Understanding learning skills in online learning environments by higher education students

Can virtual environments promote learning skills such that higher education students understand them? This paper examines the impact of new online educational scenarios as to how self-learning skills are perceived. The research covered 277 higher education students grouped into classrooms, and their tutoring included an online learning component. At the end of the academic semester, students responded to a range of self-learning skills adapted to learning in virtual environments. All participants attended Social and Human Sciences course units in higher education, in different institutions, respectively the State Public University and Private Polytechnic institutions. The results of the study show that virtual learning environments, anchored in a design focused on the development of skills and in a teaching model based on the principles of constructivism, autonomy and interaction can be positive in how higher education students perceive learning skills, according to the following dimensions: Active Learning, Learning Initiative and Autonomy. The study examines the implications of the findings, from the perspective of both the practical intervention and the reflection on the future of educational processes.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologi

Education and learning in higher education in Portugal: evaluation of the self concept of competence in online environments

Conferência internacional realizada de 10-11 de Novembro de 2011 no "Palazzo Medici Riccardi", em FlorençaStudies focused on learning experiences have clarified the concept of education in higher education, particularly in Portugal, but few have elucidated about virtual environments on academic achievement and feelings of competence of students as they learn. On the assumption that academic success is influenced not only by the power of learning but also the way students perceive themselves, and that these factors predict their subsequent success, we've relied on national studies concerning self- concept of competence of students. The main issue was to situate the self-concept of competence of university students into new virtual learning environments through online methods of teaching.This research involved 278 higher education students enrolled in classes for courses in Social Sciences which was introduced a novel approach, with education mediated by web tools, and then appraised on their perception and self-concept of competence. We rely on the Self-Concept of Competence Scale, having adapted all 31 items to online environments. The main findings indicate that the students had high perceptions of their self-concept level of competence. The results suggest therefore that the application of online pedagogical models, may have a very positive impact on self-concept of competence of students in higher education, even in social dimensions

How reliable and consistent is our learning community of inquiry? Psychometric qualities of the community inquiry survey instrument applied to a sample of higher education portuguese students

The purpose of this study was to report on the adaptation and empirical evidence to support the validation of the Community of Inquiry Survey Instrument based on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000). The participants for this study were undergraduate students (n = 280) enrolled in blended online courses offered through Moodle platform during one semester at different Portuguese high schools and university, involving students of diverse courses (specially in Health and Education). Factor analysis of student responses identified a three factor model which was tested through confirmatory factor analysis and found to be an acceptable fit to the predicted population model. Results from this study suggest that the instrument is a valid, reliable, and nefficient measure of its dimensions; thereby the CoI survey holds promise as a useful evaluation tool for providing formative and summative feedback about the effectiveness of online courses and programs considering Garrison and collaborator’s model for constructing effective learning environments. The study also discuses potential implications of the CoI measures for innovations in the field of New Technologies in Education peculiarly in the nearest context of teaching and learning of emergent communities of practice, of learning and of inquiry web mediated

Self-concept of competence of higher education students learning in virtual environments

Assuming that academic success is influenced not only by the power of learning but also by the way students perceive themselves, we have relied on national studies concerning self-concept of competence of students. The main issue was to situate the self-concept of competence of university students into new virtual learning environments. We aim validate the instrument for collecting empirical data adapted to virtual learning environments, identify the degree of selfconcept of competence, when learning in such an approach, and estimate whether students perceive themselves as much or more competent than in real environments with face-to-face interaction. This research involved 280 higher education students in Social Sciences, who appraised perception and self-concept of competence. The main findings indicate favorable self-concept of competence. Also, the results suggest that the application of online pedagogical models may have a very positive impact on self-concept of competence of students in higher education, even in social dimensions and in the perception of a careful coaching.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologi

A configuração de comunidades de aprendizagem em blended learning no ensino superior

VII Conferência Internacional de TIC na Educação, realizada em BragaEm tempos de profundas transformações sociais, económicas e culturais e vertiginosa evolução das tecnologias de informação e da comunicação deparamo-nos com a necessidade de redefinir pedagogia, também, no Ensino Superior. O enfoque nas competências e o apelo à mobilidade pelo Processo de Bolonha convidam a um paradigma educacional que privilegie novas formas de pensar, desenvolver e avaliar os processos de formação centrados no estudante e nas suas estratégias de autorregulação e domínio de ferramentas mediatizadas pelas oportunidades tecnológicas e reflexividade em parceria, sob supervisão dos professores facilitadores da aprendizagem. Este trabalho visa, pois, ilustrar a operatividade de modelos em blended learning, analisando o impacto de novos cenários de aprendizagem na criação de comunidades, de aprendizagem baseada em problemas. Para tal, exploramos relações possíveis entre modalidades de ensino presencial e online, em que a relação pedagógica estabelecida face-a-face é confrontada com a criação de comunidades virtuais de aprendizagem e de investigação.When there are profound social, economic and cultural changes and rapid evolution of information and communication technologies we are faced with the need to redefine pedagogy in higher education. The focus on skills and appeal to mobility subscribed by the ways of thinking, develop and evaluate training processes, student-centred and fostering its self-regulation and mastery of tools influenced by technological opportunities and refection in partnership, under the supervision of teachers and facilitators of learning. This work aims illustrate the operativity of models in blended learning, analyzing the impact of new scenarios in creating learning communities, problem-based. To this end, we explore possible relations between modalities of presencial and on-line teaching, in which the pedagogical relationship established face-to-face is compared with the generation of virtual communities of learning and inquiry

