Software Tools Used in Math Refresher Courses at the University of Alcalá, Spain

2012 ◽  
pp. 327-349
Author(s):  
J.G. Alcázar ◽  
M. Marvá ◽  
D. Orden ◽  
F. San Segundo

We describe our experience of using the following mathematical tools: an e-learning platform (Moodle), several components of the WIRIS software suite for mathematics education (the formula editor, WIRIS CAS, and WIRIS-Quizzes), the dynamical geometry package GeoGebra, the computational knowledge engine Wolfram Alpha, and the mathematics software system SAGE. Our aim in this chapter is two-fold: on the one hand, we report the use of these tools in Math refresher courses. On the other, we provide sufficient information about them for readers to decide on the usefulness of these tools in their own particular context (maybe different from that of a refresher course). More specifically, for each tool we give a general description, some comments on its use in Math refresher courses, and a list of (general) advantages and drawbacks.

Author(s):  
Alessandra Pettinelli ◽  
Chiara Sola ◽  
Monique Cintra ◽  
Luca Avellini

The A1 online Italian course offered by the CLA (University Linguistic Centre) of the University of Perugia, is one of the results achieved during various research projects, which has contributed, on the one hand, to the internationalization of the Institution, on the other, to the enhancement of digital technologies providing future university mobility students with the opportunity to acquire linguistic-cultural knowledge, even before the beginning of their mobility exchange programme in Italy. The experience reported in this article reflects on an evolving work, describing its design phase – course structure, selection and creation of linguistic and didactic materials, tools available in the Moodle open-source learning platform – and its subsequent phases of course activation and verification. Throughout the entire project, we focused on two fundamental aspects: inspiring and maintaining student motivation in addition to constructing an assisted, and above all, interactive self-learning path.


1878 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 633-671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Macfarlane

The experiments to which I shall refer were carried out in the physical laboratory of the University during the late summer session. I was ably assisted in conducting the experiments by three students of the laboratory,—Messrs H. A. Salvesen, G. M. Connor, and D. E. Stewart. The method which was used of measuring the difference of potential required to produce a disruptive discharge of electricity under given conditions, is that described in a paper communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1876 in the names of Mr J. A. Paton, M. A., and myself, and was suggested to me by Professor Tait as a means of attacking the experimental problems mentioned below.The above sketch which I took of the apparatus in situ may facilitate tha description of the method. The receiver of an air-pump, having a rod capable of being moved air-tight up and down through the neck, was attached to one of the conductors of a Holtz machine in such a manner that the conductor of the machine and the rod formed one conducting system. Projecting from the bottom of the receiver was a short metallic rod, forming one conductor with the metallic parts of the air-pump, and by means of a chain with the uninsulated conductor of the Holtz machine. Brass balls and discs of various sizes were made to order, capable of being screwed on to the ends of the rods. On the table, and at a distance of about six feet from the receiver, was a stand supporting two insulated brass balls, the one fixed, the other having one degree of freedom, viz., of moving in a straight line in the plane of the table. The fixed insulated ball A was made one conductor with the insulated conductor of the Holtz and the rod of the receiver, by means of a copper wire insulated with gutta percha, having one end stuck firmly into a hole in the collar of the receiver, and having the other fitted in between the glass stem and the hollow in the ball, by which it fitted on to the stem tightly. A thin wire similarly fitted in between the ball B and its insulating stem connected the ball with the insulated half ring of a divided ring reflecting electrometer.


2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-47
Author(s):  
Claire Warden

