Using Interlibrary Loan Statistics to Promote Reciprocity

The present study set out to address the issue as to whether the implementation of portfolio assessment would give rise to Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners’ autonomy. Participants comprised 60 pre-intermediate female learners within the age range of 16 to 28 studying English in a private language institute, a Cambridge Open Centre (IR056). They were randomly divided into two groups each consisting of 30 participants. An independent sample t-test confirmed their homogeneity in terms of language proficiency at the outset of the study. Moreover, they were homogenized in terms of autonomy through employing a validated questionnaire. The portfolio assessment was integrated into the experimental group while traditional assessment was assigned to the control group. The study adopted a mixed-method approach for the purposes of data collection and analysis. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire, a semi-structured interview, and participants’ portfolios. Quantitative data were analyzed using independent samples t-test. Qualitative data were analyzed inductively through content analysis. The recurring themes emerging from the interview and participants’ portfolios were compared with the findings of the questionnaire. The results of both quantitative and qualitative data analyses revealed that portfolio assessment significantly enhanced learner autonomy in the experimental group, and offered them an opportunity to reflect upon their learning process, growth, and progress overtime. Drawing upon the findings, some pedagogical implications are presented and finally, some avenues for future research are highlighted.

The main aim of this article is to discuss the factors a researcher should take into account when selecting the appropriate research design or method (i.e. qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods). The article also discusses sample size determination and sampling procedures in qualitative and quantitative research. Further, the paper has provided an examination of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods. The study used online desk research to collect data from online public access scholarly databases such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Academia, and many more freely accessible electronic books in research methods. Search terms that were used included, among many, the following: qualitative research, quantitative research, mixed-methods, qualitative and quantitative data collection, qualitative and quantitative data analysis; descriptive and inferential statistics. A wealth of relevant and timely scholarly literature was downloaded, read, and used to write this paper, and draw the conclusion provided. Keywords: Qualitative Research; Quantitative Research; Mixed-Methods Research; Qualitative Data Collection Techniques; Quantitative Data Collection Techniques; Qualitative Data Analysis Techniques; Quantitative Analysis Techniques; Descriptive Statistics; Inferential Statistics. DOI: 10.7176/JMCR/87-06 Publication date: November 30 th 2022

Virginia Commonwealth University has interlibrary loan staff members who work in a variety of locations. A review of library and business management literature and an informal survey of interlibrary loan managers was conducted to assess the extent and practices for managing interlibrary loan and document delivery staff members who work in separate locations. Data was collected to highlight common problems and challenges faced by managers who deal with this situation, and to consider the best practices used by the managers. The practices of interlibrary loan managers were very similar to those of managers found in management literature, indicating that library managers, particularly in interlibrary loan, can benefit from reading business management sources regularly.

BackgroundWe report on the longitudinal quantitative and qualitative data resulting from a two-year trajectory (2008–2011) based on the DIagnosis of Sustainable Collaboration (DISC) model. This trajectory aimed to support regional coordinators of comprehensive school health promotion (CSHP) in systematically developing change management and project management to establish intersectoral collaboration.MethodsMultilevel analyses of quantitative data on the determinants of collaborations according to the DISC model were done, with 90 respondents (response 57 %) at pretest and 69 respondents (52 %) at posttest. Nvivo analyses of the qualitative data collected during the trajectory included minutes of monthly/bimonthly personal/telephone interviews (N = 65) with regional coordinators, and documents they produced about their activities.ResultsQuantitative data showed major improvements in change management and project management. There were also improvements in consensus development, commitment formation, formalization of the CSHP, and alignment of policies, although organizational problems within the collaboration increased. Content analyses of qualitative data identified five main management styles, including (1) facilitating active involvement of relevant parties; (2) informing collaborating parties; (3) controlling and (4) supporting their task accomplishment; and (5) coordinating the collaborative processes.ConclusionsWe have contributed to the fundamental understanding of the development of intersectoral collaboration by combining qualitative and quantitative data. Our results support a systematic approach to intersectoral collaboration using the DISC model. They also suggest five main management styles to improve intersectoral collaboration in the initial stage. The outcomes are useful for health professionals involved in similar ventures.

Study object included leaves of deciduous trees in the Krasnodar Territory at different stages of senescing visually manifested in their color alteration. Study subject was the optical characteristics of light diffused reflection from green, yellow-green and yellow leaves of deciduous trees in the Krasnodar Territory during the autumn season. Work objective lies in identifying the possibility to establish differences between green leaves of deciduous trees, and yellow-green and yellow leaves of deciduous trees using the terrain multispectral and hyperspectral sounding methods, as well as collecting information on spectral characteristics of the diffused light being reflected from various biological objects. Results of quantitative and qualitative analysis of data obtained through the diffused light reflectance spectroscopy from leaves of deciduous trees are presented. Narrow-band vegetation indices mNDVI705, mSR705, CRI1, SIPI and PSRI were used in quantitative analysis of data on the diffused light reflection spectra obtained from green, yellow-green and yellow leaves of deciduous trees. It was revealed that the use of narrow-band vegetation indices in the remote sensing algorithms using multi- and hyperspectral cameras makes it possible to rather accurately distinguish leaves at different stages of senescing. Optical characteristics of diffused light reflection from green, yellow-green and yellow leaves of deciduous trees, which are typical species of trees in urban and rural plantings in the Krasnodar Territory, are described for the first time

