A B-learning strategy for Therapeutics at the Bachelor Level

Background Information:The incorporation of distance learning activities by institutions of higher education is considered an important contribution to create new opportunities for teaching at both, initial and continuing training. In Medicine and Nursing, several papers illustrate the adaptation of technological components and teaching methods are prolific, however, when we look at the Pharmaceutical Education area, the examples are scarce. In that sense this project demonstrates the implementation and assessment of a B-Learning Strategy for Therapeutics using a “case based learning” approach. Setting: Academic Pharmacy Methods:This is an exploratory study involving 2nd year students of the Pharmacy Degree at the School of Allied Health Sciences of Oporto. The study population consists of 61 students, divided in groups of 3-4 elements. The b-learning model was implemented during a time period of 8 weeks. Results:A B-learning environment and digital learning objects were successfully created and implemented. Collaboration and assessment techniques were carefully developed to ensure the active participation and fair assessment of all students. Moodle records show a consistent activity of students during the assignments. E-portfolios were also developed using Wikispaces, which promoted reflective writing and clinical reasoning. Conclusions:Our exploratory study suggests that the “case based learning” method can be successfully combined with the technological components to create and maintain a feasible online learning environment for the teaching of therapeutics.

Expert supervision based on cases

The paper focuses on taking advantage of large amounts of data that are systematically stored in plants (by means of SCADA systems), but not exploited enough in order to achieve supervisory goals (fault detection, diagnosis and reconfiguration). The methodology of case base reasoning (CBR) is proposed to perform supervisory tasks in industrial processes by re-using the stored data. The goal is to take advantage of experiences, registered in a suitable structure as cam, avoiding the tedious task of knowledge acquisition and representation needed by other reasoning techniques as expert systems. An outlook of CBR terminology and basic concepts are presented. The adaptation of CBR in performing expert supervisory tasks, taking into account the particularities and difficulties derived from dynamic systems, is discussed. A special interest is focused in proposing a general case definition suitable for supervisory tasks. Finally, this structure and the whole methodology is tested in a application example for monitoring a real drier chamber

Online teaching of inflammatory skin pathology by a French-speaking International University Network

INTRODUCTION: Developments in technology, web-based teaching and whole slide imaging have broadened the teaching horizon in anatomic pathology. Creating online learning material including many types of media such as radiologic images, whole slides, videos, clinical and macroscopic photographs, is now accessible to most universities. Unfortunately, a major limiting factor to maintain and update the learning material is the amount of resources needed. In this perspective, a French-national university network was initiated in 2011 to build joint online teaching modules consisting of clinical cases and tests. The network has since expanded internationally to Québec, Switzerland and Ivory Coast. METHOD: One of the first steps of the project was to build a learning module on inflammatory skin pathology for interns and residents in pathology and dermatology. A pathology resident from Québec spent 6 weeks in France and Switzerland to develop the contents and build the module on an e-learning Moodle platform under the supervision of two dermatopathologists. The learning module contains text, interactive clinical cases, tests with feedback, virtual slides, images and clinical photographs. For that module, the virtual slides are decentralized in 2 universities (Bordeaux and Paris 7). Each university is responsible of its own slide scanning, image storage and online display with virtual slide viewers. RESULTS: The module on inflammatory skin pathology includes more than 50 web pages with French original content, tests and clinical cases, links to over 45 virtual images and more than 50 microscopic and clinical photographs. The whole learning module is being revised by four dermatopathologists and two senior pathologists. It will be accessible to interns and residents in the spring of 2014. The experience and knowledge gained from that work will be transferred to the next international resident whose work will be aimed at creating lung and breast pathology learning modules. CONCLUSION: The challenges of sustaining a project of this scope are numerous. The technical aspect of whole-slide imaging and storage needs to be developed by each university or group. The content needs to be regularly updated and its accuracy reviewed by experts in each individual domain. The learning modules also need to be promoted within the academic community to ensure maximal benefit for trainees. A collateral benefit of the project was the establishment of international partnerships between French-speaking universities and pathologists with the common goal of promoting pathology education through the use of multi-media technology including whole slide imaging.

Online teaching of inflammatory skin pathology by a French-speaking International University Network.

