• A Longitudinal Study of Academic Web Links: Identifying and Explaining Change

      Payne, Nigel (University of Wolverhampton, 2007)
      A problem common to all current web link analyses is that, as the web is continuously evolving, any web-based study may be out of date by the time it is published in academic literature. It is therefore important to know how web link analyses results vary over time, with a low rate of variation lengthening the amount of time corresponding to a tolerable loss in quality. Moreover, given the lack of research on how academic web spaces change over time, from an information science perspective it would interesting to see what patterns and trends could be identified by longitudinal research and the study of university web links seems to provide a convenient means by which to do so. The aim of this research is to identify and track changes in three academic webs (UK, Australia and New Zealand) over time, tracking various aspects of academic webs including site size and overall linking characteristics, and to provide theoretical explanations of the changes found. This should therefore provide some insight into the stability of previous and future webometric analyses. Alternative Document Models (ADMs), created with the purpose of reducing the extent to which anomalies occur in counts of web links at the page level, have been used extensively within webometrics as an alternative to using the web page as the basic unit of analysis. This research carries out a longitudinal study of ADMs in an attempt to ascertain which model gives the most consistent results when applied to the UK, Australia and New Zealand academic web spaces over the last six years. The results show that the domain ADM gives the most consistent results with the directory ADM also giving more reliable results than are evident when using the standard page model. Aggregating at the site (or university) level appears to provide less consistent results than using the page as the standard unit of measure, and this finding holds true over all three academic webs and for each time period examined over the last six years. The question of whether university web sites publish the same kind of information and use the same kind of hyperlinks year on year is important from the perspective of interpreting the results of academic link analyses, because changes in link types over time would also force interpretations of link analyses to change over time. This research uses a link classification exercise to identify temporal changes in the distribution of different types of academic web links, using three academic web spaces in the years 2000 and 2006. Significant increases in ‘research oriented’, ‘social/leisure’ and ‘superficial’ links were identified as well as notable decreases in the ‘technical’ and ‘personal’ links. Some of these changes identified may be explained by general changes in the management of university web sites and some by more wide-spread Internet trends, e.g., dynamic pages, blogs and social networking. The increase in the proportion of research-oriented links is particularly hopeful for future link analysis research. Identifying quantitative trends in the UK, Australian and New Zealand academic webs from 2000 to 2005 revealed that the number of static pages and links in each of the three academic webs appears to have stabilised as far back as 2001. This stabilisation may be partly due to an increase in dynamic pages which are normally excluded from webometric analyses. In response to the problem for webometricians due to the constantly changing nature of the Internet, the results presented here are encouraging evidence that webometrics for academic spaces may have a longer-term validity than would have been previously assumed. The relationship between university inlinks and research activity indicators over time was examined, as well as the reasons for individual universities experiencing significant increases and decreases in inlinks over the last six years. The findings indicate that between 66% and 70% of outlinks remain the same year on year for all three academic web spaces, although this stability conceals large individual differences. Moreover, there is evidence of a level of stability over time for university site inlinks when measured against research. Surprisingly however, inlink counts can vary significantly from year to year for individual universities, for reasons unrelated to research, underlining that webometric results should be interpreted cautiously at the level of individual universities. Therefore, on average since 2001 the university web sites of the UK, Australia and New Zealand have been relatively stable in terms of size and linking patterns, although this hides a constant renewing of old pages and areas of the sites. In addition, the proportion of research-related links seems to be slightly increasing. Whilst the former suggests that webometric results are likely to have a surprisingly long shelf-life, perhaps closer to five years than one year, the latter suggests that webometrics is going to be increasingly useful as a tool to track research online. While there have already been many studies involving academic webs spaces, and much work has been carried out on the web from a longitudinal perspective, this thesis concentrates on filling a critical gap in current webometric research by combining the two and undertaking a longitudinal study of academic webs. In comparison with previous web-related longitudinal studies this thesis makes a number of novel contributions. Some of these stem from extending established webometric results, either by introducing a longitudinal aspect (looking at how various academic web metrics such as research activity indicators, site size or inlinks change over time) or by their application to other countries. Other contributions are made by combining traditional webometric methods (e.g. combining topical link classification exercises with longitudinal study) or by identifying and examining new areas for research (for example, dynamic pages and non-HTML documents). No previous web-based longitudinal studies have focused on academic links and so the main findings that (for UK, Australian and New Zealand academic webs between 2000 and 2006) certain academic link types exhibit changing patterns over time, approximately two-thirds of outlinks remain the same year on year and the number of static pages and links appears to have stabilised are both significant and novel.
    • A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? An analysis of student engagement with virtual learning environments.

