Search results for: open and distant learning programme

Authors: Seoi Lee, Dongjoo Chin, Heewon Kim

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Gamification refers to a technique that applies game elements to non-gaming elements, such as education and exercise, to make people more engaged in these behaviors. The purpose of this study was to identify effective elements in gamification for changing human behaviors. In order to accomplish this purpose, a survey based on learning theory was developed, especially for assessing antecedents and consequences of behaviors, and 8 popular and 8 unpopular games were selected for comparison. A total of 407 adult males and females were recruited via crowdsourcing Internet marketplace and completed the survey, which consisted of 19 questions for antecedent and 14 questions for consequences. Results showed no significant differences in consequence questions between popular and unpopular games. For antecedent questions, popular games are superior to unpopular games in character customization, play type selection, a sense of belonging, patch update cycle, and influence or dominance. This study is significant in that it reveals the elements of gamification based on learning theory. Future studies need to empirically validate whether these factors affect behavioral change.

Keywords: gamification, learning theory, antecedent, consequence, behavior change, behaviorism

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Authors: Bernice Badal

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This article addresses a persistent challenge related to teacher agency in knowledge acquisition in professional development (PD) workshops in contexts of educational change, given that scholarship identifies a need for more teacher involvement and amplification of teacher's voices. Theoretical concepts are drawn from Bandura’s Social cognitive theory, incorporating the triadic causation model of agency to examine the reciprocal nature of the context, teacher characteristics, and systemic influences that shape how knowledge is transmitted and acquired in PD workshops. This qualitative study, using a mix of classroom observations and interviews, explored the political, contextual, and personal characteristics of teacher agency in PD through an analysis of data extracted from a PhD study. The narratives of six teachers from three township schools are examined to show how PD efforts in South Africa have failed to take account of the holistic development of teacher agency in knowledge dissemination and how this shapes teacher self-efficacy beliefs about being able to masterfully apply the tenets of the reform. Agency, teacher voice, and contextual considerations were used as markers of the quality of the training provided to understand how knowledge is acquired and meaning is made. The findings suggest that systemic influences of institutionally imposed PD offer partial understandings of the reform, which is offered in traditional formats that do not consider teacher empowerment in knowledge production and the development of teacher agency. Common in all the participants’ responses is the need for more information and training on the prescribed approach for teaching English as a second language; however, this paper holds the view that more information may not solve teachers’ dilemmas. Accordingly, it recommends a restructuring of the programme with facilitators being more cognisant of teacher agency for the development of transformative teachers. The findings of the study contribute to the field of teacher knowledge, teacher training, and professional development in the context of educational reforms.

Keywords: teacher professional development, teacher voice, teacher agency, educational reforms, teacher knowledge

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Authors: Sreekanth Reddy Ballarapu

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The perception of the whole process of teaching and learning is undergoing a drastic and radical change. More and more student-centered, pragmatic, and flexible approaches are gradually replacing teacher-centered lecturing and structural-syllabus instruction. The issue of teaching English as a Foreign language is no exception in this regard. The traditional Present-Practice-Produce (P-P-P) method of teaching English is overtaken by Task-Based Teaching which is a subsidiary branch of Communicative Language Teaching. At this juncture this article strongly tries to convey that - Task-based learning, has an advantage over other traditional methods of teaching. All teachers of English must try to customize their texts into productive tasks, apply them, and evaluate the students as well as themselves. Task Based Learning is a double edged tool which can enhance the performance of both the teacher and the taught. The sample for this case study is a class of 35 students from Semester III - Network branch at TVTC College of Technology, Adhum - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The students are high school passed out and aged between 19-21years.For the present study the prescribed textbook Technical English 1 by David Bonamy was used and a number of language tasks were chalked out during the pre- task stage and the learners were made to participate voluntarily and actively. The Action Research methodology was adopted within the dual framework of Communicative Language Teaching and Task-Based Learning. The different tools such as questionnaires, feedback and interviews were used to collect data. This study provides information about various techniques of Communicative Language Teaching and Task Based Learning and focuses primarily on the advantages of using a Task Based Learning approach. This article presents in detail the objectives of the study, the planning and implementation of the action research, the challenges encountered during the execution of the plan, and the pedagogical outcome of this project. These research findings serve two purposes: first, it evaluates the effectiveness of Task Based Learning and, second, it empowers the teacher's professionalism in designing and implementing the tasks. In the end, the possibility of scope for further research is presented in brief.

