Enhancing university student engagement using online multiple choice questions and answers

For many education providers, student engagement can be a major issue. Given the positive correlation between engagement and good performance, providers are continually looking for ways to engage students in the learning process. The growth of student digital literacy, the wide proliferation of online tools and the understanding of why online gaming can be addictive have combined to create a set of tools that providers can leverage to enhance engagement. One such tool is Peerwise, https://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz/, an online, multiple choice question (MCQ) and answer tool in which students create questions that are answered by other students. Why use MCQs? Using MCQs tests knowledge, provides reassurance of learning, identifies gaps and makes this data available to student and provider. Students use this information to focus their time on areas requiring additional work [1], benefiting from the early feedback provided. Formative assess- ments using MCQs are beneficial in preparing students for summative testing and are appreciated and liked by students [2]. Providers can use this information to determine how the material is being received and react accordingly. Students use Peerwise to create MCQs that are answered, rated and commented on by their peers. Students’ engagement in Peerwise earns trophies for contributing regular use and for providing feedback, all of which act to stimulate further engagement, using the principles of gamification. Bournemouth University, a public university in the UK with over 18,000 students, has been embedding Peerwise in under-graduate and post-graduate units since 2014. The results experienced by Bournemouth University have been beneficial and correlate with other studies of using Peerwise [3] [4]. A statistically significant improvement was seen by one cohort of students compared to the previous year where Peerwise was not used. However, no correlation was found between Peerwise participation and a student’s unit mark. The processes followed by Bournemouth University and the advantages and disadvantages, backed by qualitative and quantitative data, will be presented so that other institutions can gain an informed view of the merits of Peerwise for their own teaching and learning environments

INDOOR SPATIAL DATA CONSTRUCTION FROM TRIANGLE MESH

The 3D triangle mesh is widely used to represent indoor space. One of widely used methods of generating 3D triangle mesh data of indoor space is the construction from the point cloud collected using LIDAR. However, there are many problems in using generated triangle mesh data as a geometric representation of the indoor space. First, the number of triangles forming the triangle mesh is very large, which results in a bottleneck of the performance for storage and management. Second, no consideration on the properties of indoor space has been done by the previous work on mesh simplification for indoor geometric representation. Third, there is no research to construct indoor spatial standard data from triangle mesh data. For resolving these problems, we propose the a method for generating triangular mesh data for indoor geometric representation based in the observations mentioned above. First this method removes unnecessary objects and reduces the number of surfaces from the original fine-grained triangular mesh data using the properties of indoor space. Second, it also produces indoor geometric data in IndoorGML – an OGC standard for indoor spatial data model. In experimental studies, we present a case study of indoor triangle mesh data from real world and compare results with raw data

‘The International Teacher Leadership project,’ a case of international action research.

Copyright CARNThe paper arises from the International Teacher Leadership project, a research and development project involving researchers and practitioners in 14 European countries. The paper provides a conceptual exploration of the idea of teacher leadership and its role in educational reform, central to which is the idea that teachers, regardless of their level of power and organisational position, can engage in the leadership of enquiry-based development activity aimed at influencing their colleagues and embedding improved practices in their schools. The paper provides an outline of the project’s methodology which builds on that used in the Carpe Vitam Leadership for Learning project (Frost, 2008a). It is a form of collaborative action research which is highly developmental and discursive. It seeks to identify principles, strategies and tools that can be applied in a range of cultural settings. The paper includes a thematic analysis of the cultural contexts and policy environments of the participating countries in order to identify the obstacles to teacher leadership and to inform the nature of the support strategies employed

Optimizing individual treatment outcomes in men with lower urinary tract symptoms using storage subscale score/total International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) as a new IPSS lratio

