Small group size promotes more egalitarian societies as modeled by the hawk-dove game.

The social organization of groups varies greatly across primate species, ranging from egalitarian to despotic. Moreover, the typical or average size of groups varies greatly across primate species. Yet we know little about how group size affects social organization across primate species. Here we used the hawk-dove game (HDG) to model the evolution of social organization as a function of maximum group size and used the evolved frequency of hawks as a measure of egalitarian/despotism in societies. That is, the lower the frequency of hawks, the more egalitarian a society is, and the higher the frequency of hawks, the more despotic it is. To do this, we built an agent-based model in which agents live in groups and play the HDG with fellow group members to obtain resources to reproduce offspring. Offspring inherit the strategy of their parent (hawk or dove) with a low mutation rate. When groups reach a specified maximum size, they are randomly divided into two groups. We show that the evolved frequency of hawks is dramatically lower for relatively small maximum group sizes than predicted analytically for the HDG. We discuss the relevance of group size for understanding and modeling primate social systems, including the transition from hunter-gather societies to agricultural societies of the Neolithic era. We conclude that group size should be included in our theoretical understanding of the organization of primate social systems.

Two-Tier Instant-Feedback Assessment Strategy for Improvement of Student Concentration.

In this study, a two-tier instant-feedback assessment model was constructed using the Zuvio instant-feedback system and oral questions; this model was applied to conduct formative assessments for an introductory computer course. We adopted a one-group pretest-posttest approach with 52 first-year nursing students. The course ran for 6 weeks with two classes per week. The course content of mBlock language and the educational robotic kit mbot was introduced in the first 2 weeks. From the third to the sixth week, the two-tier instant assessment strategy was added. At the end of the teaching experiment, surveys on concentration and course satisfaction were administered. Our results were as follows: (1) two-tier instant-feedback assessment can enhance student concentration, as the results showed that students' concentration improved; (2) in the subscale, the "competitive selection" dimension reached a significant difference; and (3), the students held positive views toward the incorporation of two-tier instant-feedback assessment into the course.

Application of a Blended Assessment Strategy to Enhance Student Interest and Effectiveness in Learning: Case Study With Information Security Literacy.

In the Internet era, information security literacy is a global imperative for nursing students. This study combined an audience response system and an online system to formulate an assessment strategy based on the concept of blended learning. The participants of this study comprised two college nursing classes of an introductory computer science course in Taiwan. With information security as the teaching content, we adopted a quasi-experimental approach to conduct a 5-week teaching experiment. A blended assessment model was adopted for the experiment group, while slide presentation and verbal assessment were used for the control group. Pretests and posttests were administered for information security literacy and learning environment stimulation. The study results indicate the following: (1) the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group in information security literacy, with statistically significant differences in scores regarding information security knowledge and information security skills; (2) the experimental group also presented higher learning motivation than the control group, with statistically significant differences in scores regarding self-efficacy, achievement goals, and learning environment stimulation.

Using Quick Response Codes to Increase Students' Participation in Case-Based Learning Courses.

The purpose of this study was to use Quick Response codes to increase engagement in a case-based learning course. A quasi-experiment was conducted, and 103 students enrolled in a pharmacology course participated. The students were divided into high-, medium-, and low-scoring groups, based on their previous semester grades in the pharmacology course. A Chinese-version questionnaire of the Nursing Students' Attitude Toward Quick Response Codes in Case-Based Learning Scale was used. The major findings were as follows: (1) Most participants held positive attitudes toward the use of Quick Response codes in case-based learning courses. It was suggested that participants perceived the use of Quick Response codes to be easy and useful in learning activities. They also demonstrated positive attitudes toward the Quick Response codes and expressed their intention to use this application in the future. (2) After applying Quick Response codes in classroom teaching, students performed better in asking questions and discussions than they did before. The performance of the medium-level students improved significantly.

The Use of Quick Response Codes for Teaching Pharmacology to College Nursing Students in Taiwan.

The major goal of this study was to explore students' viewpoint toward the use of quick response codes in the pharmacology course in Taiwan. A total of 102 students were invited and agreed to take part in this project. The results indicated that a majority of students considered quick response codes easy to use and helpful with learning in a pharmacology course.