INTRODUCTION: Developments in technology, web-based teaching and whole slide imaging have broadened the teaching horizon in anatomic pathology. Creating online learning material including many types of media such as radiologic images, whole slides, videos, clinical and macroscopic photographs, is now accessible to most universities. Unfortunately, a major limiting factor to maintain and update the learning material is the amount of resources needed. In this perspective, a French-national university network was initiated in 2011 to build joint online teaching modules consisting of clinical cases and tests. The network has since expanded internationally to Québec, Switzerland and Ivory Coast. METHOD: One of the first steps of the project was to build a learning module on inflammatory skin pathology for interns and residents in pathology and dermatology. A pathology resident from Québec spent 6 weeks in France and Switzerland to develop the contents and build the module on an e-learning Moodle platform under the supervision of two dermatopathologists. The learning module contains text, interactive clinical cases, tests with feedback, virtual slides, images and clinical photographs. For that module, the virtual slides are decentralized in 2 universities (Bordeaux and Paris 7). Each university is responsible of its own slide scanning, image storage and online display with virtual slide viewers. RESULTS: The module on inflammatory skin pathology includes more than 50 web pages with French original content, tests and clinical cases, links to over 45 virtual images and more than 50 microscopic and clinical photographs. The whole learning module is being revised by four dermatopathologists and two senior pathologists. It will be accessible to interns and residents in the spring of 2014. The experience and knowledge gained from that work will be transferred to the next international resident whose work will be aimed at creating lung and breast pathology learning modules. CONCLUSION: The challenges of sustaining a project of this scope are numerous. The technical aspect of whole-slide imaging and storage needs to be developed by each university or group. The content needs to be regularly updated and its accuracy reviewed by experts in each individual domain. The learning modules also need to be promoted within the academic community to ensure maximal benefit for trainees. A collateral benefit of the project was the establishment of international partnerships between French-speaking universities and pathologists with the common goal of promoting pathology education through the use of multi-media technology including whole slide imaging.

Using a blog to create and support a Community of Inquiry in Secondary Education

Understanding how blogs can support collaborative learning is a vital concern for researchers and teachers. This paper explores how blogs may be used to support Secondary Education students’ collaborative interaction and how such an interaction process can promote the creation of a Community of Inquiry to enhance critical thinking and meaningful learning. We designed, implemented and evaluated a science case-based project in which fifteen secondary students participated. Students worked in the science blogging project during 4 months. We asked students to be collaboratively engaged in purposeful critical discourse and reflection in their blogs in order to solve collectively science challenges and construct meaning about topics related to Astronomy and Space Sciences. Through student comments posted in the blog, our findings showed that the blog environment afforded the construction of a Community of Inquiry and therefore the creation of an effective online collaborative learning community. In student blog comments, the three presences for collaborative learning took place: cognitive, social, and teaching presence. Moreover, our research found a positive correlation among the three presences –cognitive, social and teaching– of the Community of Inquiry model with the level of learning obtained by the students. We discuss a series of issues that instructors should consider when blogs are incorporated into teaching and learning. We claim that embedded scaffolds to help students to argue and reason their comments in the blog are required to foster blog-supported collaborative learning.

Verkko-opetuksen hyödyntäminen öljyketjun henkilöstön koulutuksessa

Osaamisen katoaminen on todellinen uhka tämän päivän yrityksille. Ihmiset siirtyvät entistä helpommin yrityksestä toiseen, vanhat työntekijät jäävät eläkkeelle, uusien työntekijöiden rekrytointi on jäänyt viime tippaan jne. Yritykset tarvitsevat osaamista, joka säilyy organisaatiossa ja jota voi helposti siirtää ihmiseltä toiselle mahdollisimman lyhyessä ajassa. Tähän tietotekniikan kehittyminen avaa uusia mahdollisuuksia. Sen avulla voidaan tietoa jakaa laajemmallekin joukolle ja ohjata koulutusta tarvittaville alueille. Hyväkään tietotekniikka ei kuitenkaan muuta sitä tosiasiaa, että jokaisen tulee edelleen käydä oppimisprosessi henkilökohtaisesti läpi oppiakseen uusia asioita. Tämän työn tavoitteena oli kehittää malliratkaisu öljyketjun henkilöstön verkkoopiskelumateriaalista. Työssä oli tarkoitus myös ottaa kantaa verkko-opetuksen käyttöönottoon, sillä liian moni yritys on pilannut mahdollisuutensa juuri käyttöönottovaiheessa. Esimerkkityönä valmistui öljyketjua kuvaava kurssi, jota on tarkoitus käyttää henkilöstön öljyketjutietämyksen lisäämiseen, uusien työntekijöiden alkuperehdytykseen sekä jaettavaksi eri oppilaitoksille.

