Massive Open Online Course management: learning science and engineering through peer-reviewed projects

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) are gaining prominence in transversal teaching-learning strategies. However, there are many issues still debated, namely assessment, recognized largely as a cornerstone in Education. The large number of students involved requires a redefinition of strategies that often use approaches based on tasks or challenging projects. In these conditions and due to this approach, assessment is made through peer-reviewed assignments and quizzes online. The peer-reviewed assignments are often based upon sample answers or topics, which guide the student in the task of evaluating peers. This chapter analyzes the grading and evaluation in MOOCs, especially in science and engineering courses, within the context of education and grading methodologies and discusses possible perspectives to pursue grading quality in massive e-learning courses.

Implementació d'un sistema de gestió de cursos (Course Management) al Campus Virtual de la UdL

Aquest projecte pretén aconseguir un Campus Virtual més flexible i més obert, on el professorat pugui fer una gestió més acurada i específica dels seus espais de docència, a més de poder crear-se d’altres espais organitzant els grups de matrícula de la forma que més li convingui. La idea és canviar la manera com s’aprovisiona actualment el Campus Virtual amb les dades de gestió acadèmica per tal d’aconseguir un campus on el professorat tingui totes les eines i dades disponibles per a que les pugui utilitzar de la manera que cregui més adient, i no d’una manera predefinida i tancada com es feia fins ara, on el professorat es trobava un espai per cada assignatura que impartia, però no en podia modificar gairebé res. A banda d’aquest objectiu fonamental, aquest treball facilitarà en gran mesura les tasques realitzades per l’equip que gestiona el Campus Virtual en els processos de gestió d’espais de docència i del tractament dels seus participants en sincronització amb els sistemes origen.

Measuring student perception and actual usage of online learning management system

Online learning management systems are in use to facilitate the face to face learning process in many universities. There are many variables that shape and influence a student’s perception of an online learning management system. This study investigates whether there is a relationship between the perception of a student regarding the learning management system and their actual usage of such system. It is believed to help better understand the student usage of online learning management system. An online questionnaire was published on a course management system for a selected subject and the student participation was voluntary. Results indicate that no significant relationship between the perception students had about the learning management system and the actual use of the system. Interestingly, a significant relationship was found between having internet access away from university and the student perception about the system. Students who had internet access away from university had better perception about the learning management system even though there was no significant difference in the level of online learning management system usage between the groups.

A fieldbus simulator for training purposes

This article presents a fieldbus simulation platform and its remote access interface that enables a wide range of experiments, where users can configure operation sequences and procedures typical of Foundation Fieldbus systems. The simulation system was developed using LabVIEW, with requisites of deterministic execution, and a course management work frame web server called Moodle. The results were obtained through three different evaluations: schedule table execution, simulator functionality and finally, simulator productivity and achievement. The evaluation attests that this new tool is feasible, and can be applied for fieldbus automation systems training purposes, considering the robustness and stability in tests and the positive feedback from users. (C) 2008 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Moodle and multiple-choice tests

Multiple-Choice items are used in many different kinds of tests in several areas of knowledge. They can be considered an interesting tool to the self-assessing or as an alternative or complementary instrument to the traditional methods for assessing knowledge. The objectivity and accuracy of the multiple-choice tests is an important reason to think about. They are especially useful when the number of students to evaluate is too large. Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is an Open Source course management system centered around learners' needs and designed to support collaborative approaches to teaching and learning. Moodle offers to the users a rich interface, context-specific help buttons, and a wide variety of tools such as discussion forums, wikis, chat, surveys, quizzes, glossaries, journals, grade books and more, that allow them to learn and collaborate in a truly interactive space. Come together the interactivity of the Moodle platform and the objectivity of this kind of tests one can easily build manifold random tests. The proposal of this paper is to relate our journey in the construction of these tests and share our experience in the use of the Moodle platform to create, take advantage and improve the multiple-choices tests in the Mathematic area.

