Radiation metabolomics. 3. Biomarker discovery in the urine of gamma-irradiated rats using a simplified metabolomics protocol of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry combined with random forests machine learning algorithm

Abstract Radiation metabolomics employing mass spectral technologies represents a plausible means of high-throughput minimally invasive radiation biodosimetry. A simplified metabolomics protocol is described that employs ubiquitous gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and open source software including random forests machine learning algorithm to uncover latent biomarkers of 3 Gy gamma radiation in rats. Urine was collected from six male Wistar rats and six sham-irradiated controls for 7 days, 4 prior to irradiation and 3 after irradiation. Water and food consumption, urine volume, body weight, and sodium, potassium, calcium, chloride, phosphate and urea excretion showed major effects from exposure to gamma radiation. The metabolomics protocol uncovered several urinary metabolites that were significantly up-regulated (glyoxylate, threonate, thymine, uracil, p-cresol) and down-regulated (citrate, 2-oxoglutarate, adipate, pimelate, suberate, azelaate) as a result of radiation exposure. Thymine and uracil were shown to derive largely from thymidine and 2'-deoxyuridine, which are known radiation biomarkers in the mouse. The radiation metabolomic phenotype in rats appeared to derive from oxidative stress and effects on kidney function. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry is a promising platform on which to develop the field of radiation metabolomics further and to assist in the design of instrumentation for use in detecting biological consequences of environmental radiation release.

Accessible e-learning

People with disabilities often encounter difficulties while trying to learn something, because teaching material is for example not accessible to blind people or rooms, where courses take place, are not accessible to people using a wheelchair. E-learning provides an opportunity to disabled people. With the new German law on the equalisation of opportunities for people with disabilities for the first time access to information technology was explicitly taken up in German legislation. As a consequence of this law the framework law on universities (Hochschulrahmengesetz) was changed. The law now commit universities not to discriminate disabled students in their studies. For references on how universities can design accessible e-learning contents and provide accessible information online see http://wob11.de/links/anleitungen.html#elearning.

Pedagogical quality in e-learning

The article is concerned with design and use of e-learning technology to develop education qualitatively. The purpose is to develop a framework for a pedagogical evaluation of e-learning technology. The approach is that evaluation and design must be grounded in a learning theoretical approach, and it is argued that it is necessary to make a reflection of technology in relation to activities, learning principles, and a learning theory in order to qualitatively develop education. The article presents three frameworks developed on the basis of cognitivism, radical constructivism and activity theory. Finally, on the basis of the frameworks, the article discusses e-learning technology and, more specifically, design of virtual learning environments and learning objects. It is argued that e-learning technology is not pedagogically neutral, and that it is therefore necessary to focus on design of technology that explicitly supports a certain pedagogical approach. Further, it is argued that design should direct its focus away from organisation of content and towards design of activities.

Berufsschulen auf dem Weg zum E-Learning

Das Primärziel des BLK-Modellversuchs „E-Learning zur Unterstützung des Lernfeldkonzepts (ELLFE)“ ist die Entwicklung und Ausgestaltung des Lernfeldkonzepts durch E-Learning-gestützte Lernsituationen. Der mediale Schwerpunkt soll erprobt werden, da angenommen wird, dass der Lernfeldunterricht durch die Potentiale des E-Learning flankiert werden kann. Der Artikel stellt neben den theoretischen Vorüberlegungen zu dem Projekt einige konkrete Umsetzungsbeispiele sowie gegenwärtige Evaluationsbefunde vor.

Optimizing the learning potential for the distance learning students

The distance learning programme has made its entrance into nursing education, and many see it as a break with the education’s traditions of teaching in the classroom, in practise rooms and at the patient’s bedside (Chaffin & Maddux 2004). Traditionally, many of the technical skills and personal qualities that nurses must acquire are learned through interaction with others. The distance learning programme has therefore given rise to some new problems and challenges, and this article discusses some of these. Empirically, the article builds on a comparative study of three student nurse classes from two Danish nursing schools, including one based on the distance learning programme. By following both distance learning and traditional nursing students in their clinical training, light is cast upon the differences and similarities that may exist in the clinical skills and competences that the students gain under the two programmes. Theoretically the article builds on Etienne Wengers theory on learning in communities of practice, focusing on the relationship between experience and competence in learning related communities of practice (Wenger 1998;Wenger 2004) . The article contributes with findings that are related to the differences between the programmes and the different types of students that each programme attracts. The article argues that an increased didactic and pedagogical focus upon the field of tension between experience and competence will enable an optimisation of the learning conditions of the distance learning students in their clinical teaching. The article, in conclusion, thus places focus on the questions surrounding teaching design in relation to the distance learning programme.

