Design and Assessment for Hybrid Courses: Insights and Overviews

Technology is influencing education, providing new delivery and assessment models. A combination between online and traditional course, the hybrid (blended) course, may present a solution with many benefits as it provides a gradual transition towards technology enabled education. This research work provides a set of definitions for several course delivery approaches, and evaluates five years of data from a course that has been converted from traditional face-to-face delivery, to hybrid delivery. The collected experimental data proves that the revised course, in the hybrid delivery mode, is at least as good, if not better, than it previously was and it provides some benefits in terms of student retention

Hybrid Course Delivery: Impact on Learning and Assessment

Technology is influencing education, blurring the boundaries of delivery modes. A combination between online and traditional teaching style, the hybrid/blended course, may present a solution with many benefits. This paper provides definitions of the different delivery approaches, and then evaluates four years of data from a course that has been converted from traditional face-to-face delivery, to a hybrid system. It is determined that the revised course, in hybrid delivery mode, is at least as good, if not better, than it previously was

MEASUREMENT OF GRADING ERROR COSTS IN THE BEEF INDUSTRY

This paper models the market for beef products when quality production is stochastic and quality information is asymmetric between producers and consumers. Independent sorters act as intermediaries to enhance market efficiency by guaranteeing minimum quality levels. Market shares, effort levels, prices, and quality standards are obtained for general market equilibrium.Marketing,

Framework to Enhance Teaching and Learning in System Analysis and Unified Modelling Language

Cowling, MA ORCiD: 0000-0003-1444-1563; Munoz Carpio, JC ORCiD: 0000-0003-0251-5510Systems Analysis modelling is considered foundational for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) students, with introductory and advanced units included in nearly all ICT and computer science degrees. Yet despite this, novice systems analysts (learners) find modelling and systems thinking quite difficult to learn and master. This makes the process of teaching the fundamentals frustrating and time intensive. This paper will discuss the foundational problems that learners face when learning Systems Analysis modelling. Through a systematic literature review, a framework will be proposed based on the key problems that novice learners experience. In this proposed framework, a sequence of activities has been developed to facilitate understanding of the requirements, solutions and incremental modelling. An example is provided illustrating how the framework could be used to incorporate visualization and gaming elements into a Systems Analysis classroom; therefore, improving motivation and learning. Through this work, a greater understanding of the approach to teaching modelling within the computer science classroom will be provided, as well as a framework to guide future teaching activities

Community College Online

In this report we find that the majority of Americans enrolling in higher education today do not match the mainstream image of recent high school graduates leaving home for the first time to settle into dorm life at a residential university campus. In 2012, only 12 percent of college students lived on campus. In fact, over four in ten college students in this country attend community colleges. In the fall of 2012, the public two-year sector enrolled 6.8 million undergraduates at over 1,000 institutions nationwide, more than any other higher education sector.This report indicates that often overlooked in conversations about college that tend to focus on elite, residential, four-year schools, community colleges occupy a critical space in higher education. Community college students not only make up a greater proportion of the college-going population than typically recognized, but they differ markedly in their demographic composition compared to the public four-year and private nonprofit sectors of higher education. Community college students are more likely to be older, commute to school, and care for dependents. They are also much more likely to attend part time and need remediation. In terms of racial and socioeconomic demographics, community college students are more diverse and lower-income than their four-year counterparts

Russian perspectives of online learning technologies in higher education: An empirical study of a MOOC

There has been a rapid growth of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in the global education market in the last decade. Online learning technologies are becoming increasingly widespread in the non-formal education sector and in higher and supplementary vocational education. The use of MOOCs in Russia to support the delivery of educational programmes at university level opens opportunities in terms of expanding the educational choice for students, the development of virtual academic mobility, reduction in the cost of educational services, and improvement in the accessibility of education. However, the effectiveness of using different online learning technologies at university level, and the consequences of their widespread adoption, has not been sufficiently explored. In this research study, a comparative analysis is made of the effects of different online learning models on student educational outcomes in a university setting. A study was undertaken in which different groups of students at the Ural Federal University, Russia, were encouraged to study technical and humanities disciplines using a framework of blended learning, and online learning with tutoring support. The results of the study were compared with the results of a reference (control) group of students who studied the same disciplines in a traditionally taught model. It was found that both models (blended and online) of MOOC implementation demonstrated greater learning gains, in comparison with the traditional model. For engineering and technical disciplines, there was no statistically significant difference between blended or online learning technologies. For the humanities discipline, where the communicative component of the learning process was significant, the blended learning technology produced better results. Conclusions of this empirical research may be useful for heads of educational organizations and teachers in helping them to make strategic decisions about the modernization of university courses by increasing the effectiveness of the implementation of new educational technologies. The results of this research project will be used for implementing the State Priority Project, ‘The Modern Digital Educational Environment of the Russian Federation’