Research application Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Application - Research Paper Example The company undertakes services from receiving shipments from defined points to taking charge of all clearance procedures upto the delivery points. Aramex Inc (2014) provides different modes of transportation such as air-sea, air-land and supposedly sea-land depending on customer requirements. The financial statement analysis presents consolidated financial statements of Aramex Inc and its subsidiaries. Presentation of consolidated financial position and review of consolidated statement of cash flows, comprehensive income statement and balance sheet is on quarterly basis. Expenses as per the company can be categorized as under administrative expenses and operating expenses (Market Publishers, 2014). Review of financial statement includes calculation of differents financial ratios. Financial ratios based on the balance sheet focuses on current asset and current liability as shown within the company’s balance sheet. The financial ratios include Working Capital, Current Ratio and Quick Ratio (Market Publishers, 2014).. According to Aramex Inc financial statement, the current ratio for the company is 2.31 and this indicates the liquidity position of the company. Current ratio indicates the relationship existing between current assets and current liabilities. For satisfactory liquidity position the ratio should exceed 2:1, therefore there is strong liquidity position within the firm since the ratio exceeds two. However, the company gives no detail concerning Quick Ratio due to lack of detail inventory making current ratio to serve same purposes as Quick ratio. This is an indication on the fact that short-term solvency of the firm in high and eligible. The Cash Ratio for indicates soundness of the firm showing that the company currently has enough cash at hand making it possible for management to meet current obligations (Market Publishers, 2014). From the financial statement analysis, Debt management ratios include; Debt

Professional Practice in Bioscience Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Professional Practice in Bioscience - Assignment Example Secondly, working with the professional staff of doctors, I expect to learn from their vast experience. They also have a variety of devices and medical technology such as an X-ray machine all, which I will become proficient at using making me a better future veterinary practitioner. As an intern at the Burwood hospital, have had to work as part of a team mostly with my fellow intern's assigned duties by the doctor in charge. One of the first duties we were assigned as interns was to carry out an inventory of the facility; we were divided into two teams of 3 each. One was assigned to the laboratories while the other (mine) was to inventory the equipment in the whole hospital. The first team finished a day before mine but accidentally one of them deleted the data they had collected and they were unable to recover it. I proposed we work together and help them redo their work in time, members of my group were however against the idea since it meant they would have to sacrifice their entire free Saturday to clean up someone else’s mess. I, however, convinced them to agree and assisted the other team for at least half the day. The doctor in charge had given us the Job as a team of six so he was not aware we were divided in two, therefore I knew if we delivered half complete work and blamed the other team it would reflect negatively on the whole team. However, even after our efforts to help them, their part of the inventory came up short after submission. It turned out that in the hurry to complete the job in time, they had overlooked tens of items, which resulted in the whole inventory inclusive of our part being canceled, and the team was asked to repeat the process under the supervisor of a senior veterinary doctor.

