Using open ended, ill formed problems to develop and assess Engineering Mathematics competencies.

The purpose of this paper is to report upon how an engineering mathematics class was used to provide a vehicle for students to develop mathematical competencies and hence higher order thinking skills within the broader field of engineering education. Specifically it provided students with the opportunities to think mathematically, reason mathematically, pose and resolve mathematical problems, to use technology to model resolutions, interpret and handle mathematical symbolism and to communicate their resolutions to peers and staff. Using the report produced by the Mathematics Working Group of SEFI (European Society for Engineering Education), which details a framework for mathematics curricula in engineering education (SEFI, 2013), a methodology was identified. This methodology was also based on work previously undertaken by the author (Peters, 2017; Peters, 2015). In section 2.1 (p 13) the report lists and describes a set of eight mathematical competencies: (1) Thinking mathematically, (2) reasoning mathematically, (3) posing and solving mathematical problems, (4) modelling mathematically, (5) representing mathematical entities, (6) handling mathematical symbols and formalism, (7) communicating in, with, and about mathematics and, (8) making use of aids and tools. The report also points out the importance of developing assessment procedures pertinent to competency acquisition (p7). The evidence from this investigation concludes that the majority of students found the experience challenging but worthwhile. They considered they had learnt important skills including the ability to form assumptions, persistence, time management, project management and an enhancement of their mathematical skills in relation to engineering

European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN). Conference Proceedings

Erasmus+ Programme of the European UnionThe powerful combination of the information age and the consequent disruption caused by these unstable environments provides the impetus to look afresh and identify new models and approaches for education (e.g. OERs, MOOCs, PLEs, Learning Analytics etc.). For learners this has taken a fantastic leap into aggregating, curating and co-curating and co-producing outside the boundaries of formal learning environments – the networked learner is sharing voluntarily and for free, spontaneously with billions of people.Supported by Erasmus+ Programme of the European Unioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Research in Supply Chain Management: Issue and Area Development

Today the study of supply chain management (SCM) is growing rapidly and provides a great opportunity to do research both empirical and theoretical development. Research opportunities in SCM has been reviewed by many researchers and grouped into many categories. This paper contains a review of research SCM and classify into 7 categories, namely (1) SCM Operational Management & Strategy, (2) knowledge management, (3) Relationship Management, (4) Information Technology in SCM, (5) Supply Chain Design, Logistics & Infrastructure, (6) Global Issues, (7) Environment, Legal & Regulations. The issue in each category and research opportunities will be discussed in this paper. Keywords: Supply Chain Management, Research Opportunities in SCM, Issue in SC

Some further studies on improving QFD methodology and analysis

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) starts and ends with the customer. In other words, how it ends may depend largely on how it starts. Any QFD practitioners will start with collecting the voice of the customer that reflects customer’s needs as to make sure that the products will eventually sell or the service may satisfy the customer. On the basis of those needs, a product or service creation process is initiated. It always takes a certain period of time for the product or service to be ready for the customer. The question here is whether those customer-needs may remain exactly the same during the product or service creation process. The answer would be very likely to be a ‘no’, especially in today’s rapidly changing environment due to increased competition and globalization. The focus of this thesis is placed on dealing with the change of relative importance of the customer’s needs during product or service creation process. In other words, the assumption is that there is no new need discovered along the time or an old one becomes outdated; only the relative importance change of the existing needs is dealt with. Considering the latest development of QFD research, especially the increasingly extensive use of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in QFD, this thesis aims to enhance the current QFD methodology and analysis, with respect to the change during product or service creation process, as to continually meet or exceed the needs of the customer. The entire research works are divided into three main parts, namely, the further use of AHP in QFD, the incorporation of AHP-based priorities’ dynamics in QFD, and decision making analysis with respect to the dynamics. The first part focuses on the question "In what ways does AHP, considering its strength and weakness, contribute to an improved QFD analysis?" The usefulness of AHP in QFD is demonstrated through a case study in improving higher education quality of an education institution. Furthermore, a generalized model of using AHP in QFD is also proposed. The generalized model not only provides an alternative way to construct the house of quality (HoQ), but also creates the possibility to include other relevant factors into QFD analysis, such as new product development risks. The second part addresses the question "How to use the AHP in QFD in dealing with the dynamics of priorities?" A novel quantitative method to model the dynamics of AHP-based priorities in the HoQ is proposed. The method is simple and time-efficient. It is especially useful when the historical data is limited, which is the case in a highly dynamic environment. As to further improve QFD analysis, the modeling method is applied into two areas. The first area is to enhance the use of Kano’s model in QFD by considering its dynamics. It not only extends the use of Kano’s model in QFD, but also advances the academic literature on modeling the life cycle of quality attributes quantitatively. The second area is to enhance the benchmarking part of QFD by including the dynamics of competitors’ performance in addition to the dynamics of customer’s needs. The third part deals with the question "How to make decision in a QFD analysis with respect to the dynamics in the house of quality?" Two decision making approaches are proposed to prioritize and/or optimize the technical attributes with respect to the modeling results. Considering the fact that almost all QFD translation process employs the relationship matrix, a guideline for QFD practitioners to decide whether the relationship matrix should be normalized is developed. Furthermore, a practical implication of the research work towards the possible use of QFD in helping a company develop more innovative products is also discussed. In brief, the main contribution of this thesis is in providing some novel methods and/or approaches to enhance the QFD’s use with respect to the change during product or service creation process. For scientific community, this means that the existing QFD research has been considerably improved, especially with the use of AHP in QFD. For engineering practice, a better way of doing QFD analysis, as a customer-driven engineering design tool, has been proposed. It is hoped that the research work may provide a first step into a better customer-driven product or service design process, and eventually increase the possibility to create more innovative and competitive products or services over time

