Search results

This paper explores a different approach to evaluating the merits of specific technical components of computer based learning applications. A traditional double blind experimental study was implemented in a new context. A computer based Clinical Decision Simulator (CDS) system was designed and implemented incorporating an intelligent agent. This was compared to an otherwise identical system with no agent, and a group of students not using CBL systems. The results suggested that although no improvement in measurable learning outcomes could be conclusively demonstrated there was some evidence that those students using the intelligent agent system demonstrated more positive learning experiences and a deeper conceptualisation of the issues. This would suggest that a comparative multimethod experimental evaluation strategy, although complex (and not without its shortcomings) may help provide a more comprehensive analysis of students learning experience, and provide a useful picture of the student’s perceptions of CBL tools. This novel approach may be of particular relevance where the justification of a specific technological aspect of an e‐learning application is required. The value of developing and using an experimental strategy to evaluate a specific technological aspect of a computer based learning (CBL) application is discussed.

Westland Aerospace Division has delivered its first orders for the laser cable marking system, developed by Westland. The orders, worth about £350,000, include one for Boeing Corporation.

The official supervision which may be exercised over the food supply of England and Wales, so far as its quality and wholesomeness is concerned, falls under the following heads:—

This paper aims to report on a pilot research project designed to explore if new mobile augmented reality (AR) technologies have the potential to enhance the learning of clinical skills in the lab.

An exploratory action-research-based pilot study was undertaken to explore an initial proof-of-concept design in using AR resources to supplement clinical skills lab teaching. A convenience non-probability sample of 72 undergraduate nursing students tested these resources during lab sessions, and participated in post-exposure surveys and focus groups to help evaluate them. This pilot design aimed to test logistics and gather information prior to further developmental work.

Key similarities emerged between the survey and focus group findings regarding the technical issues and support for student learning. Students clearly expressed a comfort with the technology, and both students and faculty identified the ability to access resources to support self-directed learning and review of skills as positive attributes of using AR. However, technical issues such as slow response times and incompatible smartphones interfered with resource access and frustrated some students, potentially having a negative impact on their learning. Students gave positive feedback regarding the value of mobile access and having AR resources available “at the bedside” where they were practicing.

This empirical pilot study was limited to a small number of participants in a single location. However, a deeper understanding of the potential value of AR in clinical health professional education, and best practices in implementing these new technologies, was achieved.

This study provides a valuable practical contribution, as the approach for AR resource development described can be readily replicated by teachers with limited technical skills. The practical limitations of AR technologies discovered by use in real-world settings will provide developers and educators with valuable information as they begin to explore the use of AR in the lab and beyond.

AR represents a rapidly developing field, with increasing social impact. This study provides some initial ideas that will help inform future uptake of AR in wider educational settings, beyond health professional education.

This study represents original work in the field, and specifically, an original implementation of AR in an educational context.

The attention of the Board is drawn from time to time to advertisements in trade papers and circulars of preservative substances sold under proprietary names. These consist for the most part of well‐known preservatives or mixtures of preservatives which are easily detected by the analyst in food substances to which they have been added. A new preservative, sold under the name of “Mystin,” for preserving milk and cream has recently been advertised as possessing the advantage that its presence cannot be detected by analysis. Samples have been sent to farmers and milk vendors accompanied by a trade circular from which the following extracts have been taken:—

Many of the difficulties that have been experienced by Health Authorities in this country in the examination of imported butcher's “offal”—using the term “offal” in its trade sense—would seem to have been due to injudicious methods of packing on the other side. The organs that constitute “offal”—livers, plucks, kidneys, sweetbreads, and so forth—have hitherto been closely packed into a bag, box, or crate, and the whole mass then frozen hard. Hence on arrival at the port of inspection the separate examination of these organs for possible disease conditions was rendered a matter of extreme difficulty. The exporters have now, it appears, almost all arranged for the separate freezing of the larger organs before packing, and in the case of smaller organs, such as kidneys and sweetbreads, some packers now make use of shallow boxes.

A £370,000 expansion programme has been announced by McAlpine Helicopters Ltd following record spring sales of £3.2m.

Before leaving the subject of the relations of the Public Analyst to the Medical Officer of Health it is desirable to refer to a matter which sometimes gives rise to difficulties and to disagreements between the two officers. Apparently by a legal oversight the duty of looking after the water supply of a district is allotted to the Medical Officer—but there is nothing to show in what way and to what extent he is to be personally occupied in carrying out this task. It also happens that water is specifically excluded from the scope of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts, and, in view of these circumstances, some Medical Officers have adopted the idea that their duties are not to be limited to administrative work in this connection, but that it is also incumbent on them to make the necessary analyses; while in other, and perhaps more frequent instances the local autherities, particularly in country districts, deliberately place that burden on the shoulders of the Medical Officer when arranging the conditions of his appointment.

IN 1946 there was in the British Isles a clear image of librarianship in most librarians' minds. The image depended on a librarian's professional environment which was of the widest possible range, not less in variation than the organisations, institutes or types of community which required library services. Generalisations are like cocoanuts but they provide for the quickest precipitation of variant definitions, after the stones have been thrown at them. A generalisation might claim that, in 1946, public librarians had in mind an image of a librarian as organiser plus technical specialist or literary critic or book selector; that university and institute librarians projected themselves as scholars of any subject with a special environmental responsibility; that librarians in industry regarded themselves as something less than but as supplementing the capacity of a subject specialist (normally a scientist). Other minor separable categories existed with as many shades of meaning between the three generalised definitions, while librarians of national libraries were too few to be subject to easy generalisation.