Education Assets Research Articles

Harvesting latent and usage-based metadata in a course management system to enrich the underlying educational digital library

In this case study, we demonstrate how in an integrated digital library and course management system, metadata can be generated using a bootstrapping mechanism. The integration encompasses sequencing of content by teachers and deployment of content to learners. We show that taxonomy term assignments and a recommender system can be based almost solely on usage data (especially correlations on what teachers have put in the same course or assignment). In particular, we show that with minimal human intervention, taxonomy terms, quality measures, and an association ruleset can be established for a large pool of fine-granular educational assets.

Applied Research and Knowledge Transfer: Retaining Design Knowledge Assets in Higher Education

ABSTRACTRecent research into the transfer and retention of design knowledge assets from knowledge transfer (KT) projects in a number of universities in the West Midlands is described. Participants in design-based knowledge transfer projects were interviewed and their projects reviewed within several universities. A typology of design knowledge assets of the projects researched indicated that universities appear not to systematically reflect and assess value in a manner commensurate with learning organizations. An interdependent relationship between the identification of design knowledge assets and the evaluation of knowledge transfer was discovered. The tacit and embedded nature of unrealized design knowledge was found to be difficult to harvest but present in most projects. The limited client-based value assessment criteria offered little to universities. New approaches to identifying, capturing and reusing knowledge assets from design-oriented knowledge transfer projects are indicated.

Lexicography in Australia

This paper describes the current setting for lexicography in Australia by reviewing the place of English since the first British settlement began, in 1788. The emergence of Australian English as the national language is traced, and its relations with the Australian Aboriginal languages touched on. The greatest change in the language setting came with Australia's immigration policy in its post-World War II form. This resulted in the government's eventual recognition of Australia as multilingual and multicultural, and urgently in need of a formal policy on languages, one which treated the many community languages of Australia as an economic, social, educational asset. The paper then summarises the past and present record of lexicography, in Australian English, in Aboriginal and community languages, and in languages of its neighbours in the Pacific area. Titles of some of the most important dictionaries are listed in the bibliography. It ends by describing the outlook of the newly formed Australasian Association for Lexicography.

Trasa edukacyjna Bydgoszcz-Łabiszyn: Szlak Małych Elektrowni Wodnych

The described route is a water connection between Bydgoszcz and Łabiszyn, a small town located approximately 34 km south of the large agglomeration of Bydgoszcz. The waterway connection follows the course of the Bydgoszcz Canal and the Upper Noteć Canal. Both of these watercourses contain hydraulic structures of historic significance, as well as small modern hydroelectric plants, used commercially for power production. Due to many years of neglect, the area is not currently used economically or by tourists. The authors of the article, by highlighting selected tourist attractions and educational assets, and by coining the name ‘Small Hydroelectric Plants Trail’ intend to generate interest among the regional authorities in the process of revitalizing the presented route. They also want to promote water tourism, educational tourism and student tourism, which may be included in physical education curricula, especially in part-time study programmes

Developmental State Policy, Educational Development, and Economic Development: Policy Processes in South Korea, 1961-1979

This paper explores two inter-connected issues – the state’s role in educational development and educational contribution to economic development – in the policy processes entailed by the South Korean state’s pursuit of economic development during the Park Chung Hi era, 1961-1979. It disputes the statist view that South Korea’s economic development was the outcome of a strong state’s imposition of developmental policies. It also denies the human capital account that central to the South Korean state’s education policy was the skills formation agendum. In this paper’s process analysis, educational contribution to economic development was made most importantly in the entrance competition-swept schools by virtue of their equipping South Koreans with basic knowledge and intellectual skills and the most important educational asset for economic development was those schools’ explosive growth. The latter took place as an unexpected effect of the state’s developmental policy of containment which aimed to secure scarce funds for strategic developmental projects. This policy intensified entrance competitions, boosted demand for education, and provoked public call for state commitment to educational expansion. The legitimacy-deficient regime responded politically and compromised on the developmental education policy from one level of formal schooling to another. The image of the developmental state thus portrayed is quite contrary to that provided by the statist-human capital perspective.

