Incorporating Online Instruction in Academic Libraries: Getting Ahead of the Curve

A sea change in higher education is shaping the way many libraries deliver instruction to their students and faculty. Years of technological innovation and changes in the way that people discover and use information has made online instruction an essential part of a library\u27s teaching and learning program. In order to evaluate our library\u27s online instruction program and to determine its future goals, we analyzed the technology, pedagogical models, organizational structures, administrative supports, and partnerships we would need in order to succeed. Our findings may be useful for libraries reassessing their own online instruction programs

Ghent University Technology Park : from a local initiative towards an essential component of the Ghent knowledge innovation ecosystem

Using the case of the Ghent University and its Technology Park, we will illustrate how changing policies and practices at the level of the university concerning research valorization have an impact on our science park. We will also demonstrate how the evolving nature of our science park has a clear impact on the university, as the science park becomes more and more an integral part of the university knowledge eco-system. We will also highlight the involvement of Ghent University in the Korea Songdo Global University Campus Project

Block-Based Development of Mobile Learning Experiences for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things enables experts of given domains to create smart user experiences for interacting with the environment. However, development of such experiences requires strong programming skills, which are challenging to develop for non-technical users. This paper presents several extensions to the block-based programming language used in App Inventor to make the creation of mobile apps for smart learning experiences less challenging. Such apps are used to process and graphically represent data streams from sensors by applying map-reduce operations. A workshop with students without previous experience with Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile app programming was conducted to evaluate the propositions. As a result, students were able to create small IoT apps that ingest, process and visually represent data in a simpler form as using App Inventor's standard features. Besides, an experimental study was carried out in a mobile app development course with academics of diverse disciplines. Results showed it was faster and easier for novice programmers to develop the proposed app using new stream processing blocks.Spanish National Research Agency (AEI) - ERDF fund

Research and Education in Computational Science and Engineering

Over the past two decades the field of computational science and engineering (CSE) has penetrated both basic and applied research in academia, industry, and laboratories to advance discovery, optimize systems, support decision-makers, and educate the scientific and engineering workforce. Informed by centuries of theory and experiment, CSE performs computational experiments to answer questions that neither theory nor experiment alone is equipped to answer. CSE provides scientists and engineers of all persuasions with algorithmic inventions and software systems that transcend disciplines and scales. Carried on a wave of digital technology, CSE brings the power of parallelism to bear on troves of data. Mathematics-based advanced computing has become a prevalent means of discovery and innovation in essentially all areas of science, engineering, technology, and society; and the CSE community is at the core of this transformation. However, a combination of disruptive developments---including the architectural complexity of extreme-scale computing, the data revolution that engulfs the planet, and the specialization required to follow the applications to new frontiers---is redefining the scope and reach of the CSE endeavor. This report describes the rapid expansion of CSE and the challenges to sustaining its bold advances. The report also presents strategies and directions for CSE research and education for the next decade.Comment: Major revision, to appear in SIAM Revie

Integrating Python into Mechanical Engineering undergraduate curriculum

Integrating the fundamentals of computer science and programming skills into the undergraduate engineering curriculum has been a primary focus for many educational institutions around the world. Learning the basics of programming from the beginning of undergraduate engineering education allows students to incorporate such skills into their work in the future with ease. The department of mechanical engineering at University College London has acknowledged this value and decided to implement a programming element into the first-year mechanical engineering curriculum to teach the basics of Python language and assess it using a real-life engineering problem. Python is general-purpose, concise, easy-to-read and -learn programming language that has become one of the most popular and in-demand languages in the world. Python has a vast ecosystem of tools, packages, and libraries that address a wide-ranging number of programming scenarios and provide mechanical engineers with a large array of general-purpose functionality. The addition of this element to the first-year curriculum during the last academic year 2021- 2022 has shown a high assessment passing rate and notable student engagement. In this extended abstract, an overview of planning, implementing and the results obtained from this process will be illustrated, and future work plans will be outlined

Developing a Faculty Learning Community to Support Writing Across Different STEM Disciplines

Writing to learn is one of the very important pedagogical strategies in a variety of disciplines. This concept is not specifically addressed in the majority of engineering courses. Hence, university initiatives such as the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), emerging out of accreditation and institutional assessments, are focusing on infusing scholarship from other disciplines (in this case English) for the purpose of student learning improvement. Engineering and Science programs do include various courses in English Composition as the part of the curriculum; however, writing is not embedded in all discipline-specific courses at the upper-division level. The program outlined here focuses on the exploration of possible methods for engineering and science faculty to embed more writing assignments in their STEM courses so that undergraduate students can adequately transfer what they learned from English courses and apply it in their specific discipline once they attain higher proficiency (at the junior and senior level). The project presented in this paper included the creation of a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) composed of English, Engineering, and Science scholars, with the goal of developing writing assignments that enhance student learning while also building off of writing concepts students learn in introductory writing courses. This paper evaluates the effect of the FLC on student learning and on faculty professional development

Name It and Claim It: Cross-Campus Collaborations for Community-Based Learning

This article describes the value of cross-campus collaborations for community-based learning. We argue that community-based learning both provides unique opportunities for breaking academic silos and invites campus partnerships to make ambitious projects possible. To illustrate, we describe a course Writing for Social Justice that involved created videos for our local YWCA\u27s Racial Justice Program. We begin by discussing the shared value of collaboration across writing studies and librarianship (our disciplinary orientations). We identify four forms of cross-campus collaboration, which engaged us in working with each other, with our community partner, and with other partners across campus. From there, we visualize a timeline, turning from the why of cross-campus collaborations to the how. Finally, we underscore the need to name and claim--to value and cultivate--cross-campus collaborations for community-based learning

Cracking the Code: Synchronizing Policy and Practice for Performance-Based Learning

Proposes a policy framework for integrating performance-based learning into the education system, synchronizing policy and practice, and ensuring collaborative state leadership and flexible federal leadership. Lists state policy issues and exemplars

Out-of-School Time Policy Commentary #10: Rethinking the High School Experience: What's After-School Got to Do With it?

With high school reform now a front-burner issue, districts and communities cannot afford to have high school after-school on the back burner. In this commentary, we focus on how and why the high school reform and after-school movements need to be woven together to produce a solid system of learning opportunities and developmental supports designed to help all young people prepare for the future