Berufsschulen auf dem Weg zum E-Learning

Das Primärziel des BLK-Modellversuchs „E-Learning zur Unterstützung des Lernfeldkonzepts (ELLFE)“ ist die Entwicklung und Ausgestaltung des Lernfeldkonzepts durch E-Learning-gestützte Lernsituationen. Der mediale Schwerpunkt soll erprobt werden, da angenommen wird, dass der Lernfeldunterricht durch die Potentiale des E-Learning flankiert werden kann. Der Artikel stellt neben den theoretischen Vorüberlegungen zu dem Projekt einige konkrete Umsetzungsbeispiele sowie gegenwärtige Evaluationsbefunde vor.

Constructing a user experience user experience-based mobile learning environment

Mobile learning, in the past defined as learning with mobile devices, now refers to any type of learning-on-the-go or learning that takes advantage of mobile technologies. This new definition shifted its focus from the mobility of technology to the mobility of the learner (O'Malley and Stanton 2002; Sharples, Arnedillo-Sanchez et al. 2009). Placing emphasis on the mobile learner’s perspective requires studying “how the mobility of learners augmented by personal and public technology can contribute to the process of gaining new knowledge, skills, and experience” (Sharples, Arnedillo-Sanchez et al. 2009). The demands of an increasingly knowledge based society and the advances in mobile phone technology are combining to spur the growth of mobile learning. Around the world, mobile learning is predicted to be the future of online learning, and is slowly entering the mainstream education. However, for mobile learning to attain its full potential, it is essential to develop more advanced technologies that are tailored to the needs of this new learning environment. A research field that allows putting the development of such technologies onto a solid basis is user experience design, which addresses how to improve usability and therefore user acceptance of a system. Although there is no consensus definition of user experience, simply stated it focuses on how a person feels about using a product, system or service. It is generally agreed that user experience adds subjective attributes and social aspects to a space that has previously concerned itself mainly with ease-of-use. In addition, it can include users’ perceptions of usability and system efficiency. Recent advances in mobile and ubiquitous computing technologies further underline the importance of human-computer interaction and user experience (feelings, motivations, and values) with a system. Today, there are plenty of reports on the limitations of mobile technologies for learning (e.g., small screen size, slow connection), but there is a lack of research on user experience with mobile technologies. This dissertation will fill in this gap by a new approach in building a user experience-based mobile learning environment. The optimized user experience we suggest integrates three priorities, namely a) content, by improving the quality of delivered learning materials, b) the teaching and learning process, by enabling live and synchronous learning, and c) the learners themselves, by enabling a timely detection of their emotional state during mobile learning. In detail, the contributions of this thesis are as follows: • A video codec optimized for screencast videos which achieves an unprecedented compression rate while maintaining a very high video quality, and a novel UI layout for video lectures, which together enable truly mobile access to live lectures. • A new approach in HTTP-based multimedia delivery that exploits the characteristics of live lectures in a mobile context and enables a significantly improved user experience for mobile live lectures. • A non-invasive affective learning model based on multi-modal emotion detection with very high recognition rates, which enables real-time emotion detection and subsequent adaption of the learning environment on mobile devices. The technology resulting from the research presented in this thesis is in daily use at the School of Continuing Education of Shanghai Jiaotong University (SOCE), a blended-learning institution with 35.000 students.

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.

Mobile Games for Learning

Today, pupils at the age of 15 have spent their entire life surrounded by and interacting with diverse forms of computers. It is a routine part of their day-to-day life and by now computer-literacy is common at very early age. Over the past five years, technology for teens has become predominantly mobile and ubiquitous within every aspect of their lives. To them, being online is an implicitness. In Germany, 88% of youth aged between 12-19 years own a smartphone and about 20% use the Internet via tablets. Meanwhile, more and more young learners bring their devices into the classroom and pupils increasingly demand for innovative and motivating learning scenarios that strongly respond to their habits of using media. With this development, a shift of paradigm is slowly under way with regard to the use of mobile technology in education. By now, a large body of literature exists, that reports concepts, use-cases and practical studies for effectively using technology in education. Within this field, a steadily growing body of research has developed that especially examines the use of digital games as instructional strategy. The core concern of this thesis is the design of mobile games for learning. The conditions and requirements that are vital in order to make mobile games suitable and effective for learning environments are investigated. The base for exploration is the pattern approach as an established form of templates that provide solutions for recurrent problems. Building on this acknowledged form of exchanging and re-using knowledge, patterns for game design are used to classify the many gameplay rules and mechanisms in existence. This research draws upon pattern descriptions to analyze learning game concepts and to abstract possible relationships between gameplay patterns and learning outcomes. The linkages that surface are the starting bases for a series of game design concepts and their implementations are subsequently evaluated with regard to learning outcomes. The findings and resulting knowledge from this research is made accessible by way of implications and recommendations for future design decisions.

