Browsing by Author "Northcote, Maria T."
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Publication A Health Check of Avondale's Distance Education Program: Where Have we Been? Where are we Going Next?(Avondale Academic Press, 2018-11-01) Bolton, David; Christian, Beverly; Kilgour, Peter W.; Northcote, Maria T.; Hinze, JasonAvondale College of Higher Education has been offering tertiary courses for over 120 years. In the past two decades, this institution has extended its programs to include distance courses for students who opt to study online or are not able to attend on-campus courses at Avondale’s Lake Macquarie and Sydney campuses. While all of the institutions courses are evaluated on a regular basis, no formal evaluation had ever been undertaken of the distance education program as a whole. During 2017, a mixed methods research project was conducted to gather evaluative data from recent and current distance students using questionnaires and focus groups. The results of the study provide insight into the extent to which the distance education program at the College provides a space in which learning relationships can develop in online communities. Also, suggestions for future improvement and further research recommendations are provided. Findings of this study may be of interest to educators and administrators who incorporate online components in their curricula.
Item A Mixed Methods Evaluation of an Electronic Reminder System for Reducing Urinary Catheter Use in Australian Hospital(2018-11-01) Northcote, Maria T.; Rosebrock, Hannah; Russo, Philip L.; Fasugba, Oyebola; Cheng, Allen; Mitchell, Brett G.Introduction: An important risk-factor for catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) is prolonged catheterisation. This study examined the efficacy of an electronic reminder system to reduce catheterisation duration and its effect on nurses’ ability to deliver patient care.
Methods: A stepped-wedge randomised controlled design, in addition to a survey and focus groups were undertaken. The intervention was the use of the CATH TAG, an electronic tag placed on the catheter bag, which prompted a review of ongoing catheterisation. The study was conducted in an Australian hospital, over 24 weeks. Primary outcomes were mean catheter duration and perceptions of nurses about ease of use. A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used, duration was the outcome variable. Patients who were transferred between wards with catheters were censored. The intervention was treated as a time varying covariate.
Results: 1167 patients participated in the study. The duration of catheterisation was slightly lower in patients where the CATH TAG was used (mean 5.1 vs 5.5 days, HR 1.02 95% CI: 0.91, 1.14, p=0.75). Excluding the patients transferred between wards, mean catheterisation duration was 5.5 vs 4.2 days, IRR 0.78 (22% reduction), p=0.15. Data gathered from the focus group and the online survey for nurses, indicated positive response.
Conclusion: A clinically important reduction in catheter duration for a sub-group of patients was identified. The short duration of this study may have impeded the ability to change catheter practice and hence duration in the short term.
Item A Model for Online Unit Development: Necessity, the Catalyst for Invention(2001-06-01) Fetherston, Tony; Northcote, Maria T.Theoretical frameworks and practical processes driving online course development in tertiary institutions are currently under pressure, scrutiny and review and online courses are increasingly seen as an answer to these problems. Useable procedures, guidelines and tools are required to achieve the development of suitable courses. The new model for online unit development presented in this paper was developed by considering processes implemented in the fields of multimedia production, project management and distance education. Based on four main phases, the model recognises the centrality of issues such as course planning, media development and evaluation. As well as being suitable for a range of educational contexts, the model appears to be well suited to different cultural settings, particularly those involving Indigenous staff. Based on a semi-cyclic process, the model recognises the significance of tight timeframes, useable tools and supportive resources, and identifies the responsibilities of the major players in the development process.
Item A Model of Collaborative Rubric Construction: Lecturers and Students Learning in Partnership(2019-07-01) Seddon, Jack; Jackson, Wendy; Rickett, Carolyn; Kilgour, Peter W.; Christian, Beverly; Northcote, Maria T.BACKGROUND/CONTEXT
Traditionally, decisions about assessment processes in higher education have been the domain of the lecturer or the course designer. However, university educators have been challenged to partner with students in the early stages of assessment design (Boud & Molloy, 2013). By engaging students in a collaborative process with their university teachers to prepare and create assessment guidelines and rubrics, there is a greater potential for students to take ownership of and be accountable for their own learning.
