Royal Roads Research Articles

Amplifying Value: Assessment of Asynchronous Embedded Library Instruction and the Influence of Faculty Endorsements

“Embedded” librarian programs can take many different forms. At Royal Roads University, librarians embed asynchronously in research-intensive courses via a hosted online forum. Over three to five days, the embedded librarian presents a series of posts on key information literacy topics and invites students’ questions and comments. This research project undertook to investigate both the general effectiveness of this embedding approach (in terms of student learning and engagement) and the relationship that may exist between instructors’ promotion of the forum and student engagement and/or learning. Quantitative data on student learning and engagement was collected through a pretest/post-test and qualitative data was collected from instructor comments within the LMS course shell. The results of this study indicate that embedding is moderately effective at increasing student knowledge, and that robust instructor encouragement of student participation correlates positively with both student engagement and student learning. We conclude that embedding is an effective information literacy instruction method that can be made more effective through increased relationship-building with faculty and program staff.

Leading in Extraordinary Times: Documenting Pandemic Stories through Graphic Recording

This field report documents—through the use of graphic recordings—the “Leading in Extraordinary Times” webinar series that ran throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Hosted by a team in the School of Leadership Studies at Royal Roads University in British Columbia, Canada, this series was notable for its use of a graphic recorder who joined each webinar and produced an image drawn in real time. We felt it was essential to document stories from this historical moment, not only through words and audio-visual recordings, but also through images. Following the webinar, each image was shared with participants, along with the video recording. At that time, free special topic webinars open to the public were still relatively novel. The success of this webinar series demonstrated that people were yearning for meaningful ways to connect online to reduce isolation and continue learning as wave after wave of the pandemic hit. We, therefore, saw a role we could play in both engaging and building community while hosting relevant, helpful, and timely dialogues throughout the pandemic. A summary of each webinar topic, together with the graphics and links to webinar recordings, are included in the report.

Strengthening health system leadership in practice.

The field of health leadership is shifting rapidly, and there is an opportunity to learn with health leaders about what is needed to support health leadership education, research, and practice. In 2022, to augment student feedback and faculty praxis, Royal Roads University conducted 12 virtual interviews with senior health system leaders across various settings to learn how health leaders can better respond to emerging and future leadership needs and priorities facing health systems. Findings from this study informed the development of a health-specific elective for the Master of Arts in Leadership, Health Specialization program entitled Considerations for Health Systems Renewal. This elective explores the following topics that emerged from this research study: (1) an orientation to possibility; (2) emerging strategic human resource concerns; (3) healthcare innovation; (4) relational and social systems leadership; (5) polarity thinking; (6) trauma-informed leadership; and (7) Canadian healthcare networks. In this article, we share our research process and findings to arrive at these recommendations.

Committing sociology symposium future directions in housing research

Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologieVolume 60, Issue 1 p. 165-166 COMMITTING SOCIOLOGY Committing sociology symposium future directions in housing research Katie MacDonald, Corresponding Author Katie MacDonald macdonaldk@athabascau.ca Athabasca University, Athabasca, Canada Correspondence Katie MacDonald, Sociology and MAIS Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Athabasca University, Athabasca, AB, Canada. Email: macdonaldk@athabascau.caSearch for more papers by this authorEsther de Vos, Esther de Vos Royal Roads University, Victoria, CanadaSearch for more papers by this author Katie MacDonald, Corresponding Author Katie MacDonald macdonaldk@athabascau.ca Athabasca University, Athabasca, Canada Correspondence Katie MacDonald, Sociology and MAIS Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Athabasca University, Athabasca, AB, Canada. Email: macdonaldk@athabascau.caSearch for more papers by this authorEsther de Vos, Esther de Vos Royal Roads University, Victoria, CanadaSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 February 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12419Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume60, Issue1February 2023Pages 165-166 RelatedInformation

Convergence or Divergence: The State of the Art in Environmental & Social Entrepreneurship Research

This symposium highlights the diversity of research examining the intersection of sustainable and social entrepreneurship. It examines the forces of convergence and divergence within these two distinct research streams. In particular, the authors consider areas where there are opportunities to advance the field by building upon the depth and breadth of research to resolve three pressing needs in the literature: contextuality, scalability, and stakeholder management. By addressing these challenges, these papers provide specific paths forward to advance the field. The papers in the symposium broaden our understanding of factors that have come to shape the practice of sustainable entrepreneurship and opportunities for new venture creation to generate social impact. The State of the Art in Environmental and Social Entrepreneurship Research Presenter: Peter T. Gianiodis; Duquesne U. Presenter: Maritza Espina; St Ambrose U. Corporate Sustainability, Stakeholder Orientation, and Collaboration between Competitors: What Lies Presenter: Lilach Trabelsi; U. of Innsbruck Value Creation through Environmental Entrepreneurship Presenter: Geoffrey R. Archer; Royal Roads U. Presenter: Felix Arndt; U. of Guelph Presenter: Fiona Robinson; - Societal Attitudes Toward Corporate Responsibility and Social Entrepreneurship Presenter: Sumita Sarma; California State U., Bakersfield Presenter: Sharon Simmons; Jackson State U. The Language of Entrepreneurship: An Exploratory Gender-Coding Study Presenter: Rosanna Garcia; Worcester Polytechnic Institute