Interest Rate Risk Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Interest Rate Risk Assignment - Essay Example Indeed, the credit was sold to the customer at a lower price (lower interest rate) than it could have been if it had been sold at a later time. Certainly, this is one of the simple examples, but we must consider that the value of the bank itself can be directly affected by the interest rate risk, through changes in its overall assets and liabilities values2 and given the time value of money. The repricing gap model is one of the simplest used by banks to determine the amount of exposure for their assets and is based on "the net differences between interest rate sensitive assets and liabilities maturing at different times"3). Within established time bands (one day, 1 day 3 months, 3-6 months etc. up to assets and liabilities with maturities of over 5 years), total liability values are subtracted from total asset values to evaluate a gap between the two. Each gap value thus obtained can be multiplied by a the assumed change in interest rates in order to obtain the potential numerical expression of the impact the change in interest rates will have on the value of that respective bandwidth (evaluated as the gap between assets and liabilities). ... Despite the fact that the repricing gap model is simple enough to be used by almost everybody, one of its biggest disadvantages refers exactly to this simplicity of the model. Indeed, there is practically no other variable being taking into consideration other than the difference in value between assets and liabilities within a time band. The market conditions generally impose multiple variable, such as different maturing and repricing periods4 or payments that need to be taken into consideration, so we may point out towards the fact that this model is only an approximation of the level of exposure of a bank to the interest rate risk. The duration gap analysis is somewhat more complex and provides more answers for a proper interest rate exposure analysis. It "focuses on managing NII or the market value of equity, recognizing the timing of cash flows"5, which is something that the repricing gap model ignored. According to the same source (Koch and MacDonald), an effective duration gap analysis will include three main steps. First of all, the bank management and analysis department will need to develop a forecast for the future levels of interest rate. Subsequently, the management determined the market value for all the assets and liabilities held by the bank. Third of all, an estimation of the weighted duration of assets and of the weighted duration of liabilities is made. In order to be able to hedge the market value of the bank's equity, the management will evaluate the difference between the weighted duration of assets and the weighted duration of liabilities and will set the condition that this equals to 0. Upon calculation, the bank management's conclusion will hold either an adjustment of either asset or liability weighted duration. 3.a)

How Does Bullying Impact School Success Research Paper

How Does Bullying Impact School Success - Research Paper Example The bullied students develop a great sense of fear that reduces their concentration and affects their psychological being. As results, such students may not be in a better position to concentrate in class and perform to their limit. Those in support of this perspective argue that the stability of the student and his/her ability to exist in a fear free environment affects the final performances of such students. Bullying impacts more mentally on a student’s stability and this creates excessive feeling of fear on the victims thus making them vulnerable in any situation (Ainer and Perry, 2003). The inability to counter the impacts of the bullies and punish such acts increases the prevalence of disrespect and disregard to the available laws that govern student’s behavior within the schools and colleges. The lack of intervention by the school administration results into loss of respect for fellow students and the teachers themselves. The bullies may develop a big man syndrom e and the feeling that they are above the control of the school administration. As a result, they may continue in the perpetuation of their atrocities on fellow students without fear of being punished. This reduces the school’s performance and respect as the victims may become more and more unprotected and vulnerable (Lohaus et al, 2002). In this evaluation, there are those who support the notion that the impacts of bullying on a schools performance emanates from the students end while others believed that the ineffectiveness it creates on the school’s administration significantly affects it performance. Uncontrolled bullying in schools has been shown to go beyond the fields and the students extra time into studying hours. During... This report approves that the United States is one of the most diverse countries in the world with a large number of different racial groupings and classes. Bullying has been associated with diversity especially from a racial and class perspective that makes the inferior class or race more susceptible to victimization. The prevalence of bullying in ethnically diverse schools has resulted into acts of aggression and retaliation by threatened races, which have caused significant harm to the aggressors and the victims. The schools are never spared from such racial wars as they fabric as a society that embraces diversity is tone apart. The failure of the institutions to address the growing ethnic and racial profiling and aggressive behaviors contribute to the emergence of racial blocks within schools as found within our prisons. Such groups develop aggressive tendencies towards each other and engage in violent activities to assert their authorities. This essay makes a conclusion that bullying is considered as one of the worst barbaric and cowardice acts committed by students on their colleagues intentionally thus causing considerable harm. The effects of bullying are widespread affecting the aggressor, the victim, the witness and the school in equal measure. The school, as the custodian of the authority over the overall student’s behavior has a number of responsibilities in ensuring safety over the students. However, widespread bullying erodes their authority and impacts significantly on the success of a learning institution.

