Principles in Patterns (PiP) : Institutional Approaches to Curriculum Design Institutional Story

The principal outputs of the PiP Project surround the Course and Class Approval (C-CAP) system. This web-based system built on Microsoft SharePoint addresses and resolves many of the issues identified by the project. Generally well received by both academic and support staff, the system provides personalised views, adaptive forms and contextualised support for all phases of the approval process. Although the system deliberately encapsulates and facilitates existing approval processes thus achieving buy-in, it is already achieving significant improvements over the previous processes, not only in reducing the administrative overheads but also in supporting curriculum design and academic quality. The system is now embedded across three faculties and is now considered by the University of Strathclyde to be a "core institutional service". Alongside the C-CAP system the PiP Project also cultivated a suite of approaches: an incremental systems development methodology; a structured and replicable evaluation approach, and; Strathclyde's Lean Approach to Efficiencies in Education Kit (SLEEK) business process improvement methodology Each is based on recognised formal techniques, providing the basis for a rigorous approach. This is contextualised within and adapted to the HE institutional context thus building the foundation not only for the project but ultimately for institution wide process improvement. This "institutional story" report summarises the principal outcomes of the Project

Fuelwood Scarcity, Energy Substitution and Rural Livelihoods in Namibia

In Namibia, as in many parts of Africa, households are highly dependent on fastdegrading forest resources for their livelihoods, including energy needs. Using data originally collected for Namibia's forest resource accounts and insights from a nonseparable household model, this paper empirically estimates household fuelwood demand. In particular, the factors underlying the substitution between fuelwood collected from open access forest resources, cow dung and fuelwood purchased from the market are analysed. Heckman two-step estimates show that households respond to forest scarcity, as measured by the opportunity costs of collecting fuelwood, by increasing labour input to collection more than by reducing energy consumption. There is limited evidence for substitution from fuelwood to other energy sources, particularly with the declining availability of forest stocks. All of the estimated elasticities are low confirming observations made elsewhere, particularly in South Asia. Policy interventions including energy efficiency measures and tree planting schemes are considered in the Namibian context. --Africa,forests,fuelwood,scarcity,energy,substitution,livelihoods

Forest resources and rural livelihoods in the north-central regions of Namibia

Economics, Forestry, Markets, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Running Alone- And Together: Presidential Leadership In A Divided System

On the morning of November 5, 1956, Democrats across America were in despair. Dwight Eisenhower had done it again. His first victory, in 1952, had been understandable—memories of his military leadership in World War II were still fresh. But after four years of his bumbling presidency, as the Democrats saw it, Americans should have been turning back to the party of Roosevelt and Truman. But they didn’t. Even worse, Ike had improved his 1952 margin over Adlai Stevenson, this time beating him by almost ten million votes. How could this happen

‘Advancing Professionalism in Teaching’? An exploration of the mobilisation of the concept of professionalism in the McCormac Report on the Review of Teacher Employment in Scotland

The report of the recent review of teacher employment in Scotland, commonly known as ‘the McCormac Report’ was published in 2011.This article explores the conceptualisation of professionalism inherent in the Report. Using a critical discourse analysis approach we interrogate the text in relation to three key issues: professionalism; the notion of teacher ‘flexibility’; and the extent to which economic pressures have driven the direction of the Report. The analysis suggests that the dominant form of professionalism being employed in the Report is managerial, and that there is little evidence of alternative conceptions. We conclude that while there is no explicit definition of professionalism in the text of the Report, there is some evidence of the concept being mobilised as a form of control over teacher behaviour

The economic impact of climate change in Namibia. How climate change will affect the contribution of Namibia’s natural resources to its economy

The IPCC recognises Africa as a whole to be “one of the most vulnerable continents to climate variability and change because of multiple stresses and low adaptive capacity. Climate change is likely to exacerbate the dry conditions already experienced in southern Africa. And when rainfall does come, it is likely to be more intense, leading to erosion and flood damage. This will affect the poor most, with resulting constraints on employment opportunities and declining wages. But at present these predictions gain little policy traction in southern African countries. The multilateral climate change process is complicated and slow, and policymakers often see serious action on climate change as a domestic ‘vote loser’. One way to raise climate change concerns further up the policymakers’ agenda is to try to put an economic value on the environmental impacts of climate change. Figures that provide a clear message about the expected impact of climate change will be powerful motivators for policymakers in developing countries to start considering climate change as a part of their national development policies. This study is a first attempt to provide some economic indicators of how climate change will affect Namibia – one of the most vulnerable countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Focusing on natural resources, the study aims to assess the likely economic values of some of the most important environmental and socio-economic impacts of climate change in Namibia, and also to capture how some of the most important impacts might affect the overall structure of the economy.Climate change, Economics, Namibia, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Using Economic Incentives to Conserve CITES-listed Species: A Scoping Study on ITQs for Sturgeon in the Caspian Sea

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Revisiting e‐learning effectiveness : proposing a conceptual model

Purpose – The use of e‐learning is largely predicated upon the assumption that it can facilitate improvements in student learning and therefore can be more effective than conventional techniques. This assumption has been supported by some in the literature but has been questioned by a continuing body of contrary or indifferent evidence. The purpose of this paper is to improve the theoretical understanding of the variables influencing e‐learning effectiveness, the manner in which these variables have been studied to date, and to propose a suitable conceptual model of e‐learning effectiveness to aid its evaluation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper revisits and critically reviews major contributions to the e‐learning effectiveness literature. Findings – Owing to a variety of issues prevalent in the literature, it is clear that the variables influencing effectiveness are multifarious and few researchers impose adequate controls or factor them into research designs. Drawing on the work of Dewey, Englebart, and Kaplan, a conceptual framework of e‐learning effectiveness is proposed. This model maps out the key variables involved in the study of e‐learning effectiveness and the interactions between variables. Originality/value – It is anticipated that such a model will assist researchers in developing future evaluative studies which are both sufficiently robust and holistic in design. It is also hypothesised that studies designed using the conceptual model will be more likely to yield results corroborating the ability of e‐learning to affect improvements in student learning

Fuelwood scarcity, energy substitution, and rural livelihoods in Namibia

In Namibia, as in many parts of Africa, households are highly dependent on forest resources for their livelihoods, including energy needs. Using data originally collected for Namibia's forest resource accounts and insights from a non-separable household model, this paper estimates household fuelwood demand. Specifically, the factors underlying the substitution between fuelwood collected from open access forest resources, cow dung, and fuelwood purchased from the market are analysed. Heckman two-step estimates show that households respond to economic scarcity, as measured by the opportunity costs of collecting fuelwood, by reducing energy consumption slightly more than by increasing labour input to collection. There is limited evidence for substitution from fuelwood to other energy sources, particularly with declining availability of forest stocks. Market participants may be more sensitive to price changes than non-participants. All estimated elasticities are low, similar to those observed in previous studie