Moodle sobre Moodle - caso de estudo sobre um curso breve, a distância, com tutoria online

Os autores criaram e vêm desenvolvendo um curso para aprendizagem da utilização do Moodle, software online e livre de gestão da aprendizagem e de trabalho colaborativo. Face ao crescimento da utilização do Moodle em Portugal e ao interesse suscitado entre professores e formadores, considerou-se que o cenário era favorável à oferta de um curso breve (cerca de 2 semanas, 21 horas de trabalho dos formandos) que recorresse ao Moodle num modelo de ensino a distância. A interacção, disponibilização de recursos e realização de actividades ocorreram quer de forma assíncrona, usando o Moodle, quer de forma síncrona, com comunicação por voz ou mensagens escritas utilizando o software VoIP Skype. O feedback dado pelos participantes que terminaram o curso sugere que as opções tomadas a nível do modelo de curso breve, estrutura do curso, recursos de aprendizagem e tipo de actividades apresentados, e ainda um elemento de intensa tutoria síncrona, criaram um clima positivo entre tutores e formandos, favorecendo o ambiente informal de aprendizagem e motivando formandos e tutores. Aspectos como avaliação, alguns dos recursos, carga horária sobre tutores e formandos, facilitação da interacção e apoio na concretização do produto final do curso podem ser melhorados, aumentando a eficiência e as aprendizagens no curso. Futuras edições terão estes elementos em conta, incorporarando a experiência dos autores e o feedback dos formandos.

A tutoria no ensino online: novos desafios, novos contextos

Trabalho de Projecto apresentado para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências da Educação, referente ao Mestrado em Gestão de Sistemas de e-Learning.

¿Es eficaz especializar la actividad de tutoria? Análisis de una experiencia online

En un entorno online la actividad de tutoría de los estudiantes juega un papel fundamental. Su eje central es el acompañamiento del estudiante a lo largo del programa académico que curse, desde el momento en que muestra su interés en matricularse hasta que se titula. La literatura disponible sobre cómo organizar la actividad tutorial en entornos virtuales es escasa. En esta comunicación, basada en la experiencia de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), se analizan dos niveles de especialización de la acción tutorial online. En un primer nivel organizativo, se presenta y evalúa una especialización de la coordinación de la tutoría en función del tipo de conocimiento necesario para ejercerla, académico o administrativo. Esto genera una estructura organizativa de tipo matricial que aporta flexibilidad y conocimiento especializado a la actividad tutorial, y que es valorada muy positivamente por las partes implicadas. En un segundo nivel, se analiza la separación de dos tipos de tutoría especializadas, una de inicio y otra de seguimiento, en función de la antigüedad del estudiante tutorizado. Los resultados de los análisis cualitativos y cuantitativos realizados no permiten concluir que esta segunda forma de especialización contribuya claramente a la mejora de los objetivos de la función tutorial.

Um estudo sobre custos de elaboração de material didático e tutoria em EaD online em uma Instituição de Ensino Superior no Brasil

This study has as main objective to verify the proportionality of the costs with elaboration of didactic material and costs with tutelage and instruction incurred in a higher education institution, located in national territory, and that offers a degree course in the education area in the modality of EaD online. The purpose of the measurement of this proportionality of the costs was of answering these they are, among other, the relevant costs incurred by the institution research object. This is a research of exploratory stamp whose methodological procedure adopted for your development, in what it refers the collection, analysis of the data and the investigation means, it is the case study, as well as the documental and bibliographical research. The found results indicate that the costs with elaboration of didactic material and the costs with tutelage and instruction are relevant, however they are not the only ones considered as such. The costs involved with acquisition and operation of specific softwares they also constitute an relevant costs. The structure of the costs can be altered in agreement with the analyzed period and in agreement with the characteristics of synchronism of the offered course. It was also verified that the technology used in this education modality it ends up generating additional costs incurred with professionals of specific knowledge in technology

Mòdul de tutoria telemàtica. 'Módulo de tutoría telemática'.