Investment in Education and Strategic Asset Allocation

This work analyzes the optimal allocation of assets over the life cycle of an investor who has the option to invest in his education. We characterize the optimal spending rule for education, and compare the optimal asset allocation of such investors with the optimal portfolios of investors with no extra education. In particular, we are able to describe how the criteria for investing in risky assets change through time as investors acquire additional education. Our main findings are as follows. Investors undergoing the educational process tend to invest proportionally more in risky assets during that period than other investors. After the educational period investments in the risky asset usually decrease. In the working period after the investment in education a negative covariance between the working income and the returns of the risky asset induces the proportional investment of educated agents in the risky asset to be larger than the proportional investment of non-educated agents. For positive covariance, as it increases, the proportion of wealth invested in the risky asset decreases for both agents. Finally, in the retirement period the investments of people who invested in education earlier are not distinguishable from those of non-educated.

Property-based collaborative filtering for health-aware recommender systems

Recommender systems aim at solving the problem of information overload by selecting items (commercial products, educational assets, TV programs, etc.) that match the consumers’ interests and preferences. Recently, there have been approaches to drive the recommendations by the information stored in electronic health records, for which the traditional strategies applied in online shopping, e-learning, entertainment and other areas have several pitfalls. This paper addresses those problems by introducing a new filtering strategy, centered on the properties that characterize the items and the users. Preliminary experiments with real users have proved that this approach outperforms previous ones in terms of consumers’ satisfaction with the recommended items. The benefits are especially apparent among people with specific health concerns.

The Power of Aspirations and Expectations: The Connection Between Educational Goals and Risk Behaviors Among African American Adolescents

Numerous studies and interventions have been designed to either reduce the prevalence of risky behaviors (substance use, sexual activity, etc.) or increase the level of educational activity for adolescents. Research suggests that these two constructs may be related yet little is known about this relationship among African American youth. Archival data from the Risk Reduction Project was used to explore the connection between the protective factors of educational aspirations/expectations and recent participation in risky behavior. Results suggest that recent use of marijuana, alcohol to the point of intoxication, and sexual activity predicted lower aspirations and expectations among African American youth. From a positive youth development perspective, this study suggests the development of holistic interventions that build educational assets in youth, in addition to working to minimize risk behaviors. Limitations and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

Growth Incidence Analysis for Non-Income Welfare Indicators: Evidence from Ghana and Uganda

Growth incidence analysis involves calculating the amount of growth in some welfare-indicator (e.g. income, life expectancy) at each quantile (e.g. quartile, decile,or percentile) of the distribution of that indicator. This information, and its graphical representation in the form of a growth incidence curve (GIC), gives a much fuller picture of changes in social welfare and poverty over any given period than can be provided by a single figure, such as the rate of per capita income growth, or the reduction in the poverty headcount. However, although it is now widely accepted that welfare and poverty are multi-dimensional, and cannot be reflected accurately by any one single indicator, the vast majority of GICs calculated to date have been based on growth rates in income (or expenditure).This paper begins filling this gap by providing estimates of GICs for non-income welfare indicators in Ghana and Uganda. The main practical difficulty is that most of such indicators found in standard household surveys are discrete, as opposed to continuous, variables – i.e. their values are limited to a fixed number of categories (e.g. good, poor), rather than a very large number (e.g. units of local currency). This limits the range of values the GIC can take; in the extreme, it limits it to one of only two values: growth or no growth. The best way to address this problem is by expanding and improving the coverage of non-income welfare indicators in standard household surveys. This will require an initial ‘bench-marking’ exercise to establish best-practice and standardise as much as possible across surveys in different countries. In the meantime, an alternative approach is to calculate so-called ‘conditional’ GICs, which involves calculating the growth in non-income indicators among different groups of the population ranked by income (or expenditure).From the household surveys for Ghana and Uganda in 1992 and 1999 it was possible to construct nine non-income welfare indicators, in the dimensions of education, health, household amenities (e.g. use of drinking water, sanitation and electricity), and household assets. The results show some significant and important differences across income and non-income welfare indicators, both in terms of aggregate trends and distributional patterns. In Ghana, despite relatively low rates of income growth at the lower end of the income distribution, there have been significant improvements and catching up in other non-income indicators, such as primary school enrolment, use of good drinking water, and the value of assets owned (in proportional if not always in absolute terms). In Uganda, despite reasonably high rates of income growth, particularly at the lower end of the income distribution, there has been a deterioration of other non-income indicators.Overall, the analysis cautions against over-reliance on purely income-based measures of poverty and welfare. It also suggests the need to consider ways in which potential trade-offs between income and non-income welfare indicators can be incorporated into policy analysis.

