Derby Adult Learning Service case study

Case study on how peer support tutor service leads to embedded use of technology in curriculum activities

Leicestershire Adult Learning Service case study

Case study on an integrated approach to staff development using supported experiments and coaching techniques

Organisatorische Umsetzung eines E-Learning-Konzepts einer Hochschule am Beispiel des Zentrums virtUOS der Universität Osnabrück

Die ELAN-Initiative des Landes Niedersachsen treibt zurzeit den vermehrten Einsatz moderner E-Learning-Konzepte in Form dreier Pilotprojekte mit dem Ziel voran, landesweit ein akademisches Kompetenznetzwerk aufzubauen. Sämtliche Hochschulen des Landes sollen von den Kompetenzen der jeweils anderen Universitäten und Fachhochschulen profitieren und die Lehre damit effizienter gestalten. Die an einem dieser Piloten beteiligte Universität Osnabrück nahm die Initiative zum Anlass, ein neues Dienstleistungszentrum zu gründen, dessen Aufgabe sich durch die Unterstützung der multi- und telemedialen Lehre definiert. Dieser Beitrag gibt einen Einblick in die Organisation dieses Zentrums, dessen Forschungs- und Dienstleistungen und zeigt die daraus resultierenden Vorteile auf. (DIPF/Orig.)

Assessment of faculty training program for the use of e-learning platforms: analysis of current use

5th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (Barcelona, Spain. 1-3 July, 2013)

Development of project management procedures for customer project business

Objective of the thesis is to develop project management procedure for chilled beam projects. In organization is recognized that project management techniques could help in large and complex projects. Information sharing have been challenging in projects, so improvement of information sharing is one key topic of the thesis. Academic researches and literature are used to find suitable project management theories and methods. Main theories are related to phases of the project and project management tools. Practical knowledge of project management is collected from two project business oriented companies. Project management tools are chosen and modified to fulfill needs of the beam projects. Result of the thesis is proposed project management procedure, which includes phases of the chilled beam projects and project milestones. Project management procedure helps to recognize the most critical phases of the project and tools help to manage information of the project. Procedure increases knowledge of the project management techniques and tools. It also forms coherent project management working method among the chilled beam project group.

Avaliação em educação - que desafios?

Neste artigo, começo por questionar-me sobre o que é a avaliação, qual o seu contributo para o mundo da educação, partindo da leitura de alguns teóricos e estudiosos que têm vindo a debruçar-se sobre esta temática / problemática. Num segundo momento, confronto-me com experiências vivenciadas ao longo da minha história de vida pessoal/profissional, para, uma vez retratadas/estudadas/avaliadas, desencadear uma interacção com as teorias convocadas. O questionamento é orientado no sentido de identificar e compreender a avaliação em termos da de estratégias a implementar a nível institucional e de vias a abrir para o sucesso escolar / académico. Estão, pois, em causa, as condições institucionais que viabilizam o processo de ensino, o processo que ao professor cabe organizar para criar condições para o aprimoramento das aprendizagens dos estudantes. A teoria é abordada; dois estudos de caso em tempos e contextos diferentes são focalizados – narrados/estudados/avaliados; a dialéctica é estabelecida – questionando a(s) praxis pela(s) teoria(s) convocadas; surge, então, em consequência, a oportunidade das reflexões e prospecções, para um novo tempo e num contexto outro, sempre orientadas para uma acção/avaliação que leve ao aprimoramento das aprendizagens.

Learning from the lagoon: Research in development in Solomon Islands

A major challenge for international agricultural research is to find ways to improve the nutrition and incomes of people left behind by the Green Revolution. To better address the needs of the most marginal and vulnerable people, the CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) developed the research-in-development (RinD) approach. In 2012, WorldFish started to implement RinD in Solomon Islands. By building people’s capacity to analyze and address development problems, actively engaging relevant stakeholders, and linking research to these processes, RinD aims to develop an alternative approach to addressing hunger and poverty. This report describes the key principles and implementation process, and assesses the emergent outcomes of this participatory, systems-oriented and transformative research approach in Solomon Islands.