      Dale, Crispin; Lane, Andrew M. (York: The Higher Education Academy, 2007)
      The growth in the use of virtual learning environments to support learning and teaching should be accompanied by research to examine their effectiveness. The aim of this study was twofold: a) To explore the views, opinions and experiences of student engagement or non-engagement in online learning activities; b) To use this knowledge to develop learning and teaching strategies that enhance student engagement with online learning activities. Focus groups were conducted with students studying leisure and tourism degree programmes to explore reasons for usage and non-usage of the online activities in the Wolverhampton Online Learning Framework (WOLF). Results identified issues related to student awareness, motivation, behaviour and learning approaches, assessment and technical factors. Findings from the study have implications for practice, including how to enhance the relevance of information, technical factors, enhancing awareness and links with assessment.
    • Accessibility and adaptive technology

      Musgrove, Nick; Salter, Pam (University of Wolverhampton, 2002)
      Experience gained during an earlier project (Musgrove, Homfray & Addison, 2001) supported the premise that providing appropriate specialist hardware systems and adjusting software interfaces could improve accessibility to Information and communications Technology(ICT) and consequently to Technology Supported Learning (TSL) supported modules for certain additional needs students. School of Applied Sciences (SAS) and School of Art and Design (SAD) already have a large constituency of additional needs students which has a potential to increase through normal recruitment as well as through School or University initiatives (e.g. Flexible Access Projects and Widening Participation) and transfer from linked F.E. colleges and other institutions. The project aims to enhance learner support by implementing such specialist resources, infrastructure, training and support, as will enable additional needs students to fully exploit the increasing use of software, TSL and on-line facilities. The project is supported by the broad experience of the team; two members have specific ICT skills as well as specialist subject skills and are involved in SAS TSL developments and the third has considerable experience in supporting additional needs students.
    • Afterword: towards a future paradigm

      Prior, Ross W; Mateus-Berr, Ruth; Jochum, Richard (De Gruyter, 2020-05-01)
      The use of art as research has greatly matured, and, despite the current preoccupation with measurement in the education sector, artistic research has continued to gain acceptance as a legitimate methodology for artists. Yet art-based research is still not completely and universally embedded within higher education learning and teaching approaches. The field’s continued lack of confidence in using art as a vehicle of research is one reason. There is a need to stop relying upon other disciplines to justify the power of art. If we acknowledge that words cannot always reveal the uniquely felt qualities of art, then we cannot persist in using words as exclusive modes of research. Personal, embodied ways of knowing are of interest to researchers and value the importance of knowledge that is incrementally gained through the acts of doing and being. However, art is empirical-art and art processes are observable and can be entwined throughout the art-making process as a methodology of inquiry. Proposed here, as a future paradigm, is the threefold primacy of art in research, learning and teaching-positioning art as the topic, process and outcome of research. Significantly art as research recognizes art objects as full participants and uses art as its evidence.
    • An evaluation of the effectiveness of a programme aimed to develop the key skills capabilities of nursing students.