How can Ebola affect us Essay Example for Free

How can Ebola affect us Essay Imagine being isolated from your own family and feeling unsure as to whether or not you will ever see them again. They do not want to come anywhere near you, for you are a threat to their health. The only visitors who come within 10 feet of you are strangers in full on protective gear. They do not want to expose the slightest bit of skin to you and you cannot see anything besides their eyes. The world fears what you are and no one wants to come close to you. You know death is near, and you are all alone. You can see the mountain of corpses outside the wiry mesh window of your facility, being burnt and thrown into mass graves, and you know that you will soon be joining them. This is the life of an Ebola victim.. In the year 1976, Ebola climbed out of its unknown hiding place, and caused the death of 280 out of the 318 people who got infected. That’s an 88% fatality rate. Fear gripped the victims, and tortured their minds. The people of Zaire waited outside clinics, churches and in their homes for a treatment of the horrible disease, but there was no cure. They were forced to watch people die, hoping that they would be saved from the violent death of the Ebola virus. From the year of 1976 till today, researchers have searched for origin and cure of the virus. Scientist have carried out numerous studies and investigations, but no one has been able to find the right explanations. There have been many others out breaks in the past but 2014/15’s outbreak has claimed more lives than all of these other outbreaks together, with a staggering 8386 death and counting. It has also spread between countries starting in Guinea then spreading across land borders to Sierra Leone calming 3,049 lives and Liberia causing 3,515 deaths and to to Nigeria causing 8 deaths. It is believed that the Ebola  virus may have initially been transmitted to humans from bats, and other forms of bush meat like monkeys ect.. fro m the jungles in central Africa, i know it must sount crazy to you to hear that some people eat monkeys but In some remote areas of Africa it is part of their culture and their way of life. In Africas Congo Basin, people eat an estimated five million tonnes of bush meat per year. The reason that bush meat is so deadly is because some animals mostly bats, can be a host to specific diseases without being harmed, were as us humans cannot carry these diseases without becoming infected. When a person contracts Ebola they will start to feel the symptoms within the next 2-21 days. The symptoms of Ebola are very distinctive and deadly. If you were to contract Ebola, your experience would be horrific you would start to get bad stomach pains, but it would just be passed off as a common bug. after that they would then start to amplify in pain until they would wake you up from your sleep, which would be followed by chronic vomiting. Anything you ate would come back up. These symptoms would continue for a few days then you would start to lose weight at an extreme rate. Chest pains would now accompany the stomach aches, by this time you would be very weak with virtually no food in your body due to the vomiting and your teeth would start to fall out while you would develop a bloody rash and you would die days later after horrific suffering. But those are just the side effects of what’s really happening in your body. Ebola attacks every organ and all of the tissue in the human body except the bones. You develop blood clots under the skin. Your organs turn to mush and the under layers of your skin die and liquefy; this is what causes the bloody bubbly rash. These things actually happen to Ebola patients every day. Ebola is a very contagious disease; this is why Ebola victims have to be kept contained in hospitals and treatment facilities. When it comes to transmission doctors take cleaning themselves after being in contact with an infected person very seriously. Ebola is transmitted through the passing of boldly fluids, which means if you get fluids from an infected person’s body onto your skin, you should be okay; but we as humans are constantly rubbing our eyes and eating with our hands so this means that we are still giving the Ebola parasite a chance to enter our body. At the moment there is no cure or vaccination for Ebola. Experiments however are taking place to find  a vaccination using antibodies of Ebola survivors. This is possible because like any other disease like small pocks and the chicken pox, one you have survived Ebola u become immune to it. Scientists are trying to figure out how to copy this into a vaccination. Most people in the uk think that they are completely safe from the disease, and at the moment yes they are. It is extremely unlikely that Ebola at the moment could reach the uk and spread like wildfire. However, every person in West Africa, Sierra Leone, Liberia ect that gets infected with Ebola provides it with an opportunity to grow and mutate, if not stopped it will eventually maybe in the next year, maybe in the next 10 years become air born. This means that even breathing near an Ebola patient will give u the disease. Once air born it will travel the world and could patiently kill a large percentage of the earth’s population. Including you. I hope now you can see why Ebola need stop be stopped. Thanks for listening