A segurança e a defesa no ciberespaço

ResPublica : Revista Lusófona de Ciência Política, Segurança e Relações InternacionaisO aumento constante do número e do tipo das ameaças e das suas manifestações através de infiltrações deliberadas contra o aparelho dos Estados tem obrigado a dispor de ferramentas tecnológicas especializadas que possam detetar e bloquear o crescente número de ciberataques e o identificar da sua natureza disruptiva e transnacional. Pretende-se com este artigo contribuir para a restauração da inicial utilização livre da internet, cuja atividade normal e segurança não poderão continuar comprometidas em nenhum dispositivo ou componente da sua rede global Perante o emergir de novos riscos e da insegurança crescente, e porque se encontra em causa a defesa da inerente soberania nacional, os Estados têm de continuar a envidar esforços e recursos no sentido de conjugarem as suas abordagens à problemática da prevenção de ciberataques de ordem disruptiva, que colocam em causa e em permanência o normal funcionamento das infraestruturas críticas, as capacidades de Intelligence, as redes de Aviso e os sistemas de Segurança e Defesa Nacionais.The steady increase in the number and type of threats and its manifestations through deliberate infiltration against the States structures, have required to create specialized technological tools with the capacity to detect and block the increasing number of cyber attacks and able to identify its disruptive and transnational nature. This article is intended to contribute to the restoration of the Internet initial free use, whose normal activity and security must be assured any time in any device of its global network. Face to the emergence of new risks and growing insecurity, and because this matter afects the national sovereignty defence, all States must continue to make efforts and resources in order to combine their approach to the problem of the prevention of cyberattacks, much of them disruptive; type of atacks that all times may put in danger the normal functioning of critical infrastructure, the Intelligence capabilities and the National Security and Defense system

Faunal remains associated with human cremations: The chalcolithic pits 16 and 40 from the Perdigões ditched enclosures (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal)

Different funerary behaviors are recorded in the Iberian Peninsula during Late Prehistory. Cremation is not the most common practice and the association between human cremains and fauna is even scarcer. We present two Chalcolithic pits (pits 16 and 40) from the Perdigoes ditched enclosures, Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal. Humans were accompanied by animals and other votive materials such as arrowheads, ivory anthropomorphic figurines, and marble idols. Differences between the two contexts are discussed regarding the selection of faunal anatomical parts, the abundance of species, and the manipulation of remains. The results obtained were compared to previously published data from anthropological analysis. Burning damage intensity is different among pits and between humans and fauna. Hence, this suggests that the latter also resulted from diverse practices, including the possible selection of animal body portions for cremation and/or the deposition of selected burned bones or even related to patterns existing in the contexts of the provenance of the cremated materials before the cremation events.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Case Study

This research was funded by FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, grant number UID/FIS/04559/2020. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.Micrometric 2D mapping of distinct elements was performed in distinct soil grain-size fractions of a sample using the micro-X-ray Fluorescence (µ-XRF) technique. The sample was collected in the vicinity of São Domingos, an old mine of massive sulphide minerals located in the Portuguese Iberian Pyrite Belt. As expected, elemental high-grade concentrations of distinct metals and metalloids in the dependence of the existent natural geochemical anomaly were detected. Clustering and k-means statistical analysis were developed considering Red–Green–Blue (RGB) pixel proportions in the produced 2D micrometric image maps, allowing for the identification of elemental spatial distributions at 2D. The results evidence how elemental composition varies significantly at the micrometric scale per grain-size class, and how chemical elements present irregular spatial distributions in the direct dependence of distinct mineral spatial distributions. Due to this fact, elemental composition is more differentiated in coarser grain-size classes, whereas griding-milled fraction does not always represent the average of all partial grain-size fractions. Despite the complexity of the performed analysis, the achieved results evidence the suitability of µ-XRF to characterize natural, heterogeneous, granular soils samples at the micrometric scale, being a very promising investigation technique of high resolution.publishersversionpublishe

Academic performance in constructivist learning environments supported by learning management systems

Conferência realizada em Madrid, de 14-16 Novembro de 2011Institutions of Higher Education in Portugal face today unique challenges. Aware of the change, in general, these institutions have been presented reform initiatives, covering in their strategic plans new frames of operation, where e-learning and / or b-learning is recognized. The present study aims mainly to know the impact that b-learning and the implemention of some pedagogical models adapted to these environments, may have on academic performance of students in higher education. To this end, we analyzed the academic performance of students in a curricular unit of a course of Physical Education and Sport, for four academic years from 2007/2008, during which the unit was initially taught only presential, by 2010 / 2011, a period that was taught in a combined modality (75% online and 25% presential). Data analysis, referring to the classifications obtained, suggests that the creation of virtual environments, combined with complementary or presential learning, and using pedagogical models adapted to online environments (eg, Comumunity of Inquiry Garrison et al, 2000; E-Moderating, Salmon, 2000), diversified learning objects (scripto, audiovisual and multimedia) and strategies that encourage students, may indeed contribute to a significant improvement in their academic achievement. We also concluded that this b-learning modality, supported by online pedagogical constructivist and collaborative models allow effectively equate the teaching-learning process in a different way. However, the change should not be seen only from a technological standpoint, since the use of an LMS is no guarantee of success, but must above all be seen in terms of changing attitudes and practices. This (new) reality implies a very large cultural change, as to rethink the roles of teacher and student, and the relationship between them, appropriate content, in addition to the implications that must be implemented in terms of structuring and planning of courses and curricula, evaluation systems and teaching and learning forms