Examining Rater Biases of Peer Assessors in Different Assessment Environments

The current study employed many-facet Rasch measurement (MFRM) to explain the rater bias patterns of EFL student teachers (hereafter students) when they rate the teaching performance of their peers in three assessment environments: online, face-to-face, and anonymous. Twenty-four students and two instructors rated 72 micro-teachings performed by senior Turkish students. The performance was assessed using a five-category analytic rubric developed by the researchers (Lesson Presentation, Classroom Management, Communication, Material, and Instructional Feedback). MFRM revealed the severity and leniency biases in all three assessment environments at the group and individual levels, drawing attention to the less occurrence of biases anonymous assessment. The central tendency and halo effects were observed only at the individual level in all three assessment environments, and these errors were similar to each other. Semi-structured interviews with peer raters (n = 24) documented their perspectives about how the anonymous assessment affected the severity, leniency, central tendency, and halo effects. Besides, the findings displayed that hiding the identity of the peers develops the reliability and validity of the measurements performed during peer assessment.

Engaging people with long-term health conditions in a community-based physical activity initiative: a qualitative follow-up study evaluating the parkrun PROVE project

Background The “parkrun: running or volunteering for everyone” (PROVE) project was an example of a community-based physical activity and volunteering initiative for people living with long-term health conditions in England. The 3 year project involved appointing volunteer Outreach Ambassadors whose role was to promote parkrun to people living with long-term health conditions through various outreach activities. This qualitative study aimed to understand the experience of delivering the project from the perspective of volunteer Outreach Ambassadors and the PROVE Project Manager. Methods The PROVE Project Manager and ten PROVE Outreach Ambassadors across nine health condition groups were interviewed by the researcher (asthma, blood pressure, deaf and hard of hearing, dementia, diabetes, endometriosis, heart conditions, learning disabilities and/or autism, and obesity). Interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Results Four themes and nine sub-themes were generated. The participants highlighted challenges in measuring the project’s success and bringing about meaningful and lasting change, and reflected on the value of the project as a learning opportunity. Despite some successes, it was thought that the project had limited reach outside of the existing parkrun community. The Outreach Ambassadors reflected on their experiences in the role and the skills required, finding it rewarding and highlighting the importance of networking and forming connections with key stakeholders. The findings are discussed in comparison to interviews conducted with the Outreach Ambassadors 12 months earlier. Conclusions This study provides evidence to support the public health potential of parkrun though targeted initiatives such as the PROVE project and provides a critical reflection on what worked and what did not work when delivering the project. The findings have relevance for organisations wishing to implement similar outreach initiatives using a volunteer workforce, including recommendations for resource management, communication, leadership, fostering volunteer autonomy and defining and capturing success.

Competences of Adult Learning Facilitators in Community Service Learning: A Review of Literatures

Community Service Learning (CSL) is designed to help communities in solving their social problems. The role of adult learning facilitators is important to ensure that all the programs of CSL are running well. This study aims to investigate the competences of adult learning facilitators in community service learning programs. The methodology used in this study is literature review. A total of 85 journal papers were identified by the search machine. However, only 15 articles selected to be reviewed in this study. The result shows that there are five main competences that should be mastered by learning facilitators in community services, such as: Knowledge, Management, Communication, Assessment, and Motivation (KoMCAMo). It can be concluded that the competences of adult learning facilitators play significant role to implement the CSL among community`s members. For recommendation, the future projects related to CSL need to require competent facilitators to enhance participation of community for joining the programs. The regular trainings are encouraged to adult learning facilitators to create an effective CLS`s program.

