggested by Tauber and Mester (1994). This depends on whether the lecturer has successfully used the persona and if the lecturer has been able to engage students in the lecture, in competition with other factors that may be taking the students’ attention. Although the model suggests a linear process, to a great extent, the elements might be more interdependent and interrelated. This might suggest that depending on the lecturer’s perception of their effectiveness during the lecture, that they may decide to continue or adapt their persona and methods to appear more confident. Furthermore, depending on how successful the lecturer perceived the session to be, both their reflections ‘in’ and ‘on’ practice could influence how they teach in the future (Zwozdiak, 2011). Therefore, these reflections become part of the facets of the individual, via the ‘reflective feedback loop’, in the model, which then in turn influences progression through the model in subsequent lectures. This study concluded that these lecturers went through a process whereby they compare the demands of the lecture with their own knowledge base and skill, this resulted in them undertaking specific preparation in terms of content and delivery style, then they adopted their persona immediately prior to entering the lecture, maintain it throughout the lecture via the use of the elements of acting to achieve an informative interactive lecture. The results of which then feedback into their self-concept as a lecturer and consequently may affect the persona they project in future lectures. If lecturers, therefore, can take a step back to consider how they deliver lectures and the way they can deliberately, yet apparently naturally, use their voices, bodies, space and humour in meaningfully, they engage their students in lecture, it will not just result in them being perceived as a good lecturer, but also be a genuine act of education.

An evaluation of a community matron service from the patients’ perspective

Community matrons are a relatively new government initiative aimed at case managing people with long-term conditions to reduce the number of emergency bed days used in hospitals. Although there have been extensive evaluations of similar case management projects, to date there has been little evaluation of the community matron's role and the perceptions patients have of this new service. One of the main Government agendas for care is to deliver a high quality service driven by the needs of the service users (DH, 2000). In order to drive this agenda, care is to deliver a high quality service driven by the needs of the service users (DH, 2000). In order to drive this agenda, it is important that the views and perceptions of people on the receiving end of the services are heard, valued and appropriate actions taken. This two part evaluative report sets out to explore how people with long-term conditions perceive the impact of community matrons and the differences this new service may have had on their lives. Questionnaires were sent to 100 patients who were currently being case-managed by a community matron to evaluate the community matron service from the patients' perspective. Part two reports on patients' perceptions of the community matron role and the influences of the role on their health.

Key service issues in two UK manufacturing companies from a PSS perspective

This paper illustrates the key service issues within two UK manufacturing companies,which belong to two different industrial domains, and highlights the main points of difference. It draws also on the literature of Product-Service Systems regarding their definition, types, benefits and difficulties in their implementation

PCR from the CPR offers a historical perspective on marine population ecology.

The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey has collected plankton samples from regular tracks across the world's oceans for almost 70 y. Over 299,000 spatially extensive CPR samples are archived and stored in buffered formalin. This CPR archive offers huge potential to study changes in marine communities using molecular data from a period when marine pollution, exploitation and global anthropogenic impact were much less pronounced. However, to harness the amount of data available within the CPR archive fully, it is necessary to improve techniques of larval identification, to genus and species preferably, and to obtain genetic information for historical studies of population ecology. To increase the potential of the CPR database this paper describes the first extraction, amplification by the polymerase chain reaction and utilization of a DNA sequence (mitochondrial 16S rDNA) from a CPR sample, a formalin fixed larval sandeel.