Resumen tomado de la publicación. Se incluyen documentos de otros cursos de formación desarrollados en el marco del Servei de Formació Permanent del Professorat y relacionados con el tutorial descrito

Os sentidos do trabalho na tutoria a distância: buscando compreensões à luz da educação ambiental

A presente pesquisa está vinculada à linha Educação Ambiental: Ensino e Formação de Educadores(as) (EAEFE), do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Ambiental - PPGEA/FURG. O estudo foi realizado com cinco tutoras a distância que atuaram no curso de Especialização em Educação de Jovens e Adultos na Diversidade, oferecido na modalidade a distância pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande - FURG, a partir do Programa Universidade Aberta do Brasil, entre os anos de 2010 e 2012. A pesquisa buscou compreender que sentidos atribuem ao trabalho de tutoria, realizado no referido curso de especialização, os tutores a distância que dele fizeram parte. Assim, justifica-se por propor debate acerca da situação a que estão sujeitos esses profissionais, estando inseridos em um contexto de exploração, terceirização e prestação de serviços em educação, visto que a Educação a Distância, que não é institucionalizada, contribui para a manutenção do Sistema Capitalista, reproduzindo a precarização do trabalho docente. Este estudo caracteriza-se como uma pesquisa qualitativa, sendo os dados produzidos por meio de diálogo dirigido com questões que versavam a respeito das experiências das tutoras com a Tutoria a Distância. Para realizar a análise dos dados coletados, foi utilizada a Análise Textual Discursiva (ATD) (Moraes e Galiazzi, 2007), metodologia que possibilitou a compreensão dos discursos dos sujeitos. Os diálogos traçados entre os relatos das tutoras e teóricos como Antunes (2009), Mattar (2012), Loureiro (2004), entre outros, possibilitaram a construção de compreensões sobre o trabalho dos tutores no contexto do Modo de Produção Capitalista, vinculando, assim, a pesquisa ao campo de discussões da Educação Ambiental. Neste estudo, três categorias emergiram do processo de análise, denominadas: Tutoria a distância - questões que influenciam as condições de trabalho; Os sentidos do tempo na Tutoria a Distância - limites do tempo dentro e fora do trabalho; Tutoria a distância e o relacionamento com os estudantes - desafios do trabalho e da aprendizagem na EaD. Nesse sentido, foram tecidas reflexões sobre o trabalho na sociedade capitalista a partir da teoria marxista e suas relações com a organização da Educação a Distância, pensando na posição que ela assume no cenário educacional brasileiro e considerando as implicações do modo de produção capitalista na organização do trabalho da tutoria em EaD. Nas três categorias, os sujeitos elencaram desafios, dificuldades e as satisfações relacionadas com as experiências vivenciadas na tutoria a distância. Os resultados mostraram que os sujeitos da pesquisa consideram-se pertencentes ao processo de aprendizagem, desempenhando ações educativas que as caracterizam como professoras, pois como tutoras desempenham funções docentes no processo de formação dos educandos. Também fica evidente que as tutoras não identificam o trabalho na tutoria como um trabalho precarizado, embora essa atividade esteja constituída na lógica de exploração e terceirização da mão de obra trabalhadora. Além disso, houve a confirmação de que a realização das atividades de tutoria intensifica a jornada de trabalho e de que ele é organizado em cima do tempo livre das tutoras.

Docência online na educação superior

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Educação, Programa de Pós-graduação em Educação, 2015.

Delivery Of A Urology Online Course Using Moodle Versus Didactic Lectures Methods.