Suitably qualified staff Essay Example for Free

Suitably qualified staff Essay Staffing to meet changing business demands Suitably qualified staff may be recruited or trained within the organisation to have the right level of skills when they first join the business. At XMA computers, they need to have enough staff to meet demand but not too many as they would be wasting money on their wages. They also need to pay for staff training and sick pay. During the holidays, such as Christmas, XMA need to hire more staff as retailers will want to buy more products for the sale season. Coordination of team resources to meet targets As well as making sure that individual employees are managed within the organisation, it is essential that resources are used effectively within terms to meet company targets that are set. At XMA all employees need to work together to make the business successful. The people receiving and sending out calls need to have good teamwork skills to work with those who organise and dispatch the orders. This helps the business become successful in taking and delivering orders on time. Monitoring of team performance Coordinating a team is likely to mean that a company knows what employees should be doing to work towards their targets; but it is also essential to monitor the teams performance to make sure that they are actually making progress.XMA need to keep track of employees progress and they have many ways of doing this. They mainly do it through appraisals. An appraisal is a meeting between an employee and his/her line manager. During this meeting they talk about the employees progress throughout their working time. This review can be done in two different ways: Formal and Informal. Liaison with other departments Large organisations may have hundreds of different teams working across the organisation and unless each is able to work with other departments and coordinate as a whole organisation there will be conflict or unsatisfactory performance. XMA need all their teams to work together so that the business is run smoothly without any problems. If the teams do not work together than the business may not be successful and details may be wrong. Establishment of professional culture Part of the management of human resources concerns teaching employees about how the business operates its professional culture; for example the level of formality it uses and the way that managers and staff deal with each other. XMA need to teach all employees about the way their business operates. Many employees call fellow colleagues by their first name but in some companies they prefer to be addressed by a title e.g. Mr, Mrs., Dr. Provision of appropriate incentives To manage human resources effectively managers may decide to use incentives to encourage employees to work harder or to produce work of a higher quality. At XMA, employees are given extra-pay if they can hit their daily phone targets or get higher. E.g. If an employee is given a target of 50 orders, and they get 70 orders, they may get and extra à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½50 for their work. Encouragement of creativity and initiative Businesses that are able to change quickly and can be adaptable to customer needs are more likely to be successful. XMA need to be able to do this in order to be the number 1 distributor company in the UK. As they also have a website, they have international orders which will get them more profit.

Private Blogging In Paramedic Science Education Essay

Private Blogging In Paramedic Science Education Essay Abstract Reflection on clinical practice and sharing of declarative knowledge is a foundation for which the Bachelor of Paramedic Science program was developed. The overall scope of the project was to trial Evernote as a private reflective blogging service and also the opportunity to gain experience (both staff and students) with using Evernote with a view of it becoming a potential tool for reflection and assessment on clinical placement, informing not only Paramedic Science but other clinical based health programs. Ultimately this project was about improving the engagement of distance students online, and encourage reflection on their own declarative knowledge. The scope of the project was to also improve formative feedback between students and the academics and finally to evaluate the technology for appropriateness as a private blogging service in a clinical setting for reflection. The educational motivation towards student engagement is high on the agenda of tertiary institutions and this study is one representation of how social media concepts can improve this engagement. The findings of this study identified that students interact better with SMS combined with online forums within a learning management system. Key Words Blogging Reflective Practice Student Engagement Learning Management Systems Key Points The use of private blogging aims to improve engagement of distance students online, and encourage reflection on their studies within the course. The use of private blogging aims to improve formative feedback between student paramedics and lecturers Evaluation of technology and the use of social media are high on the agenda of tertiary institutions Private blogging aims to enhance clinical reasoning by students. Formative feedback provided