The Future of Ubiquitous Learning

This book explores emerging pedagogical perspectives based on the design of new learning spaces supported by digital technologies and brings together some of the best research in this field. The book is divided into three themes: foundations of emerging pedagogies, learning designs for emerging pedagogies and, adaptive and personalized learning. The chapters provide up-to-date information about new pedagogical proposals, and examples for acquiring the requisite skills to both design and support learning opportunities that improve the potential of available technologies.

Learning in Virtual Worlds: Research and Applications

Three-dimensional (3D) immersive virtual worlds have been touted as being capable of facilitating highly interactive, engaging, multimodal learning experiences. Much of the evidence gathered to support these claims has been anecdotal but the potential that these environments hold to solve traditional problems in online and technology-mediated education—primarily learner isolation and student disengagement—has resulted in considerable investments in virtual world platforms like Second Life, OpenSimulator, and Open Wonderland by both professors and institutions. To justify this ongoing and sustained investment, institutions and proponents of simulated learning environments must assemble a robust body of evidence that illustrates the most effective use of this powerful learning tool. In this authoritative collection, a team of international experts outline the emerging trends and developments in the use of 3D virtual worlds for teaching and learning. They explore aspects of learner interaction with virtual worlds, such as user wayfinding in Second Life, communication modes and perceived presence, and accessibility issues for elderly or disabled learners. They also examine advanced technologies that hold potential for the enhancement of learner immersion and discuss best practices in the design and implementation of virtual world-based learning interventions and tasks. By evaluating and documenting different methods, approaches, and strategies, the contributors to Learning in Virtual Worlds offer important information and insight to both scholars and practitioners in the field. AU Press is an open access publisher and the book is available for free in PDF format as well as for purchase on our website: http://bit.ly/1W4yTRA

An innovative blended learning approach using virtual patients as preparation for skills laboratory training: perceptions of students and tutors

BACKGROUND Currently only a few reports exist on how to prepare medical students for skills laboratory training. We investigated how students and tutors perceive a blended learning approach using virtual patients (VPs) as preparation for skills training. METHODS Fifth-year medical students (N=617) were invited to voluntarily participate in a paediatric skills laboratory with four specially designed VPs as preparation. The cases focused on procedures in the laboratory using interactive questions, static and interactive images, and video clips. All students were asked to assess the VP design. After participating in the skills laboratory 310 of the 617 students were additionally asked to assess the blended learning approach through established questionnaires. Tutors' perceptions (N=9) were assessed by semi-structured interviews. RESULTS From the 617 students 1,459 VP design questionnaires were returned (59.1%). Of the 310 students 213 chose to participate in the skills laboratory; 179 blended learning questionnaires were returned (84.0%). Students provided high overall acceptance ratings of the VP design and blended learning approach. By using VPs as preparation, skills laboratory time was felt to be used more effectively. Tutors perceived students as being well prepared for the skills laboratory with efficient uses of time. CONCLUSION The overall acceptance of the blended learning approach was high among students and tutors. VPs proved to be a convenient cognitive preparation tool for skills training.

Implicit task sequence learning

Implicit task sequence learning (TSL) can be considered as an extension of implicit sequence learning which is typically tested with the classical serial reaction time task (SRTT). By design, in the SRTT there is a correlation between the sequence of stimuli to which participants must attend and the sequence of motor movements/key presses with which participants must respond. The TSL paradigm allows to disentangle this correlation and to separately manipulate the presences/absence of a sequence of tasks, a sequence of responses, and even other streams of information such as stimulus locations or stimulus-response mappings. Here I review the state of TSL research which seems to point at the critical role of the presence of correlated streams of information in implicit sequence learning. On a more general level, I propose that beyond correlated streams of information, a simple statistical learning mechanism may also be involved in implicit sequence learning, and that the relative contribution of these two explanations differ according to task requirements. With this differentiation, conflicting results can be integrated into a coherent framework.

A Student-Initiated Elective in Medical Ethics: Innovations in Design and Institutionalization

Introduction: This study addresses how to best approach the instruction and evaluation of clinical ethics with preclinical medical students. [See PDF for complete abstract]

Assessing the Influence of Brain-based Instructional Methods and Its Impact on Systemic Change for Learning Communities

Background: As scholars who prepare future school leaders to be innovative instructional leaders for their learning communities, we are on the verge of a curriculum design revolution. The application of brain research findings promotes educational reform efforts to systemically change the way in which children experience school. However, most educators, school leaders, board members, and policy makers are ill prepared to reconsider the implications for assessment, pedagogy, school climate, daily schedules, and use of technology. This qualitative study asked future school leaders to reconsider how school leadership preparedness programs prepared them to become instructional leaders for the 21st century. The findings from this study will enhance the field of school leadership, challenging the current emphasis placed on standardized testing, traditional school calendars, assessments, monocultural instructional methods, and meeting the needs of diverse learning communities. [See PDF for complete abstract]