The Development of E-Book Learning Media Based PBL

: Revolution 4.0 requires college students to be able to have skills in solving problems. The rapid development of technology and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic require the learning process is done online. This is certainly very different from the face-to-face learning process before the pandemic era. The object of this research is Learning Planning e-book based PBL. E-book developed using the Kvisoft Flipbook Maker application. Students' perceptions of the developed e-book learning media with Kvisoft Flipbook Maker application based PBL on Learning Planning course is included in the very good category with an average score of 4.34. While, regarding the effectiveness of the e-book learning media developed with the PBL-based Kvisoft Flipbook Maker application in the Lesson Planning course, there is an increase after using the e-book learning media compared with before using the e-book. After using the e-book learning media obtained a total of 2690 with an average 84.06 on the very good criteria but before using the e-book obtained a total of 1850 with an average of 57.81 being in the deficient criteria.

Developing an Effective Employee Performance Appraisal System

This study focuses on developing an effective employee performance appraisal system and employees’ perception of justice with the appraisal outcome. The study tries to identify the various techniques used in the appraisal process, the error(s) associated with each technique, all known metrics of performance measurement, and best ways of capturing appraisal data. This study is imperative in view of the fact that most existing appraisal system limit staff performance to competence only. The current system uses generic ratings for all workers irrespective of their job roles and do not employ biometrics in the appraisal process. Leveraging on the potentials of information and communications technology (ICT) helps to harmonize all issues embedded in the current appraisal system. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources in order to elicit information from stakeholders. Some hypotheses were adopted. Questionnaires were also used to help in data collection from both stake holders and workers in general. Hypothesises were tested using chi-square with degree of freedom (d.f.) = (n-1) = 4 and level of significance (α) is 0.05. Pie chart was also use in the analysis. Results show that there is a high level of perception of injustice with the present appraisal system by stakeholders. Result also shows that existing appraisal systems limits workers performance to competence only. It was revealed that an effective appraisal system should be technology-driven. Technology-driven employee performance appraisal system utilizes all known matrices of performance measurement in the appraisal process. This approach to workers appraisal would bring about transparency and efficiency in the system. It would also bring about wide participation in the appraisal process. Furthermore, it would create room for increased productivity, proper monitoring of workers performance and increased workers satisfaction.

Research on Endpoint Detection Algorithm in High Altitude Explosion Point Location Technology

Aiming at the problem of inadequate positioning accuracy of sound endpoints by the dual-element single-threshold endpoint detection algorithm and the single-element dual-threshold endpoint detection algorithm in the process of locating the sound source of weather modification bombs at high altitudes during artificial weather modification, a multi-element dual threshold endpoint detection algorithm. First, according to the characteristics of high-altitude explosion of weather modification bombs and ground reception, the sound signal is filtered and denoised, divided into frames, and windowed. Then, the time-domain feature short-term energy, short-term zero-crossing rate and frequency domain feature short-term information entropy of each frame of the sound signal are calculated, and double thresholds are set for detection. In this way, the start and end points of the explosion sound in the collected sound signal are found, and the data is imported into the positioning algorithm for processing, and then the explosion point of the weather modification bombs in the high air is located. The test results show that the method can accurately distinguish the end point of effective explosion sound, and has practical application value for the location of the sound source of the high-altitude explosion point of the weather modification bombs.

ThamRobot: An Automated Robotic System to Play Thammattama

Sri Lanka has a precious traditional drum music culture that is mainly based on traditional drums. At present, this drum culture is in decline due to a lack of talented drum players. As a result, many Buddhist temples are facing a serious and tragic problem. This article presents the design and implementation of a robotic system named ThamRobot contains two robotic arms that were designed to play pre-programmed three drum tunes of the Thammattama correctly and efficiently like a drum player without any intervention of a human. In the research, nine major characteristics factors of the Thammattama such as music notes, drum locations, approximate stress, frequencies, pitch, drum type, number of sticks, playing technique, distance from stick to drum face were identified. The entire system is comprised of four main modules named motion module, user-operation module, processing module, power supply module. Finally, the system has been tested in a laboratory environment and encouraging results were obtained.