to students through their own self discovery of new concepts introduced during the course as well as self-regulated learning by the students is important in paramedic education. Introduction Reflection on and sharing of clinical information amongst student paramedics is a practice that has been introduced across all paramedic specific courses on offer in the Bachelor of Paramedic Science at CQUniversity. The aim of the study- private blogging in paramedic foundations was designed to improve the engagement of distance education students online and encourage reflection on their studies within the course. The objective was to also improve formative feedback and evaluate the technology for appropriateness as a private blogging service in a clinical setting. The overall scope of the project was to trial Evernote as a private reflective blogging service and also the opportunity to gain experience (both staff and students) with using Evernote with a view of it becoming a potential tool for reflection and assessment on clinical placement, informing not only Paramedic Science but other clinical based medical and health programs on offer at CQUniversity. Background The study commenced during term for a course within the Bachelor of Paramedic Science at CQUniversity 2011. Nineteen students were enrolled in the course and had the opportunity to engage with the course lecturer/s through set weekly tutorial questions in which all students were to respond to through their private blog enhancing engagement by students. These blogs were then summarised by the course coordinator and put online through the weekly forum in Moodle. Students were also to consider the clinical judgement aspects of the course reflecting on their clinical practices such as history taking and patient assessment. The introduction of private blogging into the course was intended to improve formative feedback provided to students through their own self discovery of new concepts introduced during the course as well as self regulated learning by the students performing set tasks on family and friends as a way of skills development and competency. The use of private blogging was hop ed to improve engagement with distance education students and also to seek improvements in competent and reflective paramedic practice to be used throughout the program especially for work integrated learning. Blogging to improve student interaction Prior to the commencement of this study the course was offered in term one with approximately 70 students enrolled. Online weekly tutorials consisted of weekly problem solving and clinical judgement questions that required a response from the student. These questions ranged from problem solving exercises to case management exercises and general case studies requiring question and answer responses. The interaction for these weekly formative tutorial sessions was low with a 12% (n= 8) students per week responding. The below table identifies the average response rate for all term 1 2011 courses and for the paramedic course within the Moodle learning management system. Table 1. Files, messages, clicks and discussions for 70 students in term 1, 2011 PMSC11001 paramedic course compared to the average for all term 1 2011 courses in the university. Course Files uploaded Messages Clicks Discussion hits Discussion posts Discussion replies Paramedic Course 128 113 32380 4135 77 36 Average all T1 2011 courses 15 109 13359 2879 40 68 Due to the limited amount of discussion replies (36 versus 68) it was difficult to ascertain what the students learned during the lectures. In turn it was then difficult to predict if what they learned in theory was going to be put into practice at their residential school simulation laboratory sessions. An article by Wetmore et al. (2010) identified that writing about what was learnt theoretically is an effective strategy to promote reflective learning leading to the development of critical thinking. In other words if a student effectively reflects on the declarative knowledge of their studies, this reflection will in turn improve the procedural knowledge and skills application required for proficient practice. Overwhelming evidence is in support of reflective learning practices through effective student-teacher interaction being included in clinical education paradigms (Wetmore et al. 2010). Methods Data presented in this paper are drawn from an exploratory survey conducted at the completion of a three day residential school for a first year baccalaureate paramedic program. The course they attended was Foundations of Paramedics Science which is a first year course of the three year Bachelor of Paramedic Science program. The students in the course were distance education students. The aim of the study was to evaluate Evernote as a blogging service for students. The purpose of Evernote is to: Improve engagement of distance students online, and encourage reflection on their studies within the course. Improve formative feedback from teachers Evaluate Evernote as a private blogging service in a clinical setting The overall scope of the project was to trial Evernote as a private reflective blogging service and also the opportunity to gain experience (both staff and students) with using Evernote with a view to it becoming a potential tool for reflection and assessment on clinical placement, informing