Teachers’ perceptions on the effectiveness of the Oxford Online Placement Test at King Abdulaziz University

English language placements tests are an essential component of preparatory year programmes (PYPs) as they serve to place students in an English course adequate to their level of proficiency. The aim of the study is to evaluate the perceived effectiveness of the Oxford Online Placement Test (OOPT), as seen by teachers in the English Language Institute (ELI) at King Abdulaziz University (KAU). The investigation explores teachers’ views on the OOPT, on the ELI modules and on factors affecting students’ test performance. It is framed by Messick’s (1989) unified view of validity, which informed both the data analysis and the interpretation of the findings. The study comprised three data collection stages: Stage 1: face-to face interviews, Stage 2: the questionnaire and Stage 3: telephone interviews. The majority of the questionnaire and interview respondents were unfamiliar with the OOPT, however, those who were familiar with the test, agreed that it was an effective tool and generally placed students in the correct level. However, some teachers felt that the content of the OOPT was not relevant to Saudi students. Educational background, computer literacy and socio-economic status emerged as factors influencing achievement in the OOPT and ELI modules, according to teachers. Teachers also agreed that students specialising in the Sciences generally performed better compared to those specialising in the Arts. With regards to the ELI modules, the majority of teachers felt that the courses were too short and that students who were placed in higher levels because of their OOPT scores were generally more proficient than those who had progressed through the ELI modules. Implications for theory and practice are drawn from the findings as well as recommendations for the ELI and for future research.

Ethical and legal issues in mitochondrial transfer

The US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine recently provided conditional endorsement for mitochondrial transfer. While its approach is more conservative in some respects than that of the United Kingdom (which passed its own regulations in 2015 ), it marks a significant policy development for a potentially large implementer of this emerging intervention. In this perspective, we consider some of the ethical and legal aspects of these policy responses

Reconceptualizing Context: A Multilevel Model of the Context of Reception and Second-Generation Educational Attainment

This paper seeks to return scholarly attention to a core intellectual divide between segmented and conventional (or neo-)assimilation approaches, doing so through a theoretical and empirical reconsideration of contextual effects on second-generation outcomes. We evaluate multiple approaches to measuring receiving country contextual effects and measuring their impact on the educational attainment of the children of immigrants. We demonstrate that our proposed measures better predict second-generation educational attainment than prevailing approaches, enabling a multilevel modeling strategy that accounts for the structure of immigrant families nested within different receiving contexts

MANAJEMEN SUPERVISI AKADEMIK DALAM MENINGKATKAN KINERJA GURU

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui dampak manajemen supervisi akademik dalam meningkatkan kinerja guru. Metode penelitian ini menggunakan penelitian kualitatif dengan kajian penelitian menggunakan pendekatan metode deskriptif analisis berdasarkan penelitian lapangan (Field Research). Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa implementasi manajemen supervisi akademik untuk peningkatan kinerja guru, lebih mengarah pada penilaian kinerja yang dicapai oleh guru. Evaluasi program supervisi akademik yang telah dilaksanakan baik aspek pembinaan guru, bimbingan dan pelatihan professional guru, penilaian kinerja guru maupun pemantauan 8 standar pendidikan nasional. Upaya dan langkah-langkah perbaikan dari masalah yang dihadapi pengawas dan kelemahannya dalam melaksanakan supervisi akademik untuk peningkatan kinerja guru, yang lebih mengarah pada peningkatan kompetensi personal pengawas, kemauan guru untuk termotivasi dan merubah menuju peningkatan kinerja Perbaikan prosedur dan berusaha mengsulkan kepada para pemangku kebijakan untuk mendukung peningkatan profesionalitas guru. Penilaian kinerja merupakan sistem formal yang digunakan untuk menilai kinerja secara periodik, dan hasilnya dapat digunakan untuk pengambilan keputusan dalam rangka pengembangan,  pemberian  reward, perencanaan, pemberian kompensasi dan motivasi.The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of academic supervision management in improving teacher performance. This research method uses qualitative research with research studies using a descriptive analysis method approach based on field research (Field Research). The results of this study indicate that the implementation of academic supervision management to improve teacher performance is more directed at the performance appraisal achieved by the teacher. Evaluation of academic supervision programs that have been implemented in aspects of teacher development, teacher professional guidance and training, teacher performance appraisal and monitoring of 8 national education standards. Efforts and corrective measures of the problems faced by supervisors and their weaknesses in implementing academic supervision for improving teacher performance, which leads to increased personal competence of supervisors, the willingness of teachers to be motivated and change towards improving performance Improved procedures and trying to suggest to policy makers to support increased teacher professionalism. Performance appraisal is a formal system used to periodically assess performance, and the results can be used for decision making in the context of development, reward, planning, compensation and motivation

