DTheses (Athabasca University)
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Practicum supervision and client outcomes: A transformative learning perspective
Get PDFPracticum supervision, specifically the interactions between the supervisor, supervisee, and the client has yet to be fully explored in the research. Understanding how to improve client outcomes will help professionals reflect on the interventions they use in clinical supervision. With the inclusion of the client’s perspective in this study, students and supervisors are encouraged to reflect upon how their techniques influence not only the therapeutic outcome, but also their professional development. In this study, practicum supervision was explored from a transformative learning perspective. With the assumption that what we learn greatly depends on our willingness and openness to address and explore preconceived ideas, how our beliefs, values, and expectations influence learning and client outcomes was examined. This study encourages clinical supervisors to not only reexamine traditional supervision techniques, but to also consider different ways of working with their students to help facilitate change. Using a case study approach with three participants, this study found seven themes that represented participants’ beliefs, values, and expectations. The findings highlighted participants’ response tendencies, suggesting that conversations are influenced and guided by perceptions shaped over time through personal experience. The results of this study suggest that clinical supervisors and student therapists be mindful of their discussions and consider how their preferences cultivate both therapeutic and supervisory relationships.2020-0
Effects of exploitative innovation and branding orientation on small service firm performance.
No full textManaging exploitative innovation and branding orientation resources in small service firms is important to build a sustainable competitive advantage. In British Columbia, Canada, such firms’ knowledge about allocating resources to innovation and branding is not well documented. Research measuring two or more marketing strategies is encouraged by the academic community. This study uses the resource-based view of the firm to understand owners’ and managers’ level of agreement with two marketing strategies—exploitative innovation and branding orientation—revealing the strategies’ effects on performance at the firm level. This correlation and multivariate study collected quantitative data from 299 owners/managers of service firms with less than 50 employees/contractors prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Small service firm sectors included retail, health care services, arts, entertainment, recreation services, accommodation, food services, construction, personal care services, and professional, scientific, and technical services in British Columbia. An online survey collected data using an anonymized SurveyMonkey Audience Panel, in order to answer the research question: “What are the interactions between branding orientation and exploitative innovation and how do they relate to firm performance?” Four controls were considered that impact business strategies: age of business, size of business, and business environment hostility and uncertainty. The study found that exploitative innovation and branding orientation had a significant positive interaction effect on firm performance. A covariate relationship between branding orientation and exploitative innovation was found, as well as a relationship between branding orientation and exploitative innovation, with firm performance. Business environment uncertainty was significant for firm performance, branding orientation, and exploitative innovation. Age of business and business environment hostility had significant effects on exploitative innovation, and size of business was significant for firm performance. The survey instrument measuring the constructs in this study also provides a unique contribution to the field. This research contributes to small service firm knowledge by identifying how exploitative innovation and branding orientation, and the firm’s age, size, and business environment (uncertainty and hostility) affect firm performance. The findings form the basis for further research identifying marketing factors associated with small service firm performance in other regions, in order to improve the performance of such firms.2020-0
Non-radiology nurses' experiences with interventional radiology
No full textInterventional Radiology (IR) is an innovative subspecialty of radiology where minimally invasive procedures are performed by a dedicated team of interventional specialists including registered nurses for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. Nursing care for IR patients also occurs in areas of the hospital by nurses who do not have specialized IR training. Few educational opportunities exist for non-radiology nurses to develop needed IR knowledge and related skills. This thesis was designed to understand the experiences non-radiology nurses have caring for IR patients. Transcribed semi-structured interviews with ten non-radiology nurses caring for patients in a Canadian hospital provided rich data for analysis. The themes nursing curriculum; acquired knowledge; IR procedures; building trusting therapeutic relationships; continuity of care; and non-radiology nurses’ overall experiences contributed to the conceptualization of how non-radiology nurses provide care and what their IR learning needs are. Enhancing IR training and support programs and promoting interdepartmental collaboration are key recommendations.2021-1
Strategic Management Accounting Use in Canada: An Exploratory Study of Key Techniques and Factors
Get PDFThis study investigated strategic management accounting (SMA) and SMA techniques and factors usage in Canada. Understanding SMA use is important, as external and competitor accounting information is needed in order for firms to maintain a competitive advantage in an increasingly global environment. A review of literature has shown that several contingency factors have been found to affect a firm’s strategic management accounting usage and performance. Studies done since the early 2000s have provided insight regarding the SMA adoption practices of firms across various industries and different countries. However, there were inconsistent or unsupported findings for some of the contingency factors initially believed to have an influence on SMA practice adoption in various countries. These inconsistencies warrant further investigation of contingency factors such as company size, business strategy, and market orientation as well as additional SMA model development to include contingency factors that have not been previously investigated (e.g., environmental uncertainty, organization culture, organization structure). This research advanced a comprehensive model of SMA usage which incorporated a broad set of contingency factors expected to influence SMA usage and firm performance. This SMA model was validated using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques with data collected from a sample of Canadian companies. The theoretical contribution of this study is a conceptual framework of SMA adoption capturing the impact of key contingency factors on SMA techniques usage. The study’s applied contribution is quantitative evidence of the extent to which SMA techniques have been adopted in Canada so far, and the implications that these techniques may have on firm performance. Overall, this is believed to be the first theory-based empirical investigation of SMA techniques use in Canada and as such, it opens the door for more complex studies on the outcomes of SMA adoption on firm’s performance in various countries.2020-0
