This qualitative case study explored faculty perceptions regarding best practices and uses of assessment in a dental hygiene program at a small northwestern college. It was discovered that faculty in the program were assessing students in their clinical courses using widely varied methods, designs, and scoring tools. Faculty neither calibrated processes nor communicated about this problem. In addition, a review of the assessments in this local setting indicated a significant gap in the current guidelines for best practices in clinical assessment procedures. Knowles' adult learning theory served as the foundation for this study. Research questions were designed to obtain clinical faculty's perceptions of their knowledge of best practices in assessment, assessment design, methods including scoring tools, and how faculty could work collaboratively to implement clearly and consistently designed best-practice assessments in their clinical courses. Interviews and reviews of assessment documents were conducted with a purposeful sample of 8 faculty participants. Data were coded and analyzed for common themes. Results indicated that instructors did not collaborate and had little knowledge of assessment criteria based on best practices, administration, and scoring procedures. At the request of the dean, a position paper was created as a project. The paper outlined strategies for designing clinical skills assessments with criteria that is consistent, clear, and based on best practices. Also included were procedures for ongoing faculty professional development and collaboration, insuring that faculty are calibrated and that assessments are valid and reliable. The results of this study can promote positive social change as faculty in this program will be increasingly confident in assessment practices, and graduates will consistently provide greater quality patient and community care.

Tourist guides are located at the coalface of the tourism industry and occupy an extraordinary position within the contemporary demand and supply chain, seeing that they have the ability to enhance, manage and orchestrate the tourists sought after “unique” experience through their interpretation and commentary on tour. Within this context, most regard the tourist guide as an “ambassador” and “custodian” of a specific country‟s destination image – with India being no exception. This dissertation explores the complexity and multifaceted-nature of the tourist guiding phenomenon in a global South context, by considering the tourist guide of India as an international tourist guiding best practice example. The investigation will also evaluate key components and practical areas of India‟s tourist guiding domain. That consists of the country‟s national tourism and tourist guiding environments, legislative and regulatory frameworks, educational and training components, quality assurance mechanisms, as well as all other integral functional areas associated with the sector. These various research areas, along with the genesis of guiding, the various roles and responsibilities of a tourist guide, and the contextualisation of “international tourist guiding best practice”, all form the main components of the dissertation. / Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Historical and Heritage Studies / MSocSci / Unrestricted

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<p>Public health infrastructure (PHI) serves as the core foundation for essential public health and its services. However, the U.S. PHI has been weakened by understaffing, underfunding, limited resources and partnerships, and outdated data and information systems over the past few decades. The recent COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated its vulnerability and weakened nature, resulting in increased health disparities and worse health outcomes in general for the nation. The goal of this study was to identify elements of local PHI that are associated with the completion of 20 key public health activities while adjusting for state differences. Cross-sectional secondary data were acquired and linked from two national surveys of local health departments, the National Profile of Local Health Departments survey and the National Longitudinal Survey of Public Health Systems. In total, 20 multivariable logistic regression models were created to analyze the relationships between variables. State fixed effects were used in multivariable models to control for state differences. It was found that state differences affected the correlations of infrastructure variables. Several staffing elements, abilities to provide certain services, and participation in certain types of actions were strongly correlated with the completion of best practice activities. These findings will add to the discussion of what the minimum necessary elements of PHI may be.</p>

Innovate or die" is one of the mantras of today’s economy. In order to survive, companies are forced to innovate. It is extremely essential to develop innovative ability to constantly cope with rapid changes in different industries such as Telecom, IT and Media. The research aim is to design an innovation framework which helps to assess the innovativeness of a department and thereafter, derive management implications for improving the innovativeness. A single descriptive case study of a high-tech department has been chosen. The triangular research design consisted of literature study, qualitative interviews and online surveys. In the first step, various factors that influence the innovativeness of departments are identified. Consequently, key learnings from other departments within the same corporation will be discussed. The results of survey, propositions and interviews will be compared to identify parameters of the innovation framework. The framework helps to structure valuable insights that link to management implications. The novelty of this paper can be claimed since it is the first research which combines assessing innovativeness via triangulation method and deriving management implication from the results in the field of innovation research. The outcome is an innovation framework with 17 different dimensions that have an influence on innovativeness at the department level. The study demonstrates a deep understanding of the current innovativeness of the investigated department and draws most relevant managerial implications based on other departments’ best practice.