Webdatanet : Innovation and quality in web-based data collection

The article discusses the development of WEBDATANET established in 2011 which aims to create a multidisciplinary network of web-based data collection experts in Europe. Topics include the presence of 190 experts in 30 European countries and abroad, the establishment of web-based teaching and discussion platforms and working groups and task forces. Also discussed is the scope of the research carried by WEBDATANET. In light of the growing importance of web-based data in the social and behavioral sciences, WEBDATANET was established in 2011 as a COST Action (IS 1004) to create a multidisciplinary network of web-based data collection experts: (web) survey methodologists, psychologists, sociologists, linguists, economists, Internet scientists, media and public opinion researchers. The aim was to accumulate and synthesize knowledge regarding methodological issues of web-based data collection (surveys, experiments, tests, non-reactive data, and mobile Internet research), and foster its scientific usage in a broader community.

Design and Development of an Adaptable Frame -Based System for Dravidian Language Processing

This work is aimed at building an adaptable frame-based system for processing Dravidian languages. There are about 17 languages in this family and they are spoken by the people of South India.Karaka relations are one of the most important features of Indian languages. They are the semabtuco-syntactic relations between verbs and other related constituents in a sentence. The karaka relations and surface case endings are analyzed for meaning extraction. This approach is comparable with the borad class of case based grammars.The efficiency of this approach is put into test in two applications. One is machine translation and the other is a natural language interface (NLI) for information retrieval from databases. The system mainly consists of a morphological analyzer, local word grouper, a parser for the source language and a sentence generator for the target language. This work make contributios like, it gives an elegant account of the relation between vibhakthi and karaka roles in Dravidian languages. This mapping is elegant and compact. The same basic thing also explains simple and complex sentence in these languages. This suggests that the solution is not just ad hoc but has a deeper underlying unity. This methodology could be extended to other free word order languages. Since the frame designed for meaning representation is general, they are adaptable to other languages coming in this group and to other applications.

Enseñar estrategias de razonamiento y pensamiento crítico enfermero a los alumnos de grado: el qué y el cómo

La enseñanza basada en las competencias es más compleja que la aplicación de saberes y la realización de casos prácticos específicos, puesto que es necesario ejecutar también las operaciones mentales abstractas que permitan al estudiante consolidar los conocimientos, y demostrar las habilidades y las actitudes necesarias para ser competente. Para que el alumno universitario aprenda este proceso debe, en primer lugar, ser consciente de esta necesidad y debe saber identificar las operaciones mentales implicadas y saber representarlas o expresarlas de forma manuscrita o esquematizada. Estas operaciones no son, según alumnos y profesores, tareas fáciles, pero si son, sin embargo, elementos que se perciben como muy necesarios para aprender estrategias de razonamiento y pensamiento crítico que repercutirán positivamente en la calidad de los cuidados de enfermería realizados en el paciente y en la comunidad en un futuro más o menos próximo. La asignatura optativa de tercer curso Resolución de casos desde un enfoque enfermero del Departamento de Enfermería Fundamental y Medico-quirúrgica de la Universidad de Barcelona nace con la intención de dar respuesta a la necesidad del estudiante de mejorar sus habilidades profesionales enseñando el marco teórico de estrategias de razonamiento clínicos para resolver casos simulados del entorno sanitario y profesional, de forma más efectiva y completa. La presente comunicación tiene por objetivos principales presentar el marco teórico que sustenta el proyecto docente implementado y exponer las características metodológicas desarrolladas

Expert supervision based on cases

The paper focuses on taking advantage of large amounts of data that are systematically stored in plants (by means of SCADA systems), but not exploited enough in order to achieve supervisory goals (fault detection, diagnosis and reconfiguration). The methodology of case base reasoning (CBR) is proposed to perform supervisory tasks in industrial processes by re-using the stored data. The goal is to take advantage of experiences, registered in a suitable structure as cam, avoiding the tedious task of knowledge acquisition and representation needed by other reasoning techniques as expert systems. An outlook of CBR terminology and basic concepts are presented. The adaptation of CBR in performing expert supervisory tasks, taking into account the particularities and difficulties derived from dynamic systems, is discussed. A special interest is focused in proposing a general case definition suitable for supervisory tasks. Finally, this structure and the whole methodology is tested in a application example for monitoring a real drier chamber

A dynamic knowledge-based decision support system to handle solids separation problems in activated sludge systems: development and validation