THE INITIATIVE/PRACTICE
The aim of the research project was to investigate the innovative and collaborative use of assessment rubrics, in partnership between students and academic staff, in order to develop a model of collaborative rubric practice for application in higher education contexts which includes guidelines on rubric co-construction processes that engage both students and teachers.
The project was conducted across six cohorts of undergraduate students in three higher education institutions and their teachers from five different disciplines and degree levels. The varied contexts provided a range of settings, each of which represented multiple cases to explore across multiple sites.
METHOD(S) OF EVALUATIVE DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
The project approach adopted a four-phase, mixed-method design across a two-year period, which included a systematic literature review, use of the Delphi technique and multi-site case studies. Students and teachers provided feedback about rubric co-construction processes via questionnaires, interviews and focus groups.
ISSUES REGARDING RUBRIC CO-CONSTRUCTION
The teaching-learning partnership established by the rubric co-construction initiative may present some challenges and changes to traditional assessment processes, especially in relation to issues such as pre-semester planning of course documentation, sharing the responsibility of assessment design between teachers and students and negotiating with groups of students about assessment and rubric design. Because rubric co-construction does represent a change in the way assessment rubrics are typically designed, the practical ramifications of this collaborative example of curriculum design may introduce institutional challenges that need consideration. However, the initiative also presents opportunities for developing a shared understanding by teachers and students about the purpose of assessment and the quality of learning in higher education.
INTENDED OUTCOME
By the end of this Showcase presentation, the participants will be familiar with a set of research-informed recommendations to engage students and academic staff in the collaborative process of designing and using assessment rubrics to promote learning. Participants will also be provided with details of how to access the project’s website, Owning the rubric, which includes the Model of Collaborative Rubric Construction and Use.
Item A New Approach to Unit Content: Using Interview Transcriptions in an Interactive Online Unit.(2001-02-01) Northcote, Maria T.; Czekalowski, Donna; Oakes, Carol; Stratton, GregAt Kurongkurl Katitjin, the School of Indigenous Australian Studies at Edith Cowan University, we have developed an online unit for pre-tertiary students which focuses on the processes of writing fictional text. The unit, ABB 1112: Journeys in Writing, is part of the Indigenous University Orientation Course and is delivered by using a combination of online, print and multimedia materials.
Rather than basing this unit on a more traditional modularised content structure that has been used successfully in much distance education material, this unit has used interview transcriptions as the foundation of its content. Two Aboriginal authors, Dallas Winmar (dramatist) and Graeme Dixon (poet), were selected to form the focus of this innovative unit. By examining the way in which these two authors go about the process of writing fictional text, students come to discover and understand first-hand the processes involved in writing.
Both authors were interviewed on audio and video tape. Transcriptions of these tapes were then recorded and categorised into various sections. This text then not only formed the content of the unit but also drove the entire manner in which the unit was presented to students. The learning and assessment activities of the unit were based around the transcripts and the whole structure of the unit reflected this content. Additionally, by collecting content anew, from authentic sources, the authors had a direct input into how their work was presented in this educational online context, one which is culturally appropriate as it allows Indigenous authors to connect with Indigenous students.
Rather than basing this unit on a set of predetermined concepts, we have attempted to use a more flexible, authentic method providing students with relevant, culturally sensitive material. This paper examines the methods used to collect "fresh" content and how this content was used to create an interactive, online unit which reflects appropriate Indigenous ways of learning, as well as the principles of social constructivism and situational cognition. The unit uses current online technology in an attempt to cater for the diversity of the Indigenous student population.
Item A Plan for the Co-Construction and Collaborative Use of Rubrics for Student Learning(2020-02-01) Kilgour, Andrew; Williams, Anthony; Northcote, Maria T.; Kilgour, Peter W.The use of assessment rubrics in the higher education sector is now widespread in a number of disciplines. Typically, these rubrics are constructed by teachers who also tend to be the main users of the rubrics throughout the grading process. In recent years, questions have been raised about this teacher-directed approach and some educators have begun to explore an alternate approach to rubric construction; that is, engaging students in collaboration with their teachers to co-construct assessment rubrics. This paper outlines the processes employed in a project that investigated the co-construction of rubrics within six different contexts. The project aimed to engage students in collaboration with their teachers to co-construct rubrics which are co-owned by teacher and student. A mixed methods approach was utilized to explore the effectiveness of the strategy. Questionnaires, interviews and focus groups were utilized to gather data from both the teacher-participants and student-participants regarding their experiences of being involved in the study. Findings are presented from the perspectives of both students and teachers, relating their views of rubrics and the activity of rubric co-construction. The paper concludes with recommendations for practical approaches to rubric co-construction and future research directions.
