Development of on-line courses focusing on quality

The purpose of this paper is to show by which means quality in on-line education is achieved at Dalarna University. As a leading provider of online university courses in northern Europe, both in terms of number of students conducting their studies entirely on-line compared to the whole student body, (approximately 70% on-line students all subjects included), Dalarna University has acquired de facto extensive practical experience in the field of information technologies related to distance education. It has been deemed essential, to ensure that the quality of teaching reflects the principles governing the assessment of learning so that on-line education is deemed as comparative to campus education, both from a legal and cognitive point-of-view. Dalarna University began on-line courses in 2002 and it soon became clear that the interaction between the teacher and the student should make its mark in all stages of the learning process in order to both maintain the learners' motivation and ensure the assimilation of knowledge. We will illustrate these aspects by giving examples of what has been done in the recent years in on-line teaching of languages. As this method of teaching is not limited to learning basic language skills, but also to the study of literature, social issues and the language system of the various cultures, our presentation will offer a broad range of areas where the principles of quality in education are provided on a daily basis.

Construindo um modelo de referência ao despertar do interesse dos sujeitos em projetos educativos em ambiente on-line

This dissertation was written for the making of a model to be used as reference to the construction and diagnoses of educational projects in on-line environments. The model approaches a series of characteristics, technical and humans, which if considered can increase the potential of awake the interests to the active use of these projects for the students and build conditions to the development of an active posture by the students, fundamental factor to the educational advances. Focused in the students, not in the technology in use, we propose this model as a guide, reference to be used in a critical way in relation with every educational context. This research was made from the qualitative category, trough the method of study of case, using as reference to the analysis the use of the website guanabara.info - website outside of the school context - by it users, heard through the internet, by the use of semi-opened interview, in a data taken of the primary type. We follow as theoretical references Paulo Freire´s work, considering his vision of education and the building of knowledge as a process which occurs between man, and Celestín Freinet, in his pedagogy of humanized and critical insertion of the technologies in the school. At the end, we show the practical utilization of the model constructed using it for the diagnostics of an educational project in the on-line educational environmental moodle

Novel educational assessment for building structures: Automatic evaluation of on-line graphics

This article presents a new automatic evaluation for on-line graphics, its application and the numerous advantages achieved applying this developed correcting method. The software application developed by the Innovation in Education Group “E4”, from the Technical University of Madrid, is oriented for the online self-assessment of the graphic drawings that students carry out as continuous training. The adaptation to the European Higher Educational Area is an important opportunity to research about the possibilities of on-line education assessment. In this way, a new software tool has been developed for continuous self-testing by undergraduates. Using this software it is possible to evaluate the graphical answer of the students. Thus, the drawings made on-line by students are automatically corrected according to the geometry (straight lines, sloping lines or second order curves) and by sizes (depending on the specific values which define the graphics).

On-line writing: a link to learning in a teacher education program

This paper examines the use of on-line discussion as a medium for learning in a pre-service teacher education program. As part of an Education Studies course student teachers engaged in a discussion of issues related to technology and equity in schools. The design of the task and the subsequent analysis of the on-line text were part of a research project investigating whether and how communications technology can be used to integrate and extend the learning of teacher education students. The main argument developed in the paper is that through the on-line activity distinctive sets of writing practices were created. These practices enabled students to make connections between the often disparate parts of teacher education programs-theory and practice, campus and school, research and experience. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

On-line collaborative learning for in-service teacher education

This article brings some of the results of a study that analyzes a hybrid course for in-service teachers in the Project Teletandem Brazil: foreign languages for all. In this project, Brazilian teachers of Spanish as a foreign language took part in a blended tandem learning course, communicating via videoconferencing with Uruguayan teachers of Portuguese as a foreign language. The aim of the study was to verify Brazilian teachers' concepts and beliefs concerning language and culture and how the teletandem interactions affected them. After the interactions, teachers' views of culture seemed to also incorporate aspects of culture as an interpersonal process, instead of the factual and static view which was previously predominant. Therefore teacher education programs must consider the possibility of conjugating theory and reflective practice through the use of videoconference tools in order to allow teachers to experience culture rather learn facts about it. © 2011 ACADEMY PUBLISHER.