Keywords: action research, communicative language teaching, task based learning, perception

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Authors: Rehan Deshmukh, Sunil Bhand, Utpal Roy

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We report the label-free electrochemical detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7 (ATCC 43895) in potable water using a DNA probe as a sensing molecule targeting the open reading frame marker. Indium tin oxide (ITO) surface was modified with organosilane and, glutaraldehyde was applied as a linker to fabricate the DNA sensor chip. Non-Faradic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) behavior was investigated at each step of sensor fabrication using cyclic voltammetry, impedance, phase, relative permittivity, capacitance, and admittance. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed significant changes in surface topographies of DNA sensor chip fabrication. The decrease in the percentage of pinholes from 2.05 (Bare ITO) to 1.46 (after DNA hybridization) suggested the capacitive behavior of the DNA sensor chip. The results of non-Faradic EIS studies of DNA sensor chip showed a systematic declining trend of the capacitance as well as the relative permittivity upon DNA hybridization. DNA sensor chip exhibited linearity in 0.5 to 25 pg/10mL for E. coli O157:H7 (ATCC 43895). The limit of detection (LOD) at 95% confidence estimated by logistic regression was 0.1 pg DNA/10mL of E. coli O157:H7 (equivalent to 13.67 CFU/10mL) with a p-value of 0.0237. Moreover, the fabricated DNA sensor chip used for detection of E. coli O157:H7 showed no significant cross-reactivity with closely and distantly related bacteria such as Escherichia coli MTCC 3221, Escherichia coli O78:H11 MTCC 723 and Bacillus subtilis MTCC 736. Consequently, the results obtained in our study demonstrated the possible application of developed DNA sensor chips for E. coli O157:H7 ATCC 43895 in real water samples as well.

Keywords: capacitance, DNA sensor, Escherichia coli O157:H7, open reading frame marker

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Authors: Samuel Mwangi, Josephine K. Mule

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Access control as a security technique regulates who or what can access resources. It is a fundamental concept in security that minimizes risks to the institutions that use access control. Regulating access to institutions of higher learning is key to ensure only authorized personnel and students are allowed into the institutions. The use of biometrics has been criticized due to the setup and maintenance costs, hygiene concerns, and trepidations regarding data privacy, among other apprehensions. Facial recognition is arguably a fast and accurate way of validating identity in order to guard protected areas. It guarantees that only authorized individuals gain access to secure locations while requiring far less personal information whilst providing an additional layer of security beyond keys, fobs, or identity cards. This exploratory study sought to investigate the use of facial recognition in controlling access in institutions of higher learning in Kenya. The sample population was drawn from both private and public higher learning institutions. The data is based on responses from staff and students. Questionnaires were used for data collection and follow up interviews conducted to understand responses from the questionnaires. 80% of the sampled population indicated that there were many security breaches by unauthorized people, with some resulting in terror attacks. These security breaches were attributed to stolen identity cases, where staff or student identity cards were stolen and used by criminals to access the institutions. These unauthorized accesses have resulted in losses to the institutions, including reputational damages. The findings indicate that security breaches are a major problem in institutions of higher learning in Kenya. Consequently, access control would be beneficial if employed to curb security breaches. We suggest the use of facial recognition technology, given its uniqueness in identifying users and its non-repudiation capabilities.

Keywords: facial recognition, access control, technology, learning

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Authors: Natalia Sáez, Dina Shulfman