Item A Professional Learning Program for Novice Online Teachers Using Threshold Concepts(2019-12-01) McLoughlin, Catherine E.; Reynaud, Daniel; Kilgour, Peter W.; Gosselin, Kevin P.; Northcote, Maria T.The professional development of online teachers is now commonplace in higher education. Alongside the relatively straightforward decision to provide professional learning support for novice and experienced online educators within universities, decisions about the nature and content of such support are not always as clear cut. The study aimed to gather evidence about the online teaching and learning experiences and views of current students and staff which, in turn, informed a set of pedagogical guidelines that could be used as the basis of professional learning programs for novice online teachers. Using a mixed methods research design, data were gathered using questionnaires, reflective journals, and focus groups to determine the threshold concepts about online teaching and perceptions of ideal online learning environments. As well as identifying threshold concepts about online teaching and perceptions of teachers’ and students’ ideal views of online learning contexts (reported elsewhere), the study produced curricular guidelines to inform the design of professional development outputs for online teachers in higher education. This article reports on an example of how these professional development guidelines, based on identified threshold concepts of online pedagogy, were implemented at one higher education institution to provide wide-scale implementation of a professional development program for academic staff engaged in online teaching.
Item Accounting Academic Workloads in the Higher Education Sector: Balancing Workload Creep to Avoid Depreciation(2018-12-01) Williams, Anthony; Northcote, Maria T.; Long, Warrick R.; Barnes, LisaAccounting Academics according to the literature are subject to external influences such as preparing graduates for future workplaces, bridging the gap between industry and academia and development of pathways to becoming professional accountants for their student cohort. Add to this the internal influences of delivery methods for student engagement, work integrated learning and casualization of the workforce, the accounting academic is at capacity in terms of how these influences impact on workload. Using the “lived experience”, this research delves further into the academic themselves to find that they categorise their workload into four themes of Teaching, Research, Accounting academic administration and development of Curricula, deemed the TRAC Framework for this study. Using this workload TRAC framework, accounting academics identified five factors they believe will influence their future roles. These include growth in international students, that student success will be a shared responsibility, that student engagement will be critical, that curricula design will involve stakeholder input and that expectations around research will change. These additional impact factors when added to the already at capacity workload model for accounting academics, will create a type of workload creep. The workload impact factor (WIF) model is created for this research to demonstrate just how these additional factors will be absorbed by accounting academics, ballooning their workload. This workload creep can be described as an increase in academic wear and tear, almost like depreciation on capital assets, a recognition of a diminution in economic benefit or value. Accounting academics must be careful to balance their future workload so as to not become commercially obsolete.
Item Accounting Academic Workloads: Balancing Workload Creep to Avoid Depreciation in the Higher Education Sector(2020-06-27) Williams, Anthony; Northcote, Maria T.; Barnes, Lisa; Long, Warrick R.Accounting academics are subject to external influences such as preparing graduates for future workplaces, bridging the gap between industry and academia and development of pathways to becoming professional accountants. Add to this the internal influences of delivery methods for student engagement, work integrated learning and casualisation of the workforce, the accounting academic is at capacity in terms of how these influences impact on workload. Using the “lived experience”, this research delves into the academic themselves to find that they categorize their workload into four themes of Teaching, Research, Accounting academic workload and development of Curricula, deemed the TRAC Framework for this study. Using this workload TRAC framework, accounting academics identified five factors they believe will influence their future roles. These include growth in international students that student success will be a shared responsibility that student engagement will be critical, that curricula design will involve stakeholder input and that expectations around research will change. These additional impact factors when added to the already at capacity workload model for accounting academics, will create a type of workload creep. This workload creep can be described as an increase in academic wear and tear, almost like depreciation on capital assets.
