A Case Study on Linked Data for University Courses

Obuda University wanted to build a linked dataset describing their courses in the semester. The concepts to be covered included curricula, subjects, courses, semesters and educators. A particular use case needed the description of lecture rooms and events as well. Although there are several ontologies for the mentioned domains, selecting a set of ontologies fitting our use case was not an easy task. After realizing the problems, we created the Ontology for Linked Open University Data (OLOUD) to fill in the gaps between re-used ontologies. OLOUD acts as a glue for a selection of existing ontologies, and thus enables us to formulate SPARQL queries for a wide range of practical questions of university students. OLOUD integrates data from several sources and provides personal timetables, navigation and other types of help for students and lecturers

A Transcript Analysis of the Graduates of Two Postsecondary Institutions in North Dakota: A General Education Profile

This study examined general education at a university and a community college in North Dakota in regard to purpose, structure, content, core, breadth, and coherence. The purpose of the study was to determine actual general education course-taking patterns by all graduates of the institutions and by differentiated majors. The research methodology was a case study and a profile of actual course-taking patterns as recorded on the transcripts of the 1990 baccalaureate degree graduates of the university and the 1989 and 1990 associate degree graduates at the community college. The profiles of general education coursework at the two institutions were similar. The stated purposes of general education were not directly linked to the general education structure or approved courses. Assessment was not defined. The structure of general education at the two institutions was distributional and spread among four disciplinary fields with some parameters in terms of departments and course selections. The content of the general education coursework completed was largely introductory. Although 50 percent of the total general education enrollments occurred in twenty-seven courses at the university and fourteen courses at the community college, there was an extremely limited pattern of common experiences for all graduates, particularly at the university. Fifty percent of the graduates completed only three courses in common at the university and seven courses in common at the community college. The core of common coursework was greater when differentiated by major; however, the common courses were closely related to the major and not balanced by discipline. Breadth of general education occurred to some degree in social sciences, humanities, and mathematics, but was limited in all other areas. Coursework coherence, measured by sequencing courses according to grade level, demonstrated 50 percent coherence at the community college for freshmen and sophomores but for only seniors at the university.Recommendations from this study included the need to conduct a general education case study at all institutions in the state higher education system, include general education transfer coursework in such a study, review institutional general education policies and practices considering the reported data, and develop general education assessment procedures

A practical application of statistical process control to evaluate the performance rate of academic programmes: implications and suggestions

Purpose – This study aims to properly and objectively assess the students’ study progress in bachelor programmes by applying statistical process control (SPC). Specifically, the authors focused their analysis on the variation in performance rates in business studies courses taught at a Spanish University. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative methodology was used, using an action-based case study developed in a public university. Previous research and theoretical issues related to quality indicators of the training programmes were discussed, followed by the application of SPC to assess these outputs. Findings – The evaluation of the performance rate of the courses that comprised the training programs through the SPC revealed significant differences with respect to the evaluations obtained through traditional evaluation procedures. Similarly, the results show differences in the control parameters (central line and control interval), depending on the adopted approach (by programmes, by academic year and by department). Research limitations/implications – This study has inherent limitations linked to both the methodology and selection of data sources. Practical implications – The SPC approach provides a framework to properly and objectively assess the quality indicators involved in quality assurance processes in higher education. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the discourse on the importance of a robust and effective assessment of quality indicators of the academic curriculum in the higher education context through the application of quality control tools such as SPC.Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Huelva / CBU

Patient safety in health care professional educational curricula: examining the learning experience

This study has investigated the formal and informal ways pre-registration students from four healthcare professions learn about patient safety in order to become safe practitioners. The study aims to understand some of the issues which impact upon teaching, learning and practising patient safety in academic, organisational and practice „knowledge? contexts. In Stage 1 we used a convenience sample of 13 educational providers across England and Scotland linked with five universities running traditional and innovative courses for doctors, nurses, pharmacists and physiotherapists. We gathered examples of existing curriculum documents for detailed analysis, and interviewed course directors and similar informants. In Stage 2 we undertook 8 case studies to develop an in-depth investigation of learning and practice by students and newly qualified practitioners in universities and practice settings in relation to patient safety. Data were gathered to explore the planning and implementation of patient safety curricula; the safety culture of the places where learning and working take place; the student teacher interface; and the influence of role models and organisational culture on practice. Data from observation, focus groups and interviews were transcribed and coded independently by more than one of the research team. Analysis was iterative and ongoing throughout the study. NHS policy is being taken seriously by course leaders, and Patient Safety material is being incorporated into both formal and informal curricula. Patient safety in the curriculum is largely implicit rather than explicit. All students very much value the practice context for learning about patient safety. However, resource issues, peer pressure and client factors can influence safe practice. Variations exist in students? experience, in approach between university tutors, different placement locations – the experience each offers – and the quality of the supervision available. Relationships with the mentor or clinical educator are vital to student learning. The role model offered and the relationship established affects how confident students feel to challenge unsafe practice in others. Clinicians are conscious of the tension between their responsibilities as clinicians (keeping patients safe), and as educators (allowing students to learn under supervision). There are some apparent gaps in curricular content where relevant evidence already exists – these include the epidemiology of adverse events and error, root cause analysis and quality assessment. Reference to the organisational context is often absent from course content and exposure limited. For example, incident reporting is not being incorporated to any great extent in undergraduate curricula. Newly qualified staff were aware of the need to be seen to practice in an evidence based way, and, for some at least, the need to modify „the standard? way of doing things to do „what?s best for the patient?. A number of recommendations have been made, some generic and others specific to individual professions. Regulators? expectations of courses in relation to patient 9 safety education should be explicit and regularly reviewed. Educators in all disciplines need to be effective role models who are clear about how to help students to learn about patient safety. All courses should be able to highlight a vertical integrated thread of teaching and learning related to patient safety in their curricula. This should be clear to staff and students. Assessment for this element should also be identifiable as assessment remains important in driving learning. All students need to be enabled to constructively challenge unsafe or non-standard practice. Encounters with patients and learning about their experiences and concerns are helpful in consolidating learning. Further innovative approaches should be developed to make patient safety issues 'real' for students

