Evaluating the skills strategy through a Graduate Certificate in Management:an experiential learning theory approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how a UK business school is addressing the Government's skills strategy through its Graduate Certificate in Management, and to identify good practice and development needs and to clarify how the Graduate Certificate is adapting to the needs of Generation X and Millennial students. The paper also aims to test Kolb and Kolb's experiential learning theory (ELT) in a business school setting. Design/methodology/approach – A case study methodology was adopted. In order to get a cross-section of views and triangulate the data, three focus groups were held, supported by reading documentation about the programme of study. Findings – The skills strategy is not just an ambition for some business schools, but is already part of the curriculum. Generation X and the Millennials have more in common with the positive attitudes associated with older generations than stereotyped views might allow. ELT provides a useful theoretical framework for evaluating a programme of study and student attitudes. Research limitations/implications – The research findings from one case study are reported, limiting the generalisability of the study. Practical implications – Good practice and development needs are identified which support the implementation of the Government's skills strategy and address employer concerns about student skills. Originality/value – New empirical data are reported which supports the use of ELT in evaluating programmes of study and student attitudes to work.

Hidden in plain sight:low-literacy adults in a developed country overcoming social and educational challenges through mobile learning support tools

Illiteracy is often associated with people in developing countries. However, an estimated 50 % of adults in a developed country such as Canada lack the literacy skills required to cope with the challenges of today's society; for them, tasks such as reading, understanding, basic arithmetic, and using everyday items are a challenge. Many community-based organizations offer resources and support for these adults, yet overall functional literacy rates are not improving. This is due to a wide range of factors, such as poor retention of adult learners in literacy programs, obstacles in transferring the acquired skills from the classroom to the real life, personal attitudes toward learning, and the stigma of functional illiteracy. In our research we examined the opportunities afforded by personal mobile devices in providing learning and functional support to low-literacy adults. We present the findings of an exploratory study aimed at investigating the reception and adoption of a technological solution for adult learners. ALEX© is a mobile application designed for use both in the classroom and in daily life in order to help low-literacy adults become increasingly literate and independent. Such a solution complements literacy programs by increasing users' motivation and interest in learning, and raising their confidence levels both in their education pursuits and in facing the challenges of their daily lives. We also reflect on the challenges we faced in designing and conducting our research with two user groups (adults enrolled in literacy classes and in an essential skills program) and contrast the educational impact and attitudes toward such technology between these. Our conclusions present the lessons learned from our evaluations and the impact of the studies' specific challenges on the outcome and uptake of such mobile assistive technologies in providing practical support to low-literacy adults in conjunction with literacy and essential skills training. © 2013 Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada.

IT and learning in Higher Education

Educational institutions are under pressure to provide high quality education to large numbers of students very efficiently. The efficiency target combined with the large numbers generally militates against providing students with a great deal of personal or small group tutorial contact with academic staff. As a result of this, students often develop their learning criteria as a group activity, being guided by comparisons one with another rather than the formal assessments made of their submitted work. IT systems and the World Wide Web are increasingly employed to amplify the resources of academic departments although their emphasis tends to be with course administration rather than learning support. The ready availability of information on the World Wide Web and the ease with which is may be incorporated into essays can lead students to develop a limited view of learning as the process of finding, editing and linking information. This paper examines a module design strategy for tackling these issues, based on developments in modules where practical knowledge is a significant element of the learning objectives. Attempts to make effective use of IT support in these modules will be reviewed as a contribution to the development of an IT for learning strategy currently being undertaken in the author’s Institution.

InfoStation-based Adaptable Provision of m Learning Services: Main Scenarios

This paper presents an adaptable InfoStation-based multi-agent system facilitating the mobile eLearning (mLearning) service provision within a University Campus. A horizontal view of the network architecture is presented. Main communications scenarios are considered by describing the detailed interaction of the system entities involved in the mLearning service provision. The mTest service is explored as a practical example. System implementation approaches are also considered.

