QUALITEL : Qualitat Docent als estudis d'Enginyeria de Telecomunicació

L'objectiu del projecte QUALITEL dut a terme durant el curs 2007/2008 fou millorar l'aprenentatge dels estudiants de primer curs (fase selectiva) d'enginyeria de telecomunicació de l'ETSETB, introduint una nova metodologia docent basada en l'EEES. Es a dir, programació del treball de l'estudiant dins i fora de l'aula, increment de la interacció entre el professors i els seus estudiants mitjançant un sistema de tutories i la utilització d'eines de suport a l'aprenentatge com la utilització del Campus Digital ATENEA. La millora de l'aprenentatge s'hauria de traduir en un augment significatiu del percentatge d'aprovats a la fase selectiva que permetés capgirar la dinàmica de l'ETSETB en els darrers anys que ha sofert una davallada molt important d'estudiants matriculats. Aquesta davallada es va originar per una disminució de la demanda dels nostres estudis, la qual va provocar una baixada de la nota de tall que, a la seva vegada, va comportar un elevat fracàs a la fase selectiva.

Framework for Junior Cycle - Full Report

The Framework for Junior Cycle (The Framework) was published in October 2012. It is based on the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment’s advice to the Department as set out in Towards a Framework for Junior Cycle (November 2011) and on research into education for our young people aged 12 to 15 / 16 years. The Framework document can be downloaded from www.education.ie and www.ncca. The mission of the Department of Education and Skills (DES) is “to enable learners to achieve their full potential and contribute to Ireland’s economic, social and cultural development”. By placing students at the centre of the educational experience, the DES wants to ensure that junior cycle education will improve learning experiences and outcomes. The implementation of the Framework for Junior Cycle will enable post-primary schools to provide a quality, inclusive and relevant education with improved learning outcomes for all students, including those with special educational needs

Building Capacity in Developing Countries : OER for Food Safety

The Food Safety Knowledge Network (FSKN) was developed through the collaboration of Michigan State University and a professional network of international food industry retailers and manufacturers. The key objective of the FSKN project is to provide technical resources, in a cost effective way, in order to promote food safety in developing countries and for small and less developed companies. FSKN uses a competency based model including a framework, OERs, and assessments. These tools are being used to support face-to-face training, fully online training, and to gauge the learning outcomes of a series of pilot groups which were held in India, Egypt, and China.

Relació entre la lateralitat i els aprenentatges escolars

Hi ha molts autors que relacionen els problemes d’aprenentatge d’un nen amb la seva lateralitat, i que atribueixen a la lateralitat contrariada, creuada o no definida els problemes en l’adquisició, entre altres, d’habilitats lectoescriptores. En aquest treball hem passat un test de lateralitat a 170 nens d’entre 6 i 7 anys (primer i segon de primària) amb proves de membre superior, membre inferior i ull, igual com de discriminació de dreta-esquerra i d’orientació espacial. Alhora, els professors tutors han valorat diversos ítems de l’aprenentatge escolar dels nens, amb qüestions sobre la seva comprensió lectora, el seu raonament matemàtic i la seva atenció a classe, entre d’altres. Segons els nostres resultats, els nens amb lateralitat homogènia destra són els que obtenen millors valoracions a tots els ítems d’aprenentatge respecte als homogenis esquerrans, els creuats i els no confirmats; els pocs casos que tenim d’homogenis esquerrans (un 3 % de la mostra) són els que tenen pitjors valoracions. A més a més, els nens que discriminen entre dreta i esquerra també tenen millors aprenentatges que no pas els que no ho fan; també s’orienten bé en l’espai en relació als que s’orienten malament.

