Teaching “Databases” subject: Lessons learned from a success educational experience and ideas for educational improvement

Bases de datos es una asignatura presente en cualquier plan de estudios relacionado con la Ingeniería Informática. Con carácter general, el objetivo de dicha asignatura es dotar al estudiante de las herramientas necesarias para saber diseñar y crear bases de datos. Contar con una base de datos bien diseñada y eficiente es, por tanto, un aspecto fundamental en cualquier organización. De ahí la importancia de la correcta impartición de docencia en esta asignatura a los futuros egresados. El objetivo de este artículo es compartir con la comunidad educativa la experiencia de impartición de docencia en la modalidad e-learning de la asignatura “bases de datos” dentro del plan de estudios de Graduado/a en Ingeniería Informática en la Universidad a Distancia de Madrid, UDIMA. Los resultados académicos obtenidos por los estudiantes y sus niveles de satisfacción sugieren la utilidad de esta experiencia a falta de estudios científicos más formalesDatabases is a course that we usually find as a part of any Computer Science curriculum. In general, the aim of this subject is to provide students with tools to design and implement databases. Nowadays it is crucial for most institutions to have well designed and efficient databases. That is why it is really important to teach this subject properly. The purpose of this paper is to share with the community an experience of teaching Databases in e-learning modality as a part of the curriculum of Computer Science Engineering at Universidad a Distancia de Madrid, UDIMA. The academic results obtained by the students as well as their high level of satisfaction point out that the experience described in this paper is useful in the absence of a more formal scientific evaluatio

ICT Education: Socio-Learning Issues Faced by International Students

Internationalization of education industry has increased the international student intake amongst private and public funded education providers in western countries. However, international students are faced with many challenges in different educational and societal settings of the host country. This study examines a case involving the information and communication technology (ICT) education sector to identify some of the learning and social issues in an international student context. Learning issues relate to understanding of the host country’s education framework structure and to application of subject related concepts to real world practice. Social issues relate to linguistic difficulties and cultural diversity in foreign countries. The study proposes to enhance the student’ socio-learning experience by using a game based learning strategy aligned with the ICT course structure, to encourage student interactions by having more learning and social exchanges

Using multimedia and interactive games to enhance students\u27 understanding of SCM

It is challenging to teach supply chain management (SCM) practices and technologies to tertiary students. This is because the back-end and highly dynamic processes can be difficult to visualise and because many students only have experience as a consumer. This paper reports the authors\u27 experiences using a variety of multimedia and interactive enhancements we have used with our SCM learning materials: SCM business simulations; online learning modules with interactive games; and multimedia resources such as videos and animations. The paper also provides an overview of the challenges faced using these approaches, which gives rise to a number of future research opportunities. It also argues that these approaches can support educators with any epistemological view of learning. The paper makes a significant contribution because there has been little if any research into the use of these approaches in SCM education.<br /

Medical and Dental Students’ Perception of Online Learning across Pakistan in the COVID Pandemic Era: A Review Article

The widespread lockdowns due to the COVID pandemic led to an abrupt shift in the medical education sector from a conventional to an online education system. The aim of this study was to determine the perception of medical and dental students regarding the acceptance of e-learning in Pakistan. A thorough literature search was conducted on PubMed and Google Scholar; six articles were included in this review. Perceptions of students regarding online medical learning were compiled. These perceptions were related to both non-clinical subjects as well as the attainment of clinical skills through online education. This review also highlights online educational challenges such as the level of student-teacher interaction, internet connectivity issues, and perception of fairness in online assessments. Online learning during COVID pandemic has not been a successful mode of learning for undergraduate medical and dental students across Pakistan. This specifically stands true for the learning of clinical and laboratory skills

Software de aprendizaje de algoritmos estructurados

la programación se ha convertido en una actividad esencial en el desarrollo de diferentes ciencias como las ingenierías. No solo ellas sino que también, como lo menciona Shackelford y LeBlanc2, otro tipo de disciplinas la han adoptado como un proceso esencial en los programas académicos. Más allá de esto, la principal razón se debe a la transformación digital que ha conllevado al surgimiento de nueva era para el mercado laboral. Dicho mercado desde hace unos años ha entrado en un periodo de escasez en talento TI, donde estas compañías requieren de perfiles que puedan satisfacer sus necesidades de cara a la tecnología y a la demanda de esta. Esta situación se ha vuelto cada vez más evidente con el pasar de los años, en una entrevista con Mark Zuckerberg3 en el 2013 el menciona “El completo limite en el sistema es que no hay suficientes personas que estén entrenadas y tengan estas habilidades hoy en día”. Por otro lado, en un foro del 2019 de la Universidad de los Andes4 se expresa por parte de diferentes empresarios la dificultad de encontrar perfiles con talento TI que puedan valorizar su empresa en el equipo de trabajo. Por último, Cisco5 determinó en un estudio que para el 2019 existe una escasez de 500.000 personas en Networking (ciencia relacionada con TI). Todo esto manifiesta un grado de preocupación por parte de comunidades educativas ya que al menos en la Universidad de los Andes6 se mencionó en un foro del 2019 que se están graduando tan solo 60 estudiantes por año. Debido a ello, se han llevado a cabo iniciativas gubernamentales que puedan suplir esta demanda en la industria TIC como lo es Jóvenes 4.0 del Ministerio TIC7 la cual propone formar a 100.000 programadores

Management games - a powerful tool to teach competence and knowledge?

