A blended learning approach in higher education: A case study from surveying education

The development of a blended learning approach to enhance surveying education is discussed in this paper. The need for such learning strategy is first investigated based on a major review of the Surveying course including analysis of its content, benchmarking with key national/international universities, and various surveys to key stake holders and recent graduates. Appropriate blended learning methods and tools that couple learning theoretical principles and developing technical skills are discussed including using learning management systems, flip teaching, collaborative learning, simulation based e-learning, peer- and self-assessment and e-portfolios. Two blended learning tools that have been developed for surveying units are presented as examples. The first is an online interactive virtual simulation tool for levelling, one of the key basic tasks in surveying. The second is an e-assessment digital marking, moderation and feedback module. The e-learning and e-assessment tools have been incorporated for three years into several surveying units at Curtin University. Surveys of students showed that the majority of students found the interactive simulation tool useful and contributes to improving their understanding of the computations. Students also found the digital marking rubric helpful in assisting their understanding of practical task requirements, in improving their performance, and in helping them to focus on the objectives of each activity. The paper concludes with a discussion on developing generic skills through authentic learning in surveying education

Blended learning in higher education: Current and future challenges in surveying education

The development of a blended learning approach to enhance surveying education is discussed. The need for such learning strategy is first investigated based on a major review of the Surveying course including analysis of its content, benchmarking with key national/international universities, and surveys to key stakeholders. Appropriate blended learning methods and tools that couple learning theoretical principles and developing technical skills are discussed including using learning management systems, flip teaching, collaborative learning, simulation based e-learning, and peer-assessment. Two blended-learning tools that have been developed for surveying units are presented as examples. The first is an online interactive virtual simulation tool for levelling, one of the key tasks in surveying. The second is an e-assessment digital marking, moderation and feedback module. Surveys of students showed that they found the interactive simulation tool contributes to improving their understanding of required tasks. Students also found that the developed e-assessment tool helpful in improving their performance and in helping them to focus on the objectives of each activity. In addition, the use of peer e-assessment to improve student learning and as a diagnostic tool for tutors is demonstrated. The paper concludes with a discussion on developing generic skills through authentic learning in surveying education

Emotional Literacy and Pedagogical Confidence in Pre-Service Science and Mathematics Teachers

This report details the findings from initial research seeking to improve the pedagogical confidence of pre-service STEM teachers by encouraging emotional literacy in the form of affect awareness. The report discusses how affect was measured for the study, what the affect outcomes were and how these measures are conceptually related to improving confidence for the pre-service teachers (PSTs). Findings indicate enhanced emotional feedback enabled the PSTs to analyse, understand and make use of affect information to reflect on their teaching confidence overall. Ongoing research will need to address the issue of negative affect awareness in teacher training, and strategies for approaching this issue are provided

Classroom promotion of oral language : Outcomes from a randomized controlled trial of a whole-of-classroom intervention to improve children’s reading achievement

Children need rich language learning experiences in school to build language and reading skills. Research suggests that various effective ways to support teacher provision of these experiences. The Classroom Promotion of Oral Language cluster randomized controlled trial (n = 1,360 students; 687 intervention, 673 control) examined whether a teacher professional learning intervention targeting oral language in the first years of school led to improved student outcomes compared to usual teaching practices. The intervention comprised face-to-face professional learning and ongoing support. The primary outcome was student reading ability at Grade 3; secondary outcomes included oral language, reading, and mental health at Grades 1 and 3. No differences were detected between the intervention and control arms. Implications of results and future directions are explored

Nuclear terrorism and virtual risk: Implications for prediction and the utility of models

Assessing the risk of nuclear terrorism is a challenging task due to the diversity of actors involved, variety of pathways to success, range of defensive measures employed, and the lack of detailed historical record upon which to base a nalysis. Numerical models developed to date vary wildly in both approach and ultimate assessment: estimates of the likelihood a nuclear terrorist attack differ by up to nine orders of magnitude. This paper critiques existing efforts from the standpoint of probability theory, and proposes an alternative perspective on the utility of risk assessment in this area. Nuclear terrorism is argued to be a ‘virtual risk’ for which it is not possible to meaningfully ascribe a quantitative measure, making numerical estimates of the likelihood of nuclear terrorism misleading. Instead, we argue that focus should be placed on utilising models to identify areas of disagreement as targets for further research, with greater emphasis on understanding terrorist decision-making and adaption in response to nuclear security measures

Vector control in a malaria epidemic occurring within a complex emergency situation in Burundi: a case study

