Comparing Professional and Academic Qualifications as a Route to Institutional Curriculum Change

There are many current initiatives concerned with achieving institutional changes to curricula. These include, inter alia, various versions of online learning, distance learning and work-based learning. This paper considers blending academic curricula and qualifications with professional body curricula and qualifications as a possible way of achieving cost-effective curricula change. The author’s home institution currently delivers Academic Qualifications in Facilities Management (FM); a BSc (Hons) and an MSc. The institution also delivers the Professional Qualifications for the relevant professional body, the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), at levels 4, 5 and 6.All qualifications and awards are delivered by web-based distance learning. This paper analyses the content and assessment of the Professional Qualification and compares the Professional Qualification with the equivalent Academic Qualification. Using both quantitative and qualitative analysis the paper finds that the Professional Qualification is more challenging and more rigorous than the Academic Qualification. The expectations of the learners from the professional body are higher than the expectations of the students from the university. The implications of this finding are then considered. Given that the Professional Qualification is more challenging and rigorous, could the institutional curricula be changed so that the Professional Qualification could be integrated into an Academic Qualification, thus opening a vocational route for a degree? The paper concludes with a brief consideration of the financial costs and other implications of such an institutional curricula change.

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FACILITIES MANAGEMENT OUTSOURCING: THEORETICAL TRENDS AND EVIDENCE FROM PRACTICE IN NIGERIA AND UNITED KINGDOM

International Journal of Strategic Property Management ◽

10.3846/1648715x.2015.1132789 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 207-219 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dubem I. IKEDIASHI ◽

Isaac A. ODESOLA

Keyword(s):

Questionnaire Survey ◽

Response Rate ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Integrated Approach ◽

Management Tool ◽

Facilities Management ◽

Related Services ◽

High Profile ◽

Current State ◽

British Institute

Previous research has acknowledged facilities management (FM) as a discipline that optimises the delivery of facilities and its related services through use of high profile strategies that provide cost effective, high quality and integrated approach to the concept of managing facilities and its related services. The purpose of this paper is to examine the theoretical trends in outsourcing of FM functions and the current state of FM practice using Nigeria and UK as case studies. This re- search used a combination of literature review and questionnaire survey. The questionnaire survey was conducted to further explore (through comparative analysis) the perception of 30 (15 from UK and 15 from Nigeria) carefully selected facilities managers in UK and Nigeria who are subscribing members of British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) and International Facilities Manage- ment Association (IFMA) Nigeria’s chapter respectively. 22 respondents consisting of 13 received from UK respondents and 9 from Nigeria responded to the survey giving a response rate of 73%. Findings reveal among others that FM has grown from the traditional day-to-day operational management to being a strategic management tool; while janitorial services and facilities maintenance remain the most outsourced FM services.

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The Process of Installing REDCap, a Web Based Database Supporting Biomedical Research

Applied Clinical Informatics ◽

10.4338/aci-2014-06-cr-0054 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 05 (04) ◽

pp. 916-929 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

I. Mare ◽

S. Hazelhurst ◽

B. Kramer ◽

M. Klipin

Keyword(s):

Biomedical Research ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Research Data ◽

First Year ◽

Training Workshop ◽

End User ◽

Web Based ◽

Human Research Ethics ◽

The University ◽

Vanderbilt University

Summary Background: Clinical and research data are essential for patient care, research and healthcare system planning. REDCapTM is a web-based tool for research data curatorship developed at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, USA. The Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg South Africa identified the need for a cost effective data management instrument. REDCap was installed as per the user agreement with Vanderbilt University in August 2012. Objectives: In order to assist other institutions that may lack the in-house Information Technology capacity, this paper describes the installation and support of REDCap and incorporates an analysis of user uptake over the first year of use. Methods: We reviewed the staffing requirements, costs of installation, process of installation and necessary infrastructure and end-user requests following the introduction of REDCap at Wits. The University Legal Office and Human Research Ethics Committee were consulted regarding the REDCap end-user agreement. Bi-monthly user meetings resulted in a training workshop in August 2013. We compared our REDCap software user numbers and records before and after the first training workshop. Results: Human resources were recruited from existing staff. Installation costs were limited to servers and security certificates. The total costs to provide a functional REDCap platform was less than $9000. Eighty-one (81) users were registered in the first year. After the first training workshop the user numbers increased by 59 in one month and the total number of active users to 140 by the end of August 2013. Custom software applications for REDCap were created by collaboration between clinicians and software developers. Conclusion: REDCap was installed and maintained at limited cost. A small number of people with defined skills can support multiple REDCap users in two to four hours a week. End user training increased in the number of users, number of projects created and the number of projects moved to production. Citation: Klipin M, Mare I, Hazelhurst S, Kramer B. The process of installing REDCap, a web based database supporting biomedical research – the first year. Appl Clin Inf 2014; 5: 916–929http://dx.doi.org/10.4338/ACI-2014-06-CR-0054