Item Acknowledging the Affirmative: Evidence of Supervision Learning Thresholds in Thesis Acknowledgements(2021-07-08) Northcote, Maria T.Mantai and Dowling (2015) refer to the Acknowledgements pages of higher degree research (HDR) theses as “an under-utilised yet rich data source” (p. 106) and Hyland (2004) recognises the way in which thesis Acknowledgements have the potential to “reveal academic preferences” and “point to the processes of its [the thesis’] creation” (p. 305). Using a matrix analysis technique (Miles & Huberman, 2013; Patton, 2015), this study mines the Acknowledgements section of a sample of 120 Masters and Doctoral theses to investigate HDR graduates’ views of their postgraduate supervisors to augment our current understanding of the learning thresholds of HDR supervisors.
Based on the conference sub-theme of “Troublesome not tricky: not all that challenges is a threshold”, this paper considers the more constructive nuances of threshold concept theory in relation to the learning thresholds of postgraduate supervisors. Instead of furthering the discussion that threshold concepts have become synonymous with learner difficulty, the question posed is: What do the affirmative and joyous experiences of postgraduate supervision have to offer threshold concept theory associated with the pedagogy of supervision? This study layers the viewpoints of HDR graduates’ positive experiences about supervision alongside some of the more negative experiences of supervisors that typically incorporate “darker themes”, “threats”, “ordeals” and “disorientation” (Carter, 2016, pp. 1139, 1145) as well as “barriers”, “power conflicts” and “tensions” (Ismail, Majid, & Ismail, 2013, pp. 165, 168).
This study’s findings do not discount the challenging aspects of HDR supervision, as represented in earlier research. Instead, an intertwined representation is offered of the challenging “living through” experiences of the HDR supervisor with the rosier “looking back” views from HDR candidates at the completion stage of their studies. A collection of light and dark learning thresholds, acquired by HDR supervisors while developing a pedagogy of supervision, is offered for consideration.
References
Carter, S. (2016). Supervision learning as conceptual threshold crossing: When supervision gets ‘medieval’. Higher Education Research & Development, 35(6), 1139-1152. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1160875
Carter, S., & Sterm, S. (2014). The hardest step is over the threshold: Supervision learning as threshold crossing. Paper presented at the 11th Biennial Quality in Postgraduate Research Conference, The National Wine Centre, Adelaide. http://www.qpr.edu.au/Proceedings/QPR_Proceedings_2014.pdf
Hyland, K. (2004). Graduates’ gratitude: the generic structure of dissertation acknowledgements. English for Specific Purposes, 23(3), 303-324. doi:doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(03)00051-6
Ismail, H. M., Majid, F. A., & Ismail, I. S. (2013). “It's complicated” relationship: Research students’ perspective on doctoral supervision. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 90, 165-170. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.07.078
Mantai, L., & Dowling, R. (2015). Supporting the PhD journey: Insights from acknowledgements. International Journal for Researcher Development, 6(2), 106-121.
Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (2013). Qualitative data analysis (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Publication An Evaluation of Teacher Stressors in an era of COVID-19: An Initial Analysis(Avondale Academic Press, 2021-11-01) Pearce, Kirsty; Morton, Jason K.; Northcote, Maria T.; Kilgour, Peter W.School lockdowns prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic has required teachers to work in a climate of rapid and significant adaptation. In this paper, which is part of a larger study, we provide a summary of the effects the COVID-19 school lockdowns in 2020 had on teacher stress. The paper outlines firstly the specific teacher stressors that existed before 2020 as well as the additional stressors that became apparent during and since the COVID-19 pandemic, as identified in scholarly literature. Secondly, the paper provides a brief overview of the responses from teachers in the 48 schools within Adventist Schools Australia (ASA) to an online survey designed to explore their workplace stressors surrounding the school lockdowns in 2020. Overall, there was a general increase in workplace stress during the COVID-19 school lockdowns, but it was not the degree that has been reported in previous literature.
