Teaching Statistics to Engineers: Learning from Experiential Data

The purpose of the work is to claim that engineers can be motivated to study statistical concepts by using the applications in their experience connected with Statistical ideas. The main idea is to choose a data from the manufacturing factility (for example, output from CMM machine) and explain that even if the parts used do not meet exact specifications they are used in production. By graphing the data one can show that the error is random but follows a distribution, that is, there is regularily in the data in statistical sense. As the error distribution is continuous, we advocate that the concept of randomness be introducted starting with continuous random variables with probabilities connected with areas under the density. The discrete random variables are then introduced in terms of decision connected with size of the errors before generalizing to abstract concept of probability. Using software, they can then be motivated to study statistical analysis of the data they encounter and the use of this analysis to make engineering and management decisions.

Experiences of patients with age-related macular degeneration receiving anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy:a qualitative study

The societal cost for the average health authority in the United Kingdom for the care of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has been suggested to be around £7.4 million. It is vital that the best possible care based on the best available evidence is provided to reduce the impact of AMD on patients' lives and the financial cost to the health-care system. This study explored the experiences of AMD patients treated with intravitreal ranibizumab injections. Three semistructured interviews were conducted with seven participants over the course of 18 months. Transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Analysis identified four themes: preparing for treatment, the treatment process, patient-provider communication, and results of treatment. Patient experiences highlighted the need to move away from the reliance on letters for information provision, and the need for clearer guidelines about when to cease AMD treatment. Interviews highlighted the need for the inclusion of rigorous qualitative evidence with experiential data in future good clinical practice guideline development for AMD. © The Author(s) 2013.

Intimate Partner Violence and Pregnancy Intentions: A Qualitative Study

Aim and Objective In this qualitative study we explored women’s pregnancy intentions and experiences of intimate partner violence before, during and after pregnancy. Background Unintended pregnancies in the context of intimate partner violence can have serious health, social and economic consequences for women and their children. Design Feminist and phenomenological philosophies underpinned the study to gain a richer understanding of women’s experiences. Methods Eleven women who had been pregnant in the previous two years were recruited from community-based women’s refuges in one region of the United Kingdom. Of the eleven women, eight had unplanned pregnancies, two reported being coerced into early motherhood, and only one woman had purposively planned her pregnancy. Multiple in-depth interviews focused on participants’ accounts of living with intimate partner violence. Experiential data analysis was used to identify, analyse and highlight themes. Results Three major themes were identified: men’s control of contraception, partner’s indiscriminate response to the pregnancy, and women’s mixed feelings about the pregnancy. Participants reported limited influence over their sexual relationship and Accepted Article This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. birth control. Feelings of vulnerability about themselves and fear for their unborn babies’ safety were intensified by their partners’ continued violence during pregnancy. Conclusion Women experiencing intimate partner violence were more likely to have an unintended pregnancy. This could be attributed to male dominance and fear, which impacts on a woman’s ability to manage her birth control options. The women’s initial excitement about their pregnancy diminished in the face of uncertainty and ongoing violence within their relationship. Relevance to clinical practice Women experiencing violence lack choice in relation to birth control options leading to unintended pregnancies. Interpreting the findings from the victim-perpetrator interactive spin theory of intimate partner violence provides a possible framework for midwives and nurses to better understand and respond to women’s experiences of violence during pregnancy.

A Case Study of the Implementation of Experiential Education in Yukon K-12 Schools

This qualitative case study explored the process of implementing Experiential Education (EXED) in Yukon Territory Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) schools with a particular focus on investigating: (a) understandings of EXED and the drivers behind its implementation, (b) factors contributing to EXED’s suitability for Yukon schools, and (c) factors supporting and challenging the implementation of EXED in Yukon schools. Data collection involved interviews with Yukon Department of Education (YDE) staff members, principals and teachers, document collection, and reflective note collection. Findings indicated that EXED was understood as more of a methodology than a philosophy for teaching and learning. EXED implementation was primarily driven by bottom-up (school/ teacher) initiatives and was secondarily supported by top-down (YDE) efforts. The process of implementation was supported by three main factors and was challenged primarily by six factors. The results also pointed to three factors that made EXED suitable for implementation in Yukon schools.

