3.11 Accessible content and alternatives
It is part of a teaching professional’s skills to understand the needs of a diverse population of students. This unit introduces the challenges for disabled students who may use computers in different ways when taking part in eLearning or may need alternative teaching methods. It covers the technology and techniques used by disabled students, the adjustments to teaching methods that might be reasonable, design decisions which affect the accessibility of eLearning tools and strategies for evalu
Telamon project
The Telamon Project is hosted by the department of Classics at St Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia and aims to create an online digital library of the ancient Greek inscriptions found in Bulgaria. In total there are over 3,500 such inscriptions, dating from the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD. Geographically the particular focus is on Roman Thrace, Philippopolis and Augusta Traiana. At the time of compiling this review only a very small proportion of the inscriptions was available on th
Digital Camera for Elementary School Teachers
Digital Camera for Elementary School Teachers
Social Values and Health Reform: Canada and the United States
Uwe Reinhardt, the James Madison Professor of Political Economy and Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School
African entrepreneurs must pressure governments to regulate business environments
Although many African companies will be hit by the current global slowdown, there is a lot that local entrepreneurs and their governments can do to improve their business environments, says Arthur Levi, former head of the World Bank’s private sector arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC) Europe.
Building global brands in Asia
Look closely at the top 100 Global Brands, according to Interbrand and BusinessWeek, and you’ll see many European and North American favorites that have given great products or services over many years. What you won’t see on that list are many Asian firms, apart from some notable companies in Japan and South Korea.
Why, in a burgeoning region that’s brand-crazy, have very few homegrown favorites earned world-class recognition? What will it take for Asian companies to rise to
Five Questions: What's New with Net Neutrality and India's Mobile Markets?
Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski in late September outlined principles of net neutrality to promote more open use of the Internet. What will these developments mean for business in the U.S. and other parts of the world? In a new interview format called Five Questions, Rajesh Jain, CEO of India-based Netcore, asks Wharton legal studies and business ethics professor Kevin Werbach about net neutrality. In the second part of the interview, roles are reversed and Werbach
Crisis in Haiti: Where Do We Go from Here?
The earthquake that rocked Haiti last week has caused unimaginable death and destruction, a reminder that catastrophes are usually unforeseeable and therefore almost impossible to prepare for. Can any country or region of the world, rich or poor, take meaningful steps to avoid the destruction caused by catastrophes ranging from earthquakes and hurricanes to terrorist attacks and pandemics? Knowledge@Wharton asked professors Howard Kunreuther and Michael Useem, authors of a new book titled, Learn
Crisis, Contagion and Bailouts: What's Next for the European Union?
In the run-up to this week's announcement of the European Union's $960 billion stabilization plan, Wharton management professors Mauro Guillén and Saikat Chaudhuri, and Jean Salmona, founder and chairman of the editorial board of ParisTech Review, participated in an interview with Knowledge@Wharton on likely outcomes from the financial crisis facing Greece, some of its sister countries and the European Monetary Union more generally. How did events spin so out of control? How will the politics o
Web Based Catalogue of Online Experiments
A knowledge base of online experiments was built. It is a kind of catalogue describing online experiments used for educational purposes. Metadata for describing this special kind of learning resources and analysis of experiments available in the catalogue (both virtual and remote) are presented in this paper. Examples of online lab experiments and exercises are developed by different European universities are also described.,Research report of the ProLearn Network of Excellence (IST 507310), Del
Assessing the Outcomes of a Cross-Country Virtual Action Learning Programme for SME Development
In this paper the authors present an evaluation of a virtual action learning project out in 6 different countries so as to better inform those involved in SME manager development as well as researchers seeking to develop greater insights into the process of action learning and its outcomes. The project was set up with EU funding as a test of the principles of action learning in a virtual environment. An evaluationled approach was utilised. On the basis of this pilot, areas for further research a
Should Students Use Their Private Laptop Computers for Study Purposes?
Project and Problem Based Learning has become a standard method of teaching at Technikum Wien. In the course of Computer Science students used their own Laptop Computers for all lessons. If students could not afford a laptop, one was provided by the department. The over all results of this experiment have been very promising. It was possible to reduce the total costs of teaching, mainly because less support for the student laptops was needed. Even more important, most teaching obstacles previous
Intelligent Computer Teacher in E-Learning Systems
Intelligent computer teacher and appropriate simulated learning environment were elaborated ensuring high quality individualization of learning process. Individualization of learning process is realized in two ways. Learners can use node points structure for selection of their own learning path ensuring individualization of learning process. Intelligent computer teacher ( by the use of artificial intelligence means) can adapt to learners knowledge and abilities ensuring also individualization of
Using Web-Based Course to Enhance Educational Process at Jordan Universities – A Case Study
This paper shows that the use of web-based instruction in IT undergraduate distancelearning program is one vivid demonstration of the potential of using technology in instruction. The paper also shows that using web-based course strongly contributed to the effectiveness of distance learning by improving the quality of students' comprehension in areas of critical thinking, problem solving, decision-making ability, aptitude for detail, written communication, knowledge of information, and ability t
Interactive computer aided learning in social science education: strategies, scenarios, tools, and e
This paper presents the e-learning project “Strategies for Networked Learning” at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Vienna, its structure, objectives and technological infrastructure. Furthermore, it discusses a blended learning case study and the selected results of an evaluation of blended learning courses conducted within the project. As these evaluations indicate, blended learning scenarios need to be very well planned and evaluated by considering the
Pedagogical evaluation of e-learning courses - Adapted pedagogical index
E-learning is becoming an important part of education and it can provide new possibilities for disabled people. Critical evaluation is becoming indispensable, especially in e-learning systems supporting disabled people, as very little has been done in this area. This paper describes the development of adapted pedagogical index (AdaPI), which demonstrates the pedagogical effectiveness of different courses created and adapted for disabled.
Building Bridges within Learning Communities through Ontologies and "Thematic Objects"
Communication through artefacts, in the sense of objects (co-)constructed by learners, is a well known mechanism in synchronous shared workspace environments. In this article, we explore the potential of extending this principle to heterogeneous, anonymous and asynchronous learner communities by drawing on existing work, e.g. in the areas of "social navigation" and recommender systems. A new ingredient is the description and provision of "thematic objects" embedded in a task/activity context. De
Automated Analysis of StudentsÂ’ Free-text Answers for Computer-Assisted Assessment
We present an approach to Computer-Assisted Assessment of free-text material based on symbolic analysis of student input. The theory that underlies this approach arises from previous work on DidaLect, a tutorial system for reading comprehension in French as a Second Language. The theory enables processing of a free-text segment for assessment to operate without precoded reference material. A study based on a small collection of student answers to several types of questions has justified our appr
Bridging the Contextual Distance: The e-CASE Learning Environment for Supporting StudentsÂ’ Context
Supporting studentsÂ’ awareness of the complex way that contextual issues affect knowledge application in authentic situations is a critical instructional mission and can lead to improved problem solving in the workplace. In this work we present the design of e-CASE (Context Awareness Supporting Environment), which is a case based learning environment for supporting instruction in the domain of software development. In designing e-CASE we employ a model for context which further guides the use o
Gridifying IBM's Generic Log Adapter to Speed-Up the Processing of Log Data
Problem determination in today's computing environments consumes between 30 and 70% of an organizationÂ’s IT resources and represents from one third to one half of their total cost of ownership. The first step to cutting down costs in this area and to enable autonomic computing systems is to have all parts of the system report status in a common log data format and semantics in order to be able to exploit the status information of the system as a whole. The Generic Log Adapter (GLA) is a generic