Family Preservation Conference Participants and the Internet: Opinions about On-Line Continuing Education

Development of distance and distributed learning continuing education (CE) opportunities for human services workers requires existence of such CE offerings, participant access to the Internet, knowledge of the Internet's use, and willingness to enroll in such programs. A survey of human services professionals who attended the Family Preservation Annual Conferences in 2000 (N = 230) and 2002 (N - 197) revealed that 92% (n = 206) of 2000 survey participants and 98% (192) of 2002 survey participants have used the Internet, while 76% of 2000 and 56% of 2002 respondents reported no formal training in the use of the Internet and its features. Findings are reported that reveal substantial interest among subjects in the Internet as a medium for continuing education programs for professional development.

Proposta educacional on-line sobre úlcera por pressão para alunos e profissionais de enfermagem

OBJETIVOS: Desenvolver uma proposta educacional on-line sobre o tema úlcera por pressão para alunos e profissionais de enfermagem. MÉTODOS: Pesquisa aplicada, de produção tecnológica, composta pelas etapas de concepção/ planejamento e desenvolvimento, caracterizadas por um conjunto de procedimentos, documentação, digitalização de informações e de imagens. Foram utilizados recursos computacionais didáticos interativos como: o Cybertutor e o Homem Virtual. RESULTADOS: Desenvolvimento de uma proposta educacional virtual sobre úlcera por pressão (UP) dividida em módulos de aprendizagem, contendo lista de discussão, estudos de casos e recursos didáticos, tais como fotos e o Homem Virtual. CONCLUSÕES: Utilizou-se de novas tecnologias educacionais, com a finalidade de promover o aprendizado sobre UP a estudantes de graduação de enfermagem e possibilitar a educação continuada de enfermeiros, uma vez que as UP representam um desafio aos profissionais da saúde e aos serviços de saúde.

Political Systems and the Perspective on Nursing Education during the Spanish Transition (from the Franco Regime to Democracy). A Contribution based on Nursing History

The aim of this study is to describe the changes in nursing education during the process prior to and after the establishment of democracy in Spain. It begins with the hypothesis that differences in social and political organization influenced the way the system of nursing education evolved, keeping it in line with neopositivistic schemes and exclusively technical approaches up until the advent of democracy. The evolution of a specific profile for nursing within the educational system has been shaped by the relationship between the systems of social and political organization in Spain. To examine the insertion of subjects such as the anthropology of healthcare into education programs for Spanish nursing, one must consider the cultural, intercultural and transcultural factors that are key to understanding the changes in nursing education that allowed for the adoption of a holistic approach in the curricula. Until the arrival of democracy in 1977, Spanish nursing education was solely technical in nature and the role of nurses was limited to the tasks and procedures defined by the bureaucratic thinking characteristic of the rational-technological paradigm. Consequently, during the long period prior to democracy, nursing in Spain was under the influence of neopositivistic and technical thinking, which had its effect on educational curricula. The addition of humanities and anthropology to the curricula, which facilitated a holistic approach, occurred once nursing became a field of study at the university level in 1977, a period that coincided with the beginnings of democracy in Spain.

A distributed system for learning programming on-line

Several Web-based on-line judges or on-line programming trainers have been developed in order to allow students to train their programming skills. However, their pedagogical functionalities in the learning of programming have not been clearly defined. EduJudge is a project which aims to integrate the “UVA On-line Judge”, an existing on-line programming trainer with an important number of problems and users, into an effective educational environment consisting of the e-learning platform Moodle and the competitive learning tool QUESTOURnament. The result is the EduJudge system which allows teachers to apply different pedagogical approaches using a proven e-learning platform, makes problems easy to search through an effective search engine, and provides an automated evaluation of the solutions submitted to these problems. The final objective is to provide new learning strategies to motivate students and present programming as an easy and attractive challenge. EduJudge has been tried and tested in three algorithms and programming courses in three different Engineering degrees. The students’ motivation and satisfaction levels were analysed alongside the effects of the EduJudge system on students’ academic outcomes. Results indicate that both students and teachers found that among other multiple benefits the EduJudge system facilitates the learning process. Furthermore, the experi- ment also showed an improvement in students’ academic outcomes. It must be noted that the students’ level of satisfaction did not depend on their computer skills or their gender.

On-line teaching and Copyright : Any Hopes for an EU Harmonized Playground?

