Islamic Commodity Market Essay

1.0. Introduction The operations in the general business environment are very dynamic by nature. There is no doubt that the financial markets as well as the commodity markets need to structure their business operations, so as to meet the changing business environment demands as well as the expectations (United States. Congress. Senate. 2004). The main challenge for the main market players is to consistently be at pace with the business environment developments, so as to have in place effective as well as timely establishments of operation standards and regulations. A number of international initiatives have focused on the state of operations of the commodity market in the Islamic market. This has been done so as to establish standards as well as benchmarks, which are set to strengthen the world commodity market. The research study intends to contribute to the need for establishing a regulator commodity market, especially in the Saudi Arabia financial market (The Economist 2006). The Islamic commodity market is one of the major aspects in the world commodity market, which has achieved tremendous growth in the recent past. This is to the extent of being a substantial component within the global commodity market, and has thus gained a lot of interest as the crucial component of the world financial market (Europa Publications Staff, 2002). The increasing demands as well as awareness for establishing investment portfolios to be in line with the shariah principles at the global market, have acted as stimulators towards establishing the Islamic commodity market as the world’s most attractive industry. This is an indicator of the growth of the wealth base as well as the potential of the investors, who could either be Muslim or non Muslim, to find ways and invest in commodities which meet their needs and expectations (El-Gamal, 2006). Research questions The research questions to be answered in this research study provide a basis, for establishing the importance of establishing a form of regulator commodity market in the financial market of Saudi Arabia. The aspect which is being focused on in this research study is the reasons as to why a regulator form of commodity market should be established, especially in Saudi Arabia. The research questions will therefore act as a guide to activities of the research study (Henry and Wilson, 2004). Core research question The main aim of the research study is to assess the need for establishing a regulator form of commodity market in the land of Saudi Arabia, and the effects on the business transactions which take place in the Islamic market (Henry and Wilson, 2004). The other research questions that need to be covered in this research study include: 1. What are some of the factors which influence the conduction of business transactions in the Islamic market? 2. What are the likely effects of establishing a regulator form of commodity market in the .land of Saudi Arabia? 3. Who are the major players in the Islamic market and what role do they play in the business transactions? 4. To what extent are the major players likely to influence the operations of the Islamic commodity market? 5. What potential effects does regulation of the Islamic commodity market have on the Islamic finance and the general business transactions? Research objectives The main intention of this research study is to establish, the importance of establishing a regulator in the Islamic commodity market especially in the suggested location Saudi Arabia. The importance of the regulator is assessed in terms of the effects to the Islamic financial market, as well as the general business transactions. The research study is intended at providing a sound bases upon which conclusive research findings can be made, as to the need for regulating the commodities market. Both the secondary and primary data will be analysed to assess the current state of operations of the Islamic commodities market, and the need for a regulator. Therefore, data will highlight the importance of establishing the current state of operations in the Islamic commodity market, and finally, for the research study to meet its intended research objectives (Taylor & Francis Group and Dean, 2004). 2.0 Literature review Islamic commodity market The establishment of a distinct Islamic commodity market, whereby a number of investments as well as financing activities are established in accordance to the requirements of the Shariah principles, can be described as the outcome of the continued growth of the Islamic financial sector. There have been demands to address the issues of liquidity of the Islamic banks like Altauaruq and Almurabha among others, as well as the takaful operators in the various Islamic countries. There have also been efforts to establish a regulatory framework for the Islamic commodity market, and make clear the Shariah principles on the commodities which should are allowed to be involved in the business transactions at the commodity market (Davis and Azizian, 2006). In general, the Shariah principles that govern the conduction of business transactions at the commodities market states that the non legal transactions are those activities, which involves the use of interest and the commodities that have a certain level of uncertainties attached to them. Gambling is also prohibited as well as food and drinks among many other immoral activities (International Monetary Fund, 2006). Regulatory framework In the commodities market, an effective legal and supervisory as well as a regulatory framework establishes the essential ground for the operations of a modern commodity market. For the dynamic market like the Islamic commodity market, it is crucial that a conducive form of regulatory framework be established. This is to appropriately control the activities of the Islamic commodity market. A number of participants are allowed to address, any of the influences which affect the effective business operations of the market, as well as the innovations or even hinder the participation in the Islamic commodities market (Henry and Wilson, 2004). Considering the levels and number of business activities being carried out at this market, an analysis is being made to determine the need for having a regulator in place within this conventional market. The first hypothesis which can be established in this research study is whether, the establishment of the Islamic commodity market will make any positive influence on the levels of Islamic finance, as the other regulatory frameworks have managed to influence the other Islamic finance markets (Fadzli, 2003). To that extent, the second hypothesis is to assess the extent to which, the regulator of the Islamic commodity market will not make any improvements. Considering that the operations at the Islamic commodities market involve both legal and non legal business transactions, the third hypothesis is made in relation to whether the establishment of the regulator will cut down the levels of occurrence of the illegal business transactions. The fourth hypothesis in that respect is that, th e establishment of the regulator will not cut down the level of the illegal business transactions at the Islamic commodity market. By justifying the above mentioned hypotheses, the research study will have established the importance of having a regulator in the Islamic commodity market, and in this case the proposed regulator is Saudi Arabia (Al-Rifai, 2003). 3.0 Research design and methodology To establish the need for having a regulator Islamic commodity market, especially in the land of Saudi Arabia, the research sample for this research study will be administered with questionnaires. The targeted respondents are the to the top management officers of the major commodity markets and financial institutions in the Islamic commodity market. The sample population shall be 50 companies in the Islamic commodity market. The sample population has been chosen so as to avoid the feasibility problems, associated with the research studies. Qualitative as well as quantitative data will be collected. Quantitative data shall be collected from the primary sources, which shall be analysed by the use of statistical techniques, compiled and presented using tools like graphs and charts among other techniques. Qualitative data shall be collected by the use of open ended questions in the questionnaires, which will be subjective in nature as they will represent the personal opinions of the targ eted respondents. The qualitative data will support the quantitative data, in areas where the quantitative data will be having deviations from the factors under consideration (Al-Rifai, 2003). The survey questionnaires shall be administered, considering the fact that they are easy and simple to use on the part of the researcher and the respondents. The research objectives and questions shall all be encompassed in the information in the research questionnaires. The qualitative approach will involve the answering of questions which relate to the nature of operations of the commodity market markets, with the intention of establishing the need for having a regulator in the commodity market. Thus the survey study has the potential of highlighting the operations of the commodity market, and the mechanisms involved which demands for regulatory measures to be carried out (Henry and Wilson, 2004). Resources In order to meet the identified research questions and objectives, the researcher will use the relevant literature resources. These sources will include books, Journals and the other relevant publications in the areas of Islamic commodity market and regulations. The knowledge as well as the research information which will be encompassed and assessed for validity of the research findings, will include resources from online libraries like EBSCO, Amazon, Blackwell publications, the emerald journals and the other sources like Questia (Henry and Wilson, 2004). Access to the study population One of the challenges that the researcher anticipates to encounter in carrying out the research study is the accessing the targeted respondents. So as to meet this challenge, the below strategies have been devised, so as to have access to the respondents to obtain the crucial information for the research study. The researcher will obtain permission letters, which will be approved by the research department at the university. This letters will then be supplied to the top management officers seeking for permission to include them in the research study, and to use their companies as a sample of the research population. In addition to that, the researcher will assure the respondents that the information obtained from the research study shall be used for academic purposes only, and not for any other purposes unless permission is sought from them (Al-Rifai, 2003).

Arthur Miller’s Treatment of Women in The Crucible Essay

Women play a crucial role in the conflict of Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. They are the entire foundation to the play. Arthur Miller’s treatment of women in this play shows women as weak beings who give into their husbands. The way women are treated in this play is a reflection of the Puritan beliefs of that time. Women were believed to have only the job of reproduction, and supporting the family with food. The first example that exhibits this is the way Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor’s wife, is treated as a character. Another example would be how Abigail Williams is a character that is very unique and smart but then again gives into society and is forced to lie to get herself out of trouble. Many other women are known in this story for revealing Miller’s treatment of women. Although many of the women in The Crucible are respected throughout Salem, Massachusetts, none of them have any sort of authority or power over anyone or anything. Even though they are pure hearted and genuinely good people, like Elizabeth Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, and Martha Corey, they possess no right of authority. All of these women instinctively live to take care of their families and households. This reflects Miller’s treatment of women. In The Crucible, Elizabeth Proctor is a very good wife and mother to her 3 children. She is known in the town as one of the most honest people ever and is very respected by everyone, but, regardless of those things, women are seen by society as second-class citizens throughout the 50’s. No matter how respected or well-known they are, men always dominate and that is portrayed in the life of Elizabeth Proctor. John Proctor is a man who provides for his family; he is there for support and the kindness of a father. On the other hand, Elizabeth Proctor is a good mother and a good house wife but always put in her place by her husband and this just demonstrates how dominant the character is. The dominance portrayed in the life of Elizabeth Proctor is an example of what Miller is saying through his characters. The fact that in this time women don’t have as many rights as women do now, shows that Miller is drawn to literature puritanism of that time. In The Crucible, Elizabeth is convicted of witchcraft and I sentenced to prison. Luckily, she is found to be pregnant and therefore not sentenced to hang like most other women that were arrested. The fact that Elizabeth is given the â€Å"privilege† to live until her baby is born is just another sign of how Miller portrays the Puritanism into his writing. The Puritans of that time would never hang an innocent baby because they believe that babies are born amoral and have no sense of right and wrong. Therefore, this proves that Arthur Miller treated women in The Crucible just as other literature periods of that time by being influenced by Puritanism. Another example of a women who undergoes Millers characteristic categorization is Rebecca Nurse. She, along with Martha Corey, is viewed as one the most respected, faithful, godly women in the town but she is accused of witchcraft. The main reason why the most innocent women of Salem are accused is because the people that accused them were aware that they were not willing to confess to a crime they didn’t commit. Therefore, Miller shows Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey as women who not only are respected by others in the town but also respect themselves that are accused of witchcraft and sentenced to death. Like mentioned before, women of this era had no right of power and the women that do have authority derive it from manipulation. An example of that is Abigail Williams. She is the main â€Å"possessor† of power in The Crucible. She is one the most important characters of this play. She has caused many other women of Salem to go to prison and later be hung because of â€Å"witchcraft.† Abigail is a character that is seen as very manipulative and sneaky around authority. She manipulates people into believing her story and she knows how to act differently around authority.