Complex Adaptive On-line Learning System “Theory of Automatic Control"

The controlled from distance teaching (DT) in the system of technical education has a row of features: complication of informative content, necessity of development of simulation models and trainers for conducting of practical and laboratory employments, conducting of knowledge diagnostics on the basis of mathematical-based algorithms, organization of execution collective projects of the applied setting. For development of the process of teaching bases of fundamental discipline control system Theory of automatic control (TAC) the combined approach of optimum combination of existent programmatic instruments of support was chosen DT and own developments. The system DT TAC included: controlled from distance course (DC) of TAC, site of virtual laboratory practical works in LAB.TAC and students knowledge remote diagnostic system d-tester.

Educational Model of Computer as a Base for Informatics Learning

It is proposed to use one common model of computer for teaching different parts of the informatics course, connected with both hardware and software subjects. Reasoning of such slant is presented; the most suitable themes of the course, where it is practical, are enumerated. The own author's development (including software support) – the educational model of virtual computer "E97" and compiler from Pascal language for it – are described. It is accented, that the discussed ideas are helpful for any other similar model.

A Computer-Based Strategy for Practical Skills Teaching

An adaptive learning technology embedded in e-learning environments ensures choice of the structure, content, and activities for each individual learner according to the teaching team’s domain and didactic knowledge and skills. In this paper a computer-based scenario for application of an adaptive navigation technology is proposed and demonstrated on an example course topic.

e-Learning, e-Practising and e-Tutoring: an Integrated Approach

In this paper is described a didactic methodology combining current e-learning methods and the support of Intelligent Agents technologies. The aim is to favor the synthesis among theoretical approach and based practical approach using the so-called Intelligent Agent, software that exploits the Artificial Intelligence and that operates as tutor, facilitating the consumers in the training operations. The paper illustrates how such new Intelligent Agent algorithm (IA) is used in the training of employees working in the transportation sector, thanks to the experience gained with the PARMENIDE project - Promoting Advanced Resources and Methodologies for New Teaching and Learning Solutions in Digital Education.

Learning by Doing in the Context of Modern Information and Media Literacy of Students in “Library and Information Management” in ULSIT Using the Digital Collection “Bulgarian Revival”

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the effectiveness of learning by doing as a practical tool for managing the training of students in "Library Management" at the ULSIT, Sofia, Bulgaria, by using the creation of project 'Data Base “Bulgarian Revival Towns” (CD), financed by Bulgarian Ministry of Education, Youth and Science (1/D002/144/13.10.2011) headed by Prof. DSc Ivanka Yankova, which aims to create new information resource for the towns which will serve the needs of scientific researches. By participating in generating the an array in the database through searching, selection and digitization of documents from these period, at the same time students get an opportunity to expand their skills to work effectively in a team, finding the interdisciplinary, a causal connection between the studied items, objects and subjects and foremost – practical experience in the field of digitization, information behavior, strategies for information search, etc. This method achieves good results for the accumulation of sustainable knowledge and it generates motivation to work in the field of library and information professions.

An Approach for a more Objective Evaluation of Practical Projects, Used in the Training Process

Well–prepared, adaptive and sustainably developing specialists are an important competitive advantage, but also one of the main challenges for businesses. One option of the education system for creation and development of staff adequate to the needs is the development of pro jects with topics from real economy ("Practical Projects"). The objective assessment is an essential driver and motivator, and is based on a system of well-chosen, well-defined and specific criteria and indicators. An approach to a more objective evaluation of practical projects is finding more objective weights of the criteria. A natural and reasonable approach is the accumulation of opinions of proven experts and subsequent bringing out the weights from the accumulated data. The preparation and conduction of a survey among recognized experts in the field of project-based learning in mathematics, informatics and information technologies is described. The processing of the data accumulated by applying AHP, allowed us to objectively determine weights of evaluation criteria and hence to achieve the desired objectiveness. ACM Computing Classification System (1998): K.3.2.