A case study of the implementation of experiential education in Yukon K-12 schools

This qualitative case study explored the process of implementing Experiential Education (EXED) in Yukon Territory Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) schools with a particular focus on investigating: (a) understandings of EXED and the drivers behind its implementation, (b) factors contributing to EXED's suitability for Yukon schools, and (c) factors supporting and challenging the implementation of EXED in Yukon schools. Data collection involved interviews with Yukon Department of Education (YDE) staff members, principals and teachers, document collection, and reflective note collection. Findings indicated that EXED was understood as more of a me~odology than a philosophy for teaching and learning. EXED implementation was primarily driven by bottom-up (school! teacher) initiatives and was secondarily supported by top-down (YDE) efforts. The process of implementation was supported by three main factors and was challenged primarily by six factors. The results also pointed to three factors that made EXED suitable for implementation in Yukon schools.

Learning and Experiential Outcomes of Face-to-Face Versus Online Communications Courses

Higher education is rapidly trending toward the implementation of online (OL) courses and a blended facilitation style that incorporates both OL and face-to-face (FTF) classes. Though previous studies have explored the benefits and pitfalls of OL and blended learning formats from institutional, teacher, and student perspectives, scant research has examined learning outcomes for OL and FTF courses sharing identical content. This study used an explanatory mixed methods design—including pre- and post-test assessments, a questionnaire, and interviews—to explore similarities and differences in participant and teacher perceptions and outcomes (gain scores and final grades) of OL versus traditional FTF Communications courses, and to examine effects of students’ age and gender on learning preference and performance. Data collection occurred over a 4-month period and involved 183 student and 2 professor participants. The study used an SPSS program for data analysis and created a Microsoft Excel document to record themes derived from the questionnaire and interviews. Quantitative findings suggest there are no significant differences in gain scores, final grades, or other learning outcomes when comparing OL and FTF versions of identical Communications courses; however, qualitative findings indicate differences between facilitation styles based on student and professor perception. The study sheds light on student and faculty perceptions of facilitation styles and suggests areas for potential improvements in FTF- and OL-facilitated courses. The study ultimately recommends that students and faculty should have options when it comes to preferred delivery of course material.

Antecedents of attitude and intention towards counterfeit symbolic and experiential products

This paper investigates the impact of price consciousness, perceived risk, and ethical obligation on attitude and intention towards counterfeit products. Data were collected from a sample of 200 respondents via an online questionnaire. A conceptual model was derived and tested via structural equation modelling in the contexts of symbolic and experiential counterfeit products. Findings show differences in the factors (and weight thereof) impacting attitude and purchase intention in the two product contexts. Specifically, ethical obligation and perceived risk are found to be significant predictors of attitude towards both symbolic and counterfeit products, while price consciousness is found to predict only attitude towards experiential products, but not purchase intention in either counterfeit product context.

International experiential diversity and performance at project organizations: The case of national football teams

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to shed new light on the link between diversity in project teams and team performance by examining the effects of players’ international career diversity on the performance of national football teams. Design/methodology/approach– The paper draws upon the literature on project organizations and experiential diversity in teams. Using data on players’ international career backgrounds and team performance from the FIFA World Cup 2006, the authors test two hypotheses linking experiential diversity in teams and a measure of relative team performance. The dataset includes detailed individual background profiles of the 736 participating players and performance data from the 64 games played at the tournament. Findings– The findings suggest that different types of experiential diversity have contrasting effects on team performance in a time‐limited project team setting. Research limitations/implications– These findings encourage team diversity researchers to further examine the impact of experiential diversity in teams on team process and performance outcomes in future research. Practical implications– The findings particularly highlight the need to carefully manage experiential diversity in project team settings in order to benefit from access to diverse tacit resources, while at the same time avoiding that the integrative capacities of teams becoming overstretched. Originality/value– The paper is a step towards a better understanding of how diversity of individual career backgrounds affects team performance outcomes in project teams.