The Impact of Ict on Tertiary Education

The impact of ICT on tertiary education : advances and promises Kurt Larsen and Stephan Vincent-Lancrin Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Directorate for Education / Centre for Educational Research and Innovation* DRAFT OECD/NSF/U. Michigan Conference â€Å"Advancing Knowledge and the Knowledge Economy† 10-11 January 2005 Washington DC ABSTRACT: The promises of e-learning for transforming tertiary education and thereby advancing the knowledge economy have rested on three arguments: E-learning could expand and widen access to tertiary education and training; improve the quality of education; and reduce its cost.The paper evaluates these three promises with the sparse existing data and evidence and concludes that the reality has not been up to the promises so far in terms of pedagogic innovation, while it has already probably significantly improved the overall learning (and teaching) experience. Reflecting on the ways that would help develop e-learnin g further, it then identifies a few challenges and highlights open educational resource initiatives as an example of way forward.The first section of the paper recalls some of the promises of e-learning; the second compares these promises and the real achievements to date and suggests that e-learning could be at an early stage of its innovation cycle; the third section highlights the challenges for a further and more radically innovative development of e-learning. Knowledge, innovation and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have had strong repercussions on many economic sectors, e. g. the informatics and communication, finance, and transportation sectors (Foray, 2004; Boyer, 2002).What about education? The knowledge-based economy sets a new scene for education and new challenges and promises for the education sector. Firstly, education is a prerequisite of the knowledge-based economy: the production and use of new knowledge both require a more (lifelong) educated popu lation and workforce. Secondly, ICTs are a very powerful tool for diffusing knowledge and information, a fundamental aspect of the education process: in that sense, they can play a pedagogic role that could in principle complement (or even compete with) the traditional practices of the education sector.These are the two challenges for the education sector: continue to expand with the help (or under the pressure) of new forms of learning. Thirdly, ICTs sometimes induce innovations in the ways of doing things: for example, navigation does not involve the same cognitive processes since the Global Positioning System (GPS) was invented (e. g. Hutchins, 1995); scientific research in many fields has also been revolutionised by the new possibilities offered by ICTs, from digitisation of information to new recording, simulation and data processing possibilities (Atkins and al. , 2003).Could ICTs similarly revolutionise education, especially as education deals directly with the codification a nd transmission of knowledge and information – two activities which power has been decupled by the ICT revolution? The education sector has so far been characterised by rather slow progress in terms of innovation development which impact on teaching activities. Educational research and development does not play a strong role as a factor of enabling the direct production of systematic knowledge which translates into â€Å"programmes that works† in the classroom or lecture hall (OECD, 2003).As a matter of fact, education is not a field that lends itself easily to experimentation, partly because experimental approaches in education are often impossible to describe in precisely enough to be sure that they are really being replicated (Nelson, 2000). There is little codified knowledge in the realm of education and only weak developed mechanisms whereby communities of faculty collectively can capture and benefit from the discoveries made by their colleagues.Moreover, learning typically depends on other learning inputs than those received in the class or formal education process: the success of learning depends on many social and family aspects that are actually beyond the control of educators. Information and communication technologies potentially offer increased possibilities for codification of knowledge about teaching and for innovation in teaching activities through being able to deliver learning and cognitive activities anywhere at any time.Learning at a distance can furthermore be more learner-centred, self-paced, and problem solving-based than face-to-face teaching. It is also true, however, that many learning activities cannot be coordinated by virtual means only. The emulation and spontaneity generated by physical presence and social groupings often remain crucial. Likewise, face-to-face exchanges are important when they enable other forms of sensory perception to be stimulated apart from these used within the framework of electronic interactio n.However, the influence of distance and time is waning now that the technological capacity is available for knowledge-sharing, remote access and teamwork, and organising and coordinating tasks over wide areas (OECD, 2004a). Focusing on tertiary education, this paper examines the promises of ICTs in the education sector, first as a way to better participate in the advancement of the knowledge economy, second as a way to introduce innovations. Leaving aside the impact of ICTs on the research or e-science performed by tertiary education institutions (see Atkins and al. 2003; David, 2004), we concentrate on e-learning, broadly understood as the use of ICTs to enhance or support learning and teaching in (tertiary) education. E-learning is thus a generic term referring to different uses and intensities of uses of ICTs, from wholly online education to campus-based education through other forms of distance education supplemented with ICTs in some way. The supplementary model would encompas s activities ranging from the most basic use of ICTs (e. g. use of PCs for word processing of assignments) through to more advanced adoption (e. g. pecialist disciplinary software, handheld devices, learning management systems etc. ). However, we keep a presiding interest in more advanced applications including some use of online facilities. Drawing on the scarce existing evidence, including a recent survey on e-learning in post-secondary institutions carried out by the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), it shows that e-learning has not yet lived up to its promises, which were overstated in the hype of the new economy. ICT have nonetheless had a real impact on the education sector, inducing a quiet rather than radical revolution.Finally, it shows some possible directions to further stimulate its development. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: the first section recalls some of the promises of e-learning; the second compares these promises and the real achievements to date and suggests that e-learning could be at an early stage of its adoption cycle; the third section highlights the challenges for a further development of e-learning and shows what directions might be the most promising for its further development. I.Advancing knowledge and the (knowledge) economy: the promises of e-learning The emergence of ICTs represents high promises for the tertiary education sector (and, more broadly, the post-secondary education sector if one takes into account their impact on non-formal education). ICTs could indeed play a role on three fundamental aspects of education policy: access, quality and cost. ICTs could possibly advance knowledge by expanding and widening access to education, by improving the quality of education and reducing its cost.All this would build more capacity for the advancement of knowledge economies. This section summarises the main arguments backing the promises. E-learning is a promising tool for expanding and widening access to tertiary education. Because they relax space and time constraints, ICTs can allow new people to participate in tertiary education by increasing the flexibility of participation compared to the traditional face-to-face model: working students and adults, people living in remote areas (e. . rural), non-mobile students and even foreign students could now more easily participate in education. Thanks to ICT, learners can indeed study where and/or when they have time to do so–rather than where and/or when classes are planned. While traditional correspondence-based distance learning has long played this role, ICT have enhanced traditional distance education enabled the rise of a continuum of practices between fully campus-based education and fully distance education.More specifically, fully online learning can allow large numbers of students to access education. The constraints of the face-to-face learning experience, that is, the size of the rooms and buildin gs and the students/teacher ratio, represents another form of relaxation of space constraints. ICTs indeed allow a very cheap cost of reproduction and communication of a lesson, via different means like the digital recording and its (ulterior or simultaneous) diffusion on TV, radio or the Internet.The learning process or content can also be codified, and at least some parts be standardised in learning objects, for example a multimedia software, that can in principle be used by millions of learners, either in a synchronous or asynchronous way. Although both forms might induce some loss in terms of teachers-learners interactivity compared to face to face teaching, they can reach a scale of participation that would be unfeasible via face-to-face learning.When the needs are huge, fully online learning can be crucial and possibly the only realistic means to increase and widen rapidly access to tertiary education. Some developing countries have huge cohorts of young people and too small a n academic workforce to meet their large unmet demand: given training new teachers would take too much time, notwithstanding resources, e-learning might represent for many potential students and learners the only chance to study (rather than an alternative to full face-to-face learning) (World Bank, 2003).E-learning can also be seen as a promising way for improving the quality of tertiary education and the effectiveness of learning. These promises can be derived from different characteristics of ICTs: the increased flexibility of the learning experience it can give to students; the enhanced access to information resources for more students; the potential to drive innovative and effective ways of learning and/or teaching, including learning tools, easier use of multimedia or simulation tools; finally, the possibility to diffuse these innovations at very low marginal cost among the teachers and learners.Distance E-learning has not only the virtue to be inclusive for students that cann ot participate in tertiary education because of time, space or capacity constraints, as it was shown above. It can also in principle offer to students more personalised ways of learning than collective face-to-face learning, even in small groups.Although learning is often personalised to some extent in higher education through the modularity of paths, ICTs allow institutions to give students to choose a wider variety of learning paths than in non-ICT supplemented institutions – not the least because of the administrative burden this would represent in large institutions. This means that students can experiment learning paths that best suit them. Moreover, e-learning can potentially allow students to take courses from several institutions, e. . some campus-based and others fully online. This possible flexibility of individual curricula can be seen as an improvement of the overall student experience, regardless of pedagogical changes. In one word, e-learning could render educat ion more learner-centred compared to the traditional model. A prestigious university generally has a sizeable library gathering tons of codified information and knowledge.One of the most visible impact of ICTs is to give easier and almost instant access to data and information in a digital form that allows manipulations that are sometimes not otherwise possible. The digitisation of information, from academic journals through to books and class notes, can change (and has changed) the life of students by giving them easy access to educational resources, information and knowledge, as well as new data processing possibilities.But e-learning could also lead to the enhancement of quality in tertiary education by leading to innovative pedagogic methods, new ways of learning and interacting, by the easy sharing of these new practices among learners and teachers communities, as well as by more transparency and easier comparisons and cross-fertilisation of teaching materials and methods. Fina lly, e-learning can be seen as a promising way to reduce the cost of tertiary education, which is critical for expanding and widening its access worldwide. It might thus represent new opportunities for students having ifficulties with this traditional format. Although ICT investments are expensive, they can then generally be used at near-zero marginal cost. Where would this cost-efficiency come from: the replacement of expensive brick and mortar campuses by virtual campuses; the digitisation of library materials that would save the cost of keeping huge paper collections; the improvement of efficiency of institutional management; the automation of some of the traditional on-campus activities, including some teaching. II. Living up to the promises: a quiet rather than radical revolutionHas e-learning (and especially online learning) lived up to the promises outlined in the previous section? It has to some extent. The reality of e-learning has never matched its most radical promises (Z emsky and Massy, 2004): while experiments are still underway, the initial stage of over-enthusiasm has ended when new economy bubble burst about 2002. In this respect, e-learning has followed the ups and down of the new economy and given rise to the same caveats as in other sectors: irrational beliefs about its market value, over-investment, over-capacity, and more announces than services really launched (Boyer, 2002).Like other activities, e-learning has not proven yet its ability to generate high profits or to replace the old economy of learning. However, interpreting this as a failure of e-learning would however over-simplify the reality and could be seen as â€Å"throwing the baby with the bath water†. While, perhaps unsurprisingly, e-learning has not led to the radical revolution in tertiary education that was sometimes prophesised, some of its forms are already pervasive in tertiary education and have already led to a quiet revolution.Its modesty should not lead to over look it. This section gives a overiew of the limited evidence we have about the adoption of e-learning in tertiary education. E-learning adoption The radical innovation view was that fully online learning would progressively supersede traditional