Collaborative learning in a qeb-accessible workbench

Web-based course management and delivery is regarded by many institutions as a key factor in an increasingly competitive education and training world, but the systems currently available are largely unsatisfactory in terms of supporting collaborative work and access to practical science facilities. These limitations are less important in areas where “pen-and-paper” courseware is the mainstream, but become unacceptably restrictive when student assignments require real-time teamwork and access to laboratory equipment. This paper presents a web-accessible workbench for electronics design and test, which was developed in the scope of an European IST project entitled PEARL, with the aim of supporting two main features: full web access and collaborative learning facilities.

Standard commercial education robotic platform: intermediate solution to teaching robotics

Teaching robotics to students at the beginning of their studies has become a huge challenge. Simulation environments can be an effective solution to that challenge where students can interact with simulated robots and have the first contact with robotic constraints. From our previous experience with simulation environments it was possible to observe that students with lower background knowledge in robotics where able to deal with a limited number of constraints, implement a simulated robotic platform and study several sensors. The question is: after this first phase what should be the best approach? Should the student start developing their own hardware? Hardware development is a very important part of an engineer's education but it can also be a difficult phase that could lead to discouragement and loss of motivation in some students. Considering the previous constraints and first year engineering students’ high abandonment rate it is important to develop teaching strategies to deal with this problem in a feasible way. The solution that we propose is the integration of a low-cost standard robotic platform WowWee Rovio as an intermediate solution between the simulation phase and the stage where the students can develop their own robots. This approach will allow the students to keep working in robotic areas such as: cooperative behaviour, perception, navigation and data fusion. The propose approach proved to be a motivation step not only for the students but also for the teachers. Students and teachers were able to reach an agreement between the level of demand imposed by the teachers and satisfaction/motivation of the students.

Five-Year Review of an International Clinical Research-Training Program

The exponential increase in clinical research has profoundly changed medical sciences. Evidence that has accumulated in the past three decades from clinical trials has led to the proposal that clinical care should not be based solely on clinical expertise and patient values, and should integrate robust data from systematic research. As a consequence, clinical research has become more complex and methods have become more rigorous, and evidence is usually not easily translated into clinical practice. Therefore, the instruction of clinical research methods for scientists and clinicians must adapt to this new reality. To address this challenge, a global distance-learning clinical research-training program was developed, based on collaborative learning, the pedagogical goal of which was to develop critical thinking skills in clinical research. We describe and analyze the challenges and possible solutions of this course after 5 years of experience (2008-2012) with this program. Through evaluation by students and faculty, we identified and reviewed the following challenges of our program: 1) student engagement and motivation, 2) impact of heterogeneous audience on learning, 3) learning in large groups, 4) enhancing group learning, 5) enhancing social presence, 6) dropouts, 7) quality control, and 8) course management. We discuss these issues and potential alternatives with regard to our research and background.

Web 2.0 Technologies for Education

Page 1. Web 2.0 Technologies for Education G. Santhosh Kumar Dept. Of Computer Science Cochin University Page 2. What is Internet? CUSAT is linked to this Web through 10 Mbps leased line connectivity Page 3. Size of the Web? GYWA = Sorted on Google, Yahoo!, Windows Live Search (Msn Search) and Ask YGWA = Sorted on Yahoo!, Google, Windows Live Search (Msn Search) and Ask www.worldwidewebsize.com Page 4. The Machine is Us/ing Us ■ http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g&feature=channel Page 5. ..

Caso práctico de utilización de nuevas tecnologías en docencia de maquinaria de movimientos de tierras.

