Algonquin College

About: Algonquin College is a education organization based out in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Polarization (waves) & Circular polarization. The organization has 167 authors who have published 185 publications receiving 2328 citations. The organization is also known as: Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology.

Do patient decision aids meet effectiveness criteria of the international patient decision aid standards collaboration? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract: Objective. To describe the extent to which patient decision aids (PtDAs) meet effectiveness standards of the International Patient Decision Aids Collaboration (IPDAS).Data sources.Five electronic databases (to July 2006) and personal contacts (to December 2006).Results.Among 55 randomized controlled trials, 38 (69%) used at least 1 measure that mapped onto an IPDAS effectiveness criterion. Measures of decision quality were knowledge scores (27 trials), accurate risk perceptions (12 trials), and value congruence with the chosen option (3 trials). PtDAs improved knowledge scores relative to usual care (weighted mean difference [WMD] = 15.2%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 11.7 to 18.7); detailed PtDAs were somewhat more effective than simpler PtDAs (WMD = 4.6%, 95% CI = 3.0 to 6.2). PtDAs with probabilities improved accurate risk perceptions relative to those without probabilities (relative risk = 1.6, 95% CI = 1.4 to 1.9). Relative to simpler PtDAs, detailed PtDAs improved value congruence with the chosen ...

Seven‐Year Follow‐Up of Speech/Language Impaired and Control Children: Psychiatric Outcome

Abstract: This study examined the 7-year psychiatric outcome of 202 speech/language (S/L) impaired and control children selected from a community sample at age 5 years. Children with S/L at age 5 years were more likely to be psychiatric cases at age 12.5 years than were normal controls, even if their S/L improved. Controlling for concurrent psychiatric disorder, S/L impairment at age 5 years was still associated with an increased rate of psychiatric disorder at 12.5 years. Psychiatric disorder at age 12.5 years was more likely to co-occur with language disorder than with speech disorder.

The technical efficiency of canadian urban transit systems

Abstract: This paper uses a bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA) method to estimate technical efficiency scores for Canadian urban transit systems from 1990 to 1998. Bias and confidence intervals are estimated for the efficiency scores. A Tobit regression is used to analyze the sources of efficiency change. The paper finds that the original efficiency scores are biased. The bootstrap results indicate that the average technical efficiency of the transit systems is about 78%. Most transit systems experience increasing returns to scale. While higher average transit speed increases efficiency peaking decreases efficiency, which reinforces previous DEA efficiency studies.

Learning together online: Research on asynchronous learning networks

Abstract: This collection of essays emanated from a two-day workshop on teaching in Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN) organized in 2002 by the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The workshop brought together American and Canadian academic researchers in ALN drawn from faculties of business, management, and information technology. It is for this reason that the focus of the collection is upon adult education rather than ALN applications in primary and secondary schools. The stated purpose of the collection is to provide a state-of-the-art review of the ALN research literature. The review excludes the voluminous practitioners’ literature on the subject that the editors characterize as “unsupported vitriol and hyperbole”. This dismissive tone helps explain the emphasis in the collection upon educational theory rather than praxis. Another possible approach might have been to include in the review the practitioners’ literature with a view to discover the interests and concerns of teachers in an effort to shape research in a direction of interest to the teaching profession. Implementation of this approach might lessen the gap between educational research and classroom practice. The intended audience is quite broad and includes researchers, practitioners and students in the field of education. As a result, the collection is designed as a textbook on ALN and each of the review essays contains a summary, a set of review questions and an extensive bibliography. The first part of the collection deals with the theoretical framework for ALN. It includes essays on how to define ALN distinct from other forms of online learning. There is a description provided in another paper for an online interaction learning model. Another topic dealt with here is the effectiveness of ALN compared with traditional courses, and the section ends with two essays dealing with how to improve quantitative and qualitative ALN research. Of these papers the most important is the one dealing with the online interaction learning model. The model proposed involves a set of inputs: information technology, the student, the teacher and the course. These inputs are acted upon by learning processes to produce a set of outputs. The outputs generated deal with access, faculty satisfaction, student satisfaction, student learning and cost-effectiveness. This input/output model is, however, mechanistic and consequently too simplistic to explain adequately a human behaviour as complex as learning. Consider how a similar process model might be used to explain obesity: food is consumed, metabolized, and expended in energy or stored as fat. This is an accurate explanation for obesity, but it is hardly a satisfactory or complete one. Qualms about the adequacy of the

The experience of family members caring for a dying loved one

Abstract: Qualitative nursing research into the experience of family members caring for a dying loved one has been limited. This study used a phenomenological approach to explore this experience. The pattern of caring for a dying loved one and its intertwined dimensions were described. Caregivers felt a sense of helplessness that was associated with illness progression, their inability to relieve pain and discomfort, and decision-making related to patient admission to a palliative care unit. Lack of support from health professionals and having to face personal limits were found to accelerate the decision to admit a patient. The role of a support person involved with the caregiver was also considered and found to be an area worthy of further investigation. Health professionals must provide information and support tailored to the caregivers' needs as they change along a patient's illness trajectory.