NUDGE: IMPROVING DECISIONS ABOUT HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Penguin Books, 2009, 312 pp, ISBN 978-0-14-311526-7This book is best described formally as a general explanation of and advocacy for libertarian paternalism, a term coined by the authors in earlier publications. Informally, it is about how leaders, systems, organizations, and governments can nudge people to do the things the nudgers want and need done for the betterment of the nudgees, or of society. It is paternalism in the sense that "it is legitimate for choice architects to try to influence people's behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier, and better", (p. 5) It is libertarian in that "people should be free to do what they like - and to opt out of undesirable arrangements if they want to do so", (p. 5) The built-in possibility of opting out or making a different choice preserves freedom of choice even though people's behavior has been influenced by the nature of the presentation of the information or by the structure of the decisionmaking system. I had never heard of libertarian paternalism before reading this book, and I now find it fascinating.Written for a general audience, this book contains mostly social and behavioral science theory and models, but there is considerable discussion of structure and process that has roots in mathematical and quantitative modeling. One of the main applications of this social system is economic choice in investing, selecting and purchasing products and services, systems of taxes, banking (mortgages, borrowing, savings), and retirement systems. Other quantitative social choice systems discussed include environmental effects, health care plans, gambling, and organ donations. Softer issues that are also subject to a nudge-based approach are marriage, education, eating, drinking, smoking, influence, spread of information, and politics. There is something in this book for everyone.The basis for this libertarian paternalism concept is in the social theory called "science of choice", the study of the design and implementation of influence systems on various kinds of people. The terms Econs and Humans, are used to refer to people with either considerable or little rational decision-making talent, respectively. The various libertarian paternalism concepts and systems presented are tested and compared in light of these two types of people. Two foundational issues that this book has in common with another book, Network of Echoes: Imitation, Innovation and Invisible Leaders, that was also reviewed for this issue of the Journal are that 1 ) there are two modes of thinking (or components of the brain) - an automatic (intuitive) process and a reflective (rational) process and 2) the need for conformity and the desire for imitation are powerful forces in human behavior. …

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

This paper examines the possible influence of podcasting on the traditional lecture in higher education. Firstly, it explores some of the benefits and limitations of the lecture as one of the dominant forms of teaching in higher education. The review then moves to explore the emergence of podcasting in education and the purpose of its use, before examining recent relevant literature about podcasting for supporting, enhancing, and indeed replacing the traditional lecture. The review identifies three broad types of use of podcasting: substitutional, supplementary and creative use. Podcasting appears to be most commonly used to provide recordings of past lectures to students for the purposes of review and revision (substitutional use). The second most common use was in providing additional material, often in the form of study guides and summary notes, to broaden and deepen students' understanding (supplementary use). The third and least common use reported in the literature involved the creation of student generated podcasts (creative use). The review examines three key questions: What are the educational uses of podcasting in teaching and learning in higher education? Can podcasting facilitate more flexible and mobile learning? In what ways will podcasting influence the traditional lecture? These questions are discussed in the final section of the paper, with reference to future policies and practices.

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A review of podcasting in higher education: Its influence on the traditional lecture

This research focused on the early experience of students entering an undergraduate course in a post‐1992 university that is committed to widening participation. Using Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital and habitus as a theoretical framework, data were collected from students using an online questionnaire and small‐group discussions during the critical first days and weeks when they need to fit in to their new environment. The research was designed to consider whether there is a ‘new student’ in higher education (HE) and to consider the possible influence of cultural capital and habitus on a student’s transition. Data were collected using an online questionnaire with a response rate of 52% (n=180), and this was followed up with five small‐group discussions with 25 of the respondents. Participants self‐selected to take part in the small‐group discussions but the sample did reflect the cohort in relation to ethnicity, age and gender. The data collected from the questionnaire provided a snapshot of the s...

Bridging the Gap: Supporting Student Transitions into Higher Education.

This article presents empirical research exploring adult students' transition to higher education (HE) through a program designed to enable that transition. Wenger's Communities of Practice theory has been applied to informal adult learning by Merriam, Courtenay, and Baumgartner (2003), who suggested its potential for understanding formal education. Using this theoretical framework, adults' transition to HE is explored in terms of learning, participation in practices, and identity. Students were interviewed, and qualitative data analysis revealed that although they perceived themselves to be peripheral participants in the community, university regulations, and academic procedures sometimes undermined their feelings of legitimacy. Their experiences of the community's practices were mediated by individual, shifting identities and a sense of belonging. Their experiences are discussed in terms of the power of practice to include or exclude, and the concomitant identity shifts which may lead to fuller particip...