To subjectively and objectively compare an accessible interactive electronic library using Moodle with lectures for urology teaching of medical students. Forty consecutive fourth-year medical students and one urology teacher were exposed to two teaching methods (4 weeks each) in the form of problem-based learning: - lectures and - student-centered group discussion based on Moodle (modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment) full time online delivered (24/7) with video surgeries, electronic urology cases and additional basic principles of the disease process. All 40 students completed the study. While 30% were moderately dissatisfied with their current knowledge base, online learning course delivery using Moodle was considered superior to the lectures by 86% of the students. The study found the following observations: (1) the increment in learning grades ranged from 7.0 to 9.7 for students in the online Moodle course compared to 4.0-9.6 to didactic lectures; (2) the self-reported student involvement in the online course was characterized as large by over 60%; (3) the teacher-student interaction was described as very frequent (50%) and moderately frequent (50%); and (4) more inquiries and requisitions by students as well as peer assisting were observed from the students using the Moodle platform. The Moodle platform is feasible and effective, enthusing medical students to learn, improving immersion in the urology clinical rotation and encouraging the spontaneous peer assisted learning. Future studies should expand objective evaluations of knowledge acquisition and retention.

A quantitative and qualitative evaluation of reports of clinical trials published in six Brazilian dental journals indexed in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO)

INTRODUCTION: Open access publishing is becoming increasingly popular within the biomedical sciences. SciELO, the Scientific Electronic Library Online, is a digital library covering a selected collection of Brazilian scientific journals many of which provide open access to full-text articles.This library includes a number of dental journals some of which may include reports of clinical trials in English, Portuguese and/or Spanish. Thus, SciELO could play an important role as a source of evidence for dental healthcare interventions especially if it yields a sizeable number of high quality reports. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify reports of clinical trials by handsearching of dental journals that are accessible through SciELO, and to assess the overall quality of these reports. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Electronic versions of six Brazilian dental Journals indexed in SciELO were handsearched at www.scielo.br in September 2008. Reports of clinical trials were identified and classified as controlled clinical trials (CCTs - prospective, experimental studies comparing 2 or more healthcare interventions in human beings) or randomized controlled trials (RCTs - a random allocation method is clearly reported), according to Cochrane eligibility criteria. CRITERIA TO ASSESS METHODOLOGICAL QUALITY INCLUDED: method of randomization, concealment of treatment allocation, blinded outcome assessment, handling of withdrawals and losses and whether an intention-to-treat analysis had been carried out. RESULTS: The search retrieved 33 CCTs and 43 RCTs. A majority of the reports provided no description of either the method of randomization (75.3%) or concealment of the allocation sequence (84.2%). Participants and outcome assessors were reported as blinded in only 31.2% of the reports. Withdrawals and losses were only clearly described in 6.5% of the reports and none mentioned an intention-to-treat analysis or any similar procedure. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicate that a substantial number of reports of trials and systematic reviews are available in the dental journals listed in SciELO, and that these could provide valuable evidence for clinical decision making. However, it is clear that the quality of a number of these reports is of some concern and that improvement in the conduct and reporting of these trials could be achieved if authors adhered to internationally accepted guidelines, e.g. the CONSORT statement.

Oral Health Promotion Through an Online Training Program for Medical Students

The objective of this study was to compare the impact on knowledge and counseling skills of face-to-face and Internet-based oral health training programs on medical students. Participants consisted of 148 (82 percent) of the 180 invited students attending their fifth academic year at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Brasil, in 2007. The interventions took place during a three-month training period in the clinical Center for Health Promotion, which comprised part of a clerkship in Internal Medicine. The students were divided into four groups: 1) Control Group (Control), with basic intervention; 2) Brochure Group (Br), with basic intervention plus complete brochure with oral health themes; 3) Cybertutor Group (Cy), with basic intervention plus access to an Internet-based training program about oral health themes; and 4) Cybertutor + Contact Group (Cy+C), the same as Cy plus brief proactive contact with a tutor. The impact of these interventions on student knowledge was measured with pre- and post assessments, and student skills in asking and counseling about oral health were assessed with an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). Multivariate logistic regression models were applied to identify the odds ratios of scoring above Control's medians on the final assessment and the OSCE. In the results, Cy+C performed significantly better than Control on both the final assessment (OR 9.4; 95% CI 2.7-32.8) and the OSCE (OR 5.6; 95% CI 1.9-16.3) and outperformed all the other groups. The Cy+C group showed the most significant increase in knowledge and the best skills in asking and counseling about oral health.

