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WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF EXISTING MICRO HOME COMMUNITIES

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Aloha Micro Village – Portland, Oregon

Aloha Micro Village is located in Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood. It opened in 2021 and features 20 tiny homes ranging in size from 100-300 square feet. The village provides shelter and services for people experiencing homelessness. Residents live in the micro homes long term and have access to bathrooms, a community building, and support services on site. Rent is affordable at 30% of a resident’s income. The goal is to help residents transition to permanent housing. Aloha Village was built through a partnership between the nonprofit organization, The Village Coalition, and the city of Portland. It’s one of the first sanctioned tiny home villages in Portland.

Opportunity Village Eugene – Eugene, Oregon

Located in Eugene, Opportunity Village Eugene opened in 2019 and was the city’s first permitted tiny home village. It consists of 31 small homes ranging from 160-300 square feet in size located on 1.4 acres of land. The development was a partnership between the nonprofit SquareOne Villages and the city of Eugene. Residents pay an affordable rent of $300-500 per month and have access to shared amenities like a community building, laundry facilities, fresh water, and bathrooms. Support services are also provided on site to help residents transition out of homelessness. The community has been successful in providing long-term housing for vulnerable populations in Eugene.

Dignity Village – Portland, Oregon

Dignity Village is Portland’s longest running self-governed homeless community, opening in 2000. It consists of 30 small dwellings constructed by residents on over 2 acres of industrial land leased from the city. Home sizes range up to 600 square feet. Residents collaboratively decide guidelines and operate the village through an elected council and committees. A monthly rent of $35 is charged to contribute to utilities and upkeep. In addition to housing, the site includes a community center, gardening areas, and pet areas. Dignity Village pioneered the self-governed model for homeless communities and continues operating successfully today, demonstrating the benefits of community-led solutions.

Opportunity Village Austin – Austin, Texas

Launched in 2017, Opportunity Village Austin provides shelter and support for 25 residents in 15 tiny homes. The community is located on land donated by The Carpenters Union on the outskirts of Austin. Homes range between 100-300 square feet and access is provided to bathroom and laundry facilities. Residents pay $225–350 in monthly rent and live long term while receiving case management and connecting to outside services. The goal is to empower residents with the life skills and resources needed to exit homelessness. Since opening, Opportunity Village Austin has shown the potential for tiny home communities to address the housing crisis in the fast growing city.

The Hill Community – Denver, Colorado

The Hill Community sits on a 1 acre plot of donated land in an industrial area of ​​northwest Denver. Established in 2021, it offers 19 permanent tiny homes ranging from 100-160 square feet in size as long-term housing. The development was a partnership between the nonprofit Colorado Village Collaborative and the city of Denver. Residents pay 30% of their income in rent and have access to shared amenities like restrooms, laundry, a community building, garden areas and on-site services. The Hill aims to end homelessness for its residents by providing dignified year-round housing while linking households to case management and other support programs. Early outcomes indicate it can successfully transition clients into permanent housing.

Opportunity Village Salem – Salem, Oregon

Launched in 2021, Opportunity Village Salem provides shelter and services for up to 45 people across 15 tiny homes located in North Salem. Homes range between 160-200 square feet with access to shared restrooms and gathering spaces. Residents pay 30% of their income towards affordable rent. Case management and programming is offered on site to help residents improve health, find work, and ultimately transition into permanent housing. The village operates as a partnership between the city of Salem, local nonprofit Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, and SquareOne Villages. It shows how even medium sized cities can utilize tiny home communities to aid people experiencing homelessness.

These are just a few examples of real micro-home communities established across the United States in recent years. Each provides permanent shelter and support services for formerly homeless individuals and families through the utilitarian and affordable housing option of tiny homes. While varies in size, ownership structure, and programming, collectively they demonstrate how the micro-housing model can successfully address housing insecurity and help vulnerable populations transition towards stability. As homelessness and housing affordability crises worsen nationwide, more communities are turning to innovative solutions like village-style clusters of micro homes which focus on dignity, community and empowering residents.

COULD YOU EXPLAIN MORE ABOUT THE PROCESS OF CONTRIBUTING TO AN EXISTING OPEN SOURCE PROJECT FOR A CAPSTONE

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The first step is to find an existing open source project that interests you and that you think you could potentially contribute value to. Some good places to search for open source projects include GitHub, SourceForge, GitLab, and similar platforms where many open source developers host and manage their code. You’ll want to browse through projects in areas that align with your skills and interests. Consider factors like the project’s activity level, number of open issues, how beginner-friendly it seems, and whether the codebase looks accessible enough for you to potentially make meaningful contributions as a new contributor.

Once you’ve identified a few potential projects, review their documentation to understand what types of contributions they are looking for and any guidelines they have for new contributors. Pay close attention to contribution guidelines and style guides, as following these properly will be important for having your code merged. You may also want to look at the project’s issue tracker to get a sense of common issues and potential ones you could help resolve. At this point, it’s a good idea to join the project’s communication channels like Slack or Discord if they have them to start to engage with core developers.

With a potential project in mind, the next step is to pick an issue or feature that interests you and seems achievable within the scope of a capstone. Review the issue description and any conversations thoroughly to fully understand what is being requested. You may need to ask clarifying questions in the issue. For enhancements or new features without an existing issue, you’ll need to provide a clear proposal in a new issue before beginning code work. Get explicit agreement that your proposed contribution would be a good fit for the project.