Modeling and measurement of surface pressure fluctuation in an impinging jet

Impinging jets are used in many engineering and industrial applications, including heating, cooling, drying, food processing, and surface cleaning, among others. The present thesis work is focused on modeling and studying the unsteady wall-pressure signature produced by a jet impinging normally on a flat surface. This study is divided into two main parts:A theoretical part, to establish the beginning step towards building a physics-based, mathematical model to calculate the surface-pressure fluctuation on the impingement surface. The mathematical model is used to explore the effects of changing the flow and jet-vortices parameters, one at a time, on the characteristics of the surface-pressure fluctuation. Three main parameters are examined: vortex-passage frequency, jet Reynolds number, and vortex circulation. An experimental part, to measure the unsteady surface pressure fluctuation on the impingement surface for an axisymmetric jet at normal incidence. Measurements are done, for Reynold numbers Re_D= 8272 and 24818 (based on the jet diameter (D) and jet exit velocity), using a microphone array extending radially from the stagnation point (r/D=0) into the wall-jet zone (r/D=2.33). Comparison of the model and the experimental results shows that, despite of the model simplicity, certain qualitative features of the unsteady wall pressure are similar within the stagnation zone. This outcome establishes confidence to continue further development of the model in the future.Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Mechanical Engineering, 2018Includes bibliographical references (pages 143-145

PENGARUH PELATIHAN DAN MOTIVASI TERHADAP PRODUKTIVITAS KERJA TENAGA KEPENDIDIKAN STIT RAKEYAN SANTANG KARAWANG

Di era yang penuh persaingan pada lembaga pendidikan, dibutuhkan produktifitas tenaga kependidikan yang tinggi guna berkontribusi pada mutu lembaga pendidikan. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui dampak pelatihan dan motivasi terhadap produktifitas tenaga kependidikan STIT Rakeyan Santang Karawang. Metode penelitian yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah penelitian kuantitatif. Penelitian kuantitaif adalah suatu penelitian yang pada dasarnya menggunakan pendekatan deduktif-induktif. Pendekatan kuantitatif bertujuan untuk menguji teori, membangun fakta, menunjukkan hubungan antar variabel, memberikan deskripsi statistic, menaksir dan meramalkan hasilnya. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa 1) pelatihan berpengaruh positif terhadap Produktivitas Kerja tenaga kependidikan, yang ditunjukkan dari hasil regresi nilai t-hitung 24.201 > t tabel 1.687 dan nilai Sig 0.000 lebih kecil dari 0.05, 2) Motivasi tidak berpengaruh terhadap Produktivitas pada tenaga kependidikan STIT Rakeyan Santang Karawang dengan  nilai t-hitung -0.522 < t-tabel -2.026 dan nilai  Sig 0.605 lebih besar dari  0.05, dan 3) pelatihan dan motivasi berpengaruh positif terhadap Produktivitas Kerja tenaga kependidikan, yang ditunjukkan dari hasil nilai  F hitung 292.892 > F-tabel 3.24 dan nilai Sig 0.000 lebih kecil dari 0,05. Kontribusi pelatihan dan motivasi untuk menjelaskan produktivitas kerja tenaga kependidikan STIT Rakeyan Santang Karawang sebesar  0,941.In an era full of competition in educational institutions, high productivity of educational personnel is needed to contribute to the quality of educational institutions. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of training and motivation on the productivity of the educational staff at STIT Rakeyan Santang Karawang. The research method used in this research is quantitative research. Quantitative research is a study that basically uses a deductive-inductive approach. The quantitative approach aims to test theories, build facts, show relationships between variables, provide statistical descriptions, estimate and predict the results. The results of this study indicate that 1) training has a positive effect on the productivity of the teaching force, which is shown from the regression results of the t-count value of 24,201> t table 1.687 and the Sig value of 0.000 is less than 0.05, 2) Motivation has no effect on the productivity of the teaching staff. STIT Rakeyan Santang Karawang with a t-count value of -0.522 <t-table -2.026 and a Sig value of 0.605 greater than 0.05, and 3) training and motivation have a positive effect on the workforce productivity of education, which is shown from the results of the F value of 292.892> F -table 3.24 and a Sig value of 0.000 less than 0.05. The contribution of training and motivation to explain the work productivity of the educational workforce of STIT Rakeyan Santang Karawang is 0.941