not only Paramedic Science, but other clinical based programs such as Medical Sciences and Sonography. Evernote is a technology that assists users with organising various types of information from several different sources into one, central, web-based location. The product also allows users to clip web pages and archive them for later reference, store screen shots, photos, audio memos and text notes, all within a customizable storage system. Evernote can organize notes chronologically and share them between multiple users. In the context of this research students would share their notes (blog posts) only with their teachers in the course, thus creating a private blogging environment. The students had tutorials and on-line blog activities during which they were required to enter their responses and other relevant information into the Evernote program. Â   The activities were located in their resource manuals and were identified by a blog sign. They were informed that they will be required to input information into EVERNOTE which only the lecturers will see, and that this information will be summarised and feedback provided to all students. The students were initially provided step by step guidance on how to access Evernote and begin their blogging campaign. The lecturers were provided training sessions leading up to the commencement of term and the students were also given online training videos to assist in using Evernote. The authors conducted a survey after a three day residential school in January 2012. The survey was distributed and received back by a non-teaching staff member. The questionnaire consisted of five sections. Section one contained demographic information related to the participants. Section two contained questionnaires based around their knowledge and capabilities of blogging with section three following on from this and contained 13 questions with a seven-point Likert scale identifying the students beliefs about blogging in the course. The fourth section discussed the students feeling about the blogging process and identified any alternative methods for their engagement with the lecturers. The final section attempted to identify their clinical reasoning by allowing the students to reflect on actual paramedic practice and the use of evidence based practice in paramedicine and whether blogging assisted them in improving clinical reasoning and judgement. Data used in the analyses came from a student paramedic-based e survey of blogging. Data collected by the questionnaire were stored on a Microsoft Access database that resided on CQUniversitys computer server. Survey data were coded and transferred from the Access database to an SPSS 18.0 (SPSS, 2010) statistical package software program. Ethical approval was acquired by CQUniversity Human Ethics Committee. Ethics approval (H11/11-163) was granted from 5 December 2011 to 30 June 2012 and was considered under the low risk review process. Results Eleven students out of 19 (58%) completed the survey with only 19 out of 27 students attending the residential school. The intent of the blogging exercise was to assess the students engagement with information extracted from the Evernote data base through the weekly tutorial sessions with questions uploaded by lecturers and answers provided by the students. Unfortunately out of a potential 190 blogs required there were only 14.1% of responses from students (n =27) which did not reflect an accurate account of engagement and was only a two percent improvement on the previous engagement strategy through the Moodle online forum. Their engagement through blogging in Evernote was not a formal graded assessment which kept with the consistency in the previous tutorial sessions through on line forums to ascertain if blogging improved engagement. Demographics Demographic data was gathered for comparison only, and a frequency distribution of gender, age, highest level of education, state of residence and current employment/student status was undertaken. Information is noted in tables 1 and 2. Of the participants who completed this survey there was an almost equal division of gender with 55 percent (n=6) female. Fifty percent were in the age group of 20-29 (mean 23 years ) (range 19-37) (table 2). Based on the ANOVA analysis, P values indicated that there is no significant difference between genders and amongst age groups with regard to their thoughts on blogging (P value threshold set at P Table 2 Participants Gender Gender N Percentage Female Male 6 5 55 45 Total 11 100 Table 3- age of participants Descriptor N Percentage 19 20 22 27 29 32 37 missing 2 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 18.2 9.1 18.2 9.1 9.1 18.2 9.1 9.1 Total 11 100 The second part of the survey asked participants if they have blogged before. Of the 11 respondents, only one had previous blogging experience and that persons experience was over 12 months previous to this survey. To ascertain if students had concerns with blogging based on past experiences of themselves or family/friends, a second question asked do you know of any bloggers who have gotten in trouble with friends or family for things they posted on blogs? There was an overwhelming response of no for this response (n=11, 100%). The final question within this section asked for a comment on blogging and what the participants