Community building and virtual teamwork in an online learning environment

In the world of OTIS, an online Internet School for occupational therapists, students from four European countries were encouraged to work collaboratively through problem based learning by interacting with each other in a virtual semi-immersive environment. This paper aims to explore the issues that there was little interaction between students from different tutorial groups and virtual teamwork developed in each of the cross cultural tutorial groups. Synchronous data from European students was captured during tutorial sessions and peer booked meetings and evidence suggests that communities of interest were established. It is possible to conclude that collaborative systems can be designed, which encourage students to build trust and teamwork in a cross cultural online learning environment. </p

Assessment and learning outcomes: the evaluation of deep learning in an on-line course

Using an online learning environment, students from European countries collaborated and communicated to carry out problem based learning in occupational therapy. The effectiveness of this approach was evaluated by means of the final assessments and published learning outcomes. In particular, transcripts from peer-to-peer sessions of synchronous communication were analysed. The SOLO taxonomy was used and the development of deep learning was studied week by week. This allowed the quality of the course to be appraised and showed, to a certain extent, the impact of this online international course on the learning strategies of the students. Results indicate that deep learning can be supported by synchronous communication and online meetings between course participants.</p

An agent-based architecture for managing the provision of community care - the INCA (Intelligent Community Alarm) experience

Community Care is an area that requires extensive cooperation between independent agencies, each of which needs to meet its own objectives and targets. None are engaged solely in the delivery of community care, and need to integrate the service with their other responsibilities in a coherent and efficient manner. Agent technology provides the means by which effective cooperation can take place without compromising the essential security of both the client and the agencies involved as the appropriate set of responses can be generated through negotiation between the parties without the need for access to the main information repositories that would be necessary with conventional collaboration models. The autonomous nature of agents also means that a variety of agents can cooperate together with various local capabilities, so long as they conform to the relevant messaging requirements. This allows a variety of agents, with capabilities tailored to the carers to which they are attached to be developed so that cost-effective solutions can be provided. </p

Agents for educational games and simulations

This book consists mainly of revised papers that were presented at the Agents for Educational Games and Simulation (AEGS) workshop held on May 2, 2011, as part of the Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS) conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized topical sections on middleware applications, dialogues and learning, adaption and convergence, and agent applications

Deposition of Au/Pt on Co/SiO 2 for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis

Includes bibliographical references.Cobalt Fischer-Tropsch catalysts, which are used when the desired products are long chain, linear waxes and diesel [1], are promoted with noble metals [2].This is to primarily increase the reducibility of the cobalt oxide (Co3O4) phase present in the supported catalyst during preparation but also has also been seen to effect the Co3O4 crystallite size (i.e. dispersion) and intrinsic activity of these catalysts [3]. These promoted catalysts are typically prepared by co-impregnation [4] or sequential impregnation [5, 6] with a noble metal precursor. This study investigates the preparation of cobalt Fischer-Tropsch catalysts. The effect of using mixed cobalt precursors (i.e. cobalt nitrate and cobalt acetate) in the preparation of unpromoted 10 wt% Co/SiO2 catalysts is investigated. The incorporation of higher amounts of cobalt nitrate is found to result in larger Co3O4 particles with higher reducibility and higher metallic Co-surface area after reduction. The formation of large amounts of hardly-reducible cobalt species (possibly cobalt silicates) are suspected from the reduction behaviour of catalysts prepared with higher amounts of cobalt acetate. The use of some cobalt acetate, however, in the promoted catalyst (which is expected to have an increased reducibility) may derive greater benefit than the catalyst prepared from pure cobalt nitrate by enhancement of the reduction of these hardly-reducible cobalt species. The promotion of the calcined cobalt acetate-cobalt nitrate catalyst with platinum and gold by strong electrostatic adsorption (SEA) is investigated. The promotion with these catalysts with platinum and gold by this method is achievable however subsequent calcination results in extensive sintering of gold particles (this was not observed in the platinum case). The pH during SEA is found to have an effect on the adsorption of platinum and gold species with the adsorption of platinum decreasing and that of gold increasing with increasing pH. This is possibly explained by different adsorption mechanisms for the AuCl4-and PtCl62- species. The physical characteristics of these promoted catalysts are investigated. Promotion with platinum results in a significant enhancement of the degree of reduction and a decrease in the reduction temperatures of the processes associated with Co3O4 reduction as well as the hardly-reducible species present on these catalysts. These catalysts show a higher metallic Co-surface area than the unpromoted case. The pH of the SEA solution seems to have a significant effect on the reaction performance of these catalysts. The Pt promoted catalysts promoted at low pH and high pH both demonstrated significantly higher mass specific activity than the unpromoted catalyst with the vcatalyst promoted at low pH having the highest activity. These catalysts showed comparable methane selectivities and chain growth probabilities to the unpromoted catalyst. The promotion with gold is, unfortunately, much less promising. Promotion by SEA (and subsequent calcination) results in very large gold particles. The presence of these particles on the catalyst has some effect on the reduction of the catalyst, but it unlikely any positive effect on the degree of reduction is derived from this effect as the degree of reduction in fact decreases in these catalysts. These catalysts have a marginally higher or slightly lower metallic Co-surface depending on the pH of the SEA solution. The gold promoted catalyst prepared at low pH had a slightly higher mass specific activity than the unpromoted catalyst however the catalyst promoted at high pH in fact had a decrease in activity. The gold-promoted catalysts generally had higher methane selectivity and lower chain growth probabilities than the unpromoted catalysts. The hypothesis of this work was: “The pH of the solution in which Co3O4/SiO2 is promoted by SEA has an effect on the position at which the noble metal complex adsorbs and will thus ultimately have an effect on the properties of the promoted catalyst” It is difficult to state conclusively whether the pH of the SEA solution had an effect on the position of the noble metal but it is apparent that the pH has a significant effect on the catalytic performance of both the platinum- and gold-promoted catalysts