고려~조선시대의 도로 및 수레 연구

Roads and wheeled carts began to be used extensively in Korea during the Three Kingdoms Era. Their use continued, with periods of development and decline, throughout the Unified Silla, Goryeo, and Joseon periods. The bulk of archaeological research on Korean roads and cart use has been focused on the earlier Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla periods. Most of the research on the use of roads and wagons in the later Goryeo and Joseon dynasties has been conducted by studying historical records. However, these records may not be accurate representations of the actual road conditions during these periods. In this study, we will attempt to correlate the limited archaeological data with data from historical records to paint a more complete picture of road and cart use during the Goryeo-Joseon period. Since the rule of the Goryeo Dynasty, tax collection was centralized in the capital, which allowed for a significant expansion of the road system. As a result, in the early Goryeo Dynasty, 22 provinces were established with 525 stations built throughout the provinces to transfer goods and horses and provide lodging. Historical records and archaeological data confirm that there were regional differences in road systems during this period. Local roads were generally excavated before construction, which is an easier road building technique than the piling method. Historical records show that roads in the Goryeo Dynasty were divided into three categories: main roads, middle roads, and small roads. The archaeological record from the time shows that the typical main roads were at least 550 ㎝ wide, the middle roads were 350-550 ㎝ wide, and the small roads were 350 ㎝ wide or less. A number of wheel tracks were found at archaeological sites. These tracks usually show an average cart wheel width of 150 ㎝. The road system continued to develop into the late Goryeo Dynasty, but was largely destroyed during that dynasty’s collapse. Efforts were made to revitalize and reorganize the road system during the Joseon Dynasty. At this time, the roads were listed in the Gyeongguk Daejeon (National Code), divided into provincial roads and outbound roads. The provincial roads were further classified into main roads (56 cheoks wide), middle roads (16 cheoks), and small roads (11 cheoks). Setting the main roads at 56 cheoks can be interpreted to be an acknowledgement by Joseon itself that it was a princely state of China in pursuant to Juraegogonggi. However, archaeological evidence indicates that royal roads for the king’s passage were wider than the required width in Gyeongguk Daejeon. In other words, it legally followed the rules of China but did not follow them in reality. The outbound roads were divided into larger arterial roads and smaller branch roads. After analyzing the existing records and archaeological data, it is presumed that the Gyeongguk Daejeon arterial roads were supposed to be similar in width to the provincial main roads, and the branch roads were meant to be smaller than the middle roads. There is evidence that some roads were constructed with a thick infill to meet these standards, but in most cases, the roads were left as they had been. The average width of cart tracks from the Joseon period archaeological sites is approximately 100-110㎝, narrower than the tracks found in Three Kingdoms and Goryeo era sites. However, there is little evidence of marks in the case of wheeled carts, which is thought to be due to the increasing preference for palanquins over wheeled carts at that time. It is apparent that the attempts to improve and standardize the road system in the Joseon Dynasty were not widely successful.

Sustainable practices of selected publiclylisted higher educational institutions in ensuring good health and well-being

Sustainable practices of selected publiclylisted higher educational institutions in ensuring good health and well-being

Heuristic algorithms in evolutionary computation and modular organization of biological macromolecules: Applications to in vitro evolution.

Evolutionary computing (EC) is an area of computer sciences and applied mathematics covering heuristic optimization algorithms inspired by evolution in Nature. EC extensively study all the variety of methods which were originally based on the principles of selectionism. As a result, many new algorithms and approaches, significantly more efficient than classical selectionist schemes, were found. This is especially true for some families of special problems. There are strong arguments to believe that EC approaches are quite suitable for modeling and numerical analysis of those methods of synthetic biology and biotechnology that are known as in vitro evolution. Therefore, it is natural to expect that the new algorithms and approaches developed in EC can be effectively applied in experiments on the directed evolution of biological macromolecules. According to the John Holland's Schema theorem, the effective evolutionary search in genetic algorithms (GA) is provided by identifying short schemata of high fitness which in the further search recombine into the larger building blocks (BBs) with higher and higher fitness. The multimodularity of functional biological macromolecules and the preservation of already found modules in the evolutionary search have a clear analogy with the BBs in EC. It seems reasonable to try to transfer and introduce the methods of EC, preserving BBs and essentially accelerating the search, into experiments on in vitro evolution. We extend the key instrument of the Holland's theory, the Royal Roads fitness function, to problems of the in vitro evolution (Biological Royal Staircase, BioRS, functions). The specific version of BioRS developed in this publication arises from the realities of experimental evolutionary search for (DNA-) RNA-devices (aptazymes). Our numerical tests showed that for problems with the BioRS functions, simple heuristic algorithms, which turned out to be very effective for preserving BBs in GA, can be very effective in in vitro evolution approaches. We are convinced that such algorithms can be implemented in modern methods of in vitro evolution to achieve significant savings in time and resources and a significant increase in the efficiency of evolutionary search.