face-to-face learning and represent a competitive threat for traditional tertiary educational institutions. To some extent, this belief has been a reason for the creation of new ventures and for established institutions to enter this new market: early adopters ould indeed possibly gain a brand name and a serious competitive advantage in the new market. The reality is that, while sometimes successfully experimented, fully online learning has remained a marginal form of e-learning and often not even the ultimate goal or rationale for e-learning adoption. However, this does not mean that e-learning in other forms has not gained significant ground over the past decade in tertiary education: there is indeed some evidence of a noticeable growth o f e-learning adoption both on demand and supply sides.One must bear in mind that e-learning encompasses a wide range of activities. Following the terminology used in the CERI survey (OECD, 2005), we distinguish between different levels of online learning adoption as follows, from the less to the most intensive form of e-learning: ?None or trivial online presence; ?Web supplemented: the Web is used but not for key â€Å"active† elements of the programme (e. g. course outline and lecture notes online, use of email, links to external online resources) without any reduction in classroom time; ?Web dependent: Students are required to use the Internet for key â€Å"active† elements of the programme—e. g. online discussions, assessment, online project/ collaborative work—but without significant reduction in classroom time. ?Mixed mode: Students are required to participate in online activities, e. g. online discussions, assessment, online project/collaborative wo rk, as part of course work, which replace part of face-to-face teaching/learning. Significant campus attendance remains. Fully online: the vast bulk of the programme is delivered online with typically no (or not significant) campus attendance or through â€Å"learning objects†. What do we know about the major trends in the adoption of e-learning by institutions and students? First, e-learning has grown steadily in the last decade, at a relatively rapid pace, but from a very low starting point—and for some activities: from scratch. The lack of comprehensive data renders these trends difficult to document, but existing surveys all point to the same direction of an increasing activity/supply.A significant share of tertiary education institutions have developed some e-learning activities and strategies and believe in the critical importance of e-learning for their long term strategy. The 2003 Sloan Survey of Online Learning based on a sample of 1 000 US institutions shows that only 19% of US institutions have no advanced e-learning activities – that is web dependent, mixed mode or fully online courses (Allen and Seman, 2003). The remainding 81% offer at least one course based on those advanced e-learning activities.Second, this growth of e-learning under all its forms should continue in the near future. There is indeed a converging evidence that tertiary education institutions consider as part of their future development strategy. In the Sloan survey, less than 20% of the US tertiary education institutions considered online education as not critical to their long term strategy. Similarly, data from the first international survey by the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education (OBHE) revealed that of the 42 UK institutions that responded (out of a total population of ca. 06), 62% had developed or were developing an online learning strategy and most had done so since 2000 (OBHE, 2002). The second survey undertaken in 2004, 79% of the 122 unive rsities from the Commonwealth countries responding to the survey had an institution-wide â€Å"online learning† strategy as such or integrated into other strategies (46%) or under development (33%). Only 9% of these institutions had no e-learning strategy in place or under development in 2004 .While these figures may reflect some self-selection in the respondents, they unambiguously show a significant adoption or willingness to adopt some form of e-learning in the coming future. Although reflecting different levels of adoption of e-learning, all post-secondary institutions participating in the CERI survey on e-learning point to the same direction and report plans to increase their level of online delivery or to maintain their already high levels (OECD, 2005). Third, virtual universities are not likely to become the paradigm of tertiary education institutions.While it will most likely continue to grow, especially in distance institutions (see below), no evidence point towards a predominance of this form of e-learning in the near future in tertiary education. While the mixed mode of learning blending online and on-campus courses now clearly appears as a better candidate, institutions head towards the simultaneous offer of a variety of learning models. For understandable reasons, only few campus-based institutions (that is the bulk of post-secondary institutions) seem to aim at delivering a large share of their courses fully online or at becoming virtual.While some institutions participating in the CERI survey are at the avant-garde of e-learning, no campus-based institution predicted to deliver more than 10% of its total programmes fully online within three years (OECD, 2005). In the US, rather than offering only fully online courses (16%) or only mixed mode courses (10%), most institutions offer both fully online and blended courses; moreover, the majority (67%) of academic leaders believe that mixed mode and web dependent courses hold more promise than fully online, against only 14% having the opposite view (Allen and Seaman, 2003).This clearly reflects what we know about the main rationales for undertaking e-learning. The OBHE surveys show that on-campus enhancement of teaching and learning (1st) and improved flexibility of delivery for on-campus students (2nd) are the two key rationales in institutional strategies of e-learning. Only 10% of the institutions considered the enhancement of distance learning as more important than on-campus enhancement.Interestingly, the level of importance granted to distance or fully online learning decreased between 2002 and 2004 among returning respondents. Distance or fully online learning remains the fifth most important rationale though (OBHE, 2002, p. 4). Finally, while a generalisation of the fully online model is not probable for tertiary education overall, at least in the medium run, this does not mean that fully online activities are not growing rapidly nor that the fully online learning model gains ground at distance education institutions (Bates, 1995).To our knowledge, no data on fully online enrolments are available for other countries than the United States. According to the 2003 Sloan survey, more than 1. 6 million students (i. e. 11% of all US tertiary-level students) took at least one fully online course during the Fall 2002 and about one third of them, that is 578 000 students, took all their courses online. For example, the University of Phoenix, the largest university in the United States in terms of enrolments, has for example 60 000 of its 140 000 students online.The enrolments of fully online students in the United States were forecasted to increase by about 20% between 2002 and 2003, to 1. 9 million students—a projection that proved to be accurate according to the 2004 Sloan survey (Allen and Seaman, 2003, 2004). This growth rate, which is projected estimated at 25% for 2005 is much higher than the growth rate of total tertiary enrolments in t he United States. From a low starting point, fully online learning is growing at a rapid pace, even if it is merely as a complement to face-to-face or mixed mode learning.Moreover, fully online learning is clearly very important for distance institutions. In the CERI survey, the institutions willing to embrace fully online learning to the greatest extent were all virtual/distance learning only institutions (or branches) (OECD, 2005). In conclusion, e-learning seems to live up to its promises in terms of flexibility and possibly access. It is a growing activity that has for example significantly widened the participation in tertiary education of foreign students (OECD, 2004).Does e-learning improve the quality of tertiary education? The real impact of e-learning on the quality of education is difficult to measure. E-learning largely embodies two promises: improving education thanks to improved learning and teaching facilities; inventing and sharing new ways of learning thanks to ICTs , that is a new specific pedagogic techniques. While the first promise is by and large becoming a reality, at least in OECD countries, the second appears further from reach.Viewed mainly as an enhancement of on-campus education, and thus matching the reality depicted in the previous section, there is some evidence that e-learning has improved the quality of the educational experience on both faculty and students sides (not to mention enhancement of administrative management). All institutions participating in the CERI survey reported a â€Å"positive impact† of greater use of e-learning in all its forms on teaching and learning. The quality of education (with or without e-learning) is very difficult to measure, not the least because learning depends on students’ motivation, abilities and other conditions (e. g. amily, social, economic, health backgrounds) as much as on the quality of teaching. However, the reasons explaining this positive impact on quality largely live s up to the promises of e-learning to offer more flexibility of access to learners, better facilities and resources to study, and new opportunities thanks to the relaxation of space and time constraints. Basically, they do not correspond to a significant change in class pedagogy, but to a change in the overall learning experience. According to the institutions, the main drivers or components of this positive impact come from: †¢facilitated access to international faculty/peers, e. . with the possibility of online lectures or joint classes with remote students; †¢flexible access to materials and other resources, allowing students to revise a particular aspect of a class, giving more access flexibility to part-time students, or giving remote and easy access to the library materials; †¢enhancement of face-to-face sessions, as the availability of archived lectures online frees up faculty time to focus on difficult points and application and because the introduction of e-l earning has sometimes led to a debate on pedagogy; †¢improved communication between faculty and students and increase of peer learning;This â€Å"positive impact† on the overall learning experience is, alone, a significant achievement of e-learning, even though it has not radically transformed the learning and teaching processes. The quality of fully online learning is a more controversial question, possibly because online learning was once viewed as possibly become of higher quality than on-campus education (possibly including e-learning as already mentioned).Comparing the quality (or the beliefs about the quality) of fully online learning against traditional distance learning, traditional face-to-face learning or other mixed modes of e-learning might not yield the same results: fully online learning is indeed more readily comparable to distance learning than to on-campus education. While institutions having adopted e-learning have generally a positive view of its possi ble impact on quality, there is little convincing evidence about the superior or inferior quality of fully online learning compared to other modes of tertiary education.Another question is whether fully online learning has entailed innovation in pedagogy or just replicated with other means the face-to-face experience. As noted above, ICTs could indeed entail pedagogic innovations and help create a community of knowledge among faculty, students and learning object developers that would codify and capitalise over successful innovation in pedagogy. At this stage, there is no evidence that e-learning has yielded any radical pedagogic innovation.The most successful fully online courses generally replicate virtually the classroom experience via a mix of synchronous classes and asynchronous exchanges. Arguably, they have not represented a dramatic pedagogical change. We will see below that in spite of worthwhile experiments, learning objects and open educational resources are still in thei r infancy. They hold promises for educational innovation though. The cost of e-learning Has e-learning lived up its promises in terms of cost-efficiency?Here again, not if one looks at the most radical promises: as noted above, virtual universities have not replaced brick and mortars and saved the cost of expensive building investments and maintenance; digital libraries have supplemented rather than replaced physical ones; the codification and standardisation of teaching in a way that would allow less faculty or less qualified academics has not become the norm, nor have new online learning objects been invented to replace faculty altogether; finally, it has become clear that there was no once-for-all ICT investments and that the maintenance and upgrading costs of ICT facilities were actually important, contrary to the marginal cost of then replicating and diffusing information. Moreover, cost-efficiency has for many universities been a secondary goal compared to the challenge of dev eloping innovative and high quality e-learning courses at many tertiary education institutions. Although the anking of cost-efficiency has increased between 2002 and 2004 by 16%, 37% of respondents considered â€Å"cutting teaching costs long-term† as a key rationale in the OBHE survey (OBHE, 2004)—a small percentage compared to the two key rationales (over 90% of responses). Again, most universities consider e-learning materials and courses as a supplement to traditional class-room or lecture activities rather than a substitute. The predominance of web dependent and mixed modes of e-learning makes the assessment of the costs and benefits of e-learning investments more difficult to evaluate as they become part of the on-campus experience. It is striking that the institutions participating in the CERI survey on e-learning had no systematic data on their e-learning costs (OECD, 2005). In this context, and after the burst of the dot. om economy bubble that put out of busi ness many e-learning operations (many never really started their operations though), identifying sustainable cost-efficient models for e-learning investments in tertiary education has become critical. There are examples of cost-efficient models â€Å"outside† the traditional colleges and universities though. Virtual tertiary education institutions as e. g. the Catalonia Virtual University have a cost advantage as they are developing e-learning material from scratch and not â€Å"building onto† a physical camp. The Open University in the UK which is gradually moving from a traditional