Evaluating the university professor’s performance in distance education in light of the Corona pandemic

The study aims to identify the difficulties of teaching-learning performance facing teachers, whether in terms of performance or reception by students in light of the Corona pandemic and quarantine. The study relied on the descriptive approach to evaluate the teaching-learning performance with the application of a questionnaire for teachers and another for students. The results revealed several difficulties facing the professor and the student alike, whether in terms of controlling the skills and techniques of distance education and its technological means, or regarding the organization of lessons and pedagogical activities.

Facilitators and barriers to compliance with COVID-19 guidelines: a structural topic modelling analysis of free-text data from 17,500 UK adults

Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government implemented a series of guidelines, rules, and restrictions to change citizens’ behaviour to tackle the spread of the virus, such as the promotion of face masks and the imposition of lockdown stay-at-home orders. The success of such measures requires active co-operation on the part of citizens, but compliance was not complete. Detailed research is required on the factors that aided or hindered compliance with these measures. Methods To understand the facilitators and barriers to compliance with COVID-19 guidelines, we used structural topic modelling, a text mining technique, to extract themes from over 26,000 free-text survey responses from 17,500 UK adults, collected between 17 November and 23 December 2020. Results The main factors facilitating compliance were desires to reduce risk to oneself and one’s family and friends and to, a lesser extent, the general public. Also of importance were a desire to return to normality, the availability of activities and technological means to contact family and friends, and the ability to work from home. Identified barriers were difficulties maintaining social distancing in public (due to the actions of other people or environmental constraints), the need to provide or receive support from family and friends, social isolation, missing loved ones, and mental health impacts, perceiving the risks as low, social pressure to not comply, and difficulties understanding and keep abreast of changing rules. Several of the barriers and facilitators raised were related to participant characteristics. Notably, women were more likely to discuss needing to provide or receive mental health support from friends and family. Conclusion The results demonstrated an array of factors contributed to compliance with guidelines. Of particular policy importance, the results suggest that government communication that emphasizes the potential risks of the virus and provides simple, consistent guidance on how to reduce the spread of the virus would improve compliance with preventive behaviours as COVID-19 continues and for future pandemics.

Accurate Digital Marketing Communication Based on Intelligent Data Analysis

In digital marketing, the core advantages of scientific and technological means such as artificial intelligence and big data analysis gradually appear and pay attention to them. This paper studies the accuracy of digital marketing and proposes an intelligent algorithm based on data analysis, which improves the effect of marketing communication. Through the combination of intelligent algorithms and big data analysis, the data are convincing. Through the comparison and improvement of intelligent algorithm logistic regression and XGBoost, this paper puts forward an improved algorithm of XGBoost based on Bayesian optimization parameters, which can improve the efficiency of digital marketing communication and enhance the social influence of digital marketing.

Invisible or Powerful? Ageing in a Mediatised Society

In order to live your rights and achieve your goals, you need to be informed, have a voice and be listened to, and have the opportunity to engage in society, regardless of age. Freedom of expression and freedom of information are core human rights values that connect the concept of capability with the role of the media in society. The media can be a tool for enhancing a person’s capabilities, but it can also be seen as hindering a good life if technology and its applications are perceived as awkward and/or difficult to access.At a structural level, a wider discussion of media responsibility has the potential to contribute to enhancing people’s capabilities in later life. One critical issue is who should be held accountable and responsible for media content that lacks diverse stories about older people and their voices, possibly reinforcing ageism. Furthermore, where the responsibility lies for ensuring that older people have the technological means to act as digital citizens is somewhat unclear. In an increasingly mediatised environment, we might see a stronger relationship between media literacy, health and ageing, which in turn could emphasise the importance of the role of the media in enhancing capabilities.

Experiences From an Introductory Statistics Course Based on an Applet-Based Technology

After the unexpected spread of the global pandemic, all the universities around the world have implemented online learning procedures. This necessity forced the mathematics and statistics instructors to use more technological means than ever. The method used in this chapter involves an intense use of applet-based education tools for a two-course sequence of introductory statistics. Forty-five applets were used during the courses. At the end of the semester for each course, a short questionnaire was given to the students to evaluate the method applied. The feedback from the students about the applet-based instruction was largely positive. Possible future works are suggested in the conclusion.

As Principais Dificuldades enfrentadas por Professores durante a Pandemia para Avaliação dos Estudantes dos Anos Iniciais na Escola Municipal Dr. Severino Alves de Sá / The Main Difficulties Faced by Teachers during the Pandemic for the Evaluation of Students in the Early Years at the Dr. Severino Alves de Sá Municipal School