Evaluating the effect of a clicker in an information literacy course for college nursing students in Taiwan.

In this technology era, information literacy is a global imperative. This is true for nursing students as well because they will have to help patients through operating computerized equipment. The key foundation of learning is concentration. The primary objectiveof this research was to explore the effect of clickers on nursing college students' concentration. The research involved 51 student volunteers and was quasi-experimental, with both a pretest and a posttest design. Student concentration was measured by using Student Concentration Scale in a Classroom-Learning Environment. The results showed that students' learning concentration improved, an outcome that could support integrating clickers into classroom teaching activities, and students' concentration level was better after clickers were used in the teaching process as a whole. Items under the "Concentration Capacity and Concentration Consciousness" category reached a significant level. Based on the analysis of the results, suggestions have been made for teaching and future research.

Using social network analysis to sketch the patterns of interaction among nursing students in a blog community.

Web logs, or blogs have recently raised interest in the educational and research arena. However, the analysis of participants' behavioral patterns remains absent. The aim of this study was to use social network analysis to draw the patterns of 48 junior college nursing students' peer interactions in a blog community in Taiwan. The results showed that the density of interactions were different in terms of the participants with different grade-point-average background. The more active students in the blog community dominated discourse interaction. Nursing students with higher grade point average interacted mainly within their respective groups. The social network analysis helped to provide information on patterns of nursing students' interaction culture within a blog community.

The nursing students' attitude toward using blogs in a nursing clinical practicum in Taiwan: a 3-R framework.

BACKGROUND: Some nursing educators have been using blogs as a channel to reflect on, share, and discuss questions and ideas for educational purpose. There were not many studies focused on the application of blog technology to the professional development of nursing education in Taiwan. OBJECTIVES: The major goal of this study was to use a blog platform for students, writing their reflection notes, and observing the feedbacks from peers during their clinical practicum. Then we tried to probe the nursing students' attitude toward adopting 3-R categories based blog, which included wRiting reflection notes, Reading peers' notes, and Receiving peers' feedback. PARTICIPANTS: Of the 179 fourth grade from one five-year technical college students enrolled in a clinical practice course in Taiwan were used as a pool of sampling. Four-eight students were invited by the researcher to take part in this project. RESULTS: 90% of the participants agreed that blogs provided them with opportunities to share personal experiences with others. 81% of them valued that blogs provided opportunities to offering encouragement and emotional support to their peers. A majority of the participants believed that reading peers' journals was helpful in enhancing their professional development. In addition, all of them agreed that reading peers' journals can help them understand their peer's viewpoints. Most of the participants agreed that they were benefited through receiving feedbacks on the blogs. About 98% of them agreed that feedbacks can promote interaction with peers. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study generally indicated the participants' positive attitude toward using blogs in their clinical practicum. A majority of the participants also claimed that blogs provided them the opportunities to share personal experiences with their peers as well as to see things from their peers' viewpoints. They believed that reading peers' notes was helpful in enhancing their professional development. In addition, most of them agreed that receiving feedbacks could promote in-depth reflections; therefore, they were encouraged to write more reflective notes. Thus, future clinical practicum design should exert efforts to foster students' collaboration, reflections, and dialogues by providing blog platform.

Unfavourable environment limits social conflict in Yuhina brunneiceps.

Identifying the factors that modulate cooperative and competitive behaviours is the key to understanding social evolution. However, how ecological factors affect social conflict and their fitness consequences remain relatively unexplored. Here, using both a game-theoretical model and empirical data, we show that Taiwan yuhinas (Yuhina brunneiceps)--a joint-nesting species in which group members are unrelated--employ more cooperative strategies in unfavourable environmental conditions. Fighting duration was lower, fewer total eggs were laid and incubation was more likely to start after all females completed egg laying (which causes more synchronous egg hatching). Surprisingly, as a consequence, there were more surviving offspring in unfavourable conditions because the cooperative strategies resulted in fewer dead nestlings. To our knowledge, this study is the first theoretical analysis and empirical study demonstrating that an unfavourable environment reduces social conflict and results in better fitness consequences in social vertebrates.