Análisis de patrones de navegación de los estudiantes dentro del Campus UOC

Este Trabajo de Fin de Carrera presenta la especificación de un proceso para el análisis de patrones de navegación a partir de los ficheros de log del Campus Virtual de la UOC.

Desenvolupament d'una aplicació en Microsoft .NET : Campus formatiu

Es necessita disposar d'una aplicació Web per gestionar un Campus formatiu. L'aplicació s'ha desenvolupat en Microsoft .NET en entorn Web.

Agriculture, technological change and environmental sustainability: Looking for a win-win water policy strategy

This paper analyses the effects that technological changes in agriculture would have on environmental, social and economic indicators. Specifically, our study is focused on two alternative technological improvements: the modernization of water transportation systems versus the increase in the total factor productivity of agriculture. Using a computable general equilibrium model for the Catalan economy, our results suggest that a water policy that leads to greater economic efficiency is not necessarily optimal if we consider social or environmental criteria. Moreover, improving environmental sustainability depends less on the type of technological change than on the institutional framework in which technological change occurs. Keywords: agricultural technological changes, computable general equilibrium model, economic impact, water policy

Campus 2.0: disseny d’una xarxa social per escoles

Disseny i desenvolupament d'una aplicació web de xarxa social orientada a estudiants i professors d'una escola o institució educativa. Una eina que pretén millorar la interacció entre alumnes i professors mitjançant un mateix espai concurrent i virtual on poder comunicar-se i compartir opinions.

Desenvolupament d'una App d'accés al Campus Virtual de la UOC per a dispositius Android

És objectiu d'aquest projecte dotar la comunitat UOC d'una aplicació per a dispositius Android que proporcioni als usuaris de la comunitat UOC un eina, àgil, còmode i intuïtiva d'accés al Campus Virtual i als recursos formatius que conté.

Projecte eKnowledge : Desenvolupament i pilotatge d'una eina de fòrum per a donar suport a la construcció col·laborativa de coneixement en el Campus Virtual de la UOC

Informe final del projecte eKnowledge, una eina de fòrums en línia que ofereix a consultors i estudiants la possibilitat de crear espais de comunicació i de col·laboració asíncrona que responguin a diferents finalitats i nivells d'estructuració per part dels docents.

eKnowledge Project: Developing and piloting a forum tool to support the collaborative construction of knowledge on the UOC's Virtual Campus

Final report of the eKnowledge's project, an online forum tool that offers consultants and students the chance to create spaces for asynchronous communication and collaboration.

Proyecto eKnowledge: Desarrollo y pilotaje de una herramienta de foro para apoyar la construcción colaborativa de conocimiento en el Campus Virtual de la UOC

Informe final del proyecto eKnowledge, una herramienta de foros en línea que ofrece a consultores y estudiantes la posbilidad de crear espacios de comunicación y colaboración asíncrona que respondan a diferentes finalidades y niveles de estructuración por parte de los docentes.

CalUOC : Calendario para dispositivos móviles vinculado al campus virtual de la UOC

El proyecto consiste en el desarrollo de una aplicación multiplataforma capaz de ejecutarse en multitud de sistemas operativos de distintos fabricantes de dispositivos móviles, como son teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas. La aplicación se basa en un calendario conectado al campus de la UOC.

Discovering the campus together: a mobile and computer-based learning experience

One of the most relevant difficulties faced by first-year undergraduate students is to settle into the educational environment of universities. This paper presents a case study that proposes a computer-assisted collaborative experience designed to help students in their transition from high school to university. This is done by facilitating their first contact with the campus and its services, the university community, methodologies and activities. The experience combines individual and collaborative activities, conducted in and out of the classroom, structured following the Jigsaw Collaborative Learning Flow Pattern. A specific environment including portable technologies with network and computer applications has been developed to support and facilitate the orchestration of a flow of learning activities into a single integrated learning setting. The result is a Computer-Supported Collaborative Blended Learning scenario, which has been evaluated with first-year university students of the degrees of Software and Audiovisual Engineering within the subject Introduction to Information and Communications Technologies. The findings reveal that the scenario improves significantly students’ interest in their studies and their understanding about the campus and services provided. The environment is also an innovative approach to successfully support the heterogeneous activities conducted by both teachers and students during the scenario. This paper introduces the goals and context of the case study, describes how the technology was employed to conduct the learning scenario, the evaluation methods and the main results of the experience.

The effects of poor financial information systems on the long term sustainability of local public services. Empirical evidence from the Catalan Municipalities

In this paper we describe the existence of financial illusion in public accountingand we comment on its effects for the future sustainability of local publicservices. We relate these features to the lack of incentives amongst publicmanagers for improving the financial reporting and thus management of publicassets. Financial illusion pays off for politicians and managers since it allowsfor larger public expenditure increases and managerial slack, these beingarguments in their utility functions. This preference is strengthen by the shorttime perspective of politically appointed public managers. Both factors runagainst public accountability. This hypothesis is tested for Spain by using anunique sample. We take data from around forty Catalan local authorities withpopulation above 20,000 for the financial years 1993-98. We build this databasis from the Catalan Auditing Office Reports in a way that it can be linkedto some other local social and economic variables in order to test ourassumptions. The results confirm that there is a statistical relationship between the financialillusion index (FI as constructed in the paper) and higher current expenditure.This reflects on important overruns and increases of the delay in payingsuppliers, as well as on a higher difficulties to face capital finance. Mechanismsfor FI creation have to do among other factors, with delays in paying suppliers(and thereafter higher future financial costs per unit of service), no adequateprovision for bad debts and lack of appropriate capital funding either forreposition or for new equipments. For this, it is crucial to monitor the way inwhich capital transfers are accounted in local public sheet balances. As a result,for most of the Municipalities we analyse, the funds for guaranteeing continuityand sustainability of public services provision are today at risk.Given managerial incentives at present in public institutions, we conclude thatpublic regulation recently enforced for assuring better information systems inlocal public management may not be enough to change the current state of affairs.

Debt sustainability in historical perspective: The role of fiscal repression

This article examines the debt history of two contenders for European hegemony: 16th-centurySpain and 18th-century Britain. We analyze their fiscal behavior using measures of overborrowingand fiscal policy functions. Our results suggest that stringency was not key for Britain ssuccess in avoiding default. Instead, fiscal repression allowed the United Kingdom to borrowat below-market rates, thereby outspending its continental rivals.