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There is an important research gap regarding accessible pedagogical techniques for teaching foreign languages to adults with visual impairments. English as a foreign language (EFL), in particular, is needed in many countries to expand occupational opportunities and improve living standards. Within EFL research, teaching and learning prepositions have only recently gained momentum, considering that they constitute one of the most difficult structures to learn in a foreign language and are fundamental for communicating about spatial relations in the world, both on the physical and imaginary levels. Learning to use prepositions would not only facilitate communication when referring to the surrounding tangible environment but also when conveying ideas about abstract topics (e.g., justice, love, society), for which students’ sociocultural knowledge about space could play an important role. By potentiating visually impaired students’ ability to construe mental spatial imagery, this study made efforts to explore pedagogical techniques that cater to their strengths, helping them create new worlds by welcoming and expanding their sociocultural funds of knowledge as they learn to use English prepositions. Fifteen visually impaired adults living in Chile participated in the study. Their first language was Spanish, and they were learning English at the intermediate level of proficiency in an EFL workshop at La Biblioteca Central para Ciegos (The Central Library for the Blind). Within this workshop, a series of activities and interviews were designed and implemented with the intention of uncovering students’ spatial funds of knowledge when learning literal/physical uses of three English prepositions, namely “in,” “at,” and “on”. The activities and interviews also explored whether students used their original spatial funds of knowledge when learning metaphorical uses of these prepositions and if their use of spatial imagery changed throughout the learning activities. Over the course of approximately half a year, it soon became clear that the students construed mental images of space when learning both literal/physical and metaphorical uses of these prepositions. This research could inform a new approach to inclusive language education using pedagogical methods that are relevant and accessible to students with visual impairments.

Keywords: EFL, funds of knowledge, prepositions, spatial cognition, visually impaired students

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Authors: Mohammad Hadi Mahmoodi, Soroor Zekrati

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The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between hemispheric dominance and intonation learning of Iranian EFL students. In order to gain this goal, 52 female students from three levels of beginner, elementary and intermediate in Paradise Institute, and 18 male university students at Bu-Ali Sina University constituted the sample. In order to assist students learn the correct way of applying intonation to their everyday speech, the study proposed an interactive approach and provided students with visual aid through which they were able to see the intonation pattern on computer screen using 'Speech Analyzer' software. This software was also used to record subjects’ voice and compare them with the original intonation pattern. Edinburg Handedness Questionnaire (EHD), which ranges from –100 for strong left-handedness to +100 for strong right-handedness was used to indicate the hemispheric dominance of each student. The result of an independent sample t-test indicated that girls learned intonation pattern better than boys, and that right brained students significantly outperformed the left brained ones. Using one-way ANOVA, a significant difference between three proficiency levels was also found. The posthoc Scheffer test showed that the exact difference was between intermediate and elementary, and intermediate and beginner levels, but no significant difference was observed between elementary and beginner levels. The findings of the study might provide researchers with some helpful implications and useful directions for future investigation into the domain of the relationship between mind and second language learning.

Keywords: intonation, hemispheric dominance, visual aid, language learning, second language learning

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Authors: Xiao Liulingzi

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It is important for using multi-sensory teaching in music learning. This article aims to provide knowledge in multi-sensory learning and teaching music in primary school. For primary school students, in addition to the training of basic knowledge and skills of music, students' sense of participation and creativity in music class are the key requirements, especially the flexibility and dynamics in music class, so that students can integrate into music and feel the music. The article explains the multi-sensory sense in music learning, the differences between multi-sensory music teaching and traditional music teaching, and music multi-sensory teaching in primary schools in China.

Keywords: multi-sensory, teaching practice, primary music classroom, China

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Authors: Jodie Lee, Lorena Chan, Esther Tong

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Hong Kong students face a unique learning environment. Starting from the 2010/2011 school year, The Education Bureau (EDB) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region implemented the fine-tuned Medium of Instruction (MOI) arrangements for secondary schools. Since then, secondary schools in Hong Kong have been given the flexibility to decide the most appropriate MOI arrangements for their schools and under the new academic structure for senior secondary education, particularly on the compulsory part of the mathematics curriculum. In 2019, Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE), over 40% of school day candidates attempted the Mathematics Compulsory Part examination in the Chinese version while the rest took the English version. Moreover, only 14.38% of candidates sat for one of the extended Mathematics modules. This results in a serious of intricate issues to students’ learning in post-secondary education programmes. It is worth to note that when students further pursue to an higher education in Hong Kong or even oversea, they may facing substantial difficulties in transiting learning from learning mathematics in their mother tongue in Chinese-medium instruction (CMI) secondary schools to an English-medium learning environment. Some students understood the mathematics concepts were found to fail to fulfill the course requirements at college or university due to their learning experience in secondary study at CMI. They are particularly weak in comprehending the mathematics questions when they are doing their assessment or attempting the test/examination. A government funded project was conducted with the aims of providing integrated learning context and language support to students with a lower level of numeracy and/or with CMI learning experience. By introducing this “integrated concept + language mapping approach”, students can cope with the learning challenges in the compulsory English-medium mathematics and statistics subjects in their tertiary education. Ultimately, in the hope that students can enhance their mathematical ability, analytical skills, and numerical sense for their lifelong learning. The “Concept + Language Mapping “(CLM) approach was adopted and tried out in the bridging courses for students with a lower level of numeracy and/or with CMI learning experiences. At the beginning of each class, a pre-test was conducted, and class time was then devoted to introducing the concepts by CLM approach. For each concept, the key thematic items and their different semantic relations are presented using graphics and animations via the CLM approach. At the end of each class, a post-test was conducted. Quantitative data analysis was performed to study the effect on students’ learning via the CLM approach. Stakeholders' feedbacks were collected to estimate the effectiveness of the CLM approach in facilitating both content and language learning. The results based on both students’ and lecturers’ feedback indicated positive outcomes on adopting the CLM approach to enhance the mathematical ability and analytical skills of CMI students.