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Visualization techniques in agriculture

Acta Agraria Debreceniensis ◽

10.34101/actaagrar/55/1916 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 95-98

Author(s):

Péter Ragán ◽

Károly Bakó ◽

Tamás Dövényi-Nagy

Keyword(s):

Spatial Data ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Google Earth ◽

Main Role ◽

Web Based ◽

Database Structure ◽

Representation Method ◽

Visualization Techniques ◽

The University

This paper describes a dynamic map representation method which provides a flexible, spectacular and cost-effective opportunity for the illustration and description of spatial data due to its parametrability, web-based publication and the free sowftare it uses in multi-user circumstances. The tasks of the database serves and the processing were performed by an ASUS WL-500 G Premium v2 router and a 80 GB hard disk. The database contains the measured data of the nitrogen fertilisation experiment established on the Látókép Experiment Site of the Centre for Agricultural Sciences of the University of Debrecen. The tests showed that the generation time of the processor which was run through the router did not significantly increase. Therefore, the configuration developed by us is suitable for users who do not wish to invest into a large and expensive server, but they still want to view their data quickly and easily, as well as to reach them from anywhere. The available data were not sorted into a database which was performed with Quantum GIS in a way to have an optimum database structure which is adjusted to the expected areas of use and the expected running speeds were also taken into consideration. The processor which processes the database items was written in PHP language. The main role of the processor is that it produces a KML file real time which is suitable for viewing with a given map viewer client (e.g. Google Earth). This application makes it possible to view information related to geographical objects, values stored in the database or those calculated by the processor on a map in 2D or 3D in a versatile way.

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A distance-learning Course on Indoor Environmental Comfort in Buildings

International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM) ◽

10.3991/ijim.v11i5.7075 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 118

Author(s):

Manuel Gameiro Silva ◽

Luísa Dias Pereira ◽

João A. Dias Carrilho ◽

Joana Neto ◽

Maria José Marcelino ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Distance Learning ◽

Remote Access ◽

Indoor Environmental Quality ◽

Discussion Forums ◽

Virtual Laboratories ◽

Starting Point ◽

Professional Body ◽

E Learning ◽

Sustainable Energy Systems ◽

The University

<p class="0abstract">A project for the creation and implementation of a distance-learning course on Indoor Environmental Comfort in Buildings (IECB) is presented. This course resulted from a request by <em>Ordem dos Engenheiros</em> (Portuguese engineering professional body) to the University of Coimbra. It was based on the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) course of the Master in Energy for Sustainability and PhD in Sustainable Energy Systems of the University of Coimbra, coordinated by the first author. Jointly with the support of the Distance Education Service of the University of Coimbra, using as a starting point the existing contents of a formal discipline, the teaching methodologies and a set of activities were developed to implement a distance-learning course with a strong e-learning component by the students. Diversified strategies, using the existing platform running on Moodle, such as webinars, virtual laboratories, remote access labs, discussion forums and synchronous sessions, were tested to ensure a dynamic and interested engagement of the students along the course.</p>

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Cooperative Agents in Web-Based Distance Learning

Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, Second Edition ◽

10.4018/978-1-60566-198-8.ch068 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 454-463

Author(s):

Leonard Barolli ◽

Akio Koyama

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Distance Learning ◽

Learning Systems ◽

The Internet ◽

Multimedia Computing ◽

Web Based ◽

Cooperative Agents ◽

The University ◽

The Way

In the last few years, we have observed an explosive growth of multimedia computing, communications, and applications. This revolution is transforming the way people live, work, and interact with each other, and is impacting the way businesses, education, entertainment, and health care are operating. Due to the opportunities provided by the Internet, more and more people are taking advantage of distance learning courses. During the last few years, enormous research efforts have been dedicated to the development of distance learning systems (Katayama & Kambayashi, 1999; Nakabayashi et al., 1997). Consequently, many large projects such as the CALAT Project (www.calat.com), CALsurf (http://webbase.ntts.co.jp),, WebCAI (http:// iclap.ce.nihon-u.ac.jp/~webcai_), The University of The Air (http://www.u-air.ac.jp/, and WIDE University (http://www.sfc.wide.ad.jp/soi/contents.html) have been established (Ogawa, Ijiun, & Murai, 1999).

