Students' knowledge sharing to improve learning in academic engineering courses

This paper presents an example of scaffolding during the development of an engineering course, in which students are supported by teachers and other students. This proposal covers the benefits of the use of shared knowledge repositories in which content was created by students. Teamwork is the transversal competence that is considered to be the central knowledge topic. The cooperation among students through teamwork methodology has generated more than 500 learning resources and a knowledge management system, BRACO, which has been created with these resources to manage information and conduct searches according to each student''s profile and needs. The generated knowledge spiral is composed of knowledge circles that increase during each iteration of the action-research implementation. The reflection phase of this research consists of the evaluation of the impact on learning for students in the experimental group after using the knowledge resources generated by students in relation with teamwork competence, in contrast with the control group that does not experience this intervention. With regard to the assessments, several surveys and a learning analytics system, this paper explains the underlying methodological foundations and the empirical study. In comparison to the control group, the experimental group obtained better results in relation to indicators of positive learning results, such as studentstudent interaction, teamwork development and final grades during the teamwork process

Health information portals: How can we improve the user\u27s search experience?

Health information portals (HIP) are now common place. Governments and other health agencies are using HIPs extensively to reduce costs and distribute information more effectively. Generally, HIPs are not very technically sophisticated specifically in terms of options for improving searching. There are many ways in which searching and retrieving relevant information can be improved. This paper presents an exploratory study which investigated five HIPs. Each HIP offered a range of features and functionality to assist with searching. Our research explored the features and functionality of each HIP. Through usability evaluations we compared the response of users to each HIP and identified users’ preferences for improved searching. We found that HIPs with improved search functionality and other features that assisted searching were better received by the users. Users regarded these portals as easier to understand, easier to use, required fewer steps in retrieving information and were more likely to say they would return. Comments from users are provided to illustrate further the importance of providing effective functionality. The paper concludes with recommendations for Health Information Portal builders on what is needed to improve the user search experience

mGovernment Services and Adoption: Current Research and Future Direction

Part 5: Research in ProgressInternational audienceWith the unprecedented growth of mobile technologies, governments of both developed and developing countries have started adopting mobile services in the form of m-government. While the vendors and practitioners are heavily engaged in this transformation, the scholarly world is lagging to keep pace with the progress and to provide clear theoretical guidance for successful adoption. This paper takes a stock of scholarly publications on m-government adoption since the year 2000 and reports findings and future directions based on meta-analysis of secondary data. The articles were classified into research themes, delivery mode, theory and methods. The paper identifies the dearth of scholarly work and calls for more in-depth work to make important contribution in this area

Global Impact of Local Educational Innovation

The innovation is carried out according to the demands or needs of an industrial, social or economic sector and is aimed at the widest possible target audience. In teaching educational innovation, the demand for innovation is very local, it is generated in each subject and for the students of it. This causes that educational innovation cannot be easily transferred between subjects. But, to meet the demands of an educational sector, the target audience for which innovation is designed must be global. The objective of this work is to study whether teaching educational innovation can be considered globally (for a global target audience and for a need in the education sector), so that it can be applied and transferred between subjects from different contexts. The information provided, during 8 training courses, by 130 university professors belonging to 12 different universities has been analyzed. It has been shown that for a given need for improvement (passive habit in students), the profile of the target audience, the demand of the learning sector and the indicators to measure educational innovation can be raised in a common way for an entire educational sector; in this case, higher education. The conclusion is that educational innovation can be designed globally, applied locally and transferred to other contexts

The present and future offshore wind resource in the Southwestern African region

In the last decades, offshore wind harvesting has increased enormously, and is seen as a renewable energy resource with great potential in many regions of the world. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how this resource will evolve in a warming climate. In the present study, offshore wind resource in the Southwestern African region is analysed for the present and future climates. A ROM (REMO-OASIS-MPIOM) climate simulation in uncoupled and coupled atmosphere–ocean mode, at 25 km horizontal resolution, and a multi-model ensemble built with a set of regional climate models from the CORDEX-Africa experiment at 0.44° resolution were used. The projected changes of the offshore wind energy density throughout the twenty-first century are examined following the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. Characterised by strong coastal-parallel winds, the Southwestern African offshore region shows high values of wind energy density at 100 m, up to 1500 Wm⁻² near the coast, particularly offshore Namibia and west South Africa. Conversely, along Angola’s coast the available offshore wind energy density is lower. Throughout the twenty-first century, for the weaker climate mitigation scenario (RCP8.5), an increase of the offshore wind resource is projected to occur along Namibia and South African western coasts, more pronounced at the end of the century (+ 24%), while a decrease is projected along Angola’s coasts, reaching a negative anomaly of about − 32%. Smaller changes but with the same pattern are projected for the stronger climate mitigation scenario (RCP4.5). The future deployment of offshore floating hub turbines placed at higher heights may allow higher production of energy in this region. Along offshore Namibia and west South Africa, the wind energy density at 250 m showed differences that range between 30 and 50% relative to wind energy density at 100 m