IMPROVING RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS FOR LEARNING: A DEEP DIVE INTO DESIGNING AND EVALUATING EDUCATIONAL RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS
Get PDFLearning management systems (LMSs) are popular tools that are used in e-learning, however, these systems are still suffering from the lack of personalization. This thesis focuses on designing, developing and evaluating educational recommender systems as one of the tools that can be utilized to enhance the functionality of LMSs with personalization. In this thesis, first, the evaluation of two previously built recommender systems (RUBARS and PLORS) in the areas of learner-centered education and learning object recommendation was conducted. The outcomes of the evaluations showed very promising results and indicated that these systems potentially fill a gap in their respected areas. Next, as the main focus of this thesis, a new recommender system called WEBLORS was designed, developed and evaluated. WEBLORS is an adaptive web based recommender system that aims at providing learners with additional recommended, personalized and relevant learning objects from the web. The evaluation of WEBLORS showed very encouraging results. Based on the results of the evaluation, WEBLORS has a very high potential to help learners by recommending extra personalized recommendations from the web and helping them with information overload by only recommending learning objects relevant to the topic that is being studied and which fits students’ profiles.06/08/202
Usability of mobile augmented reality authoring tools for the creation of accessible content
Get PDFMobile Augmented Reality (MAR) has been touted as a transformative technology in distance education. Studies have shown that students with disabilities achieve success through MAR applications, but that distance educators lack the resources to create accessible MAR content. This case study examined the usability of four selected MAR authoring tools based on their ability to create accessible content. During the creation of the content, I assessed the extent to which relevant success criteria outlined in the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG 2.0) were met and analyzed my Research Journal through this process. The results of this study showed that none of the selected MAR authoring met any of the ATAG 2.0 success criteria. Analysis of the Research Journal revealed a more contextualized understanding of the assessment and a supplemental proposed framework that may potentially assist in the future creation of accessible MAR.2020-0
Vehicle routing in a congested city using a centralized real-time traffic information system and direct experience
Get PDFNavigation in a traffic congested city can prove to be a difficult task. Often a path
that may appear to be the fastest option is much slower due to congestion. If we are able to predict the effects of congestion, it may be possible to develop a better route that allows us to reach our destination more quickly. This thesis studies the possibility of using a centralized real-time traffic information system containing travel time data collected from each road user. This data is made available to all users, such that they may be able to predict the effects of congestion when building a route.
The method is further enhanced by combining the traffic information system data
with previous routing experiences. We test our method using a multi-agent simulation,
demonstrating that this method produces a lower total route time for all vehicles than when using either a centralized traffic information system or direct experience alone.2020-1
Satisfaction of Canadian Armed Forces Regular Force Members with their Distance Learning Experiences
Get PDFThe use of distance learning (DL) as a training and education delivery method has been on the rise within the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) as a way of optimizing funding to the training system while still maintaining a high standard. Since research has shown relationships between student satisfaction and various positive outcomes, such as training retention and readiness to transfer learning to the workplace, the satisfaction of CAF learners is an important area of inquiry. This research explored the satisfaction levels of CAF members with their DL experiences, how different variables related to that satisfaction, and how military-specific considerations affected members’ DL experiences. This mixed methods research involved a sample of CAF members who had completed, within approximately the past three years, one of seven CAF professional development courses/programs that were delivered via DL or in a blended DL and classroom format. The study used a two-phase mixed-methods research design that included data collection in the form of an online survey distributed to 1310 CAF Regular Force members, which yielded 368 usable questionnaires, followed by 12 follow-up interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive and correlation analyses, as well as factor analyses and multiple regression. Qualitative data were analyzed using coding frequency analyses and thematic content analysis, which added depth concerning CAF members’ personal experiences. The findings showed a relatively high level of satisfaction, but that given the choice between delivery modes, a much higher percentage of members would choose classroom over DL. The exploration of demographic, course quality, support, and perception variables in relation to overall DL satisfaction shed some light on potential reasons for these findings. Recommendations were provided to encourage continuous improvement of CAF DL programs.2020-1
Associations between essential medicine listing and health outcomes for cardiovascular disease
Get PDFContext: National essential medicines lists are used to guide medicine selection, appropriate use, medicine reimbursement and public sector medicine procurement for many countries therefore medicine listings may impact health outcomes.
Methods: Countries’ national essential medicine lists were scored on whether they listed medicines for ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and hypertensive heart disease was synthesized. Linear regression was used to measure the association between countries’ medicine coverage scores and healthcare access and quality scores.
Results: There was no association between medicine coverage scores and healthcare access and quality scores when country characteristics were accounted for. However, there was an association between health outcome scores and health expenditure for ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and hypertensive heart disease.
Conclusion: Listing more medicines on national essential medicine lists may not improve health access and quality scores; rather it may only be one factor in reducing mortality from cardiovascular disease.n/
Platform independent game based educational reward system
Get PDFReward has become an important role to increase students' motivation in traditional classroom learning. This research designed an In-game Card as Education Reward (ICER) web-based system which helps teachers give students reward while students have good performance in learning activities such as assignment, presentation, and exam. Whenever students complete a learning activity, their teacher can choose different type and rarity in-game cards and deliver the cards to the students by using ICER web-based management system. Students can redeem the reward on ICER website and receive in-game cards in the game. When students have better performance in terms of doing learning activities, they will receive more powerful in-game items from ICER. With these powerful in-game cards' help, students can have more fun in the game-play and may put more efforts on doing their homework and may be actively participated in the discussions in the class for getting better rewards.2020-0