Tech Trends of COVID-19 Pandemic

With the current outbreak of the novel coronavirus called several acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) was first selected in Wuhan (Hubei, China) in December 2019. This disease has spread to almost all the countries in the world with hundreds of thousands of deaths. This study aims to review the tech trends topping the chart in the COVID-19 pandemic. It intends to highlight the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and how it has improved the quality of human lives by increasing business operations, economic and social activities in the world.

Design of Blockchain Based Smart Contract for Tendering

Information technology is the backbone for all 21st century organizations that are looking forward to offer better customer service and gain competitive advantage. Today, blockchain technology is being adopted by a number of organizations such as financial services, healthcare, agriculture and even government. . However, the tendering sector have not been able to take advantage of the new blockchain technology, owing to the absence of blockchain based frameworks and a model for secure tendering. This study focuses on block-chain with its BYOE (Bring Your Own Encryption) concept in the procurement sector. The research comes up with a design of a blockchain based smart contract model for organizations in Kenya following ASD approach. In addition a discussion of challenges and opportunities of Blockchain based tendering is also presented.

Optimization of Shortest Path Problem using Dijkstra’s Algorithm in Imprecise Environment

Dijkstra algorithm is a widely used algorithm to find the shortest path between two specified nodes in a network problem. In this paper, a generalized fuzzy Dijkstra algorithm is proposed to find the shortest path using a new parameterized defuzzification method. Here, we address most important issue like the decision maker’s choice. A numerical example is used to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

Technical and Vocational Education (TVE): Role in Individual and National Growth

This paper focuses on understanding the role of Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) in individual development by gaining better employment and higher earnings. It further explores the relationship between Technical & Vocational Education and the growth of national economy. Technical and Vocational Education is the form of education that consists of training all necessary skills required for profitable employment as well as acquisition of basic educational foundation. TVE enables the individual to gain all necessary skills and competencies for employability which affect the national growth and development

A Study on the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic in African Universities

This paper presents a study on how University students, lecturers, administrators and managers perceive the impacts of the of COVID-19 crisis on various aspects of University teaching and learning in Africa, and particularly in Kenya. The sudden closure of campuses as a preventive measure to community transmission shifted face-to-face classes to virtual learning modes. With a sample of 1,236 University students and staff from 18 universities in Kenya and Nigeria, the study reveals that amid the worldwide lockdown and transition to online learning, expectation by 44% of the students were met. Students were mainly concerned about issues to do with internet connectivity, computing devices and electrical power. In addition, utilising e-Learning tools and platforms for effective student engagement posed limitations of accessibility and affordability for many students. The teaching staff on the other hand were mainly concerned with access to the teaching resources, conducting online teaching, capacity to handle the online mode of teaching, devices and eContent development. The pandemic has exposed the shortcomings of the current higher education system and the need for enhanced policy formulation and implementation on digital infrastructure to adapt to the rapidly changing education ecosystem of the world. In the post-pandemic situation, the use of eLearning and virtual education may become an integral part of the higher education system. Key factors influencing students’ satisfaction with the role of their University are also identified as internet access, quality of e-content and e-content development. Policymakers, stakeholders and higher education institutions in Africa may benefit from these findings while formulating policy recommendations and strategies to support University teaching and learning during this and any future pandemics. Universities need to plan the post-pandemic education and research strategies to ensure student learning outcomes and standards of educational quality.

The Role of Machine Learning and Data Mining Techniques in Predicting Students’ Academic Performance

The advancement in Information Technology makes it easier and cheaper to collect large amounts of data, but if this data is not further analyzed, it remains only huge amounts of data. These large amounts of data set have motivated research and development in various fields to extract meaningful information with a view of analyzing it to solve complex problem. With new methods and techniques, data can be analyze and be of great advantage. Data mining and machine learning are two computing disciplines that enable analysis of large data sets using different techniques. This paper gave an overview of several applications using these disciplines in education, with focus on student’s academic performance prediction. Early prediction of students’ performance is useful in taking early action of improving learning outcome. The perfect methods for this are machine learning and data mining. This paper also discusses special use of data mining in education, called educational data mining. Educational Data Mining (EDM) uses different methods and techniques from machine learning, statistics, data mining and data analysis, to analyze data collected during teaching and learning. The goal of this paper is to introduce the role of machine learning and data mining in predicting student’s academic performance and to present its applications and benefits