14,064 research outputs found
Beyond the happy sheets! Evaluating learning in information skills teaching
This paper reviews three years of data measuring students' immediate reactions to a computer-assisted learning package in information skills and reports on work in progress to establish a more comprehensive programme of evaluation which will assess the longer term impact on learning of both the courseware itself and the way the courseware is delivered to students. The GAELS courseware was developed in the late 1990s as part of a collaborative project between the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, with funding from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council. The courseware was designed to teach higher level information skills and was initially developed for use with postgraduate engineering students; it has subsequently been adapted for use with students in other subject areas, including biological and physical sciences, and has been embedded for several years now in workshop sessions undertaken with postgraduate and undergraduate students across the Faculties of Science and Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. The courseware is introduced at the start of the academic session and made available on the Web so that students can use it as needed during their course and project work. During the first year, the courseware was used in isolation from other teaching methods (although a librarian was present to support students), whilst in the second and third years it was integrated into more traditional workshop-style teaching sessions (led by a librarian). Following work described in Joint (2003), library staff now wish to assess the longer term impact on learning of both the courseware itself and the way the courseware is delivered to students. However, the existing evaluation data does not adequately support this type of assessment. Teaching sessions are routinely evaluated by means of simple feedback forms, with four questions answered using a five-point Likert scale, collected at the conclusion of each session. According to Fitzpatrick (1998), such feedback forms measure students' reactions and represent but the first level of evaluation. Learning, which can be defined as the extent to which a student changes attitudes, improves knowledge and/or increases skill as a result of exposure to the training, is the second level and is not being measured with these forms. A more comprehensive programme of evaluation, including logging usage of the courseware outside teaching sessions and follow-up of students several months after their introduction to the courseware, is now being established to support a more meaningful assessment of impact of the courseware on student learning
Coalescent simulation in continuous space:Algorithms for large neighbourhood size
Many species have an essentially continuous distribution in space, in which there are no natural divisions between randomly mating subpopulations. Yet, the standard approach to modelling these populations is to impose an arbitrary grid of demes, adjusting deme sizes and migration rates in an attempt to capture the important features of the population. Such indirect methods are required because of the failure of the classical models of isolation by distance, which have been shown to have major technical flaws. A recently introduced model of extinction and recolonisation in two dimensions solves these technical problems, and provides a rigorous technical foundation for the study of populations evolving in a spatial continuum. The coalescent process for this model is simply stated, but direct simulation is very inefficient for large neighbourhood sizes. We present efficient and exact algorithms to simulate this coalescent process for arbitrary sample sizes and numbers of loci, and analyse these algorithms in detail
ExoMol line lists II: The ro-vibrational spectrum of SiO
Accurate rotation-vibration line lists are calculated for silicon monoxide.
Line lists are presented for the main isotopologue, SiO, and for
four monosubsituted isotopologues (SiO, SiO,
SiO and SiO), in their ground electronic states.
These line lists are suitable for high temperatures (up to 9000 K) including
those relevant to exoplanetary atmospheres and cool stars. A combination of
empirical and \textit{ab initio} methods is used: the potential energy curves
are determined to high accuracy by fitting to extensive data from the analysis
of both laboratory and sunspot spectra; a high quality {\it ab initio} dipole
moment curve is calculated at the large basis set, multi-reference
configuration interaction level. A partition function plus full line lists of
rotation-vibration transitions are made available in an electronic form as
supplementary data to this article and at \url{www.exomol.com}.Comment: MNRAS (in press
GAELS Project Final Report: Information environment for engineering
The GAELS project was a collaboration commenced in 1999 between Glasgow University Library and Strathclyde University Library with two main aims:· to develop collaborative information services in support of engineering research at the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde· to develop a CAL (computer-aided learning package) package in advanced information skills for engineering research students and staff The project was funded by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) from their Strategic Change Initiative funding stream, and funding was awarded initially for one year, with an extension of the grant for a further year. The project ended in June 2001.The funding from SHEFC paid for two research assistants, one based at Glasgow University Library working on collaborative information services and one based at Strathclyde University Library developing courseware. Latterly, after these two research assistants left to take up other posts, there has been a single researcher based at Glasgow University Library.The project was funded to investigate the feasibility of new services to the Engineering Faculties at both Universities, with a view to making recommendations for service provision that can be developed for other subject areas
A cross-sectional study of physical activity behaviour and associations with wellbeing during the UK coronavirus lockdown
This study assessed physical activity (PA) and wellbeing during lockdown. UK adults reported their PA in the previous week, perception of PA importance (more, less, same) and wellbeing, depression, anxiety and stress. One-way ANOVA compared PA and wellbeing by PA importance. The ‘less’ importance group did less PA than the ‘more’ and ‘same’ (p < 0.05) importance group; and scored worse on all wellbeing measures than the ‘same’ importance group (p < 0.01). They also had worse wellbeing, depression and anxiety than the ‘more’ importance group (p < 0.05). Strategies to overcome the impact of the pandemic should aim to increase PA
Categories of insight and their correlates: An exploration of relationships among classic-type insight problems, rebus puzzles, remote associates and esoteric analogies.