Keywords: mathematics, Concept+Language Mapping, level of numeracy, medium of instruction

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Authors: Klara Krizova, Rudolf Hela

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The topic of the article focuses on the evaluation of selected technological factors and their influence on resulting elasticity modulus of concrete. A series of various factors enter into the manufacturing process which, more or less, influences the elasticity modulus. This paper presents the results of concrete in which the influence of water coefficient and the size of maximum fraction of the aggregate on the static elasticity modulus were monitored. Part of selected results of the long-term programme was discussed in which a wide scope of various variants of proposals for the composition of concretes was evaluated.

Keywords: mix design, water-cement ratio, aggregate, modulus of elasticity

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Authors: Edward K. Boahen, Brunel E. Bouya-Moko, Changda Wang

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The major threat to online social network (OSN) users is account compromisation. Spammers now spread malicious messages by exploiting the trust relationship established between account owners and their friends. The challenge in detecting a compromised account by service providers is validating the trusted relationship established between the account owners, their friends, and the spammers. Another challenge is the increase in required human interaction with the feature selection. Research available on supervised learning (machine learning) has limitations with the feature selection and accounts that cannot be profiled, like application programming interface (API). Therefore, this paper discusses the various behaviours of the OSN users and the current approaches in detecting a compromised OSN account, emphasizing its limitations and challenges. We propose a deep learning approach that addresses and resolve the constraints faced by the previous schemes. We detailed our proposed optimized nonsymmetric deep auto-encoder (OPT_NDAE) for unsupervised feature learning, which reduces the required human interaction levels in the selection and extraction of features. We evaluated our proposed classifier using the NSL-KDD and KDDCUP'99 datasets in a graphical user interface enabled Weka application. The results obtained indicate that our proposed approach outperformed most of the traditional schemes in OSN compromised account detection with an accuracy rate of 99.86%.

Keywords: computer security, network security, online social network, account compromisation

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Authors: Esther Pearl Palmer

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Driven by the increased pressure on Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to produce work-ready graduates for the modern world of work, this study reflects on triad teaching and learning practices to increase student engagement and employability. In the South African higher education context, the employability of graduates is imperative in strengthening the country’s economy and in increasing competitiveness. Within this context, the field of Human Resource Management (HRM) calls for innovative methods and approaches to teaching and learning and assessing the skills and competencies of graduates to render them employable. Digital competency in Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) is an important component and prerequisite for employment in HRM. The purpose of this research is to reflect on the subject HRIS developed by lecturers at the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT), with the intention to actively engage students in real-world learning activities and increase their employability. The Enrichment Triad Model (ETM) was used as theoretical framework to develop the subject as it supports a triad teaching and learning approach to education. It is, furthermore, an inter-structured model that supports collaboration between industry, academics and students. The study follows a mixed-method approach to reflect on the learning experiences of the industry, academics and students in the subject field over the past three years. This paper is a work in progress and seeks to broaden the scope of extant studies about student engagement in work-related learning to increase employability. Based on the ETM as theoretical framework and pedagogical practice, this paper proposes that following a triad teaching and learning approach will increase work-related skills of students. Findings from the study show that students, academics and industry alike regard educational opportunities that incorporate active learning experiences with the world of work enhances student engagement in learning and renders them more employable.