Relación entre la lateralidad y los aprendizajes escolares

Muchos son los autores que relacionan los problemas de aprendizaje de un niño con su lateralidad, achacando a la lateralidad contrariada, cruzada o no definida los problemas en la adquisición, entre otras, de habilidades lecto-escritoras. En el presente trabajo hemos pasado un test de lateralidad a 170 niños de entre 6 y 7 años (primero y segundo de primaria) con pruebas de miembro superior, miembro inferior y ojo, así como de discriminación de derecha-izquierda y de orientación espacial. A su vez, los profesores tutores han valorado varios ítems del aprendizaje escolar de los niños, con cuestiones sobre su comprensión lectora, su razonamiento matemático y su atención en clase, entre otras. Según nuestros resultados, los niños con lateralidad homogénea diestra son los que obtienen mejores valoraciones en todos los ítems de aprendizaje con respecto a los homogéneos zurdos, los cruzados y los no confirmados, siendo los pocos casos que tenemos de homogéneos zurdos (un 3% de la muestra) los que tienen peores valoraciones. Además, los niños que discriminan entre derecha e izquierda también tienen mejor sus aprendizajes con respecto a los que no lo hacen, así como los que se orientan bien en el espacio con respecto a los que se orientan mal.

La percepción de los estudiantes universitarios de Bellas Artes sobre sus dificultades de aprendizaje: el caso de las competencias de búsqueda y selección de información relevante

[spa]Identificar las dificultades halladas en el proceso de aprendizaje con la especial relación entre el esfuerzo y el logro experimentada por los estudiantes implica afrontar uno de los problemas fundamentales del aprendizaje. El presente artículo pretende abordar los aprendizajes vinculados a las competencias transversales de la búsqueda y selección de información desde el examen de la percepción de los estudiantes universitarios de arte en la realización de una carpeta de aprendizaje adaptada a la titulación y al perfil del estudiante. A partir de un enfoque cuantitativo, y mediante un estudio descriptivo transversal, se analizará la relación existente entre el esfuerzo realizado, los resultados de aprendizaje declarados y la relación entre ambas cuestiones -lo que a la postre define las dificultades- que manifiestan los estudiantes. [eng]This article aims to address the learning skills associated with the competence of searching and selecting information from the examination of the perceptions of art college students in the drawing up of a learning portfolio tailored to the degree and student profile. From a quantitative approach, and through a cross-sectional descriptive study, we will analyze the relationship between effort, stated learning outcomes and the relationship between these two issues what ultimately defines the difficulties which declare the students.

Factors Related to Study Success at Lappeenranta University of Technology

Tutkimuksen avulla selvitettiin opintomenestykseen liittyviä tekijöitä Lappeenrannan teknillisessä korkeakoulussa (LTKK). Tutkimus liittyi opetuksen ja oppimisen kehitystyöhön tuotantotalouden osastolla. Tutkimuksen viitekehyksen muodosti oppimistuloksia selittävä malli, joka on laadittu Tynjälän (1999) kokoaman mallin perusteella. Tutkimuksen perusjoukko muodostui LTKK:n läsnä olevista perusopiskelijoista lukuun ottamatta jatko- ja vaihto-opiskelijoita. Opiskelijat jaettiin ositetulla otannalla ryhmiin, joissa suoritettiin yksinkertainen satunnaisotanta. Otoskoko oli 645 opiskelijaa. Tiedonkeruumenetelmänä oli Internet-kysely. Aineisto analysoitiin useiden kvantitatiivisten ja kvalitatiivisten menetelmien avulla. Tutkimuksen tuloksia voidaan pitää luotettavina ja tutkimuksen avulla saatiin tärkeää ja hyödyllistä tietoa opintomenestyksestä ja oppimisprosesseista. Tulosten perusteella merkittävimmät oppimistuloksiin positiivisesti liittyvät tekijät ovat syväsuuntautunut opiskelustrategia ja luottaminen omiin kykyihin, ja negatiiviset tekijät ovat oppimisen itsesäätelyn puute, omien kykyjen epäily ja pintasuuntautunut opiskelustrategia. Merkitysorientoituneet, itsesäätelykykyiset opiskelijat menestyivät LTKK:ssa parhaiten.

