Books on the topic 'Student assessment structures'

Fluid-structure and pedestrian-structure interaction phenomena are extremely important for non-conventional bridges. The results presented in this volume concern: simplified formulas for flutter assessment; innovative structural solutions to increase the aeroelastic stability of long-span bridges; numerical simulations of the flow around a benchmark rectangular cylinder; examples of designs of large structures assisted by wind-tunnel tests; analytical, computational and experimental investigation of the synchronisation mechanisms between pedestrians and footbridge structures. The present book is addressed to a wide audience including professionals, doctoral students and researchers, aiming to increase their know-how in the field of wind engineering, bluff-body aerodynamics and bridge dynamics.

The monograph proposes a methodology of new marketing, structural and economic-management approaches for tourism organizations in the modern conjuncture of tourism for the elderly. Approaches that take into account the consumer behavior of older people and other age groups, retired, proposed in this paper, can be more effectively used to involve these categories in tourism. The aging of the population and demographic changes in the structure of consumers of tourist products require Russian travel companies to optimize their approaches and strategies, rebuild the tourism infrastructure to organize the supply of products in demand in the world tourism market that meet the needs of older people. The assessment of relevance of tourist products and their elements to requirements of elderly tourists is presented. It is intended for teachers, postgraduates and students of higher educational institutions, specialists in the organization of tourist activities, heads of travel agencies, researchers and all those who are interested in the development of tourism activities.

The textbook outlines the theoretical foundations and methods of calculations for the strength, rigidity and stability of structural elements of railway transport. Concepts, definitions and background information are given to the extent necessary to prepare students for work on course assignments. Along with the classical methods of strength assessment, the basic concepts of fracture mechanics are given. It is characterized by a thorough presentation of theoretical material and a detailed solution of examples. Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation. It is intended for full-time and part-time students receiving education in specialties related to railway transport.

In the monograph the authors substantiate the expediency of application of the structural-functional approach to the assessment of the transaction sector in the economy of the region describes its structure and functions as a subsystem of the regional economy, the model developed a methodology for assessing the impact of transaction sector for the regional economy in the context of its fields and functions, the possibility of their application to conduct inter-regional comparisons. A comparative analysis of the functioning of the transaction sector of the Perm region and regions considered as its competitors. Developed the organizational-economic mechanism of management of transaction sector of the economy of the region. The monograph is addressed to a wide circle of readers: students and teachers of universities, scientists and practical workers. The proposed technique and the mechanism of management of transaction sector of the region can be used by authorities of constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the development and adjustment strategies and programs for socio-economic development of the region, educational institutions of higher and further education in the educational process, scientific-research organizations in the development of theoretical and methodological approaches to the management of the transaction sector of the economy of a particular region.

The monograph summarizes and systematizes the results of experimental and theoretical studies of thermal insulation systems of building structures, technological facilities, transport facilities, and cold preservation. The criterion for the effectiveness of system insulation solutions is energy efficiency as a criterion for a comprehensive assessment, including both taking into account the direct reduction of energy costs during the operation of insulation shells, and the costs of installation, maintenance of structures in working condition, evaluation of the operational resistance of materials and durability of system solutions as a whole. Modern types of thermal insulation materials based on gas-filled plastics, foamed glass, foamed rubber and products based on mineral fibers are considered: stone wool, glass wool and glass fiber, basalt fiber. It is intended for researchers, specialists in the field of materials science, technologists — developers of new types of thermal insulation materials and constructors, designing products from them, as well as for teachers and university students. It can be useful for a wide range of people interested in construction and energy saving problems.

The monograph is devoted to the organization of the investigator's own work. After analyzing the concept and structure of this line of investigative activity, practical recommendations for its implementation are offered. Serious attention is paid to the preparatory stage of labor organization, covering the assessment of the organizational and managerial situation, the design of the order of performance of official duties. Some aspects of the main stage, which consists in the implementation of the investigator's chosen model of labor organization, are also investigated. Recommendations are given taking into account the level of professional qualification of the investigator and the conditions of typical organizational and managerial situations. For employees of investigative agencies. It can be useful to students and teachers of law schools and institutions of secondary vocational education.