“Lean” outreach in the time of COVID-19: using online channels to promote an online service

In summer 2020, the library team at Royal Roads University launched a new online tool they were confident would improve the literature search experience for faculty and students. But how could they promote a new point-of-need service without already being present at the point of need? And how do you run an effective outreach campaign in a global pandemic, anyhow? As the author describes, by targeting key audience groups and providing tailored presentations across a range of (digital) channels, the library increased adoption of their new tool by 700 percent over the first 6 months of its availability.

Concepts for the design and evaluation of change-oriented research

Research funding bodies, and society in general, have high expectations for research to contribute solutions that have positive societal and environmental impact. This desire to increase societal benefits has prompted an evolution in how research is conducted, and a corresponding need for appropriate research evaluation tools and approaches. The Sustainability Research Effectiveness Program, led by Professor Brian Belcher at Royal Roads University, has responded to this need by developing a Transdisciplinary Research Quality Assessment Framework to evaluate research design and implementation and a theory-based evaluation approach to assess research contributions to outcomes and impacts.

John Hyland. “The Achaemenid Messenger System and the Ionian Revolt: New Evidence from the Persepolis Fortification Archive”

This article deals with the pirradazis, translated as ‘express messengers’, attested in the Persepolis Fortification tablets, and the role these persons may have played in the wars waged in the imperial periphery, most notably Ionia. The author identifies an interesting small dossier of texts issues of travel rations on royal roads for such pirradazis. This dossier attests to missions sent back and forth between Darius and his brother Artaphernes, satrap of Sardis in the run-up to the conques...

Showcasing Institutional Research: Curating Library Exhibits to Support Scholarly Communication

INTRODUCTION To support faculty in communicating their research outcomes to the academic community and the wider public, the Royal Roads University (RRU) Library established Showcase, a physical venue in the library designed to promote institutional research. While professional literature mainly focuses on the use of library exhibits for outreach and community engagement, more literature is needed on applying museum interpretation practices to the development of library exhibits, and the use of library exhibits for knowledge mobilization of research outcomes and promotion of institutional scholarship to the wider community. DESCRIPTION OF SERVICE This article discusses the Royal Roads University Library’s practices to develop the ‘Showcase’ brand by curating research-based exhibits as a scholarly communication initiative to support institutional research dissemination. It provides a brief description of the Showcase venue and infrastructure. It then describes the processes, challenges, and lessons learned in developing three research exhibits, that is, 1) cultivating faculty partnerships; 2) reformatting academic research to multimedia formats; and 3) integrating technology to showcase scholarship. NEXT STEPS It concludes by outlining the next steps for developing this initiative and the practice of curating academic research exhibits.

Supply ranges of stone blocks used in masonry bridges and their construction period along the East Royal Road in the Khmer Empire, Cambodia

During the Angkor period, there were five Royal Roads linking the capital city of Angkor with provincial principal cities. Seven Temples d’étape, six Fire Shrines, and 25 masonry bridges were constructed along the East Royal Road to Preah Khan of Kompong Svay. We conducted measurements of magnetic susceptibility and chemical composition of laterite blocks and magnetic susceptibility of sandstone blocks used for the construction of the bridges to determine the supply ranges of the stone blocks and the construction ages based on the results obtained in this study and previous studies of Temples d’étape and Fire Shrines. The results suggest that most of the sandstone blocks for the bridge balustrades were supplied from quarries in the southeastern foothills of Kulen Mountain, but that the bridges close to Preah Khan of Kompong Svay have sandstone balustrades supplied from nearby quarries. In contrast, cluster and principal component analyses and t-tests using data for chemical composition and magnetic susceptibility of laterite blocks revealed that there were five sources of supply. These results elucidated that the supply ranges of laterite blocks were narrower than those of the sandstone blocks. Judging from magnetic susceptibilities, supply ranges, shapes, orientations of bedding planes, and stacking methods of the stone blocks, it was concluded that the construction age of the bridges is highly likely to have been in the early Angkor Wat period.

