Though the field of dramaturgy is growing in size and scope in professional theatre, there are relatively few universities or colleges that offer undergraduate or graduate degrees in basic dramaturgical theory and practice. Brigham Young University (BYU) is an ideal setting for the development of such a program. There is a close community within and surrounding the university; the Theatre and Media Arts Department has high pedagogical expectations; and the Theatre program provides multiple opportunities for theatrical production. I saw these qualities as an invitation to develop a dramaturgy emphasis for undergraduate students that would allow them to network with the community and build intellectual skills that could be integrated into artistic performance. In order to create this emphasis, courses and protocol needed to be developed in order to establish a model dramaturgical procedure for undergraduate training. In this thesis, I address the following issues:

This thesis aims to create a gamified board game that archives can use as an educational tool that can help them promote archival outreach while at the same time providing its players with archival knowledge. The board game - Archeion - was made from scratch using the Research through Design method, which was further backed up by the observations and focus group interviews conducted before, during, and after each playtest. The theories of gamification, engagement, and archival pedagogy were used in this thesis to strengthen the educational aspects of the board game and also to provide it with engaging and pedagogical elements to make it more enjoyable. Acquaintances with no prior knowledge of archives, archival science students, and library and information science students were chosen for the playtests as they were able to provide the thesis with feedback that could improve the educational and pedagogical aspects of the board game. The playtests revealed that the players had learned new things about archives and that they had gotten a deeper understanding of archival concepts and practices. They expressed emotions such as curiosity, excitement, and fear throughout the gameplay sessions as the game mechanics and player choices changed the narrative of the game for either better or worse. The game mechanics were made to inform the players with archival knowledge at a slow pace to not overwhelm them with information. This made it easier for the players to understand what happened in the game while learning bits and pieces of archival science that they found interesting. When the game ended, most players kept talking about archives and wanted to know more about the archival concepts and practices mentioned in the components of the game. The results have shown that board games can and should be used as educational tools as they can transform a boring assignment into an enjoyable pastime. / Uppsatsen syftar till att skapa ett spelifierat brädspel som arkiv kan använda som ett pedagogiskt verktyg för att främja arkivmedvetenhet samtidigt som det ger spelarna arkivkunskap. Brädspelet - Archeion - skapades från grunden med hjälp av metoden forskning genom design, vilken ytterligare stöddes av observationer och fokusgruppsintervjuer genomförda före, under och efter varje speltest. Teorierna spelifiering, engagemang och arkivpedagogik användes i uppsatsen för att stärka brädspelets pedagogiska aspekter och även för att förse det med engagerande och pedagogiska element för att göra det mer underhållande. Nära bekanta som inte hade någon tidigare kunskap om arkiv, samt studenter i arkivvetenskap och studenter i biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap valdes som speltestare eftersom de kunde ge en återkoppling som kunde främja och förbättra de pedagogiska aspekterna av brädspelet. Speltesterna avslöjade att spelarna hade lärt sig nya saker om arkiv och att de hade fått en djupare förståelse för arkivkoncept och -praxis. De uttryckte känslor som nyfikenhet, spänning och rädsla under spelsessionerna eftersom spelmekaniken och spelarnas val förändrade spelets handling till antingen det bättre eller sämre. Spelmekaniken är utformad för att informera spelarna om arkivkunskap på ett långsamt sätt för att inte överväldiga dem med information. Detta gjorde det lättare för spelarna att förstå vad som hände i spelet samtidigt som de lärde sig delar av arkivvetenskap som de fann intressanta. När spelet tog slut fortsatte de flesta spelarna att prata om arkiv och ville veta mer om de arkivkoncept och -praxis som nämndes i spelets komponenter. Resultaten har visat att brädspel kan och bör användas som pedagogiska verktyg då de kan förvandla en tråkig uppgift till en underhållande sysselsättning.

