Open University

About: Open University is a education organization based out in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Population. The organization has 11702 authors who have published 35020 publications receiving 1110835 citations. The organization is also known as: Open University, The & Open University.

An overview of learning analytics

Abstract: Learning analytics, the analysis and representation of data about learners in order to improve learning, is a new lens through which teachers can understand education. It is rooted in the dramatic increase in the quantity of data about learners and linked to management approaches that focus on quantitative metrics, which are sometimes antithetical to an educational sense of teaching. However, learning analytics offers new routes for teachers to understand their students and, hence, to make effective use of their limited resources. This paper explores these issues and describes a series of examples of learning analytics to illustrate the potential. It argues that teachers can and should engage with learning analytics as a way of influencing the metrics agenda towards richer conceptions of learning and to improve their teaching.

Interpretation of elasticity matrices as an aid to the management of plant populations for conservation

Abstract: Population projection (Lefleovitch) matrices are now a standard method for quantifying and ana- lyzing the demography and population dynamics of plants. Elasticity analysis of such a matrix indicates the relative effect on the population growth rate (A) of small changes to matrix elements representing different transitions in the life cycle. In a comparison of elasticity matrices for 84 species of plants we show that the rel- ative importance of recruitment from seed (measured by composite elasticity F), stasis (measured by compos- ite elasticity L), and growth (measured by composite elasticity G) varies systematically between the groups se- melparous herbs, iteroparoas herbs of open habitats, forest herbs, shrubs, and trees. We discuss how this result might be used to construct rules of thumb useful in plant conservation. By looking in detaa at how A covarles with the composite elasticities F, I, and G among 16populations of the semelparoas herb Cirsium vulgare and among 15 populations of the rare iteroparoas herb Pedicularis furbishiae, we show that a naive interpretation of elasticities can give a misleading prescription for management. Instead, we show that elasticity analysis supports management prescriptions based upon the successional status of a species or upon its response to disturbance.

Continuous probabilistic solutions to the biomagnetic inverse problem

Abstract: A general method for obtaining continuous solutions to the biomagnetic inverse problem is outlined and illustrated with a wide range of test cases, in a variety of experimental geometries. Magnetic sources are discussed briefly, but the main emphasis is on ionic flows, both in free space and in a homogeneous conducting sphere. The authors describe a way of obtaining depth information from measurements taken in a single plane and show how instrumental noise affects the quality of the reconstructions. An iterative scheme is introduced, capable of pinpointing a number of localised sources with a minimum of prior assumptions. However, the method is most naturally adapted to distributed sources. A number of inversions of distributed sources demonstrate that the method is powerful, accurate and convenient.

The geochemistry of potassic lavas from Vulsini, central Italy and implications for mantle enrichment processes beneath the Roman region

Abstract: Major and trace element and 143Nd/144Nd (0.51209–0.51216) and 87Sr/86Sr (0.70879–0.71105) isotope analyses are presented on a representative group of lavas from the Vulsini district of the Roman magmatic province. Three distinct series are identified; the high-K and low-K series are similar to those described from other Italian volcanoes, while the third is represented by a group of relative ly undifferentiated leucite basanites which are thought to be near-primary mantle melts. Major and trace element variations within the high-K series are consistent with fractional crystallisation from a parental magma similar to the most magnesian leucitites. Crustal contamination resulted in an increase in 87Sr/86Sr with increasing fractionation, but it was superimposed on magmas which had already inherited a range of incompatible element and isotope ratios from enrichment processes in the sub-continental mantle. These are reviewed using the available results from Vulsini, Roccamonfina and Ernici. Transition element abundances and Ta/Yb ratios indicate that the pre-enrichment mantle was similar to that of E-type MORB, and that these elements were not mobilised by the enrichment process. Mixing calculations suggest that three components were involved in the enrichment process; mantle comparable with the source of MORB, and two other components rich in trace elements. One, the low-K component, had high Sr/Nd, Th/Ta and Ba/Nb and no europium anomaly while the second had lower Sr/Nd, a negative europium anomaly and very high Th/Ta. It was also characterised by low Nb/Ba and high Rb/Ba ratios, similar to those reported from phlogopite-rich peridotite xenoliths. The trace element enrichment processes are therefore thought to have occurred in the mantle wedge above a subduction zone with the trace element characteristics of the high-K end-member reflecting the subduction of sediments and the stabilisation of mantle phlogopite.

Telling Tales: Management Gurus' Narratives and the Construction of Managerial Identity

Abstract: This paper examines the reasons for the apparently powerful impact of management gurus' ideas (i.e. guru theory) on senior managers. An examination of the limited literature on management gurus and other related literatures suggests three explanations for the appeal of guru theory for senior managers. The first set of explanations relates to various features of management work which may heighten managers' receptivity to guru ideas. The second set focuses on the gurus themselves and emphasizes the form in which they are presented (i.e. public performances). The final set of explanations highlights the importance of the socioeconomic and cultural context within which guru theories emerge and become widely adopted. A number of criticisms of these explanations are offered: that they define the manager as passive, that the flow of ideas is one way (guru to manager), that they rely on an academic conception of knowledge. An alternative explanation of their success is outlined which suggests that their work – their analyses, presentations and theories – offer attractive conceptions of the role of managers which constitute the identity of the modern senior manager as an heroic, transformative leader. Gurus therefore not only constitute the organizational realities but also managers themselves