Metal Detectors Should Not Be Scanned, Treated Like A...

Would you like to come to school like a prisoner? To be scanned, treated like a criminal? Of course not. Adding metal detectors to schools would do just that. It would be unjust and downright disrespectful. The schools are saying they don t trust its own people. Speaker ________ said that using metal detectors reduces the risk of entering school with weapons. However, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, metal detectors are usually not effective when used on purses, backpacks, briefcases, or suitcases. There is usually a large number of different objects or materials located in or as part of the composition of these carried items that would cause an alarm. {National Institute of Justice Research Report: Chapter 3-Metal†¦show more content†¦Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation. Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2013. Web. 21 Sept. 2013.| National Association of School Psychologists. School Safety and Security.Research on School Security The Impact of Security Measures on Students (2005): 1-4. National Association of School Psychologists C. National Association of School Psychologists C. Web. 21 Sept. 2015. Speaker ________ said that it increases perceived level of safety, thus creating a more comfortable learning environment. According to the NASP, studies have shown that the presence of security guards and metal detectors in schools negatively impacts students’ perceptions of safety and even increases fear among some students. (30,31) The use of metal detectors is negatively correlated with students’ sense of safety at school, even when taking into account the level of violence at the schools. (33) {31}Bachman, R., Randolph, A., Brown, B. L. (2011). Predicting perceptions of fear at school and going to and from school for African American and White students: The effects of school security measures. Youth Society, 43, 705-726. 31 {32}Schreck, C. J., Miller, J. M. (2003). Sources of fear of crime at school: What is the relative contribution of disorder, individual characteristics and school security? Journal of School Violence, 2, 57-79., {33} 3 Gastic, B. (2011). Meta l detectors and feeling safe at school. Education and Urban Society, 43,