Visualizing Inclusive Leadership: Using Arts-based Research to Develop an Aligned University Culture

Values of exclusive leadership characterize the administration of the neoliberal university, but are incongruous with values of inclusive leadership often enacted in the work of teaching, learning, and research. This article explores how an action research project to advance inclusive leadership at Royal Roads University adapted a visual data elicitation method and used metaphor analysis to reveal opportunities to align espoused, communicated, and enacted values. Images evoke metaphors (Mumby & Spitzack, 1983; Vakkayil, 2008) that enable researchers engaged in their own organizational development to elicit creative possibilities that are “covered up by the familiarity of everyday experience” (Koch & Deetz, 1981, p. 13). By eliciting desired qualities associated with inclusive leadership (Rayner, 2009), we have been able to make visible and model inclusive messages, structures, behaviours, strategies, and actions as the building blocks of a culture built on the value of inclusivity and collaboration, and the principles of diversity and interdependence. One key insight of the research is that arts-based action research effectively equips academic and administrative leaders to transcend deficit-based problem solving and the reductionism associated with neoliberal university management and to approach organizational development with the creative energy that arts-based research inspires.

ONLINE COLLABORATION: INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE

This special issue grew out of a workshop sponsored by the Sloan Consortium held in Victoria, British Columbia at Royal Roads University. Researchers and leaders in the field of online learning were invited to the workshop and organized into five teams to address five challenges.

Royal Roads and Entangled Webs: Mining Metals and Making Value in El Cubo, Guanajuato, Mexico

In this article I study recent struggles in the gold mining town of El Cubo, Guanajuato, Mexico, over what should happen to mining profits. Rather than framing these primarily or only in terms of a...

The Road Network in the Longue Durée: A Reading Key of the History of Territories

AbstractThe historical study of routes has long remained confined to the great Roman roads, to the modern royal roads and to the medieval pilgrimage routes. For fifteen years, the French school of Archaeogeography has revisited this research field in great depth, following the first intuitions of the archaeologist Eric Vion. The innovative idea ‒ at least because it leads to a questioning of our methods ‒ is to consider the current road network as the starting point of the analysis. It is the true object of research for the historianarchaeologist because it represents a solid legacy whose logic one must unravel. Because this story is closely integrated with urban, political and economic matters, the study of this inherited road network represents a precious reading key to understanding the history of the territories in the longue durée. In the frame of this paper, we propose to recall these methodological advances and to present a case study in Brittany, around the small town of Chateaugiron. By this example, we want to show that the archaeogeographical analysis and interpretation offer a scientific narrative based on the paradigms of complexity and resilience to contemporary societies in charge of our territories.

Royal roads and dead ends. How institutional procedures influence the coherence of European Union policy formulation

The European Union has repeatedly committed itself to increase the coherence of its external action, with Policy Coherence for Development being singled out as one of the most prominent cases. This paper investigates how the EU promotes this aim in the policy formulation of different governance areas. Using a historical institutionalist approach, it focuses on the process dimension of coherence by presenting extensive empirical data to analyse which institutional procedures – such as Commission inter-service consultations – are regularly applied to what effect. The study discusses the results of tracing the planning of six selected initiatives in fisheries, environment and security policy. It finds that the effective promotion of Policy Coherence for Development does not necessarily depend on the particular policy field and its degree of communitarisation as such but rather on the policy instrument used and especially on the EU institution which conducts the policy formulation.

Accelerating the Take-Up of Climate Change Innovations

The paper explains the findings of the MC3 Project (Meeting the Climate Change Challenge). This project brought together over 100 researchers, practitioners, civil-society leaders, and policy-makers, led by researchers from Royal Roads University, Simon Fraser University, and the University of British Columbia, with 12 major research partners from the public and private sectors, including the Union of British Columbia municipalities. Researchers conducted a detailed evaluation of 11 leading, yet different, municipalities across the province to identify the leading innovators and innovations on climate action. The case studies revealed the following key drivers of innovation, in order of prominence: the legislative and policy framework, supported by provincially led incentives and tools, access to partnership funding and intermediary support, and framing the issue as critically important.

Opening the Web of Learning: Students, Professors, and Community Partners Co-Creating Real-Life Learning Experiences

This article documents an example of a successful learning partnership for an activity called the Leadership Challenge (LC), an experiential learning design used by Royal Roads University (RRU) in its Master of Arts in Leadership Program. The LC is based on a co-learning model in which professors create the conditions for students’ learning; community-based organizations bring an authentic challenge as a scenario for learning to the students; and organizations, professors, and students all learn from one another throughout the process. We believe this experience is an example of how genuine partnerships between universities and community organizations can be created in which community partners are squarely placed in the center of the academic experience, rather than being treated as peripheral. Written from the perspective of representatives from both the university and the community service organization, this article also documents the limitations of this activity based on the short time frame allowed.