distance learning courses using books, video cassettes, and CD-ROMs to online courses has reported that their costs per student are one third of the average cost for similar on-campus programmes in the UK.Fixed capital costs are lower and it is easier to align staffing structures to e-learning processes than at â€Å"traditional† universities. The e-learning activities of Phoenix Un iversity, which is a private for-profit university mainly for adult students, is also seen as cost-effective. Its business model is based on â€Å"standardised teaching†, relatively small on-line class size, and use of proven low-tech e-learning technologies (inducing lower costs than more sophisticated technologies). Much of the faculty staff at Phoenix University is often hired part time and having jobs at other tertiary education institutions, which often implies that staff development costs are lower at Phoenix University than other tertiary education institutions.E-learning investments in tertiary education can be cost-effective, but it depends on the business model, the profile and number of students and topics (cost-effectiveness has been demonstrated in some cases in large undergraduate science classes (Harley, 2003), and initial development costs. The calculations also depend on whether student opportunity costs are taken into account. The initial costs for e-learnin g development are often high (e. g. infrastructure, creating course material from scratch, experimentation, new kind of staff/units, immature technologies, etc. ). In order to ensure that e-learning investments are cost efficient, e-learning activities may need to substitute parts of the on-campus teaching activities (rather than duplication).Educational innovations, like learning objects, could for example allow supporting the re-use and sharing of e-learning materials. Although data is lacking on cost-efficiency, at this stage there is little evidence that e-learning has led to more cost efficiency in tertiary education. Failures have been more numerous than success stories, although the latter document the possible sustainability of e-learning. The adoption of ICTs for administrating tertiary education institutions has probably been the main source of cost efficiency in the tertiary sector, like in other economic sectors. Conclusion: the e-learning adoption cycles So, has e-learn ing lived up to its promises?This is probably true as far as it holds promises for incremental improvement, including an increased access and quality of the learning experience—a kind of change whose importance should not be underestimated. As for radical innovation, the answer is rather: not yet. So far, e-learning has induced a quiet rather than a radical revolution of tertiary education. Perhaps e-learning will follow the same development path in tertiary education as other innovations that first begin with experiments, then expand to a group of early adopters before becoming commonplace. Zemsky and Massy (2004) have proposed a possible â€Å"e-learning innovation’s S-curve† divided into four distinctive but often overlapping adoption cycles that help understand the current development of e-learning, and, possibly, its future challenges. The cycles include: )Enhancements to traditional course/program configurations, which inject new materials into teaching an d learning processes without changing the basic mode of instruction. Examples include e-mail, student access to information on the Internet, and the use of multimedia (e. g. PowerPoint) and simple simulations; 2)Use of course management systems, which enable faculty and students to interact more efficiently (e. g. Blackboard or WebCT). They provide better communication with and among students, quick access to course materials, and support for administrating and grading examinations; 3)Imported course objects, which enable the faculty to embed a richer variety of materials into their courses than is possible with traditional â€Å"do it yourself† learning devices.Examples range from compressed video presentations to complex interactive simulations including the increased use of â€Å"learning objects† ; 4)New course/program configurations, which result when faculty and their institutions reengineer teaching and learning activities to take full advantage of new ICTs. The new configurations focus on active learning and combine face-to-face, virtual, synchronous, and asynchronous interaction and learning in novel ways. They also require faculty and students to adopt new roles – with each other and with the technology and support staff. The overview of current e-learning adoption shows that most tertiary education institutions in OECD countries can largely be located in cycles one and/or two. These first two cycles have largely built upon and reinforced one another. However, they have not fundamentally changed the way teaching and learning is pursued at the large majority of institutions.Their momentum has not automatically transferred to either increasing use and dissemination of learning objects or to the use of new course/program configurations (e-learning cycles three and four). Cycles 3 and 4 correspond to changes remodelling more radically teaching and learning. While some experimentations underway give us some idea of where they could he ad, they are still in their infancy. The third cycle corresponds to the creation of â€Å"learning objects† that can potentially offer an efficient approach to the development of e-learning materials (i. e. reduced faculty time, lower cost, higher quality materials), although many issues remain (e. g. opyright, lack of incentives for faculty to create, the range of actors in and ‘location’ of the creative process, lack of standardisation and interoperability of e-learning software). The learning objects model implies material/course development that departs from the â€Å"craft-model† where the individual professor is responsible for the majority of work. Instead it is a model where the course is assembled largely by or from third-party material. Besides the technical and organisational challenges of developing learning objects, there are also considerable pedagogical challenges using them. Some argue that learning is so contextually based that the breakin g up of the learning experience into defined objects is destructive for the learning process.Evidence from the Open Learning Initiative at the Carnegie Mellon University suggests that effective e-learning courses are often facilitated by having a ‘theme’ that runs throughout the course, which might be difficult to obtain with the notion of decontextualised learning objects (Smith and Thille, 2004). Therefore, much more research and development is needed to ensure pedagogical effectiveness of the learning objects model. For faculty members to rely on others for their material will also need a cultural change as it would probably often be considered today as demonstrating â€Å"inferiority†. Wide use of learning objects in tertiary education will therefore only occur if major changes in working habits and attitudes of faculty are possible. The development of learning objects is very much in its initial phase. This is illustrated by the use of the public available l earning objects repositories as e. g.MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching). The basic idea behind the MERLOT repository was to create a readily available, low-cost, web-based service to which experimenters could post their learning objects and from which interested practitioners could rate and download objects for use in their courses. While there has been a tremendous growth in the number of learning objects made available by MERLOT, there has been very little interest to use what other colleagues had made available and consequently little effort in terms of rating others’ learning objects. This can however be seen as the first steps towards the construction of knowledge communities in education.Despite the premature stage of learning objects and the large number of obstacles to overcome, some standard form of learning objects will probably emerge and gain importance in the development of e-learning in tertiary education as well as in othe r education sectors. Very few institutions have reached the fourth e-learning adoption cycle at an institution wide scale. There are however institutions which are clearly experimenting with new ways of using ICTs that change the traditional organisation and pedagogy of tertiary education. One such example is the previously mentioned Open Learning Initiative at the Carnegie Mellon University. The use of cognitive and learning sciences to produce high quality e-learning courses into online learning practices is at the core of this initiative (Smith and Thille, 2004).As there is no generic e-learning pedagogy, the aim is to design as â€Å"cognitive informed† e-learning courses as possible. The establishment and implementation procedures for routine evaluation of the courses and the use of formative assessment for corrections and iterative improvements are part of the e-learning course development. The development of the e-learning courses often rely on teamwork including facul ty from multiple disciplines, web designers, cognitive scientists, project managers, learning designers, and evaluators. The key question for any project like the Open Learning Initiative attempting a combination of open access to free content, and a fee-for-service model for students using the courses in a degree granting setting is its sustainability.This initiative could not have been realised without significant voluntary contributions from private foundations and a major research grant from the National Science Foundation to start the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center. The next section will address the challenges for the adoption of these third and fourth adoption cycles. III. Challenges for the further development of e-learning in tertiary education: what sustainable innovation model? The aim of this final section is to identify and reflect on some of the key issues that would need to be considered in a systematic way for e-learning to develop further and become a deeper d river of innovation in tertiary education.If the vast majority of colleges and universities are to embrace the third and fourth e-learning adoption cycles, a sustainable innovation and investment model will have to be developed. A first challenge lies indeed in the development of sustainable e-learning innovation models which go beyond using e-learning as an add-on to traditional forms of teaching and learning in tertiary education but rather invent new, useful and better pedagogic innovations partly substituting traditional face-to-face teaching. This will require a broad willingness of these institutions to search for new combinations of input of faculty, facilities and technology and new ways of organising their teaching activities.A second challenge lies in the development of a realistic model for investment in e-learning that would stimulate the participation of faculty and other stakeholders and be financially sustainable, which is not straightforward given that there is littl e systematic knowledge on the real costs and benefits of e-learning investments in tertiary education. However, like for ICT investments in other sectors, the cost-effectiveness of e-learning investments will depend on whether new organisational and knowledge management practices are adopted. It might indeed be more difficult to provide the â€Å"softer† social, organisational and legal changes in tertiary education than the technological infrastructures necessary to fully embrace the advantages of e-learning.This section emphasises partnerships and networks as a possible way forward for further investment, product development and innovation diffusion in e-learning. There are many examples where tertiary education institutions seek to share the costs of e-learning development through partnerships and networking. Partnership and network building are also useful for having access to new knowledge, to learn from others experience and exchange information about the latest develop ments in e-learning and they can involve many different organisations as e. g. traditional colleges and universities, virtual universities, libraries, for-profit ICT and training companies from different sectors etc.These activities can range from sharing material, joint technology and software development, joint research and development, joint marketing, joint training, connectivity, etc. and can be sub-national, national and international (OECD, 2004b; Cunningham and al. , 2000). After showing the importance (and challenges) for universities to engaging their faculty in e-learning, we will turn to an innovative practice exemplifying the potential power of partnerships and networks: Open Educational Resources (OER). They will indeed most likely have significant implications for the way e-learning activities will develop over the coming years in tertiary education. Engaging universities and faculty in e-learningIn most OECD countries the question is no longer whether or not tertiary education institutions should invest in e-learning. Because of the competition between institutions and student demand for easy access to courseware material and flexible learning environments, most tertiary education institutions willing to deliver quality teaching are bound to invest in e-learning. As we have seen, the large majority of institutions are now embracing e-learning adoption cycles one and two, which are basically about providing the students with better access to learning and course material and facilitating the electronic communication between students and teachers.Again, only very few institutions and faculty are however systematically exploring and producing re-usable learning material and objects (third cycle) or have taken full advantage of new ICTs with focus on active learning that combines face-to-face, virtual, synchronous, and asynchronous interaction and learning in novel ways (fourth cycle). The latter approach would require faculty and students to adopt new roles – with each other and with the technology and support staff. While ICTs offer powerful new instruments for innovation, tertiary education institutions are generally decentralised institutions where individual faculty often has the sole responsibility for teaching courses and delivering course material. Adoption of the third and especially the fourth e-learning cycle would imply changing to more collaborative ways of organising and producing teaching material.Faculty members would in many cases have to collaborate with a whole range of new staff as e. g. course managers, web designers, instructional/pedagogical designers, cognitive scientist etc. to produce course material. This could lead to resistance from â€Å"traditional† faculty arguing that current teaching practices have proved its value for centuries and there is no need to change them to new pedagogical and teaching methods, which have hardly proven their efficiency yet. Moreover, promotion