Organisatorinen oppiminen - tapaustutkimus oppimisprosessien jännitteistä teollisuusyrityksessä

Organisatorinen oppiminen nähdään avainasemassa yrityksen kilpailukyvyn kehittämisessä. Aihepiiristä onkin tehty runsaasti tutkimusta, mutta edelleen näkemykset organisaation oppimisesta, oppimisprosessin luonteesta, tuloksista ja näihin vaikuttavista tekijöistä ovat moninaiset. Dialektisuus kuvaa sekä organisatorisesta oppimisesta käytyä keskustelua että oppimisprosessien luonnetta dynaamisina vastavoimien sävyttäminä organisaation kehitysprosesseina. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on lisätä ymmärrystä organisatorisesta oppimisesta tutkimalla oppimisprosesseihin sisältyviä jännitteitä. Mielenkiinnon kohteena on jännitteiden osallistuminen niin innovatiivista uudistumista ja sopeutuvaa kehittymistä kuin toiminnan vakiinnuttamista tavoittelevaan oppimiseen. Tutkimuksen kohteena on kaksi teollisuusyritystä, joista tiedonkeruu tehtiin teemahaastatteluin. Tutkimuksessa painottui suorittavan tason työntekijän näkökulma. Empiirisestä aineistosta konstruoitiin organisatorisia oppimisprosesseja tulkitsemalla yksilöiden ja organisaation oppimisen välistä vuorovaikutusta. Yrityksittäin konstruoidut oppimisprosessit rinnastettiin yritysten tavoiterakenteen kautta ja analysoitiin jännitteiden osallistumista oppimisprosessien etenemiseen organisaatioissa. Organisatoriset oppimisprosessit - sekä organisaatiota uudistava innovatiivinen ja kehittävä sopeutuva oppiminen että vakiinnuttava mukautuva oppiminen - näyttäytyvät tutkimuksen tulosten valossa erilaisten jännitteiden sävyttäminä. Tulokset osoittavat, että perinteisessä mekaanisessa organisaatiossa aikaisempien tutkimusten luontaisena pitämä vakiinnuttava ja mukautuva oppiminen ei ole ongelmatonta ja itsestään sujuvaa. Myös se on jännitteiden sävyttämä. Organisaation viralliset ja sosiaaliset rakenteet voivat mukauttaa yksilöiden toiminnan. Vakiinnuttavan oppimisprosessin etenemiseen osallistuu kuitenkin jännitteitä, joita syntyy ennen kaikkea työntekijöiden toiminnan ja asenteiden sekä yrityksen tuotanto- ja oppimistavoitteiden välisistä ristiriidoista. Tulokset antavat aihetta pohtia vakiinnuttavan oppimisen asemaa suhteessa uudistavaan ja kehittävään oppimiseen. Vakiinnuttavan oppimisen toteutuminen organisaatiossa pelkästään rakenteiden mukauttavalla voimalla voi heikentää organisaation mahdollisuuksia kehittyä ja uudistua. Työntekijöiden toimimista organisaation oppimisen agentteina ja uudistavan oppimisen käynnistäjinä voisi edesauttaa oppimista tukevin organisatorisin mekanismein, jotka edistävät työntekijöiden käsitteellistä oppimista ja jännitteiden hyödyntämistä vakiinnuttavassa oppimisprosessissa.

Enabling constructive alignment in programming instruction

In this thesis, simple methods have been sought to lower the teacher’s threshold to start to apply constructive alignment in instruction. From the phases of the instructional process, aspects that can be improved with little effort by the teacher have been identified. Teachers have been interviewed in order to find out what students actually learn in computer science courses. A quantitative analysis of the structured interviews showed that in addition to subject specific skills and knowledge, students learn many other skills that should be mentioned in the learning outcomes of the course. The students’ background, such as their prior knowledge, learning style and culture, affects how they learn in a course. A survey was conducted to map the learning styles of computer science students and to see if their cultural background affected their learning style. A statistical analysis of the data indicated that computer science students are different learners than engineering students in general and that there is a connection between the student’s culture and learning style. In this thesis, a simple self-assessment scale that is based on Bloom’s revised taxonomy has been developed. A statistical analysis of the test results indicates that in general the scale is quite reliable, but single students still slightly overestimate or under-estimate their knowledge levels. For students, being able to follow their own progress is motivating, and for a teacher, self-assessment results give information about how the class is proceeding and what the level of the students’ knowledge is.