In the textbook sets out the basic information about the structure of markets, information and communication technologies (ICT), the methods of their research, assessing the attractiveness and forecasting, criteria and methods of segmentation. Deals with the organization of the sales Department of an IT company, involving analysis of organizational forms, population division, methods of remuneration and non-material incentives for experts dealing with sales of ICT products. Sets out the methodology for strategic sales of complex IT solutions, the technique of negotiation and the basics of neurolinguistic programming. The textbook pays attention to the peculiarities of the sales and promotion of ICT products through the Internet, the possibilities of the use of CRM systems. The principles of the organization of partnerships with clients. This methodical approaches to the assessment of the efficiency of the sales Department of an IT company and its sales staff. Discusses the economic evaluation of the project implementation in selling IT solutions. The textbook is prepared in accordance with the requirements of Federal state educational standard of higher education of the last generation. Designed for students enrolled in training 38.03.05 "Business-Informatics", but it can be useful to students from other disciplines and practitioners working in the field of information and communication technologies.

The monograph devoted to the study of urolithiasis consistently highlights the issues of etiology, classification, diagnosis and modern principles of treatment of urolithiasis. The problems of postoperative complications in surgery and urology are considered as a separate issue, data on original methods for predicting the development of hemorrhagic or inflammatory complications in the postoperative period with urolithiasis are presented. Special attention is paid to the issues of nonspecific immune protection, immune status indicators and hemostasis system in the development of complications in the postoperative period. The section of assessment of the structural and functional state of lymphocytes in the development of complications in the postoperative period by assessing the blebbing of the plasma membrane of the cell is presented. It is intended for urologists, general surgeons, residents studying in the specialty "Urology". It can be useful for doctors of other specialties and senior students of higher medical educational institutions.

The textbook examines the basic concepts, theoretical and methodological approaches to the assessment of the status, functioning and human development and its individual organs and subsystems in the structure of life, the basic principles of course of organismal and behavioral processes that support human adaptation to the external environment and the effectiveness of the behavior in terms of specific activities. Discusses the meaning of "health" in its broadest sense: physical, social, spiritual — and the ways, methods and tests examination of functional state of human organism and various systems and organs. Given the characteristics of statistically valid norms of health and its individual components, the effect of various tools, techniques, methods and technologies of developing and improving orientation on the formation mechanism of adaptation to conditions of activity and environment. Offers tested in practice and selected according to the degree of effectiveness of the tools, techniques and technologies of correction of the functional systems of the organism, providing high performance, health and performance of behavioral reactions and the subject in General. Meets the requirements of Federal state educational standards of higher education of the last generation. Intended for graduate students and faculty whose interests are related to the problems of human adaptation to the environment and professional activity.

The monograph discusses theoretical and practical issues related to the completion of the implementation of the introduction of new forms of ownership in the formation of the railway holding JSC "Russian Railways". The organizational and economic results of the structural reform of railway transport in Russia are analyzed in comparison with the experience of modern reform of foreign railway transport. The variants of transformation of the modern cargo transportation management system in the new economic conditions are proposed. The main results of the study of modern economic and organizational conditions of cargo transportation, taking into account the specifics of working with a private car fleet, are presented. Based on a large-scale analysis of the loading dynamics of the main directions of the Russian Railways network and the resulting unevenness of operational work, new approaches are proposed for the formation of the market of freight operators of rolling stock. An economic assessment of the implementation of scenario options for the introduction of technological outsourcing is given on the example of JSC "Federal Freight Company" with the justification of a methodological approach for the formation of a consolidated fleet of wagons based on the algorithm of the cost method for calculating the throughput during the consolidation of a fleet of freight wagons. For practitioners and researchers involved in cargo transportation management, forecasting and formation of private fleets of freight cars. It will be useful for graduate students, undergraduates and students of economic faculties of railway universities when studying courses in the economics of railway transport and the cost of freight transportation.

Achieving Musical Success in the String Classroom describes the author’s pragmatic pedagogical approach toward developing complete musicianship in beginning through advanced-level string players by incorporating the ideas of Mimi Zweig, Paul Rolland, and Shinichi Suzuki. The author’s philosophical assumptions are explained in regard to the structure and purpose of string teaching contributing to a high level of musical artistry among students. Introductory through advanced string concepts relating to instrument setup, posture, left- and right-hand development, music theory, aural skills, assessment procedures, imagery in playing, the development of individual practice and ensemble skills, and effective rehearsal strategies are explained in a sequential approach that benefits the classroom teacher and student. In addition, several score examples, sample lesson plans, and grading rubrics, as well as videos of the author demonstrating his pedagogical ideas and techniques with musicians, are included.