Experiential learning from entrepreneurial failure

This paper examines the phenomenon of 'entrepreneurial failure' from a UK regionally-based qualitative study, being that of explanations for failure provided by entrepreneurial CEOs. This paper contends that there are valuable lessons to be learned, from explanations provided of failure, that may reduce the very high recorded mortality rates of entrepreneurial businesses, in particular that of nascent entrepreneurs. Our intention is to make nascent entrepreneurs and their advisors more aware of the consequences of the likely personal risks they will be assuming, especially before they embark on their new business ventures. This paper focuses strongly on entrepreneurial 'personality characteristics' which can detrimentally influence the quality of decision-making. We provide data of some 'experiential learning from failure' from our case studies, that were compiled from interviews with the former directors, following their completion of the questionnaire survey. We describe 'failed entrepreneurs' who have successfully restarted their businesses as 'phoenix' entrepreneurs.

'Rules of engagement’: how experiential learning facilitates the formation of a public–private partnership in Russia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent one can apply experiential learning theory (ELT) to the public-private partnership (PPP) setting in Russia and to draw insights regarding the learning cycle ' s nature. Additionally, the paper assesses whether the PPP case confirms Kolb ' s ELT. Design/methodology/approach – The case study draws upon primary data which the authors collected by interviewing informants including a PPP operator ' s managers, lawyers from Russian law firms and an expert from the National PPP Centre. The authors accomplished data source triangulation in order to ensure a high degree of research validity. Findings – Experiential learning has resulted in a successful and a relatively fast PPP project launch without the concessionary framework. The lessons learned include the need for effective stakeholder engagement; avoiding being stuck in bureaucracy such as collaboration with Federal Ministries and anti-trust agency; avoiding application for government funding as the approval process is tangled and lengthy; attracting strategic private investors; shaping positive public perception of a PPP project; and making continuous efforts in order to effectively mitigate the public acceptance risk. Originality/value – The paper contributes to ELT by incorporating the impact of social environment in the learning model. Additionally, the paper tests the applicability of ELT to learning in the complex organisational setting, i.e., a PPP.

Using secondary knowledge to support decision tree classification of retrospective clinical data

Retrospective clinical data presents many challenges for data mining and machine learning. The transcription of patient records from paper charts and subsequent manipulation of data often results in high volumes of noise as well as a loss of other important information. In addition, such datasets often fail to represent expert medical knowledge and reasoning in any explicit manner. In this research we describe applying data mining methods to retrospective clinical data to build a prediction model for asthma exacerbation severity for pediatric patients in the emergency department. Difficulties in building such a model forced us to investigate alternative strategies for analyzing and processing retrospective data. This paper describes this process together with an approach to mining retrospective clinical data by incorporating formalized external expert knowledge (secondary knowledge sources) into the classification task. This knowledge is used to partition the data into a number of coherent sets, where each set is explicitly described in terms of the secondary knowledge source. Instances from each set are then classified in a manner appropriate for the characteristics of the particular set. We present our methodology and outline a set of experiential results that demonstrate some advantages and some limitations of our approach. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Embedding reflexivity within experiential qualitative psychology

In this article, it is argued that reflexivity is integral to experiential qualitative research in psychology. Reflexivity has been defined in many ways. Woolgar’s continuum of reflexivity though provides a useful gauge by which to judge whether a researcher is involved in simple reflection or reflexivity. The article demonstrates the benefits of adopting a reflexive attitude by presenting “challenge-to-competency.” The author’s encounter with Sarah will help illustrate the role of reflexivity both in data generation and in interpretative analysis. To close, it is proposed that reflexivity as hermeneutic reflection, with its grounding in hermeneutics and phenomenology, is a useful construct for guiding our engagement in reflexivity in experiential qualitative research.

Evaluating the skills strategy through a Graduate Certificate in Management:an experiential learning theory approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how a UK business school is addressing the Government's skills strategy through its Graduate Certificate in Management, and to identify good practice and development needs and to clarify how the Graduate Certificate is adapting to the needs of Generation X and Millennial students. The paper also aims to test Kolb and Kolb's experiential learning theory (ELT) in a business school setting. Design/methodology/approach – A case study methodology was adopted. In order to get a cross-section of views and triangulate the data, three focus groups were held, supported by reading documentation about the programme of study. Findings – The skills strategy is not just an ambition for some business schools, but is already part of the curriculum. Generation X and the Millennials have more in common with the positive attitudes associated with older generations than stereotyped views might allow. ELT provides a useful theoretical framework for evaluating a programme of study and student attitudes. Research limitations/implications – The research findings from one case study are reported, limiting the generalisability of the study. Practical implications – Good practice and development needs are identified which support the implementation of the Government's skills strategy and address employer concerns about student skills. Originality/value – New empirical data are reported which supports the use of ELT in evaluating programmes of study and student attitudes to work.