Keywords: digital competence, enriched triad model, human resource information systems, student engagement, triad pedagogy.

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Authors: Zoja Raud, Valery Vodovozov

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The paper focuses on the distance laboratory organisation for training the electrical engineering staff and students in the fields of electrical drive and power electronics. To support online knowledge acquisition and professional enhancement, new challenges in remote education based on an active learning approach with self-assessment have been emerged by the authors. Following the literature review and explanation of the improved assessment methodology, the concept and technological basis of the labs arrangement are presented. To decrease the gap between the distance study of the up-to-date equipment and other educational activities in electrical engineering, the improvements in the following-up the learners’ progress and feedback composition are introduced. An authoring methodology that helps to personalise knowledge acquisition and enlarge Web-based possibilities is described. Educational management based on self-assessment is discussed.

Keywords: advanced training, active learning, distance learning, electrical engineering, remote laboratory, self-assessment

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Authors: Shatha Ghareeb, Rawaa Al-Jumeily, Thar Baker

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In Abu Dhabi, there are many different education curriculums where sector of private schools and quality assurance is supervising many private schools in Abu Dhabi for many nationalities. As there are many different education curriculums in Abu Dhabi to meet expats’ needs, there are different requirements for registration and success. In addition, there are different age groups for starting education in each curriculum. In fact, each curriculum has a different number of years, assessment techniques, reassessment rules, and exam boards. Currently, students that transfer curriculums are not being placed in the right year group due to different start and end dates of each academic year and their date of birth for each year group is different for each curriculum and as a result, we find students that are either younger or older for that year group which therefore creates gaps in their learning and performance. In addition, there is not a way of storing student data throughout their academic journey so that schools can track the student learning process. In this paper, we propose to develop a computational framework applicable in multicultural countries such as UAE in which multi-education systems are implemented. The ultimate goal is to use cloud and fog computing technology integrated with Artificial Intelligence techniques of Machine Learning to aid in a smooth transition when assigning students to their year groups, and provide leveling and differentiation information of students who relocate from a particular education curriculum to another, whilst also having the ability to store and access student data from anywhere throughout their academic journey.

Keywords: admissions, algorithms, cloud computing, differentiation, fog computing, levelling, machine learning

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Authors: Tae-Uk Yun, Pullip Chung, Kee-Young Kwahk, Hyunchul Ahn

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Fake news is defined as the news articles that are intentionally and verifiably false, and could mislead readers. Spread of fake news may provoke anxiety, chaos, fear, or irrational decisions of the public. Thus, detecting fake news and preventing its spread has become very important issue in our society. However, due to the huge amount of fake news produced every day, it is almost impossible to identify it by a human. Under this context, researchers have tried to develop automated fake news detection using machine learning techniques over the past years. But, there have been no prior studies proposed an automated fake news detection method for Korean news to our best knowledge. In this study, we aim to detect Korean fake news using text mining and machine learning techniques. Our proposed method consists of two steps. In the first step, the news contents to be analyzed is convert to quantified values using various text mining techniques (topic modeling, TF-IDF, and so on). After that, in step 2, classifiers are trained using the values produced in step 1. As the classifiers, machine learning techniques such as logistic regression, backpropagation network, support vector machine, and deep neural network can be applied. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we collected about 200 short Korean news from Seoul National University’s FactCheck. which provides with detailed analysis reports from 20 media outlets and links to source documents for each case. Using this dataset, we will identify which text features are important as well as which classifiers are effective in detecting Korean fake news.

Keywords: fake news detection, Korean news, machine learning, text mining

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Authors: Felix Oromena Egara, Moeketsi Mosia

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The study aimed to evaluate the impact of blended learning on mathematics retention among secondary school students. Conducted in the Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria, the research involved 1,235 senior class one (SS 1) students. Employing a non-equivalent control group pre-test-post-test quasi-experimental design, a sample of 70 students was selected from two secondary schools with ICT facilities through purposive sampling. Random allocation of students into experimental and control groups was achieved through balloting within each selected school. The investigation included three assessment points: pre-Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT), post-MAT, and post-post-MAT (retention), administered systematically by the researchers. Data collection utilized the established MAT instrument, which demonstrated a high reliability score of 0.86. Statistical analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 28, with mean and standard deviation addressing study questions and analysis of covariance scrutinizing hypotheses at a significance level of .05. Results revealed significantly greater improvements in mathematics retention scores among students exposed to blended learning compared to those instructed through conventional methods. Moreover, noticeable differences in mean retention scores were observed, with male students in the blended learning group exhibiting notably higher performance. Based on these findings, recommendations were made, advocating for mathematics educators to integrate blended learning, particularly in geometry teaching, to enhance students’ retention of mathematical concepts.