Resumen basado en el de la publicación

Configuração da gestão da educação a distância: entendendo os resultados do ENADE para o curso piloto da universidade aberta do Brasil

A educação a distância tem tido expressivo crescimento no Brasil nos últimos anos e com essa expansão aumentam também os desafios relacionados à sua gestão. Este trabalho focaliza as diversas concepções e fundamentos teóricos acerca das abordagens sobre estrutura organizacional e sistemas de educação a distância, para concepção do que denominou-se configuração da gestão da EAD. Como delineamento de pesquisa analisou-se a relação entre as configurações das gestões dos cursos a distância de Administração, projeto piloto da Universidade Aberta do Brasil e os seus conceitos definidos pelo Exame Nacional de Desempenho de Estudantes, identificando-se as teorias e modelos manifestos em seu contexto. O trabalho parte de uma descrição da estrutura organizacional da área responsável pela educação a distância na Universidade Estadual do Maranhão, na Universidade Estadual da Paraíba e na Universidade Federal do Ceará, realizando uma análise comparativa das dimensões complexidade, centralização e coordenação nessas três instituições. Também foram analisados e comparados os sistemas de EAD do curso piloto da UAB, a partir dos referenciais de qualidade para educação superior a distância do MEC, especificamente concentrados nos componentes interdisciplinaridade, materiais didáticos, avaliação, equipe multidisciplinar, comunicação e infraestrutura de polos. Com base nessas análises, discute-se os diferentes conceitos atribuídos pelo Enade aos referidos cursos e explicam-se as correspondências das estruturas organizacionais e dos sistemas de EAD descritos, em relação a esses resultados. Trata-se de uma pesquisa predominantemente qualitativa, descritiva, explicativa e multicaso, cuja coleta de dados foi feita a partir de entrevistas, grupos focais, questionários online e documentos. Os dados primários foram tratados mediante análise de conteúdo categorial e os dados secundários, por meio da análise documental. As observações elaboradas, dentro de uma perspectiva descritivo-interpretativa e de um corte seccional permitem induções acerca das configurações das gestões em cada universidade. Evidencia-se relação forte e direta entre as configurações das gestões do curso piloto e os respectivos resultados no Enade. Constata-se que a teoria da industrialização de Otto Peters e o modelo de educação a distância baseado na distribuição em polos podem explicar a estruturação traduzida no modus operandi da Universidade Aberta do Brasil. Assim, conclui-se que as diferenças nos resultados no Enade dos estudantes da Uema, UEPB e UFC têm relação direta com o modo de estruturação dos setores responsáveis pela intermediação da EAD nessas universidades. Constata-se que o curso piloto da UAB na UEPB não demonstrou ter a aderência necessária aos referenciais de qualidade do MEC, enquanto a Uema e a UFC demonstraram grande adequação aos critérios estabelecidos, o que confirma a relação entre tais referenciais de qualidade e o resultado no Enade. Conclui-se, ainda, que os componentes avaliação e equipe multidisciplinar foram os que mais sugestionaram relação com os desempenhos dos estudantes no Enade. Os resultados encontrados foram discutidos à luz do referencial teórico revisado e foram apresentadas recomendações derivadas dos achados desta pesquisa.

Práticas interdisciplinares no ensino superior: a experiência do curso de graduação em administração da UNAMA - Pará

This work addresses the study of interdisciplinarity in higher administration education, a topic of great relevance in the present context, due to guidelines issued by Ministry of Education through the National Curriculum Guidelines -NCGs for undergraduate courses in Management. The attention on the subject emerges from the gained experience of a researcher and teacher working as manager of an undergraduate course in Business Administration who set up interdisciplinarity through interdisciplinary projects in a management course pedagogical project at a private university in State of Pará/Brazil. The work rebuilds and reports experiences, and studies the practice of lecturers involved in those interdisciplinary actions. The study aimed to identify changes in pedagogical practices of teachers involved in the searched interdisciplinary experience. To address the questions that directed the work and achieve proposed objectives, from a qualitative approach, a significant bibliographical and documentary work was conducted on the topic. In the survey carried out on secondary sources such as publications of major authors and scientific papers reporting interdisciplinary experiences in higher administration education, it was found that interdisciplinarity for its ambiguous character is still poorly understood by teachers, and reports on its application in administration teaching are incipient. This study also used data collected from primary sources, from dialogues through interviews with educational fellows - teachers and officers of the institution that served as locus of the research, who had the opportunity to experience the studied interdisciplinary experience. Data were processed and analyzed using content analysis technique. Research results showed that teachers of the institution of research have a good understanding of meaning of interdisciplinarity as a link between disciplines; it was also found substantial evidence of changes in teaching practices and actions of such teachers based on their participation in interdisciplinary projects. Although the experience studied can be considered innovative and challenging, much needs to be done in the course management for achievement of interdisciplinary actions in the course, particularly regarding to the removal of institutional, methodological, psychosocial, epistemological obstacles in operationalizing interdisciplinary practices, with emphasis on the need of a process of continuous and specific training aiming at developing skills for interdisciplinary acting, to the extent that these education professionals do not perceive themselves able to act as interdisciplinary lecturers

