COURSE EVALUATION IN DISTANCE LEARNING

This article is part of a course evaluation project at Allama Iqbal Open University, one of the largest universities in Pakistan and the main university offering education through the Distance Learning System. The first part of this project was a quantitative analysis of the responses of students to the course evaluation survey whereas this article presents a qualitative analysis of open-ended questions asked to students studying Phonology course and teachers teaching this course at Islamabad and Rawalpindi campuses of the university. The students presented their point of view regarding the three components under inquiry and suggested improvements in the course by upgrading the course contents and improving the quality of tutorial support

Offering a \u27Menu\u27 of Software and Case Study Options for the Group Project for Students Enrolled in the Introductory AIS Course: An Experimental Application Study

Instructors teaching the introductory accounting information systems (AIS) course generally include some type of group project to reinforce the principles emphasized in this course. One of the challenges facing AIS instructors is which type(s) of group project(s) potentially improve the students’ overall course learning experience, while at the same time addressing future career student objectives. If the AIS instructor has a mix of students with such differing career goals when teaching the AIS course, it is important for the instructor to consider possibly offering a variety of project choices for the group project. We test offering a ‘menu’ of software and case study group project options reflective of several career choices students have after graduation. We also describe how the instructor can operationalize such a ‘menu’ approach effectively using a learning management system (LMS), a minimal level of grading assistance, and other factors. We then measure student satisfaction with this approach, as well as the impact on the instructor’s teaching ratings of such an approach. Finally, we measure the impact of a ‘menu’ choice on students’ performance on the comprehensive final examination in the course. This paper provides empirical evidence in support of a ‘menu’ approach for group projects in the AIS course, a ‘menu’ which can be altered to accommodate the career aspirations of students majoring in accounting in most programs across the nation

Impact of early initiation versus national standard of care of antiretroviral therapy in Swaziland's public sector health system : study protocol for a stepped-wedge randomized trial

Background: There is robust clinical evidence to support offering early access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) to all HIV-positive individuals, irrespective of disease stage, to both improve patient health outcomes and reduce HIV incidence. However, as the global treatment guidelines shift to meet this evidence, it is still largely unknown if early access to ART for all (also referred to as "treatment as prevention" or " universal test and treat") is a feasible intervention in the resource-limited countries where this approach could have the biggest impact on the course of the HIV epidemics. The MaxART Early Access to ART for All (EAAA) implementation study was designed to determine the feasibility, acceptability, clinical outcomes, affordability, and scalability of offering early antiretroviral treatment to all HIV-positive individuals in Swaziland's public sector health system. Methods: This is a three-year stepped-wedge randomized design with open enrollment for all adults aged 18 years and older across 14 government-managed health facilities in Swaziland's Hhohho Region. Primary endpoints are retention and viral suppression. Secondary endpoints include ART initiation, adherence, drug resistance, tuberculosis, HIV disease progression, patient satisfaction, and cost per patient per year. Sites are grouped to transition two at a time from the control (standard of care) to intervention (EAAA) stage at each four-month step. This design will result in approximately one half of the total observation time to accrue in the intervention arm and the other half in the control arm. Our estimated enrolment number, which is supported by conservative power calculations, is 4501 patients over the course of the 36-month study period. A multidisciplinary, mixed-methods approach will be adopted to supplement the randomized controlled trial and meet the study aims. Additional study components include implementation science, social science, economic evaluation, and predictive HIV incidence modeling. Discussion: A stepped-wedge randomized design is a causally strong and robust approach to determine if providing antiretroviral treatment for all HIV-positive individuals is a feasible intervention in a resource-limited, public sector health system. We expect our study results to contribute to health policy decisions related to the HIV response in Swaziland and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa

Some Thoughts on the Public Compulsory Course of Chinese Modern History in Advanced Vocational Colleges

This article has provided thoughts and research on offering general compulsory Chinese Modern History course in advanced vocational School, and it also pointed out the teaching object and its main content of this course; it is necessary that teaching need to combine with the characteristic of the advanced vocational students in order to increase the efficiency of the class. Teachers need to take care of the relationship between college history teaching and middle school history teaching, theoretical teaching in class and practical teaching outside the class, traditional “spoon-feeding” teaching method and modern interactive teaching method, and teaching and research. Meanwhile, the department needs to enhance the construction of the teaching team for Chinese Modern History course, combine internal training with importation of scholars from the outside, and guarantee a well-constructed system and financial support

Using an online formative assessment framework to enhance student engagement: a learning outcomes approach