      Moran, Wendy (University of Wolverhampton, 2002)
      The University’s Learning and Teaching Strategy (UoW 2000) recognises that the development of key skills and the diagnosis of key skills are central concerns. A Key Skills Strategy has been developed by the School of Health as a central theme in the School’s draft Learning and Teaching Strategy. The key skills have been seen as a major part of the curriculum in Higher Education for some years. The emphasis upon key skills development has been underlined by the Dearing Enquiry (1997). The school has completed a 2 year research project funded by HEFCE under the Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP)3 initiative. The project sought to develop information technology (IT) and numeracy skills using technology support learning(TSL). This project identified that nursing and midwifery students had significant deficits in IT and numeracy skills. The project built upon work completed on the TLTP3 Project. A range of measures were devised to assist students in development all 6 key skills. Although there has been much work completed in order to raise the profile of key skills within the School, we have limited understanding of how students perceive the benefits of the Key Skills Strategy which has been adopted. The project collected data from a range of sources in several phases. The data was collected in relation to 197 Pre-Registration Nursing Students in year 1 of RN/Dip.H.E. (Registered Nurse Diploma Higher Education) programme. Participation notes were distributed to the students at the beginning of the project by a Project Team member, who was also a Module Leader for the Key Skills Module the students were undertaking.
    • An investigation of the structure of, and demand for, learning delivery systems to further enable flexible access and customised provision within postgraduate and continuing professional development programmes in Environmental Science.

      Crossland, Glenys (University of Wolverhampton, 2002)
      Within the context of Lifelong Learning it has been increasingly recognised that the new constituencies of learners now entering Higher Education (HE) will place different demands than hitherto upon the institutions and the programmes delivered. In the Division of Environmental and Analytical Sciences at the University of Wolverhampton (UW), it has also been noted that the typical participant profile for some award programmes is increasingly reflecting this national trend. This has been growing particularly within the masters programmes where the significant numbers of post- experience candidates render the cohorts much more disparate than previously in their needs and demands from the course provision. The growing importance of demand-led provision has been further driven by an increase in the upskilling needs of the regional economies which, in turn, are generating an influx of new constituencies of learners into HE. For the West Midlands region, and for UW, this is a particularly important issue given their joint commitment to economic and social regeneration, and the latter’s role as a major employer in the region. Locally, this is a particularly pertinent issue for the field of Environmental Sciences where there have been clear statements of need regarding the development and management of the environmental economy. (Advantage West Midlands 2000). The project was intended, initially, to gather data, which would inform future provision for the following masters award programmes: Land Reclamation; Environmental Science; Environmental Management; Environmental Technology.
    • An overview of research on student support: helping students to achieve or achieving institutional targets? Nurture or De-Nature?

      Smith, Rob (Taylor & Francis, 2007)
      In the quasi-marketised environment of the new, mass higher education (HE), centralised policy continues to dictate conditions, and traditionally stable sources of income are being made increasingly unreliable. An increasing emphasis on student support within HE institutions (HEIs) has been made necessary by targets for student numbers and the funding that rests on these numbers. These tensions have been added to for 'post-1992' universities, by the Widening Participation initiative that brings with it particular issues around recruitment and retention. Rather than focusing on the models and systems of support that are being developed in different HE settings and their effectiveness, the aim of this paper is to theorise the imperatives behind these, to look again at the context that informs their inception and how the various support structures position and identify students. Through this, the tensions that exist between financial incentives, 'bums on seats', Widening Participation and academic achievement rates will be explored.
    • An overview of research on student support: Helping students to achieve or achieving institutional targets? Nurture or De-Nature?

      Smith, Rob (University of Wolverhampton, 2006)
      In the quasi-marketised environment of the new, mass HE, centralised policy continues to dictate conditions and traditionally stable sources of income are being made increasingly unreliable. An increasing emphasis on student support within HE institutions (HEIs) has been made necessary by targets for student numbers and the funding that rests on these. These tensions have been added to for ‘post-1992’ universities, by the Widening Participation initiative that brings with it particular issues around recruitment and retention. In this context, it is not surprising that the issue of student support has triggered a raft of research and scholarship geared towards providing technical solutions. This paper argues that before such solutions are fixed on, HEIs need to investigate the conceptual underpinning of such mechanisms. Rather than focusing on the models and systems of support that are being developed in different HE settings and their effectiveness, the aim of this paper is to theorise the imperatives behind these, to look again at the context that informs their inception and how the various support structures position and identify students. Through this, the tensions that exist between financial incentives, ‘bums on seats’, Widening Participation and academic achievement rates will be explored.
    • Assessment criteria: reflections on current practices

