89,305 research outputs found
Lunchocracy: Improving Eating Dynamics in the Workplace Using a Bot-Based Anonymous Voting System
Previous studies have shown that when individuals join groups for lunch, they tend to conform to the decision of the group. As result, people do not always have the chance to pick the food they wish for, which in turn may have negative consequences, such as not abiding to healthy diets. To address this problem, we created Lunchocracy, an anonymous decision support tool for lunch spots in a workplace based on feedback from a focus group with 7 participants. The tool implements a conversational skype-bot, Lunchbot, that allows users to express interest in joining lunch and to vote for diners to eat at. We deployed the tool for four weeks with 14 participants from the same university department. Post-interviews with 5 participants revealed an overall satisfaction with Lunchocracy, in particular due to it structuring the lunch decision-making and saving time. We discuss how the use of Lunchocracy can positively influence the group's eating dynamics
Net gen or not gen? Student and Staff Evaluations of the use of Podcasts/Audio Files and an Electronic Voting System (EVS) in a Blended Learning Module.
At the authorsâ institution, blended learning is defined as âeducational provision where high quality e-learning opportunities and excellent campus-based learning are combined or blended in coherent, reflective and innovative ways so that learning is enhanced and choice is increased. Students are at the centre of this visionâ.
This paper outlines work undertaken to investigate the impact of integrating podcasts/audio file downloads and use of an electronic voting system (EVS) to transform module delivery from a traditional mode to a blended delivery. The purpose being to introduce a measure of flexibility in how, when and where students study; to increase interactivity and engagement in classroom sessions, and to enhance students' learning.
The student cohort is diverse in respect of age â the majority or students are direct entry students of the so-called net generation, whilst a significant number of students (35%) are mature students. Would age be an influencing factor on the studentsâ preference for the learning methods employed, or their willingness or ability to engage with the technologies?
An interim student evaluation was undertaken at the midpoint of the taught module, to provide formative, illustrative data to the module leader and teaching team about student opinion of the teaching methods and learning technologies. Given the option of returning to the traditional delivery method, 77.5% of students either âagreedâ or âstrongly agreedâ that the module should continue to run in its blended format.
The final evaluation discovered no discernable differences in the behaviour of the direct entry students compared to the mature students. Both groups accessed the podcasts easily, generally at home, and spent longer than if blended learning technologies had not been used. It was discovered that 16% of the mature and 24% of the direct entry students would have preferred lectures to podcasts, although the students were positive about the flexibility offered. Both groups of students were virtually unanimous on the benefits of the EVS to support learning. The teaching team concluded that the blended learning technologies increased the studentsâ engagement with their learning
A networked voting rule for democratic representation
We introduce a general framework for exploring the problem of selecting a
committee of representatives with the aim of studying a networked voting rule
based on a decentralized large-scale platform, which can assure a strong
accountability of the elected. The results of our simulations suggest that this
algorithm-based approach is able to obtain a high representativeness for
relatively small committees, performing even better than a classical voting
rule based on a closed list of candidates. We show that a general relation
between committee size and representatives exists in the form of an inverse
square root law and that the normalized committee size approximately scales
with the inverse of the community size, allowing the scalability to very large
populations. These findings are not strongly influenced by the different
networks used to describe the individuals interactions, except for the presence
of few individuals with very high connectivity which can have a marginally
negative effect in the committee selection process.Comment: Submitted for publicatio
Incorporating learning technologies into undergraduate radiography education
Original article can be found at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/10788174 Copyright The College of RadiographersThis study investigated the impact of integrating podcasts/audio file downloads and use of an electronic voting system (EVS) on a previously traditionally taught module. Both student (direct entry and mature) and staff satisfaction with the modified structure were evaluated.Peer reviewe
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