Practice based learning approaches in collaborative design and engineering education:a case study investigation into the benefits of a crossdisciplinary practice based learning strategy

This study explores the ongoing pedagogical development of a number of undergraduate design and engineering programmes in the United Kingdom. Observations and data have been collected over several cohorts to bring a valuable perspective to the approaches piloted across two similar university departments while trialling a number of innovative learning strategies. In addition to the concurrent institutional studies the work explores curriculum design that applies the principles of Co-Design, multidisciplinary and trans disciplinary learning, with both engineering and product design students working alongside each other through a practical problem solving learning approach known as the CDIO learning initiative (Conceive, Design Implement and Operate) [1]. The study builds on previous work presented at the 2010 EPDE conference: The Effect of Personality on the Design Team: Lessons from Industry for Design Education [2]. The subsequent work presented in this paper applies the findings to mixed design and engineering team based learning, building on the insight gained through a number of industrial process case studies carried out in current design practice. Developments in delivery also aligning the CDIO principles of learning through doing into a practice based, collaborative learning experience and include elements of the TRIZ creative problem solving technique [3]. The paper will outline case studies involving a number of mixed engineering and design student projects that highlight the CDIO principles, combined with an external industrial design brief. It will compare and contrast the learning experience with that of a KTP derived student project, to examine an industry based model for student projects. In addition key areas of best practice will be presented, and student work from each mode will be discussed at the conference.

Organisational learning, climate change and the tragedy of the commons in China

This paper ends with a brief discussion of climate change and suggests that a practical solution would be to transfer much of the current air, sea and long-haul trucking of intercontinental freight between China and Europe (and the USA) to maglev systems. First we review the potential of Asian knowledge management and organisational learning and contrast this against Western precepts finding that there seems to be little incentive to 'look after one's fellows' in China (and perhaps across Asia) outside of tight personal guanxi networks. This is likely to be the case in the intense production regions of China where little time is allowed for 'organisational learning' by the staff and there is little incentive to initiate 'knowledge management' by senior managers. Thus the 'tragedy of the commons' will be enacted by individuals, township, and provincial leaders upwards to top ministers - no one will care for the climate or pollution, only for their own group and their wealth creation prospects. Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Machine learning for large-scale wearable sensor data in Parkinson disease:concepts, promises, pitfalls, and futures

For the treatment and monitoring of Parkinson's disease (PD) to be scientific, a key requirement is that measurement of disease stages and severity is quantitative, reliable, and repeatable. The last 50 years in PD research have been dominated by qualitative, subjective ratings obtained by human interpretation of the presentation of disease signs and symptoms at clinical visits. More recently, “wearable,” sensor-based, quantitative, objective, and easy-to-use systems for quantifying PD signs for large numbers of participants over extended durations have been developed. This technology has the potential to significantly improve both clinical diagnosis and management in PD and the conduct of clinical studies. However, the large-scale, high-dimensional character of the data captured by these wearable sensors requires sophisticated signal processing and machine-learning algorithms to transform it into scientifically and clinically meaningful information. Such algorithms that “learn” from data have shown remarkable success in making accurate predictions for complex problems in which human skill has been required to date, but they are challenging to evaluate and apply without a basic understanding of the underlying logic on which they are based. This article contains a nontechnical tutorial review of relevant machine-learning algorithms, also describing their limitations and how these can be overcome. It discusses implications of this technology and a practical road map for realizing the full potential of this technology in PD research and practice. © 2016 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

How do engineering students develop practical competencies during a period of industrial placement? - Students' perceptions

This paper explores engineering students' perceptions of developing practical competencies as experienced in their industrial placements. In addition, it discusses the criticisms in the literature on Problem Based Learning, Project Based Learning and Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate in relation to the evaluation of effective learning and teaching during placements. The paper goes on to discuss a study which examines how undergraduate engineering students develop practical competencies during their industrial placements. A phenomenological research approach is adopted using in-depth interviews and document analysis. The research findings from this PhD study will contribute to the knowledge, theory and practice for the students, the industries and the institutions of higher education as students' practical competencies are developed and graduate employability rises. In conclusion, this study explores students' experiences of developing practical competencies during industrial placements. Hence, the study should be able to contribute to a set of evidence-based guidelines for higher education institutions and industry.