Background/aim: To evaluate the effects of the storage/total International Prostate Symptom Score (s/T) ratio on the selection and success of medical therapy in men with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS).Materials and methods: A total of 54 men (>45 years of age) with moderate or severe LUTS were divided into 2 groups according to the s/T ratio: Group 1 at 0.43. Tamsulosin (0.4 mg to Group 1) and tolterodine ER (4 mg to Group 2) were administered. Patients were evaluated during the 1st and 3rd months of follow-up treatment.Results: Thirty-seven (68.5%) and 17 (31.5%) patients were in Groups 1 and 2, respectively. The mean s/T ratios in Groups 1 and 2 increased to 0.38 ± 0.19 from 0.33 ± 0.08 (P = 0.03) and decreased to 0.54 ± 0.18 from 0.59 ± 0.1 (P = 0.17) during the 3rd month of follow-up, respectively. The treatment success rates of Groups 1 and 2 were 88.4% and 75.7%, respectively. Nine unsuccessful cases were treated with combination therapy and the treatment success was 86.6% at follow-up.Conclusion: The s/T ratio is effective to determine symptom dominance in men with LUTS and can guide medical treatment selection through better identification of symptoms. © TÜBİTAK

Prevalence of daytime urinary incontinence and related risk factors in primary school children in Turkey

Purpose: Urinary incontinence is one of the major urinary symptoms in children and adolescents and can lead to major distress for the affected children and their parents. In accordance with the definitions of the Standardization Committee of the International Children's Continence Society, daytime urinary incontinence (DUI) is uncontrollable leakage of urine during the day. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the prevalence and associated risk factors of DUI in Turkish primary school children. Materials and Methods: The questionnaire, which covered sociodemographic variables and the voiding habits of the children, was completed by the parents of 2,353 children who were attending primary school in Denizli, a developing city of Turkey. The children's voiding habits were evaluated by use of the Dysfunctional Voiding and Incontinence Symptoms Score, which is a validated questionnaire. Children with a history of neurological or urological diseases were excluded. Results: The participation rate was 91.9% (2,164 people). The overall prevalence of DUI was 8.0%. The incidence of DUI tended to decrease with increasing age and was not significantly different between genders (boys, 8.8%; girls, 7.3%; p=0.062). Age, maternal education level, family history of daytime wetting, settlement (urban/rural), history of constipation, urinary tract infection, and urgency were independent risk factors of DUI. Conclusions: Our findings showed that DUI is a common health problem in primary school children. In an effort to increase awareness of children's voiding problems and the risk factors for urinary dysfunction in the population, educational programs and larger school-based screening should be carried out, especially in regions with low socioeconomic status. © The Korean Urological Association, 2014

Effect of acidic fluoride solution on the corrosion resistance of ZrTi alloys for dental implant application

The electrochemical behavior of Zr5Ti, Zr25Ti, and Zr45Ti, with and without surface modification were monitored in acidic artificial saliva (pH = 3) containing NaF concentrations 0.2, 0.5, and 1 wt.%, simulating the fluoride concentrations in dental rinses. A passive behaviour for thermally oxidized ZrTi alloys was found using EIS, and XPS data show that the protective oxide film contains both TiO2 and ZrO2, though titanium contents in the outer layer bigger than those in the base alloy result from thermal oxidation. High corrosion resistance to acidic fluoridated environments of ZrTi alloys treated using thermal oxidation in air at 500 ºC

Corrosion behaviour of new quaternary ZrNbTiAl alloys in simulated physiological solution using electrochemical techniques and surface analysis methods

The potential biomedical application of three new quaternary Zr alloys, namely Zr6Ti15Nb4Al, Zr32Ti15Nb4Al, and Zr49Ti15Nb4Al, was evaluated in vitro using electrochemical methods complemented with surface analysis of corrosion resistance. Cyclic potentiodynamic polarization (CCP) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests were performed in Ringer’s solution at 37 ºC. The electrochemical behavior of the ZrTiNbAl quaternary alloys was consistent with the formation of passivating oxide films on the surfaces of these materials. Localized breakdown of the oxide layer occurred on Zr6Ti15Nb4Al and Zr32Ti15Nb4Al alloys subjected to positive anodic polarization, a feature confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) on retrieved samples. The Zr49Ti15Nb4Al alloy, which had the highest titanium (49 wt.%) content, exhibited a larger passive range in the polarization curve and was immune to localized corrosion breakdown in a simulated physiological solution for the range of polarizations that can occur in the human bod