Thinking Outside the Box: Enhancing Science Teaching by Combining (Instead of Contrasting) Laboratory and Simulation Activities

The focus of the present work was on 10- to 12-year-old elementary school students’ conceptual learning outcomes in science in two specific inquiry-learning environments, laboratory and simulation. The main aim was to examine if it would be more beneficial to combine than contrast simulation and laboratory activities in science teaching. It was argued that the status quo where laboratories and simulations are seen as alternative or competing methods in science teaching is hardly an optimal solution to promote students’ learning and understanding in various science domains. It was hypothesized that it would make more sense and be more productive to combine laboratories and simulations. Several explanations and examples were provided to back up the hypothesis. In order to test whether learning with the combination of laboratory and simulation activities can result in better conceptual understanding in science than learning with laboratory or simulation activities alone, two experiments were conducted in the domain of electricity. In these experiments students constructed and studied electrical circuits in three different learning environments: laboratory (real circuits), simulation (virtual circuits), and simulation-laboratory combination (real and virtual circuits were used simultaneously). In order to measure and compare how these environments affected students’ conceptual understanding of circuits, a subject knowledge assessment questionnaire was administered before and after the experimentation. The results of the experiments were presented in four empirical studies. Three of the studies focused on learning outcomes between the conditions and one on learning processes. Study I analyzed learning outcomes from experiment I. The aim of the study was to investigate if it would be more beneficial to combine simulation and laboratory activities than to use them separately in teaching the concepts of simple electricity. Matched-trios were created based on the pre-test results of 66 elementary school students and divided randomly into a laboratory (real circuits), simulation (virtual circuits) and simulation-laboratory combination (real and virtual circuits simultaneously) conditions. In each condition students had 90 minutes to construct and study various circuits. The results showed that studying electrical circuits in the simulation–laboratory combination environment improved students’ conceptual understanding more than studying circuits in simulation and laboratory environments alone. Although there were no statistical differences between simulation and laboratory environments, the learning effect was more pronounced in the simulation condition where the students made clear progress during the intervention, whereas in the laboratory condition students’ conceptual understanding remained at an elementary level after the intervention. Study II analyzed learning outcomes from experiment II. The aim of the study was to investigate if and how learning outcomes in simulation and simulation-laboratory combination environments are mediated by implicit (only procedural guidance) and explicit (more structure and guidance for the discovery process) instruction in the context of simple DC circuits. Matched-quartets were created based on the pre-test results of 50 elementary school students and divided randomly into a simulation implicit (SI), simulation explicit (SE), combination implicit (CI) and combination explicit (CE) conditions. The results showed that when the students were working with the simulation alone, they were able to gain significantly greater amount of subject knowledge when they received metacognitive support (explicit instruction; SE) for the discovery process than when they received only procedural guidance (implicit instruction: SI). However, this additional scaffolding was not enough to reach the level of the students in the combination environment (CI and CE). A surprising finding in Study II was that instructional support had a different effect in the combination environment than in the simulation environment. In the combination environment explicit instruction (CE) did not seem to elicit much additional gain for students’ understanding of electric circuits compared to implicit instruction (CI). Instead, explicit instruction slowed down the inquiry process substantially in the combination environment. Study III analyzed from video data learning processes of those 50 students that participated in experiment II (cf. Study II above). The focus was on three specific learning processes: cognitive conflicts, self-explanations, and analogical encodings. The aim of the study was to find out possible explanations for the success of the combination condition in Experiments I and II. The video data provided clear evidence about the benefits of studying with the real and virtual circuits simultaneously (the combination conditions). Mostly the representations complemented each other, that is, one representation helped students to interpret and understand the outcomes they received from the other representation. However, there were also instances in which analogical encoding took place, that is, situations in which the slightly discrepant results between the representations ‘forced’ students to focus on those features that could be generalised across the two representations. No statistical differences were found in the amount of experienced cognitive conflicts and self-explanations between simulation and combination conditions, though in self-explanations there was a nascent trend in favour of the combination. There was also a clear tendency suggesting that explicit guidance increased the amount of self-explanations. Overall, the amount of cognitive conflicts and self-explanations was very low. The aim of the Study IV was twofold: the main aim was to provide an aggregated overview of the learning outcomes of experiments I and II; the secondary aim was to explore the relationship between the learning environments and students’ prior domain knowledge (low and high) in the experiments. Aggregated results of experiments I & II showed that on average, 91% of the students in the combination environment scored above the average of the laboratory environment, and 76% of them scored also above the average of the simulation environment. Seventy percent of the students in the simulation environment scored above the average of the laboratory environment. The results further showed that overall students seemed to benefit from combining simulations and laboratories regardless of their level of prior knowledge, that is, students with either low or high prior knowledge who studied circuits in the combination environment outperformed their counterparts who studied in the laboratory or simulation environment alone. The effect seemed to be slightly bigger among the students with low prior knowledge. However, more detailed inspection of the results showed that there were considerable differences between the experiments regarding how students with low and high prior knowledge benefitted from the combination: in Experiment I, especially students with low prior knowledge benefitted from the combination as compared to those students that used only the simulation, whereas in Experiment II, only students with high prior knowledge seemed to benefit from the combination relative to the simulation group. Regarding the differences between simulation and laboratory groups, the benefits of using a simulation seemed to be slightly higher among students with high prior knowledge. The results of the four empirical studies support the hypothesis concerning the benefits of using simulation along with laboratory activities to promote students’ conceptual understanding of electricity. It can be concluded that when teaching students about electricity, the students can gain better understanding when they have an opportunity to use the simulation and the real circuits in parallel than if they have only the real circuits or only a computer simulation available, even when the use of the simulation is supported with the explicit instruction. The outcomes of the empirical studies can be considered as the first unambiguous evidence on the (additional) benefits of combining laboratory and simulation activities in science education as compared to learning with laboratories and simulations alone.