Übergeordnetes Ziel dieser Diplomarbeit war es, der Frage nachzugehen ob Planspiele ein wichtiges Medium in der Management Ausbildung sind um Kompetenz und Wissen zu erlernen und zu vermitteln. Planspiele weisen unterschiedliche Charakteristiker auf. Sie können entweder ein gesamtes Unternehmen oder einen Teilbereich betreffen, können simpel oder komplex sein, interaktiv oder nicht interaktiv und können entweder manuell oder über den Computer gespielt werden. (Watson and Blackstone 1981) Planspiele werden in verschiedenen Bereichen und aus verschiedenen Gründen gespielt. Zum Großteil aus Lehrzwecken, da mit der Planspielmethode enorme Lerneffekte erzielt werden können. Andere Gründe können Personalevaluierung oder Forschung von menschlichen Verhalten und Gruppenverhalten sein (Watson and Blackstone 1981). Die erste Forschungsfrage sollte klären ob Planspiele schon eine lange Geschichte haben oder ein aktuelles Phänomen darstellen. Die Literatur zeigte, dass als direkter Vorfahre von Planspielen gilt Schach und geht bis 3000 v.Chr. zurück. Erste Versionen von „Kriegsschach“ gab es 1000 v.Chr. (Lane 1995). Spieltheorie, automatische Datenverarbeitung und Operations Research verhalfen Planspielen in den 50er Jahre zum Durchbruch. Das erste Planspiel der Moderne wurde von der US Air Force 1959 entwickelt und hieß „Monopologs“. Für den Planspieleinsatz im Wirtschaftsbereich erwähnt die Literatur als erste Spiele die „Top Management Decision Simulation“, das „Top Management Decision Game“ und das „Business Management Game“ (Faria und Wellington 2004). Auch konnte der Trend, Planspiele über das Internet zu spielen, identifiziert werden. Durch das Medium Internet wurden Planspiele als Lernmethode noch beliebter (Cook and Cook 2005). Vorteile wie Kommunikation unabhängig von Raum und Zeit und der Zugang zu multimedialer Information machte Planspiele noch attraktiver. Des Weiteren sollte der Frage nachgegangen werden welche Vorteile die Planspielmethode gegenüber klassischen Lernmethoden hat in der Vermittlung von Kompetenz und Wissen. Die Literatur zeigte, dass durch das Spielen von Planspielen unter anderem wirtschaftliches Know-How, vernetztes Denken, Entscheidungsfindung in komplexen Situationen aber auch Fähigkeiten im Umgang mit Menschen gestärkt und gefördert werden können. Durch das Spielen in einer simulierten Welt haben Fehlentscheidungen keine Auswirkungen wie in der realen Welt. (Faria and Dickinson 1994) Des Weiteren wurde in der vorliegende Diplomarbeit eine Klassifizierung von Planspielen mit den Attributen „Generelle Merkmale“, „Anwendungsbereich“, „Zielgruppe“, „Entscheidungen“, „Kommunikationsmittel“ und „Evaluierung“ kreiert. Insgesamt wurden 64 Spiele klassifiziert von denen 27 den Gesundheitswesenbereich betreffen. Die Klassifizierung und Analyse der allgemeinen Planspiele hat gezeigt, dass die Hälfte der 36 Spiele im „Generellen Planspielbereich“ anzutreffen sind. Fast jedes Planspiel nutzt den Computer als Hauptkommunikationsmittel und ein Drittel der Spiele enthält die Fähigkeit über das Internet gespielt zu werden. Hauptanwendungsfelder der funktionalen Planspiele sind die Bereiche Marketing, der Finanz und Logistik. Die letzte Forschungsfrage ging der Etablierung von Planspielen im Gesundheitswesen nach. Die Literatur zeigte, dass Planspiele im Gesundheitswesen zwar vorhanden sind, jedoch nicht so etabliert sind wie in Marketing, Finanz oder Logistik. Die Analyse der Planspiele im Gesundheitswesen hat gezeigt dass nur 10 der 27 Spiele generelle Planspiele sind. Die Mehrheit der Spiele weisen einen funktionellen Charakter auf und beinhalten das Management von einzelnen Stationen, das Managen von Krankheiten, Pharmazie und den Pflegebereich. Jedoch wurde nur drei der untersuchten Planspiele auch über das Internet gespielt welches verdeutlicht, dass hier die Wichtigkeit dieses Mediums noch nicht so bekannt ist wie in den klassischen Anwendungsbereichen. In dieser Arbeit hat sich gezeigt dass es sehr viele Planspiele gibt und in vielen Bereichen der Wirtschaft, aber auch im Gesundheitswesen, Anwendung finden. Das Medium Internet sollte für Planspiele in jeglichem Bereich als Hauptkommunikationsmittel eingesetzt werden da es den Teilnehmern die Möglichkeit bietet mit Menschen aus der ganzen Welt Erfahrung und Wissen auszutauschen.Main goal of the present diploma thesis was to discuss if management games are an important and powerful tool in management education to teach competence and knowledge. Management games show different characteristics. They can be general or functional, simple or complex, interactive or non-interactive, deterministic or probabilistic and played over the computer or manually scored (Watson and Blackstone 1981) Management games are played for several reasons. Most games are played for teaching effects because they provide incredible opportunities for learning. Optimal strategies can be found in operational gaming and transferred into the real world. Another purpose of games is to evaluate personnel and to research group and human behaviour (Watson and Blackstone 1981). First research issue referred to the question if management games have a historical background or if they are a current phenomena. Searching for the history of business games, literature shows that chess is the direct ancestor of business games (3000 B.C.). Early examples of so-called “war games” occurred around 1000 B.C. and were played for diversion purposes (Lane 1995). Through game theory, automatic data processing and operations research, modern management games began around 1950. The first one was “Monopologs” , a military-oriented business game and was developed by the United States Air Force. Business management games began being used around 1956, with the most important being the “Top Management Decision Simulation“, the “Top Management Decision Game“ and the “Business Management Game” (Faria and Wellington 2004). Furthermore the diploma thesis should identify trends which lead to the assumption that this management education method will be an important one in future too and is not a current phenomena. Literature showed an emerging trend in playing management games over the internet. Whereas the first generation of management games were mainframe-based, the second generation grew popular with the introduction and the development of desktop microcomputers. The third generation emerged with the development and the widespread use of the Internet (Cook and Cook 2005). Because of the interaction and communication across distances and time as well as the access to multimedia information, the Internet is an attractive tool for playing management games (Martin 2003) Another core question of that thesis was to identify advantages that make this kind of learning method unique in comparison to others and therefore an important tool in management education. Literature showed that most important goals of playing them are to enhance economic know-how, to train soft skills in intercultural team work, to develop of decision-making ability in complex situations and to increase cross-linked thinking (Kern 2003). Through management games, participants learn to make decisions in different areas of management in a simulated world, where wrong decisions are not punished like in a real-world setting. Management games also help to obtain a more global view of the daily business of managers (Faria and Dickinson 1994). In addition, a taxonomy for classifying management games was developed in this diploma thesis, including general classification attributes, application areas, target groups, decisions, media of communication and evaluation. 36 management games in different business disciplines and 27 management games in health care were studied and classified. Classification and analysis show, among other things, that half of the 36 management games studied were general ones and nearly every game is played on the computer. One-third can be played over the Internet. Main application areas of functional games are marketing, finance and logistics. Last research question referred to management games in health care sector. Literature showed indeed an emerging trend of management games in that sector but it can also be concluded that games are not as established as in marketing, finance or logistics. Studying 27 health care games, it can be observed that 10 out of 27 games are general management games. Functional ones refer to department management, disease management, pharmacy and nursing. Half of the studied games are computer-based but just three can be played over the Internet. This diploma thesis shows that management games are played in nearly every area. Future research in management games should expand the possibilities of playing management games over the Internet so that people from all over the world can exchange knowledge and experience