The theoretical model book for measuring holistic critical thinking (PCH) in the teaching of the nursing diagnostic process (PDE) highlights the complexity of the PDE based on the application of the PCH of nursing students in face of the requirement of making accurate clinical decisions; in addition, it demonstrates the applicability of the Holistic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric (HCTSR) instrument authored by professors Peter A. Facione and Noreen Facione; for the assessment of holistic critical thinking in nursing and health, becoming an important diagnostic and formative assessment tool at different levels of education, which can contribute to the advancement of nursing science with regard to the training of critical nurses and reflective in the application of the nursing diagnostic process that is structured in the stages of investigation, interpretation and nursing diagnoses with a view to making accurate nursing decisions. To reach these stages, the nurse must develop skills of holistic critical thinking (PCH), in order to make decisions focused on the best results. Based on this theoretical model, it will be possible to implement different strategies to develop holistic critical thinking in teaching the diagnostic process according to the students' PCH level.

Trusted by generations of students and academics alike, Environmental Law continues to provide, in its ninth edition, broad and comprehensive coverage of the key topics taught on most environmental law courses, explaining the subject in its social and political context, and considering both UK, EU, and international perspectives. Known for its clear structure and systematic approach, the book considers topics by theme and by sector, allowing more experienced readers to explore the intricacies of the subject while also providing a logical introduction for those new to environmental law or without a legal background. A clear and easy-to-understand writing style helps ensure readers are informed yet not overwhelmed, while useful diagrams and tables help to explain complex points. The new edition also features case studies, information boxes, and self-test questions to help draw out key points and consolidate your learning in preparation for assessments and further research. New to this edition are: discussions of the potential impact of Brexit on UK environmental law; an additional chapter discussing the regulation of new technologies, such as ‘fracking’; coverage of important cases such as Coventry v. Lawrence on nuisance, Walton, Champion, and the HS2 decision on environmental assessment, the ClientEarth air pollution litigation and the ICJ’s decision in Costa Rica v. Nicaragua; analysis of the Paris Agreement and other recent climate change developments; analysis of the new EIA Directive; discussion on the new sentencing guidelines; and enhanced coverage of the latest developments in respect to costs of litigation and the role of courts, the Aarhus Convention, and environmental rights.

Practices of assessment in education are byproducts of a bygone era. When testing and grades become the very goals of education, learning suffers, along with the well-being of students and teachers. In this book, the authors propose a radical alternative to the measurement-based assessment tradition, a vision in which schools are no longer structured as factories but as sites of collective meaning-making. As it is within the process of relating that the world comes to be what it is for us, the authors draw from this process their understanding of what knowledge is and what is good and valuable. Equally, learning and well-being are embedded in relational process, which testing and grades undermine. Thus the authors advocate a relational orientation to evaluation in education, emphasizing co-inquiry and value creation. The aim is to stimulate and enhance learning while simultaneously enriching the vitality of the relational process. A wide range of innovations in evaluative practice bring these ideas to life. The authors include detailed illustrations using cases from pioneering schools around the globe, at both primary and secondary levels, demonstrating how evaluation can foster students’ engagement in learning, feed into teachers’ professional development, support whole school improvement, and further nurture learning communities beyond the school’s walls. A relational shift in evaluation also opens a space for the flourishing of interactive and participatory teaching practices and more flexible and co-created curricula. Such a transformation in education speaks to the demands of a rapidly changing and unpredictable world, in which our capacities to listen, dialogue, and collaborate are imperative.

Many fascinating and important psychological disorders are either omitted from our current diagnostic systems or rarely covered during graduate or medical training. As a result, most mental health students and trainees are never taught to identify, diagnose, or treat them. This lack of attention has real-world consequences not only for patients, but for basic science as well.This volume collects and usefully synthesizes the scientific and clinical literatures of 21 lesser-known, but nonetheless important, psychological disorders. The chapters are broadly grouped into (a) disorders of sleep, (b) variations in psychosis, (c) sexual disorders/disorders of arousal, (d) culture-bound disorders, and (e) miscellaneous syndromes. All chapters follow a uniform structure and begin with a vivid clinical vignette. After discussing the historical context of each disorder, consideration is given to the typical presentation, the current roles in diagnostic systems (if any), and the main etiological theories. Next, clinically relevant information on assessment and differential diagnosis is provided. Finally, specific treatment recommendations are made and future directions for research are discussed. This unique and engaging volume will not only be a useful resource for researchers and clinicians who already possess expertise in the more well-known manifestations of psychopathology, but it will also be of interest to students and trainees in the mental health professions.