ASA 2021 Statistics and Information Systems for Policy Evaluation

This book includes 40 peer-reviewed short papers submitted to the Scientific Conference titled Statistics and Information Systems for Policy Evaluation, aimed at promoting new statistical methods and applications for the evaluation of policies and organized by the Association for Applied Statistics (ASA) and the Dept. of Statistics, Computer Science, Applications DiSIA “G. Parenti” of the University of Florence, jointly with the partners AICQ (Italian Association for Quality Culture), AICQ-CN (Italian Association for Quality Culture North and Centre of Italy), AISS (Italian Academy for Six Sigma), ASSIRM (Italian Association for Marketing, Social and Opinion Research), Comune di Firenze, the SIS – Italian Statistical Society, Regione Toscana and Valmon – Evaluation & Monitoring

COVID-2019 Impacts on Education Systems and Future of Higher Education

The rapid outbreak of the COVID-19 has presented unprecedented challenges on education systems. Closing schools and universities and cancelling face-to-face activities have become a COVID-19 inevitable reality in most parts of the world. To be business-as-usual, many higher education providers have taken steps toward digital transformation, and implementing a range of remote teaching, learning and assessment approaches. This book provides timely research on COVID-19 impacts on education systems and seeks to bring together scholars, educators, policymakers and practitioners to collectively and critically identify, investigate and share best practices that lead to rethinking and reframing the way we deliver education in future

Proceedings of 2012 Annual Meeting of the Academy of International Business-US North East Chapter: Business Without Borders

Proceedings of the 2012 Academy of International Business-US North East Chapter Fairfield, Connecticut, October 11-13, 2012. Business Without Borders. Host, John F. Welch College of Business, Sacred Heart University. Editor, Jang\u27an Tang. AIB-NE 2012 Conference Co-Chairs, Khawaja Mamun, Ph.D. and Jang\u27an Tang

Learning and development at work: Opportunities and barriers for non-registered clinical staff in the National Health Service Scotland

The non-registered assistant workforce in the National Health Service Scotland (NHSS) has recently been afforded increased attention due, in part, to forecast changes in demographics and the NHSS workforce and reorganisation in delivery of healthcare. Government health papers pursue the strategic aims of developing the workforce to meet the changing needs of the Health Service. This thesis reports on research into workplace learning in the NHSS. It examines the NHSS in relation to the concepts of ‘The Learning Organisation’, ‘Expansive/Restrictive Learning Environments’ and the learning initiative of the Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) route, adopted by the NHSS for its nonregistered clinical employees.Participants in the research included non-registered clinical assistants to registered nurses and allied health professionals and learning facilitators and managers. A critical realist methodology was adopted and through an embedded case study, data collection methods included one-to-one semistructured interviews and secondary data from the NHS staff survey. This produced a rich source of data for analysis around the perceptions of the participants. Findings show that the NHSS has introduced the concept of a learning organisation to its strategic plans with no real rigour. Some elements of an expansive learning environment exist but these are evident in only some clinical areas. This means that for the assistant workforce, personal development and learning opportunities are dependent on the place of work and the profession they are employed by. The SVQ is embraced by those who are given the opportunity to undertake this initiative but disparities exist throughout the NHSS. Furthermore, the SVQ is perceived as validation of existing knowledge only that does not provide any new learning. This further curtails development opportunities for the assistant group of staff.This thesis has provided the NHSS with a basis to reconsider their strategic direction around learning and development opportunities at work for their nonregistered clinical staff