Shoppingbot (Ecommerce Robot System)

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, it has threatened our lives both healthily and economically. The middle-class economy collapsed, and the small medium enterprises were no longer able to make a living. The government implements social distancing regulations for public health. People are exposed to the covid germs at the working area. After the national emergency was declared on March 13, personal enterprise fall about 80%. We carry out this project to make up for their economic loss and build the opportunity for the market share, in a time where the industry is pushing forwards to new methods of effective and efficient e-commerce. With a constantly changing world becoming more and more dependent on technology, the commercial industry has shifted to more automated services. We aim to create a e-commerce shopping automated robot that operates as a system to improve the work efficiency of businesses, and take part in growing industry

A fresh look at introductory data science

The proliferation of vast quantities of available datasets that are large and complex in nature has challenged universities to keep up with the demand for graduates trained in both the statistical and the computational set of skills required to effectively plan, acquire, manage, analyze, and communicate the findings of such data. To keep up with this demand, attracting students early on to data science as well as providing them a solid foray into the field becomes increasingly important. We present a case study of an introductory undergraduate course in data science that is designed to address these needs. Offered at Duke University, this course has no pre-requisites and serves a wide audience of aspiring statistics and data science majors as well as humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences students. We discuss the unique set of challenges posed by offering such a course and in light of these challenges, we present a detailed discussion into the pedagogical design elements, content, structure, computational infrastructure, and the assessment methodology of the course. We also offer a repository containing all teaching materials that are open-source, along with supplemental materials and the R code for reproducing the figures found in the paper

Head-cut gully erosion susceptibility mapping in semi-arid region using machine learning methods: insight from the high atlas, Morocco

Gully erosion has been identified in recent decades as a global threat to people and property. This problem also affects the socioeconomic stability of societies and therefore limits their sustainable development, as it impacts a nonrenewable resource on a human scale, namely, soil. The focus of this study is to evaluate the prediction performance of four machine learning (ML) models: Logistic Regression (LR), classification and regression tree (CART), Linear Discriminate Analysis (LDA), and the k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN), which are novel approaches in gully erosion modeling research, particularly in semi-arid regions with a mountainous character. 204 samples of erosion areas and 204 samples of non-erosion areas were collected through field surveys and high-resolution satellite images, and 17 significant factors were considered. The dataset cells of samples (70% for training and 30% for testing) were randomly prepared to assess the robustness of the different models. The functional relevance between soil erosion and effective factors was computed using the ML models. The ML models were evaluated using different metrics, including accuracy, the kappa coefficient. kNN is the ideal model for this study. The value of the AUC from ROC considering the testing datasets of KNN is 0.93; the remaining models are associated to ideal AUC and are similar to kNN in terms of values. The AUC values from ROC of GLM, LDA, and CART for testing datasets are 0.90, 0.91, and 0.84, respectively. The value of accuracy considering the validation datasets of LDA, CART, KNN, and GLM are 0.85, 0.82, 0.89, 0.84 respectively. The values of Kappa of LDA, CART, and GLM for testing datasets are 0.70, 0.65, and 0.68, respectively. ML models, in particular KNN, GLM, and LDA, have achieved outstanding results in terms of creating soil erosion susceptibility maps. The maps created with the most reliable models could be a useful tool for sustainable management, watershed conservation and prevention of soil and water losses.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio