Do we engage the student in e-assessment by personalising lecturers' feedback interventions?

This paper describes the results of an eighteen month study evaluating what students' perceptions were of digital ink feedback on electronic assignments. It was a comparative study with 10 distance learning lecturers, (hereafter referred to as tutors) marking up to a maximum of 600 students' electronic assignments over, two nine month presentations of the UK Open University (OU) course, T175 Networked Living. Assignments were submitted by students over the internet to a centralised web depository called the electronic tutor marked system (eTMA) at the OU, in Microsoft Word. Tutors downloaded these assignments onto their own computers and in this study; half of the assignments were marked and edited using a Personal Computer (PC) with conventional keyboard input, using word processing software. The other half of the assignments were marked using a Tablet PC in which it is possible to create a layer over, the Microsoft Word submission and then write directly onto the screen of the Tablet PC using a pen, as if writing on paper. The hand-written feedback was saved or converted to typed text and then saved. In the first presentation of the course over 67% of students made positive comments about how their tutor had used the Tablet PC in providing feedback. This study also showed that the digital ink technology could help extend pedagogy and is of interest to Higher Education establishments considering on-line submission of assessment

Digital Ink Technology for e-assessment

Current research has shown that lecturers marking electronic assignments, typically Word documents, are able to provide personalised feedback at a relevant point in a student’s piece of assessment using paper technology such as a Tablet PC. Evaluation through in-depth interview and questionnaire shows that this was important to both students and lecturers alike. Some lecturers have felt that the Tablet PC allows greater creativity in assessment than technologies such as paper and pen and PC and keyboard input device. For example the use of colour linked to learning outcomes and grammar feedback, and the ease with which the eraser can be used for re-editing. It appears that the pedagogy has been extended from the traditional ‘pen and paper’ approach to the use of ‘digital ink technology’. Students said that they liked the personal feel of the electronic hand written feedback. Reflective practice for lecturers was supported through forums and a wiki and was evaluated using virtual ethnography. Lecturers record a flow experience in assessment as either enabling or disabling their creativity in e-assessment. The potential for extending the pedagogy into graphical environments is also evident for such things as annotating graphs and diagrams, mathematical notation and scientific nomenclature

Instantiation in Trope Theory

The concept of instantiation is realized differently across a variety of metaphysical theories. A certain realization of the concept in a given theory depends on what roles are specified and associated with the concept and its corresponding term as well as what entities are suited to fill those roles. In this paper, the classic realization of the concept of instantiation in a one-category ontology of abstract particulars or tropes is articulated in a novel way and defended against unaddressed objections

RF shielded connectors

Gap, where cable joins connector housing, is shielded effectively by composite RF shielding made from suitable potting resin material (fumed silica, thixotropic prepolymer composition), conductive coating (silver-filled, flexible, polyurethane resin), and protective jacket (wax coated housing formed around another wax form having contours shaped to match configuration)

The Nonlinear Redshift Space Power Spectrum: Omega from Redshift Surveys

We examine the anisotropies in the power spectrum by the mapping of real to redshift space. Using the Zel'dovich approximation, we obtain an analytic expression for the nonlinear redshift space power spectrum in the distant observer limit. For a given unbiased galaxy distribution in redshift space, the anisotropies in the power spectrum depend on the parameter $f(\Omega)\approx \Omega^{0.6}$, where $\Omega$ is the density parameter. We quantify these anisotropies by the ratio, $R$, of the quadrupole to monopole angular moments of the power spectrum. In contrast to linear theory, the Zel'dovich approximation predicts a decline in $R$ with decreasing scale. This departure from linear theory is due to nonlinear dynamics and not a result of incoherent random velocities. The rate of decline depends strongly on $\Omega$ and the initial power spectrum. However, we find a {\it universal} relation between the quantity $R/R_{lin}$ (where $R_{lin}$ the linear theory value of $R$) and the dimensionless variable $k/k_{nl}$, where $k_{nl}$ is a wavenumber determined by the scale of nonlinear structures. The universal relation is in good agreement with a large N-body simulation. This universal relation greatly extends the scales over which redshift distortions can be used as a probe of $\Omega$. A preliminary application to the 1.2 Jy IRAS yields $\Omega\sim 0.4$ if IRAS galaxies are unbiased.Comment: uuencoded compressed postscript. The preprint is also available at http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/preprint/PrePrint.htm

Process for making RF shielded cable connector assemblies and the products formed thereby

A process for making RF shielded cable connector assemblies and the resulting structures is described. The process basically consists of potting wires of a shielded cable between the cable shield and a connector housing to fill in, support, regidize, and insulate the individual wires contained in the cable. The formed potting is coated with an electrically conductive material so as to form an entirely encompassing adhering conductive path between the cable shield and the metallic connector housing. A protective jacket is thereby formed over the conductive coating between the cable shield and the connector housing