The aim of this study is to identify the best practices in traditional and electronic banking operations strategy in Jordan as a case study of developing economies over the period 1999 to 2008. During this period numerous changes faced banks in Jordan: new banking law was launched, the banks were directed towards complying with the Basel Accord II, and the banks adopted more e-banking channels. Only the practices of all local banks were investigated due to their superior performance. A number of questionnaires were used to collect the data from different individuals in these banks. Further, annual reports were analysed and websites were reviewed. Two data-analysis approaches were used to identify the key strategies of traditional and electronic banking in Jordan: competitive position analysis and cluster analysis. Analysis revealed eight best practices of traditional banking and four best practices of electronic banking were adopted. Best practices are presented as prediction models. These models combine actions with capabilities and performance. The traditional banking predication models are: branches urban accessibility, branches sites accessibility (percentage of sites covered), branches sites accessibility (number of branches sites covered), account transaction time, new credit product flexibility, account customer waiting time, account transaction cost, loan approval costs, and branches layout quality. The e-banking prediction models are: Internet banking transaction time, telephone banking volume flexibility, ATM suburban accessibility, and ATM sites accessibility. This research revealed that; financial performance achieved by e-banking strategy patterns is significantly lower than traditional banking. Also customers satisfaction, retention, and deposit market of e-banking are significantly lower than traditional banking, which indicates that the best operational practices in Jordan are still more traditional oriented despite the significant direction of banks in Jordan toward adopting e-banking channel.

Assistive technology (AT) is defined as “any item, piece of equipment or product system whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities” (Assistive Technology Act amendments, 2004). The field of AT and AT services is dynamic and supported by multiple professions, and may be delivered in a variety of settings and contexts (Cook & Polgar, 2015). While this shared stake in the field of AT provides a variety of unique perspectives, it creates a challenge for uniformity when delivering and measuring the effectiveness and impact of services. This project titled, Outcomes of Assistive Technology Services in a Community Based Organization, will seek to develop a comprehensive service delivery and outcome measurement system that is grounded in theory and informed by the evidence. Several theoretical frameworks, including Model of Human Occupation (Kielhofner, 2009), the Person Environment Occupation model (Law, Cooper, Strong, Stewart, Rigby, & Letts, 1996), the Human, Activity, Assistive Technology Model (Cook & Polgar, 2015), and the Adult Learning Theory (Knowles, Holton and Swanson, 1998) are used as a basis for structuring the program. Although the available evidence for AT interventions and services is limited, the literature was comprehensively searched and the best evidence was selected to inform the designing of this program. Best practices were identified for assessment, intervention, and outcomes measurement. Strategies for staff development are identified, and a plan for funding, implementing and disseminating project findings is outlined.

The aim of this study is to determine the extent to which Quality Management Practices has been effectively adopted and implemented by Pakistani manufacturing companies and to identify best practices for adoption by the companies. The study employed primary and secondary data sources to determine the relationship between QM and Productivity. The study used quantitative methodology for data collection and analysis. The survey responses were categorised into foreign owned companies (FOC¿s) and local owned companies (LOC¿s). The outcome of the descriptive and statistical analysis of the survey responses and secondary data of the companies found that, although most of the companies were aware of the significance of the QM practices and Productivity, FOC¿s were found to have performed highly better in the adoption and implementation of QM practices in their companies compared to locally owned companies. The study also revealed that there is positive relationship between quality and productivity of the manufacturing companies. The evidence deduced from the study shows that foreign owned companies have performed better compared to local owned companies in terms of quality and productivity. Furthermore, the evidence from this study also points out that, automobile sector of Pakistan performed well in the adoption and implementation of QM practices. Strong positive link between quality and productivity was found in the case of automobile companies. This study therefore recommends for manufacturing companies in Pakistan to effectively adopt and implement Quality management practices that encapsulate the study¿s framework for adoption of QM practices (see figure 7.1).

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