would like to know about blogging, of the responses received three out of eleven (27%) participants advised that they did not enjoy the blogging experience and therefore did not want any further information provided to them. The third section of the questionnaire was aimed at gathering information about the participants beliefs of blogging in the course PMSC11001. They were advised there were no right or wrong answers and the researcher were only interested in their general opinions about the participants beliefs and thoughts of blogging within the course PMSC11001. This section was assessed using a 13 item, seven-point Likert-type scale anchored by the use of bipolar adjectives (i.e. pairs of opposites) from Strongly agree = 1 to Strongly disagree = 7. Table 4- Questionnaire Mean Scores (n=11) Question Mean Standard Deviation How confident were you that your writing in your blog was private 3.18 1.47 How often did you consider something was too personal to blog 5.18 1.40 How often did you look at the log of the lecturers responses Would you take lesser care with what you wrote if it was open to the public 4.30 3.72 2.00 2.19 How much did the comment the lecturers wrote on your blog affect future entries 4.63 1.12 Would it bother you if the things you publish on our blog could be available to other students Do you believe things you publish on your blog affect your grading Do you believe lecturers would feel negative towards you based on your blog Do you believe your peers would feel negative towards you based on your blog 5.09 5.09 5.00 4.82 1.58 1.22 1.34 1.25 How did you find the process of enrolling in Evernote Did you find using Evernote program easy for your weekly blog entries Were you able to find responses from your lecturers easily through the Evernote program Were you able to publish your blogs easily through Evernote 4.73 4.82 5.00 5.00 1.49 1.33 1.09 1.61 Although most students did not engage with Evernote blogging as part of their weekly tutorial and as identified below students did not want to engage with lecturers through blogging there was a slightly positive inference about their confidence in their blogs being private (M = 3.18, SD = 1.47) and they identified that they would take more care if they knew the blogs were available in the public domain (M=3.72, SD=2.19). A majority of the respondents indicated a negative response to their experience with the Evernote blogging system and especially if it had negative impact on their grades (M=5.09, SD=1.22) and they also believed that lecturers would think adverse of them (M=5.00, SD=1.34). In relation to reading posts and publishing blogs in Evernote, again the students had a negative impression of this suggesting that it was slightly difficult to enroll in Evernote M=4.73, SD=1.49) despite the step by step guide offered to them. They also found it slightly difficult to use (M=4.82, SD=1.33) and found it difficult to find the lecturers responses (M=5.00, SD=1.61). The fourth section asks the students about their feelings towards Evernote blogging and then continued to ask about other social media concepts for engagement with their lecturers. Students were able to give more than one response for this answer Table 5 Social Media Concepts for Engagement Moodle Online Forums Skype Blogging Facebook Twitter SMS Participants 45% 0% 0% 0% 0% 90% There were five responses (45%) to using the Moodle online forums with the majority of students (90%, n=10/11) advising that engagement by the lecturers was best through SMS contact. Two students advised that they liked to be contacted by SMS and then would look immediately at the online forum site if requested to. Of the questions have your blogging habits changed since the use of Evernote and would you blog again in another course, all the respondents (100%) answered no with 27% (n=3) advising that they did not enjoy the experience and would not like to use blogging again within another course. Discussion CQUniversitys ten year strategic plan states: CQUniversity will attract and retain more students, helping them to achieve their educational goals regardless of their cultural and family background or their country of origin. We will offer a range of ways for students to access higher education and reach their educational potential. We will provide a stimulating environment that promotes and supports learner engagement utilizing appropriate technology and infrastructure (CQUniversity 2012). Despite limited research into the efficacy of social network technology in paramedic education, this pilot study has identified that to achieve the strategic goals of the university and in particular utilizing appropriate technology, students in this program have identified SMS as an engaging way of helping them achieve their goals. Paulus et al. (2009) identified that new technologies assists teaching and learning methods by providing a way of not stagnating the education of students through traditional methods and now supports the students construction of new knowledge. It has also been identified in the literature that academics need to keep abreast of the technological changes and the needs of the current generation of students. There is the potential for a division between students and faculty if they are struggling with new technology (Liu 2010). Liu (2010) also identified that through