Teaching Machines to Read and Comprehend

Teaching machines to read natural language documents remains an elusive challenge. Machine reading systems can be tested on their ability to answer questions posed on the contents of documents that they have seen, but until now large scale training and test datasets have been missing for this type of evaluation. In this work we define a new methodology that resolves this bottleneck and provides large scale supervised reading comprehension data. This allows us to develop a class of attention based deep neural networks that learn to read real documents and answer complex questions with minimal prior knowledge of language structure.Comment: Appears in: Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 28 (NIPS 2015). 14 pages, 13 figure

Analogue-digital theaching application of new technologies to learning and continous evaluation in technical subjects in engineering and architecture higher education

Teaching technical subjects on Architecture and Engineering has been developed traditionally using lecture and master class methodology. During them, the professor presented the content using the resolution of practical problems as a complement for theoretical reasoning. This sessions were generally support by an analogic resource: the blackboard. In recent years, despite the introduction of new technologies in the classroom, this methodology has become more static. In most cases, explanations have been supported only by slides created with the assistance of computer programs, making into minority the use of the blackboard. This has produced the generalization of “death by PowerPoint” phaenomenon. With regard to evaluation systems, there have been no substantial changes between these two different teaching methods despite the widespread implementation of competency-based learning system introduced by European Higher Education Area (EHEA) since 1999. Learning of students continues being verified by the realization of a final exam about the theoretical and practical contents of the subject. This paper presents a teaching methodology focused on encouraging active student participation both during the course of the class and outside. The application of learning for information and communications technology (ICT) makes its essential basis. Simultaneously, a continuous evaluation system capable of maintaining the attention on the subject has been implemented. The static attendance combined with traditional evaluation systems by a final exam produces an accumulation of information by the student revised and learned just to pass the final exam. This scheme has been changed getting a higher motivation of students to the continuous learning process. This system has been applied since the 2012/2013 academic year in technical subjects of Bachelor in Architecture in the Universities of Malaga and Seville through an Educational Innovation Project financed by University of Malaga. Results obtained by this experience show an increasing involvement of students during the course of the classes as well as a better engagement during the whole semester. In addition the using of this methodology has had a positive impact on the pass rate of subjects being involved usually lower than the average of Bachelor and University degree.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The SusTEACH Methodology: Assessment of the environmental impacts of Higher Education Teaching Models and development of an Environmental Appraisal toolkit

Sustainable, low carbon Higher Education (HE) teaching systems are part of the carbon reduction strategies needed to meet the targets set for HE institutions. Significant changes in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have led to new methods in teaching and learning, blending conventional and ICT-based teaching models. Little is known about their environmental impacts. Few studies have considered the whole system carbon-based environmental impacts of different systems of delivering Higher Education. One notable exception was the Factor 10 Visions study ‘Towards Sustainable Higher Education’, which offered an exemplar methodology for conducting an environmental impact audit/assessment of HE courses/modules. Building on this, the SusTEACH project examined the transformative effect of ICTs on HE teaching models, and developed a methodology to assess the main carbon-based environmental impacts of HE courses/modules, and to provide estimations of the energy and carbon impacts associated with different HE teaching models. This methodology as outlined here has supported the SusTEACH project research analysis of over thirty HE courses and modules, and the SusTEACH toolkit available from OpenLearn Module: The environmental impact of teaching and learning

Evaluating LAB@FUTURE, a collaborative e-learning Laboratory experiments platform

This paper presents Lab@Future, an advanced e-learning platform that uses novel Information and Communication Technologies to support and expand laboratory teaching practices. For this purpose, Lab@Future uses real and computer generated objects that are interfaced using mechatronic systems, augmented reality, mobile technologies and 3D multi user environments. The main aim is to develop and demonstrate technological support for practical experiments in the following focused disciplines namely: Fluid Dynamics - Science subject in Germany, Geometry - Mathematics subject in Austria, History and Environmental Awareness – Arts and Humanities subjects in Greece and Slovenia. In order to pedagogically enhance the design and functional aspects of this e-learning technology, we are investigating the dialogical operationalisation of learning theories so as to leverage our understanding of teaching and learning practices in the targeted context of deployment. To be able to evaluate the lab@future system in its entire complexity an evaluation methodology including several phases has been developed, performing formative as well as summative evaluations

