Key Aspects Affecting Students’ Perception Regarding the Instructional Quality of Online and Web Based Courses

This study assessed the perceptions of college students regarding the instructional quality of online and web based courses via a content management system. [See PDF for complete abstract]

Developing and Integrating the Management of Elder Abuse in Primary Practice: A Case Study Using A Web-Based CME Course Format

Introduction: As the population in the United States continues to age, more attention in primary practice settings is now devoted toward managing the care of the elderly. The occurrence of elder abuse is a growing problem. It is a condition many professionals in primary care may be ill prepared with the knowledge or resources to identify and manage. [See PDF for complete abstract]

Narrated PowerPoints and Audio Podcasts in Clinical Teaching: One Clerkship's Experience

Introduction: Clinical medical education is increasingly utilizing novel technological approaches in order to supplement traditional lecture-based didactics. The Neurology Core Clerkship at Baylor College of Medicine is a four week required course taken by clinical medical students. Given the large amount of information to be disseminated in a short period of time, part of the didactic material has been provided online in the form of narrated PowerPoint files or lecture audio tracks along with stand-alone PowerPoint files. The narrated files are generated using the native PowerPoint narration function while the stand-alone audio files are created as MP3 format files using an inexpensive digital recording device. [See PDF for complete abstract]

Self-Assessment in a Competency-Based Curriculum: Preliminary Findings

Introduction: The introduction of the ACGME core competency framework brought challenges of developing appropriate evaluation tools (i.e. self assessment) to provide evidence of competency. Baylor College of Medicine has 43 competency goals organized within the 6 ACGME domains, each domain having 4-10 goals. [See PDF for complete abstract]

En Vivo: If We Call Them Will They Come? A Telephone-based Brief Motivational Enhancement Intervention Targeting TV Time

Introduction: The prevalence of overweight among children has doubled in the last twenty years, and Texas children rank near the top as the nation’s heaviest. Time spent television viewing may not only expose children to advertising for unhealthy foods, but may also take the place of physical activity.

The Church Music Program: The Effect of Moving from Performance-based to Education-based Emphasis in a Church Music Program

This research project sought to answer the primary research question: What occurs when the music program in a church changes its emphasis from performance to education? This qualitative study of a church choir included participant observation of Wednesday evening and Sunday morning rehearsals over a 12 week period, individual interviews, group interviews, written responses, and written and visual assessment of musical skills. The goal was a rich description of the participants and emerging themes resulting from the shift in emphasis. Analysis of data occurred through inductive processing. Data was initially coded and then the codes were categorized into sub-themes, and finally into major themes. Early analysis of the data began with reflection in a researcher journal. Following the completion of the study the journal was entered into a word processor, as were transcriptions of videotaped rehearsals, and written reflections from the participants. After all data had been reviewed repeatedly and entered into the word processor, it was coded, reexamined, and finally categorized into sub-themes and themes. After coding and identification of major themes and sub-themes the finding were challenged by looking for disconfirming evidence. Finally, after the completion of the analysis stage, member checks were conducted. The results of the analysis of data revealed themes that could be associated either with the choir or the director. The key themes primarily associated with the choir were: Response to the change in rehearsal format; Attitude toward learning; Appropriateness of community learning model; and, Member's perceptions of the results of the program. The key themes associated with the director were identified as: Conductor assuming the role of educator; Conductor recognizing the choir as learners; Conductor treating rehearsals as a time for teaching and learning; and, Conductor's perception of the effectiveness of the change in focus. The study concluded that a change in focus from performance to education did not noticeably improve the sound of the choir after twelve-weeks. There were however, indications that improvements were being made by the individual members. Further study of the effects over a longer period of time is recommended.