The Transition of Adult Students to Higher Education: Legitimate Peripheral Participation in a Community of Practice?:

Secure engineering is relatively more popular for software development methodologies which use standard SDLC such as waterfall, prototyping, etc. However, for agile methodologies (such as extreme programming, scrum, etc.), the adoption of secure engineering is still a debate among academics and practitioners since it potentially alter the nature of agile. This paper tries to investigate farthest works of the adaptation of secure engineering to agile methods, and to compile best propositions on how to conduct agile software development by still adhering security principles. From the review, addition/recruitment of security engineer into team is the most appreciated, while the modification of agile methodology and project management is not really favored by practitioners. This paper will be a starting point of further study to fill research/knowledge gap which is provided in this paper.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel7/7176053/7224583/07224607.pdf

Preliminary Investigation

In the past decade there has been a dramatic growth in UK student numbers, with students from non-traditional and under-represented groups being encouraged to participate in higher education. However, levels of withdrawal in those higher education institutions that have a greater proportion of non-traditional students have also been increasing. Higher education institutions have introduced various strategies in an effort to cope with this problem, but unfortunately current models offer little in the way of explaining the causes of (and little justification for the strategies used to reduce) withdrawal. It is proposed that in attending to the explanations of withdrawal, consideration must be given to discovering the underlying characteristics of the teaching and learning environment and the manner in which a student's perceptions and expectations of that environment may impact on their decision to withdraw. An ethnographical study using grounded theory is used to capture these underlying characteristics. This study provides an explanation of the teaching and learning environment as it relates to the student's beliefs, the actions between the student and staff and the intentions of the institution. The results of this initial study are presented. These results represent a preliminary 'grounded' model of the teaching and learning environment of the Technology Faculty at Southampton Institute.

The Withdrawal of Non-traditional Students: Developing an explanatory model

In helping students manage the transition into higher education, there must be (i) an understanding of the needs and expectations of the students, and (ii) a process that inducts the students into the needs and expectations of higher education. This premise underpins the on-line Spiral Induction Programme (onSIP) developed at Southampton Institute. onSIP consists of various on-line activities designed to help students take responsibility for their own learning; feedback from these activities enables both staff and students to identify if and what additional support is required. The intention was to provide a real-time analysis and indication of those students who may be ‘at risk’, allowing for the appropriate targeting of timely support. Initial results indicate a positive reaction by the students to onSIP. In addition, the predictive feedback from onSIP demonstrates a good correlation with the end-of-year outcomes for a cohort of technology students at Southampton Institute.

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Managing the Transition into Higher Education: An On-Line Spiral Induction Programme.

In the past decade there has been a dramatic growth in UK student numbers. Widening participation policies are encouraging students from non-traditional backgrounds to enter higher education. Southampton Institute has found that many non-traditional students have had little preparation for academic life. These students often have unrealistic expectations of higher education, expectations that sometimes are at odds with a successful transition from secondary to higher education. In addition higher education institutions are often unaware of the way that higher education is perceived by non-traditional students. This situation cannot remain unchecked and requires some form of discourse. In this paper, a framework used to model a reflective discourse between stakeholders (student, institution) is introduced, and a case study demonstrating the behaviour of an automated negotiation mechanism is presented.

Managing the expectations of non‐traditional students: a process of negotiation

The role of triage in digital forensics is disputed, with some practitioners questioning its reliability for identifying evidential data. Although successfully implemented in the field of medicine, triage has not established itself to the same degree in digital forensics. This article presents a novel approach to triage for digital forensics. Case-Based Reasoning Forensic Triager (CBR-FT) is a method for collecting and reusing past digital forensic investigation information in order to highlight likely evidential areas on a suspect operating system, thereby helping an investigator to decide where to search for evidence. The CBR-FT framework is discussed and the results of twenty test triage examinations are presented. CBR-FT has been shown to be a more effective method of triage when compared to a practitioner using a leading commercial application.

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Christopher Laing

Papers

The Withdrawal of Non-traditional Students: Developing an explanatory model

Managing the Transition into Higher Education: An On-Line Spiral Induction Programme.

Managing the expectations of non‐traditional students: a process of negotiation

A case-based reasoning method for locating evidence during digital forensic device triage

Composition of mismatched web services in distributed service oriented design activities