Item Are They Ready? Accounting Academics' Perspectives of the Preparedness of New Student Cohorts(2018-06-01) Northcote, Maria T.; Williams, Anthony; Barnes, Lisa; Long, Warrick R.The research reported here has as its central question of how do Australian accounting academics perceive the preparedness of students to study accounting at university. The research looks at how well prepared new cohorts of accountancy students are to engage. The research found that accounting academics identified four success factors required for students to study accounting at first year university level, identifying those needing to be addressed prior to beginning study, and others within the course of study itself. These four success factors included the ability to participate in the course with an apropos level of English language proficiency, to commence with a certain level of assumed knowledge which is then further extended, to develop and utilise higher order thinking skills, and finally to effectively communicate thoughts and ideas through written and verbal means.
The findings, of the study reported here, provide insight into what students need as preparation to study accounting at university, using the Success Factor Timeline (SFT). The SFT bring together disparate concepts into one framework for consideration of student selection procedures and course design. It also provides appropriate scaffolding for first year students to better enable them for success, based on attributes they need to possess before commencing university studies, and attributes they can learn whilst at university.
Item Assessment Online: New Horizons and Blue Skies(2003-01-01) Northcote, Maria T.; McLoughlin, CatherineThe use of the WWW in tertiary learning environments offers greater adaptability and flexibility than traditional assessment procedures as it enables the planning and design of tasks that monitor both learning processes and learning outcomes. This paper proposes that the move towards alternative assessment paradigms has been accelerated by technology with its capacity to offer learners a broad array of activities, tasks and forums for engaging in constructivist learning. It is anticipated that the benefits of online assessment will far outweigh its drawbacks and become accepted practice for both online and offline learners.
Item At the Troublesome Edge of Recognising Threshold Concepts of Online Teaching: A Proposed Learning Threshold Identification Methodology(2020-01-01) Boddey, Kerrie; Boddey, Chris; McLoughlin, Catherine E.; Kilgour, Peter W.; Gosselin, Kevin P.; Northcote, Maria T.This chapter presents a proposed methodology for identifying threshold concepts within the context of professional development and online teaching. The chapter may be of particular interest to those responsible for designing professional development for online teachers in higher education contexts. Furthermore, scholars of the Threshold Concepts Framework may find the methodology outlined in this chapter to be useful when identifying threshold concepts in other disciplinary or professional contexts, especially for the purposes of curriculum design.
Item Australian Studies of Video Conference and Video-assisted Instrumental Music Teaching: What Have we Learned?(2018-01-01) Northcote, Maria T.; Anderson, AlanTechnological advances in digital video and videoconference technology around the early 2000s led a number of researchers to investigate the practicalities of using videoconferencing technology for instrumental music teaching in online and blended learning contexts. Technical and instructional strategies were developed and recommendations made concerning the use of desktop video and videoconferencing technology for instrumental music teaching. As a first step in examining the take up and refinement of such strategies and the extent to which research and practice in this field has advanced, this article presents a review of music education literature in conjunction with educational technology literature, with a particular focus on school and tertiary education settings in Australia. Past and present themes are compared in addressing the question: How are desktop video and videoconference-mediated instrumental music teaching strategies being integrated in school and tertiary education settings in Australia?Technological and pedagogical developments are identified along with remaining challenges. Recommendations are made for further research and development of new models for using videoconferencing and video technologies in conjunction with other learning technologies. These recommendations have implications for on-campus and online education in the context of schools and tertiary colleges.
Item Bumpy Moments and Joyful Breakthroughs: The Place of Threshold Concepts in Academic Staff Development Programs About Online Learning and Teaching(2011-12-01) Gosselin, Kevin P.; Martin, Tony; Beamish, Peter; Reynaud, Daniel; Northcote, Maria T.In this article the authors address the situation in higher education of academic staff facing what they conceptualise as “bumpy moments and joyful breakthroughs” as they work through the process of becoming teachers in online learning environments. The article comes from a research project, which gathered and analysed data from systematic observations and questionnaires. The authors base their study on the known fact that while many academics have grounded experience in on-campus teaching and learning situations they do not necessarily have the skills required today for extending learning through on-line environments. The authors discover that when academics start teaching in online environments, or at least start facing the fact that there are requirements to do so, and they begin to explore this environment both personally and theoretically, “they encounter threshold concepts that can unsettle their most deeply held personal and pedagogical beliefs about what it means to teach and learn, and what it means to be an effective teacher and learner”. This paper gives an account of the research into these new conditions for educators and offers a set of recommendations “to inform the design of a multi-strategy academic staff learning program, which facilitated the development of online teaching skills”. [From Introduction to issue of ACCESS].