A case study of adults in college who developed an experiential learning portfolio

This single-case study provides a description and explanation of selected adult students' perspectives on the impact that the development of an experiential learning portfolio had on their understanding of their professional and personal lives. The conceptual framework that undergirded the study included theoretical and empirical studies on adult learning, experiential learning, and the academic quality of nontraditional degree programs with a portfolio component. The study employed qualitative data collection techniques of individual interviews, document review, field notes, and researcher journal. A purposive sample of 8 adult students who completed portfolios as a component of their undergraduate degrees participated in the study. The 4 male and 4 female students who were interviewed represented 4 ethnic/racial groups and ranged in age from 32 to 55 years. Each student's portfolio was read prior to the interview to frame the semi-structured interview questions in light of written portfolio documents. ^ Students were interviewed twice over a 3-month period. The study lasted 8 months from data collection to final presentation of the findings. The data from interview transcriptions and student portfolios were analyzed, categorized, coded, and sorted into 4 major themes and 2 additional themes and submitted to interpretive analysis. ^ Participants' attitudes, perceptions, and opinions of their learning from the portfolio development experience were presented in the findings, which were illustrated through the use of excerpts from interview responses and individual portfolios. The participants displayed a positive reaction to the learning they acquired from the portfolio development process, regardless of their initial concerns about the challenges of creating a portfolio. Concerns were replaced by a greater recognition and understanding of their previous professional and personal accomplishments and their ability to reach future goals. Other key findings included (a) a better understanding of the role work played in their learning and development, (b) a deeper recognition of the impact of mentors and role models throughout their lives, (c) an increase in writing and organizational competencies, and (d) a sense of self-discovery and personal empowerment. ^

Exploring the Success of Student Experiential Learning through Entrepreneurial Opportunities

Academic literature has increasingly recognized the value of non-traditional higher education learning environments that emphasize action-orientated experiential learning for the study of entrepreneurship (Gibb, 2002; Jones & English, 2004). Many entrepreneurship educators have accordingly adopted approaches based on Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning cycle to develop a dynamic, holistic model of an experience-based learning process. Jones and Iredale (2010) suggested that entrepreneurship education requires experiential learning styles and creative problem solving to effectively engage students. Support has also been expressed for learning-by-doing activities in group or network contexts (Rasmussen and Sorheim, 2006), and for student-led approaches (Fiet, 2001). This study will build on previous works by exploring the use of experiential learning in an applied setting to develop entrepreneurial attitudes and traits in students. Based on the above literature, a British higher education institution (HEI) implemented a new, entrepreneurially-focused curriculum during the 2013/14 academic year designed to support and develop students’ entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions. The approach actively involved students in small scale entrepreneurship activities by providing scaffolded opportunities for students to design and enact their own entrepreneurial concepts. Students were provided with the necessary resources and training to run small entrepreneurial ventures in three different working environments. During the course of the year, three applied entrepreneurial opportunities were provided for students, increasing in complexity, length, and profitability as the year progressed. For the first undertaking, the class was divided into small groups, and each group was given a time slot and venue to run a pop-up shop in a busy commercial shopping centre. Each group of students was supported by lectures and dedicated class time for group work, while receiving a set of objectives and recommended resources. For the second venture, groups of students were given the opportunity to utilize an on-campus bar/club for an evening and were asked to organize and run a profitable event, acting as an outside promoter. Students were supported with lectures and seminars, and groups were given a £250 budget to develop, plan, and market their unique event. The final event was optional and required initiative on the part of the students. Students were given the opportunity to develop and put forward business plans to be judged by the HEI and the supporting organizations, which selected the winning plan. The authors of the winning business plan received a £2000 budget and a six-week lease to a commercial retail unit within a shopping centre to run their business. Students received additional academic support upon request from the instructor, and one of the supporting organizations provided a training course offering advice on creating a budget and a business plan. Data from students taking part in each of the events was collected, in order to ascertain the learning benefits of the experiential learning, along with the successes and difficulties they faced. These responses have been collected and analyzed and will be presented at the conference along with the instructor’s conclusions and recommendations for the use of such programs in higher educations.