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Given the large production of video games in Quebec, the province has been able to develop an exceptional context of research partnerships between video game companies and university laboratories, each of which has developed an expertise specific to their field. In this article, the following question will first be asked: what kind of research is carried out in companies? The objective is not to make a systematic survey of the various forms of research carried out within all companies located in Quebec, but rather to identify the main realities experienced in gaming companies in order to answer a second question: what kind of research is not carried out those companies? The answer will be used to illustrate possible partnerships with researchers interested in gaming practices and in gaming communities, a research theme that is not often addressed by companies. Among the university gaming laboratories in Montreal, the example of the laboratory of the Université du Québec à Montréal will be briefly presented in order to situate researches that explicitly aims to understand identification, communication and social dynamics of gaming communities. The article concludes with an exposition of some of the future perspectives of research in this field, mainly related to the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Keywords: Laboratoire de recherche, industrie vidéoludique, partenariats, test utilisateur, analytique du jeu, Research laboratory, videogame industry, partnerships, user testing, game analytics, game practices

Objective – The primary purpose of this study was to better understand the nature of “reference” and reference transactions. Methods – This study looked at four years’ of reference transaction (RT) data recorded at a small, state-owned university. Results – The data clearly indicates that the overall number of RT continues to decline. It also reveals that, despite the use of student mentors, librarians are still involved with a majority of RT, regardless of whether or not they require the expertise of a librarian to resolve. Conclusion – Continuing to be involved with RT which do not require the knowledge or training of a librarian (e.g., directional) can have a diminutive effect on the perceived role, work, and value of librarians. As such, it is suggested that these sorts of questions be addressed by student mentors or staff members. In turn, this will allow librarians to focus on those questions and activities which do require their unique knowledge and skills. Along similar lines, it is also suggested that librarians explore and identify new, non-traditional ways of applying their expertise to student success initiatives and the overall academic life of the institution. With the merger of three libraries, data from this study has been and continues to be used to make informed decisions about the provision of reference services in a new, integrated library environment.

Keywords: Reference, Reference Transactions, Reference Services, Academic Librarians, Reference Librarians, Statistics, roles

This article explores the practice of critically and lovingly manifesting access in syllabus construction and examines how axes of oppression shape our classrooms via the syllabus. We are a collective of multi-racial queer and trans disabled academics writing from our personal experiences and our engagements with performance studies and Disability Justice. We argue that the academy must shift from discussions of accommodations to access, surface questions of Disability Justice and teaching labour in graduate school and higher education at large, and offer a series of questions for teachers to examine their approach to disability in their classrooms.

The market-based imperatives driving economic growth in Western societies have, in ways, both been acknowledged and implicitly used to reorient public institutions - academia dramatically so. This article deals with upending of post-secondary academic hiring priorities, and the impact on the adjunct or sessional lecturers implicated in the change. Over half of the courses offered by academic departments and programs in Ontario, Canada, are now taught by part-time faculty members (Pasma & Shakes, 2018). Their use in post-secondary education is underpinned by a notion of just-in-time course delivery in a free market of untenured PhD holders. This study assessed 26 adjuncts in Ontario, Canada, equally divided between male and female. It found working conditions, development of research dossiers, and health and work-life balance to be characterized by gendered differences and hardships. Although the hardships of post-PhD adjunct work have been abundantly documented, this work brings to light components of the experience that have not been previously studied, most significantly, its health effects and gender nature. It concludes with policy recommendations to support adjuncts in Ontario and beyond, including mentorship, longer term contracts, institutional research funding, extended health benefits, and affordable childcare.

Keywords: adjunct, sessional instructor, Canada, post secondary, gender

Collaborative problem solving is a very important skill for pre-service teachers. Indeed, they will be called upon to solve problems daily basis and to collaborate with other members of the school team or with their students. However, the collaborative problem-solving skill remains very little documented in the research. To contribute to the understanding of this skill, we will analyze it from a new angle, that of transformative agency, and in a context of educational robotics. We mobilize activity theory as a theoretical framework and analyze a pedagogical robotics activity involving a team of four pre-service primary teachers in collaborative problem solving. The results of our analyses highlight the presence of five of the six types of transformative agency expressions. They also highlight that the collaborative problem solving in this educational robotics activity was strongly marked by conflictual situations at the individual and collective levels.

Keywords: agentivité transformatrice, transformative agency, résolution collaborative de problèmes, collaborative problem solving, robotique pédagogique, educational robotics, competency-based education, approche par compétences, assessment, évaluation

Introduction: Although the CanMEDS framework sets the standard for Canadian training, health advocacy competence does not appear to factor heavily into high stakes assessment decisions. Without forces motivating uptake, there is little movement by educational programs to integrate robust advocacy teaching and assessment practices. However, by adopting CanMEDS, the Canadian medical education community endorses that advocacy is required for competent medical practice. It’s time to back up that endorsement with meaningful action. Our purpose was to aid this work by answering the key questions that continue to challenge training for this intrinsic physician role. Methods: We used a critical review methodology to both examine literature relevant to the complexities impeding robust advocacy assessment, and develop recommendations. Our review moved iteratively through five phases: focusing the question, searching the literature, appraising and selecting sources, and analyzing results. Results: Improving advocacy training relies, in part, on the medical education community developing a shared vision of the Health Advocate (HA) role, designing, implementing, and integrating developmentally appropriate curricula, and considering ethical implications of assessing a role that may be risky to enact. Conclusion: Changes to assessment could be a key driver of curricular change for the HA role, provided implementation timelines and resources are sufficient to make necessary changes meaningful. To truly be meaningful, however, advocacy first needs to be perceived as valuable. Our recommendations are intended as a roadmap for transforming advocacy from a theoretical and aspirational value into one viewed as having both practical relevance and consequential implications.