Using Captioned Media as Mentor Expository Texts

Children ages 2–18 spend between two and four hours per day watching TV, a calculation that is even higher if DVDs, videos and the Internet are included. Although the amount of television watched by today's children has raised concerns about their literacy development, captions could hold a key to turning television into an educational asset. Captions are printed text which represents the audio component of a program and like the audio, reflects the heart of the program's message. Research shows that watching and reading captioned programs increases children's comprehension. Captioned programming and transcripts of documentaries are readily available. They can be used for teaching greater comprehension of expository text structures and as mentor texts for learning to write expository texts.

Comparative estimates of innovation potential of the regions of the Russian federation

This paper examines briefly methods estimating the innovation potential of the RF regions and presents the results of their comparison. The significance of the research of innovation potential is based, on one hand, on the ever-increasing role of innovation and education assets of the Russian territories and, on the other, on essential shifts that have occurred in knowledge differentiation due to changes in technologies and in their use.

Intangible assets in higher education and research: mission, performance or both?

PurposeThis paper aims to discuss the role of intangible assets in higher education and research institutions and to present a measurement framework, along with an illustrative application.Design/methodology/approachA review of existing theories and practical experiences is undertaken to build the core conceptual model and a dashboard of indicators. The model is then applied to investigate the mission and performance angles of intellectual capital with reference to an Italian higher education and research institution.FindingsCreating intangible assets is at the core of the mission of education and research organizations. The identification and measurement of intellectual capital are thus an operational priority to evaluate the alignment between strategic orientation and performance within such institutions.Research limitations/implicationsThe research has to be considered as exploratory and presents a single case, resulting in the need for further applications. However, the dashboard of metrics proposed is comprehensive and can thus represent a useful ground for refinements, mostly related to the links between indicators and management/strategy issues.Practical implicationsThe dashboard can be used as a stakeholder communication tool and atableau de bordto support the strategic decisions related to the human, social and structural capital of education and research organizations.Originality/valueThe paper presents a first discussion on the systematic identification, classification and reporting of intellectual capital indicators in higher education and research.

Women’s Risk Factors and Their Contributions to Existing Risk/Needs Assessment

A growing body of scholarship faults existing risk/needs assessment models for neglecting the risk factors most relevant to women offenders. In response, a series of gender-responsive assessment models were tested for their contributions to widely used gender-neutral risk needs assessments. In six of eight samples studied, subsets of the gender-responsive scales achieved statistically significant contributions to gender-neutral models. Promising results were found for the following: (a) parental stress, family support, self-efficacy, educational assets, housing safety, anger/hostility, and current mental health factors in probation samples; (b) child abuse, anger/hostility, relationship dysfunction, family support, and current mental health factors among prisoners; and (c) adult victimization, anger/hostility, educational assets, and family support among released inmates. The predictive validity of gender-neutral assessments was strong in seven of eight samples studied. However, findings for both gender-neutral and gender-responsive domains suggested different treatment priorities for women from those currently put forward in correctional theory and policy.

Chronic and transient poverty in the Russian Federation

This article examines poverty dynamics in the Russian Federation from 1994 through the financial crisis in the late 1990s and into the more recent economic recovery. The severity of poverty in the Russian Federation is found to stem largely from transient, rather than chronic, spells of economic hardship. Exposure to transient poverty is strongly influenced by household levels of workforce participation, educational assets and physical assets, as well as by local economic conditions. Workforce participation and physical assets also mitigate exposure to chronic poverty. The importance of these determinants of transient and chronic poverty appears to change in the pre-crisis and post-crisis periods. But the severity of chronic poverty does not increase, suggesting that the combined movement towards a market economy and the financial crisis did not generate a new underclass of chronically poor households.