      Woolf, Harvey (Routledge (Taylor & Francis), 2004)
      This article reviews the findings of a small-scale investigation into the criteria used by a number of SACWG departments for assessing final-year project modules in business and history and other written history assignments. The findings provide the basis for a broader discussion of the issues relating to the formulation and use of assessment criteria. Assessment entails academics making professional judgements about the standards and quality of students' work. However, for the educational value of the work entailed in developing assessment criteria to be fully realized, there needs to be a higher level of shared understanding than currently exists (among students, tutors and other stakeholders) of the language in which criteria are couched and the ways in which criteria are applied.
    • Assigning Level in Data-mining Exercises

      Hooley, Paul; Chilton, Ian J.; Fincham, Daron A.; Burns, Alan T. H.; Whitehead, Michael P. (Centre for Bioscience, the Higher Education Academy, 2007)
      There is currently much interest in ascribing outcomes to Masters (M) level programmes. It is particularly difficult to define M level outcomes in bioinformatics for students on non-specialist programmes. An approach is described that attempts to discriminate undergraduate from M level in a data-mining exercise. Differentiation of level is based upon the taxonomic origin of a DNA sequence, the relative increase in gene complexity from lower to higher eukaryote and the initiative required to use a wider range of databases and analytical tools.
    • Buddy system for nursing students: two practice focused approaches to peer support

      Moran, Wendy; Swindlehurst, Matt; Wainwright, Claire; Bucknor, Jenny; Welyczko, Adrian; Hamilton, Lisa; Southan, Lorna (University of Wolverhampton, 2003)
    • Catalogue shopping: the power of the OPAC

      Ordidge, Irene; Edwards, Ann; McNutt, Vince; Oddy, Elizabeth; Thomas, Curwen (University of Wolverhampton, 2003)
    • Challenges and strategies for improving the quality of information in a university setting: a case study

      Dhillon, Jaswinder (Routledge (Taylor & Francis), 2001)
      Knowledge, information and communication are crucial for organizational effectiveness and key to the ability of the organization to respond to change. This article reports on the findings of a research and developmental project in a modular multi-campus university focusing on improving the quality of information to students and other users. The research uncovered challenges for developing an information strategy in a large multi-site organization. These challenges included aspects of the organizational culture and blocks to effective exchange of knowledge and information for strategic organizational advantage. The findings offer insights which may help other organizations in evaluating their own processes and procedures for effective communication of knowledge and information. The methodology used for the research offers organizations a process for learning about the organizational culture and an approach for facilitating cultural change in moving towards a knowledge-based organization.
    • Changing Times, Changing Lives: a new look at job satisfaction in two university Schools of education located in the English West Midlands.

      Rhodes, Christopher; Hollinshead, Anne; Nevill, Alan M. (London: Routledge (Taylor & Francis), 2007)
      This article reports on the outcomes from an initial study to explore the job satisfaction of academics in the light of changes in higher education in the UK. The study is placed in relation to attendant concerns that the job satisfaction, motivation and morale of academic staff may be being tested. A questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to secure academics perceptions from two Schools of Education located within chartered and statutory universities in the English West Midlands. Thirty facets perceived important in impacting upon job satisfaction were identified and from these, key facets deemed either deeply satisfying or deeply dissatisfying to academics were established. These key facets have the potential to impact upon academic's motivation and morale as well as their job satisfaction. A typology based on the balance between key facets is presented as a means to enable manager-academics to further reflect upon possible actions within their Schools and institutions. The study captures insights relevant to informing the future research agenda and highlights the possible consequences of a laissez-faire stance to these important issues.
    • Coursework Marks High, Examination Marks Low: discuss

      Bridges, Paul; Cooper, Angela; Evanson, Peter; Haines, Chris; Jenkins, Don; Scurry, David; Woolf, Harvey; Yorke, Mantz (Routledge, 2002)
      It is commonly believed that the standard of student performance in coursework tends to be higher than that achieved in formal examinations. This view was tested by analysing undergraduate performances in six subjects at four UK universities. Two measures of relative coursework performance were employed. The first is the difference between the mean coursework and examination marks for each module. The second considers the proportion of students in each module who achieve a higher mark in the coursework than in the examination. The measures showed that in English and History coursework performances are slightly higher, equivalent to one-third of one honours class (or division) while, in Biology, Business Studies, Computer Studies and Law, coursework performances are higher by as much as two-thirds of one honours class (or division). The differences observed in the latter subjects are very significant and have serious implications for parity of treatment in degree programmes where students may choose modules with contrasting modes of assessment.
    • CPD for Teachers in Post-compulsory Education.