Fashion by Design, Second Edition, explains how the elements and principles of design relate to fashion, based on the philosophy of the Bauhaus Experiment of the 1920s and 1930s, which is the foundation for art education in the United States. The book is structured into three parts: the stages of the design process (inspiration, identification, conceptualization, exploration/refinement, definition/modeling, communication, and production); physical elements (such as line, shape, form, space, texture, light, pattern, color, and value); and theoretical principles (like balance, emphasis, rhythm, proportion, and unity) of design. This is reinforced by fashion designer profiles and illustrations covering art, architecture, and fashion. The book aims to improve the designer’s eye for creating fashion and related art forms; to identify terminology used in the communication of fashion; and to show how other factors, such as the human form, clothing structure, historic silhouettes, fashion trends, culture, and industry trends, may impact the development of a line or a collection. New to this Edition: - New introductory chapter on the stages of the design process - New chapter on sustainable design - New end-of-chapters exercises with application to the fields of fashion design (including the development of a design journal), fashion merchandising (such as styling, product development, buying or trend research) and theater arts (such as costume, sets, lighting) STUDIO Features: - Flashcards based on the glossary to enhance comprehension of key concepts and terms - Downloadable “Paper Dolls” pdfs for students to interact with key concepts of the design process - Study smarter with Self-Assessment Quizzes featuring scored results and personalized study tips Instructor’s Resources: - PowerPoint Slides for each chapter - Instructor’s Guide with sample course outlines for teaching and tools for integrating the STUDIO with the course

This book is a guide for new therapists on the use of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for any psychological disorder that involves some level of struggle with inner experiences; it is not targeted to any particular diagnosis. The book is suitable for graduate students who are seeing their first client, for clinicians with years of experience who have never done ACT or are just learning about ACT, and for anyone who is interested in applying ACT across a range of presentations. The book also includes exercises and worksheets that will continue to be useful for sessions after the therapist is competent in ACT. The chapters walk therapists through a recommended sequence of ACT sessions, including creative hopelessness, control as the problem, acceptance, defusion, mindfulness, values, and committed action. They also contain accompanying materials for clients. The book provides information on assessment, case conceptualization, treatment planning, and intervention that therapists can use as a starting point for practicing ACT. The book is intended to serve as a more structured framework from which therapists can learn and experiment with ACT concepts as they begin to get more experience with the therapy.

Diagnosis and Treatment in Internal Medicine is a new textbook, written by experts in their field, that provides succinct and authoritative guidance across the breadth of internal medicine. Diagnosis is the bedrock of management, and so how to reach a differential diagnosis of symptoms or presenting problems is a major element of the book. There is also comprehensive coverage of disorders of the body systems, including psychological aspects and palliative care. Chapters are structured so that key information can rapidly be found. Doctors need a broad perspective on health and its promotion, and there are sections addressing nutrition, lifestyle and prevention of disease. Diagnosis and Treatment in Internal Medicine is the ideal reference for doctors early in their careers in hospital medicine or primary care, and senior medical students. Sections of the book: • The approach to the patient • Assessment of symptoms and presenting problems • Cardiovascular disorders • Respiratory disorders • Intensive care medicine • Disorders of the kidney and urinary tract • Diabetes mellitus and endocrine disorders • Gastro-intestinal disorders • Disorders of the liver • Neurological disorders • Disorders of the skin • Disorders of the musculoskeletal system • Haematological disorders • Disorders of the immune system • Infectious diseases • Nutrition and its disorders • Lifestyle and environmental causes of disease • Prevention of disease • Screening for disease

In today's de-layered, knowledge-intensive organizations, most work of importance is heavily reliant on informal networks of employees within organizations. However, most organizations do not know how to effectively analyze this informal structure in ways that can have a positive impact on organizational performance. Networks in the Knowledge Economy is a collection of readings on the application of social network analysis to managerial concerns. Social network analysis (SNA), a set of analytic tools that can be used to map networks of relationships, allows one to conduct very powerful assessments of information sharing within a network with relatively little effort. This approach makes the invisible web of relationships between people visible, helping managers make informed decisions for improving both their own and their group's performance. Networks in the Knowledge Economy is specifically concerned with networks inside of organizations and addresses three critical areas in the study of social networks: Social Networks as Important Individual and Organizational Assets, Social Network Implications for Knowledge Creation and Sharing, and Managerial Implications of Social Networks in Organizations. Professionals and students alike will find this book especially valuable, as it provides readings on the application of social network analysis that reflect managerial concerns.