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Towards an integrated approach to the recognition of professional competence and academic learning

Education + Training ◽

10.1108/et-10-2015-0091 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 58 (4) ◽

pp. 409-421 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Darryll Bravenboer ◽

Stan Lester

Keyword(s):

Professional Competence ◽

Integrated Approach ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Academic Learning ◽

Development Activity ◽

Content Type ◽

Professional Recognition ◽

Academic Qualification ◽

Professional Body ◽

Academic Qualifications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the benefits of reclaiming the idea of professional competence and challenges fragmented approaches to academic qualification and professional recognition. It is argued that academic programmes that are integrated with the requirements for professional recognition can resolve the potentially unhelpful differentiation between “theory” and “practice” and between “knowledge” and “competence”. Design/methodology/approach – Three contextualised case studies are presented to demonstrate a range of possibilities for developing academic programmes that integrate professional competence in the fields of construction, aviation and management. Findings – It is argued that the examples described provide some evidence that where competence is conceived of as a matter of open on-going professional development, it can be effectively integrated and aligned with the intended outcomes of academic qualifications. Furthermore, that the examples described demonstrate that the idea of professional competence can operate to ground knowledge in practice contexts and ensure that professional values are positioned as a requirement of being qualified. Originality/value – The diversity of the examples provided across three distinct sectors illustrate the potential for wider curriculum development opportunities for higher education practitioners. The need to align professional body recognition with academic qualification for higher and degree apprenticeships may also indicate significant implications for policy in this area. The cases presented provide evidence that academic qualifications can be developed that are at the same time recognised by employers as delivering a professionally competent workforce. This kind of development activity can provide both an incentive for employers to pay for education and training and opening opportunities for career progression for those in work.

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Combined Web-Based Distance Learning Followed by Brief On-Site Practice: A Cost- Effective Way of Training Infection Preventionists in Countries with Limited Resources

American Journal of Infection Control ◽

10.1016/j.ajic.2011.04.259 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 39 (5) ◽

pp. E152-E153

Author(s):

Don Guimera ◽

Hilda Hernandez ◽

Martha Huertas ◽

Agustin De Colsa ◽

Victor Perez Robles ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Distance Learning ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Limited Resources ◽

Web Based ◽

Infection Preventionists

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Towards Developing a Framework to Analyze the Qualities of the University Websites

Computers ◽

10.3390/computers10050057 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 57

Author(s):

Maliha Rashida ◽

Kawsarul Islam ◽

A. S. M. Kayes ◽

Mohammad Hammoudeh ◽

Mohammad Shamsul Arefin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

University Ranking ◽

Web Based ◽

Ranking Systems ◽

Notice Board ◽

Academic Websites ◽

Multi Method Approach ◽

The University ◽

University Ranking Systems ◽

Ranked List

The website of a university is considered to be a virtual gateway to provide primary resources to its stakeholders. It can play an indispensable role in disseminating information about a university to a variety of audience at a time. Thus, the quality of an academic website requires special attention to fulfil the users’ need. This paper presents a multi-method approach of quality assessment of the academic websites, in the context of universities of Bangladesh. We developed an automated web-based tool that can evaluate any academic website based on three criteria, which are as follows: content of information, loading time and overall performance. Content of information contains many sub criteria, such as university vision and mission, faculty information, notice board and so on. This tool can also perform comparative analysis among several academic websites and generate a ranked list of these. To the best of our knowledge, this is the very first initiative to develop an automated tool for accessing academic website quality in context of Bangladesh. Beside this, we have conducted a questionnaire-based statistical evaluation among several universities to obtain the respective users’ feedback about their academic websites. Then, a ranked list is generated based on the survey result that is almost similar to the ranked list got from the University ranking systems. This validates the effectiveness of our developed tool in accessing academic website.

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