Applying Servqual to Web Sites an Exploratory Study Free Essays

string(45) " online sales in the USA accounted for \$51\." International Journal of Quality Reliability Management Emerald Article: Applying SERVQUAL to Web sites: an exploratory study Jos van Iwaarden, Ton van der Wiele, Leslie Ball, Robert Millen Article information: To cite this document: Jos van Iwaarden, Ton van der Wiele, Leslie Ball, Robert Millen, (2003),†Applying SERVQUAL to Web sites: an exploratory study†, International Journal of Quality Reliability Management, Vol. 20 Iss: 8 pp. 919 – 935 Permanent link to this document: http://dx. 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The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at http://www. emeraldinsight. com/researchregister The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www. emeraldinsight. om/0265-671X. htm NEW RESEARCH Applying SERVQUAL to Web sites: an exploratory study Applying SERVQUAL 919 Jos van Iwaarden and Ton van der Wiele Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and Leslie Ball and Robert Millen Received August 2002 Revised December 2002 Accepted December 2002 Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Keywor ds Worldwide Web, SERVQUAL, Electronic commerce Abstract In an effort to identify the quality factors perceived to be most important in relation to the use of Web sites, a survey was undertaken. The questionnaire utilized was based on the SERVQUAL instrument that identi? s ? ve quality dimensions in service environments. The results indicate that the quality dimensions found applicable in the service sector are also applicable to Web sites. The items that have been identi? ed as most important in relation to the quality of Web sites are tangibles (the appearance of the Web site, navigation, search options, and structure), reliability (the ability to judge the trustworthiness of the offered service and the organization performing the service), responsiveness (the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service), assurance (the ability of the Web site to convey trust and con? ence in the organisation behind it with respect to security and privacy), and empathy (the provision of caring, individualized attention to customers, including user recognition and customization). Introduction In the early 1990s three technologies (communications speed, memory capacity, and computer speed) were rapidly growing in terms of capabilities they had for over 20 years. However, their combined S-curve growths suddenly enabled one of the greatest technology revolutions ever seen – the explosion of the Internet. Originally designed as an information conduit, entrepreneurs soon saw the great power of a selling channel that enabled browsing, selecting, and buying without leaving the comfort of the home. Businesses realized that they could interact directly with other businesses over the Internet, as well. Additionally, government agencies caught on and began delivering services online, collecting payments for licenses and taxes, providing information, etc. The history of this explosion is well documented as both computer and Internet use have increased substantially in the past few years (US Department of Commerce, 2002). Since 1997 computer use has grown at a rate of 5. 3 percent on an annualized basis. Internet use has grown at a rate of 20 percent per year since 1998, and in the 13 months prior to the September 2001 survey by the US Department of Commerce, over 26 million more Americans went online. The authors are thankful to all anonymous referees for their valuable comments. International Journal of Quality Reliability Management Vol. 20 No. 8, 2003 pp. 919-935 q MCB UP Limited 0265-671X DOI 10. 1108/02656710310493634 IJQRM 20,8 920 While there is a great talk about the â€Å"digital divide†, the US Department of Commerce reported that 54 percent (or 143 million Americans) have access to the Internet in their homes and that nearly 100 percent of the US population has access through schools and libraries. Thousands of companies were formed to sell goods and services over the Internet during this period creating the â€Å"New Economy†. Subsequently, many of those companies are now gone as witnessed by the huge number of bankruptcies (Baldwin, 2002). Different experts might de? e e-commerce differently, but most agree on one thing: the sector represents a growing piece of the overall commerce pie, and its share is expected to increase steadily – though gradually – over the next ? ve years. Various parties have forecast different results. For example, Forrester reports that online sales in the USA accounted for $51. You read "Applying Servqual to Web Sites: an Exploratory Study" in catego ry "Essay examples" 3 billion in revenue during 2001, and revenue for 2002 is expected to a total of $72. 1 billion, a 41 percent increase over the previous year (Hirsh, 2002). However, this accounts for only 2 percent of the overall retail spending. It has been predicted that this share will grow by about three-tenths of a percentage point each year through at least 2005, marking a slow but steady climb. As for e-commerce sales, another projection estimates that online revenue will total about $90 billion in 2002, $160-$170 billion in 2004, and $287. 9 billion by 2006 (Hirsh, 2002). The value of the Internet goes beyond adding another selling channel. Researchers at McKinsey and Company report that the retention of customers online is easier than in traditional â€Å"bricks and mortar† companies where the online company spends three to ? ve times less to retain them. Companies that retained customers exhibited traits of reliable basic operational execution. Their sites downloaded quickly; they responded to customer queries quickly; they delivered more than 95 percent of their orders on time; and they made it easy for customers to return or exchange purchases. One company raised its on-time delivery rates from 60 to 90 percent, and cut customer churn in half (Agrawal et al. , 2001). The Internet also can play a pivotal role in enhancing brand relationships and corporate reputations. Nike, Disney, Coke, and Toyota are all well-established brands that drive us to search for and ? d their products. Branding is a critical component of the design of Web sites. It is about building a brand or corporate reputation to create relationships with customers (Chiagouris and Wansley, 2001). â€Å"Branding is rede? ned online,† says Caroline Riby, vice president-media director at Saatchi Saatchi Rowland. â€Å"We are moving beyond representing a brand t o experiencing it† (Chiagouris and Wansley, 2001). The Web site must capture the attention of those people who know nothing or very little about the company, but are interested in its category. It must also build awareness of what the company does within the context of the industry in which it is competing. Earlier Web sites were developed by large corporations, which required that they adhere to the corporate logo and color scheme, attach to the corporate databases, and comply with several other corporate requirements. This translated to high cost and signi? cant development time. Others (those created for â€Å"Mom and Pop† operations and early entrepreneurial operations), built over the weekend, did not connect to large databases, and had no standards. While the company was in operation fast, the sites were often unattractive and dif? ult to use. Is it not surprising that the companies that are most successful selling over the Internet are the former and not the later? Certainly, we can ? nd examples of the up-starts that have succeeded, but they have usually adapted to the model of the corporation that requires high standards. Just as in the bricks and mortar wor ld, companies have to offer excellent service on the Web. Web sites will become very important to companies as more products and services will be bought either over the Internet or by making use of the Internet before purchasing in a bricks and mortar store. Therefore, companies need to have Web sites that live up to customers’ expectations. The purpose of our research is to provide empirical evidence on the factors that contribute to the quality of Web sites. Our most important research questions are: . How do customers distinguish a good Web site from a bad one? . What factors determine the quality of a Web site? Customer satisfaction Companies offer quality to satisfy their customers (Dale, 1999). Because a Web site is part of the connection between a company and its customers, it is evident that it should re? ct the quality efforts that are in place throughout the company. Besides this reason there is another reason why a company should provide high quality Web sites to its customers: there is no human contact through Web sites. The interaction via the Internet between a company and a customer is always through technology. This means the â€Å"moment of truth† between a company and a customer is the Web site. Although c ompanies may try to emulate human behavior with technology, the interaction remains different because some aspects of human interaction cannot be replaced with technology, e. g. ourtesy, friendliness, helpfulness, care, commitment, ?exibility and cleanliness (Cox and Dale, 2001, 2002). The absence of these aspects of human interaction through which quality can be delivered to customers will have to be compensated by better performance on other quality factors or by excellent performance on â€Å"new† speci? c Web quality factors. A key aspect in customer satisfaction is the way a customer can attain satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a company’s service. If a company wants to satisfy its customers the ? rst question it needs to answer is what is it that Applying SERVQUAL 921 IJQRM 20,8 22 satis? es customers and, equally important, what is it that makes customers dissatis? ed with the company and its products and services. Satisfying customers depends on the balance between customers’ expectations and customers’ experiences with the products and services (Zeithaml et al. , 1990). When a company is able to lift a customer’s experience to a level that exceeds that customer’s expectations, then that customer will be satis? ed. Because customers have ever increasing expectations it is necessary for companies continuously to improve their quality and hence customers’ experiences with the company. The issue is what should be improved to keep the customers satis? ed. What customers experience is not just one simple aspect of a company, but a whole range of aspects. Some of these aspects are concerned with the way customers experience the company itself, some are concerned with the way customers experience the physical product and, ? nally, some are concerned with the way customers experience the service the company offers. Comparing customers’ expectations and their perceptions of actual performance can be done by making use of the SERVQUAL scale of Berry, Parasuraman and Zeithaml (Zeithaml et al. 1990). This scale has been developed for the service sector. It has ? ve generic dimensions or factors and are stated as follows: (1) Tangibles. Physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel. (2) Reliability. Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. (3) Responsiveness. Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. (4) Assurance (including competence, courtesy, credibility and security). Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and con? dence. (5) Empathy (including access, communication, understanding the customer). Caring and individualized attention that the ? rm provides its customers. In the SERVQUAL instrument, 22 statements measure the performance across these ? ve dimensions. For each statement, the expectation and the experience of a customer is determined. There is some criticism on the long-term stability of the results of the SERVQUAL scale (Lam and Woo, 1997) and on the general applicability of the ? ve dimensions (Buttle, 1996; Crosby and LeMay, 1998). Although alternative models have been proposed for the measurement of service quality, e. . SERVPERF (Cronin and Taylor, 1992), the SERVQUAL scale has been widely used by academics and practitioners to measure service quality. Therefore, this model has been used as a point of reference in this paper. SERVQUAL dimensions in relation to e-business Tangibles Examples of the tangibles factor are â€Å"has up-to-date equipment†, â€Å"physical facilities are visually appealing† and â€Å"materials are visually appealing†. These aspects might be even more important in e-business as there is no face-to-face contact between the customer and an employee. The visual aspects of the equipment (i. e. the Web site) are the only visual contact between a customer and an organization. Therefore, the need to have well functioning and good-looking Web sites is paramount. There are a great number of customers who abandon their shopping carts on the Internet because they get frustrated with the technology, or the design and lay out of the Web site interface (Hager and Elliot, 2001). The visual aspects of Web sites are also judged differently by the people of different age. While young people may be attracted by ? shy graphics, sounds and a high-speed interface, older people do not want blinking texts that are hard to read or animations that distract from the use of the Web site (Houtman, 2002). Although a number of Web sites offer users the opportunity to customise the Web site to their needs, this customization process is mostly aimed at the content of the Web site and not at the graphics, animations and sounds. Reliability Some of the aspects in the reliability factor have to do with â€Å"doing what is promised† and â€Å"doing it at the promised time†. Although many organizations seem to think that the major reason why customers shop via the Internet is because of the low prices, this does not always need to be the case. Some organizations found out the hard way that there are also a lot of customers shopping via the Internet because of convenience considerations (Riseley and Schehr, 2000). If customers cannot trust an organization to do what they ask, those customers will be dissatis? ed. Priceline, for example, ran into big problems by the end of 2000 because of its focus on the lowest prices. People could buy a plane ticket at a very low price, but because of possible inconvenient ? ing times there was a big risk for customers. This resulted in dissatis? ed customers who were happy to trade off Priceline’s discounts for the convenience of a competitor (Riseley and Schehr, 2000). Responsiveness One of the aspects in the responsiveness factor is â€Å"gives prompt service†. The amount of time it takes to download a W eb page appears to be of great importance to the users of the Internet. Research in 1999 found that fewer than 10 percent of users leave a Web site if page response time is kept below 7 s. However, when it rises above 8 s, 30 percent of users leave. When delays exceed 12 s, a staggering 70 percent of users leave