Aplicação educativa para a promoção da linguagem em crianças com perturbação do desenvolvimento

Atualmente, a quantidade de dispositivos e tecnologia existentes podem criar a diferença no auxílio ao ensino, especialmente de crianças com necessidades especiais. Contudo, apesar da empatia que a sociedade coloca no uso da tecnologia e a sua rápida expansão na área da educação, poucas são as iniciativas que se focam nas necessidades das crianças com dificuldades na aprendizagem. Embora existam diversas empresas com capacidade monetária para suportar e criar uma nova ferramenta que auxilie estes alunos, raramente o investimento é rentável o suficiente para proporcionar a continuação da criação destas ferramentas e tecnologias. Com o objetivo de prevenir e preencher esta falha existente, esta dissertação propõe-se a dar uso às tecnologias existentes, aliando-se aos conhecimentos adquiridos na instituição Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologias da Universidade Nova de Lisboa de modo a criar uma ferramenta que ajude os estudantes que lidam com diversas dificuldades de aprendizagem. Esta dissertação conta com a parceria do Centro Diferenças – Centro de Desenvolvimento Infantil, instituição esta, que tem como objetivo principal trabalhar e ajudar crianças com dificuldades no neuro-desenvolvimentos, nomeadamente com síndrome de Down. Esta dissertação dá uso à sua parceria para criar uma ferramenta que irá trabalhar áreas específicas relacionadas com a consciência fonológica, de maneira a facilitar a compreensão e a absorção de conhecimento por parte dos alunos, aproveitando as vantagens que um jogo fornece aos seus jogadores. Esta ferramenta irá ser um conjunto de mini-jogos que irão endereçar aspectos diversos no ensino a crianças com problemas no neuro-desenvolvimento