What is a MOOC?

Here's a useful video clip explaining the idea of a Massive Open Online Course or MOOC.

Does Your Hypertension Stress You?

The most typical health issues people struggle with is often high blood pressure levels and it is possible you are in danger of it. There are a lot of daily habits which you might not even know about yet that can cause your blood pressure to elevate. Being at an unhealthy weight is one of the more common reasons that people have to contend with high blood pressure. You should check your blood pressure on a regular basis and if it ever goes over 120/80, you’ll want to start taking measures to get it back under control. You’re going to be well served by changing your eating habits so that you will eat good foods and if you start an exercise program. Truly, the correct diet solution is generally a must. Your blood pressure could return to normal, by shedding as little as ten pounds. Even if your diet is rather good, not ever being physically active can cause you to gain pounds and will raise your blood pressure. It’s crucial to have some strenuous activity in your life, particularly if you see your blood pressure numbers start to climb. 

Even if you merely do 30 minutes of activity daily, you’ll help your body a lot and really lower your blood pressure. If you’ve got any concerns regarding your health, you need to eat healthier foods. Being unhealthy, along with having hypertension, are typically directly related to the food you consume. If you wish to reduce your blood pressure your regular or low carbohydrate diet should include more fruits and vegetables and less salt or sodium. One other way to increase your risk of hypertension is to use tobacco products so if you do that now, stop smoking as soon as you possibly can. When people start smoking cigarettes, most of them probably never even consider that it might lead to high blood pressure, or even check it regularly to find out how it is doing. Alas, elevated BP can be brought on by a lot of terrible lifestyle choices. One more factor might be stress, which is one of the major contributors to elevated blood pressure. 

Everyone has pressure within their lives and that pressure usually triggers stress which is something everybody deals with a little bit differently. People drink, smoke, binge or any number of things to fight the stress that’s been affecting them. This might feel good in the short term, but in the long haul it causes high blood pressure. If you are younger, you probably think that there isn’t anything that could affect your health and that you have lots of time to get on track but in due course you will wish that you had done things differently. When diseases hit you that are directly linked to the high blood pressure you got from your lifestyle choices, you’re going to regret them. Take a look at the older people in your life, and examine their health with how they have lived. Choose the ones who have health you’d like for you and discover what kind of things they have done. Look for individuals who aren’t taking medicine to keep blood pressure regular.

Our Democratic Deficit - Private Member’s Bills

Memorial University of Newfoundland political science professor Alex Marland penned a timely article in the Canadian Parliamentary Review last fall. The piece raises a number of questions about the operations and functions of the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly, including its diminishing status under the current government. The following excerpt on private member’s bills illustrates the need for democratic reform in our province (emphasis added by me): Members who do not belong to cabinet have a small influence on public policy and have a more limited legislative presence than is the case in other provinces. In other parliamentary systems, members introduce a private member’s bill to propose legislation in an attempt to raise public awareness of issues and to hold the government to account. In Newfoundland, non-cabinet members may speak for 15 minutes on Wednesdays (the designated private members day) when they can introduce motions, which could include urging policy change. But unlike other legislatures, the rules for a private member’s bill require completion of all three readings in the same day, and the resulting impossibility of meeting such a stringent requirement is symbolic of the strength of the political executive and the lack of effective opposition. Consequently a private member’s bill has never been passed.

Electives Made Easy

Next week I'll meet with the other twenty students in my rotation group to choose where we'll be spending our third year. Already, it's become clear that each of us will have to make sacrifices. Not everyone can do surgery at the academic mecca down the road, and someone has to spend December catching pertussis from kids in northwest Pennsylvania. I've spent more than a few hours agonizing over my preferences, weighing the benefits of one hospital's huge patient volume with another's beach house provided for visiting students. That's right, a beach house. Over the next two years, we'll have a half-dozen electives rotation months that we can spend anywhere in the world, doing anything we want. Most of these will be spent "auditioning" at the places we hope to complete our residencies, but nearly everyone has the dream of spending at least a month experiencing another country's healthcare system. Whether it's working with the incredible DO Care clinic in Guatemala, treating families in the Philippines, or discovering the National Health Service in the UK, we're all excited for such an opportunity.

I've already been checking ticket prices into Phnom Penh. But getting connected with the rotation of your dreams isn't always easy. Jess had a tough time finding a rotation within just the United States, and I can only imagine what cold-calls in broken Spanish are worth to program directors in Madrid. Afortunadamente, I was recently introduced to a a site that makes it a lot easier. For more than a decade The Electives Network has helped tens of thousands of medical students plan their elective placements. TEN can help you find your dream elective, anywhere from a remote clinic in the jungles of Papua New Guinea to a cutting-edge hospital amongst the sky scrapers of Manhattan. I spent more than an hour this evening perusing the site. Besides listing thousands of electives in hundreds of countries around the world, they also have a key feature that I found extremely helpful student reviews that give you a true insight into that elective you've been eyeing in Burundi or Portugal.