a Web site (Cox and Dale, 2001, 2002). It can be assumed that people expect Web sites to be even more quicker than in 1999 because of the technological advances. Thus, it is very important Applying SERVQUAL 923 IJQRM 20,8 924 for organizations to have a Web site that is quick, but on the other hand users expect Web sites to be visually appealing. As the number and size of animations, pictures and sounds increase to make a Web page more visually appealing, the time it takes to download that Web page will also increase, which is judged negatively by users. Hence, there is a trade-off between the looks of a Web site and the speed of that site. Organizations will have to try to ? nd the right balance between good looks and speed. The trade-off between looks and speed is complicated by companies’ demand that their Web sites convey the corporate image (Manning et al. , 1998). The design department of a company wants Web pages to be easily recognisable as belonging to that company. In their view, Web pages have to display company and product logos as well as other graphics that underscore the corporate identity. These graphics add to the overall size of Web pages and thereby increase the download time for Internet users. It is questionable whether users are willing to accept slower pages in return for more logos and graphics that do not improve the functionality of the Web site (although they might improve the visual appeal). Assurance One of the aspects in the assurance factor is â€Å"knowledge to answer questions†. Customers expect to ? nd everything they want on a Web site. In a bricks and mortar store, people feel comfortable with a limited inventory. On the Internet, people are not satis? ed if they cannot ? nd everything they want. Web shops need to have great depth of inventory and rich and relevant product information (Dayal et al. , 2002). Two other aspects in the assurance factor are â€Å"employees can be trusted† and â€Å"feel safe in your transactions with employees†. First, there is the risk for users to share personal information with an organization they do not know. Research on this topic (Statistical Research Inc. , 2001) shows that at least 50 percent of users are very concerned about: misuse of credit card information given over the Internet; selling or sharing of personal information by Web site owners; and cookies that track customers’ Internet activity. Second, the same research shows that two-thirds of active Web users typically abandon a site that requests personal information and one in ? ve has entered false information to gain access to a Web site. Aspects in the assurance factor that could be very important in e-business are (Daughtrey, 2001): . availability of a formal privacy and con? dentiality policy on a Web site; . secured access to a Web site (that customers are prompted to acknowledge); . general reputation of supplier; . certi? cations or guarantees of assurance; and . reports of experiences of other customers. The ? rst aspect in this list is also acknowledged by the International Organization for Standardisation in Geneva. The Code of Practice for Information Security Management (ISO/IEC 17799:2000) provides a basis for establishing and maintaining the means of handling sensitive data (Daughtrey, 2001). Certi? cations and guarantees of assurance are also important in e-business. More and more organizations are trying to obtain certi? cation by an objective, consensus-based standard, just as they did earlier with quality management standards (Daughtrey, 2001). These organizations are becoming aware of the advantages of such certi? cation in relation to customers’ trust in these organizations. Empathy In the dimension of empathy there are several aspects that are usually not found on a Web site. Because of the fact that there is no human interaction, Web sites normally do not offer personal attention. To achieve this, a number of Web sites have a design that can be personalized by the users of these sites, so people can have their own version of the Web site. This kind of Web site design is aimed at giving users the experience of getting personal attention. The idea is that the more a Web site is tailored to a particular customer’s needs, the more likely that customer will return again and again (The Economist, 2001). The most advanced technologies in this area aim to create a face-to-virtual-face interaction. A friendly looking face of a virtual assistant on your screen is supposed to make customers feel more comfortable. With the use of arti? cial intelligence, the virtual assistant can suggest products or services that might be of interest to a customer based on previous purchases and on reactions to the questions of the virtual assistant. The latter possibility of asking users of a Web site questions via a virtual assistant will enable companies to tailor their offerings to the wishes of the user to prevent customer dissatisfaction. The only purpose of all these technological gadgets is to add one of the Web’s key missing ingredients: warmth (The Economist, 2001). Other aspects It seems that most of the dimensions and aspects that have been de? ned for general service environments are also important in e-business. Besides the ? ve dimensions as de? ned by Zeithaml et al. (1990), empirical evidence might come up with more speci? c dimensions related to e-business. Some preliminary research has been done in this area (Cox and Dale, 2001, 2002; Fink and Laupase, 2000; Schubert and Dettling, 2001; Wan, 2000), but no de? nitive results have been attained. Hence, more research is needed (Zeithaml, 2002). Research methodology The research was conducted by means of a questionnaire survey. Employment of this approach provides a relatively easy means to study the perceptions and Applying SERVQUAL 925 IJQRM 20,8 926 opinions of a large group of people in a limited time frame and at low costs. The survey was undertaken with the student population at Northeastern University (NEU), Boston, USA. Students were expected to be familiar with e-business and the Internet. Students received an e-mail with a hyperlink to the Web site containing the questionnaire allowing them to respond to the questionnaire electronically and to submit by clicking a button. The purpose of the questionnaire survey was to develop empirical evidence on the quality factors of Web sites that are important to people who are familiar with the Internet and frequent Internet users. The survey comprised the following questions: . personal information (gender, age, academic discipline); . respondents’ use of Internet (equipment, frequency of use); . peci? c Web sites that are visited by respondents (a prede? ned list of 20 categories of Web sites); and . aspects of Web quality (a prede? ned list of 50 aspects). The core of the questionnaire consists of the list of aspects of Web quality. For every aspect we ask the respondent to indicate the importance of that aspect and at the same time we ask for thei r satisfaction with that aspect. The structure of the questions is based on the SERVQUAL scale (Zeithaml et al. , 1990). The aspects have been de? ned according to the categories of the model developed by Cox and Dale (2001, 2002) and are as follows: clarity of purpose; . design; . communication; . reliability; . service and frequently asked questions; . accessibility and speed; . product or service choice; . order con? rmation; . product purchase; . user recognition; . extra service; and . frequent buyer incentives. For each of these categories a number of aspects have been de? ned in the questionnaire. The questionnaire has been discussed with experts in the ? eld of quality management and a pilot study has been conducted amongst a small number of students. This lead to an improved questionnaire which has been used for the esearch presented in this paper. Survey results Sample and response rate All students who obtained a university e-mail account at NEU (approximately 6,000) rece ived an e-mail about the study and the questionnaire. Responses were received from 293 students. The response rate for the direct mailings to students was rather low (approximately 5 percent of the number of e-mails sent out), although acceptable for this type of mailing. Applying SERVQUAL 927 Descriptive statistics In Tables I and II, the response sample is described in terms of gender and age, respectively. A comparison of the response sample with the total population at NEU leads to the conclusion that the response group is representative for the total population. The respondents were enrolled across many academic disciplines, and judged by the age of the respondents, most students were at the undergraduate level. Table III shows the respondents’ use of the Internet in terms of the quality of their own equipment. Overall the students are rather satis? ed with their equipment and do not seem to have problems with speed and download time. Table IV summarizes the frequencies of respondents’ Internet visits. They visit the Internet on an average 18 times per week, for about an hour per visit. So, it is clear that students make frequent use of the Internet. Male Female Total 104 188 292 Table I. Number of respondents by gender , 21 years 21-25 years 26-30 years 31-35 years . 35 years Total 192 71 19 4 7 293 Table II. Number of respondents by age PC Connection speed Printing from the Web Downloading from the Web Notes: On a ? ve-point scale from very dissatis? ed to very satis? ed 3. 83 3. 59 3. 53 3. 57 Table III. Satisfaction of respondents with the equipment they use IJQRM 20,8 928 Table IV. The use of the Web It is interesting to note the types of Web sites that are used most often by our respondents (Table V). The types of Web sites that are used most often are: search engines, university sites, daily news and entertainment sites. Web sites that are used less frequently are: e-shops and chat rooms. Sites with stock exchange information are not visited very often either. In Table VI (top ten) and Table VII (bottom ten) the importance (expectations) and the satisfaction (experiences) are summarized on prede? ned aspects related to the quality of Web sites. The top ten aspects seem to relate to reliability issues in pure e-commerce. Customers who buy a product on the Internet want Web sites and the organizations behind them to be trustworthy. E-commerce Web sites need to be fast, simple and always available. Customers want a clear overview and con? rmation of what they bought and what they have to pay for. Easy to ? nd desired Web site 3. 80 Easy to use Web page links 3. 92 Easy to ? nd relevant information 3. 38 Time spent on one site , 12 min Time on the Web per Internet visit , 60 min Number of Internet visits per week , 19 visits Note: If not indicated otherwise, on a ? ve-point scale from very dif? cult to very easy Mean Table V. Web sites ranked by requency of visits Search engines Daily newspapers Entertainment Universities Electronic libraries Personal Web sites Information portals Games Travel Sports Banking Company information E-shops Book stores Music stores Movie stores Second-hand products Stock exchange information Who is where Chat rooms Note: On a ? ve-point scale from never to once a day or more 4. 64 3. 63 3. 47 3. 38 3. 02 2. 99 2. 92 2. 82 2. 72 2. 62 2. 60 2. 58 2. 57 2. 41 2. 39 2. 27 2. 16 2. 02 1. 84 1. 76 Top ten with highest scores on importance Finding your way on the Web site is easya Access is fasta A complete overview of the order is presented before ? al purchase decisiona Tax and/or other charges are clearly detaileda The registration process is simplea Access to anticipated delivery times is available at all timesa All relevant order con? rmation details sent by e-maila Order cancellation and returns details are con? rmed within three daysa Order-tracking details are available until deliverya There are well programmed search optionsa Importance Satisfaction mean mean Delta S-I 4. 61 4. 60 3. 44 3. 31 2 1. 17 2 1. 29 4. 55 4. 50 4. 50 4. 46 4. 46 3. 75 3. 47 3. 36 3. 18 3. 84 2 0. 80 2 1. 03 2 1. 14 2 1. 28 2 0. 62 4. 43 4. 40 4. 39 3. 24 3. 30 3. 08 1. 19 2 1. 10 2 1. 31 Notes: a Mean values on ? ve-point scales; difference between importance and satisfacti on signi? cant at 0. 01 level based on a t-test (two-tailed) Bottom ten with lowest scores on importance Applying SERVQUAL Importance Satisfaction mean mean Searches on related sites are provideda 3. 81 The privacy policy is accessiblea 3. 79 The security policy is accessiblea 3. 76 The Web site contains company detailsa 3. 70 3. 68 Scrolling through pages and text is kept to a minimuma Links are provided to pages on related products and servicesa 3. 67 Web site animations are meaningfula 3. 52 A customer platform is provided for exchange of ideas 3. 36 The user is invited into a frequent buyer programa 3. 31 Brand image is important 3. 22 Notes: a Mean values on ? ve-point scales; Difference between importance signi? cant at 0. 01 level based on a t-test (two-tailed) 3. 40 3. 52 3. 51 3. 32 3. 29 929 Table VI. Importance of and satisfaction with aspects of Web quality Delta S-I 2 0. 41 2 0. 27 2 0. 25 2 0. 38 2 0. 39 3. 40 2 0. 27 3. 21 2 0. 31 3. 29 2 0. 07 3. 08 2 0. 23 3. 29 0. 07 and satisfaction The bottom ten aspects seem to relate to extra service (e. g. customization of Web sites) and information (e. g. ecurity policy and company details) that is provided to the customer. Apparently respondents do not ? nd these extras very important in their use of the Internet. Tables VI and VII also show the gaps between experiences and expectations (satisfaction minus importance). It can be concluded that the gap is widest for the aspects that respondents perceive as most impor tant. The aspect with the largest gap is â€Å"access is fast† (satisfaction score 3. 31 and importance score 4. 60). In the top ten aspects there are no aspects with a positive delta, meaning Table VII. Importance of and satisfaction with aspects of Web quality IJQRM 20,8 930 that for every aspect the experience is less than expected. In the bottom ten aspects there is just one aspect with a (very small) positive delta â€Å"brand image†. Factor analyses (varimax, principal components) on the importance data (KMO value ? 0. 91) and satisfaction data (KMO value ? 0. 93) based on Eigenvalues greater than one indicated 12 factor solutions. These factors cluster the aspects more or less according to the structure of the questionnaire. Most of these factors also become too speci? c and do not disclose the underlying structure of customers’ perceptions of the quality of Web sites. The Scree plots indicated solutions with fewer factors, possibly around ? ve factors. A comparison of the results of factor analyses with varying numbers of factors led to the conclusion that ? ve-factor solutions ? t the data best. These ? ve-factor solutions were used to ? nd evidence for the existence of the ? ve dimensions according to the SERVQUAL scale (Zeithaml et al. , 1990). The results of these ? ve-factor solutions are summarized in Table VIII. In Table VIII we only include the aspects with factor loadings greater than 0. 