With an agreed upon task, you are ready to start coding! Be sure to fork the project’s repository to your own GitHub or other hosting account before making any code changes. As you work, document your process through comments in the code and updates in the applicable issue. Write thorough tests to validate your code works as intended. Check any style guides and follow the project’s code formatting and quality standards. Commit changes to your fork frequently with detailed, self-explanatory commit messages.

Once you have completed your task and tested your changes, you are ready to submit a pull request for review. A high-quality pull request is important, so take time to write a description clearly explaining your changes and how to test them. Request reviews from one or more core committers listed on the project. Be sure to address all feedback in the pull request conversations, even making additional commits if needed. Having an effective review process is important to learn from before the code is merged.

With all feedback addressed, the pull request is ready for final merging once all reviewers have approved. Celebrate your first open source contribution! Consider additional issues you could take on, or ways to otherwise continue engaging with and supporting the community. You’ll want to document your experience contributing to the open source project as part of your capstone paper or report. Highlight what you learned, challenges you overcame, and how contributing aligns with your academic and career interests and goals going forward.

Maintaining a good relationship with the open source project you contributed to can be valuable for references or future collaboration opportunities. Continue engaging on communication channels, consider taking on more significant issues, or potentially helping with overall project management tasks if your contributions are appreciated. Promoting your work on social media is also an excellent way to demonstrate your skills and experience to potential employers.

Contributing to an open source project can be a highly rewarding learning experience when done right. Taking the time to thoughtfully select a project, clearly define the scope of your work, communicate effectively, and thoroughly test your code will serve you well throughout your software development career. It’s a process that takes patience but pays off in learning valuable new skills that can also be highlighted on your resume or capstone. With practice, contributing to open source can become very natural ways to both learn and give back to the community.

WHAT ARE SOME POTENTIAL CHALLENGES IN INTEGRATING VIRTUAL REALITY LEARNING EXPERIENCES INTO EXISTING NURSING CURRICULA

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A significant challenge is the upfront financial investment required to establish VR learning programs. Nursing programs would need to purchase VR headsets, develop or purchase VR learning modules, and potentially make modifications to classroom spaces to accommodate VR usage. Initial estimates suggest that fully equipping even a small to mid-sized nursing program could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. This level of investment may be difficult for many programs to secure, especially given existing budget constraints that many nursing schools face. Additional ongoing costs are also likely, such as replacing or updating equipment, purchasing new modules, technical support, etc.

Another major challenge is the time required for faculty development and training. Integrating a new technology like VR into the curriculum is a major undertaking that changes the way instruction is designed and delivered. It can take considerable time for faculty to learn how to use the VR equipment effectively, develop pedagogically sound lesson plans around VR modules, and facilitate VR-based learning activities. This level of training may present scheduling and workload issues for existing nursing faculty who already have full teaching responsibilities. It may necessitate reducing other curricular content or hiring additional instructors dedicated to VR. Extensive faculty buy-in to the value of VR learning is also important for successful adoption but can take time to achieve.

Potential challenges exist in effectively incorporating VR into already full nursing course schedules and degree plans too. Finding ways to realistically fit VR modules and necessary pre/post lesson activities into 50-60 minute class periods without disrupting other essential content is difficult. Similarly, determining how many credits or clinical hours VR activities should count for and how that impacts program accreditation requirements needs careful consideration. Students may also face challenges in accessing and using VR equipment outside of classroom time if modules are intended to replace or augment other learning modalities like readings, lectures, etc. Technical glitches or delays could disrupt classroom instruction if Wi-Fi bandwidth or equipment performance are issues.

Student preparedness for engaging with immersive VR learning experiences may be an additional challenge for many programs initially. While younger digital natives are generally very comfortable with technologies like VR, older and returning students adjusting to advanced educational technologies presents its own learning curve. Helping students who are less familiar with VR to quickly feel at ease in an immersive virtual world and draw the right lessons from their experience may require supplemental student supports. Addressing individual VR access needs is critical too, such as for students with visual or cognitive impairments. Initial student resistance to a perceived “gaming” technology in formal nursing education is possible also and should be overcome through emphasizing VR’s direct application to real clinical skills.

Establishing measures for effective VR program assessment and outcomes evaluation are further challenges programs may face. Defining appropriate metrics and developing rigorous evaluation methodologies to demonstrate how VR impacts competency achievement, knowledge retention, perceived preparation for practice, and other important learning outcomes can require significant research efforts. Regional and national nursing accrediting bodies also expect data-driven evidence that innovative teaching approaches are enhancing education quality, adding value to existing curricula, and supporting quality program outcomes.

While VR has great promise to elevate nursing education through dynamic, immersive simulations, thoughtful consideration and planning is required to address challenges concerning financial investment, faculty development, curricular integration logistics, student access and preparedness, and program evaluation. With effort to plan for all stakeholder needs and target success metrics upfront, the potential for VR to revolutionize nursing students’ clinical preparation can be realized. But meaningful adoption of this game-changing technology necessitates overcoming initial obstacles through long-term institutional commitment and investment in change management.