Valence electron energy-loss (VEEL) spectroscopy was performed on six ceramic materials in a dedicated scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). Quantitative analysis of these data is described yielding access to the complex optical properties and the electronic structure of the materials. Comparisons are made on the basis of the interband transition strength describing transitions between occupied states in the valence band and empty states in the conduction band. This proves that the quantitative analysis of VEEL data is a competitive and complementary method to be considered when investigating the electronic structure of materials. Possibilities for improvement and extension of the analysis are discussed extensively.

Women's experiences of initiating feeding shortly after birth in Ireland: A secondary analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from the National Maternity Experience Survey

The impact of an accreditation system on the quality of undergraduate medical education in Saudi Arabia

Rising quality assurance standards and levels of accountability in higher education have placed stress on my organization, a two-year community college located in Micronesia, a sub-region of Oceania, in the western Pacific Ocean, which has historically maintained a culture of reactivity to accreditation sanctions. As quality standards increase in rigor and accountability, the demands on employee engagement become ever greater. Today, accreditation requires every employee be engaged in cycles of sustainable continuous quality improvement, assessment of student learning, purposeful dialogue, and institutional effectiveness. US regional accreditation is vital to maintain fiscal integrity of the organization. If terminated, students lose access to Pell Grant, a US Department of Education Title IV funding initiative for low-income students in undergraduate programs of study. Pell Grant is the organization’s single most important revenue source, captured from students through tuition and fees. Because revenue sources are not diversified, loss of US regional accreditation, and subsequent loss of Pell Grant, would thus negatively impact organizational stability. This study examined transformational leadership as a potential means for enhancing employee engagement, thereby increasing organizational potential for responding to evolving accreditation standards. This mixed methods study explored the relationship between perceived transformational leadership and follower work engagement within my organization, described how leaders enhanced follower engagement, and investigated to what extent and in what ways the background, training, development, and experiences of organization leaders contributed to leadership skills and their ability to enhance follower engagement. A sequential mixed methods design was employed for which first quantitative data, and then qualitative data, were collected and analyzed. Quantitative data were used on a Micronesian higher education context to test transformational leadership theory that predicts transformational leadership is positively correlated with employee engagement, using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). Quantitative follower engagement data were collected using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews were then analyzed to further explore leadership and its ability to enhance employee engagement for followers at this Micronesian higher education institution. This study does not substantiate the importance of transformational leadership for enhancing employee engagement, but instead shows transactional contingent reward is more important in this cultural and institutional context. The college leadership does not generally meet the expectations of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire full range leadership model, yet college employees are significantly highly engaged. Additionally, analysis of the quantitative data obtained contributes to academic discussions on potential problems with the MLQ and UWES and show these constructs may not be ideal for measuring transformational leadership or engagement. Institutional recommendations for training current and future college leaders and for developing cross-sector partnerships are given. In addition, the wider implications for future research and practice are provided.

<p style="text-align:justify">The present study aimed to provide a digital story development experience for pre-service science teachers in the “instructional technologies and material development” course and to determine the impact of these experiences on their views on digital storytelling. Simultaneous parallel design, one of the mixed methods in which both quantitative and qualitative data were collected, was used in the study. Quantitative and qualitative findings are presented in different sections and both were interpreted in the discussion section. The quantitative study data were collected from 50 pre-service teachers, while the qualitative data were collected from 16 pre-service teachers. Quantitative data were collected by a survey and the qualitative data were collected in interviews. Descriptive/inferential statistics were employed in the analysis of the survey data. The steps of the analysis, coding, and categorization were adopted in the study for qualitative data. The positive effect of digital storytelling on the 21st-century skills of pre-service teachers was revealed by both quantitative and qualitative data. Furthermore, it was determined that pre-service teachers considered digital storytelling as advantageous since it provided meaningful and permanent learning, was fun and motivational; however, it also had disadvantages since it was time-consuming and required technological knowledge. It was revealed that they experienced certain difficulties in scriptwriting, finding the related images/videos and photographs, and finalizing the recording, and they considered that most, if not all, topics in the science course were suitable for digital storytelling. For pre-service teachers to acquire 21st-century skills, digital storytelling should be employed in several courses including the teaching practice course, and pre-service teachers should gain experience in preparing the students for digital storytelling.</p>

The purpose of this research was to determine the process of implementation of learning activities using storytelling methods with dioramas media in improving the language skills of children in group B and to know the extent of the results of improving children's language skills through storytelling methods with dioramas in group B. The method used in this research is an action research which refers to the model of a Classroom Action Research Kemmis and Mc. Taggart consist of four phase: planning, action, observation and reflection. This research consist of two cycles, each cycle consist of 6 times in actions. Analysis of the data used quantitative and qualitative approaches. Analysis of quantitative data used descriptive statistics that compare the results obtained from the first cycle and the second cycle. While the analysis of qualitative data used analyzing data from the field notes and interviews during the research by steps of data reduction, data display and data verification. The results showed an improvement in language skills through storytelling methods with dioramas, as evidenced by the average pre-action language proficiency score of children by 39%. Then increased in cycle I by 20% to 59%. Furthermore, from cycle I to cycle II children's language skills increased by 30% from 59% to 89%. So that the total improvement of children's language skills ranging from pre-action, cycle I to cycle II 39% which is 59% to 89%.