5. The aspects are ranked under each factor according to their factor loadings. It can be seen from the table that the two ? ve-factor solutions (importance and satisfaction) come to the same conclusions regarding the clustering of the aspects. There are some minor differences in the clustering of the aspects between the two factor solutions; however, these differences are related to the aspects with low factor loadings. It can be concluded that the factor analyses on both the importance of the Web quality aspects and the satisfaction with the Web quality aspects are compatible with the ? ve factors of the SERVQUAL scale. Correlation between Web sites and Web quality factors The importance of any of the ? e factors of the SERVQUAL scale might differ per type of Web site, just like it differs per service sector in the bricks and mortar world. Therefore, a correlation between the ? ve SERVQUAL factors and the different types of Web sites is useful to determine these differences. In order to categorize the fairly large number of different types of Web sites, a fact or analysis (varimax, principal components, KMO value ? 0. 83) on the data on the use of Web sites (Table V) is conducted. The results of this factor analysis indicate that there are clearly ? ve groups of sites that form the underlying usage pattern. These are: (1) e-shops for books, music, movies, etc. (Cronbach’s alpha ? 0. 75); (2) university and study information (Cronbach’s alpha ? 0. 64); (3) games, entertainment, and sport (Cronbach’s alpha ? 0. 66); (4) company information, stock information, and banks (Cronbach’s alpha ? 0. 69); and (5) general information on daily news, travel, libraries, and search engines (Cronbach’s alpha ? 0. 58). Importance Satisfaction Factor 1 (Reliability) A complete overview of the order is presented before ? nal purchase decision Tax and/or other charges are clearly detailed Different payment options are stated clearly All relevant order con? rmation details are sent by e-mail within 24 hours Access to anticipated delivery times is available at all times Terms and conditions of sales are accessible Order-tracking details are available until delivery Order cancellation and returns details are con? rmed within three days Full details of product or service pricing are available The registration process is simple Full product or service characteristics are available Registration process details are retained The Web site offers free shipping and handling within a set of rules Access is fast The user can make a purchase without Web ite registration Factor 1 (Reliability) All relevant order con? rmation details are sent by e-mail within 24 hours A complete overview of the order is presented before ? nal purchase decision Terms and conditions of sales are accessible Order-tracking details are available until delivery Different payment options are stated clearly Tax and/or other charges are clearly detailed Access to anticipated delivery times is available at all times Order cancellation and returns details are con? rmed within three days The home page features options for new and registered users Registration process details are retained Factor 2 (Tangibles) Finding your way on the Web site is easy Information is found with a minimum of clicks Navigation is consistent and standardized There are well programmed search options Instructions are directly available Opening of new screens is kept to a minimum Applying SERVQUAL Factor 2 (Tangibles) Finding your way on the Web site is easy Information is found with a minimum of clicks Navigation is consistent and standardized The number and type of links are meaningful The purpose is clear Scrolling through pages and text is kept to a minimum Instructions are directly available It is easy to print from the Web Factor 3 (Empathy) Factor 3 (Empathy) Links are provided to pages on related products Links are provided to pages on related products and services and services A customer platform is provided for the On travel sites a ? ight/hotel search is provided exchange of ideas A standard navigation bar, home button and On travel sites the user can customize seat and back/forward button are available on every meal preferences and the information is page retained (continued ) 931 Table VIII. Con? rmative factor analysis (? ve-factor solution) IJQRM 20,8 Importance Satisfaction It is easy to print from the Web On travel sites a ? ight/hotel search is provided Web sites that focus on brand awareness have a store locator The user is invited into a frequent buyer program Factor 4 (Assurance) The security policy is accessible The privacy policy is accessible External validation of trustworthiness is important The Web site contains company details Brand image is important Page availability information is given on entry The user is invited into a frequent buyer program A customer platform is provided for exchange of ideas Factor 4 (Assurance) The privacy policy is accessible The security policy is accessible The Web site contains company details External validation of trustworthiness is important 932 Factor 5 (Responsiveness) The frequently asked questions and answers contain links that take the user to the relevant page(s) Information is provided to frequently asked questions and answers Queries or complaints are resolved within 24 hours User feedback is sought to measure customer satisfaction An e-mail address for queries and complaints is provided Table VIII. Factor 5 (Responsiveness) User feedback is sought to measure customer satisfaction Queries or complaints are resolved within 24 hours The frequently asked questions and answers contain links that take the user to the relevant page(s) Access is fast Opening of new screens is kept to a minimum Graphics and animation do not detract from use Full details of product or service pricing are available Notes: Principal component analysis. Varimax with Kaiser normalization. Rotation converged in nine iterations (importance) and ten iterations (satisfaction). Factor loadings . 0. 5, ranking based on factor loadings from high to low Table IX shows the correlation matrix between the frequency of use of types of Web sites and the importance of the Web quality factors. Some results are as follows: . All ? ve quality dimensions are most strongly correlated with e-shops, indicating that frequent users of e-shops tend to have higher quality expectations. . An increase in the frequency of use of the types of Web sites is in all cases most strongly correlated with either empathy (E-shops), assurance (company sites and search engines) or responsiveness (study related sites, Reliability Coef. Sign E-shops (books, music, movies etc. ) Study-related sites Games and sports sites Company and banking sites Search engines, daily news, travel Tangibles Coef. Sign Empathy Coef. Sign Assurance Coef. Sign Responsiveness Coef. Sign 0. 220 ** 0. 174 ** 0. 239 ** 0. 232 ** 0. 233 ** 0. 171 ** 0. 167 ** 0. 183 ** 0. 156 ** 0. 202 ** 0. 114 * 0. 124 * 0. 168 ** 0. 112 n. s. 0. 171 ** 0. 144 ** 0. 136 * 0. 151 ** 0. 166 ** 0. 144 ** 0. 122 * 0. 115 * 0. 115 * 0. 123 * 0. 115 * Notes: * Correlation is signi? cant at the 0. 05 level (two-tailed); ** Correlation is signi? cant at the 0. 01 level (two-tailed); n. s. ? no signi? cant correlation . Applying SERVQUAL and games and sports). More frequent users of the Internet tend to ? nd reliability and tangibles less important. All correlation coef? cients are positive, indicating that for all types of Web sites more usage leads to higher importance of all quality dimensions. The experienced user seems to have higher expectations of the quality of Web sites. Conclusion The results of this research can be summarised in the following way. Of a prede? ned list of Web quality aspects these aspects are considered to be the most important: access is fast; ? nding your way on the Web site is easy; a complete overview of the order is presented before ? nal purchase decision; and the registration process is simple. Of the ? e factors that can be found by means of factor analyses (reliability, tangibles, empathy, assurance and responsiveness) various aspects related to the factors reliability and tangibles are included in the top ten important aspects. Various aspects related to the factors empathy and assurance are included in the bottom ten aspects ranked according to their perceived importance. Both the importance of the Web quality aspects and the satisfaction with the Web quality aspects are compatible with ? ve-factor analyses that support the existence of the ? ve factors of the SERVQUAL scale of Zeithaml et al. (1990). The importance of any of the ? ve factors of the SERVQUAL scale differs per type of Web site, just like it differs per service industry in the bricks and mortar world. So far, it can be concluded that the quality dimensions developed by Zeithaml et al. (1990) for service environments are equally useful in e-business. 933 Table IX. Correlation between the frequency of use of types of Web sites and the importance of the Web quality factors IJQRM 20,8 934 Further analysis of the data is needed. While this research project yields a number of very interesting results, we believe that there are a number of things that should be done to con? m our results as well as to expand our hypotheses. First, with the number of Internet users now over one billion, our sample is relatively small. Therefore, research with larger samples that pose the same or similar questions would be appropriate. Second, Internet users come from all over the globe. One has to suspect that there are differences between a sample taken from students of the USA and what might be found among students elsewhere. Possible, language, culture, religion, and a host of other factors may be important to a user’s impression of the quality of a Web site. Finally, quality is an area of critical importance for commercial companies. Businesses need to understand what attracts people to their Web sites, what keeps them there, and what keeps them coming back. They need to understand the differences between the casual buyer versus the user who visits their Web sites on a daily basis. Web sites for companies like Dell, Cisco, Orbitz, and Covisint do millions of dollars of business each day. They need to understand the factors that keep these businesses growing better by understanding what encourages buying and what brings them back to the Web sites. Likewise, their competitors need to understand these factors even more to compete in this highly competitive marketplace. Due to the signi? cance of this to business, we expect that this type of research will be ongoing for many years to come. The results of that research will be easier to use Web sites that are more customer focused and evolving as the user evolves. A Chinese proverb says, â€Å"May you live in interesting times†. We are certainly living in interesting times. References Agrawal, V. , Arjona, L. and Lemmens, R. (2001), â€Å"E-performance: the path to rational exuberance†, The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 1. Baldwin, S. 2002), Ghost Sites, available at: www. disobey. com/ghostsites (accessed 17 January). Buttle, F. (1996), â€Å"SERVQUAL: review, critique, research agenda†, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 8-25. Chiagouris, L. and Wansley, B. (2001), â€Å"Branding on the Internet†, available at: www. MarketingPower. com Cox, J . and Dale, B. G. (2001), â€Å"Service quality and e-commerce: an exploratory analysis†, Managing Service Quality, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 121-31. Cox, J. and Dale, B. G. (2002), â€Å"Key quality factors in Web site design and use: an examination†, International Journal of Quality Reliability Management, Vol. 19 No. 7, pp. 862-88. Cronin, J. J. Jr and Taylor, S. A. (1992), â€Å"Measuring service quality: a re-examination and extension†, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 56 No. 3, pp. 55-69. Crosby, L. and LeMay, S. A. (1998), â€Å"Empirical determination of shipper requirements for motor carrier services: SERVQUAL, direct questioning, and policy-capturing methods†, Journal of Business Logistics, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 139-53. Dale, B. G. (1999), Managing Quality, 3rd ed. , Blackwell Publishers, Oxford. Daughtrey, T. (2001), â€Å"Costs of trust for E-business: risk analysis can help e-businesses decide where investments in quality and security should be directed†, Quality Progress, No. 0, pp. 38-43. Dayal, S. , French, T. D. and Sankaran, V. (2002), â€Å"The e-tailer’s secret weapon†, The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 2. (The) Economist (2001), â€Å"Talking heads†, The Economist, 24 March. Fink, D. and Laupase, R. (2000), â€Å"Perceptions of Web site design characteristics: a Mal aysian/Australian comparison†, Internet Research, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 44-55. Hager, L. and Elliot, B. (2001), â€Å"Web quality tool can raise ROI on contact center investments†, Gartner First Take, 15 November. Hirsh, L. (2002), â€Å"How big is e-commerce? †, E-commerce Times, available at: www. ecommercetimes. om/perl/story/18403. html (accessed 27 June). Houtman, J. (2002), â€Å"Webpagina’s instelbaar voor oudere surfers†, Emerce, 25 March. Lam, S. S. K. and Woo, K. S. (1997), â€Å"Measuring service quality: a test-retest reliability investigation of SERVQUAL†, Journal of the Market Research Society, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 381-96. Manning, H. , McCarthy, J. C. and Souza, R. K. (1998), Forrester Report: Why Most Web Sites Fail, Forrester, Washington, DC. Riseley, M. and Schehr, D. (2000), â€Å"Priceline’s problems result from poor execution in a niche market†, Gartner First Take, 8 November. Schubert, P. nd Dettling, W. (2001), â€Å"Web site evaluation: do Web applications meet user expectations? Music, consumer goods and e-banking on the test bed†, Proceedings of the 14th Bled Electronic Commerce Conference, Bled, pp. 383-403. Statistical Research Inc. (2001), â€Å"Even veteran Web users remain skittish about sites that get personal†, 7 June, available at: www. statisticalresearch. com/press/pr060701. htm (accessed 15 March 2002). US Department of Commerce (2002), A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet, US Department of Commerce, Washington, DC, February. Wan, H. A. (2000), â€Å"Opportunities to enhance a commercial Web site†, Information and Management, Vol. 38 No. 1, pp. 15-21. Zeithaml, V. A. (2002), â€Å"Guru view†, Managing Service Quality, special issue on service excellence, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 135-8. Zeithaml, V. A. , Parasuraman, A. and Berry, L. L. (1990), Delivering Quality Service; Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations, The Free Press, New York, NY. Further reading Cutler, M. and Strene, J. (2000), E-metric: Business Metric for the New Economy, NetGenesis Corp. Applying SERVQUAL 935 How to cite Applying Servqual to Web Sites: an Exploratory Study, Essay examples