Bakgrunn: Røyking blir fortsatt betraktet som den viktigste forebyggbare årsak til død i ge land. Praktiserende leger er nøkkelpersoner innen tobakksforebygging. Enkel rådgiving, som minimal intervensjon, gitt av allmennleger øker andelen røykfrie pasienter signifikant. Kan en oppsøkende intervensjon gjennomført av en likemann være en egnet metode for å få leger til å ta opp tobakksbruk oftere og på en bedre måte, og kan denne undersøkelsen påvise dette? Hensikt: Hensikten med denne studien er: 1) Vurdere om primærlegene i Agder har endret praksis i perioden 2001-2004 med hensyn til hvor ofte og hvordan de tar opp tobakksbruk med sine pasienter og eventuelle hindringer for dette. 2) Undersøke om oppsøkende intervensjon er en egnet metode for å få leger til å endre praksis ved at de bidrar mer og bedre med individuell røykeintervensjon. Metode: Randomisert kontrollert studie for å undersøke om oppsøkende intervensjon er en egnet metode for å få leger til å endre praksis. Denne studien er sett i lys av en sammenliknende analyse av legenes røykeintervensjon og hindringer for dette i perioden 2001-2004. Resultat: Allmennlegene i Agder har endret praksis i perioden 2001 til 2004. Legene tar oftere opp tobakksbruk uten av pasientene har røykerelaterte symptomer, og det er færre hindringer både for å spørre om røykevaner og for å tilby hjelp til røykeslutt. Studien kan ikke bekrefte at oppsøkende intervensjonen er en egnet metode for å få leger til endre praksis ved at de bidrar mer og bedre med individuell røykeintervensjon. Konklusjon: I perioden 2001-2004 har det vært en signifikant endring i legenes røykeintervensjon og hindringer for dette. Studien kan ikke påvise at legene som fikk opplæringen ”Røykeslutt i praksis” bidrar mer med individuell røykeintervensjon enn kontrollgruppen, og det er heller ikke signifikante forkjeller på hindringer for en slik intervensjon / Background: Cigarette smoking is still considered the leading preventable cause of death in the western world. Physicians constitutes a key personnel in tobacco prevention. Brief advising, such as minimal intervention, performed by general practitioners, GPs, increases the number of smoke free patients significantly. The potential effect of outreach visits performed by a peer educator is a question to be studied. Objective: The objective of this study is: 1) Assesswhether the primary physicians in Agder, during the period 2001 to 2004, have changed their professional practice as tohow often and in which way they discuss smoking habits with their patients and possible barriers to stop them. 2) The study also seeks to determine whether outreach visits constitute an effective method to make GPs change their professional practice by contributing more and better to individual smoking cessation. Method: Randomised controlled study to determine whether outreach visits constitute an effective method to make GPs change their practice. This study is also viewed in the light of a comparative analysis of doctors’ attitude to tobacco prevention over the period 2001-2004. Result: During the period 2001-2004 the GPs in Agder have changed their professional practice. They discuss more frequently tobacco use with patients without smoke-related symptoms, and there are fewer barriers that keep them from asking about smoking habits and from offering assistance with smoking cessation. The effect of outreach visits in improving professional practice cannot be ascertained through this study. Conclusion: During the period 2001-2004 there has been a significant change in the GPs intervention work and fewer barriers to stop them. The GPs who received training through the program “Røykeslutt i praksis” do not contribute to individual smoke intervention any more than the control group. We were unable to detect any significant differences regarding barriers to such intervention / <p>ISBN 91-7997-153-9</p>