The Dual Analysis framework is a powerful enabling technology for the exploration of high dimensional quantitative data by treating data dimensions as first-class objects that can be explored in tandem with data values. In this article, we extend the Dual Analysis framework through the joint treatment of quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (categorical) dimensions. Computing common measures for all dimensions allows us to visualize both quantitative and qualitative dimensions in the same view. This enables a natural joint treatment of mixed data during interactive visual exploration and analysis. Several measures of variation for nominal qualitative data can also be applied to ordinal qualitative and quantitative data. For example, instead of measuring variability from a mean or median, other measures assess inter-data variation or average variation from a mode. In this work, we demonstrate how these measures can be integrated into the Dual Analysis framework to explore and generate hypotheses about high-dimensional mixed data. A medical case study using clinical routine data of patients suffering from Cerebral Small Vessel Disease (CSVD), conducted with a senior neurologist and a medical student, shows that a joint Dual Analysis approach for quantitative and qualitative data can rapidly lead to new insights based on which new hypotheses may be generated.

In this study, the effect of various practices and activities to improve emotional awareness for primary school students on the prevention of peer bullying at school was examined. In the study various games, activities and implementations were prepared for the students; educational information meetings were held for the parents. A mixed method was applied since quantitative and qualitative data were used together in the study. The study group of the research was composed of students from a primary school located in the district of Buca, Izmir. All developed activities were applied to students in the school. As a part of the study, data were collected with the "Peer Bullying Scale for Primary School (Child) Form". This scale was applied as pre- and post-tests to a total number of 275 students studying at the 3rd and 4th grade. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade students were observed during the breaks with the semi-structured observation form developed by the researcher and interviews were performed with teachers by using of semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher. The t test for related and independent samples was used in analyzing the quantitative data obtained. Qualitative data were analyzed by descriptive analysis method. The results of the analysis of quantitative data show that the emotional awareness activities developed are significantly effective in decreasing the bullying that existed in the school compared to pre-implementation. It was determined that third graders as class level and male students as gender were more exposed to such behaviors. The results obtained by analyzing the qualitative data also support the quantitative data. In addition, positive changes have been observed in certain behaviors such as cooperation, sharing, responsibility, helping each other, problem solving, empathy, communication, interaction and emotional awareness.

Motivation: Rapid advances in live-cell imaging analysis and mathematical modeling have produced a large amount of quantitative data on spatiotemporal dynamics of biological objects ranging from molecules to organisms. There is now a crucial need to bring these large amounts of quantitative biological dynamics data together centrally in a coherent and systematic manner. This will facilitate the reuse of this data for further analysis.Results: We have developed the Systems Science of Biological Dynamics database (SSBD) to store and share quantitative biological dynamics data. SSBD currently provides 311 sets of quantitative data for single molecules, nuclei and whole organisms in a wide variety of model organisms from Escherichia coli to Mus musculus. The data are provided in Biological Dynamics Markup Language format and also through a REST API. In addition, SSBD provides 188 sets of time-lapse microscopy images from which the quantitative data were obtained and software tools for data visualization and analysis.Availability and Implementation: SSBD is accessible at http://ssbd.qbic.riken.jp.Contact:sonami@riken.jp

The Ganesha University of Education Library uses the INLISLite 3.1 application to facilitate library services and management. The application helps the library monitor the availability of books, new book lists, book borrowing, and book returning. This research was conducted in order to evaluate the usability of the application to determine the level of effectiveness, errors, and user satisfaction by evaluating responses to the system using the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ). The response test results are evaluated by the Heuristic Evaluation method and the Think Aloud method. Then data analysis is carried out so that it will produce qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data based on evaluation with the Heuristic Evaluation Method and Think Aloud Method on end users, and quantitative data based on user response testing. The UEQ results for 25 users state that the clarity and novelty aspects get above average results, which means 25% of dataset products are considered better while the other 50% of products are considered worse. Then for the aspects of Attractiveness, Efficiency, Accuracy, and Stimulation got good results, which means 10% of dataset products are considered better while 75% of other products are considered worse. The results of the Heuristic Evaluation conducted by three expert evaluators showed that there were no problems that had the highest serverity rating that needed to be fixed immediately. There are only two minor problems and eight cosmetic problems. The results of Think Aloud on 10 users revealed problems that on average experience the same problems in their use. The data that has been obtained from the three methods will later be used as a reference for application improvement recommendations in the form of wireframes. Keywords: Usability INLISLite 3.1, User experience Questionnaire (UEQ), Heuristic Evaluation, Think Aloud, end user, saverty rating, wireframe.