Report on the practice based culminating experience as teaching assistant for "Pathology and Public Health" class taught at University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston

Objectives. The objectives of this report were to describe current best standards in online education, class competencies, class objectives, class activities and to compare the class competencies, objectives and activities undertaken with the current best practices in online teaching and to provide a list of recommendations based on the most efficacious practices. ^ Methods. Utilizing the key words- online teaching, national standards, quality, online courses, I: (1) conducted a search on Google to find the best standard for quality online courses; the search yielded National Standards for Quality Online Teaching as the gold standard in online course quality; (2) specified class objectives and competencies as well as major activities undertaken as a part of the class. Utilizing the Southern Regional Education Board evaluation checklist for online courses, I: (1) performed an analysis comparing the class activities, objectives, and competencies with the current best standards; (2) utilized the information obtained from the analysis and class experiences to develop recommendations for the most efficacious online teaching practices. ^ Results. The class met the criteria set by the Southern Regional Education Board for evaluating online classes completely in 75%, partially in 16% and did not meet the criteria in 9% cases. The majority of the parameters in which the class did not meet the standards (4 of 5) were due to technological reasons beyond the scope of the class instructor, teaching assistant and instructional design. ^ Discussion. Successful online teaching requires awareness of technology, good communication, methods, collaboration, reflection and flexibility. Creation of an online community, engaging online learners and utilizing different learning styles and assessment methods promote learning. My report proposes that online teaching should actively engage the students and teachers with multiple interactive strategies as evidenced from current best standards of online education and my “hands-on” work experience. ^ Conclusion. The report and the ideas presented are intended to create a foundation for efficacious practice on the online teaching platform. By following many of the efficacious online practices described in the report and adding from their own experiences, online instructors and teaching assistants can contribute to effective online learning. ^

Project Management Learning in a Collaborative Distant Learning Context - An Actual On-going Experience

The goal of this paper is to show the results of an on-going experience on teaching project management to grade students by following a development scheme of management related competencies on an individual basis. In order to achieve that goal, the students are organized in teams that must solve a problem and manage the development of a feasible solution to satisfy the needs of a client. The innovative component advocated in this paper is the formal introduction of negotiating and virtual team management aspects, as different teams from different universities at different locations and comprising students with different backgrounds must collaborate and compete amongst them. The different learning aspects are identified and the improvement levels are reflected in a rubric that has been designed ad hoc for this experience. Finally, the effort frameworks for the student and instructor have been established according to the requirements of the Bologna paradigms. This experience is developed through a software-based support system allowing blended learning for the theoretical and individual?s work aspects, blogs, wikis, etc., as well as project management tools based on WWW that allow the monitoring of not only the expected deliverables and the achievement of the goals but also the progress made on learning as established in the defined rubric

Competence Monitoring in Project Teams by using Web based portfolio management systems

This paper reports a learning experience related to the acquisition of project management competences. Students from three different universities and backgrounds, cooperate in a common project that drives the learning-teaching process. Previous related works on this initiative have already evaluated the goodness of this multidisciplinary, project-based learning approach in the context of a new educative paradigm. Yet the innovative experience has allowed the authors to define a rubric in order to measure specific competences in project management. The study shows the rubric’s main aspects as well as competence acquisition evaluation alternatives, based in the metrics defined. Key indicators and specific reports obtained from data base fields in the web tool will support this work. As a result, new competences can be assessed, such ones like teamwork, problem solving, communication and leadership. Final goal is to provide an overall competence map to the students at the same time they improve their skills.

