Pacademics: Developing A Collaborative Service Learning Portal To Facilitate Experiential Learning

This tutorial discusses the benefits of integrating service learning into technology specific classes and Management Information System (MIS) capstone courses. The literature discusses the benefits of integrating service learning into the curriculum from both the students and the community partners perspective. Despite the numerous benefits, there are also a variety of hidden pitfalls and challenges for faculty. This session will discuss some of the problems associated with integrating service learning into the MIS curriculum. The session will also provide a demonstration of a web based portal www.pacademics.com that is being conceived to alleviate these problems by creating an efficient web2.0 workflow system for managing the service learning process. This tutorial will also discuss the opportunities for research that will be available from the data collected from the system

An authoring tool for structuring and annotating on-line educational courses : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science at Massey University

This thesis studies the design and prototype implementation of a new web-based course authoring system for the Technology Integrated Learning Environment (TILE) project. The TILE authoring system edits the course structure and allows the author to annotate the course structure with meta-data. It makes extensive use of XML technology to communicate structured data across the Internet, as well as for both local and web-side databases. The Authoring tool is designed to support development by multiple authors and has check-in and check - out, as well as version control facilities. It also provides an interface for adopting other multimedia tools such as AudioGraph. The tool has an easy-to-use graphical user interface. The technical problems that have been solved in this project include issues such as cross-platform support, drag and drop functionality using JDK l.l.8, etc. System environments, such as relational database set up, XML database set up, Java swing set up in Mac also have been discussed. The authoring system interface analysis, database analysis and function analysis have been completed for the complete the system as specified. An intermediate system, designed to a reduced specification, has been implemented as a prototype and details of this system, which can work independently of the TILE delivery system, are included. The Full TILE authoring system including InstantDB database access also has been partially implemented. The prototype application has also has been tested on the PC platform

Crisis Analytics: Big Data Driven Crisis Response

Disasters have long been a scourge for humanity. With the advances in technology (in terms of computing, communications, and the ability to process and analyze big data), our ability to respond to disasters is at an inflection point. There is great optimism that big data tools can be leveraged to process the large amounts of crisis-related data (in the form of user generated data in addition to the traditional humanitarian data) to provide an insight into the fast-changing situation and help drive an effective disaster response. This article introduces the history and the future of big crisis data analytics, along with a discussion on its promise, challenges, and pitfalls

Progress Along the Pathway for Transforming Regional Health: A Pulse Check on Multi-Sector Partnerships

Multi-sector partnerships play an increasingly significant role in the movement to improve heath, equity, and economic prosperity. These partnerships recognize that many of our most pressing challenges defy sector boundaries, and cannot be effectively addressed by any one institution alone. Progress Along the Pathway to Health System Transformation: A Pulse Check on Multi-Sector Partnerships is the only survey of its kind to ask leaders across the U.S. what their partnerships do, how they finance their work, and how their groups have been developing over time. The 2016 Pulse Check report provides a snapshot of 237 multi-sector partnerships throughout the country as well as rich detail around what contributes to—or gets in the way of—moving their important work forward. The survey revealed two sets of findings that are distinct, but closely related. These include characteristics of the partnerships and their efforts, such as composition, portfolio priorities, and financing; as well as developmental phases and the distinctive patterns of momentum builders and pitfalls that groups experience as they evolve. Further, ReThink Health has found that partnerships often face predictable challenges and can catalyze momentum in particularly powerful ways. The Pulse Check explored these barriers and drivers with a view toward understanding how partnerships may evolve along their journey. Pulse Check findings indicate that certain partnership characteristics do indeed show progressive differences across developmental phases (see graphic below). For instance, when compared to respondents in the Earlier and Middle phases, those in the Later phase tend to have partnerships that are more established, with larger staffs, a larger number active sectors, more expansive action portfolios, and longer-term financial plans

Promoting game accessibility: Experiencing an induction on inclusive design practice at the global games jam

Copyright @ 2013 The AuthorsThe Global Games Jam (GGJ) attracts many people who are passionate about games development, coming from a range of educational backgrounds. Therefore, the event can be experienced by novices and student developers as an opportunity for learning. This provides an opening to promote themes and ideas that could help form future thinking about games design, emerging as a form of induction on key design issues for new practitioners. Such an approach aims to raise awareness about issues which learners could help develop and take with them into industry. However, the experience itself affords a deep experiential rhetoric and dialogue with experts that could be an effective pedagogical tool for issues seldom addressed deeply in formal educational settings. This paper describes an account by one such individual, being introduced to game accessibility through participation in the GGJ. As such, it is not intended as a rigorous empirical analysis, but rather a perspective on one way a game jam can be experienced, inviting further research on the topic

Forging Ahead: Early Lessons

Outlines outcomes and lessons of the Scale Academy for Microenterprise Development's operational grants, training, and technical support for microenterprise organizations. Examines grantees' progress in and strategies for expanding services sustainably

Benefits, Limitations and Best Practices of Online Coursework…Should Accounting Programs Jump on Board?

The evolution of online teaching has evolved as quickly and vivaciously as the adoption of the World Wide Web. While there were and are skeptics, research shows that not only is online learning more convenient and makes educational available anytime and anywhere, it has the potential, in some cases, to be an improved tool for educating. To ensure maximized learning outcomes, and to experience the blessing and not the curse of online coursework, it is critical that universities embrace it wholeheartedly and follow online pedagogical best practices in developing and executing online courses. In addition, there are some courses where special forethought should be made to ensure online learning is effective. Courses that are more computational necessitate this consideration. This document serves to provide strategies and best practices on how to obtain excellence and maximized outcomes from online education. It examines research to date and outlines: the benefits and challenges of online learning, strategies and best practices for online educating, and considerations for online accounting coursework

Reviews

Alan Clarke, Designing Computer‐Based Learning Materials, Aldershot: Gower, 2001. ISBN: 0–566–08320–5. Hardback, xviii+196 pages, £45.00

Outsourcing Back Office Services in Small Nonprofits: Pitfalls and Possibilities

Presents findings on small nonprofits' administrative, finance, and other office support needs; reasons and conditions for outsourcing as well as barriers; methods for evaluating options; and guiding principles. Examines three business models