Students learn best when they are fully engaged in the learning process, are motivated to test their current level of learning against known standards, and are offered targeted and timely support to help address subsequent personal learning needs. The most usual way to do this is through the use of assessment, but this in itself can act as an overbearing influence on what and how students learn, rather than providing an holistic support mechanism that encourages continuous reflective learning. Summative assessment provides a quantitative measure of learning at specific points in time, but may not encourage students to focus on specific strengths and weaknesses in need of attention. Formative assessment can provide specific reflective and feed-forward support, but given the time-poor nature of many students, is this perceived as a useful part of the learning process? This paper presents an overview of work in progress (funded by Centre for Open Learning in Maths, Science, Computing and Technology CETL at The Open University), on the development and implementation of an online interactive formative assessment framework, that has designed from a constructivist perspective, to promote student engagement and understanding of academic progression, using an learning outcomes approach. The framework specifically aims to enhance student awareness, understanding and recognition of competency levels, and to allow testing of ongoing academic progress at predetermined and self-selected points throughout the year. Each assessment makes explicit links to other components of the course including the summative assessment strategy, as a means of providing an integrated approach to learning. By working through the formative assessments it is hoped that students will become more self-directed and confident in their learning skills and abilities, which in turn should improve retention. The framework uses OpenMark (a web-based system developed within the Open University) in which students have up to three attempts to correctly answer each question, and are offered instantaneous and targeted feedback after each incorrect attempt. The system collects information on the answers submitted, and the time taken to complete each question, offering valuable insight into how (and which) students are engaging with the assessment and course materials. This data permits new targeted feedback to be added in response to common errors, as well as additional support mechanisms to be incorporated in response to specific skills or content that is poorly demonstrated. All feedback in the framework is formative, commenting on how well each of the learning outcomes tested over a period of study has been demonstrated, as well as the overall level of academic competency attained at that point in time. At present, the framework encompasses seven interactive assessments (linked to fortnightly periods of study), consisting of ten variable-format questions (set at two levels of academic complexity). A planned eighth assessment will randomly select questions from preceding assessments, offering an instantaneous interactive revision tool. Preliminary results indicate that students not only rate the assessments as enjoyable, but are revisiting specific assessments as a means of enhancing previous outcomes and checking their progression on aspects they previously had difficulties with

PREFERENCE DRIVEN UNIVERSITY COURSE SCHEDULING SYSTEM

University course planning and scheduling is the process of determining what courses to offer, how many sections are needed, determining the best term to offer each section, assigning a faculty member to instruct each section, and scheduling each section to a timeslot to avoid conflicts. The result of this task has an impact on every student and faculty member in the department. The process is typically broken down into three major phases: course offering planning, faculty assignment to planned course sections, and course scheduling into timeslots. This thesis looks at each of these phases for the Industrial and Manufacturing department and brings them together into a decision support and scheduling system. A decision support tool is created to facilitate planning of course offerings. Operations research is applied to assign sections to faculty members using a faculty preference driven integer linear programming model in order to minimize dissatisfaction in the department. Next, the faculty-section pairs are scheduled into university timeslots using a complex integer linear programming model. This scheduling model takes into consideration the faculty member time availability and preferences and general student time slot preferences as it minimizes dissatisfaction while avoiding conflicts among labs, faculty members and courses offered for each class level

Cant We All Use An Angel?

Educational institutions are looking for ways to reach students in a better manner, in the face of increased competition, shifting demographics and tighter budgets. Offering online courses is one of the ways this problem has been approached. As the internet has become integral to our everyday lives, web-based educational course management systems have become more common and more sophisticated.  Blackboard, Webct, and ANGEL are three popular ones. The focal point of them is to aid instructors develop important learning experiences and improve learning outcomes They help to promote communication among and between students, support curriculum, assessments and surveys, facilitate team learning and group effort and feedback . This paper will help instructors and instructional designers who are considering course management systems. Results of the study show how one system provides users with superior results

Maintenance management and operational support as services in reconfigurable manufacturing systems

Emergent architectures and paradigms targeting reconfigurable manufacturing systems increasingly rely on intelligent models to maximize the robustness and responsiveness of modern installations. Although intelligent behaviour significantly minimizes the occurrence of faults and breakdowns it does not exclude them nor can prevent equipment’s normal wear. Adequate maintenance is fundamental to extend equipments’ life cycle. It is of major importance the ability of each intelligent device to take an active role in maintenance support. This paper proposes a maintenance architecture supporting maintenance teams’ management and offering contextualized operational support. All the functionalities hosted by the architecture are offered to the remaining system as network services. Any intelligent module, implementing the services’ interface, can report diagnostic, prognostic and maintenance recommendations that enable the core of the platform to decide on the best course of action

A high level e-maintenance architecture to support on-site teams

Emergent architectures and paradigms targeting reconfigurable manufacturing systems increasingly rely on intelligent modules to maximize the robustness and responsiveness of modern installations. Although intelligent behaviour significantly minimizes the occurrence of faults and breakdowns it does not exclude them nor can prevent equipment’s normal wear. Adequate maintenance is fundamental to extend equipments’ life cycle. It is of major importance the ability of each intelligent device to take an active role in maintenance support. Further this paradigm shift towards “embedded intelligence”, supported by cross platform technologies, induces relevant organizational and functional changes on local maintenance teams. On the one hand, the possibility of outsourcing maintenance activities, with the warranty of a timely response, through the use of pervasive networking technologies and, on the other hand, the optimization of local maintenance staff are some examples of how IT is changing the scenario in maintenance. The concept of e-maintenance is, in this context, emerging as a new discipline with defined socio-economic challenges. This paper proposes a high level maintenance architecture supporting maintenance teams’ management and offering contextualized operational support. All the functionalities hosted by the architecture are offered to the remaining system as network services. Any intelligent module, implementing the services’ interface, can report diagnostic, prognostic and maintenance recommendations that enable the core of the platform to decide on the best course of action.manufacturing systems, platform technologies, maintenance