Radiological Images of the Abdomen and Pelvis

OPEN ACCESSSeptember 1, 2009Radiological Images of the Abdomen and Pelvis Penprapa Klinkhachorn, DVM, PhD, Richard Dey, PhD, Powsiri Klinkhachorn, PhD, Mahesh Kamsala, MA, Terance Wijesinghe, BSc, Jeffrey Altemus, MA, Allison Davis, MA, Frank Reilly, PhD Penprapa Klinkhachorn, DVM, PhD West Virginia University School of Medicine Google Scholar More articles by this author , Richard Dey, PhD West Virginia University School of Medicine Google Scholar More articles by this author , Powsiri Klinkhachorn, PhD West Virginia University School of Medicine Google Scholar More articles by this author , Mahesh Kamsala, MA West Virginia University School of Medicine Google Scholar More articles by this author , Terance Wijesinghe, BSc West Virginia University School of Medicine Google Scholar More articles by this author , Jeffrey Altemus, MA West Virginia University School of Medicine Google Scholar More articles by this author , Allison Davis, MA West Virginia University School of Medicine Google Scholar More articles by this author , Frank Reilly, PhD West Virginia University School of Medicine Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.15766/mep_2374-8265.1708 SectionsAboutAbstract ToolsDownload Citations ShareFacebookTwitterEmail AbstractAbstractThis interactive tutorial serves as an introduction to normal X-rays and cross sections of the abdomen and pelvis for preclinical students enrolled in medical and dental human structure. The course work was digitized and converted into an electronic format to provide beginners with introductory imaging critical to the interpretation of standard X-rays, computerized tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Its objective is to stimulate active self-directed learning by integrating introductory radiographic anatomy into a structured format that is readily accessible for local and distance learning. Active learning was achieved by creating six radiology tutorial units that target content areas dealing with standard and cross-sectional radiographic anatomy and arterial angiography. The tutorial complements didactic and practical (dissection) activities of beginner health care professionals enrolled in human structure. Both in 2007 and 2008, learners scored at the 77th percentile on the gross anatomy subject examination. These scores are significantly higher than those recorded prior to implementation of this instructional content in the curriculum beginning in 2001. Exposing preclinical students to introductory X-rays and cross sections of the abdomen and pelvis provided the learners with a glimpse into the comprehensive evaluation of more contemporary imaging techniques such as CT, MRI, and positron emission tomography (PET) scans. These qualitative observations are supported by recent improvements in learner performance on National Board of Medical Examiners subject shelf exams. Educational Objectives By the end of this resource, learners will be able to know normal radiographic anatomy of the abdomen and pelvis. Sign up for the latest publications from MedEdPORTAL Add your email below FILES INCLUDEDReferencesRelatedDetails FILES INCLUDED Included in this publication: Abdomen and Pelvis Folder To view all publication components, extract (i.e., unzip) them from the downloaded .zip file. Download editor’s noteThis publication may contain technology or a display format that is no longer in use. Related Sectional and Radiological Anatomy of the Thorax Radiological Images of the Abdomen and Pelvis Brain Slice Tutorial (Out of Print) Sectional Anatomy of the Abdomen and Pelvis (Out of Print) Radiological Anatomy of the Extremities and Back Angiographic Anatomy of Thoracic Organs Angiographic Anatomy of Abdomenopelvic Organs Angiographic Anatomy of the Upper and Lower Extremities Angiographic Anatomy of the Head and Neck Copyright & Permissions© 2009 Klinkhachorn et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.KeywordsCross-SectionsHysterosalpingographyKUB Flat PlateAngiographyPelvisAbdomenX-RaysPyelographyRadiographyContrast Disclosures None to report. Funding/Support This research was supported by Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative (ELI) Grant funds from West Virginia University. Prior Presentations Klinkhachorn P, Reilly F, Dey R, Altemus J, Kamsala M. Interactive thorax and abdomen radiological anatomy courseware for the internet. Presented at: Slice of Life Conference; 2004; Leiden, the Netherlands. Klinkhachorn PS, Dey RD, Klinkhachorn P, et al. Radiological images of the abdomen and pelvis. In: Health Education Assets Library; 2008; ID = 450. Loading ...

Perceived Importance of Church-Based Assets to HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control in a Nigerian City

This study explored the extent to which church members thought the assets they might have to engage in HIV/AIDS prevention and control activities were important. Eight hundred and thirty members from 83 Christian churches in Aba, Nigeria completed a multi-item survey questionnaire designed to obtain information on the importance they attached to church-based assets relevant to HIV/AIDS prevention and control. The rating of importance of assets was on a scale of 1 to 5. Rating on the importance of assets was highest in the spiritual asset category (mean = 4.20), followed by health education (4.02), capacity building (4.01), social (3.62), and financial assets (3.54). Among the denominational assets, free HIV/AIDS drug donation was rated higher (4.10) than other assets in the subcategories. This study demonstrates the usefulness of ascertaining members' perspectives on the importance of church-based assets and provides a basis for recommendation to health education administrators.