Environmental Law in Arab States offers a comprehensive and authoritative account of the guiding principles and rules relating to environmental protection in the Arab region. The book introduces readers to the latest developments of environmental law across the Arab region, including the applicable legislation, governance structures, and legal innovations in each of the major areas of environmental regulation, including air pollution, water pollution, biodiversity, conservation of nature and cultural heritage, chemicals and waste management, construction and infrastructure development, and Islamic ecology. Yet this book is not simply a stock-taking exercise. It also outlines participatory and bottom-up legal strategies—focusing on transparency, accountability, gender justice, human rights safeguards, and regional cooperation—needed to achieve greater coherence and coordination in the implementation and enforcement of environmental regulation across the region. The book also provides legal assessments and reflections on how Arab countries can advance existing national strategies and visions on trade and investment, green growth, Islamic green finance, circular economy, blue economy, and low carbon future among others, through clear and comprehensive legislation. Taking an international and comparative approach, this text is an essential reference and textbook for students, academics, and practitioners who work in the areas of environmental law and policy, human rights, sustainable development, political ecology, environmental diplomacy, and environmental studies, particularly area studies on the Middle East, Africa, and West Asia.

This textbook encompasses the knowledge, skills, and expertise needed to deliver excellent nursing care to critically ill patients. Emphasis is placed on a holistic and compassionate approach towards humanizing the impact of the environment, organ support, and monitoring, as well as critical illness itself. Chapters cover the general aspects of critical care such as the critical care environment or critical care continuum and specific organ systems and diseases. The structure of the systems chapters reminds the reader of the underlying anatomy and physiology as well as highlighting areas of particular relevance to critical care. The focus on priorities for management builds on the ABCDE assessment and offers insight into key interventions in urgent situations as well as outlining evidence-based practice. The book is ideal for those new to the critical care environment, but will also act as a reminder for more experienced nurses when faced with a new situation or when teaching/mentoring students. The patient and their family remain the centre of all This new edition brings the definitions, pathophysiology, and management of fast-changing and challenging areas such as ARDS, sepsis and multiple organ dysfunction, resuscitation, and acute kidney injury up to date as well as including any evidence-based changes associated with nursing practice in critical care. A new chapter covers major incident planning and management and the role of critical care in pandemic situations.

A Troubled Sleep: Risk and Resilience in Contemporary Northern Ireland revisits one of the world’s most deeply divided societies more than 20 years after a peace agreement brought an end to the Troubles. The book asks if the conflict, while perhaps managed and contained, has been transformed—structurally and relationally—into a win-win situation for both sides. It addresses this question by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, comparative research, and more than 110 hours of face-to-face interviews with politicians, activists, community workers, former political prisoners, former (and sometimes current) paramilitary members, academics, journalists, mental health practitioners, tour guides, school teachers, museum curators, students, police and military personnel, legal experts, and religious leaders across Northern Ireland. The heart of the book analyzes Northern Ireland’s current vulnerabilities and points of resilience as an allegedly “post-conflict” society. The vulnerabilities are analyzed through a model of risk assessment that examines the longer term and slower moving structures, measures, society-wide conditions, and processes that leave societies vulnerable to violent conflict. Such risk factors include the interpretation of conflict history, how authority in a country is exercised, and the susceptibility to social disharmony, isolation, and fragmentation. Resilience is examined from a survey of the countering influences, both within and outside Northern Ireland, that are working diligently to confirm humanity by reducing or reversing these vulnerabilities. The book concludes by examining the accelerating factors in contemporary Northern Ireland that may lead to an escalation of crisis as well as the triggering factors that could spark the onset of violent conflict itself.