Elephant Man Essay Research Paper Ashley Montagu free essay sample

Elephant Man Essay, Research Paper Ashley Montagu tells John Merrick s unusual narrative in the book that surveies human self-respect, The Elephant Man. The Elephant Man, an challenging book that captures the bosom of the spirit, is the narrative of a simple, yet unfortunate, adult male. It causes one to believe about life s cherished gifts and how frequently they are taken for granted. As the sad and alone narrative of John Merrick, the elephant adult male, unfolds, all are taught a lesson about strength and bravery. When Sir Frederick Treeves foremost discovered John Merrick in 1884, he could merely be described as, a huddled mass of solitariness ( 14 ) . Merrick had a atrocious disease called elephantiasis. This utmost bad luck caused Merrick to be feeble and his visual aspect to be that of a monster. With his skull the size of his waist and big measures of tegument turning indiscriminately all over his organic structure, no 1 wanted to befriend John Merrick. We will write a custom essay sample on Elephant Man Essay Research Paper Ashley Montagu or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Everywhere he went shrieks of horror and looks of disgust greeted him. As a immature kid, his female parent passed off go forthing him a homeless orphan. So, because of his horrid expressions, being displayed as half-man and half-elephant at a freak-show became normal. His life consisted of torture and anguish for the following 20 old ages of his life, until Sir Frederick Treeves asked him to come and be studied at the London infirmary. Soon, Treeves arranged with the caput of the infirmary for Merrick to populate in an excess room at the infirmary. After 20 old ages of solitariness and discourtesy, John Merrick eventually had a topographic point to name place. He began to disregard his monstrous expressions and eventually allowed himself to move like human with feelings. With the aid of his new friend Frederick Treeves, he even attended dramas and went for walks. He lived merrily at the infirmary for about seven more old ages where compassionate people often visited him. Even peopl e of royalty paid him visits. No affair how badly treated he may hold been, no one of all time heard John Merrick complain about his horrid expressions or his atrocious life. With outstanding endurance, he proves to the universe what a genuinely epic individual can make. The Elephant Man, an challenging and well-written book, besides captures the true kernel of John Merrick s life. The context of the book asserts descriptiveness and easy captures the involvement of the reader. When Treeves foremost viewed the elephant adult male, he states: The showman pulled back Thursday vitamin E drape and revealed a dead set figure stooping on a stool and covered by a brown cover. In forepart of it, on a tripod, was a big brick heated by a Bunsen burner. Over this the animal was huddled to warm itself. . . this hunched-up figure was the incarnation of solitariness ( 47 ) . Descriptions such as these paint the sad but graphic image of the life John Merrick led. While composing his narrative, Montagu made a point of utilizing photographic words to put up the scene he wanted to depict. His elaborate Hagiographas helped the narrative move along. In add-on to the point of view of Frederick Treeves, Montagu included many other people s positions, including his ain. Often he wrote of other peoples mentalities such as William Kendal and his Wife Mrs. Kendal. Mrs. Kendal frequently delivered gifts to Merrick and every summer they allowed him to remain at their summer bungalow for six hebdomads. The Prince of Wales point of view besides adds to the narrative when he states ; John Merrick is the authoritative narrative of human resiliency. If people could hold his bravery and self-respect, we d all be better off. ( 76 ) . The easy-to-follow authorship manner of Ashley Montagu makes The Elephant Man a more gratifying book. In every book, one can happen room for betterment. Some chief failings in Montagu s book are the secret plan s platform and he frequently jumps around from different subjects. An of import feature in a book is for all the author s thoughts to flux and do sense in an entireness. Montagu would speak of how Merrick was born and so, without shutting, get down discoursing the events of his decease. Chronological order is critical when seeking to organize a strong secret plan. The Elephant Man can besides go forth the reader unsated because the most of import inside informations of Merrick s life are left out. A brief description of his life manner is stated and so the remainder of the context is a medical analization. It can be hard understanding the footings used by physicians when 1 has no cognition of the information being stated. Had Montagu been cognizant of inside informations such as these, The Elephant Man could hold transformed into a more gratifying book. The Elephant Man, written by Ashley Montagu, is a well-written expression into the life of truly singular human being, John Merrick. This survey of human self-respect shows us all that life is cherished. All can be taught a lesson about strength and bravery from the alone narrative of John Merrick, the elephant adult male.

Landslides Essays - Landslides, Environmental Soil Science

Landslides Causing $1-2 billion in damages and more than 25 deaths per year, landslides are a major geologic hazard, caused by earthquakes and floods. Although, landslides are generally not as exciting or costly as earthquakes, major floods, tropical storms, and other natural disasters, they occur in more expanded places and may cause more property damage than any other geologic hazards. A wide variety of ground movements, such as rock falls, slope failure, and shallow debris flows can classify landslides. When a portion of a hill slope cannot support its own weight a landslide will occur. When rainfall or some other water source increases the water content of the slope the weakness is irritated, reducing the strength of the materials. Although gravity acting upon an increased slope is the main reason for a landslide, there are other elements that contribute to its cause. Loud sounds that occur during an earthquake also cause landslides. Erosion caused by rivers, glaciers, or ocean waves create oversteepened slopes. Heavy rains and melting snow weaken rock and soil slopes. Furthermore, vibrations from machinery, traffic, and even thunder may trigger failure of weak slopes. Excess water can run through slope material and can cause a debris flow or mud flow. The rock and mud left over after a landslide may pick up anything in its path, such as trees, houses, and cars, causing bridges and tributaries to become blocked which causes flooding throughout its path. Even though, the natural cause of most landslides is unable to be stopped, geologic investigations, good engineering practices and effective enforcement of land-use management regulations can cut back landslide danger. Landslides effect every state in the United States territory. The Appalachian Mountains, the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coastal Ranges and few parts of Alaska and Hawaii have intense landslide problems. USGS marine scientists have recently identified over fifteen giant landslides surrounding the Hawaiian Islands. These slides are some of the largest known on Earth, and most have taken place throughout the past four million years. The youngest landslide is estimated to have occurred only one hundred thousand years ago, and there is evidence today that large blocks of the island are starting to slide, causing enormous earthquakes. Each landslide that has happened over the bast four million years has ended with huge land loss and gigantic waves that move rocks and se diments up to 1000ft above sea level. The geologic hazards are important to learn about because, they don't occur as frequently as volcanoes or other disasters, they have potential to destroy lives, property, and natural

Transcatheter Embolization And Occlusion Devices Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends And Forecast, 2013 2019 Essays

Transcatheter Embolization And Occlusion Devices Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends And Forecast, 2013 2019 Essays Transcatheter Embolization And Occlusion Devices Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends And Forecast, 2013 2019 Essay Transcatheter Embolization And Occlusion Devices Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends And Forecast, 2013 2019 Essay Transcatheter Embolization And Occlusion Devices Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends And Forecast, 2013 2019 Transcatheter embolization and occlusion devices are used for non surgical procedures with minimal invasions generally performed by interventional radiologists or neuro-radiologists. Procedures through such devices involve introduction of emboli for selectively occluding the blood vessels. Embolization prevents blood flow to a particular body part or area to achieve effective shrinkage of a tumor or block an aneurysm. It is also used to treat various types of hemorrhages as well as management of malignant hypertension caused due to renal failure.Visit Complete Report Here: www.marketresearchreports.biz/analysis-details/transcatheter-embolization-and-occlusion-devices-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2013-2019 The global transcatheter embolization and occlusion devices market is categorized on the basis of: Indicat ion Interventional neuro-radiology Peripheral vascular (PV) tumors Product type Embolization coils Coiling-assist devices Flow-diverting devices PV embolization coil PV plugs Embolization particles Liquid embolics AccessoriesCurrently, North America dominates the global transcatheter embolization and occlusion devices market and is followed by Europe due to the high success rate achieved in clinical trials and release of new devices thus leading to expansion of treatable patient population. Emerging economies of Asia, Middle East and Latin America are also expected to show rapid growth in this market due growth in the graying population and associated susceptibility to cancer and cardiovascular diseases in these regions.Download Full Report with TOC: marketresearchreports.biz/sample/toc/197354 Some of the major factors driving the global market for transcatheter embolization and occlusion devices include high

