Tutor's role in online courses

The increased use of information and communication technologies in education demands a critical review of the approaches used for supporting teaching and learning activities in online environment. The paper discusses the special role of the tutor who guides and supports the learning process in the online course supplementing traditional face-to-face activities in the blended learning model. Students' evaluations of tutor's role were analyzed and underlay this study. The findings show that professional and successful tutoring helps students in improving their learning efficacy and having greater personal responsibility for their outcomes. Рост использования информационно-коммуникационных технологий в образовании требует критического анализа и пересмотра подходов, используемых для поддержки образовательной деятельности в онлайн среде. Данная работа рассматривает особую роль тьютора, который поддерживает и сопровождает учебный процесс в онлайн курсе, дополняющем традиционное контактное обучение в смешанной модели обучения. В основе данного исследования лежит анализ студенческого восприятия роли тьютора. Результаты исследования показывают, что профессиональная и успешная деятельность тьютора помогает повысить эффективность обучения и способствует пониманию личной ответственности студентов за результаты обучения

Students' attitudes and expectations in asynchronous online discussions

In attempt to move to leading positions in the word university ranking National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) implemented online courses as part of academic curriculum. Foreign language courses are accompanied now by the online component on Moodle, which has become an official Learning Management System (LMS) of TPU. This paper reports about the investigation of asynchronous online discussion efficacy in the learning process. Students' attitudes and expectations in such type of discussion were analyzed in order to present student's perception of learning in the discussion environment. The findings of this study indicate certain benefits and positive overall perception though some problems were identified and corresponding measures were suggested. Национальный исследовательский Томский политехнический университет (ТПУ) пытается занять лидирующую позицию в мировом рейтинге лучших университетов, в связи с чем было инициировано введение онлайн курсов в программу университета. Языковые курсы теперь имеют онлайн компонент, размещенный на платформе Moodle, которая является официальной системой управления обучением в ТПУ. Данная работа рассматривает эффективность асинхронной онлайн дискуссии в образовательном процессе. Были проанализированы ожидания студентов от онлайн дискуссии и их отношение к данному виду работы. Результаты исследования указывают, что существуют определенные преимущества, и говорят об общем позитивном восприятии онлайн дискуссий студентами. Но в то же время были обнаружены определенные проблемы и предложены способы их решения

Using wikis for enhancing students' online collaboration

Web 2.0 technologies offer new opportunities for their integration into the instructional settings. Such element of Web 2.0 as a wikiis seen as communication and collaboration tool that is often used in online courses to engage students in learning foreign languages. The paper suggests strategies for implementing wikis in order to enhance students' collaboration in online courses. The analyzed wiki activities show that the participants of the online course are ready for effective online collaboration and quite aware of their roles. Технологии Веб 2.0 открывают новые возможности для их интеграции в сфере образования. Такой элемент Веб 2.0, как вики, считается инструментом сотрудничества и коммуникации и часто используется в онлайн курсах для того, чтобы увлечь студентов изучением иностранных языков. Данная работа предлагает стратегии применения вики с целью улучшения совместной работы студентов в рамках онлайн курсов. Проанализированные задания вики показывают, что участники онлайн курса готовы к эффективному сотрудничеству в сети и четко осознают свои роли

Elligator : elliptic-curve points indistinguishable from uniform random strings

Censorship-circumvention tools are in an arms race against censors. The censors study all traffic passing into and out of their controlled sphere, and try to disable censorship-circumvention tools without completely shutting down the Internet. Tools aim to shape their traffic patterns to match unblocked programs, so that simple traffic profiling cannot identify the tools within a reasonable number of traces; the censors respond by deploying rewalls with increasingly sophisticated deep-packet inspection. Cryptography hides patterns in user data but does not evade censorship if the censor can recognize patterns in the cryptography itself. In particular, elliptic-curve cryptography often transmits points on known elliptic curves, and those points are easily distinguishable from uniform random strings of bits. This paper introduces high-security high-speed elliptic-curve systems in which elliptic-curve points are encoded so as to be indistinguishable from uniform random strings. At a lower level, this paper introduces a new bijection between strings and about half of all curve points; this bijection is applicable to every odd-characteristic elliptic curve with a point of order 2, except for curves of j-invariant 1728. This paper also presents guidelines to construct, and two examples of, secure curves suitable for these encodings

Why Participate in an Online Social Network? An Empirical Analysis

Despite their enormous success the motivation behind user participation in Online Social Networks is still little understood. This study explores a variety of possible incentives and provides an empirical evaluation of their subjective relevance. The analysis is based on survey data from 129 test subjects. Using Structural Equation Modeling, we identified that the satisfaction of the needs for belongingness and the esteem needs through self-presentation together with peer pressure are the main drivers of participation. The analysis of a sub-sample of active users pointed out the satisfaction of the cognitive needs as an additional participation determinant. Based on these findings, recommendations for online social network providers are made

Statements with Meaning of Conditionality as Means of Creating WAR Concept in K. Simonov’s Idiostyle

The article is devoted to the role of statements with the meaning of conditionality in the creation of the conceptual sphere of a literary work. The relevance of the study is determined by the attention of modern philological science to the essence of the individual author’s concept, as well as the growing interest of linguists in the text functions of language units. The material of the study was K. Simonov’s trilogy “The Living and the Dead,” in which syntactic constructions with conjunctions of conditionality group are the dominant linguistic means. It is hypothesized that conjunctions that provide links meaningful for the overall content of the text are actively involved in the construction of key artistic meanings. The components of the artistic concept of WAR, modeled on the basis of statements with conjunctions if and though , are presented. It is shown that constructions with relations of conditionality participate in the formation of conceptual and emotional components of the artistic concept of WAR. The study contributes to the expansion of ideas about the functions of functional parts of speech and helps to present the prospect of their further study in the textual aspect

On Actual Direction of Linguopoetics: Russian Conjunctions in Text Service (History of Issue)

The article is a review of scientific data on the study of text functions of Russian unions. The main stages of the linguists’ interest in the artistic potentials of Russian language coordinating and subordinating conjunctions as part of the syntactic constructions of literary works are described. The article emphasizes that the combined results of the research indicate the effectiveness of syndesis as one of the means of creating a functional, communicative and pragmatic essence of a literary text. It is stated that the study of conjunctive sentences in the text perspective is an actual and developing direction, but the general theory of text functions of Russian conjunctions has not yet fully developed. The author considers that it is expedient to reveal the methodological mechanism of interaction of deep private meanings of conjunctive utterances in the process of their participation in creation of the conceptual meaning of a literary work equal to the author’s intention. The present study promotes the expansion of ideas about the functions of functional parts of speech in the artistic narrative, and also outlines the prospects for the study of other Russian conjunctions in the textual aspect