The M-factor, a bilingual asset for plurilinguals? Learners’ representations, discourse strategies and third language acquisition in institutional contexts

Within the framework of our research on learners’ language practices and representations, this contribution explores how their representations about language uses and language learning shape the processes of learning and communication in school settings. More precisely, we will study learners’ representations regarding the existence of a plurilingual asset, defined as plurilinguals’ strategic advantage for further language learning and use. Following a discussion of the arguments that support the hypothesis of plurilingualism as a potential facilitator for both learning and verbal interaction, we will address the question of the sociolinguistic conditions that must be met for learners to perceive their plurilingualism as an asset in formal education. Special attention will be paid to the impact of a third language learnt at school on the construction of plurilingual repertoires and on the evolution of learners’ representations about languages, language uses and learning as their repertoires widen and diversify. The population under study includes young plurilingual learners in two secondary schools and one university in France and Germany. The analysis of their discourse and underlying representations about the role of prior language knowledge in language behaviour and learning experience will allow us to discuss the role played by the institution in encouraging learners to view their plurilingualism as a strategic resource.

It Takes a Village: Assets for Parent Education

Social and cultural changes in the 21 st century have impacted the task of parenting, and in response to these challenges, the role of parent education has taken on increased importance. The National Extension has defined skills for effective parenting titled Parent Education Model of Critical Parenting Practices, which provide guidelines for educators. Search Institute has identified 40 developmental assets that all children and youth need to aid them in successfully navigating to adulthood. The theoretical question addressed in this paper is whether the Parent Education Model and Asset Development used together would enhance parent education. A review of the Parent Education Model and Asset Development, as well as results from two focus groups, informed the theoretical question. Implications for practice include curriculum suggestions for use in a variety of parent education, social service, and youth settings.

Specifying the personalization reasoning mechanism for an intelligent medical e-learning system on Atheromatosis: An empirical study

Computer-based education has already been acknowledged as an important asset for medical education. For example, web-based educational systems for medicine and health provide an additional important advantage to remote learners through platform- and time-independence. However, such systems are difficult to create as they require a lot of effort from both medical tutors and software engineers. Therefore, repetition of effort has to be avoided and such systems should be able to be used to their full extent from whoever requires medical and health knowledge on the specific topics. This means that they need to incorporate intelligent techniques in order to be able to adapt dynamically to the needs of individual users rather than have many static educational systems designed solely for different kinds of users. In view of this, in this paper we address the problem of developing an adaptive e-learning system for the medical domain of Atheromatosis. Atheromatosis of the aortic arch has been recognized as an important source of embolism, which is a frequent cause of stroke. This is the main reason that the particular topic is of interest to a wide range of users with different background knowledge and needs (e.g. medical students, nurses, common people interested in maintaining a good health, etc.). The inference mechanism of the system uses a combination of rule-based reasoning and a decision making theory. In order to design the reasoning mechanism of the system, and thus incorporate the decision making theory successfully, we conducted an empirical study. The empirical study involved distribution of questionnaires to several classes of potential users of an e-learning system about Atheromatosis and analysis of the results by computer and medical experts. The results of the empirical study were used for designing the reasoning mechanism of the system.

T03-O-18 Can the sexology education enhancement make the happier and successful world?

Sexual education is a program that needs to be put in action. It is intended to help youth, to break code of silence, wiil enable them to build a bridge to fill existing gap between themselves and sex. Sexual behavior is considered to be a taboo and talking about it has always been considered as great mistake for young people. Consequently the negative Impact on sexual well being continues to grow as does the reciprocal negative impact on development in general. Some issues like HIV/AIDS, gender balance, cultural practices, family planning, raping, homosexuality, abortion, sexuality of couple, sexual dysfunctions and diseases, unwanted pregnancies etc should have been positively addressed if we had had necessary tool in the integrated sexual education programs. As Rwanda is located in Sub-Saharan Africa, where shortage of health workers is at a crisis, where culture concept and religious beliefs influence almost all life conditions, this fact has become the most critical obstacle to achieving universal access to sexual well-being. The main objective of the sexual education assets is to make people aware of unsafe sex and its related problems and constraints in order to improve life conditions. The strategy may lie in peer education aiming at demystifying sexual topics as Human has been created thus. The results are well promising and line themselves in Millennium Development Goals. Is it feasible? Is it necessary? Is it the moment? One can quote the importance of sexual education enhancement in building a world full of happiness and success.