In 2001 the then UK Government set a national target to get 50 per cent of young people between the ages of 18 and 30 into higher education by the year 2010. To achieve this goal, higher education institutions were required to deliver Widening Participation initiatives that would target under-represented groups in a bid to raise aspirations and bring them into the sector. The study that underpins this thesis was an investigation into the issues surrounding widening participation from the perspective of students in their final year of compulsory schooling. It began as a year-long longitudinal study of the students’ views as they moved towards a key transitional point in their lives. Nine students were identified from Year 11 in one school. Three were drawn from each of the following three categories or groups of students: (i) ‘traditional students’, these were students who were deemed as belonging to groups that were already well-represented in higher education; (ii) ‘non-traditional’ students, these were deemed ‘non-traditional’ in the sense that they were seen as belonging to groups that were under-represented in higher education; (iii) ‘widening participation’ students, these were recipients of a widening participation initiative delivered by their nearest university which, by implication, also deemed them as being ‘non-traditional’ in the sense that they were seen as belonging to groups that were under-represented in higher education. Each participant was interviewed in-depth three times whilst they were in Year 11; in December 2003, in March 2004, and again in June 2004. Whilst all interviews sought to elicit information about their lives at that point in time, the first interview was intended to gather relevant information about their past lives, the second a more in-depth look at their current lives, and the third focused on their future lives. Follow-up data were collected from some of the participants in 2009, 2010 and 2011. An in-depth interview also took place in June 2004 with the university’s Widening Participation Officer and the school’s Head of Year 11 and Widening Participation Co-ordinator. They are considered to be key informants to widening participation initiatives, more broadly in the case of the former, and specific to the school in the case of the latter. The thesis reports on the process through which participants were selected (or not selected) for widening participation intervention, learning identities in school and out, imagined futures, choices, and ultimately what happened to those students who were tracked beyond Year 11. Flaws in the widening participation policy agenda at the time of the main data collection period were identified as: (i) the individualization of the problem which drew attention away from the structural nature of the problem of under-representation and also from deep-rooted flaws within the education system; (ii) the lack of awareness of the longitudinal nature of the problem whereby entrance into higher education is dependent on prior learning and prior qualifications – this resulted in little or no account being taken in the selection process of widening participation-targeted individuals’ previous patterns of achievements, such that they may not be on a trajectory that makes higher education a viable option, and (iii) the valuing of non-participation in higher education. The thesis concluded by acknowledging that a new legislative framework about to be implemented in 2012 appears to be addressing some of these concerns. Issues that remain unaddressed include deep-rooted problems within the formal education system, the valuing of non-participation and of vocational training, and an appreciation that learning takes place on a trajectory.

University trains professionals who are able to face the challenges imposed on them, but this training should not focus only on the technical and scientific areas, it should include topics that are essential for the acquisition of a general culture. Higher education develops the processes of teaching, research and outreach, the latter one supported on cultural promotion, which influences the development of the students’ spirituality, as well as their personality. This article offers a proposal to favor the students’ humanistic training through the outreach process that takes place in the university educational project. In the preparation of this article, theoretical research methods have been employed, such as analysis and criticism of sources, and the hermeneutical method. Both methods foster interpretation and analysis of the study topic criteria, assessment and conclusions. / La universidad prepara profesionales capaces de enfrentar los retos que se les imponen, pero esta no debe centrarse solo en lo científico-técnico, debe abarcar aristas esenciales para la adquisición de una cultura general. En la educación superior se desarrollan los procesos de docencia, investigación y extensión, este último tiene como soporte la promoción cultural, lo que influye en el desarrollo de la espiritualidad de los estudiantes, de su personalidad. En el artículo se reflexiona sobre una propuesta para favorecer la formación humanística y humanista de los estudiantes mediante el proceso extensionista que se desarrolla en el proyecto educativo universitario, lo que constituye su objetivo. En su elaboración se han empleado métodos de investigación del nivel teórico: Análisis y crítica de fuentes y el método Hermenéutico. Ambos propician la interpretación y análisis de criterios sobre el tema objeto de estudio, las valoraciones al respecto y la elaboración de las conclusiones.

Project PANOPTES (http://www.projectranoptes.org) is aimed at establishing a collaboration between professional astronomers, citizen scientists and schools to discover a large number of exoplanets with the transit technique. We have developed digital camera based imaging units to cover large parts of the sky and look for exoplanet transits. Each unit costs approximately $5000 USD and runs automatically every night. By using low-cost, commercial digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras, we have developed a uniquely cost-efficient system for wide field astronomical imaging, offering approximately two orders of magnitude better etendue per unit of cost than professional wide-field surveys. Both science and outreach, our vision is to have thousands of these units built by schools and citizen scientists gathering data, making this project the most productive exoplanet discovery machine in the world.

