Accommodating the difference in students’ prior knowledge of cell growth kinetics

This paper describes the development and benefits of an adaptive digital module on cell growth to tackle the problem of educating a heterogeneous group of students at the beginning of an undergraduate course on process engineering. Aim of the digital module is to provide students with the minimal level of knowledge on cell growth kinetics they need to comprehend the content knowledge of the subsequent lectures and pass the exam. The module was organised to offer the subject matter in a differentiated manner, so that students could follow different learning paths. Two student groups were investigated, one consisting of students who had received their prior education abroad and one of students that had not. Exam scores, questionnaires, and logged user data of the two student groups were analysed to discover whether the digital module had the intended effect. The results indicate that students did indeed follow different learning paths. Also, the differences in exam scores between the two student groups that was present before the introduction of the digital module was found to have decreased afterwards. In general, students appreciated the use of the material regardless of their prior education. We therefore conclude that the use of adaptive digital learning material is a possible way to solve the problem of differences in prior education of students entering a course

The influence of student characteristics on the use of adaptive e-learning material

Adaptive e-learning materials can help teachers to educate heterogeneous student groups. This study provides empirical data about the way academic students differ in their learning when using adaptive elearning materials. Ninety-four students participated in the study. We determined characteristics in a heterogeneous student group by collecting demographic data and measuring motivation and prior knowledge. We also measured the learning paths students followed and learning strategies they used when working with adaptive e-learning material in a molecular biology course. We then combined these data to study if and how student characteristics relate to the learning paths and strategies they used. We observed that students did follow different learning paths. Gender did not have an effect, but (mainly Dutch) BSc students differed from (international) MSc students in the intrinsic motivation they had and the learning paths and strategies they followed when using the adaptive e-learning materia

Development and Evaluation of an Adaptive Digital Module on Enzyme Kinetics

An adaptive module on basic enzyme kinetics was developed for first- and second-year university students. The module offers more assignments to students who have less knowledge of the theory than to more advanced students. The aim of the research was to investigate what influence students’ backgrounds have on their use and appreciation of this module. Both freshmen and second-year students showed a large variation in the number of assignments they needed to perform in order to finish the module, indicating that the module’s adaptive feature was exploited by all the students. Findings indicated that the prior knowledge was of influence of students’ motivation and perception of difficulty of the modul

Fatal Fashion Analysis of recent factory fires in Pakistan and Bangladesh: a call to protect and respect garment workers’ lives

"This report describes in detail two recent cases of factory fires that swept through the facilities of two South Asian clothing manufacturers producing for international brands. These cases are exemplary for the poor health and safety conditions of thousands of factories in Asia, and the lack of responsibility taken by private and public actors throughout the supply chain. The specific factory fires analysed in this report have occurred at Ali Enterprises in Karachi, Pakistan, in September 2012; and at Tazreen Fashions Limited (hereafter referred to as Tazreen Fashions) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in November 2012. Hundreds of workers were killed in horrendous circumstances, and many others were injured. Sub-standard buildings, poor emergency procedures, inadequate and blocked fire exits, and overcrowded workplaces resulted in an extremely high death toll"

Geotechnical safety in relation to water pressures

Codes and Standard

La boîte à outils géotechniques de demain: EN 1997-1: 202x Règles générales

This paper describes the development of the final Project Team (PT) draft of the next generation of Eurocode 7 Part 1 (EN 1997-1:202x). The use of Nationally Determined Parameters and the drive for ease-of-use is highlighted. Key changes from the previous version of EN 1997-1 are explained, including the introduction of the Geotechnical Design Model; revision of the Geotechnical Categories and their application; the implementation of Consequence Classes and Geotechnical Complexity Classes in achieving the reliability required by the Eurocodes; elaboration on the use of numerical methods within Eurocode 7; the treatment of rock on an equal basis with soil; and greater emphasis on the Observational Method.Postprint (published version

Vulvar Intraepithelial Neoplasia: New concepts and strategy

Vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN) is a rare condition which can develop into an invasive carcinoma. This skin-disease affects mainly young women, and causes many severe and long-lasting symptoms such as pruritus, vulvodynia and psychosexual dysfunction. Over 80% of VIN-affected women present with multifocal vulvar disease, and often neoplastic changes can be found in the entire lower genital tract. Clinically, it is important to distinguish unifocal from multifocal lesions, since unifocal VIN tends to progress to invasive carcinoma ten times more often than multifocal VIN doe