A avaliação é algo recorrente na rotina das instituições de ensino, sendo uma ferramenta de grande importância para diagnótiscos e desenvolvimento dos alunos e ela sempre será questionada e discutida, na tentativa de buscar a melhor forma. Por ser de grande importância, o tema foi amplamente estudado para o embasamento teórico da pesquisa. Sendo assim, a pesquisa tem caráter bibliográfico e também de metodologia empírica, pois a coleta de dados aconteceu com 10 profissionais da escola campo de estágio, Escola Municipal Doutor Severino Alves de Sá, na cidade de Salgueiro-PE, através de um questionário, contendo 10 perguntas. O estudo tem natureza quantitativa e qualitativa. O questionário foi idealizado para conhecer as dificuldades e as perspectivas das docentes dos anos iniciais e os resultados foram transformados em percentual para uma melhor análise dos dados. Um dos dados obtidos com o questionário é que 90% dos professores sentem dificuldades de avaliar o aluno de forma remota e outro dado alarmante é que na escola campo, devido a pandemia, os alunos regrediram no processo de aprendizagem, devido a ausência de responsáveis para o acompanhamento, a carência de acesso a meios tecnológicos, e a ausência do contato entre professor e aluno. Percebe-se que para atingir resultados positivos com os alunos, a escola necessita de uma maior participação dos pais na vida escolar de seus filhos.---Assessment is something recurrent in the routine of educational institutions, being a very important tool for diagnosis and student development, and it will always be questioned and discussed, in an attempt to find the best way. Because it is of great importance, the topic has been extensively studied for the theoretical basis of the research. Thus, the research has a bibliographic character and also an empirical methodology, as the data collection took place with 10 professionals from the internship field school, Doutor Severino Alves de Sá Municipal School, in the city of Salgueiro-PE, through a questionnaire containing 10 questions. The study is quantitative and qualitative in nature. The questionnaire was designed to understand the difficulties and perspectives of teachers in the early years and the results were transformed into percentages for a better data analysis. One of the data obtained from the questionnaire is that 90% of teachers have difficulties in evaluating the student remotely and another alarming fact is that in the field school, due to the pandemic, students regressed in the learning process, due to the absence of guardians for monitoring, lack of access to technological means, and lack of contact between teacher and student. It is noticed that to achieve positive results with students, the school needs greater participation by parents in their children's school life

Preliminary layout of the main technological equipment of a self-propelled machine with a rod mechanism for installing and fixing the end tower for a mobile ropeway

Mobile ropeways for carrying out transport operations, formed with the help of terminal transport units connected by a single cable system on the basis of self-propelled wheeled or tracked chassis of increased carrying capacity and cross-country ability, are a promising type of lifting and transport equipment that ensures the rapid deployment of the necessary technological means. The article discusses the issues of preliminary arrangement of the rod mechanism for installation and fixation in the working position of the end tower using a folding rod consisting of two articulated links for a constructive variant of the outrigger placement of the tower on a rotary platform. The design and principle of operation of the rod mechanism is considered. A mathematical model has been developed that provides the required normative vertical dimension of a self-propelled vehicle for the purpose of its safe independent movement to the deployment site on general-purpose highways. The analysis of the influence of normative dimensional requirements, the structural dimensions of the bearing frame of the chassis and the height of the end tower on the main structural dimensions of the articulated folding rod in the transport position is carried out.

Openness and privacy in born-digital archives: reflecting the role of AI development

Galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs) are striving to retain audience attention to issues related to cultural heritage, by implementing various novel opportunities for audience engagement through technological means online. Although born-digital assets for cultural heritage may have inundated the Internet in some areas, most of the time they are stored in “digital warehouses,” and the questions of the digital ecosystem’s sustainability, meaningful public participation and creative reuse of data still remain. Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), are used to bring born-digital archives to light, aiming to enhance the public’s engagement and participation. At the core of this debate lies both the openness of data and issues of privacy. How open to the public should born-digital archives be? Should everything be open and available online, and what does it take to achieve balance between openness and privacy, especially through AI initiatives? The study is qualitative and builds on the rationale of grounded theory. The role of AI development is critically investigated in relation to opening up born-digital archives online, by considering privacy and ethics issues. Grounded in the context of the author’s PhD research, the paper proposes a human-centred approach to AI development for democratising its development towards fairness and social inclusion, contrary to the stereotypical cliché of blackboxing, allowing space for the plurality of born-digital archives to flourish.

ACCOUNTING ASPECTS OF CRYPTOCURRENCY OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

The information technology development results in the origin of new types of cryptocurrency. Main advantages of the cryptocurrency use are decentralization and freedom of transactions. Cryptocurrency acts worldwide as the inexpensive technological means of payment as well as special form of investment. Nowadays, there is no shared idea as for the interpretation of the “cryptocurrency” concept. On the one hand, it is considered as the “virtual currency” and called both a special payment network and a new type of monetary means. On the other hand, it is called a “digital asset”, which can be exchanged for other assets. Cryptocurrency is characterized by a free market rate formed on the demand-supply basis.

Infrastructure and Teaching: University Students' Impressions on Completion of Their Internship in Greek Public Schools

This paper focuses on exploring the perceptions expressed by students at the University of Ioannina, Greece, after the completion of their graduate education practice in State Secondary schools in the city of Ioannina. More specifically, it provides insight into the impact the school logistics infrastructure had on the teaching process and its valorization by the educators. The results of the research demonstrate that, except for the Model Experimental Schools, the State Secondary Schools are lacking not only in necessary technological equipment but also in special teaching classrooms, which, in turn, entails the teachers’ inability to valorize technological means and upgrade the teaching process applying student-centered, experiential didactic techniques.