El sistema de fangs activats és el tractament biològic més àmpliament utilitzat arreu del món per la depuració d'aigües residuals. El seu funcionament depèn de la correcta operació tant del reactor biològic com del decantador secundari. Quan la fase de sedimentació no es realitza correctament, la biomassa no decantada s'escapa amb l'efluent causant un impacte sobre el medi receptor. Els problemes de separació de sòlids, són actualment una de les principals causes d'ineficiència en l'operació dels sistemes de fangs activats arreu del món. Inclouen: bulking filamentós, bulking viscós, escumes biològiques, creixement dispers, flòcul pin-point i desnitrificació incontrolada. L'origen dels problemes de separació generalment es troba en un desequilibri entre les principals comunitats de microorganismes implicades en la sedimentació de la biomassa: els bacteris formadors de flòcul i els bacteris filamentosos. Degut a aquest origen microbiològic, la seva identificació i control no és una tasca fàcil pels caps de planta. Els Sistemes de Suport a la Presa de Decisions basats en el coneixement (KBDSS) són un grup d'eines informàtiques caracteritzades per la seva capacitat de representar coneixement heurístic i tractar grans quantitats de dades. L'objectiu de la present tesi és el desenvolupament i validació d'un KBDSS específicament dissenyat per donar suport als caps de planta en el control dels problemes de separació de sòlids d'orígen microbiològic en els sistemes de fangs activats. Per aconseguir aquest objectiu principal, el KBDSS ha de presentar les següents característiques: (1) la implementació del sistema ha de ser viable i realista per garantir el seu correcte funcionament; (2) el raonament del sistema ha de ser dinàmic i evolutiu per adaptar-se a les necessitats del domini al qual es vol aplicar i (3) el raonament del sistema ha de ser intel·ligent. En primer lloc, a fi de garantir la viabilitat del sistema, s'ha realitzat un estudi a petita escala (Catalunya) que ha permès determinar tant les variables més utilitzades per a la diagnosi i monitorització dels problemes i els mètodes de control més viables, com la detecció de les principals limitacions que el sistema hauria de resoldre. Els resultats d'anteriors aplicacions han demostrat que la principal limitació en el desenvolupament de KBDSSs és l'estructura de la base de coneixement (KB), on es representa tot el coneixement adquirit sobre el domini, juntament amb els processos de raonament a seguir. En el nostre cas, tenint en compte la dinàmica del domini, aquestes limitacions es podrien veure incrementades si aquest disseny no fos òptim. En aquest sentit, s'ha proposat el Domino Model com a eina per dissenyar conceptualment el sistema. Finalment, segons el darrer objectiu referent al seguiment d'un raonament intel·ligent, l'ús d'un Sistema Expert (basat en coneixement expert) i l'ús d'un Sistema de Raonament Basat en Casos (basat en l'experiència) han estat integrats com els principals sistemes intel·ligents encarregats de dur a terme el raonament del KBDSS. Als capítols 5 i 6 respectivament, es presenten el desenvolupament del Sistema Expert dinàmic (ES) i del Sistema de Raonament Basat en Casos temporal, anomenat Sistema de Raonament Basat en Episodis (EBRS). A continuació, al capítol 7, es presenten detalls de la implementació del sistema global (KBDSS) en l'entorn G2. Seguidament, al capítol 8, es mostren els resultats obtinguts durant els 11 mesos de validació del sistema, on aspectes com la precisió, capacitat i utilitat del sistema han estat validats tant experimentalment (prèviament a la implementació) com a partir de la seva implementació real a l'EDAR de Girona. Finalment, al capítol 9 s'enumeren les principals conclusions derivades de la present tesi.

Criterios para el análisis, selección, secuenciación y organización de los contenidos educativos en el currículo: aplicación a la secuenciación de contenidos de biología en la educación primaria