Keywords: blended learning, flipped classroom model, secondary school students, station rotation model

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Authors: Rafael Dias Silva

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The school is a social institution that should promote learning situations that remain throughout life. Based on this, the teaching activities promoted in museum spaces can represent an educational strategy that contributes to the learning process in a more meaningful way. This article systematizes a series of elements that guide the use of these spaces for the scientific literacy of deaf students and as experiences of this nature are favorable for the school development through the concept of the circularity. The methodology for the didactic use of these spaces of non-formal education is one of the reflections developed in this study and how such environments can contribute to the learning in the classroom. To develop in the student the idea of ​​association making him create connections with the curricular proposal and notice how the proposed activity is articulated. It is in our interest that the experience lived in the museum be shared collaborating for the construction of a scientific literacy and cultural identity through the research.

Keywords: accessibility in museums, Brazilian sign language, deaf students, teacher training

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Authors: David Pham, Yongfeng Zhang

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Graphs are an important structure for data storage and computation. Recent years have seen the success of deep learning on graphs such as Graph Neural Networks (GNN) on various data mining and machine learning tasks. However, most of the deep learning models on graphs cannot easily explain their predictions and are thus often labelled as “black boxes.” For example, Graph Attention Network (GAT) is a frequently used GNN architecture, which adopts an attention mechanism to carefully select the neighborhood nodes for message passing and aggregation. However, it is difficult to explain why certain neighbors are selected while others are not and how the selected neighbors contribute to the final classification result. In this paper, we present a graph learning model called Explainable Graph Attention Network (XGAT), which integrates graph attention modeling and explainability. We use a single model to target both the accuracy and explainability of problem spaces and show that in the context of graph attention modeling, we can design a unified neighborhood selection strategy that selects appropriate neighbor nodes for both better accuracy and enhanced explainability. To justify this, we conduct extensive experiments to better understand the behavior of our model under different conditions and show an increase in both accuracy and explainability.

Keywords: explainable AI, graph attention network, graph neural network, node classification

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Authors: Ashish Dhamaniya, Vineet Jain, Rajesh Chouhan

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Traffic management is one of the gigantic issue in most of the urban roads in al-most all metropolitan cities in India. Speed is one of the critical traffic parameters for effective Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) implementation as it decides the arrival rate of vehicles on an intersection which are majorly the point of con-gestions. The study aimed to leverage Machine Learning (ML) models to produce precise predictions of speed on urban roadway links. The research objective was to assess how categorized traffic volume and road width, serving as variables, in-fluence speed prediction. Four tree-based regression models namely: Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), Extra Tree (ET), and Extreme Gradient Boost (XGB)are employed for this purpose. The models' performances were validated using test data, and the results demonstrate that Random Forest surpasses other machine learning techniques and a conventional utility theory-based model in speed prediction. The study is useful for managing the urban roadway network performance under mixed traffic conditions and effective implementation of ITS.

Keywords: stream speed, urban roads, machine learning, traffic flow

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Authors: Ju May Wen, Chun Hung Lin, Eric Zhi Feng Liu

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Flow theory implies that people are persuaded by happiness. By focusing on an activity, people turn a blind eye to external factors. This study explores the influence of educational board games and fundamental Chinese language teaching on students’ learning motivation and flow experience. Fifty-three students studying Chinese language fundamental courses were used in the study. These students were divided into three groups: (1) flash card teaching group; (2) educational original board game teaching group; and (3) educational Chinese board game teaching group. Chinese language teaching was integrated with the educational board game titled ‘Transportation GO.’ The students were observed playing this game as the teacher collected quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data was collected from the learning motivation scale and flow experience scale. Qualitative data was collected through observing, recording, and visiting. The first result found that the three groups integrated with Chinese language teaching could maintain students’ high learning motivation and high flow experience. Second, there was no significant difference between the flow experience of the flash card group and the educational original board game group. Third, there was a significant difference in the flow experience and learning motivation of the educational Chinese board game group vs. the other groups. This study suggests that the experimental model can be applied to advanced Chinese language teaching. Apart from oral and literacy skills, the study of educational board games integrated with Chinese language teaching to enforce student writing skills will be continued.