Self-Assessment Report for International Accreditation - Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes in Environmental Technology

Ympäristötekniikan kandidaatin ja diplomi-insinöörin tutkinto-ohjelmien itsearviointiraportissa käsitellään tutkinto-ohjelmien osaamistavoitteita ja niiden saavuttamista. Raportissa käydään läpi myös käytössä olevat resurssit sekä tutkinto-ohjelmiin liittyviä tunnuslukuja. Itsearviointi on toteutettu kansainvälisen akkreditointijärjestön kriteerien mukaisesti (ASIIN ja EUR-ACE).

Fundamentals of heat transfer

Following over 170+ pages and additional appendixes are formed based on content of Course: Fundamentals of Heat Transfer. Mainly this summarizes relevant parts on Book of Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer (Incropera), but also other references introducing the same concepts are included. Student’s point of view has been consideredwith following highlights: (1) Relevant topics are presented in a nutshell to provide fast digestion of principles of heat transfer. (2) Appendixes include terminology dictionary. (3) Totally 22 illustrating examples are connecting theory to practical applications and quantifying heat transfer to understandable forms as: temperatures, heat transfer rates, heat fluxes, resistances and etc. (4) Most important Learning outcomes are presented for each topic separately. The Book, Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer (Incropera), is certainly recommended for those going beyond basic knowledge of heat transfer. Lecture Notes consists of four primary content-wise objectives: (1) Give understanding to physical mechanisms of heat transfer, (2)Present basic concepts and terminology relevant for conduction, convection and radiation (3) Introduce thermal performance analysis methods for steady state and transient conduction systems. (4) Provide fast-to-digest phenomenological understanding required for basic design of thermal models

Self-Assessment Report for International Accreditation - Chemical Engineering

Kemiantekniikan kandidaatin ja diplomi-insinöörin tutkinto-ohjelmien itsearviointiraportissa käsitellään tutkinto-ohjelmien osaamistavoitteita ja niiden saavuttamista. Raportissa käydään läpi myös käytössä olevat resurssit sekä tutkinto-ohjelmiin liittyviä tunnuslukuja. Itsearviointi on toteutettu kansainvälisen akkreditointijärjestön kriteerien mukaisesti (ASIIN ja EUR-ACE).

Getting Started with Islandora

Workshop at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Advanced Islandora Workshop

Workshop at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014