Learning Sustainability with EPS@ISEP – Development of an Insectarium

8th International Symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education (PAEE)

Qualidade, formação e ensino à distância: uma aplicação da NP 4512 numa unidade de E-learning

A implementação de sistemas de gestão da qualidade na área da educação e formação permite reforçar e consolidar as organizações que atuam num mercado cada vez mais competitivo, permitindo-lhes satisfazer, numa base permanente e sistemática, as expetativas dos clientes através do fornecimento de produtos de formação de melhor qualidade. Neste contexto, o objetivo deste estudo é explorar a temática dos sistemas de gestão da qualidade ao nível do setor de educação. Em específico pretende-se efetuar uma revisão de literatura sobre qualidade, formação e ensino à distância;analisar normas, projetos e iniciativas em matéria de ensino à distância e implementar um Sistema de Gestão da Formação, de acordo com a NP 4512, numa unidade de e-learning. A metodologia adotada foi investigação–ação e centrou-se no levantamento bibliográfico e na aplicação dos conceitos num contexto específico de um organização de ensino. Foi escolhida a unidade de e-learning do IPP (e-IPP) como contexto do estudo por ser uma unidade de ensino superior. Os principais resultados obtidos são: (1) maior conhecimento das normas projetos e iniciativas em matéria de ensino à distância a nível nacional e europeu; (2) análise detalhada da recente norma portuguesa NP 4512; (3) elaboração da documentação associada ao Sistema de Gestão da Formação (SGF) na unidade e-IPP, em específico, identificação e monitorização dos processos, descrição dos procedimentos obrigatórios e elaboração do manual do SGF. Como principal limitação deste estudo destaca-se a implementação parcial do sistema de gestão da formação na unidade e-IPP, devido à falta de tempo e à falta de maturidade da unidade e-IPP.

Learning by failure in entrepreneurship - Case study of selling Xylitol to Poland

My thesis aim is to find out what factors that can explain the entrepreneurial failure in my own entrepreneurial venture to sell Finnish xylitol product to Poland. In addition I seek to answer to the question of why Finnish xylitol products are not sold in Poland. This area has not been studied prior to my thesis. The study method is case study. Data collection is based on auto-ethnographic method where field notes and documents generated from my business venture were used. I discovered that Polish consumers are not exposed to consumer education of xylitol health benefits. The underlying potential in xylitol products expansion from Finland to foreign countries is still mostly unleveraged. My business venture failed because I was not able to convince Finnish confectionery companies Fazer and Cloetta to give enough support for my project. Polish dentists were also opposed having a competitor from Finland to Wrighley company which dominates the Polish confectionery markets.

Towards an understanding of Pakistani undergraduates’ current attitudes towards learning and speaking English

The English language has an important place in Pakistan and in its education system, not least because of the global status of English and its role in employment. Realising the need to enhance language learning outcomes, especially at the tertiary level, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has put in place some important measures to improve the quality of English language teaching practice through its English Language Teaching Reforms (ELTR) project. However, there is a complex linguistic, educational and ethnic diversity in Pakistan and that diversity, alongside the historical and current role of English in the country, makes any language teaching reform particularly challenging. I argue, in this thesis, that reform to date has largely ignored the issues of learner readiness to learn and learner perceptions of the use of English. I argue that studying learner attitudes is important if we are to understand how learners perceive the practice of learning and the use of English in their lives. This study focuses on the attitudes of undergraduate learners of English as a foreign language at two universities in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan in Pakistan. These provinces have experienced long struggles and movements related to linguistic and ethnic rights and both educate students from all of the districts of their respective provinces. Drawing on debates around linguistic imperialism, economic necessity, and linguistic and educational diversity, I focus on learners’ perceptions about learning and speaking English, asking what their attitudes are towards learning and speaking English with particular reference to socio-psychological factors at a given time and context, including perceived threats to their culture, religion, and mother tongue. I ask how they make choices about learning and speaking English in different domains of language use and question their motivation to learn and speak English. Additionally, I explore issues of anxiety with reference to their use of English. Following a predominantly qualitative mixed methods research approach, the study employs two research tools: an adapted Likert Scale questionnaire completed by 300 students and semi-structured interviews with 20 participants from the two universities. The data were analysed through descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis, with each set of data synthesised for interpretation. The findings suggest that, compared with the past, the majority of participants hold positive attitudes towards learning and speaking English regardless of their ethnic or linguistic backgrounds. Most of these undergraduate students do not perceive the use of English as a threat to their culture, mother tongue or religious values but, instead, they have a pragmatic and, at the same time, aspirational attitude to the learning and use of English. I present these results and conclude this thesis with reference to ways in which this small-scale study contributes to a better understanding of learner attitudes and perceptions. Acknowledging the limitations of this study, I suggest ways in which the study, enhanced and extended by further research, might have implications for practice, theory and policy in English language teaching and learning in Pakistan.