A central question in creativity concerns how insightful ideas emerge. Anecdotal examples of insightful scientific and technical discoveries include Goodyear's discovery of the vulcanization of rubber, and Mendeleev's realization that there may be gaps as he tried to arrange the elements into the Periodic Table. Although most people would regard these discoveries as insightful, cognitive psychologists have had difficulty in agreeing on whether such ideas resulted from insights or from conventional problem solving processes. One area of wide agreement among psychologists is that insight involves a process of restructuring. If this view is correct, then understanding insight and its role in problem solving will depend on a better understanding of restructuring and the characteristics that describe it.
This article proposes and tests a preliminary classification of insight problems based on several restructuring characteristics: the need to redefine spatial assumptions, the need to change defined forms, the degree of misdirection involved, the difficulty in visualizing a possible solution, the number of restructuring sequences in the problem, and the requirement for figure-ground type reversals. A second purpose of the study was to compare performance on classic spatial insight problems with two types of verbal tests that may be related to insight, the Remote Associates Test (RAT), and rebus puzzles. In doing so, we report on the results of a survey of 172 business students at the University of Waikato in New Zealand who completed classic-type insight, RAT and rebus problems
A near infrared line list for \NH: Analysis of a Kitt Peak spectrum after 35 years
A Fourier Transform (FT) absorption spectrum of room temperature NH3 in the
region 7400 - 8600 cm-1 is analysed using a variational line list and ground
state energies determined using the MARVEL procedure. The spectrum was measured
by Dr Catherine de Bergh in 1980 and is available from the Kitt Peak data
center. The centers and intensities of 8468 ammonia lines were retrieved using
a multiline fitting procedure. 2474 lines are assigned to 21 bands providing
1692 experimental energies in the range 7000 - 9000 cm-1. The spectrum was
assigned by the joint use of the BYTe variational line list and combination
differences. The assignments and experimental energies presented in this work
are the first for ammonia in the region 7400 - 8600 cm-1, considerably
extending the range of known vibrational-excited statesComment: 27 pages, 6 table, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Journal of
Molecular Spectroscop
High-resolution absorption measurements of NH3 at high temperatures: 2100 - 5500
High-resolution absorption spectra of \NH\ in the region 2100 - 5500 \cm\ at
1027 C and atmospheric pressure (1045 3 mbar) are measured. An
\NH\ concentration of 10\% in volume fraction is used in the measurements.
Spectra are recorded in a high-temperature gas-flow cell using a Fourier
Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer at a nominal resolution of 0.09 \cm. The
spectra are analysed by comparison to a variational line list, BYTe, and
experimental energy levels determined using the MARVEL procedure. 2308 lines
have been assigned to 45 different bands, of which 1755 and 15 have been
assigned or observed for the first time in this work
Greenstone belts: Their components and structure
Greenstone sucessions are defined as the nongranitoid component of granitoid-greenstone terrain and are linear to irregular in shape and where linear are termed belts. The chemical composition of greenstones is described. Also discussed are the continental environments of greenstone successions. The effects of contact with granitoids, geophysical properties, recumbent folds and late formation structures upon greenstones are examined. Large stratigraphy thicknesses are explained
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