the Horizon Report 2009 several challenges had arisen and one of them is the growing gap in t echnology use between students and faculty even though technology use in academia is becoming more and more popular (p. 102). Additionally it has been identified in literature that blogging or journaling is an effective strategy to improve the education of students (Wetmore et al. 2010) where educators in various health and medical related programs have implemented blogs and reported benefits for student success when interacting with blogging exercises and activities (p.1339). Within this pilot study it was clearly identified by all students non-dependant of age or gender that blogging was not a preferred method of engagement with the lecturers with the preference being SMS in combination with online forums, despite previous evidence suggesting students do not engage with online Moodle forums. This is despite overwhelming evidence identified in the paper published by Ladyshewsky and Gardner (2008) where they stated that there is a growing body of literature to support the use of web based discussions to form student centred learning. They also identified that students come literately prepared for university through their knowledge of email, SMS and handheld devices including iPad (Ladyshewsky and Gardner 2008). In an online article by Becka(2012) it was identified that Recent research into how students use mobile devices has highlighted how frequently they access SMS and therefore this aspect is crucial to ensuring we engage effectively with them at key times and about key issues. In another article it was clearly identified SMS was the best technology used to support learning through engaging students in formative assessment objective questions with feedback, as well as SMS-based collaborative learning tasks (Brett 2011). Evidence that students within the Bachelor of Paramedic Science program at CQUniversity have engaged with lecturers through SMS is evident in the course evaluation surveys completed at the end of every term. During term one 2011 the course evaluation response was 78% with a rating of 4 out of a maximum score of 5 for the course, this was improved in term three 2011 with an 89% response rate and a score of 4.1/5 for the evaluation. Finally for term one 2012 the response ra te was 97% with an overall satisfaction rating of 4.7/5. Limitations and Recommendations The respondents to this survey were not randomly selected but were enrolled in the paramedic specific course and provided with the opportunity to trial the Evernote system as part of this course. The relatively small number of students available in this pilot study and the number of responses made it difficult to apply some statistical tests. Although the results here were overwhelming against blogging with support of SMS social concept for engagement and also online forums through the existing Moodle LMS, future research should utilise a larger sample across all years and courses of the paramedic program in order to enable a more accurate analysis and more precise calculations. Although the results of the survey indicated that students overwhelmingly preferred the use of SMS, given the technical constraints on the number of characters in an SMS, it does have limitations as a tool for reflection. The educational motivation towards student engagement is high on the agenda of tertiary institutions and this study is one representation of how social media concepts can improve this engagement. Future research with a qualitative component would enable effective evaluation of students thoughts on social concepts for engagement. With the availability of diverse and large amounts of technology, tertiary institutions should be looking at areas of social concepts for engagement and interaction which are easily accessible, are user friendly and usable by all students. In other words hardware and software that is in line with the next generation of students is recommended. A schematic of how future SMS integration into teaching and learning is shown in the chart below. Ask questions related to lectures through SMS 1 2 STUDENT LECTURER 3 Students notified of questions in LMS via SMS 2 1 4 Answers provided in online forum 3 PROVIDE CONTINUOUS FEEDBACK And summarise findings into Moodle LMS Conclusion This study has provided a picture of student engagement techniques which are of value and enjoyment for baccalaureate students. Findings indicate a clear association between SMS and online Moodle forums on improving student engagement with these techniques being both valued and enjoyed by students. This engagement will allow academics to further explore perceptions of students within their courses and value of the course content through the SMS and forums. Interactivity and active participation seems to lead to a new learning and teaching behaviour. By using modern technologies, students knowledge and engagement in course material can be implemented even to large lecture rooms. Sharing and collaborating different pieces of content as well as communication over different channels allows rethinking didactical approaches. Both students and academic staff will report a great potential for engaging with large class sizes. Conflicts of Interest None Ethical Approval Ethic approval was gained through CQUniversitys Human Ethics Committee