of facult y and funding allocations in universities are often linked to research activities rather than teaching activities, often seen as less prestigious.Faculty members have therefore often relatively few incentives to invest their time in e-learning activities. The adoption of new ways of teaching and learning at tertiary education institutions through ICTs can therefore create organisational conflicts and tensions. New organisational innovations, new knowledge management practices, and more team working are therefore necessary conditions for tertiary education institutions to be able to move to e-learning adoption cycles three and four. The CERI study on e-learning case studies in post-secondary education has identified a number of lessons learnt by institutions that are in the forefront of e-learning development (OECD, 2005): More strategic e-learning planning at the institutional or faculty level and to tie this to the overall goals of the institution is needed; †¢A paradigm shift in the way academics think of university teaching would be necessary, e. g. a shift away from ‘scepticism about the use of technologies in education’ and ‘teacher-centred culture’ towards ‘a role as a facilitator of learning processes’, ‘team worker’, and ‘learner-centred culture’; †¢Targeted e-learning training relevant for the faculty’s teaching programme as well as ownership of the development process of new e-learning material by academics is also necessary. There is no one-best-way or trajectory for e-learning development at tertiary education institutions.But it might prove more difficult to provide the â€Å"softer† social, organisational and legal changes in tertiary education than provide the technological infrastructures necessary to fully embrace the advantages of e-learning (David, 2004). It will depend on a whole range of factors not necessarily related to the development of e-learning including: †¢Changes in the funding of tertiary education and in particular e-learning funding; †¢Student demography; †¢Regulatory and legal frameworks; †¢Competition between traditional tertiary education institution themselves and with new private providers; †¢Internationalisation including the possibility of servicing foreign students living abroad; and not the least to the extent to which students will want to use the new opportunities for new and flexible ways of learning.Many tertiary education students would possibly prefer to have some kind of â€Å"mixed model† learning choice involving a whole range of different learning opportunities and forms combining face-to-face, virtual, synchronous, and asynchronous interaction and learning. A possible way forward: Open Educational Resources Open Educational Resources appear as a potentially innovative practice that gives a good example of the current opportunities and challenges offered by ICTs in or der to trigger radical pedagogic innovations. Digitalisation and the potential for instant, low-cost global communication have opened tremendous new opportunities for the dissemination and use of learning material.This has spurred an increased number of freely accessible OER initiatives on the Internet including 1) open courseware ; 2) open software tools (e. g. learning management systems); 3) open material for capacity building of faculty staff ; 4) repositories of learning objects ; 5) and free educational e-learning courses. At the same time, there are now more realistic expectations of the commercial e-learning opportunities in tertiary education. The OER initiatives are a relatively new phenomenon in tertiary education largely made possible by the use of ICTs. The open sharing of one’s educational resources implies that knowledge is made freely available on non-commercial terms sometimes in the framework of users and doers communities.In such communities the innovation impact is greater when it is shared: the users are freely revealing their knowledge and, thus work cooperatively. These communities are often not able to extract economic revenues directly from the knowledge and information goods they are producing and the â€Å"sharing† of these good are not steered by market mechanisms. Instead they have specific reward systems often designed to give some kind of credit to inventors without exclusivity rights. In the case of open science, the reward system is collegial reputation, where there is a need to be identified and recognised as â€Å"the one who discovered† which gives incentives for the faculty to publish new knowledge quickly and completely (Dasgupta and David, 1994).The main motivation or incentive for people to make OER material available freely is that the material might be adopted by others and maybe even is modified and improved. Reputation is therefore also a key motivation factor in â€Å"OER communities†. Be ing part of such a user community gives access to knowledge and information from others but it also implies that one has a â€Å"moral† obligation to share one’s own information. Inventors of OER can benefit from increased â€Å"free distribution† or from distribution at very low marginal costs. A direct result of free revealing is to increase the diffusion of that innovation relative to conditions in which it is licensed or kept secret.If an innovation is widely used it would initiate and develop standards which could be advantageously used even by rivals. The Sakai project has, for example, an interest in making their open software tools available for many colleges and universities and have therefore set a relatively low entry amount for additional colleges and universities wishing to have access to the software tools that they are developing. The financial sustainability of OER initiatives is a key issue. Many initiatives are sponsored by private foundations, public funding or paid by the institutions themselves. In general, the social value of knowledge and information tools increases to the degree that they can be shared with and used by others.The individual faculty member or institution providing social value might not be able to sustain the costs of providing OER material freely on the Internet in the long term. It is therefore important to find revenues to sustain these activities. It might e. g. be possible to charge and to take copyrights on part of the knowledge and information activities springing out of the OER initiatives. Finding better ways of sharing and re-using e-learning material (see the previous mentioned discussion on learning objects) might also trigger off revenues. It is also important to find new ways for the users of OER to be â€Å"advised† of the quality of the learning material stored in open repositories.The wealth of learning material is enormous on the Internet and if there is little or no guidance of the quality of the learning material, users will be tempted to look for existing brands and known quality. There is no golden standard or method of identifying quality of learning material in tertiary education on the Internet as is the case with quality identification within tertiary education as a whole. The intentions behind the MERLOT learning object repository was to have the user community rating the quality and usability of the learning objects made freely available. In reality very few users have taken the time and effort to evaluate other learning objects.There is little doubt that the generic lack of a review process or quality assessment system is a serious issue and is hindering increased uptake and usage of OER. User commentary, branding, peer reviews or user communities evaluating the quality and usefulness of the OER might be possible ways forward. Another important challenge is to adapt â€Å"global OER initiatives† to local needs and to provide a dialogue between the doers and users of the OER. Lack of cultural and language sensitivities might be an important barrier to the receptiveness of the users. Training initiatives for users to be able to apply course material and/or software might be a way to reach potential users.Also important will be the choice (using widely agreed standards), maintenance, and user access to the technologies chosen for the OER. There is a huge task in better understanding the users of OER. Only very few and hardly conclusive surveys on the users of OER are available . There is a high need to better understand the demand and the users of OER. A key issue is who owns the e-learning material developed by faculty. Is it the faculty or the institution? In many countries including the United States, the longstanding practice in tertiary education has been to allow the faculty the ownership of their lecture notes and classroom presentations. This practice has not always automatically been applied to e-learning c ourse material.Some universities have adopted policies that share revenues from e-learning material produced by faculty. Other universities have adopted policies that apply institutional ownership only when the use of university resources is substantial (American Council of Education and EDUCAUSE, 2003). In any case, institutions and faculty groups must strive to maintain a policy that provides for the university’s use of materials and simultaneously fosters and supports faculty innovation. It will be interesting to analyse how proprietary versus open e-learning initiatives will develop over the coming years in tertiary education. Their respective development will depend upon: How the copyright practices and rules for e-learning material will develop at tertiary education institutions; †¢The extent to which innovative user communities will be built around OER initiatives; †¢The extent to which learning objects models will prove to be successful; †¢The extent to which new organisational forms in teaching and learning at tertiary education institutions will crystallise; †¢The demand for free versus â€Å"fee-paid† e-learning material; †¢The role of private companies in promoting e-learning investments etc. It is however likely that proprietary e-learning initiatives will not dominate or take over open e-learning initiatives or vice versa.The two approaches will more likely develop side by side sometimes in competition but also being able to mutually reinforce each other through new innovations and market opportunities. Conclusion There are many critical issues surrounding e-learning in tertiary education that need to be addressed in order to fulfil objectives such as widening access to educational opportunities; enhancing the quality of learning; and reducing the cost of tertiary education. E-learning is, in all its forms, a relatively recent phenomenon in tertiary education that has largely not radically transformed teachi ng and learning practices nor significantly changed the access, costs, and quality of tertiary education. As we have shown, e-learning has grown at a rapid pace and has enhanced the overall learning and teaching experience.While it has not lived up to its most ambitious promises to stem radical innovations in the pedagogic and organisational models of the tertiary education, it has quietly enhanced and improved the traditional learning processes. Most institutions are thus currently in the early phase of e-learning adoption, characterised by important enhancements of the learning process but no radical change in learning and teaching. Like other innovations, they might however live up to their more radical promises in the future and really lead to the inventions of new ways of teaching, learning and interacting within a knowledge community constituted of learners and teachers. In order to head towards these advances innovation cycles, a sustainable innovation and investment model wi ll have to be developed.While a first challenge will be technical, this will also require a broad willingness of tertiary education institutions to search for new combinations of input of faculty, facilities and technology and new ways of organising their teaching activities. Like for ICT investments in other sectors, the cost-effectiveness of e-learning investments will depend on whether new organisational and knowledge management practices are adopted. Experiments are already underway that make us aware of these challenges, but also of the opportunities and lasting promises of e-learning in tertiary education. References Allen, I. E. and Seaman, J. (2003), Sizing the opportunity.The Quality and Extent of Online Education in the United States, 2002 and 2003, The Sloan Consortium. American Council on Education and EDUCAUSE (2003), Distributed Education: Challenges, Choices and a New Environment, Washington DC. Atkins, D. E. , Droegemeier, K. K. , Feldman, S. I. , Garcia-Molina, H. , Klein, M. L. , Messerschmitt, D. G. , Messina, P. , Ostriker, J. P. , Wright, M. H. , Final Report of the NSF Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure, available at http://www. cise. nsf. gov/sci/reports/toc. cfm. February 2003. Bates, A. W. (1995), Technology, e-learning and Distance Education, Routledge, London/New York. Boyer, R. 2002), La croissance, debut de siecle. De l’octet au gene, Albin Michel, Paris; English translation: The Future of Economic Growth: As New Becomes Old, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 2004. Cunningham, S. , Ryan, Y. , Stedman, L. , Tapsall, S. , Bagdon, S. , Flew, T. , Coaldrake, P. (2000), The Business of Borderless Education, Australian Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Canberra. Dasgupta, P. and P. A. David (1994), â€Å"Towards a New Economics of Science†, Research Policy, 23(5). David, P. A (2004), Toward a Cyberinfrastructure from Enhanced Scientific Collaboration: Providing its ‘Soft’ Foundatio ns May be the Hardest Threat, Oxford Internet Institute. Foray, D. 2004), The Economics of Knowledge, MIT Press, Cambridge, USA. Harley, D. (2003), Costs, Culture, and Complexity: An Analysis of Technology Enhancements in a Large Lecture Course of UC Berkeley, Center for Studies in Higher Education. Paper CSHE3-03, Berkeley University. Hutchins, E. (1995), Cognition in the Wild, MIT Press, Cambridge, USA. Nelson, R. (2000), â€Å"Knowledge and Innovation Systems†, in OECD, Knowledge Management in the Learning Society, Paris. Observatory for Borderless Higher Education (2002), Online Learning in Commonwealth Universities – Results from the Observatory 2002 Survey, London. OECD (2003), New Challenges for Educational Research, OECD, Paris.OECD (2004a), Innovation in the Knowledge Economy – Implications for Education and Learning, Paris. OECD (2004b), Internationalisation and Trade in Higher Education. Opportunities and Challenges, Paris. OECD (2005 forthcoming), E- learning Case Studies in Post-Secondary Education, Paris. Smith, J. M. and C. Thille (2004), The Open Learning Initiative – Cognitively Informed e-learning, The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, London. World Bank (2003), Constructing Knowledge Societies: New Challenges for Tertiary Education, The World Bank, Washington D. C. Zemsky, R. and W. F. Massy (2004), Thwarted Innovation – What Happened to e-learning and Why, The Learning Alliance, Pennsylvania University.