Item Cactus: Teaching Strategies(1998-01-01) Hyde, Hartley; Northcote, Maria T.This paper provides a review of a CD-ROM product designed for both experienced and inexperienced primary and secondary mathematics teachers called Investigating teaching strategies in mathematics classrooms by Tony Herrington, Len Sparrow, Jan Herrington and Ron Oliver.
Item Communication Skills for Online Students: An Evaluation of a Website(2001-02-01) Kendle, Amanda; Northcote, Maria T.During the year 2000 two instructional designers combined their efforts and skills to create a website which gives students and educators a way to find out about and practise online communication skills, specifically email, bulletin boards, online forms and online chat. With the growth of online courses, information databases and Internet based administration, online communication is more important than ever before. A person's ability to communicate online often influences their ability to succeed in business, academia and employment.
The principles of online instructional design upon which the "Communication Skills for Online Students" website was based aim to support and promote a constructivist learning environment. Specific attention was given to situated cognition in that the examples upon which the site is built are truly authentic, taken from real life situations. Furthermore, the activities integrated throughout the site guide students through and immerse them in authentic online contexts such as public bulletin boards, synchronous chat rooms and active online forms.
The website's design purposely incorporated a variety of evaluative tools. Online forms were provided for users to submit both quantitative and qualitative evaluation data. Incidental and contextual links were provided to direct users to these evaluation tools throughout the site. Furthermore, one of the learning activities within the site requires users to contact the authors with comments and questions about how they were able to use this online resource.
This website has been in operation since September 2000 and a range of data has been collected from three main groups of users: the general public, university students and university lecturers. The data has been analysed and the website has been evaluated by using several well known models of multimedia and web evaluation.
This paper examines the overall outcomes of the use of this website in terms of its initial objectives. It presents the methods used to collect and analyse the evaluation data gained from users of the site and identifies specific areas in which the site has been and can be improved in the future as a direct result of user feedback.
Item Community in Online Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities(2017-05-01) Northcote, Maria T.; Arasaratnam-Smith, Lily A.Exploring the challenges and opportunities associated with the concepts of community and communication in online higher education, this paper reconsiders the intention to replicate face-to-face learning and teaching strategies in online learning environments. Rather than beginning with the assumption that face-to-face education is the prototype for quality, the authors appraise the online learning environment as a unique medium which, by its nature, necessitates unique communication, community-building, teaching and learning strategies. This paper proposes an in-depth analysis of the potential unique affordances associated with online learning contexts as existing in their own right. The concepts of community and communication are explored in relation to online Communities of Practice (CoPs). The nature of face-to-face and online learning contexts are considered, especially in the light of the possibility of redefining “face-to-face” within the online realm, in addition to physical learning contexts. The paper identifies unique ways in which online communication (in the context of learning) is different from face-to-face communication, and consequently four ways in which this can be an advantage for students; namely, there is a measure of social egalitarianism, emphasis on verbal/written proficiency, time for reasoned response, and social agency. The paper provides grounding for further research into strategies that forge rich online learning experiences and suggests an empirical study as a next step.
Item Cross-Continental Research Collaborations about Online Teaching(2013-01-01) Northcote, Maria T.; Gosselin, Kevin P.Increasingly, faculty academics are required to teach and design online courses. However, in many cases, faculty members report having low levels of confidence, self-efficacy and competence to teach in online environments. Although their professional learning is often enhanced by institutional support strategies such as workshops, online instruction and mentoring systems, many faculty academics learn through “just-in-time” rather than “just-in-case” strategies.
This paper reports on the findings from a cross-continental research project between researchers in two higher education institutions in the United States and Australia. The project was initiated to: 1) determine the learning needs of faculty members who teach online and design online courses; and 2) to develop tailored professional learning programs and resources to enable faculty members to become effective online teachers and skilled online course designers.
As well as providing an account of the research findings to date, the paper provides recommendations for other researchers who may be considering cross-institutional or cross-continental research about online teaching, online course design and professional learning programs.