Keywords: Chinese language instruction, educational board game, learning motivation, flow experience

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Authors: Prasanna Ramachandran, Kareem Graham, Helena Kiefel, Sunit Jain, Todd DeSantis

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Microbes that reside inside the mammalian GI tract, commonly referred to as the gut microbiome, have been shown to have therapeutic effects in animal models of disease. We hypothesize that specific proteins produced by these microbes are responsible for this activity and may be used directly as therapeutics. To speed up the discovery of these key proteins from the big-data metagenomics, we have applied machine learning techniques. Using amino acid sequences of known epitopes and their corresponding binding partners, protein interaction descriptors (PID) were calculated, making a positive interaction set. A negative interaction dataset was calculated using sequences of proteins known not to interact with these same binding partners. Using Random Forest and positive and negative PID, a machine learning model was trained and used to predict interacting versus non-interacting proteins. Furthermore, the continuous variable, cosine similarity in the interaction descriptors was used to rank bacterial therapeutic candidates. Laboratory binding assays were conducted to test the candidates for their potential as therapeutics. Results from binding assays reveal the accuracy of the machine learning prediction and are subsequently used to further improve the model.

Keywords: protein-interactions, machine-learning, metagenomics, microbiome

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Authors: Undiyaundeye Florence Atube, Ugar Innocent A.

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Young children are active learners who use all their senses to build concepts and ideas from their experiences. The process of learning, the content and the outcomes, is vital for young children. They need time to explore whether they are satisfied with what is learnt. Of all levels of education, early childhood education is considered to be most critical for the social, emotional, cognitive and physical development. For this reason, the teachers for early years need to play a significant role in the teaching and learning process through the provision of a friendly environment in the school. A case study approach was used in this study. The information was gathered through various methods like class observation, field notes, documents analysis, group processes, and semi structured interviews. The group processes participants and interviewees were taken from some stakeholders such as parents, students, teachers, and head teachers from public schools, to have a broad and comprehensive analysis, informal interaction with different stakeholders and self-reflection was used to clarify aspects of varying issues and findings. The teachers’ roles in developing a child friendly environment in personal capacity to learning were found to improve a pupils learning ability. Prior to early child development education, learning experiences and pedagogical content knowledge played a vital role in engaging teachers in developing their thinking and teaching practice. Children can be helped to develop independent self-control and self-reliance with careful planning and development of the child’s experience with sensitive and appropriate interaction by the educator to propel eagerness to learn through the provision of a friendly environment.

Keywords: child friendly environment, early childhood, education and development, teaching, learning and the curriculum

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Authors: Amira Potter

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Since three years, ESPRIT has adopted project-based learning across its curricula. The philosophy behind this reform is to prepare its future engineers to become more operational once they integrate the workplace. It allows them to learn all the required skills expected from them by their future employers. This learner-centered method helps the students take responsibility for their own learning, solve real-world problems and carry out muli-faceted projects. Therefore, the teacher who used to be considered as the detainer of the knowledge has become more of a facilitator and a coach, encouraging their students’ learning process. This innovative way to English teaching has enabled the students to learn the English language differently. The target language is learnt cooperatively through group work, presentations, debating and many other communicative activities. The speaking skill in English language remains by far the most challenging skill for Tunisian students with an educational background based on Arabic as a first language and French as a second language. The student’s initial resistance to speak English in front of their classmates and the way they end up performing their work, shows the real progress they managed to achieve through PBL approach. The article will focus on the positive impact PBL has had on oral fluency among Esprit engineering students and how it has been achieved. It will also describe how speaking skill is taught and assessed at ESPRIT.