L'objectiu bàsic d'aquesta investigació es elaborar una proposta de criteris útil per a l'elaboració i revisió de les seqüències de continguts educatius al currículum. Per dur-lo a terme, s'han desenvolupat les tasques següents: - Revisió critica de les diferents aportacions al tema des de la psicologia, l'epis¬temologia i la didàctica. - Elaboració d'un conjunt de criteris, fonamentals i relacionats, per orientar el professorat i els dissenyadors de currículums i materials curriculars en la presa de decisions sobre la manera de presentar i desenvolupar els continguts educatius en els plans d'ensenyament, englobant de manera simultània les dife¬rents variables que intervenen. - Estudi d'un cas en el qual un equip docent d'Educació Primària elabora una seqüència educativa per a l'estudi dels essers vius, i l'experimenta a l'aula, ba¬sant-se en la proposta de criteris realitzada. L'estudi del cas ha cobert un període de quatre anys de treball conjunt de l'investigador i l'equip docent. Hipòtesis de treball: L'establiment d'un conjunt de criteris explícits que orientin l'anàlisi i l'elaboració de seqüències de continguts educatius per part dels equips docents pot ajudar a millorar el disseny i el desenvolupament del currículum als centres. Se suposa que els criteris esmentats: 1. Proporcionaran als docents una millor comprensió dels continguts educatius que ensenyen, de la seva estructura lògica i psicològica i, en conseqüència dels as¬pectes més rellevants per a l'ensenyament. 2. Situaran el professorat en unes millors condicions per elaborar seqüències d'ensenyament fonamentades i progressives. 3. Facilitaran l'adaptació de Is continguts educatius a les capacitats, el conei¬xements i les experiències prèvies de l'alumnat. 4. Afavoriran una presentació dels continguts a l'alumnat més organitzada i relacionada. 5. Comentaran un tractament mes equilibrat i integrat dels diferents tipus de continguts. Conclusions: - Els criteris proposats s'han mostrat útils i coherents per ajudar a analitzar i reconduir les seqüències educatives, mitjançant hipòtesis explícites fonamentades que els donin més coherència. - El tipus d'intervenció realitzada i la metodologia utilitzada en l'estudi del cas, basades a l'observació participant s'han mostrat útils per tractar els pro¬blemes plantejats. - Els resultats del treball realitzat tenen repercussions en la formació inicial i permanent del professorat i en el disseny dels currículums i materials curri¬culars. D'una altra banda, la seva generalització faria necessari la seva rèplica en altres etapes i àrees curriculars.

A hybrid approach of knowledge-based reasoning for structural assessment

La idea básica de detección de defectos basada en vibraciones en Monitorización de la Salud Estructural (SHM), es que el defecto altera las propiedades de rigidez, masa o disipación de energía de un sistema, el cual, altera la respuesta dinámica del mismo. Dentro del contexto de reconocimiento de patrones, esta tesis presenta una metodología híbrida de razonamiento para evaluar los defectos en las estructuras, combinando el uso de un modelo de la estructura y/o experimentos previos con el esquema de razonamiento basado en el conocimiento para evaluar si el defecto está presente, su gravedad y su localización. La metodología involucra algunos elementos relacionados con análisis de vibraciones, matemáticas (wavelets, control de procesos estadístico), análisis y procesamiento de señales y/o patrones (razonamiento basado en casos, redes auto-organizativas), estructuras inteligentes y detección de defectos. Las técnicas son validadas numérica y experimentalmente considerando corrosión, pérdida de masa, acumulación de masa e impactos. Las estructuras usadas durante este trabajo son: una estructura tipo cercha voladiza, una viga de aluminio, dos secciones de tubería y una parte del ala de un avión comercial.

An analytic knowledge network process for construction entrepreneurship education

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a quantitative multicriteria decision-making approach to knowledge management in construction entrepreneurship education by means of an analytic knowledge network process (KANP) Design/methodology/approach- The KANP approach in the study integrates a standard industrial classification with the analytic network process (ANP). For the construction entrepreneurship education, a decision-making model named KANP.CEEM is built to apply the KANP method in the evaluation of teaching cases to facilitate the case method, which is widely adopted in entrepreneurship education at business schools. Findings- The study finds that there are eight clusters and 178 nodes in the KANP.CEEM model, and experimental research on the evaluation of teaching cases discloses that the KANP method is effective in conducting knowledge management to the entrepreneurship education. Research limitations/implications- As an experimental research, this paper ignores the concordance between a selected standard classification and others, which perhaps limits the usefulness of KANP.CEEM model elsewhere. Practical implications- As the KANP.CEEM model is built based on the standard classification codes and the embedded ANP, it is thus expected that the model has a wide potential in evaluating knowledge-based teaching materials for any education purpose with a background from the construction industry, and can be used by both faculty and students. Originality/value- This paper fulfils a knowledge management need and offers a practical tool for an academic starting out on the development of knowledge-based teaching cases and other teaching materials or for a student going through the case studies and other learning materials.

‘Purpose’ as a way of helping white trainee history teachers engage with diversity issues

Based on a three year action research project, this study examines one strand of that research, namely the impact that ‘purpose’, i.e. exploring the range of rationales for studying a subject, has in helping white trainee teachers embrace cultural and ethnic diversity within their teaching. Through ‘purpose’ trainees explored different reasons why history should be taught (and by implication what content should be taught and how it should be taught) and the relationship of these reasons to diversity. Focusing on ‘purpose’ appears to have a positive impact on many trainees from white, mono-ethnic backgrounds, enabling them to bring diversity into the school curriculum, in this case history teaching. It offers one way to counter concerns about issues of ‘whiteness’ in the teaching profession and by teaching a more relevant curriculum has a potential positive impact on the achievement of students from minority ethnic backgrounds.