Learning flexibility: the environment and a case study

This paper outlines the flexible student learning environment in the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying, before concentrating on evaluating one online learning option. This Faculty provides a variety of high quality on-campus, distance education and on-line academic programmes and various learning strategies for the heterogeneous student cohort (national and international). By accessing appropriate flexible learning and different learning experiences, students are empowered to determine learning opportunities and methodologies to suit their personal needs. The off-campus mode study may disadvantage students since they don’t have the benefit of face-to-face instructions or to participate in formative assessments delivered informally in lectures. This may lead to feelings of remoteness and isolation leading to poorer learning, lower results in assessments, and may also contribute to drop-out rates, particularly in first year courses. To overcome this inequity, the usual training materials presented for a first year course in 2005 were supplemented with PowerPoint lectures, enhanced with synchronous audio, and a series of quizzes to be used as formative assessments. The lectures and quizzes were presented online via a course web site and were designed to become an integral part of the learning experience. An evaluation of the effectiveness of these strategy demonstrated improved students' learning, a positive contribution to the learning experience, increased enjoyment of the course, and a strong learning motivator. Students reported feeling less disenfranchised with the university and having a greater affinity with the lecturer

Shared teaching with multimedia‐enhanced video‐conferencing

Video‐conferencing was used to share a short series of lectures between several universities. A high bandwidth network (155Mbit/s) permitted near broadcast TV quality video to be combined with fully mixed, high‐quality audio. The lectures were supported by visual aids made available using Microsoft NetMeeting to provide multipoint, shared applications. NetMeeting is shown to be a stable and effective platform for distributing multimedia material at a much higher resolution than is possible using the video signals common in most video‐conference lectures, although care must be taken when constructing animated material

Impact of online training in a first year undergraduate course

Students studying university courses in the off-campus (distance education or external) mode may be at a disadvantage to on-campus students since they don’t have the benefit of face-to-face instructions. Furthermore, they don’t have the opportunity to participate in formative assessments that are often delivered informally in lectures. This may lead to feelings of remoteness and isolation leading to poorer learning, lower results in assessments, and may also contribute to drop out rates, particularly in first year courses. To overcome this inequity, the usual training materials presented for a first year course in 2005 were supplemented with PowerPoint lectures, enhanced with synchronous audio, and a series of quizzes to be used as formative assessments. The lectures and quizzes were presented online via a course web site and were designed to become an integral part of the learning experience. The effectiveness of these enhanced materials was evaluated by surveying the users. Outcomes of the survey indicate that the enhancements to materials facilitated improved students’ learning, contributed positively to the learning experience, increased enjoyment of the course, and were a strong motivator. Off-campus students reported feeling less disenfranchised with the university and having a greater affinity with the lecturer, both of which should help increase first year retention rates. The information presented in this paper will be of benefit to others designing online teaching and learning activities

FMRepS: Pengurusan aduan kerosakan di Kolej Kediaman Perwira UTHM

Kolej Kediaman Perwira berhadapan dengan masalah merekod aduan kerosakan dan menyimpan butiran berkenaan pelajar yang semakin bertambah. Sehingga kajian ini dilakukan, jumlah penghuni sudah melebihi 500 orang. Begitu juga dengan aduan kerosakan yang diterima oleh pihak pengurusan kolej dari penghuni juga turut meningkat. Hal ini meresahkan staf Kolej Kediaman Perwira kerana pertambahan aduan bermakna bertambahnya penggunaan kertas dan dikhuatiri meningkatkan kos pengurusan Kolej Kediaman Perwira. Oleh yang demikian, Facilities Management Report System (FMRepS) telah dibangunkan bagi mengurangkan beban pihak pengurusan kolej dan yang lebih penting ialah memudahkan dan mencepatkan proses aduan kerosakan seperti yang disasarkan matlamat utama sistem. Sistem ini merekod segala butiran pelajar dan aduan yang ingin dibuat boleh dilakukan secara dalam talian tanpa perlu ke pejabat pengurusan Kolej Kediaman Perwira. Pembangunan FMRepS adalah berdasarkan Model Air Terjun dan menggunakan perisian Adobe Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop dan MySQL sebagai pangkalan data untuk mencapai dan menyimpan data. Pemantauan telah dilakukan di Kolej Kediaman Perwira untuk melihat penggunaan kertas setelah FMRepS diimplemen di kolej. Hasil kajian menunjukkan FMRepS mampu mengurangkan kos kertas dan juga masa memproses aduan kerosakan. Ini menjadikan urusan aduan menjadi lebih mudah dan lebih efektif di Kolej Kediaman Perwira

HOW AN ONLINE COURSE COMPARES

Student satisfaction with and performance in an on-line agrisales course is compared with that of students enrolled in a simultaneously-taught classroom course. Assessment tools are developed for both sections. Online and classroom students were equally satisfied with the course and the instructor using most measures, but had different motivators for course enrollment. Overall student performance did not differ, but the composition of such was unique for each group. Results suggest instructors be well prepared to handle unique learner situations prior to marketing an online course.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Lecture capture using large interactive display systems

There are various software technologies that allow capture and redelivery of lectures. Most of these technologies however rely on the use of proprietary software, often requiring extra efforts from the lecturer in terms of the initial preparation of the lecture material, or in editing and annotating after the lecture to make the material suitable for the students. To review the material students then require access to the proprietary software. This paper describes a system for the lightweight capture of lecture presentations, based on the use of a low-cost large interactive display surface, together with standard Microsoft PowerPoint™ presentation software. The captured version of the presentation includes the original lecture slides, graphical annotations made by the lecturer during the lecture, and the audio recording of the lecture; all saved as a PowerPoint file. In addition, the system adds some annotations and index slides to allow quick and easy access to different segments of the presentation. Presentations can be replayed in part or in full as required, preserving all of the content of the live lecture

Using Literature Reviews as a Learning Tool for Solid Freeform Fabrication

Over the past six years, students involved in the “Non-Traditional & Additive Manufacturing” course at Utah State University have been assigned an in-depth literature review as one their course projects. This literature review, done in groups of 2 or 3 students, involves becoming an expert on a topic of interest to the students and then presenting this material to the class as an indepth, oral presentation in addition to writing a journal-like review article on the topic. This project has proved to be a consistently effective method for enhancing learning of SFF technologies and their applications, and has been consistently noted by students in their course evaluations as a highly effective teaching tool. The methodology used for assigning and assessing these projects will be explored, in addition to a discussion of the benefits of this project toward meeting ABET criteria for accreditation of engineering programs.Mechanical Engineerin

Creating presentable PowerPoint presentations (including reference to students with dyslexia or who do not have English as their first language)

This guide aims to enlighten presenters in the art of effective visual presentations to enable the audience to view the presentation as an enhancement rather than a substitution