      Hafiz, Rania; Jones, liff; Kendall, Alex; Lea, John; Rogers, James (London: UCET (Universities Council for the Education of Teachers), 2008)
      The last few years have seen an unprecedented level of activity in regards the education, training and development of teachers in the post-compulsory sector. These stem, to an extent, from the Government's reform programme outlined in the 2004 "Equipping our Teachers for the Future" white paper. But it also comes from the professionalism that exists within the teaching force, its professional associations and in the organisations and institutions that oversee and deliver training programmes for prospective and serving teachers. The purpose of this position paper is fourfold: Firstly, it seeks to provide a summary and critical analysis of the complex and inter-related changes that have taken place in recent years. Secondly, it identifies some examples of good practice in regards CPD and how the "impact" of such practice might be assessed. Thirdly, it proposes the adoption of an entitlement statement that sets out the support teachers in the sector should expect to receive in respect of their continuing professional development. And, finally, it lists some firm recommendations that we would like government agencies, professional associations, universities and others to take on board.
    • Crossing the boundaries: expectations and experience of newcomers to higher and further education

      Avis, James; Kendall, Alex; Parsons, John (Routledge, 2006-12-20)
      This article examines the expectations and experiences of staff new to the FE/HE sector. The research involved the use of focus group interviews supported by a questionnaire. Key findings of the research indicate the pervasiveness of managerialism and the intensification of labour across sectors. Findings also suggest that there is a blurring of the division between labour processes within the new University and FE sectors, and a shared discourse about learners and their expectations of learning. Orientations to research were differentiated within and across the sectors, and those new to FE were largely unaware of the thrust towards the development of practicebased/evidence-based research.
    • Curriculum planning with 'learning outcomes': a theoretical analysis

      Kemp, Brian (University of Wolverhampton, 1999-06)
      The use of learning outcomes for curriculum planning is widely advocated in higher education, it is supported by an imposing set of claims, and it has official sanction, for example from the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). In opposition, there are fierce criticisms, mainly on theoretical grounds. The debate between opposing parties can be sterile, unless conducted in relation to an actual application of learning outcomes. The intention here is to examine such a scheme. This paper considers theoretical arguments in relation to the scheme. There will be a subsequent paper which looks at empirical evidence, and a final paper will offer an alternative framework for planning curriculum content. The motive for this project is the author’s belief that there is much in ‘learning outcomes’ that is inimical to any warranted conception of higher education.
    • Design is practice and theory, not practice with theory

      Marshall, Lindsey; Austin, Marc (University of Wolverhampton, 2003)
    • Developing alternative teaching skills through a programme of video analysis and mentoring

      Hockings, Christine (University of Wolverhampton, 2002)
      In 2000, the University of Wolverhampton's Learning and Teaching Strategy funded an innovation project to change a traditionally taught module to a module based on social constructivist principles. The project team found that whilst the changes to the module improved student learning, they had overlooked the demands these alternative methods would make on the teaching skills and expertise of colleagues. The changes not only required lecturers to think differently about how they teach, they also required them to act differently in the classroom e.g. from ‘telling’ to ‘questioning’ behaviour. Getting students to actively engage with each other and negotiate meaning, rather than imparting knowledge, seemed particularly problematic. At times it was all too tempting to revert back to telling students what they ‘should’ know rather than facilitating the generation of students’ own ideas and encouraging a spirit of enquiry. Of course there could be many factors that affect classroom practice, including the teacher’s beliefs about the students and the subject she is teaching. I therefore conjectured that in order to develop appropriate instructional behaviour we would first need to understand and work on the factors affecting classroom behaviour.