Burns

Burns Unlike other tissue damages, burns can cover a wider range of surface area. The causes may come from a variety of events such as boiling liquid, exposure to harmful chemicals, or electrical shock. Signs that indicate a burn may be swelling, redness of the area of damage, and pain. Burns are categorized by degree based on the duration, size and severity of injury; the least severe being first degree burns, second degree burns and the worst, third degree burns. Not only are there the regular, common burns that would first come to mind, but there are also chemical burns and electrical burns. Chemical burns occur when the skin is exposed to a corrosive substance that consists of either a strong base or acid. Electrical burns are cause by contact with electric conducting objects that are live. Types of treatment are determined by the severity and also determine the place to which the person should receive the treatment. Regeneration of the damaged tissue will differ accordingly to the type of burn. First degree burn, it refers to the superficial damage to the skin and causes only local inflammation. The inflammation consists of pain, a small amount of swelling, dryness and redness. Peeling, of the area affected, may be seen. This type of burn will only have an effect on the epidermis. Examples of first degree burns include sunburns, flash burns or any other burn that derives from a brief exposure to severe heat. Treatment for this type of burn depends on the location, cause, extent of the burn and may include cold compresses, skin soothing ointments or pain relieving aspirin. The skin usually heals within a time span of a few days without permanent tissue damage. Second degree burns affect the epidermis and the superficial dermis layer of the skin. The burn is often characterized by moist blisters, skin lesions, and bits of shredded epidermis. Also, the injury is often displayed as white. The area of damage is prone to high risks of infection and victim experiences intense pain around the area. In a lot of cases, second degree burns are the consequences of exposure to flames, scald inducing events and contact with chemicals, electricity or hot objects. The treatments for second degree burns depend of the same characteristic of first degree burns. Second degree burns include the addition of extra care to prevent infections. The skin heals within about 3 weeks and 6 weeks if the wound is superficial or deep, as the skin re-epithelializes. At the end of healing, there is minimal scarring to no scarring at all although discoloration of the area may be present. A third degree burn, also referred to as a full thickness burn, destroys the epidermis, the entire dermis beneath it, injures the subcutaneous tissue, and may spread to the muscles. Accessory structures are destroyed. The area of the wound may appear white and leathery due to the damages done to the blood vessels and nerves. The affected skin may also appear black, yellow, or even brown and is painless due to the impairment of vessels and nerves. The skin loses its elasticity, becomes dry and produces the appearance of being charred. Some of the causes of third degree burns may include scalding liquids, flames, chemical substances, over-exposure to excess heat or even electricity. If not taken into serious account with medical attention, the damaged skin will heal poorly and slowly. Since the epidermis and hair follicles are eliminated, new skin will not form. Treatments for these burns consist of procedures such as attentive care and cleaning, skin grafting, anti-biotic mediation and as such. The smaller areas will take fewer months to heal than the larger areas since those require grafting, which is the replacement of the previous damaged skin with transplant skin through surgery. ttp://www. webmd. com/skin-problems-and-treatments/third-degree-burn-full-thickness-burn http://www. medicinenet. com/burns/page2. htm http://faculty. stcc. edu/AandP/AP/AP1pages/Units1to4/skin/repairof. htm http://www. urmc. rochester. edu/encyclopedia/content. aspx? ContentTypeID=90ContentID=P01760 http://www. chw. org/display/PPF/DocID/21911/router. asp http://www. metrohealth. org/body. cfm? id=1014oTopID=1007 http://www. rayur. com/skin-burn-anatomy-definition-causes-symptoms- and-treatment. html Burns Unlike other tissue damages, burns can cover a wider range of surface area. The causes may come from a variety of events such as boiling liquid, exposure to harmful chemicals, or electrical shock. Signs that indicate a burn may be swelling, redness of the area of damage, and pain. Burns are categorized by degree based on the duration, size and severity of injury; the least severe being first degree burns, second degree burns and the worst, third degree burns. Not only are there the regular, common burns that would first come to mind, but there are also chemical burns and electrical burns. Chemical burns occur when the skin is exposed to a corrosive substance that consists of either a strong base or acid. Electrical burns are cause by contact with electric conducting objects that are live. Types of treatment are determined by the severity and also determine the place to which the person should receive the treatment. Regeneration of the damaged tissue will differ accordingly to the type of burn. First degree burn, it refers to the superficial damage to the skin and causes only local inflammation. The inflammation consists of pain, a small amount of swelling, dryness and redness. Peeling, of the area affected, may be seen. This type of burn will only have an effect on the epidermis. Examples of first degree burns include sunburns, flash burns or any other burn that derives from a brief exposure to severe heat. Treatment for this type of burn depends on the location, cause, extent of the burn and may include cold compresses, skin soothing ointments or pain relieving aspirin. The skin usually heals within a time span of a few days without permanent tissue damage. Second degree burns affect the epidermis and the superficial dermis layer of the skin. The burn is often characterized by moist blisters, skin lesions, and bits of shredded epidermis. Also, the injury is often displayed as white. The area of damage is prone to high risks of infection and victim experiences intense pain around the area. In a lot of cases, second degree burns are the consequences of exposure to flames, scald inducing events and contact with chemicals, electricity or hot objects. The treatments for second degree burns depend of the same characteristic of first degree burns. Second degree burns include the addition of extra care to prevent infections. The skin heals within about 3 weeks and 6 weeks if the wound is superficial or deep, as the skin re-epithelializes. At the end of healing, there is minimal scarring to no scarring at all although discoloration of the area may be present. A third degree burn, also referred to as a full thickness burn, destroys the epidermis, the entire dermis beneath it, injures the subcutaneous tissue, and may spread to the muscles. Accessory structures are destroyed. The area of the wound may appear white and leathery due to the damages done to the blood vessels and nerves. The affected skin may also appear black, yellow, or even brown and is painless due to the impairment of vessels and nerves. The skin loses its elasticity, becomes dry and produces the appearance of being charred. Some of the causes of third degree burns may include scalding liquids, flames, chemical substances, over-exposure to excess heat or even electricity. If not taken into serious account with medical attention, the damaged skin will heal poorly and slowly. Since the epidermis and hair follicles are eliminated, new skin will not form. Treatments for these burns consist of procedures such as attentive care and cleaning, skin grafting, anti-biotic mediation and as such. The smaller areas will take fewer months to heal than the larger areas since those require grafting, which is the replacement of the previous damaged skin with transplant skin through surgery. ttp://www. webmd. com/skin-problems-and-treatments/third-degree-burn-full-thickness-burn http://www. medicinenet. com/burns/page2. htm http://faculty. stcc. edu/AandP/AP/AP1pages/Units1to4/skin/repairof. htm http://www. urmc. rochester. edu/encyclopedia/content. aspx? ContentTypeID=90ContentID=P01760 http://www. chw. org/display/PPF/DocID/21911/router. asp http://www. metrohealth. org/body. cfm? id=1014oTopID=1007 http://www. rayur. com/skin-burn-anatomy-definition-causes-symptoms- and-treatment. html

Discussing assessment results Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Discussing assessment results - Assignment Example As such, while a task oriented leader has fewer considerations for the needs of people around or team players, the average score indicated significant attempt to care for other team players. These results indicate that, in addition to being analytical and logical in achieving certain ends by following strict procedures in the workplace, there is a significant concern for team members involved in completing the task especially where a task has to be split into smaller sub-tasks to make the work easier. Therefore, the tests indicated both relational-oriented and task base leadership qualities, though with a bias on task-based leadership qualities. The score obtained in B.2 test also authenticates the above findings. While the score for management attention was 14 and a 16 for management meaning, management of self and management of trust, the score for management of feelings was 17. The management of attention and meaning are important in people-oriented leadership styles where a manager has to be more concerned with the people accomplishing the task contrary to the task at hand. The average scores in the above parameters indicate that though there are some people-oriented leadership qualities, these qualities have been suppressed by the observed dominant task-oriented qualities. A high score in the management of trust, self-risk and feeling indicate a case of extremely high personal discipline and confidence in achieving any task. As such, a high confidence and discipline makes it possible to have more focus on the task at hand and the procedures involved than on who is to perform the task as needed in people-oriented manage ment. The leadership tests indicate more transformational than transactional leadership qualities. Firstly, considering the five power score in leadership, the score for reward was 4, coercive 2.2, expert, 4, legitimate 4 and referent 5. The high score in referent power indicates the high ability

Animal Rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Animal Rights - Essay Example â€Å"Unfortunately, there are many animals out there who are neglected and abused† (Wilson). There are various ways, which cause animal abuse or cruelty. Some of the ways include hunting, animal testing, fur trading, use of animals in sports, factory farming, and use of animals for entertainment purposes. Some ways of showing cruelty towards animals are termed as active cruelty in which a person or a group of people intentionally hurts an animal. For example, there is a game played in Spain in which a person fights with a bull and tortures the bull until death. This is a very unpleasant and cruel behavior towards animals. To eliminate such behaviors and other forms of cruelty, animal rights activists raise their voice. This is the most intense degree of animal cruelty, which needs to be taken seriously not only by the animal rights activists but also by the government of such countries where such incidents occur.Let us take another example of animal cruelty. It is a fact that a dairy cow must give birth frequently in order to be able to produce milk. In today’s farming industry, the dairy cows are made pregnant by artificial insemination so that they are able to give birth every year. The duration of pregnancy for a cow is the same as humans, that is, nine months. Thus, giving birth every year is a very tiresome job for a cow. Moreover, in some countries, people give special drugs to their cows and goats that make these animals produce milk much more than they can produce naturally. Although, use of such drugs makes cows produce more milk, they adversely affect the mental and physical health of cows. When the production of milk is greater than the quantity of calcium made in the cows’ body, it causes calcium deficiency. In addition, these cows are also slaughtered for human consumption just when they reach the age of 2 to 3 years. Zoo animals are another example of the violation of animal rights. In some countries, there is no proper management of zoological parks and animals are not given proper diet that they need to remain healthy. This is an extreme violation of animal rights because people earn money through animals that they keep under custody but do not give required attention towards their diet and health. In natural environments, animals are free to eat their desired food but when they are kept in zoos, they do not feel free and this affects their eating habits too. Animals are also used to transport heavy luggage from one place to another. Animals are animals, they cannot say no to their owners and even if they show some resistance due to weakness, their owners beat them and forcefully make them carry heavy loads. This is a very harsh example of the violation of animal rights. Summing it up, it is very inhumane to violate the rights of animals. The acts like using animals for carrying heavy loads, keeping them in zoos, and using artificial means to make them produce more milk fall under the