Personal Statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 9

Personal Statement - Essay Example My purpose in life has been clarified when I began a battle in behalf of my little sister. She needed a cochlear implant but was refused medical treatment. I used my law background to my advantage as I fought with the Primary Care Trust for two years. I enjoined people in my fight for children’s right to good health and access to medical procedures should they need it. I was successful in soliciting help from Law Lords, baronesses MPs support groups to petition for my sister’s case. My persistence and determination paid off when PCT and NICE finally agreed to provide the medical operation my sister needed. She became a precedent and policies were adjusted to fund children under 18 years for a cochlear implant in my residential area. I was thankful for my legal research skills in helping me investigate legislation regarding children’s rights in the NHS as it won me the case against the PCT and NICE. What is more fulfilling is that my action was responsible in paving the way for more and more children in my area to gain access to the medical procedures they direly needed. Such an achievement inspired me to do more with my life in terms of ensuring the health and safety of people. This desire was further strengthened when I went on a trip to Bangladesh to encounter a grief-stricken woman whose young children died of Malaria. I realized that it could have been prevented with proper education on the disease. Lacking the knowledge and understanding of various preventable diseases myself, I felt devastated that I was unable to help. It became clear to me that my life’s purpose is to prevent disease, prolong life and promote good health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals. I am aware that I have the potentials to be successful in this since I have had first hand