These Guidelines are one of the results of the four-year research project “Open Online Learning for Digital and Networked Society” (2017-2021). The project objective was to enable university teachers to design open and online learning through open and online learning curriculum and environment applying learning analytics as a metacognitive tool and creating open and online learning assessment and recognition practices, responding to the needs of digital and networked society. The research of the project resulted in 10 scientific publications and 2 studies prepared by Vytautas Magnus university Institute of Innovative Studies research team in collaboration with their international research partners from Germany, Spain and Portugal. The final stage of the research attempted creating open and online learning assessment and recognition practices, responding to the learner needs in contemporary digital and networked society. The need for open learning recognition has been increasing during the recent decade while the developments of open learning related to the Covid 19 pandemics have dramatically increased the need for systematic and high-quality assessment and recognition of learning acquired online. The given time also relates to the increased need to offer micro-credentials to learners, as well as a rising need for universities to prepare for micro-credentialization and issue new digital credentials to learners who are regular students, as well as adult learners joining for single courses. The increased need of all labour - market participants for frequent and fast renewal of competences requires a well working and easy to use system of open learning assessment and recognition. For learners, it is critical that the micro-credentials are well linked to national and European qualification frameworks, as well as European digital credential infrastructures (e.g., Europass and similar). For employers, it is important to receive requested quality information that is encrypted in the metadata of the credential. While for universities, there is the need to properly prepare institutional digital infrastructure, organizational procedures, descriptions of open learning opportunities and virtual learning environments to share, import and export the meta-data easily and seamlessly through European Digital Hub service infrastructures, as well as ensure that academic and administrative staff has digital competencies to design, issue and recognise open learning through digital and micro-credentials. The first chapter of the Guidelines provides a background view of the European Qualification Framework and National Qualification frameworks for the further system of gaining, stacking and modelling further qualifications through open online learning. The second chapter suggests the review of current European policy papers and consultations on the establishment of micro-credentials in European higher education. The findings of the report of micro-credentials higher education consultation group “European Approach to Micro-credentials” is shortly introduced, as well as important policy discussions taking place. Responding to the Rome Bologna Comunique 2020, where the ministers responsible for higher education agreed to support lifelong learning through issuing micro-credentials, a joint endeavour of DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion and DG Research and Innovation resulted in one of the most important political documents highlighting the potential of micro-credentials towards economic, social and education innovations. The consultation group of experts from the Member States defined the approach to micro-credentials to facilitate their validation, recognition and portability, as well as to foster a larger uptake to support individual learning in any subject area and at any stage of life or career. The Consultation Group also suggested further urgent topics to be discussed, including the storage, data exchange, portability, and data standards of micro-credentials and proposed EU Standard of constitutive elements of micro-credentials. The third chapter is devoted to the institutional readiness to issue and to recognize digital and micro-credentials. Universities need strategic decisions and procedures ready to be enacted for assessment of open learning and issuing micro-credentials. The administrative and academic staff needs to be aware and confident to follow these procedures while keeping the quality assurance procedures in place, as well. The process needs to include increasing teacher awareness in the processes of open learning assessment and the role of micro-credentials for the competitiveness of lifelong learners in general. When the strategic documents and procedures to assess open learning are in place and the staff is ready and well aware of the processes, the description of the courses and the virtual learning environment needs to be prepared to provide the necessary metadata for the assessment of open learning and issuing of micro-credentials. Different innovation-driven projects offer solutions: OEPass developed a pilot Learning Passport, based on European Diploma Supplement, MicroHE developed a portal Credentify for displaying, verifying and sharing micro-credential data. Credentify platform is using Blockchain technology and is developed to comply with European Qualifications Framework. Institutions, willing to join Credentify platform, should make strategic discussions to apply micro-credential metadata standards. The ECCOE project building on outcomes of OEPass and MicroHE offers an all-encompassing set of quality descriptors for credentials and the descriptions of learning opportunities in higher education. The third chapter also describes the requirements for university structures to interact with the Europass digital credentials infrastructure. In 2020, European Commission launched a new Europass platform with Digital Credential Infrastructure in place. Higher education institutions issuing micro-credentials linked to Europass digital credentials infrastructure may offer added value for the learners and can increase reliability and fraud-resistant information for the employers. However, before using Europass Digital Credentials, universities should fulfil the necessary preconditions that include obtaining a qualified electronic seal, installing additional software and preparing the necessary data templates. Moreover, the virtual learning environment needs to be prepared to export learning outcomes to a digital credential, maintaining and securing learner authentication. Open learning opportunity descriptions also need to be adjusted to transfer and match information for the credential meta-data. The Fourth chapter illustrates how digital badges as a type of micro-credentials in open online learning assessment may be used in higher education to create added value for the learners and employers. An adequately provided metadata allows using digital badges as a valuable tool for recognition in all learning settings, including formal, non-formal and informal.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.