Fast Food Nation Essay Example for Free

Fast Food Nation Essay The main characters in the novel Fast Food Nation are Richard and Maurice â€Å"Mac† McDonald, Ray Kroc, Walt Disney, Carl N. Karcher, and Dave Thomas. The McDonald’s brothers are from New Hampshire. They opened up the first McDonald’s restaurant in 1937 in southern California. They revolutionized the fast food industry in 1948 by ridding their business of carhops, and using disposable plates and cups to serve finger food. Ray Kroc was a high school drop-out from Illinois. He sold milkshake makers until he met the McDonald brothers in 1954. He sold milkshake makers to them, and bought the right to franchise their company. He is known as a pioneer in the fast-food industry for creating characters that rivaled others such as Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney became Ray Kroc’s biggest rival after refusing to put a McDonald’s in Disneyland, which was model marketing to children. Carl is also one of the American fast-food industry’s pioneers. At twenty-years-old, Carl moved to Anaheim, California where he began his first hotdog stand. Carl eventually turned his hotdog stands into drive-in restaurants. After observing the first McDonald’s restaurants success, Carl started expanding and developed the Carl’s Jr’s restaurants. In 1997, the corporation expanded dramatically with the new possession of the Hardees Restaurant chain. In 2004, CKE Restaurants, Inc. had revenues in excess of 1. 4 billion dollars. Dave Thomas dropped out of school at fifteen-years-old. After working as a bus boy and a cook, he eventually founded Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers restaurant in Columbus, Ohio in 1969. Today, there are thousands of Wendy’s restaurants and they remain popular throughout the world. Dave is probably best known as the guy on the Wendys TV commercials. From 1989 to 2002, Dave appeared in over 800 commercials for the restaurant chain. He died after a long battle with liver cancer in 2002. The setting of this novel is in any fast-food restaurant on an international level. The theme of this novel is that we as Americans can no longer ignore the many health hazards of a fast-food diet. Years of consuming fast food has resulted in diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and obesity. There are several conflicts in this novel. One type is man vs. man. An example of this is when former employees return to the restaurants and kill innocent people. Another example of man vs. man is when companies pay doctors and nurses to minimize reportable injuries. This is not fair towards the injured employee. Plot: * This book opens with discussing Carl Karcher and Ray Kroc’s roles as fast-food pioneers. * Next we examine Kroc’s complicated relationship with Walt Disney, and each man’s rise to fame. * Then, we go to Colorado Springs, CO to observe and investigate the working conditions of a typical fast-food employee. * After that, we discuss the chemical components that make up fast-food. * We then observe the lives of ranchers and meat packing industries that supply for fast-food chains. * The book ends by discussing how America has matured as a cultural export. There has been a mass spread of American goods and services, especially fast-food. As a result, the rest of the world is catching up to America’s rising obesity rates.

Making Jaun Proud :: essays research papers

The Company is organized into a number of business units. The Company’s North American retail business sells coffee beverages, whole bean coffees and related hardware and equipment through company-operated retail stores in the United States and Canada. The Company’s international retail business consists of entities that own and operate retail stores abroad. These two retail segments are managed by different presidents within the company and are measured and evaluated separately by senior management. The Company operates other business units as well and each is managed and evaluated independently. These other business units are organized around the strategic relationships that govern the distribution of products to the customer. These relationships include retail store licensing agreements, grocery channel licensing agreements, wholesale accounts, and joint ventures. Starbucks Corporation and its subsidiaries buy and roast high quality whole coffee beans. To insure high quality of the product, Starbucks built three roasting plants of it’s own, where highly trained and experienced personnel monitor roasting of beans. Quality standards are so high that entire batches are thrown away after testing if qualifications differ from acceptable standards. Later, beans are sold in primarily company-operated stores along with fresh, rich-brewed coffee, Italian-style espresso beverages, decaffeinated beverages, cold blended beverages, a variety of pastries and confections, coffee-related accessories and equipment, and a line of premium teas. Starbucks sees its success in constant development of its products to bring new experiences and ideas to loyal customers of their coffee-empire. High quality of a product that will appeal to coffee lovers around the world is Starbucks main consideration. Starbucks sells a lifestyle, to customers and employees alike. It has learned from the experience of Pepsi and others to link its brand to new trends. Starbucks' success could be attributed to an objective to meet their customer’s needs, and innovative new product offerings. Selecting a marketing strategy based on a product mix is a key to Starbucks success. Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world (McMahon, 2001), and as a result, Starbucks was forced to adopt a high product differentiation strategy. This strategy differentiates the company from the competition, making its product unique, by targeting quality, service, and the price conscious customer. Starbucks retail stores are usually located in high-traffic locations and high visibility areas. To reduce risk of failure and economic fluctuations, properties for the stores are leased. Brand name recognition of Starbucks therefore comes from people being frequently exposed to it.

Maria Helena Lima’s “Imaginary Homelands in Jamaica “ Essay

Outline: Section 1: Writing to rescue her life—It seems as though writer Jamaica Kincaid has written a number of novels in an effort to understand her past and her growth and development throughout it. Almost all of the novels Kincaid has written seem to be interconnected in that they all shed light on certain struggles of her past (paragraphs 1-4). Section 2: Function of bildungsroman—The bildungsroman form, in which a novel focuses on a â€Å"person’s development or spiritual education,† is used specifically by Kincaid and other Caribbean writers to unravel the difficulties and disputations of growing up across the margins of different traditions and cultural universes. The acculturation of a self can be portrayed through the form, however in Kincaid’s novels specifically, the bildungsroman is not so much used as to show the growth in Lucy and Annie John’s adolescent life, but rather to show their reactions respectively to more worldly matters such as racism and colonialism (paragraphs 5-7) (freedictionary.com). Section 3: Far from home—Exile for characters like Lucy and Annie John does not serve the purpose of testing life without their parents, but rather opens their eyes to the escalating world. It is in this big bad world that the characters are forced to find their new identity and beliefs. Not only are these characters left with a sense of strangeness to the new world, but they also signal struggles with the place in which they came from. The longer they spend time in the new strange world, the further they find themselves from their first home. These colonial characters face the challenge of identifying themselves and their cultural origins (paragraphs 8-11). Section 4: Effects of reading literature—Literature is claimed to play an important role in a person’s development. A person’s emotions and reactions stem largely from the literature he/she reads. Lucy had resentment toward daffodils because as a young girl, she was required to memorize a long poem about the flower without having ever seen one in real life. Lucy reads several books, which have an effect on her wanting to change her name. Reading of literature ultimately affects the way in which people react and think (paragraphs 12-13). Section 5: Writing as a means of salvage—In an effort to cure Lucy’s desire for home, she becomes a writer. She writes negative letters to her mother in order to assuage or deal with her feelings. As much as Lucy wants to believe that she is not the girl her parents expected her to be, it is the written letters that she sends and receives that ultimately lead her to realize her true feelings (paragraphs 14-15). Section 6: Finding identity in a culturally different world—As Lucy and Annie John, representations for Kincaid herself—lose parts of their past and are exposed to a strangely new present, they use their knowledge in an effort to comprehend the nature of the world and their part in it (paragraphs 16-17). Summary: Professor Maria Lima’s â€Å"Homelands in Jamaica Kincaid’s Narratives of Development,† claims that writers in diaspora establish the bildungsroman form in their writings to explore the character’s need for individual and national identity. Specifically, Jamaica Kincaid uses mostly all of her novels to write about her struggles and developments in a strange world. Bildungsroman is used in these novels by showing characters’ reactions to more worldly matters such as racism, colonialism, and sexism. Exile is used in these novels, not to test life without the characters’ parents, but rather to open the characters’ eyes to the incredibly complicated world that lies ahead. These characters are forced to find a place for themselves in the strange world as well as having to form their own beliefs about societal matters. However, the longer the time these characters spend away from home, the further they find themselves, emotionally, from home and are left with a strange feeling of loneliness in the world. They are then challenged with having to identify themselves and their cultural origins. Lima claims that Kincaid employs the reading of literature and writing as means of salvation. When put into the tough position of being emotionally disconnected from the world, characters, specifically like Lucy, in Lucy: A Novel, read and use their memories from books to identify themselves. In addition, writing helps the characters to cope with their estranged and complicated feelings. Those caught between culturally different worlds use what they know in an effort to comprehend the nature of the world and their part in it. Discussion Questions: 1. How are the struggles Lucy faces similar and/or different than those of Melinda and Charlie in finding their respective identities? 2. What role does age play in all of the novels we have read thus far? How has Lucy’s older age helped/hindered her in finding her identity? 3. What role have reading literature and writing letters played in the novels we have read so far, specifically in The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Lucy: A Novel? Works Cited Lima, Maria Helena. â€Å"Imaginary Homelands in Jamaica Kincaid’s Narratives of Development† Callaloo 25.3 (Summer 2002): 857-867.

Didion’s on Morality Essay

What is it that forms and drives our â€Å"moral behaviors†? Are we born with a basic sense of morality or do we develop a set of moral â€Å"social codes† to keep society from falling into chaos and anarchy? In her essay â€Å"On Morality,† Joan Didion dissects what lies beneath the surface of humanity’s morality. By recounting several stories and historical events, she shows that morality at its basic â€Å"most primitive level† is nothing more than â€Å"our loyalties to the ones we love,† everything else is subjective. Didion’s first story points out our loyalty to family. She is in Death Valley writing an article about â€Å"morality,† â€Å"a word [she] distrust more every day.† She relates a story about a young man who was drunk, had a car accident, and died while driving to Death Valley. â€Å"His girl was found alive but bleeding internally, deep in shock,† Didion states. She talked to the nurse who had driven his girl 185 miles to the nearest doctor. The nurse’s husband had stayed with the body until the coroner could get there. The nurse said, â€Å"You just can’t leave a body on the highway, it’s immoral.† According to Didion this â€Å"was one instance in which [she] did not distrust the word, because [the nurse] meant something quite specific.† She argues we don’t desert a body for even a few minutes lest it be desecrated. Didion claims this is more than â€Å"only a sentimental consideration.† She claims that we promise each other to try and retrieve our casualties and not abandon our dead; it is more than a sentimental consideration. She stresses this point by saying that â€Å"if, in the simplest terms, our upbringing is good enough – we stay with the body, or have bad dreams.† Her point is that morality at its most â€Å"primary† level is a sense of â€Å"loyalty† to one another that we learned from our loved ones. She is saying that we stick with our loved ones no matter what, in sickness, in health, in bad times and good times; we don’t abandon our dead because we don’t want someone to abandon us. She is professing that morality is to do what we think is right; whatever is necessary to meet our â€Å"primary loyalties† to care for our loved ones, even if it means sacrificing ourselves. Didion emphatically states she is talking about a â€Å"wagon-train morality,† and â€Å"For better or for worse, we are what we learned as children.† She talks about her childhood and hearing â€Å"graphic litanies about the Donner-Reed party and the Jayhawkers. She maintains they â€Å"failed in their loyalties to each other,† and â€Å"deserted one another.† She says they â€Å"breached their primary loyalties,† or they would not have been in those situations. If we go against our â€Å"primary loyalties† we have failed, we regret it, and thus â€Å"have bad dreams.† Didion insist that â€Å"we have no way of knowing†¦what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong,’ what is ‘good and what is ‘evil’.† She sees politics, and public policy falsely assigned â€Å"aspects of morality.† She warns us not to delude ourselves into thinking that because we want or need something â€Å"that it is a moral imperative that we have it, then is when we join the fashionable madmen.† She is saying this will be our demise, and she may well be correct. Hitler’s idea that he had â€Å"a moral imperative† to â€Å"purify the Aryan race† serves as a poignant reminder of such a delusion. In 1939 Hitler’s Nazi army invaded Poland and started World War II. World War II came to an end in large part due to the United States dropping two atomic bombs. If the war had continued and escalated to the point of Hitler’s Nazis and the United States dropping more atomic bombs we could have destroyed most, if not all, of humanity, the ultimate act of â€Å"fashionable madmen.† We may believe our behaviors are just and righteous, but Didion’s essay makes us closely examine our motives and morals. She contends that madmen, murders, war criminals and religious icons throughout history have said â€Å"I followed my own conscience.† â€Å"I did what I thought was right.† â€Å"Maybe we have all said it and maybe we have been wrong.† She shows us that our â€Å"moral codes† are often subjective and fallacious, that we rationalize and justify our actions to suit our ulterior motives, and our only true morality is â€Å"our loyalty to those we love.† It is this â€Å"loyalty to those we love† that forms our families, then our cities, our states, our countries and ultimately our global community. Without these â€Å"moral codes,† social order would break down into chaos and anarchy.