This scoping review aims to map the existing conceptualization of gender in peer-reviewed gambling scholarship to locate areas of future inquiry for a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between gender and gambling. It follows Arksey and O'Malley's (2005) framework for scoping reviews, updated by Levac et al. (2010) and Daudt et al. (2013). We located the relevant literature published between 2000-2020 by searching through eight academic databases using Boolean operators and various key search terms, yielding 31,533 results. After a thorough screening based on inclusion/exclusion criteria and excluding duplicates, we located 2,532 journal publications that addressed gender and gambling. Among them, 53.4% used gender as a descriptive demographic variable, 44.3% explored the comparative analysis between men’s and women's gambling behaviors, preferences, and risks, and only 2.3% focused on gender from a socio-cultural perspective. When articles mentioned gender, we found that it was primarily considered a descriptive demographic variable and an indicator of comparative analysis between men and women. Furthermore, the few articles that discussed the socio-cultural aspects of gender were mainly limited to a binary construction of gender. This scoping review concluded that there is a scarcity of socio-cultural studies of gender in gambling scholarship, indicating the need to expand socio-cultural analysis in research on gender and gambling.

Keywords: gambling, gender, scoping review, sex

This paper is a participative evaluation of the implementation and governance process of a pilot project in food security by the Laboratoire d’agriculture urbaine et de proximité (Labor-AT) (an urban agriculture laboratory), that is active in the Abitibi MRC (regional county municipality), in Quebec, Canada. Evaluation tools were tested, such as “Faire le point sur les conditions de succès du projet” by the Institut national de santé publique du Québec and an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). The main findings reveal the time required to develop a common vocabulary and to define a goal and common objectives that allow organizations to actively get involved in collective interests. The complementary strengths of the project coordination committee, the partnerships and the collaboration with various organizations to reach citizens, as well as the support of the local public health professionals, allow to efficiently govern the project. To achieve this, it is essential to identify clear communication channels in a multiple actors context. In conclusion, this participative evaluation process allowed to identify apprenticeships and conditions for success, in a community development perspective.

Keywords: Process evaluation, Évaluation du processus, participative evaluation, démarche participative, gouvernance, governance, food security, sécurité alimentaire, SWOT analysis, analyse FFOM

Objective – Evidence from systematic reviews a decade ago suggested that face-to-face and online methods to provide information literacy training in universities were equally effective in terms of skills learnt, but there was a lack of robust comparative research. The objectives of this review were (1) to update these findings with the inclusion of more recent primary research; (2) to further enhance the summary of existing evidence by including studies of blended formats (with components of both online and face-to-face teaching) compared to single format education; and (3) to explore student views on the various formats employed. Methods – Authors searched seven databases along with a range of supplementary search methods to identify comparative research studies, dated January 1995 to October 2016, exploring skill outcomes for students enrolled in higher education programs. There were 33 studies included, of which 19 also contained comparative data on student views. Where feasible, meta-analyses were carried out to provide summary estimates of skills development and a thematic analysis was completed to identify student views across the different formats. Results – A large majority of studies (27 of 33; 82%) found no statistically significant difference between formats in skills outcomes for students. Of 13 studies that could be included in a meta-analysis, the standardized mean difference (SMD) between skill test results for face-to-face versus online formats was -0.01 (95% confidence interval -0.28 to 0.26). Of ten studies comparing blended to single delivery format, seven (70%) found no statistically significant difference between formats, and the remaining studies had mixed outcomes. From the limited evidence available across all studies, there is a potential dichotomy between outcomes measured via skill test and assignment (course work) which is worthy of further investigation. The thematic analysis of student views found no preference in relation to format on a range of measures in 14 of 19 studies (74%). The remainder identified that students perceived advantages and disadvantages for each format but had no overall preference. Conclusions – There is compelling evidence that information literacy training is effective and well received across a range of delivery formats. Further research looking at blended versus single format methods, and the time implications for each, as well as comparing assignment to skill test outcomes would be valuable. Future studies should adopt a methodologically robust design (such as the randomized controlled trial) with a large student population and validated outcome measures.

Keywords: information literacy, systematic review, online training, higher education

Over the last decades, rigorous research has been carried out concerning the most appropriate leadership style of school principals and the two basic conceptual models of transformational and instructional leadership. However, the practices and behaviours of principals as they affect the successful implementation of cross-thematic integration have not been sufficiently explored. This article examines the relationship between the factors’ “transformational leadership” and “instructional leadership” for enhancing cross-thematic teaching. Quantitative empirical research was conducted on a sample of 251 principals of Greek primary schools. The results reveal a positive and statistically significant relationship between the two main factors of this study.

Keywords: school leadership, leadership à l’école, leadership transformationnel, transformational leadership, éducation physique, physical education, cross-thematic teaching, enseignement multithématique, structural equation modelling (SEM), modélisation d’équations structurelles, Greece, Grèce