In septic patients does the use of Etomidate as an induction agent for Essay

In septic patients does the use of Etomidate as an induction agent for endotracheal intubation increases mortality - Essay Example Rapid sequence intubation is the preferred method of intubation in the emergency and trauma units because it carries a decreased risk of patient aspiration and vomiting (Lafferty & Kunkarni, 2008). To facilitate induction, anaesthetic agents like etomidate or midazolam are used. However, practitioners and experts acknowledge that anaesthesia use for intubation and ventilation is hazardous and poorly tolerated in critically ill patients (Mccormick, 2006, p. 1). Mccormick (2006, p. 1) recommends that a trained anaesthetist should be present when this procedure is undertaken. Hypotension is one of the adverse effects that can manifest after induction, hence, the needed presence of the anaesthetist at this stage of the procedure. However, literature on the use of etomidate as an induction agent has been rendered controversial. Bridgewater (n.d, p. 2) claims that this controversy mainly stems from the fact that etomidate actually causes adrenal suppression. Other studies have yet to subst antially prove or disprove the merits of etomidate use in septic patients. Hence, this study is now being undertaken in order to assess the current researches on this subject in the hope of coming up with an academic and evidence-based resolution to this controversy. Data was gathered for this paper in different databases through electronic and library catalogue searches. The MEDLINE electronic database was assessed through the Google search engine. Catalogue searches included ‘anaesthesia etomidate’ and ‘septic patients etomidate’. Index searches of books included the following keywords: ‘etomidate’ and ‘septic patients’. Electronic searches through the Google search engine used the words ‘etomidate induction septic patients’. In order to further specify searches, the words ‘etomidate mortality risk’ and ‘rapid sequence intubation’ were added in. Websites for the Cochrane Library and the

Theme of Hamlet and how it relates to me Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Theme of Hamlet and how it relates to me - Essay Example Taking revenge on one’s enemy entails a lot of complex planning and deft handling. The person taking revenge keeps in close contact with his audience and this is done through soliloquies that are narrated from time to time throughout the play. The crime usually takes place within the family circle and is committed against a family member. The avenger usually isolates himself from the others and this tragic lonely state culminates into madness before executing his demonic deed. All of these salient features spoken of can be found in the tragic story of ‘Hamlet’. The isolation in Hamlet is interrupted by soliloquies prompted by a ghostly apparition that haunts him. Hamlet keeps in very close contact with his audience in the seven soliloquies of the play that included the famous soliloquy ‘To be or not to be’. (Act 3, Scene 1) The period of revenge begins from the time of crisis when the avenger begins to doubt the sanctity or good intentions or actions of the one to be avenged. From that moment he seeks to punish his opponent through tough and complex planning of his crime. In Hamlet, Shakespeare beautifully brings out the darkness of the play by introducing a ghost who speaks to a Hamlet during the dark nights, all the while prodding and forcing him to commit his murderous deed. The meeting of the ghost with Hamlet has a great impact on the audience by making them guess that something hateful and gruesome was about to take place. The seed of revenge is sowed in Hamlet’s heart when Claudius decides to marry Hamlet’s mother Gertrude. The ghost plays an important role by moving the story forward with his insinuations, telling Hamlet that he had been chosen to take revenge on Claudius because he had to get punished for his sexual misdeeds. Hamlet, wants to take his revenge immediately by murdering Claudius, but he drags on this crime right to the end of the play. In order to avenge the death of his father, Hamlet stalks his enemy Claudius by

Police Misconduct Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Police Misconduct - Essay Example The police may torture a detainee in custody in order to force confessions to crimes that were not otherwise committed by the detainee. If it emerges that the detainee was tortured, the police may lie about what they know so that they can avoid the possible consequences. Police may torture a detainee in their custody with the intention of forcing the detainee to confess to some crimes or to obtain evidence that can secure conviction in a court of law. The police can also force some witnesses to testify in court cases by providing false evidence. The forced witnesses may be threatened with jail terms if they fail to cooperate with the police (CIP). In order to deal with police misconduct, anyone who witnesses it should report by either doing it directly or anonymously to the police. A review board will then analyze the case in order to establish the truth. Police officers can then be prosecuted or cleared of any misconduct charge (CMC

Reading Reflection Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reading Reflection - Assignment Example One of the most important consequences of the globalization process has been the multi-cultural environment of the communities. It has therefore made the role of community development practitioner a highly desirable and essential one. Social workers are also paid employee and their work environment should also come under the purview of ESA so they are not exploited in terms of working environment or minimum wages or even due to any diversity issues. I am also highly distressed that OHSA is indifferent to the working conditions of servants who work in the private residents. People working as servants in the residences of rich are more vulnerable to physical, mental and financial exploitation. It is important that all types of working people who get paid should be protected by the state’s employment laws, irrespective of conditions, whatsoever. Indeed, as a social worker, my first priority would be fighting for the rights of the ‘servants’ who have a right to basic minimum wages and secured employment

How did the concepts, theories, lessons, discussions and exercises Term Paper

How did the concepts, theories, lessons, discussions and exercises impact and enhance your understanding of Planning, Organizin, - Term Paper Example Thus, concepts on planning illumined one’s mind in terms of goal setting activites, including the need to develop SMART goals. As emphasized, the ability to design strategies that would direct the organization towards achieving a defined goal should first consider how goal setting was effectively established. The three steps involved in the planning process, explicitly stated as: â€Å"(1) deciding which goals the organization will pursue, (2) deciding what strategies to adopt to attain those goals, and (3) deciding how to allocate organizational resources to pursue the strategies that attain those goals† (Jones and George 9), have provided one with the guidelines to ensure that planning is appropriately implemented. Thus, the crucial function of a manager in terms of planning different activities and endeavors that subordinates must undertake would depend on the competencies, skills, and capabilities of the leader. It necessitates a comprehensive understanding of the r esources of the organization (including the competencies of human resources), as well as the ability to address external forces that impinge on the organizations’ operations. ... s made aware that organizational structure, which is supposedly the outcomeof this function, is â€Å"a formal system of task and reporting relationships that coordinates and motivates members so they work together to achieve organizational goals. Organizational structure determines how an organization’s resources can be best used to create goods and services† (Jones and George 12). Thus, it was noted that managers should be able to effectively discern the perfect match of utlizing the organization’s resources, and how much costs need to be entailed to maximize profits. The third relevant task of a manager – leading, was described as the ability to â€Å"motivate, coordinate, and energize individuals and groups to work together to achieve organizational goals† (Jones and George 8). More detailed theories of leading were discussed in the whole portion of part five: leading individuals and groups; and which were separately discussed in three chapters: Chapter 13: Motivation and Peformance; Chapter 14: Leadership; and Chapter 15: Effective Groups and Teams (Jones and George). There have been diverse leadership theories that tackle leadership traits, skills, and characteristics which make them effective leaders; leadership styles; motivational theories; and other contemporary leadership concepts – transformational leadership and even servant leadership, among others. One strongly believes that this function of management is crucial as it does not only focus on the leader to gauge the effectiveness in achieving defined organizational goals. It was, therefore, learned that there is a need to incorporate a comprehensive understanding of the subordinates’ personalities and competencies; as well as the situation at hand. The fourth task, controlling, was defined as

Exam questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Exam questions - Essay Example Further, a portfolio company having high risk may financially endanger the financial output of a company having miniscule risk. Portfolio analysis should include the influence of risk on the company’s returns (Livermore, 1998, p. 584). CAPM is used to determine the relationship between risk and portfolio returns. In terms of question 1b, the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is used to determine the effect of the risks on the returns. The CAPM model includes the risk free rate of return portion of the asset return. The CAPM is used to determine the expected capital asset return. The CAPM analysis includes a risk-free rate. The CAPM includes a risk premium and a market premium (Semmler, 2011, p. 106). The portfolio CAPM formula is shown in the following diagram: E(Rp) = P1R1 + P2R2†¦+ PnRn Further, the formula is used to whether the average return on a portfolio of stocks is positively related portfolio’s beta data. The limitations include a wrong proxy is chosen. Another limitation is that the financial economists had not discovered a fool-proof they that explains why investors demand premiums for investing in low price/earnings for converting such concepts into risk premium estimations (OByrne, 2001, p. 180). In terms of question 2a, there are several motives for taking over another company. First, the â€Å"economies of scale† theory dictates that come entities or corporations takeover other companies in order to increase revenues. The total revenue of two companies will normally be higher than the revenue generated by all companies, given that the total sales of each company or equity is similar, under the synergy principle. Second, some companies takeover other companies in order to acquire the other comp any’s current and prospective customer database. Third, takeovers allow the new owner to acquire the expertise of the acquired company (Nuchtern,