The multi-spatial landscape of the North-West of England (Manchester–Salford and the surrounding area) provides the setting for Walter Greenwood's 1934 play Love on the Dole. Both the urban industrialized cityscape and the rural countryside that surrounds it are vital framing devices for the narrative – these spaces not simply acting as backdrops but taking on character roles. In this article Claire Warden reads the play's presentation of the North through the concept of landscape theatre, on the one hand, and Raymond Williams's city–country dialogism on the other, claiming that Love on the Dole is imbued with the revolutionary possibility that defines the very landscape in which it is set. From claustrophobic working-class kitchen to the open fields of Derbyshire, Love on the Dole has a sense of spatial ambition in which Greenwood regards all landscapes as tainted by the industrial world while maintaining their capacity to function independently. Ugliness and beauty, capitalist hegemony and socialistic hopefulness reside simultaneously in this important under-researched example of twentieth-century British theatre, thereby reflecting the ambivalent, shifting landscape of the North and producing a play that cannot be easily defined artistically or politically. Claire Warden is a Lecturer in Drama at the University of Lincoln. Her work focuses on peripheral British performances in the early to mid-twentieth century. She is the author of British Avant-Garde Theatre (Palgrave MacMillan, 2012) and is currently writing Modernist and Avant-Garde Performance: an Introduction for Edinburgh University Press, to be published in 2014.


Finisterra ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (72) ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Pinto Correia ◽  
António Cancela Abreu ◽  
Rosário Oliveira

IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERISATION OF LANDSCAPE IN PORTUGAL –This paper presents the concepts and methodology used in the study «Identification and characterisation of landscape in continental Portugal» undertaken by theDepartment of Landscape and Biophysical Planning of the University of Evora for the General Directorate for Spatial Planning and Urban Development (DGOT-DU) at the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, between 1999 and 2001. On the one hand, the methodological approach developed is based on the methodologies used recently for the same purpose in different European countries and on the way landscape has been considered in various European documents in the last years. On the other hand, it is also based on the team’s concern to approach the landscape as an holistic entity, and to examine its various components: ecological, cultural, socio-economic and sensorial. The set aim has been to define landscape units and to characterize these units in relation to the present landscape and the recorded trends, related problems and possibilities. Thus, the cartography relative to selected variables has been combined and related to satellite images and field surveys. The results of cross-referencing all this information has than been combined with expert examination of landscape coherence and character within each unit. The assessment was completed after careful bibliographic research and consultation with regional experts. The result is a flexible approach that combines objective analysis with a more subjective assessment, which the team considered fundamental for a true understanding of landscape.


THE BULLETIN ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (390) ◽  
pp. 44-49
Author(s):  
R. Aetdinova ◽  
I. Maslova ◽  
Sh. Niyazbekova ◽  
O. Balabanova ◽  
Zh. Zhakiyanova ◽  
...  

The article justifies for the need to identify and to keep track, in practice, of different groups of risks inherent in educational institutions under current conditions of pandemic and post-pandemic transformation of education under the influence of modern world uncertainty. Transformation of education functions in the epoch of digital economy changes the content and types of risks concomitant to the activities carried out by schools. Schools belong to the most conservative types of organizations. However, the environment in which schools operate is constantly changing. An educational institution, as any enterprise, has to engage in the activity aimed at risk management. Manifestation of the risk is, on the one hand, fraught with threats and damage, on the other hand, with opportunities. Assessment of possible threats and risks allows timely projection of undesirable results, creation of a system for situational response to unforeseen circumstances and, in the final analysis, formulation of a strategy for development of the university which would allow achievement of modern high quality education, its fundamentality and conformity to important topical requirements of the personality, society and state. Causes of developing risks characteristic of educational institutions are disclosed. External and internal risks characteristic of educational institutions, sources generating them and the importance of managing them are analyzed. The analysis of risks made reveals multi-varied threats and opportunities in the external and internal envi-ronment of the institution and their ability to have a significant effect on educational, organizational and financial activities of the schools.


Author(s):  
Lien Cam

Many colleges and universities in Vietnam have employed e-learning platforms in teaching English with the hope to better students’ English proficiency. Recently, e-learning programs such as DNTU-LMS and Canvas have been implemented at Dong Nai Technology University. With their features of flexibility and efficiency, they have been being used as crucial tools for teaching and learning in various faculties in the university especially during the widespread of Covid-19 pandemic. The present study aimed at identifying the views of the EFL learners from Faculty of Foreign Languages on the application of e-learning platform. A group of 100 EFL students was chosen randomly to participate in this study. Data was collected using questionnaire. After analyzing student’s responses, the results proved that the introduction of e-learning was effective. E-learning also stimulates students to learn English and brings them comfort and joy.


