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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the blended learning preferences under which adult students study mathematics, electronics and industry certificate examinations like project management and e‐SAP (systems, applications and products).

The study is based on four case studies in mathematics, electronics and industry certificate examinations like project management and e‐SAP. Case studies are developed based on observations and feedback from students who have undergone different types of blended learning. The four different blended learning models used are: the complete e‐learning self‐study; the instructor‐led programme blended with self‐study e‐learning; the live e‐learning centred with other media added; and the simulation and laboratory‐centred model.

It is found that unmotivated adult learners may not necessarily like e‐learning courses that are unguided. The e‐learning self‐study model suits the highly motivated students who aim for industry‐based certifications like the project management or the e‐SAP certifications. Using simulation and virtual laboratory sessions does help to reduce the cost of setting up the full‐fledged laboratory and also make it more accessible to the students. In the blended learning model, the instructor and the subject matter expert are the two most important people in programme design and delivery, not the developer or the technologist.

This paper is useful to adult educators and those dealing with an open university type of education where there are less face‐to‐face interactions.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

This paper traces the development of Enron Corp. from a regulated natural gas distribution company to a worldwide energy trading company to its ultimate demise in bankruptcy in December 2001. The paper examines whether Enron should be viewed as an accounting failure, with investors and creditors being severely misled by false financial statements, or whether it was a business failure that was obscured by accounting practices that strained the limits of credibility. It is the contention of this paper that astute financial analysis would have revealed the instability of the Enron business model, thereby alerting investors and creditors to the lack of credit worthiness of the company. At the same time, the paper argues that had there been an appropriate level of transparency in the financial statements, investors and creditors would have been provided with a more realistic view of the company’s financial position and its results of operations, thereby facilitating their ability to assess the viability of the company and avoid their bankruptcy losses.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role played by host country nationals’ (HCNs) collectivism and the interpersonal affect they develop toward expatriate colleagues, in determining the degree to which Chinese HCNs would be willing to offer role information and social support to expatriates from India and the USA.

The authors conducted a between-subjects simulation (n=402) with front-line, junior-level professionals in four global organizations operating in China, measuring their interpersonal affect toward a hypothetical expatriate colleague, and their willingness to offer role information and social support to the expatriate.

Results indicated the interpersonal affect felt by Chinese HCNs mediates the relationship between the collectivism levels of Chinese HCNs, and their willingness to offer role information and social support to expatriates.

It should be acknowledged that the authors used hypothetical “paper-people” to test the hypotheses. Future studies should investigate the impact of collectivism and interpersonal affect on HCN willingness to offer role information and social support by examining HCNs’ attitudes toward real-life expatriate colleagues.

While empirical studies examining HCN willingness to offer role information and social support have begun to emerge in the expatriate literature, only a couple of studies have included interpersonal affect as a key determinant. Given that interpersonal affect is a key determinant of individuals’ reactions to others, but also a complex construct, the findings confirm the need for organizations to examine how this impacts performance and co-worker interactions in the workplace.

This chapter discusses adjudication, expertise, and cultural difference as it appears in criminal court cases concerning female genital cutting (FGM) in the EU, as reported in a 2015 comparative overview. It begins with the distinction between typical and atypical FGM cases; a distinction that connects court cases to the cultural realities of the practicing communities, suggesting that the lack of cultural knowledge can cause unnecessary suffering to families and/or individuals who wrongly undergo prosecution in alleged FGM cases. A contrario, the intervention of experts in FGM court cases could be a positive approach to assessing the legitimacy of public intervention in certain cases.

Compensation refers to “all forms of financial returns and tangible services and benefits employees receive as part of an employment relationship” (Milkovich & Newman, 1999, p. 6). A more specific definition is provided by Edwin B. Flippo, who has defined compensation as “the adequate and equitable remuneration of personnel for their contribution to organization objectives.” He identifies its three components as: basic wage or salary (to attract qualified candidates); variable compensation (to motivate job performance); and supplementary fringe benefits (to retain talented staff) (Flippo, 1984, p. 281). Table 6.1 identifies the functions of these three components of compensation.

Singapore's rapid economic progress has been accompanied by a series of experiments in medical savings and health insurance. This paper aims to examine the “three Ms” – Medisave, MediShield, and Medifund – in order to establish the way in which the policy‐instruments are expected to deliver the status required.

The paper collects evidence on both outcomes and payments.

Results show that a nation in which the median citizen is under 40 is in a strong position to rely principally on individual medical savings accounts. The paper predicts that Singapore, as its population ages, will probably rely more heavily on risk pooling and insurance.

The practical implications are that an extension of insurance is inevitable, but that earmarked savings will probably remain the first line of defence.

The paper is the first to document the Singapore experience of payment for health. It draws inferences and makes recommendations that will be of interest to policy makers both in poorer and in richer countries.

This paper aims to use quick response (QR) code along with online videos to teach one of the college foundation courses in an international institution to enhance the grasp of the students and to boost the students’ learning outcomes.

The study discussed and elaborated the findings that mainly focused on the usage of the online resources to teach Engineering Economy course. Besides, the authors analyzed how the gender may have different feedback for the student.

The study emphasized on the expectations of the students to use videos in the learning experience that preferred to be developed by course educator and to be published on the university platform, like blackboard or faculty website, that conforms university transformation vision undergoing nowadays. It is recommended to have a successful learning experience; it is the educator's responsibility to improve the personal digitization skills that would be used in the e-learning implementations, that will be used for the educational technology, which requires the use of creative media production mobile applications.

The education field has witnessed significant development over the past years in terms of using digital technologies as pedagogical tools to enhance the students’ learning experience especially the internet, where the traditional trends become outdated to be used in the classrooms. One of the main players in this field is videos that are considered as the main influencer to this educational change, where it has been demonstrated to and boost the quality of the learning experience.

In this study, students participated to explore the usefulness of using online learning through using videos blended with QR code to enhance the students’ performance in understanding one of the undergraduate foundation courses in the college of engineering, namely, engineering economy. A survey was distributed to students after the core material of the course was covered. The collected responses were then studied and analyzed.