Maryann Wu, Dabrick A. Brill, Mrunmayee Prakash Shirodkar, Jianxuan Tan, Mukesh Poptani, Ying Wang and Ian S. Haworth
With a growing need to assess multiple aspects of healthcare education, the goal of this study was to develop an innovative web-based application to streamline assessment…
Abstract
Purpose
With a growing need to assess multiple aspects of healthcare education, the goal of this study was to develop an innovative web-based application to streamline assessment processes and meet the increasingly complex role of the educational manager.
Design/methodology/approach
AARDVARC (Automated Approach to Reviewing and Developing Valuable Assessment Resources for your Curriculum) was created with the core function of standardizing course syllabi through the use of a web-based portal and the ability to query fields within the portal to collect multiple points of data. AARDVARC permits quick and efficient gathering of programmatic, curricular, faculty, teaching, preceptor and financial data to facilitate meaningful change and a shared responsibility of assessment. This software has allowed automatic completion of complex analytics each semester, including coverage of program outcomes, course learning objectives, teaching and assessment methods, course readings, topics covered in the curriculum, faculty teaching hours, experiential activities, coverage of disease states and scheduling of peer observation of teaching.
Findings
Three years after its initial launch, AARDVARC is now used by 520 faculty, 60 staff, 44 preceptors and over 2,000 students across multiple health profession and science programs. Data analytics through AARDVARC have allowed the School to reimagine how assessment can be conducted and have provided a pathway for making evidence-based programmatic and curricular changes.
Originality/value
This original software has provided an innovative approach to conduct assessment that combines best practices in curriculum, assessment, data analytics and educational technology while improving the overall quality, speed, and efficiency of academic and business operations.
Details
Keywords
Charles Oppenheim, Ian Tilsed, Alasdair Paterson, Jill Bradley, Stephen Pinfield, Brian McKenna and Anand Amlani
Haworth Press, the well known publishers in the library and information science field, have recently cottoned on to an interesting idea: devote a special issue of one of their…
Abstract
Haworth Press, the well known publishers in the library and information science field, have recently cottoned on to an interesting idea: devote a special issue of one of their journals to a special theme, and at the same time produce a hardback book, reasonably priced, that reproduces the articles. The idea is to appeal to a market other than the libraries that will typically subscribe to the Haworth journals. Success depends upon the collection of chapters forming a coherent whole. This book, reproduced from a special issue of The Reference Librarian, partly succeeds. The 150 page hardback book comprises seven articles, from five different authors (two authors supply two articles each) with an editor's introduction. The articles are fairly typical journal articles, reporting research results; some could easily have graced the pages of Online and CD‐ROM Review. The articles vary somewhat in length and style, but generally either review the literature of a particular topic, or describe some recent research work. The title is somewhat misleading, as the book is NOT comprehensive; a better subtitle would have been ‘Aspects of Use and User Behavior’.
It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields…
Abstract
It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.
Ian Tilsed, Simon Tanner, Mae Keary, Anne Goulding, Paul Sturges, Fytton Rowland and Philip Barker
At first glance, this A4 size guide looks very much like the UKOLUG newsletter, sharing as it does the same cover design. However, this book is one of a number of publications…
Abstract
At first glance, this A4 size guide looks very much like the UKOLUG newsletter, sharing as it does the same cover design. However, this book is one of a number of publications from the group aimed at users of online and CD‐ROM resources, and builds upon two previous UKOLUG guides to CD‐ROMs.
Charles Hines, Jerry Kreuze and Sheldon Langsam
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, with particular focus on its use of Repo 105 transactions.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, with particular focus on its use of Repo 105 transactions.
Design/methodology/approach
The use of the Lehman's bankruptcy report produced in part by Anton R. Valukas was used as a basis to explain how Lehman maintained acceptable leverage ratios through the use of Repo 105 transactions to paint a better picture of its financial position than actually existed.
Findings
The study concludes that Lehman's accounting method choice disguised its real problems, perhaps long enough for bankruptcy to become the only option.
Practical implications
Lehman's bankruptcy becomes part of a growing history of business failures where accounting principles have become the focus. The failure of Lehman reminds us that financial reporting must remain transparent, allowing users to make informed decisions with confidence.
Originality/value
This bankruptcy provides a painful reminder that financial reporting must allow users to differentiate among investment alternatives, based on the relative, factual financial position of the investment. The credibility of our reporting model is at stake.
Details
Keywords
The Seminar on Library Interior Layout and Design organised by IFLA's Section on Library Buildings and Equipment, and attended by people from over twenty‐two countries, was held…
Abstract
The Seminar on Library Interior Layout and Design organised by IFLA's Section on Library Buildings and Equipment, and attended by people from over twenty‐two countries, was held at Frederiksdal, Denmark, in June 1980. This present article neither reports on the Seminar's proceedings, as it is hoped to publish the papers in due course, nor describes fully the Danish public libraries seen, but rather uses the Seminar's theme and the library visits as a point of departure for considering some aspects of the interior layout—the landscape—of public libraries. Brief details of the new Danish public libraries visited are given in a table at the end of the article.
Wilfred Ashworth and Ian Pettman
This is a most important study of an essentially modern situation. The first part, “Getting in Print”, introduces the way short‐run publications can be produced without…
Abstract
This is a most important study of an essentially modern situation. The first part, “Getting in Print”, introduces the way short‐run publications can be produced without sacrificing quality or being priced out of the market. There has been considerable polarisation in the publishing trade as huge multinational combines have continued to take over smaller units and now dominate the publishing, marketing and distribution of English language titles worldwide. This could well have made it difficult indeed for authors of low‐volume, less profitably saleable works to find a publisher. Paradoxically, however, helped by computer technology it has opened up the field for enterprising new small‐scale publishers, with an eye for scholarly specialist subjects and new authors, to issue short‐run editions and even to achieve a better return on capital and higher profit ratios than do the major publishers. The total number of titles produced has actually grown, causing bibliographical problems for librarians who need to keep track of publication, and greatly increasing the number of works going out of print before they can be acquired. The reprint trade is similarly in confusion because the economics of reprinting have become more chancy for some works and potentially easier for others.
In the spring of 1982, I published an article in Reference Services Review on marketing libraries and information services. The article covered available literature on that topic…
Abstract
In the spring of 1982, I published an article in Reference Services Review on marketing libraries and information services. The article covered available literature on that topic from 1970 through part of 1981, the time period immediately following Kotler and Levy's significant and frequently cited article in the January 1969 issue of the Journal of Marketing, which was first to suggest the idea of marketing nonprofit organizations. The article published here is intended to update the earlier work in RSR and will cover the literature of marketing public, academic, special, and school libraries from 1982 to the present.
Within the past few years, responsible educators, librarians, parents, counselors, social workers, therapists, and religious groups of all sexual persuasions and lifestyles have…
Abstract
Within the past few years, responsible educators, librarians, parents, counselors, social workers, therapists, and religious groups of all sexual persuasions and lifestyles have recognized the need for readily available reading material for lesbian and gay youth. Unfortunately, this material is often buried, because it is embedded in larger works. To meet this need, I have compiled and annotated 100 of the best works for young homosexuals, bisexuals, and heterosexuals. I have also included a few of the best works currently available on heterosexuality as a much needed source of knowledge for all young adults whether they are gay or straight, whether they remain childless or eventually become parents.