A canvas for the ethical design of learning experiences with digital tools

The use of digital tools has drastically increased in engineering education, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. These tools generate important ethical issues, in particular in terms of privacy and fairness. However, very few teacher training programmes address those topics, which means that teachers are often left to figure out by themselves how to address these issues when they want (or have) to use digital tools in their teaching. In this workshop, participants will be introduced to a pragmatic approach to the ethical design of learning experiences that involve digital tools using a visual thinking guide called a ‘canvas’. Applied and hands-on, this workshop will help participants to develop a practical understanding of the specific ethical issues related to the use of digital tools in teaching and to integrate ethical reflection into design processes when digital technology is involved

Measuring modelling

Modelling is an essential skill in many scientific fields, including environmental science. We designed a Modelling Competence Inventory (MCI) to measure the progress of students in acquiring competence in modelling during the bachelor curriculum. As models in environmental science borrow from many disciplines, and modelling is by nature an abstract activity that requires critical thinking, we find that designing an MCI is difficult compared to competence inventories for more physical subjects. We discuss the design process, two iterations of our MCI, and the results of testing these on a group of students before and after a modelling course. Results suggest that students understanding of the learning goals taught in the course improved somewhat, but their score on other learning goals decreased. Overall, we find that bachelor students need more supervised independent practice with modelling and building of confidence in their modelling abilities. The MCI needs further development and differentiated questions specific to the course in which the MCI is administered. The process of searching for competencies to track and developing the MCI, in cooperation with lecturers in the environmental science bachelor, by itself helped build a community of practice and led to steps to better align courses in our curriculum.ISSN:2624-7984ISSN:2624-799

Effect of mowing, rust infection and seed production upon C and N reserves and morphology of the perennial Veratrum album L. (Liliales, Melanthiaceae)

In this field study the effect of mowing, rust infection and seed production was determined on nonstructural carbohydrate (C) and Kjeldahl nitrogen (N) reserves in rhizomes, as well as on plant morphology of the perennial weed Veratrum album L. (Liliales, Melanthiaceae). Rust infection and seed production had only a minimal influence on the concentrations of C and of N during either the summer or the following winter. However, mowing one month after early shoot growth led to decreased C (-40%) and increased N (+100%) concentrations of rhizomes sampled during the following winter. In a long-term experiment, the decrease in C reserves was shown to coincide with dwarfism of V. album plants. Mowing for six consecutive years reduced total plant biomass by 50%. Accordingly, total N and C reserves per plant rhizome decrease substantially. However, seasonal patterns of C and N concentrations were not influenced by mowing, except for the differences in winter concentrations that were already observed in the Short-term experiment. Long-time mowing not only led to dwarfism of V. album plants, but also significantly decreased generative and vegetative proliferation

Schwefelwasserstoffaufnahme durch die Primärblätter und Translokation der Schwefelverbindungen bei Phaseolus vulgaris

Untersuchungen über den Einfluss von Schwefelwasserstoff auf Pflanzen sind unerlässlich, da Schwefelwasserstoff vielerorts einen nicht zu unterschätzenden Bestandteil der Luft darstellt. Einige Beobachtungen zur Aufnahme, zur Verwertung und zur Wirkung auf einzelne Stoffwechselreaktionen wurden bereits in früheren Arbeiten erwähnt. Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit dem Abtransport der Schwefelverbindungen aus einem Primärblatt und der Verteilung des Schwefels in der Pflanze unter Berücksichtigung des Leitbündelverlaufes der Bohne

Testing the social competition hypothesis of depression using a simple economic game

BACKGROUND Price's social competition hypothesis interprets the depressive state as an unconscious, involuntary losing strategy, which enables individuals to yield and accept defeat in competitive situations. AIMS We investigated whether patients who suffer from major depressive disorder (MDD) would avoid competition more often than either patients suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD) or healthy controls. METHOD In a simple paper-folding task healthy participants and patiens with MDD and BPD were matched with two opponents, one with an unknown diagnosis and one who shared their clinical diagnosis, and they had to choose either a competitive or cooperative payment scheme for task completion. RESULTS When playing against an unknown opponent, but not the opponent with the same diagnosis, the patients with depression chose the competitive payment scheme statistically less often than healthy controls and patients diagnosed with BPD. CONCLUSION The competition avoidance against the unknown opponent is consistent with Price's social competition hypothesis. DECLARATION OF INTEREST G.H. received research support, consulting fees and speaker honoraria from Lundbeck, AstraZeneca, Servier, Eli Lilly, Roche and Novartis. COPYRIGHT AND USAGE © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence

Inconsistency and social decision making in patients with borderline personality disorder

Inconsistent social behavior is a core psychopathological feature of borderline personality disorder. The goal of the present study was to examine inconsistency in social decision-making using simple economic social experiments. We investigated the decisions of 17 female patients with BPD, 24 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), and 36 healthy controls in three single shot economic experiments measuring trust, cooperation, and punishment. BPD severity was assessed using the Zanarini Rating Scale for BPD. Investments across identical one-shot trust and punishment games were significantly more inconsistent in BPD patients than in controls. Such inconsistencies were only found in the social risk conditions of the trust and punishment conditions but not in the non-social control conditions. MDD patients did not show such inconsistencies. Furthermore, social support was negatively correlated with inconsistent decision-making in the trust and punishment game, which underscores the clinical relevance of this finding