Author(s):  
Stephan F. De Beer

This article reflects on the unfinished task of liberation – as expressed in issues of land – and drawing from the work of Franz Fanon and the Durban-based social movement Abahlali baseMjondolo. It locates its reflections in four specific sites of struggle in the City of Tshwane, and against the backdrop of the mission statement of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria, as well as the Capital Cities Research Project based in the same university. Reflecting on the ‘living death’ of millions of landless people on the one hand, and the privatisation of liberation on the other, it argues that a liberating praxis of engagement remains a necessity in order to break the violent silences that perpetuate exclusion.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Freytag

This work undertakes a systematic reconstruction of the debates that took place over the course of several decades up to the beginning of the 21st century between Derrida on the one hand and Searle and Habermas on the other. It shows that the linguistic theories and the theories of communicative understanding developed by Searle and Habermas are based on inferences from the contingent individual case to the general. Searle draws ontological, Habermas anthropo-political conclusions, both with essentially naturalistic signatures. Derrida, on the other hand, raises epistemological objections and consequently develops a metaphysics of free subjects for whom conversation cannot necessarlily be presumed. The explicit dedication to ethics in Derrida's late work is due to his insight that the possibility of language and understanding is due to silence. Derrida's lasting merit lies in enriching the philosophy of language with a secretology. This study has been awarded the Kant Prize of the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Bonn and the "Prix de la République Française", awarded by the French Embassy and the University of Bonn.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-194
Author(s):  
Grażyna Rembielak ◽  
Renata Marciniak

Abstract The quality of online education is of interest to universities around the world. Only high quality and cyclical evaluation are the conditions for obtaining students’ satisfaction with this form of education. In the pandemic era, digital dissemination and open education have become a special obligation of academic education. This paper aims to present the opinions of postgraduate students on the quality of e-learning forced by the Covid-19 pandemic. The study was conducted using an online survey questionnaire sent to all 173 MBA and Executive MBA (EMBA) students studying during the pandemic era in Poland's leading Business School, 40% of whom returned completed valid surveys. Students assessed aspects of e-learning such as teaching materials, communication with lecturers, the attractiveness of online classes, networking, strategies, and criteria for evaluating didactic activities, e-learning platform, and support received from the university. The results showed that although most examined aspects are perceived very well or well by the students, there is always some space for improvement. Despite the fact that the study was conducted on a small sample of students, their opinions obtained during the survey provide valuable information to universities about the quality of postgraduate e-learning from its main actors, that is, students. Based on this, the paper presents clear recommendations to universities on how the quality of online education could be managed and improved.


2012 ◽  
pp. 1779-1798
Author(s):  
Dumitru Dan Burdescu ◽  
Marian Cristian Mihaescu

Self-assessment is one of the crucial activities within e-learning environments that provide learners with feedback regarding their level of accumulated knowledge. From this point of view, the authors think that guidance of learners in self-assessment activity must be an important goal of e-learning environment developers. The scope of the chapter is to present a recommender software system that runs along the e-learning platform. The recommender software system improves the effectiveness of self-assessment activities. The activities performed by learners represent the input data and the machine learning algorithms are used within the business logic of the recommender software system that runs along the e-learning platform. The output of the recommender software system is represented by advice given to learners in order to improve the effectiveness of self-assessment process. The methodology for obtaining improvement of self-assessment is based on embedding knowledge management into the business logic of the e-learning platform. Naive Bayes Classifier is used as machine learning algorithm for obtaining the resources (e.g., questions, chapters, and concepts) that need to be further accessed by learners. The analysis is accomplished for disciplines that are well structured according to a concept map. The input data set for the recommender software system is represented by student activities that are monitored within Tesys e-learning platform. This platform has been designed and implemented within Multimedia Applications Development Research Center at Software Engineering Department, University of Craiova. Monitoring student activities is accomplished through various techniques like creating log files or adding records into a table from a database. The logging facilities are embedded in the business logic of the e-learning platform. The e-learning platform is based on a software development framework that uses only open source software. The software architecture of the e-learning platform is based on MVC (model-view-controller) model that ensures the independence between the model (represented by MySQL database), the controller (represented by the business logic of the platform implemented in Java) and the view (represented by WebMacro which is a 100% Java open-source template language).


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