Optimizing plug-in electric vehicle charging in interaction with a small office building

This paper considers the integration of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in micro-grids. Extending a theoretical framework for mobile storage connection, the economic analysis here turns to the interactions of commuters and their driving behavior with office buildings. An illustrative example for a real office building is reported. The chosen system includes solar thermal, photovoltaic, combined heat and power generation as well as an array of plug-in electric vehicles with a combined aggregated capaci-ty of 864 kWh. With the benefit-sharing mechanism proposed here and idea-lized circumstances, estimated cost savings of 5% are possible. Different pricing schemes were applied which include flat rates, demand charges, as well as hourly variable final customer tariffs and their effects on the operation of intermittent storage were revealed and examined in detail. Because the plug-in electric vehicle connection coincides with peak heat and electricity loads as well as solar radiation, it is possible to shift energy demand as desired in order to realize cost savings. --Battery storage,building management systems,dispersed storage and generation,electric vehicles,load management,microgrid,optimization methods,power system economics,road vehicle electric propulsion

ISAC6+ Delivering Smarter Administration through innovation - a Benefits Realisation approach to ensuring success.

The paper describes how the Project Management discipline of benefits realisation has been applied to an EU funded E-government initiative. It explores the benefits of using this approach, the challenges to be addressed, and suggest a framework for applying the approach to other local and national e-government initiatives. One of the key project objectives is to demonstrate through the pilot that implementation of the iSAC6+ system will provide value for money by delivering the desired benefits both to government office users and citizens. The approach described here focuses on costs and benefits generated by use of the system. There are staff costs for training, support and operation, technical costs for integrating iSAC6+ in to existing systems and websites, and more significantly organisational costs for designing and implementing new procedures and working practices. Citizens too will incur costs to access and use the service. In iSAC6+ we have created a model of costs and benefits which can be applied in the short term to the pilot, and in the longer term to a much larger number of public organisations. The aim of the Benefits Realisation model is to demonstrate that iSAC6+ is capable of delivering value for money, and thus to justify the investment needed for expanding its use. Information Technology project success or failure is traditionally judged against objectives set during initial project planning. Enterprises, both public and private sector, have found this approach inadequate because long term costs and benefits do not occur until after the project has completed. Benefits Realisation emerged in the 1990s and developed two roles: a discipline for anticipating and quantifying the expected value of a project in terms of the costs and benefits which will accrue after the project itself is complete; and an over-arching project management philosophy. The paper uses the case study experience to comment upon these two different perspectives. The model developed within the project is based upon the recognised public sector costing formula, the Standard Cost model (SCM) but goes much further by integrating it into a Benefits Realisation tool which creates an audit trail from organisational strategic aims through to detailed cost measures for both quantitative and qualitative incidences

Collaboration and teamwork: immersion and presence in an online learning environment

In the world of OTIS, an online Internet School for occupational therapists, students from four European countries were encouraged to work collaboratively through problem-based learning by interacting with each other in a virtual semi-immersive environment. This paper describes, often in their own words, the experience of European occupational therapy students working together across national and cultural boundaries. Collaboration and teamwork were facilitated exclusively through an online environment, since the students never met each other physically during the OTIS pilot course. The aim of the paper is to explore the observations that here was little interaction between students from different tutorial groups and virtual teamwork developed in each of the cross-cultural tutorial groups. Synchronous data from the students was captured during tutorial sessions and peer-booked meetings and analysed using the qualitative constructs of ‘immersion’, ‘presence’ and ‘reflection in learning’. The findings indicate that ‘immersion’ was experienced only to a certain extent. However, both ‘presence’ and shared presence were found by the students, within their tutorial groups, to help collaboration and teamwork. Other evidence suggests that communities of interest were established. Further study is proposed to support group work in an online learning environment. It is possible to conclude that collaborative systems can be designed, which encourage students to build trust and teamwork in a cross cultural online learning environment.</p

The use of Cyber Campuses to Support Online Learning for Students Experiencing Barriers Accessing Education

Attendance and participation in education are important for students to obtain the experiences necessary to develop their knowledge. However, there are some students who experience challenges hindering their access and participation in Higher Education. To support students, Universities utilise E-Learning. One of the many E-Learning tools is the use of virtual worlds in the form of cyber campuses. This paper investigates the extent to which cyber campuses can help to mitigate barriers and support students experiencing them. A prototype has been developed and a series of empirical studies have been performed. The results of this research suggest that a cyber campus environment can be used as an alternative learning support tool that can enhance online learning experiences, and help to mitigate some of the barriers that hinder access and participation to education. The associated limitations of this research and the future work planned out are also presented

E-learning challenges faced by academics in higher education

E-learning has become a necessity in higher education institutions and is being deployed in educational establishments throughout the world. Researchers have made much emphasis on its benefits but not much is discussed on the disadvantages of e-learning technology. This paper references some of the research work on the limitations of e-learning technology, categorises it in five challenges that teachers are faced with and suggestions for a successful e-learning outcome. This paper also discusses the use of e-learning technology in Middlesex University and some of the challenges they face. Lastly this paper identifies gaps in e-learning literature and calls for further works on this subject