Bayesian online algorithms for learning in discrete Hidden Markov Models

We propose and analyze two different Bayesian online algorithms for learning in discrete Hidden Markov Models and compare their performance with the already known Baldi-Chauvin Algorithm. Using the Kullback-Leibler divergence as a measure of generalization we draw learning curves in simplified situations for these algorithms and compare their performances.

Gold is not a Faradaic-Efficient Borohydride Oxidation Electrocatalyst: An Online Electrochemical Mass Spectrometry Study

Direct borohydride fuel cells are promising high energy density portable generators. However, their development remains limited by the complexity of the anodic reaction: The borohydride oxidation reaction (BOR) kinetics is slow and occurs at high overvoltages, while it may compete with the heterogeneous hydrolysis of BH(4)(-). Nevertheless, one usually admits that gold is rather inactive toward the heterogeneous hydrolysis of BH(4)(-) and presents some activity regarding the BOR, therefore yielding to the complete eight-electron BOR. In the present paper, by coupling online mass spectrometry to electrochemistry, we in situ monitored the H(2) yield during BOR experiments on sputtered gold electrodes. Our results show non-negligible H(2) generation on Au on the whole BOR potential range (0-0.8 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode), thus revealing that gold cannot be considered as a faradaic-efficient BOR electrocatalyst. We further propose a relevant reaction pathway for the BOR on gold that accounts for these findings.

Elderly online: Effects of a digital inclusion program in cognitive performance

There is little empirical data about the impact of digital inclusion on cognition among older adults. This paper aimed at investigating the effects of a digital inclusion program in the cognitive performance of older individuals who participated in a computer learning workshop named ""Idosos On-Line`` (Elderly Online). Forty-two aged individuals participated in the research study: 22 completed the computer training workshop and 20 constituted the control group. All subjects answered a sociodemographic questionnaire and completed the Addenbrooke`s cognitive examination, revised (ACE-R), which examines five cognitive domains: orientation and attention, memory, verbal fluency, language, and visuo-spatial skills. It was noted that the experimental group`s cognitive performance significantly improved after the program, particularly in the language and memory domains, when compared to the control group. These findings suggest that the acquisition of new knowledge and the use of a new tool, that makes it possible to access the Internet, may bring gains to cognition. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Online Mammographic Images Database for Development and Comparison of CAD Schemes

Considering the difficulties in finding good-quality images for the development and test of computer-aided diagnosis (CAD), this paper presents a public online mammographic images database free for all interested viewers and aimed to help develop and evaluate CAD schemes. The digitalization of the mammographic images is made with suitable contrast and spatial resolution for processing purposes. The broad recuperation system allows the user to search for different images, exams, or patient characteristics. Comparison with other databases currently available has shown that the presented database has a sufficient number of images, is of high quality, and is the only one to include a functional search system.

Dynamic Imaging in Electrical Impedance Tomography of the Human Chest With Online Transition Matrix Identification

One of the electrical impedance tomography objectives is to estimate the electrical resistivity distribution in a domain based only on electrical potential measurements at its boundary generated by an imposed electrical current distribution into the boundary. One of the methods used in dynamic estimation is the Kalman filter. In biomedical applications, the random walk model is frequently used as evolution model and, under this conditions, poor tracking ability of the extended Kalman filter (EKF) is achieved. An analytically developed evolution model is not feasible at this moment. The paper investigates the identification of the evolution model in parallel to the EKF and updating the evolution model with certain periodicity. The evolution model transition matrix is identified using the history of the estimated resistivity distribution obtained by a sensitivity matrix based algorithm and a Newton-Raphson algorithm. To numerically identify the linear evolution model, the Ibrahim time-domain method is used. The investigation is performed by numerical simulations of a domain with time-varying resistivity and by experimental data collected from the boundary of a human chest during normal breathing. The obtained dynamic resistivity values lie within the expected values for the tissues of a human chest. The EKF results suggest that the tracking ability is significantly improved with this approach.