Desenvolvimento de sistema de educação continuada a distância e interconsulta em hepatites virais

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Patterns for Active E-Learning in CMS Environments

The proliferation of course management systems (CMS) in the last decade stimulated educators in establishing novel active e-learning practices. Only a few of these practices, however, have been systematically described and published as pedagogic patterns. The lack of formal patterns is an obstacle to the systematic reuse of beneficial active e-learning experiences. This paper aims to partially fill the void by offering a collection of active e-learning patterns that are derived from our continuous course design experience in standard CMS environments, such as Moodle and Black-board. Our technical focus is on active e-learning patterns that can boost student interest in computing-related fields and increase student enrolment in computing-related courses. Members of the international e-learning community can benefit from active e-learning patterns by applying them in the design of new CMS-based courses – in computing and other technical fields.

Developing Innovative TEL Practice in Teacher Education

This interactive symposium will focus on the use of different technologies in developing innovative practice in teacher education at one university in England. Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) is a field of educational policy and practice that has the power to ignite diametrically opposing views and reactions amongst teachers and teacher educators, ranging across a spectrum from immense enthusiasm to untold terror. In a field where the skills and experience of individuals vary from those of digital natives (Prensky 2001) to lags and lurkers in digital spaces, the challenges of harnessing the potential of TEL are complex. The challenges include developing the IT skills of trainees and educators and the creative application of these skills to pedagogy in all areas of the curriculum. The symposium draws on examples from primary, secondary and post-compulsory teacher education to discuss issues and approaches to developing research capacity and innovative practice using different etools, many of which are freely available. The first paper offers theoretical and policy perspectives on finding spaces in busy professional lives to engage in research and develop research-informed practice. It draws on notions of teachers as researchers, practitioner research and evidenc-ebased practice to argue that engagement in research is integral to teacher education and an empowering source of creative professional learning for teachers and teacher educators. Whilst acknowledging the challenges of this stance, examples from our own research practice illustrate how e-tools can assist us in building the capacity and confidence of staff and students in researching and enhancing teaching, learning and assessment practice. The second paper discusses IT skills development through the TEL pathway for trainee teachers in secondary education across different curriculum subjects. The lead tutor for the TEL pathway will use examples of activities developed with trainee teachers and university subject tutors to enhance their skills in using e-tools, such as QR codes, Kahoot, Padlet, Pinterest and cloud based learning. The paper will also focus on how these skills and tools can be used for action Discussant - the wider use of technologies in a university centre for teacher education; course management, recruitment and mentor training. research, evaluation and feedback and for marking and administrative tasks. The discussion will finish with thoughts on widening trainee teachers’ horizons into the future direction of educational technology. The third paper considers institutional policies and strategies for promoting and embedding TEL, including an initiative called ‘The Learning Conversation’, which aims ‘to share, highlight, celebrate, discuss, problematise, find things out...’ about TEL through an online space. The lead for ‘The Learning Conversation’ will offer reflections on this and other initiatives across the institution involving trainee teachers, university subject tutors, librarians and staff in student support services who are using TEL to engage, enthuse and support students on campus and during placements in schools. The fourth paper reflects on the use of TEL to engage with trainee teachers in post-compulsory education. This sector of education and training is more fragmented than primary and secondary schools sectors and so the challenges of building a community of practice that can support the development of innovative practice are greater.