Political participation is paramount to the well being of a democracy. Concerns over low turnout rates across the world have prompted a growing body of research on the potential for political institutions to foster electoral participation. Amongst those institutions, compulsory voting is found to have the largest and most robust impact on maximizing participation rates. Under this system, eligible citizens are required by law to go to the polls on election day, and are subject to penalties if they fail to do so. Beyond its positive impact on turnout, we know far less about what other aspects of the democratic process are influenced by compulsory voting. The main goal of this dissertation is to inform the debate on how and when the effects of compulsory voting extend beyond voter turnout. Specifically, I draw on numerous sources of survey data across the world to investigate the impact of compulsory voting (herein CV) on three distinct political aspects: citizen attitudes towards voting, political engagement, and elite campaigning. The first step in understanding the broader effects of CV is to examine whether it influences citizens’ perceptions of the democratic act of voting. In chapter two, I develop a detailed theoretical framework that highlights whether compulsory voting increases citizens’ feelings of civic duty, or generates resentment amongst eligible voters. I also argue that the impact of CV on attitudes could be neutral—by devaluing the act of voting and making individuals indifferent towards the democratic process. Using a hierarchical modeling technique and survey data from Latin America, I show that voters living under CV are no more likely to report either increased feelings of civic duty or higher rates of resentment, compared to their counterparts under voluntary voting. Instead, individuals who are required to turn out by law are slightly more likely to feel indifferent towards electoral participation. Then, chapter three takes advantage of the recent abolition of compulsory voting in Chile to evaluate whether CV laws promote political engagement beyond election day. An empirical analysis of public opinion surveys over a 10-year period pre and post reform shows that rates of political engagement—specifically, watching and reading political news and discussing politics with family—are significantly higher under compulsory than under voluntary voting, and this is especially the case for those with lower levels of education. These findings suggest that when presented with the task of turning out at the polls, citizens seem to incur the extra costs necessary to make an informed decision. Finally, in chapter four I investigate whether mandatory voting laws alter the way political parties decide to engage in outreach during political campaigns. Using a comprehensive dataset of post-election surveys of over 40,000 individuals in 27 different countries, I find that political elites do adjust to their institutional context—when voting is mandatory, parties invest in campaign outreach at similar levels (not less) than when voting is voluntary, and that this outreach is much less skewed towards individuals of higher socioeconomic status compared to when voting is voluntary. I also show evidence that parties under CV are more likely to engage in persuasion rather than mobilization via party outreach. Taken together, this dissertation provides a comprehensive analysis of how maximizing electoral participation through a legal requirement to vote shapes individual and elite behavior, contributing to our understanding of the implications of political institutions for the quality of representative democracy worldwide.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Critical Care Outreach Services (CCOSs) recognize early sign of deterioration in medical units, regarding the condition of the patient, by using elements of vital sign tracking namely modified early warning score (MEWS). Nurses as leaders should be proactive by using influence to obtain a desired outcome. It is unclear how nurses experience self-leadership in this outreach service in a private hospital in Pretoria. The purpose of this research was to understand nurses’ experience of their self-leadership in the current CCOS at a private hospital in Pretoria, in order to develop self-leadership strategies that could contributes to the implementation of a CCOS (for the broader population of nurses) in a private hospital group in Gauteng. In this research the steps as outlined in the self-leadership strategic framework of Neck and Milliman (1994) were adapted for this research. The theoretical assumptions furthermore informed the methodological steps followed in the research process. The theoretical assumptions of the Practice Orientated Theory of Dickoff, James and Wiedenbach (1968) were adapted and the survey lists of this theory served as a reasoning map in this research. The central statement of this research was that, nurses need to lead themselves in implementing a CCOS in general wards in a private hospital group in Gauteng.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) is an institution with 2 residential campuses: 1 in Daytona Beach, Florida and one in Prescott, Arizona. ERAU also has a Worldwide presence through 125 campuses located on military bases and within the private business sector. The ERAU Worldwide Campus doesn’t stop with physical locations, however. It encompasses an online campus with virtual learning opportunities. The degrees offered through all of our campuses range from certificate programs through doctoral studies. The Scholarly Communication Team is located on the Daytona Beach campus. One of our challenges is to bring the intellectual output of all of our talented faculty from around the world into the ERAU institutional repository, called Scholarly Commons. In order to do this, we need an outreach plan which will capture the attention of our faculty members on our distance learning campuses and explain the benefits of participating in Scholarly Commons. To this end, we’ve begun to promote Scholarly Commons using a multi-format outreach strategy. We seek partners from within the distance learning faculty communities to help us show why faculty should participate in Scholarly Commons. This presentation will describe the processes we have tried and others we will be putting into place to educate our faculty on how they can use Scholarly Commons to organize and pursue research, tenure, and promotional activities.

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