The Effect of Time Management and Communication on Employee Performance with Mediation of Work Motivation in The Kepeng Money Crafts Industry, Kamasan Village, Klungkung District

One of the efforts to improve employee performance is through improvements in time management and communication within the organization. The increasing of time management and communication is expected to increase work motivation for employees. The increasing of employee’s motivation is also expected to have an impact on improving the performance of the employees themselves. This study aims to examine the employee performance through time management, communication and work motivation that was conducted at the Kepeng Money Craft Industry in Kamasan Village, Klungkung District, which involving all 40 company employees as research respondents. This research was conducted in a census. The distribution of questionnaire to the respondents is the method used in collecting the data, then the data is processed using the Structural Equation Modeling Partial Least Square (PLS) method, through the SmartPLS 3.0 program, at a significance level of 0.05 (5%). The results of this study found that time management, communication, and work motivation each had a positive and significant effect on employee performance. Time management has a significant positive effect on work motivation. Time management has a significant positive effect on employee performance. Communication has a significant positive effect on work motivation. Communication has a significant positive effect on employee performance. Work motivation has a significant positive effect on employee performance. Work motivation mediates some of the effects of time management on employee performance. Work motivation mediates some of the effects of communication on the performance of employees of the kepeng handicraft industry in Kamasan Village, Klungkung Regency.

Digital skills and complex thinking in engineering students of a particular university in Lima in times of pandemic

This article focuses on the relationship of digital skills and complex thinking in engineering students from a private university in Lima, Peru. A non-experimental, descriptive, correlational, cross-sectional quantitative study was carried out. The sample consisted of 175 engineering students who were administered the questionnaires developed in Google Forms for digital skills and the complex XXI scale to measure complex thinking with reliability values of .965 and .941 respectively for the alpha of Cronbach. The descriptive results showed that 48% of the respondents were found at the medium level of digital skills and that in the case of complex thinking there was a significant tie between the medium and high levels (approximately 41%). It was concluded that there was a strong and positive correlation between digital skills and complex thinking (Pearson's correlation = .759). In addition, four dimensions of digital literacy were evaluated (information management, communication management, wearable technology management and organizational aspects) which showed a positive and moderate relationship with complex thinking.

An Efficient Cloud Framework for Multi-Robot System Management

Efficient knowledge sharing, computation load minimization, and collision-free movement are very important issues in the field of multi-robot automation. Several cloud robot architectures have been investigated to fulfill these requirements. However, the performance of the cloud-robot architectures created to date are suboptimal due to the lack of efficient data management for multi-robotic systems. With this point in mind, this paper proposes an efficient cloud multi-robot framework with cloud database model for mobile robot applications to facilitate multi-robot management, communication, and resource sharing. In this proposed architecture, the cloud framework is comprised with cloud data analysis, cloud database management, and cloud service management. The data analysis serves different data processing and decision-making tasks for generating the next robot action based on robot sensors’ data with the help of a data access components layer. A multistage cloud database model distributes, stores, and accesses different categories of data related to robot sensors and environments. And cloud service facilitates multi-robot management, communication, and resource sharing in the cloud framework. Additionally, as a use case, a cloud-based convolutional neural network (CNN) model is introduced for learning and recognizing robot application data. The obtained results of our tests indicate that the proposed cloud-robot architecture provides efficient computation power, communications, and knowledge sharing for managing multi-mobile robot systems.

Process of Developing Palliative Care Curriculum for Training Medical Interns in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Puducherry, India

Objectives: The department of community medicine (DCM) has been training medical interns for palliative care in the hospital and community setting. There was no specific curriculum or course material available for training them. This study aims to develop, implement and evaluate the palliative care curriculum for training medical interns. Materials and Methods: The present program development and evaluation of palliative care curriculum was done in the DCM, Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital, Puducherry, India. We followed the Kern’s six steps for curriculum development. It was done during July 2016 and May 2017. We framed expected outcomes from literature review and interviews with experts. The curriculum was delivered through small group sessions followed by hands-on exposure to hospital- and community-based palliative care programs guided by a workbook. Medical interns were given feedback on their field assignments on history taking, followed by reflection using structured template incorporated in the workbook. The reaction to the curriculum was collected from various stakeholders. Results: Medical interns found the curriculum useful for them to acquire basic skills of pain management, communication skills and teamwork. Patients and family felt satisfied with the quality of care provided. Conclusion: The new palliative care curriculum was well received by all the stakeholders involved. This can be adopted in similar context for training medical interns in palliative care.