Designing an information system for updating land records in Bangladesh: action design ethnographic research (ADER)

Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Information Systems (IS) has developed through adapting, generating and applying diverse methodologies, methods, and techniques from reference disciplines. Further, Action Design Research (ADR) has recently developed as a broad research method that focuses on designing and redesigning IT and IS in organizational contexts. This paper reflects on applying ADR in a complex organizational context in a developing country. It shows that ADR requires additional lens for designing IS in such a complex organizational context. Through conducting ADR, it is seen that an ethnographic framework has potential complementarities for understanding complex contexts thereby enhancing the ADR processes. This paper argues that conducting ADR with an ethnographic approach enhances design of IS and organizational contexts. Finally, this paper aims presents a broader methodological framework, Action Design Ethnographic Research (ADER), for designing artefacts as well as IS. This is illustrated through the case of a land records updating service in Bangladesh

Integral equation method for the electromagnetic wave propagation in stratified anisotropic dielectric-magnetic materials

We investigate the propagation of electromagnetic waves in stratified anisotropic dielectric-magnetic materials using the integral equation method (IEM). Based on the superposition principle, we use Hertz vector formulations of radiated fields to study the interaction of wave with matter. We derive in a new way the dispersion relation, Snell's law and reflection/transmission coefficients by self-consistent analyses. Moreover, we find two new forms of the generalized extinction theorem. Applying the IEM, we investigate the wave propagation through a slab and disclose the underlying physics which are further verified by numerical simulations. The results lead to a unified framework of the IEM for the propagation of wave incident either from a medium or vacuum in stratified dielectric-magnetic materials.Comment: 14pages, 3figure

Enhancing nucleation density and adhesion of polycrystalline diamond films deposited by HFCVD using surface treaments on Co cemented tungsten carbide

The deposition of diamond films by chemical vapour deposition onto tungsten carbide is an attractive proposition since it can lead to improvements in the life and performance of cutting tools. However, deposition of diamond onto cemented tungsten carbide (WC-Co) dental burs and inserts are problematic due to the cobalt binder in the WC that provides additional toughness to the tool but it causes poor adhesion and low nucleation density. A number of surface treatments can be used to overcome these problems including chemical etching, ion implanting, interlayer coating and bias treatment. Negative biasing of the substrate is attractive because it can be controlled precisely; it is carried out in-situ, gives good homogeneity and results in improved adhesion. On flat substrates, such as copper and silicon, biasing has been shown to give better adhesion, improved crystallinity and smooth surface. In this study, we have used a modified hot filament chemical vapour deposition (HFCVD) system to coat complex shaped tools such as dental burs with polycrystalline diamond films, which have good adhesion and crystallinity. By applying a negative bias to the substrate, we show that the nucleation density, adhesion and surface properties can be improved. The effects of various process parameters such as bias time, emission current, bias voltage and the filament arrangement on the film properties are reported. For machining applications CVD diamond coatings must be hard, wear resistance and having a good quality film

Northern Hemisphere blocking simulation in current climate models: evaluating progress from the Climate Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 to 6 and sensitivity to resolution

Global climate models (GCMs) are known to suffer from biases in the simulation of atmospheric blocking, and this study provides an assessment of how blocking is represented by the latest generation of GCMs. It is evaluated (i) how historical CMIP6 (Climate Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6) simulations perform compared to CMIP5 simulations and (ii) how horizontal model resolution affects the simulation of blocking in the CMIP6-HighResMIP (PRIMAVERA – PRocess-based climate sIMulation: AdVances in high-resolution modelling and European climate Risk Assessment) model ensemble, which is designed to address this type of question. Two blocking indices are used to evaluate the simulated mean blocking frequency and blocking persistence for the Euro-Atlantic and Pacific regions in winter and summer against the corresponding estimates from atmospheric reanalysis data. There is robust evidence that CMIP6 models simulate blocking frequency and persistence better than CMIP5 models in the Atlantic and Pacific and during winter and summer. This improvement is sizeable so that, for example, winter blocking frequency in the median CMIP5 model in a large Euro-Atlantic domain is underestimated by 33 % using the absolute geopotential height (AGP) blocking index, whereas the same number is 18 % for the median CMIP6 model. As for the sensitivity of simulated blocking to resolution, it is found that the resolution increase, from typically 100 to 20 km grid spacing, in most of the PRIMAVERA models, which are not re-tuned at the higher resolutions, benefits the mean blocking frequency in the Atlantic in winter and summer and in the Pacific in summer. Simulated blocking persistence, however, is not seen to improve with resolution. Our results are consistent with previous studies suggesting that resolution is one of a number of interacting factors necessary for an adequate simulation of blocking in GCMs. The improvements reported in this study hold promise for further reductions in blocking biases as model development continues