Globalization and the cultural impact on distance education.

With the delivery of distance (or flexible) learning in today's society, the changing roles of both the teacher and the learner need to be seriously considered. This is particularly relevant with the use of new technologies to deliver courses in locations with entirely different cultural and academic traditions. International education of this kind currently faces difficulties in facilitating cross-cultural learning.

Activity-based cost analysis: a method of analyzing the financial and operating performance of academic radiology departments.

Purpose: To develop a methodology for an activity-based cost (ABC) analysis in an academic radiology department, to test the hypothesis that the business of academic radiology can be separated into three distinct businesses-clinical activity, teaching, and research-and to determine the effect of the current teaching paradigm on clinical productivity.

Materials And Methods: Forty-seven key departmental activities were defined and distributed among the teaching, research, and clinical businesses. Individual radiologists determined the time spent in each of these activities by completing a detailed log of every activity performed during 2 weeks.