E-XCELLENCE NEXT Report Local seminar Portugal

Wagemans, L. J. J. M., & Boon, M. J. J. P. M. (2012). E-XCELLENCE NEXT Report Local seminar Portugal. Heerlen: EADTU.E-learning has become mainstream provision in European higher education and is essential in supporting lifelong learning and internationalisation. By becoming integral part of higher education, e-learning should also be integral part of the QA systems, internal and external, with related innovative and appropriate criteria. In the E-xcellence project (EADTU) an instrument is developed under the e-learning programme that creates an opportunity for the existing channels in QA to adopt new quality guidelines for increased quality, accessibility and attractiveness. As the E-xcellence instrument supplements existing QA systems with e-learning specific issues and addresses directly the higher education and adult education sector, it can be integrated within the existing QA frameworks. In the past 2 stages in which E-xcellence was developed and promoted by and within open and blended universities and QA agencies, it has proven to be a valuable and valued open source tool. In a third step EADTU wants to serve universities Europe wide with an open and updated “quality assurance in e-learning” instrument. One of the institutions where the E-xcellence instrument is introduced, is the Portugese Universidade Aberta (UAb). The report describes the introduction of the E-xcellence instrument in a Local seminar of two days with presentations given by representatives of the different programs, discussions and feedback of the Review team

Determining Ages of APOGEE Giants with Known Distances

We present a sample of local red giant stars observed using the New Mexico State University 1 m telescope with the APOGEE spectrograph, for which we estimate stellar ages and the age distribution from the high-resolution spectroscopic stellar parameters and accurate distance measurements from Hipparcos. The high-resolution (R ~ 23,000), near infrared (H-band, 1.5-1.7 micron) APOGEE spectra provide measurements of the stellar atmospheric parameters (temperature, surface gravity, [M/H], and [alpha/M]). Due to the smaller uncertainties in surface gravity possible with high-resolution spectra and accurate Hipparcos distance measurements, we are able to calculate the stellar masses to within 40%. For red giants, the relatively rapid evolution of stars up the red giant branch allows the age to be constrained based on the mass. We examine methods of estimating age using both the mass-age relation directly and a Bayesian isochrone matching of measured parameters, assuming a constant star formation history (SFH). To improve the prior on the SFH, we use a hierarchical modeling approach to constrain the parameters of a model SFH from the age probability distribution functions of the data. The results of an alpha dependent Gaussian SFH model shows a clear relation between age and [alpha/M] at all ages. Using this SFH model as the prior for an empirical Bayesian analysis, we construct a full age probability distribution function and determine ages for individual stars. The age-metallicity relation is flat, with a slight decrease in [M/H] at the oldest ages and a ~ 0.5 dex spread in metallicity. For stars with ages < 1 Gyr we find a smaller spread, consistent with radial migration having a smaller effect on these young stars than on the older stars.Comment: 14 page, 18 figures, accepted to ApJ with minor revisions, full electronic table of data available upon publicatio

Environmental chemistry: A twenty year perspective: Air quality management

Anniversary article in ECG Bulleti

Excellentie van online leren

Boon, J., & Wagemans, L. J. J. M. (2013). Excellentie van online leren. OnderwijsInnovatie (1), 17-24.Dit artikel gaat over het evalueren van kwaliteit van e-learning. In het project E-xcellence is een globaal raamwerk ontwikkeld waarin zes domeinen onderscheiden worden die belangrijk zijn voor de kwaliteit van e-learning. Elk domein wordt concreter omschreven door een aantal benchmarks. Door het uitvoeren van een quick scan kunnen teams van medewerkers in hoger onderwijsinstellingen een beeld krijgen van de kwaliteit van e-learning in hun organisatie, faculteit of in een cursus, in vergelijk met andere onderwijsinstellingen. Tevens kan aan de hand van een zelf uitgevoerde scan of aan de hand van een extern advies een plan gemaakt worden voor verbetering.: EU Lifelong Learning, Transversal Programme KA 4 Valorisatio