Intelligent context-aware services based on internet of things architectures

La Internet de las Cosas (IoT), como parte de la Futura Internet, se ha convertido en la actualidad en uno de los principales temas de investigación; en parte gracias a la atención que la sociedad está poniendo en el desarrollo de determinado tipo de servicios (telemetría, generación inteligente de energía, telesanidad, etc.) y por las recientes previsiones económicas que sitúan a algunos actores, como los operadores de telecomunicaciones (que se encuentran desesperadamente buscando nuevas oportunidades), al frente empujando algunas tecnologías interrelacionadas como las comunicaciones Máquina a Máquina (M2M). En este contexto, un importante número de actividades de investigación a nivel mundial se están realizando en distintas facetas: comunicaciones de redes de sensores, procesado de información, almacenamiento de grandes cantidades de datos (big--‐data), semántica, arquitecturas de servicio, etc. Todas ellas, de forma independiente, están llegando a un nivel de madurez que permiten vislumbrar la realización de la Internet de las Cosas más que como un sueño, como una realidad tangible. Sin embargo, los servicios anteriormente mencionados no pueden esperar a desarrollarse hasta que las actividades de investigación obtengan soluciones holísticas completas. Es importante proporcionar resultados intermedios que eviten soluciones verticales realizadas para desarrollos particulares. En este trabajo, nos hemos focalizado en la creación de una plataforma de servicios que pretende facilitar, por una parte la integración de redes de sensores y actuadores heterogéneas y geográficamente distribuidas, y por otra lado el desarrollo de servicios horizontales utilizando dichas redes y la información que proporcionan. Este habilitador se utilizará para el desarrollo de servicios y para la experimentación en la Internet de las Cosas. Previo a la definición de la plataforma, se ha realizado un importante estudio focalizando no sólo trabajos y proyectos de investigación, sino también actividades de estandarización. Los resultados se pueden resumir en las siguientes aseveraciones: a) Los modelos de datos definidos por el grupo “Sensor Web Enablement” (SWE™) del “Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®)” representan hoy en día la solución más completa para describir las redes de sensores y actuadores así como las observaciones. b) Las interfaces OGC, a pesar de las limitaciones que requieren cambios y extensiones, podrían ser utilizadas como las bases para acceder a sensores y datos. c) Las redes de nueva generación (NGN) ofrecen un buen sustrato que facilita la integración de redes de sensores y el desarrollo de servicios. En consecuencia, una nueva plataforma de Servicios, llamada Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USN), se ha definido en esta Tesis tratando de contribuir a rellenar los huecos previamente mencionados. Los puntos más destacados de la plataforma USN son: a) Desde un punto de vista arquitectónico, sigue una aproximación de dos niveles (Habilitador y Gateway) similar a otros habilitadores que utilizan las NGN (como el OMA Presence). b) Los modelos de datos están basado en los estándares del OGC SWE. iv c) Está integrado en las NGN pero puede ser utilizado sin ellas utilizando infraestructuras IP abiertas. d) Las principales funciones son: Descubrimiento de sensores, Almacenamiento de observaciones, Publicacion--‐subscripcion--‐notificación, ejecución remota homogénea, seguridad, gestión de diccionarios de datos, facilidades de monitorización, utilidades de conversión de protocolos, interacciones síncronas y asíncronas, soporte para el “streaming” y arbitrado básico de recursos. Para demostrar las funcionalidades que la Plataforma USN propuesta pueden ofrecer a los futuros escenarios de la Internet de las Cosas, se presentan resultados experimentales de tres pruebas de concepto (telemetría, “Smart Places” y monitorización medioambiental) reales a pequeña escala y un estudio sobre semántica (sistema de información vehicular). Además, se está utilizando actualmente como Habilitador para desarrollar tanto experimentación como servicios reales en el proyecto Europeo SmartSantander (que aspira a integrar alrededor de 20.000 dispositivos IoT). v Abstract Internet of Things, as part of the Future Internet, has become one of the main research topics nowadays; in part thanks to the pressure the society is putting on the development of a particular kind of services (Smart metering, Smart Grids, eHealth, etc.), and by the recent business forecasts that situate some players, like Telecom Operators (which are desperately seeking for new opportunities), at the forefront pushing for some interrelated technologies like Machine--‐to--‐Machine (M2M) communications. Under this context, an important number of research activities are currently taking place worldwide at different levels: sensor network communications, information processing, big--‐ data storage, semantics, service level architectures, etc. All of them, isolated, are arriving to a level of maturity that envision the achievement of Internet of Things (IoT) more than a dream, a tangible goal. However, the aforementioned services cannot wait to be developed until the holistic research actions bring complete solutions. It is important to come out with intermediate results that avoid vertical solutions tailored for particular deployments. In the present work, we focus on the creation of a Service--‐level platform intended to facilitate, from one side the integration of heterogeneous and geographically disperse Sensors and Actuator Networks (SANs), and from the other the development of horizontal services using them and the information they provide. This enabler will be used for horizontal service development and for IoT experimentation. Prior to the definition of the platform, we have realized an important study targeting not just research works and projects, but also standardization topics. The results can be summarized in the following assertions: a) Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE™) data models today represent the most complete solution to describe SANs and observations. b) OGC interfaces, despite the limitations that require changes and extensions, could be used as the bases for accessing sensors and data. c) Next Generation Networks (NGN) offer a good substrate that facilitates the integration of SANs and the development of services. Consequently a new Service Layer platform, called Ubiquitous Sensor Networks (USN), has been defined in this Thesis trying to contribute to fill in the previous gaps. The main highlights of the proposed USN Platform are: a) From an architectural point of view, it follows a two--‐layer approach (Enabler and Gateway) similar to other enablers that run on top of NGN (like the OMA Presence). b) Data models and interfaces are based on the OGC SWE standards. c) It is integrated in NGN but it can be used without it over open IP infrastructures. d) Main functions are: Sensor Discovery, Observation Storage, Publish--‐Subscribe--‐Notify, homogeneous remote execution, security, data dictionaries handling, monitoring facilities, authorization support, protocol conversion utilities, synchronous and asynchronous interactions, streaming support and basic resource arbitration. vi In order to demonstrate the functionalities that the proposed USN Platform can offer to future IoT scenarios, some experimental results have been addressed in three real--‐life small--‐scale proofs--‐of concepts (Smart Metering, Smart Places and Environmental monitoring) and a study for semantics (in--‐vehicle information system). Furthermore we also present the current use of the proposed USN Platform as an Enabler to develop experimentation and real services in the SmartSantander EU project (that aims at integrating around 20.000 IoT devices).

