Herman D. Stein

Herman Stein, President of the International Association of Schools of Social Work from 1968 - 1976, has for more than sixty years excelled as an educator, scholar, internationalist, university administrator, and leader in a variety of professional associations. From almost the beginning of his career, the world has been the stage on which he has played those many roles, all of them with an abundance of talent. In fact, while he was in the graduate program of what is now the Columbia University School of Social Work, he had to decide whether to become a social worker or an actor. As an undergraduate he became involved in student theatrical productions, where he teamed up with the famous comedian, Danny Kaye, who became a life-long companion and friend. At the end of Steins first year in the social work program, he was invited to join an off-Broadway variety show that helped to launch Kaye on his meteoric rise on both stage and screen. "If I´d joined," Stein has said, "the theater probably was going to be where I would make my career as a character actor." Fortunately for social work and social work education, he chose instead to continue his studies at the School of Social Work, from which he received his master's degree in 1941 and the doctoral degree in 1958. While the world has been his stage, education has been at the heart of his manifold activities. Following a period of direct service practice as a caseworker in a well-known private agency in New York City, he was recruited by the Columbia School of Social Work in 1945 as a faculty member. With an interruption for a significant overseas assignment from 1947 to 1950, he continued at Columbia for another fourteen years, rising through all professorial ranks to Professor and Director of the School's Research Center.

Modellierung und Bewertung der maritimen Leercontainerlogistik unter Berücksichtigung des Container-Poolings

Vor dem Hintergrund zunehmenden Kostendrucks und der Suche nach Effizienzsteigerungen im Leercontainermanagement gewinnen zukünftig kooperative Gestaltungsansätze vermehrt an Bedeutung. Einen Ansatz zur kooperativen Neugestaltung des Leercontainermanagements in der maritimen Containerlogistik stellt die gemeinsame Nutzung eines Container-Pools durch mehrere Reedereien und Containerleasinggesellschaften dar. Dieses sogenannte Container-Pooling orientiert auf die Reduzierung des Repositionierungs-, Transport-, Umschlag- und Lagerungsaufwands durch gezielte Ausnutzung struktureller Ungleichgewichte. In der Praxis ist dieser Ansatz insbesondere aufgrund unternehmenspolitischer Gründe (Container als Werbeträger) bisher kaum umgesetzt. Für eine Optimierung und zur Unterstützung der operativen Planung sind mathematische Ansätze notwendig, die die verschiedenen Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten des Container-Poolings modellseitig berücksichtigen sowie zwischen Pool-, Reeder- und Leasing-Containern unterscheiden. Ziel dieses Beitrags ist daher die Vorstellung eines mathematischen Optimierungsansatzes, der sowohl die Abläufe der maritimen Containerlogistik beschreibt, als auch die Einsparungspotentiale durch den Einsatz des Container-Poolings quantifiziert. Es wird gezeigt, dass durch den Einsatz des Container-Poolings Kosteneinsparungen im Vergleich zum unkooperativen Verhalten vorliegen.

Action Research and Learning Analytics in Higher Education

Teaching is a dynamic activity. It can be very effective, if its impact is constantly monitored and adjusted to the demands of changing social contexts and needs of learners. This implies that teachers need to be aware about teaching and learning processes. Moreover, they should constantly question their didactical methods and the learning resources, which they provide to their students. They should reflect if their actions are suitable, and they should regulate their teaching, e.g., by updating learning materials based on new knowledge about learners, or by motivating learners to engage in further learning activities. In the last years, a rising interest in ‘learning analytics’ is observable. This interest is motivated by the availability of massive amounts of educational data. Also, the continuously increasing processing power, and a strong motivation for discovering new information from these pools of educational data, is pushing further developments within the learning analytics research field. Learning analytics could be a method for reflective teaching practice that enables and guides teachers to investigate and evaluate their work in future learning scenarios. However, this potentially positive impact has not yet been sufficiently verified by learning analytics research. Another method that pursues these goals is ‘action research’. Learning analytics promises to initiate action research processes because it facilitates awareness, reflection and regulation of teaching activities analogous to action research. Therefore, this thesis joins both concepts, in order to improve the design of learning analytics tools. Central research question of this thesis are: What are the dimensions of learning analytics in relation to action research, which need to be considered when designing a learning analytics tool? How does a learning analytics dashboard impact the teachers of technology-enhanced university lectures regarding ‘awareness’, ‘reflection’ and ‘action’? Does it initiate action research? Which are central requirements for a learning analytics tool, which pursues such effects? This project followed design-based research principles, in order to answer these research questions. The main contributions are: a theoretical reference model that connects action research and learning analytics, the conceptualization and implementation of a learning analytics tool, a requirements catalogue for useful and usable learning analytics design based on evaluations, a tested procedure for impact analysis, and guidelines for the introduction of learning analytics into higher education.