Students’ Academic Performance: An Inquiry into Limited First Class (Honours) Division within the University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana

Globally, academic performance is a key indicator of measuring the quality of an academic institution. This study assesses the factors that influence academic performance of students in public universities in Ghana. Specifically, it was restricted to the University for Development Studies (UDS), Wa Campus. The study adopted the case study design involving 17 respondents with the view to review, process and offer interpretation to data gathered from both secondary and primary sources with the objective to establishing critical factors which have given rise to the limited First Class (Honours) Division among students. The findings reveal that the limited First Class (Honour) Division among students is a reflection of students’ performance which is linked to critical input factors such as; poor lesson preparation and delivery, overcrowded lecture halls and poor lecturing schedule time among others. This paper therefore recommends that the Ministry of Education (MOE) should provide UDS with teaching and learning resources. Additionally, UDS administration should provide all necessary infrastructure and equipment for effective practical training for the students. Besides, UDS Management should organise regular workshops and in-service training to introduce all lecturers periodically to more effective teaching strategies. Heads of Department  should also monitor and appraise lecturers input by students’ performance in respective courses. The University Management should ensure that lecturers teach their respective specialist subjects so that their students will understand what they are taught. This may improve on  the number of First Class degree holders produced yearly by UDS. Keywords: Degree Classifications Examination  Challenges, Academic Performance, First Cass Students DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-11-05 Publication date: April 30th 201

Consuming Linked Data within a Large Educational Organization

Large universities tend to spread their services across several departments to serve their substantial student base. It is very common for this to result in developing different systems, which end up in creating many disconnected data silos within the organization. Data isolation is one of the main bottlenecks that prevent unlocking the full potential behind exploiting such data, to provide a better experience at the level of application deployment and data analysis. The Open University is in the process of connecting their data silos by relying on the Linked Data principles within the LUCERO project. We discuss in this paper three use-cases through which we consume Linked Data produced at the Open University: (1) a student services use-case showing how we exploit data connections to deliver learning material related to courses through the university's main course information website; (2) a mobile course application that enables students to easily explore courses by subject, qualification or research topic; and (3) a Leanback TV service that provides students the ability to watch, with a degree of control, a set of podcasts grouped in different channels. Through these use cases, we highlight in this paper the advantages and effects of consuming Linked Data within an organization

A Good Start: Two-Year Effects of a Freshmen Learning Community Program at Kingsborough Community College

Freshmen in a "learning community" at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, NY, moved more quickly through developmental English requirements, took and passed more courses, and earned more credits in their first semester than students in a control group. Two years later, they were also somewhat more likely to be enrolled in college

For me or not for me? - that is the question : a study of mature students' decision making and higher education

The views expressed in this report are the authors ' and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Education an

The OU Linked Open Data: production and consumption

The aim of this paper is to introduce the current efforts toward the release and exploitation of The Open University's (OU) Linked Open Data (LOD). We introduce the work that has been done within the LUCERO project in order to select, extract and structure subsets of information contained within the OU data sources and migrate and expose this information as part of the LOD cloud. To show the potential of such exposure we also introduce three different prototypes that exploit this new educational resource: (1) the OU expert search system, a tool focused on fnding the best experts for a certain topic within the OU staff; (2) the Buddy Study system, a tool that relies on Facebook information to identify common interest among friends and recommend potential courses within the OU that `buddies' can study together, and; (3) Linked OpenLearn, an application that enables exploring linked courses, Podcasts and tags to OpenLearn units. Its aim is to enhance the browsing experience for students, by detecting relevant educational resources on fly while reading an OpenLearn unit

Promoting Partnerships for Student Success: Lessons from the SSPIRE Initiative

The Student Support Partnership Integrating Resources and Education (SSPIRE) initiative aimed to increase the success of young, low-income, and academically underprepared California community college students by helping colleges strengthen their support services and better integrate these services with academic instruction. This report describes what the nine participating community colleges did to meet the goals of SSPIRE and offers lessons for other institutions drawn from MDRC's research on the initiative