Education never fails to be mentioned ¿ and, often, mentioned first ¿ as a public interest that justifies an exception to copyright. Educational purposes were already present in the first version of the Berne Convention of 18862 and have remained there (although in revised language) ever since. The WIPO Copyright Treaty of 19963 expressly referred to education in its Preamble, when ¿Recognizing the need to maintain a balance between the rights of authors andthe larger public interest, particularly education, research and access to information, as reflected in the Berne Convention¿ (emphasis added). And morerecently, the EU Directive on Copyright in the Information Society4 stressed its goal ¿to promote learning and culture by protecting works and other subjectmatter while permitting exceptions or limitations in the public interest for the purpose of education and teaching¿ (Recital 14, emphasis added).

ESL students' off-line and on-line texts : differences and similarities /

This study was undertaken to investigate any textual differences and similarities within essays written with a word processing program and an e-mail editor by non-native writers. It arose from many contradictions and a paucity of empirical research within the field of second language learning and electronic technology. To further explore these contradictory observations, 3 classes of intermediate level ESL (English as a Second Language) students v^ote 6 essays, alternating between a word processing program and an e-mail editor. Prior to the data collection, students read brief texts and responded to questions that focused upon three formal topics: immigration, economics, and multiculturalism. Data were examined for (a) the differences in the frequency counts of 12 cohesive devices, (b) sentence complexity, which focused upon the occurrences of simple and complex sentences, (c) the number of words within the writings, (d) the method of contextualization preferred by writers, and (e) any variations in the final grades of the students' texts that resulted from holistic rating. Results of analysis indicated that there were no statistically significant differences in the frequency counts of the linguistic features. Sentence complexity did not vary within the off-line and on-line essays. The average number of words found within the off-line essays was approximately 20% greater than within on-line essays. Contextualization methods were not different within word-processed or e-mailed essays. Finally, there was no difference in the quality of the texts when holistically rated.

Divulgación on-line de los códigos de buen gobierno en las IES y su determinación para el posicionamiento en el ranking QS

Dado el interés que se presenta con los temas de gobierno corporativo, este trabajo busca describir si la divulgación on-line de los contenidos de los códigos de buen gobierno, es determinante en el posicionamiento que tienen las Instituciones de Educación Superior (IES) en el ranking QS. Partiendo de una muestra de 20 IES, se recolectaron un conjunto de datos dicotómicos para 30 variables independientes y se relacionaron con la variable dependiente denominada posicionamiento en el ranking. A partir de lo anterior, se elaboró un trabajo descriptivo y correlacional con el fin de probar las hipótesis de investigación. Este estudio reveló que la divulgación on-line de los contenidos de los códigos de buen gobierno en las IES, no es determinante para el posicionamiento en el ranking QS.

??C??mo fomentar el desarrollo de competencias en la formaci??n on-line? : una experiencia en la asignatura de direcci??n estrat??gica

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

A gestão pedagógica do ensino e aprendizagem on-line : especificidades

A gestão pedagógica do ensino e aprendizagem on-line: especificidades abordam os desafios da Gestão do Projeto Pedagógico que tem as Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação por base didático-pedagógica. O fenômeno constitui-se na gestão do ensino-aprendizagem de curso lato senso a distância, no uso do computador conectado à internet, e a formação do educador especialista responsável pela coordenação, ensino, avaliação e/ou monitoria a frente do trabalho educativo. Reflete sobre os desafios da práxis pedagógica, subsidiada pela busca questionadora das tecnologias, a fim de responder também à demanda por inclusão sócio-digital. A abordagem metodológica de natureza qualitativa pauta-se na interpretação da realidade, de caráter hermenêutico com o intuito de considerar a experiência vivida pelos sujeitos na educação on-line a partir de uma visão crítica. Questiona o descompasso da educação formal brasileira e os avanços sociais com as incorporações de novas tecnologias de aprendizagens. Estabelece nas análises, a relação entre as teorias que sedimentam os objetivos do curso, as práticas de gestão e as influências ideológicas que marcam esse cenário, no PIGEAD da Universidade Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro Brasil, período de 2010 a 2012. Os resultados desta pesquisa mostram que a interatividade, diferencial que aproxima o indivíduo e o torna parte da comunicação estabelecida na EAD on-line, não ocorre plenamente entre os sujeitos do processo. Além disso, a gestão democrática participativa declarada em seus objetivos de formação se mostra na realidade como prática centralizadora, sinalizando um descompasso entre teoria e prática. Esta pesquisa, entre outros, oferece elementos de avaliação e aprimoramento ao PIGEAD.