Coventry University: E-Journals
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Challenges of the Research Management Office in Higher Edcuational Institutions (HEIS): Local and Global Perspectives
Get PDFWith the growing interest in managing research and sponsored programmes, HEIs are recognizing the need for research support services. For many HEIs in sub-Saharan Africa, this means up-skilling research administration and management expertise, project management proficiency, and good governance structures by setting up a research management office in these institutions to champion the cause of expanding the institutional research frontier. While subjective evidence suggests that setting up a research management office can be quite difficult, few studies have discussed the specific challenges involved.
To address this gap in the existing body of knowledge, the researchers conducted desk research to (1) understand the role of a research management office in HEIs, (2) identify the challenges of the research management office and the research manager through a purposive sampling of available data on the subject, rank these challenges according to dominance and (4) offer pragmatic recommendations that will aid the office and the manager to deliver on their mandate.
The study addresses challenges associated with the research management office in sub-Saharan Africa and offers a deeper understanding of these challenges as well as chart a course to surmount these challenges and reposition the office and managers of research to effectively and efficiently deliver on their mandate.
The paper wakes up a call for a professional framework for career and skills development among research management practitioners and by extension, the office, and its resources, infrastructure, systems, and procedures needed for effective research management support not only in HEIs in Sub-Saharan Africa but also worldwide.
Online Supportive Conversations and Reflection Sessions (OSCaRS): A Feasibility Pilot with Care Home Staff during the Pandemic
Get PDFCare homes care for people with complex needs, supporting them to the end of life and are now being seen as the ‘de facto’ hospice. Reflective debriefing for care home staff has been found to help support staff and provide an educative and communicative function when a resident dies. Pre-COVID-19, one of the authors had been conducting reflective debriefings face-to-face with care home staff but when COVID-19 struck, face-to-face sessions were impossible. An online format was developed with the aim of providing emotional support and practice-based learning in relation to death and dying through reflection. This study assessed the acceptability and feasibility of delivering online supportive conversations and reflective sessions (OSCaRS) on palliative and end of life care to care home staff during the pandemic. A mixed methods study design was undertaken in April to September 2020. Qualitative data comprised of digital recordings of sessions and semi-structured interviews with OSCaRS participants, managers and session facilitators. An online survey was sent to all staff and had a response rate of 12%. Eleven OSCaRS were conducted over ten weeks. Thirty-four staff members attended one or more sessions. Three overarching themes were identified from the data: pressures of working in a pandemic, practicalities of delivering online support and, practice development opportunities. Engaging care home staff in online structured supportive conversations and reflections in relation to death and dying is acceptable, feasible and valuable for providing support with the pressures of working in a pandemic. There is value for OSCaRS to continue as online sessions as they provide care home staff access to practice-based learning and support from professionals and allows specialists based in a range of settings to in-reach into care homes in an efficient way. Future implementation must consider the availability of sufficient devices with cameras to aid participation, timing and frequency of sessions to accommodate staff workflows, the engagement and support of managers and post-session support.
Writing Fellows as Support for Digital Introductory Lectures: Advantages and Challenges
Get PDFThis teaching practice paper discusses the implementation of writing support into subject courses at an early stage of university students’ studies, with a particular focus on the courses’ digital transformation during the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper presents a pilot project in which the original concept of the German writing fellow-program was adapted to a digital introductory lecture series in winter term 2020/21. 12 subject teachers received support for developing writing tasks for the lecture session they taught asynchronously. Six peer tutors were trained to support the 60 freshmen through text feedback and video consultations. The learning platform Moodle was used to provide all project participants with materials and information. The project results show a reduction of anonymity in this large online course, leading to less loneliness felt among first-year students. Additionally, the lecturers’ workload was reduced, the freshmen felt more secure in mastering their first writing task that took place off-campus and the writing fellows gained expertise for online consultations including respective tools and procedures. Consequently, this paper argues that it is worth implementing writing fellow support not only in smaller groups of advanced learners but also in introductory subject courses
Evaluation of the Early Impact of COVID-19 on Physiotherapy Clinical Placement Learning Models and Client Case-Mix
Get PDFClinical placements are fundamental to entry-level physiotherapy education and provide an opportunity for students to translate theory into practice within authentic clinical environments. Student success during clinical placement is a core requirement of physiotherapy programs and a critical component of the pathway to graduation, registration, and then employment. The registration of a physiotherapist confirms that as a student, they have met the profession’s rigorous accreditation requirements. COVID-19 has significantly disrupted physiotherapy clinical placements across Australia, with many placements postponed or cancelled in the early public health response. These placement disruptions may preclude students from demonstrating mandatory pre-registration accreditation requirements, ultimately reducing the number of eligible new-graduate physiotherapists. Creating sustainable clinical placements whilst upholding the professional standard of entry level graduates during the pandemic, calls for innovative solutions to monitor student placement experiences. A Clinical Portfolio was implemented to improve monitoring processes and enable dynamic responses to potentially altered student learning experiences as COVID-19 public health measures evolved. In doing so, the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on physiotherapy student placements between May and June 2020 through examining client case-mix, demographics and learning model documented in each student’s Clinical Portfolio. These data sets allowed for comparison of learning model and case-mix during the pandemic with previous literature monitoring typical physiotherapy clinical placement experience, and providing support for ensuring the registration of the cohort impacted.
Review of Creating Digital Literacy Spaces for Multilingual Writers
Get PDFThis is a book review of Creating Digital Literacy Spaces for Multilingual Writers by Meghan Bowling-Johnson