E-Learning For Software Engineering: A Case Study On Teaching Information Systems Online Group Project With Extreme Programming

This paper reports the experience gained in software engineering group work within the framework of a fourteen week master’s level graduate course on information systems development. Teams of three to five members developed web-based application systems using the Distributed eXtreme Programming (XP) methodology. A case study is proposed to understand the issues encountered by students during the software development process and to determine the impact of XP methodology as well as team members’ geographical distribution on students’ overall performance. We suggest that teaching an information systems group project online with agile methodology (i.e. distributed XP) brings several issues to be considered before and during the development process. This study points out these issues, particularly those regarding student teams’ communication, coordination, and collaboration practices. Improvement of these issues in the future would help educators develop more effective education settings and help students enhance their performance

Teaching Digital Ethics in Information Systems

This paper reviews and discusses the little-explored topic of digital ethics education in Information Systems and related fields. The importance of teaching digital ethics to students studying information and communication technologies (ICT) is increasingly recognised. However, it is unclear how ethics should best be taught to these future ICT practitioners. Using a narrative literature review methodology to explore existing scholarly work, this paper identifies five pedagogical theories related to digital ethics education. Additionally, the paper outlines approaches that deploy standalone ethics units, integrated ethics teaching, and hybrid teaching approaches, and identifies the employment of and emphasis given to various moral theories in digital ethics education. The paper then discusses how these three sets of findings—namely, different pedagogical approaches, degree of integration of ethics teaching, and use of moral theories—are related to each other. It provides educators with information and reflections to consider when designing digital ethics teaching

Issues with the use of ICTs and multimedia in teaching and learning

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have brought progress in allareas. The use of ICTs in education has been introduced as a teaching methodology inalmost all countries of Europe. Research studies have shown that the use of multimedia tools increases the performance of learning systems. Multimedia tools can help pupils understand and remember for a longer time the given information. Multimedia can allowgreater individualization; consequently, lead to improved learning, pupils' satisfaction andfinal outcomes

Analysing online teaching and learning systems using MEAD

The review of literature pertaining to systems analysis and design and the design of systems for online teaching and learning has identified some &ldquo;gaps&rdquo; and has shown the need for a more specialised and specific method for the design of such systems. This paper presents research that was conducted to collect information to assist in the filling of the gaps of the systems analysis and design knowledge within Australia and also presents a method for the development of online teaching and learning systems. Currently design is done in an ad-hoc fashion with little formal input from the student users; this research aims to rectify this. The paper puts forwards an educational design approach based upon Soft Systems Methodology (SSM). The outcome of the research is a practical method &ndash; the Method for Educational Analysis and Design (MEAD).<br /

Describing typeforms: a designer's response

The paper sets out an overview of a pragmatic research investigation initiated within a doctoral enquiry, and which continues to inform design practice and pedagogy. Located within the fields of typography and information design, and very much concerned with design history, enquiry emphasized exploration of alternative design research methodologies in the production of a design outcome loaded with pedagogical ambition. The issue being addressed within the investigation was the limited scope of existing typeface classificatory systems to adequately describe the diversity of forms represented within current type design practice and thus, recent acquisitions to an established teaching collection in London. Addressing this issue unexpectedly came to utilize the researcher’s own design practice as a methodology for managing emergent enquiry, and for organizing and generating new knowledge through the employment of visual information management methods. A primary outcome of the enquiry was a new framework for the description of typeforms. This new framework will be described in terms of its operation, divergence from existing models and potential for application