I even used the interactive planner to see what would be available for a friend who had mentioned wanting to rotate in Italy. The Electives Network isn't paying me to write this, nor do I get some awesome free trip to London (though I wouldn't say no). I truly found that it's a fantastic resource for medical students hoping to broaden their horizons a bit. After a life-changing experience in Cambodia, it's clear to me that such an international opportunity can be a critical building block in medical education. So I got in contact with Halina Malone at TEN and we were able to put together something to help students develop the elective they've always wanted. By signing up and selecting Little White Coats as your medical school (awesome, I know), they're doubling everyone's membership length giving you the time to make sure you're planning your perfect rotation. Once again, The Electives Network is not paying me to advertise for them, I just wanted to pass along a great resource. If you find your dream elective, I'd love to hear about it! Dibs on the Hems elective in London, though.

Internet Older than Incoming First-Year Students

Mention Amazon to the incoming class of college freshmen and they are more likely to think of shopping than the South American river. PC doesn't stand for political correctness and breaking up on Facebook is more common than any more personal encounter. These are among the 75 references on this year's Beloit College Mindset List, a compilation intended to remind teachers that college freshmen born mostly in 1993 see the world in a much different way: They fancied pogs and Tickle Me Elmo toys as children, watched televisions that never had dials and their lives have always been like a box of chocolates. Once upon a time, relatives of the current generation swore never to trust anyone over the age of 30. This group could argue: Never trust anyone older than the Net. The college's compilation, released Tuesday, is assembled each year by two officials at the private school in southeastern Wisconsin. It also has evolved into a national phenomenon, a cultural touchstone that entertains even as it makes people wonder where the years have gone.

Attracting Maritimers to Memorial University

Cost and reputation attracting Maritimers to Memorial University. Affordability, a reputation for quality programs, and the availability of a wide range of program options are key factors in attracting Maritime students to Memorial University according to a report released today by researchers in Memorial's Faculty of Education. The study, Matriculating Eastward: Maritime Student Migration to Newfoundland and Labrador, investigated academic, social, and economic influences contributing to the enrollment of students from the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. 

The research also compared factors influencing migrant students who relocate to Newfoundland and Labrador for full-time study with distance students who maintain their residence in their home province and study at Memorial using distance education means. "While there are important differences between the decision-making of students who relocate to the province and those who study via distance, our results underscore the importance of cost, and tuition fee levels in particular". said the principal investigator for the study. "Cost is not the only factor, but it is a key factor in students’ enrollment decisions".

The study underscores Memorial University's opportunity to distinguish itself from competitor institutions in the Atlantic region and to market itself to a broad base of potential applicants based on affordability, solid reputation, and comprehensiveness. These attributes may also comprise a firm basis for attracting students from other Canadian provinces and internationally. The study was conducted in two phases including a survey of students from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island who were attending Memorial University during the fall semester. The survey was followed-up with a series of one-on-one interviews with students during the winter semester.

Women's Status in Higher Education

Equity matters. The posting below, which came to me recently via the Tomorrows-Professor mailing list, is the opening of the executive summary of the Association for the Study of Higher Education report Women's Status in Higher Education: Equity Matters by Elizabeth J. Allan. The report is available from the Wiley Online Library. Significant gains have been made in women's access to and representation in higher education. Although they are important, focus on these improvements provides only a partial picture of gender equity and inequity. 

Taken alone, enrollment data tend to eclipse other factors that shape women's experiences in higher education. For instance, aggregate enrollment data do not portray the persistent lack of gender parity among students studying engineering, computer science, and other science and technology fields, nor do they depict the quality of classroom and campus experiences. Women studying and working in postsecondary institutions continue to bump against glass ceilings and sticky floors, they experience pay disparities and the threat and reality of sexual harassment, and violence continues to interfere with workplace and living environments on campus.

Why should we care? Lack of equity in higher education can have far-reaching and negative consequences for learning environments, quality of life, and career satisfaction of both women and men studying and working in academic institutions across the country. This monograph foregrounds gains made and shared challenges women face while also acknowledging how race, social class, and other aspects of identity intersect with sex and gender and contribute to shaping one's professional status in profound ways. Literature related to women's access and representation in higher education, experiences of campus climate, and predominant strategies employed to enhance gender equity in U.S. higher education are reviewed.