Learning and Assessment in a Reading Group Format

The purpose of this paper is to outline how a traditional learning format the reading group was used to deliver a third-year political economy module (Critique of Political Economy). We begin by outlining the module delivery which is student-centred and where assessment is via presentations. The presenter/discussant format we use mirrors that at many academic conferences. Thereafter, we consider the nature of the reading material we used (Marx's Capital (1976)) before discussing the criteria for a good text. Finally, on the basis of these experiences we consider problems and issues that emerged in the reading group format. In concluding we argue that the reading group format has much to commend it, though we would suggest it as a complement to, rather than a substitute for, the more traditional lecture/seminar approach.

Crafting a Foundation for Computing Majors

This paper describes and evaluates a sophomore level survey course in the computing disciplines of computer science and information technology. This course is novel among ABET accredited computer science and information technology programs in the breadth of topics covered and that it serves as a common foundation to both computing disciplines. In addition, students are introduced to advanced computing topics that they may later choose to pursue further in upper-level electives. This paper discusses the motivation of a course for both programs and concludes with the results, challenges, and opportunities for future iterations. This single computing survey course helps students to ensure they selected the correct major early in their academic career. Additionally, it introduces advanced computing topics that students may choose later to pursue in electives

Use of Commercial Online Training to Augment Programming Language Education

This talk describes the motivation and utilization of commercial online training in programming languages to augment student learning. Student feedback indicated that the online training courses assisted them in achieving a basic understanding of the languages

The Commons

We live in the midst of one of the potentially worst social and economic crisis in the history of capitalism, while the environmental crisis, according to the predictions of the vast majority of scientists, is approaching catastrophe. Neither states nor markets seem to have been able to offer solutions. Indeed, on the contrary, many believe that they are the main sources of these crises. It is in this context that talks of (and social movements for) commons have become not only increasingly commonplace, but also increasingly relevant. In general terms, the commons are social systems in which resources are shared by a community of users/producers, who also define the modes of use and production, distribution and circulation of these resources through democratic and horizontal forms of governance. But these commons are far from being utopia, if nothing else because they exist and are produced vis a vis a social force, capital, that often demands their cooptation, if not enclosure

‘Cognitive capitalism’ and the rat race: how capital measures immaterial labour in British universities

One hundred years ago, Frederick Taylor and the pioneers of scientific management went into battle on US factory floors. Armed with stopwatches and clipboards, they were fighting a war over measure. A century on and capitalist production has spread far beyond the factory walls and the confines of ‘national economies’. Although capitalism increasingly seems to rely on ‘cognitive’ and ‘immaterial’ forms of labour and social cooperation, the war over measure continues. Armies of economists, statisticians, management scientists, information specialists, accountants and others are engaged in a struggle to connect heterogeneous concrete human activities on the basis of equal quantities of human labour in the abstract, that is, to link work and capitalist value. In this paper, we discuss contemporary capital’s attempt to (re)impose the ‘law of value’ through its measuring of immaterial labour, considered by thinkers such as Hardt and Negri to be ‘outside’ or ‘beyond measure’. Using the example of higher education in the UK — a ‘frontline’ of capitalist development — as our case study, we explain how measuring takes places on various ‘self-similar’ levels of social organisation. We suggest that such processes are both diachronic and synchronic: socially necessary labour times of ‘immaterial doings’ are emerging and being driven down at the same time as heterogenous concrete activities are being made commensurable. Alongside more overt attacks on academic freedom, it is in this way that neoliberalism appears on campus

Globalization no questions! Labour commanded and Foreign Direct Investment.

A key argument of the globalisation thesis’s sceptics, such as Linda Weiss and Hirst and Thompson, is that most Third World countries remain marginal to the international economy in terms of both investment and trade. The sceptics’ argument is supported by empirical evidence on foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade flows, which are presented in terms of US dollars. In this paper we re-examine the empirical evidence on international investment drawing on the concept of labour commanded, central to Classical Political Economy. Using data on exchange rates and wage rates (or labour costs), combined with that on dollar values of FDI, we remap the patterns of global capital flows in terms of the quantities of labour which such investment can mobilise. On this basis we draw a very different conclusion from the sceptics. In a nutshell, our conclusion is the following: developing countries are far more integrated into the global economy than the FDI data suggests, as a result of the amount of labour that can be commanded with the absolute levels of FDI, itself due to low wages

Peer-Led Team Learning Strategies in Engineering Pathways

Train Peer-Leaders on difference between mentor/tutor and Peer Leader. Focuses on leadership skills. Provides technology resources tutorial. Provided suggested teaching and learning strategies for PLTL activities

Strategies for Engagement of Non-Traditional Students in Engineering-Related Courses

Project Goals Overview Goal #1: Increase students\u27 commitment to engineering pathways. Goal #2: Increase academic performance and persistence in engineering. Goal #3: Increase persistence of Veterans in engineering pathways. Research Questions How does students\u27 participation in peer-led team learning activities in online engineering courses correlate to their a) commitment to engineering, b) engineering identity, and c) self-efficacy. How do students in peer-led team learning activities compare to students in non-PLTL groups in terms of a) academic performance and b) persistence in engineering pathways

Managerial Implications for Successful Teleworking Initiatives

Teleworking is becoming a normative working process for more employees in the construction industry. Companies are embracing technological developments to provide clients with increased perceptions of levels of service, in depth of information and also in the vehicles to communicate their knowledge. Flexible working is growing in significance for human resource managers, selecting, training and supporting a new generation of knowledge workers, often managed by an old generation of managers. In this paper we discus the managerial implications for supporting teleworking initiatives, and the increasingly strategic implications of human resource deployment away from the traditional office environment. A review of recent teleworking initiatives at an architectural practice is discussed to suggest a growing need for changing attitudes to knowledge worker management, to aid the retention of the resource value of employees following remote working experience

The stream volume of fluid advection algorithm

The Volume of Fluid (VOF) method is a powerful tool for modelling the movement of free surface fluid flows. In this paper, a new VOF advection algorithm is presented, termed the Stream scheme. The algorithm uses a linear piecewise method for free surface reconstruction, coupled to a unique fully multidimensional method of cell boundary flux integration. Comparisons with other VOF advection algorithms show the performance of the new scheme to be good