Self-regulated learning in higher education : strategies adopted by computer programming students

Trabalho apresentado em PAEE/ALE’2016, 8th International Symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education (PAEE) and 14th Active Learning in Engineering Education Workshop (ALE)

O museu virtual Google Art Project : um estudo de caso em contexto de ensino-aprendizagem da educação visual

A educação na arte e pela arte confere a todos os seus intervenientes a estimulação da sua criatividade e da sua consciência cultural, proporcionando meios para se exprimirem e participarem ativamente no mundo que nos rodeia. A integração das tecnologias de informação e comunicação no processo de ensino-aprendizagem veio alargar o papel que a arte pode desempenhar neste processo, promovendo novas formas de aprender, de ensinar e de pensar. Assim, a utilização de ambientes virtuais em contexto educativo tem revelado um enorme potencial, sobretudo ao nível da comunicação e da interação entre alunos e obras de arte. Neste sentido, considerou-se importante desenvolver um estudo de caso em contexto de sala de aula da Educação Visual, promovendo uma aprendizagem baseada na articulação entre a observação, interpretação e análise da obra de arte e o museu virtual. Assim o principal objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar as potencialidades do Google Art Project, enquanto objeto de aprendizagem, na promoção da aprendizagem na área da literacia em artes. Para além disso, procurámos ainda avaliar se a utilização de ferramentas multimédia como o referido Google Art Project e o Quadro Interativo, constituem fatores de motivação na aprendizagem da disciplina de Educação Visual. Do ponto de vista metodológico desenvolvemos uma estratégia baseada na investigação-ação. Procurámos, por um lado, descobrir e compreender o significado de uma realidade vivida por um grupo de alunos e, por outro lado, refletir sobre a prática educativa com o intuito de a melhorar e transformar. Este estudo envolveu cinco turmas do sexto ano do ensino público. Para a recolha de dados utilizámos técnicas baseadas na conversação e na observação, no questionário e nas notas de campo. Os resultados deste estudo revelam que as ferramentas tecnológicas utilizadas podem efetivamente contribuir para a promoção da aprendizagem dos alunos na área da Educação Visual, mais concretamente ao nível do domínio da literacia artística, da representação e da interpretação visual.

Community School of São Miguel de Machede: A decade of Learning

the Community School of São Miguel de Machede exists since 1998. A model of Community Education has been developed in this decade of existence, which not being confined to the frequent profiles of the most common approaches in Adult Education, has been the result of a process of symbiosis between a practice that normally precedes the conceptualization and a thought which has always expressed the concern of interpreting and enrich that practice. Setting on a model of learning based on the PADéCA – Program of Helping the Development of the Capacity to Learn, proposed by Berbaum (1988), the Community School of São Miguel de Machede has been developing several activities centred on a fundamental concern: to create easy and qualified accesses, in this community (council of Evora), so that the respective members can learn to exercise their principal rights of citizenship, in the territory where they live and in a circumstance of equality of opportunities in relation to the remaining fellow countrymen. Being a project with a decade of life, it is now possible to speak of a history full of stories and learning experiences, which occurred as a result of a rich interaction between the initial thoughts and impulses of the theoretical approaches and a reality full of unexpectedness, mutability and humanity resulting from the complexity that a living community presents, with a history and a present, but not always with clear and positive idea about the respective future.

Synchronization of Heteroclinic Circuits Through Learning in Chains of Neural Motifs

The synchronization of oscillatory activity in networks of neural networks is usually implemented through coupling the state variables describing neuronal dynamics. In this study we discuss another but complementary mechanism based on a learning process with memory. A driver network motif, acting as a teacher, exhibits winner-less competition (WLC) dynamics, while a driven motif, a learner, tunes its internal couplings according to the oscillations observed in the teacher. We show that under appropriate training the learner motif can dynamically copy the coupling pattern of the teacher and thus synchronize oscillations with the teacher. Then, we demonstrate that the replication of the WLC dynamics occurs for intermediate memory lengths only. In a unidirectional chain of N motifs coupled through teacher-learner paradigm the time interval required for pattern replication grows linearly with the chain size, hence the learning process does not blow up and at the end we observe phase synchronized oscillations along the chain. We also show that in a learning chain closed into a ring the network motifs come to a consensus, i.e. to a state with the same connectivity pattern corresponding to the mean initial pattern averaged over all network motifs.