Reaearch Article Analysis Essay Example for Free

Reaearch Article Analysis Essay The system of law enforcement course of action making is a perpendicular form and a parallel political dynamic. The system of law enforcement research had the knowledge and ability to apply the decision – making process within state law enforcement courses and administrative divisions can control resolutions by giving studies to meet policy maker’s needs. This document gives a schematic outlook on the system of law enforcement determination – making methods and speaks of how researchers can make his or her accomplishments pertinent within it. Purpose The system of law enforcement action adopted and pursued by government examinations aimed at the discovery and interpretation of new knowledge seeks to equip assessments and examinations of a serious offense and provides tactics for its reduction. The number in the system of law enforcement and the scientific study of crimes periodical, analysis, and a printed narrative are full of new knowledge and policy examinations. In fact, one topic has obtained reduced recognition; however, it is how the system of law enforcement action planned and administrative divisions use the system of law enforcement in programs developing and policy making. To obtain federal money each state upholds law enforcement actions by the government and plans establishments (Garrison, 2009). Government and regional police departments establish the system of judicial body, corrections, and non – profit associations obtain money through these law enforcement establishments to assist law enforcement responsi bilities. Law enforcement researchers can make his or her business more applicable to law enforcement policy makers by having knowledge of the art of science of government authority, and policy dynamics that govern how establishments function. Law enforcement principles and intentions are ethically – based entities. By this Dena means that the law enforcement principles work in an enclosed area that negotiates with confident questions of correct and incorrect what establishes fairness and prejudice as well as the attention of an individual’s obligation. In fact, the appearance of these morals explains the division of law enforcement and law enforcement policy – making establishments from other establishments for example, original or medical sciences. Dissimilar to the institutions and Dena’s conversation, law enforcement, the natural sciences does not associate the causes of human weakness (Garrison, 2009). Problem The reason for dysfunction, our, unlike hypothesis propose are inward and outward causes for example, a need of political authority and poor disorders (Garrison, 2009). Considering how these reasons are observed and defined these causes have moral meanings associated with them. Important, the law enforcement design is a subject that regular people can readily associate to and reveal views (at least in appreciation to causation) without immersion and guidance in control (Garrison, 2009). The law enforcement design transmissions on the primary surface of policy making, exercising or seeking power in the governmental or public affairs, the study of the nature and origin of ideals. Questions and answers Is the behavior of wrongdoings in a village a law enforcement matter or a public health matter? Answer – it is a law enforcement matter because law enforcement and others for example, judges, and lawyers have to decide the punishment for the criminal but the punishment for the criminal depends on what the wrong doing was. Is the answer to a wrongdoing a discipline and containment design or a medical design in which methods are the key product? Answer – in this case it would be a medical model because treatment would be the factor to the individual or individuals involved in the wrong doing. Is wrongdoing a matter of a person’s chosen conduct or is the outcome of environmental methods past the constrain or obligation of the individual? Answer – this can be both because the person chooses to conduct the wrong doing but the environmental factors for example; the individual coming from a poor neighborhood could also contribute to the individual’s action (Garrison, 2009 White, 2013). Describe the design of the study Examinations can affect the exercising or seeking power in governmental affairs, the study of the nature, and the origin of ideals concern that in turn, holds design within the law enforcement outlined establishments. To accomplish control in the resolution events the researchers must uphold both traditional esteem, and a character of presented unprejudiced examinations by policy makers (Weiss, 1976, Ross Shapiro, 1999).The theoretical probability and the absence of a political bias of the researcher are the central results to acceptability. If individuals see an analysis as too reserved or too permissive, his or her research results are not considered worthy if the decision makers do not bestow the equal political theory (Garrison, 2009). It is better for an analysis to have no political character, thus leaving his or her qualification the main representative to create opinions. The design represents how an analysis can motivate one or more important individuals of the counsel by supplying the individuals with studies that reverberates carefully with the moral and political theories to those constituents. In fact, those constituents make the whole counsel. In addition, the politics, and authority of the council will resolve if a policy conclusion will transpire and what policies, if made, researchers will transcribe to the supervisor to carry out (Garrison, 2009). The planning administrative division manages the s econd level of the planning, carries out the decisions of the goals and puts the policy into the curriculum. In fact, once the counsel informs the supervisor on the policy it is his or her responsibility to seek the details of practice commonly regarding a workers topic, and this is at the decision of the supervisor. Thus, the judgment making authority for carrying out changes are to an individual opinion maker. In addition, analysists must know what position of decision making policy or a specific responsibility or curriculum is under to decide how the analysis can be substantial. Furthermore, if an establishment needs details, evaluations, or data on policy process is in its planning notable action studies that provides transparent and operational data will have a big effect on the method (Weiss, 1976). Operational Definition From an un widely administrative system (Hall, 1989) exercising or seeking power in governmental or public affairs concern in a course of action adopted by the government there is another view to the art or science of government on decision making –political timing. The British Navy incorporated lemons in the diet of the crew members to fight a disease 263 years back after medical science demonstrated the usefulness. Although the connection separating smoking and lung cancer was made in 1950 it was not until the 1990s that a government policy was put into place to stop smoking in individuals 18 and younger (Lomas, 2000). Inductive Logic To furnish assorted control establishments and stakeholders with an examination aimed at the discovery and interoperation of new knowledge there are three processes. One a portion of the study is left out and rejects the outcome because researchers defy the outcome. Exercising or seeking power in governmental or public affairs. Two – studies center on clauses and delicate variations in information, but center on clauses and limitations not well accepted in the public policy (Ross Shapiro, 1999). Three – using the identical data conservatives makes noted facts and policy makers make a course of action adopted by the government. Ross Shapiro advises that a course of action adopted by government that studies can have exercising or seeking power in the government, and define the studies or if the examinations have worth (Ross Shapiro, 1999). Deductive Logic The success of making examinations aimed at the discovery greater, and beneficial analysis comprehend processes. There can be no individual correct opinion in government judgment making, values, and examination outcomes will never be understand or believed enough to give the conclusion in a policy dispute (Weiss, 1982). In fact, researchers who do not have the quality or power for making the last policy decision do not obtain a course of action adopted by the government. In addition, actions adopted by the government when in question about what data researchers require, researchers obtain information that is pleasant or relating to government in the researchers association (Weiss, 1982). Furthermore, actions adopted, and pursued by government makers are feeling at ease with the condition and do not alter easily. Finally, the governmental affairs use researchers to back a predetermined policy position is a worthy use of analysis because it gives individuals the general understanding f or the analysis (Weiss, 1982). Findings The significant basis that courses bring to the course of action process is a self – governing, logical method. The stakes are high and some topics are likely argued by special interest stakeholders. The data has to support credibility (Ross Shapiro, 1999). In fact, researchers should stay away from political discussion on what the researcher means for future policy making. Researchers examining analysis and outcomes based on authorities’ information, individuals should keep in mind that authorities control information is complete information. Furthermore, information can be explained lawfully in unusual ways, and the choice of possible explanations of information can come about from government actions, and have the same legitimacy (Ross Shapiro, 1999). Qualitative or Quantitative The information in this document is qualitative data because there is information and opinions on many levels. Information is part of a method that contains giving training and understanding for policy deliberations producing words for accepting dilemmas, and producing answers that happen over time (Rist, 1994). With this qualitative data consisting of values represent qualities of non-numerical categories (Bennett, Briggs, Triola, 2009). This is important because it gives information estimation, awareness of past information and analysis on what causes have been and what have not been put into place pertaining to the development (Rist, 1994). In conclusion, research is important in law enforcement policies because the information received can determine what policies have and have not been put into place, and if new policies need to be added. Researchers have to pay attention to the information collected, and have the information needed to know what can and what cannot be used. In f act, researchers give the government the last choice on rather they should use the information or not. Decisions are very important in the research area of law enforcement because the research changes therefore; researchers must have the knowledge and skills on when and when not to use specific data. References Bennett, J.O., Briggs, W.L., Triola, M.F. (2009). Statistical reasoning for everyday life (3rd ed.) .Boston, MA: Pearson/Addison Wesley Dictionary.com (2013) Garrison, A.H. (2009). The Influence of Research on Criminal Justice Policy Making. Professional Issues in Criminal Justice, 4(1), Lomas, J. (2000, Spring). Connecting research and policy. ISUMA, (), 140-144. Rist, R. (1994). Influencing the policy process with qualitative research. Handbook on qualitative research, (), . Weiss, J. (1976). Using Social Science for Social Policy. Policy Studies Journal, 4(3), 234-238. Weiss, J. (1982). Policy research in the context of diffuse decision making. The Journal of Higher Education, 53(6), 619-639.