EOC Study Guide Essay

EOC Study Guide Essay EOC Study Guide Essay Jocelyn Hochsztein 4/28/14 P.2 E.O.C Exam Study Guide 1. A chromosomal disorder is a chromosome anomaly, abnormality, or aberration is a missing, extra, or irregular portion of chromosomal DNA. 2. Nondisjunction is the failure of chromosome pairs or sister chromatids to separate properly during cell division. An example is Pallister-Killian syndrome. 3. A human cell contains twenty-three pairs of autosomal chromosomes. 4. A human cell contains two sex chromosomes. 5. The components of a DNA molecule consist of two separate strands of DNA running in opposite directions. The three major components in each strand are Deoxyribose, a sugar (notably lacking an oxygen compared to Ribose, which is found in RNA), a phosphate group, and a nucleotide. In the case of DNA, Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, or Thymine. 6. DNA replication is the process of producing two identical replicas from one original DNA molecule. This biological process occurs in all living organisms and is the basis for biological inheritance. 7. Chargaff's rules state that DNA from any cell of all organisms should have a 1:1 ratio (base Pair Rule) of pyrimidine and purine bases and, more specifically, that the amount of guanine is equal to cytosine and the amount of adenine is equal to thymine. 8. The components of an RNA molecule are a nitrogenous base, a phosphate group, and ribose sugar. 9. The different RNA molecules are iRNA (interference RNA), RNA interference (RNAi), tmRNA, and Piwi-interacting RNAs. 10. The product of transcription is a strand of messenger RNA. 11. There are several classes of mutations. These include substitution, insertion, deletion, and frameshift. 12. Usually when codons code for the same amino acid, one of the three nucleotide sequences are slightly different. For example, let's say you have AAT and AAC. Without looking at a table of amino acids, you can probably interpret that these two codons code for the same amno acid. But if you have two codons like GGC and AGT, these two are completely unrelated and will not code for the same amino acid. 13. DNA carries the genetic information of a cell and consists of thousands of genes. Each gene serves as a recipe on how to build a protein molecule. Proteins perform important tasks for the cell functions or serve as building blocks. The flow of information from the genes determines the protein composition and thereby the functions of the cell. 14. Selective breeding is simply the process of a breeder developing a cultivated breed over time and then selecting which ones are suitable enough to pass on to the next generation and it has a number of benefits. Some of them are that breeders get to choose which animals fit their criteria; hence more of the right kind of animal can be produced, thus making more products. 15. Inbreeding often causes recessive mutation and diseases of the offspring. 16. The ultimate source of genetic variability is mutation. It is the only way that new alleles and genes are created. 17. The purpose of genetic engineering is to try to re-arrange the genetic structure of living things to create an outcome, either in appearance, behavior or bio-chemical, that we want or need. 18. It is important to know the DNA sequence of an organism because knowing the sequence of an organism's DNA allows researchers to study specific genes. 19. Gel electrophoresis is a process that is used in order to extract DNA. This has also been used to purify the DNA. The DNA is made to polarize in a particular direction. 20. Most transformed cells die because they are too abnormal to function or are abnormal enough for the body's immune system to destroy them. However, if the factors promoting neoplasia persist, a transformed cell may some day give rise to a clone that does continue to grow. 21. What is meant by â€Å"survival of the fittest† is that individuals that are best equipped to survive and reproduce perpetuate the highest frequency of genes to descendant populations.

Trends That Influence Effective Learning Assignment

Trends That Influence Effective Learning - Assignment Example Proper instructional design should promote the transfer of information from the known to the unknown to enable learners to link up the current to the past, and be able to prepare for the future. The efficiency of every trend of instruction should be evaluated scientifically, or through observations to ensure significant results that may facilitate easy transition of knowledge and skills. Promoting performance in education, one should come up with various instructional blueprint models such as the ADDIE process. This paper shall indicate how this model of instruction promotes instruction. According to Morrison et al (2010) ADDIE process was established in the University of Florida, and was meant for military training servicemen, who needed curriculum development processes. Its present version was developed, and revised in mid 1980’s. ADDIE process involves the five treads founded in this model. They include; analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluation. These five steps have an influence that will enable effective learning. Analyze; this involves an instructor collecting information concerning the learners, identifying the topics, and the content that should be covered. It is in this step that the instructors give a layout of the projects objectives that need to be achieved. This enhances and gives meaning to the content since it makes learning to be relevant and achievable. Objectives serve as pointers of goal setting in education. When an instructor is developing a pedagogical way of delivering information, one must ensure that he comes up with objectives that need to be addressed. In cases, where these goals are not met, then learning may not have taken place. Therefore, for useful learning and teaching to be identified proper tools and materials should be applied to improve instruction. Design; this is the second step that enables instructional designers to develop their projects using the information received from the analysis stage. It is at this point that the instructor shows how he plans to ensure that learning has been achieved. The content is broken down in to basic units that can be easily understood by learners. The instructors use elementary concepts as foundations to build complex ideas. In addition, the instructor shows activities which will involve learners that will portray an achievement of goals in education. Develop; this is where activities that need to be implemented are identified and developed for effective leaning. Materials that should be used in the design are collected and brought together. The instructor, at this level makes sure that the models for the design are available to enhance the achievement of the goals. Implement; content is the subject matter that the instructor intends to pass to the learners. This suggests that content is a significant factor to be considered, when designing teaching approaches. Therefore, it is at this stage that the content is build up together with the tools and materials of learning that are needed to facilitate the transition of knowledge and skills (Morrison et al 2010). Evaluate; as mentioned above, goals indicate the route map, and the foundation of effective learning. They guide the instructors on how to deliver their content to the learners. Therefore, assessment of these goals is necessary to test the achievement of the learning process. According to Morrison et al (2010), content should be in agreement with the goals

History of a 10th grade reader Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

History of a 10th grade reader - Coursework Example The results of these metrics were then used to pick the optimal world history textbook for the tenth grade. The first metric, the Fry readability graph, uses the length of words, measured in syllables, and the length of sentences to form a rough gauge of grade level. To use the Fry method, one takes three one hundred word samples from different section of a work (two from the beginning, one from the end) and counts the number of syllables and sentences (to the nearest tenth) in each segment. Once those measures have been averaged, they are plotted on a readability graph to form an approximate grade level. The second metric used is the SMOG readability, which, like the Fry formula, counts the number of polysyllabic (two plus syllable) words in a given number of sentences. This method uses three passages of 10 sentences in length, two from the begging and one from the end (like the Fry graph). The number of syllables of those words was counted, its square taken, then three was added to the result – this gives approximated the appropriate grade level for the textbook according to the SMOG metric. The final method used to analyze the readability of the text was the Flesch-Kincaid grade-level score, used through a utility in Microsoft office. ... World History: Patterns of Interaction Patterns of Interaction (figure 1) was evaluated using all of the above methods. With an average of 154 syllables/100 words and 7.5 words/100 words, the Fry readability graph gave this work a ninth grade reading level. The SMOG formula produced a grade level of 11 through, while the Flesch-Kincaid grade level formula was 23+30+22=75. The square root of 75 is approximately 8, which added to 3 produces 11. The Flesch-Kincaid gave a grade level of 9. Bader’s text book analysis demonstrates that this text is incredibly average, having few weaknesses but just as few great strengths, and reading through it the reading level may be too simple for tenth grade. World History (Pearson Prentice Hall) Pearson/Prentice Hall’s World History (figure 2) proved to be the most grade appropriate of all three textbooks evaluated in terms of readability. With 156 syllables/100 words, and 5.6 sentences in the same span, this work was spot on the tenth g rade reading level. The Flesch-Kincaid also agreed with a tenth grade reading score, with only the SMOG formula differing, providing a grade 12 reading level, somewhat higher than the other two. With reference to the Bader analysis chart, this textbook proves to have very appealing visual form, and does a good job accommodating visual learners using webs and diagrams. One of its few failings was perhaps not spending enough time making sure all new concepts and visuals were fleshed out properly and could be understood. World History: the Human Experience The final work examined was World History: the Human Experience (figure 3). It consistently scored the highest within all three readability metrics; with an average of 149 syllables and 4.4 sentences/100