Enhanced recommendations for e-learning authoring tools based on a proactive context-aware recommender

Authoring tools are powerful systems in the area of e-Learning that make easier for teachers to create new learning objects by reusing or editing existing educational resources coming from learning repositories or content providers. However, due to the overwhelming number of resources these tools can access, sometimes it is difficult for teachers to find the most suitable resources taking into account their needs in terms of content (e.g. topic) or pedagogical aspects (e.g. target level associated to their students). Recommender systems can take an important role trying to mitigate this problem. In this paper we propose a new model to generate proactive context-aware recommendations on resources during the creation process of a new learning object that a teacher carries out by using an authoring tool. The common use cases covered by the model for having recommendations in online authoring tools and details about the recommender model itself are presented.

Teaching based on the case method of building collective protection

One of the fundamental aspects in the adaptation of the teaching to the European higher education is changing based models of teacher education to models based on student learning. In this work we present an educational experience developed with the teaching method based on the case method, with a clearly multidisciplinary. The experience has been developed in the teaching of analysis and verification of safety rails. This is a multidisciplinary field that presents great difficulties during their teaching. The use of the case method has given good results in the competences achieved by students

Analysis of teaching experience based on teaching by the case method. Application to reinforcing wooden floors

The technique of reinforcement of wooden floors is a matter clearly multidisciplinary. The teaching of the subject using the "traditional" method, explaining the theory first and then proposing and solving problems has not been successful. This paper discusses the results of a teaching experiencie. It has been the teaching of the subject by the case method. The results are clearly superior to those obtained with the traditional methodology.

Teaching Planning of Forestry Engineering in Spain : origins and evolution

This paper addresses the historical evolution of, from its inception, to the present day, within the changing context of EHEA and linked to professional competences. The research methodology, although it is mainly a historical document review, expert opinions on university educational planning of university education of forestry engineering in Spain are also included. The results show the evolution of centralized planning, based on technical knowledge transmission to an approach based on competences (technical, contextual and behavioral) focusing on learning for improving employability.

Explicit context matching in content-based publish/subscribe systems

Although context could be exploited to improve performance, elasticity and adaptation in most distributed systems that adopt the publish/subscribe (P/S) communication model, only a few researchers have focused on the area of context-aware matching in P/S systems and have explored its implications in domains with highly dynamic context like wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and IoT-enabled applications. Most adopted P/S models are context agnostic or do not differentiate context from the other application data. In this article, we present a novel context-aware P/S model. SilboPS manages context explicitly, focusing on the minimization of network overhead in domains with recurrent context changes related, for example, to mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Our approach represents a solution that helps to efficiently share and use sensor data coming from ubiquitous WSNs across a plethora of applications intent on using these data to build context awareness. Specifically, we empirically demonstrate that decoupling a subscription from the changing context in which it is produced and leveraging contextual scoping in the filtering process notably reduces (un)subscription cost per node, while improving the global performance/throughput of the network of brokers without fltering the cost of SIENA-like topology changes.