BACKGROUND: African highlands often suffer of devastating malaria epidemics, sometimes in conjunction with complex emergencies, making their control even more difficult. In 2000, Burundian highlands experienced a large malaria outbreak at a time of civil unrest, constant insecurity and nutritional emergency. Because of suspected high resistance to the first and second line treatments, the provincial health authority and Médecins Sans Frontières (Belgium) decided to implement vector control activities in an attempt to curtail the epidemic. There are few reported interventions of this type to control malaria epidemics in complex emergency contexts. Here, decisions and actions taken to control this epidemic, their impact and the lessons learned from this experience are reported. CASE DESCRIPTION: Twenty nine hills (administrative areas) were selected in collaboration with the provincial health authorities for the vector control interventions combining indoor residual spraying with deltamethrin and insecticide-treated nets. Impact was evaluated by entomological and parasitological surveys. Almost all houses (99%) were sprayed and nets use varied between 48% and 63%. Anopheles indoor resting density was significantly lower in treated as compared to untreated hills, the latter taken as controls. Despite this impact on the vector, malaria prevalence was not significantly lower in treated hills except for people sleeping under a net. DISCUSSION: Indoor spraying was feasible and resulted in high coverage despite being a logistically complex intervention in the Burundian context (scattered houses and emergency situation). However, it had little impact on the prevalence of malaria infection, possibly because it was implemented after the epidemic's peak. Nevertheless, after this outbreak the Ministry of Health improved the surveillance system, changed its policy with introduction of effective drugs and implementation of vector control to prevent new malaria epidemics. CONCLUSION: In the absence of effective drugs and sufficient preparedness, present study failed to demonstrate any impact of vector control activities upon the course of a short-duration malaria epidemic. However, the experience gained lead to increased preparedness and demonstrated the feasibility of vector control measures in this specific context

The incidence, aetiology and outcome of acute seizures in children admitted to a rural Kenyan district hospital

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Acute seizures are a common cause of paediatric admissions to hospitals in resource poor countries and a risk factor for neurological and cognitive impairment and epilepsy. We determined the incidence, aetiological factors and the immediate outcome of seizures in a rural malaria endemic area in coastal Kenya.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We recruited all children with and without seizures, aged 0–13 years and admitted to Kilifi District hospital over 2 years from 1^stDecember 2004 to 30^thNovember 2006. Only incident admissions from a defined area were included. Patients with epilepsy were excluded. The population denominator, the number of children in the community on 30^thNovember 2005 (study midpoint), was modelled from a census data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Seizures were reported in 900/4,921(18.3%) incident admissions and at least 98 had status epilepticus. The incidence of acute seizures in children 0–13 years was 425 (95%CI 386, 466) per 100,000/year and was 879 (95%CI 795, 968) per 100,000/year in children <5 years. This incidence data may however be an underestimate of the true incidence in the community. Over 80% of the seizures were associated with infections. Neonatal infections (28/43 [65.1%]) and falciparum malaria (476/821 [58.0%]) were the main diseases associated with seizures in neonates and in children six months or older respectively. Falciparum malaria was also the main illness (56/98 [57.1%]) associated with status epilepticus. Other illnesses associated with seizures included pyogenic meningitis, respiratory tract infections and gastroenteritis. Twenty-eight children (3.1%) with seizures died and 11 surviving children (1.3%) had gross neurological deficits on discharge. Status epilepticus, focal seizures, coma, metabolic acidosis, bacteraemia, and pyogenic meningitis were independently associated with mortality; while status epilepticus, hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy and pyogenic meningitis were independently associated with neurological deficits on discharge.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is a high incidence of acute seizures in children living in this malaria endemic area of Kenya. The most important causes are diseases that are preventable with available public health programs.</p

The ABC130 barrel module prototyping programme for the ATLAS strip tracker

For the Phase-II Upgrade of the ATLAS Detector, its Inner Detector, consisting of silicon pixel, silicon strip and transition radiation sub-detectors, will be replaced with an all new 100 % silicon tracker, composed of a pixel tracker at inner radii and a strip tracker at outer radii. The future ATLAS strip tracker will include 11,000 silicon sensor modules in the central region (barrel) and 7,000 modules in the forward region (end-caps), which are foreseen to be constructed over a period of 3.5 years. The construction of each module consists of a series of assembly and quality control steps, which were engineered to be identical for all production sites. In order to develop the tooling and procedures for assembly and testing of these modules, two series of major prototyping programs were conducted: an early program using readout chips designed using a 250 nm fabrication process (ABCN-25) and a subsequent program using a follow-up chip set made using 130 nm processing (ABC130 and HCC130 chips). This second generation of readout chips was used for an extensive prototyping program that produced around 100 barrel-type modules and contributed significantly to the development of the final module layout. This paper gives an overview of the components used in ABC130 barrel modules, their assembly procedure and findings resulting from their tests.Comment: 82 pages, 66 figure