Keywords: cooperative, engineer, innovative, project-based learning

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Authors: Guantao Bai

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Public space is an indispensable and important component of the urban built environment. How to more accurately evaluate the usage characteristics of public space can help improve its spatial quality. Compared to traditional survey methods, computer vision technology based on deep learning has advantages such as dynamic observation and low cost. This study takes the public space of Shaping Park as an example and, based on deep learning computer vision technology, processes and analyzes the image data of the public space to obtain the spatial usage characteristics and spatiotemporal characteristics of the public space. Research has found that the spontaneous activity time in public spaces is relatively random with a relatively short average activity time, while social activities have a relatively stable activity time with a longer average activity time. Computer vision technology based on deep learning can effectively describe the spatial usage characteristics of the research area, making up for the shortcomings of traditional research methods and providing relevant support for creating a good public space.

Keywords: computer vision, deep learning, public spaces, using features

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Authors: Maulik Parmar, Sumeet Sandhu

Abstract:

The online fashion industry experiences high product return rates. Many returns are because of size/fit mismatches -the size scale on labels can vary across brands, the size parameters may not capture all fit measurements, or the product may have manufacturing defects. Warehouse quality check of garment sizes can be semi-automated to improve speed and accuracy. This paper presents an approach for automatically measuring garment sizes from a single image of the garment -using Deep Learning to learn garment keypoints. The paper focuses on the waist size measurement of jeans and can be easily extended to other garment types and measurements. Experimental results show that this approach can greatly improve the speed and accuracy of today’s manual measurement process.

Keywords: convolutional neural networks, deep learning, distortion, garment measurements, image warping, keypoints

Procedia PDF Downloads 280

Authors: Martin Dupuy, Solange Grunenwald, Pierre-Louis Colombo, Laurence Mahieu, Pomone Richard, Philippe Bartoli

Abstract:

Endonasal endoscopic trans-sphenoidal surgery for pituitary tumours has become a mainstay of treatment over the last two decades. Although it is generally accepted that there is no significant difference between endoscopic versus microscopic approach for surgical outcomes (endocrine and ophthalmologic status), nasal morbidity seems to the benefit of endoscopic procedures. Minimally invasive endoscopic surgery needs an operative learning curve to achieve surgeon’s efficiency. This learning curve is now well known for surgical outcomes and complications rate, however, few data are available for nasal morbidity. The aim of our series is to document operative experience and nasal quality of life after (NQOL) endoscopic trans-sphenoidal surgery. The prospective pituitary surgical cohort consisted of 525 consecutives patients referred to our Skull Base Diseases Department. Endoscopic procedures were performed by a single neurosurgeon using an uninostril approach. NQOL was evaluated using the Sino-Nasal Test (SNOT-22), the Anterior Base Nasal Inventory (ASBNI) and the Skull Base Inventory Score (SBIS). Data were collected before surgery during hospital stay and 3 months after the surgery. The seventy first patients were compared to the latest 70 patients. There was no significant difference between comparison score before versus after surgery for SNOT-22, ASBNI and SBIS during the single surgeon’s learning curve. Our series demonstrates that in our institution there is no statistically significant learning curve for NQOL after uninostril endoscopic pituitary surgery. A careful progression through sinonasal structures with very limited mucosal incision is associated with minimal morbidity and preserves nasal function. Conservative and minimal invasive approach could be achieved early during learning curve.

Keywords: pituitary surgery, quality of life, minimal invasive surgery, learning curve, pituitary tumours, skull base surgery, endoscopic surgery

Procedia PDF Downloads 106

Authors: Ashwag O. Maghraby, Nida N. Khan, Hosnia A. Ahmed, Ghufran N. Brohi, Hind F. Assouli, Jawaher S. Melibari

Abstract:

The Arabic language is one of the most important languages. Learning it is so important for many people around the world because of its religious and economic importance and the real challenge lies in practicing it without grammatical or syntactical mistakes. This research focused on detecting and correcting the syntactic mistakes of Arabic syntax according to their position in the sentence and focused on two of the main syntactical rules in Arabic: Dual and Plural. It analyzes each sentence in the text, using Stanford CoreNLP morphological analyzer and machine-learning approach in order to detect the syntactical mistakes and then correct it. A prototype of the proposed system was implemented and evaluated. It uses support vector machine (SVM) algorithm to detect Arabic grammatical errors and correct them using the rule-based approach. The prototype system has a far accuracy 81%. In general, it shows a set of useful grammatical suggestions that the user may forget about while writing due to lack of familiarity with grammar or as a result of the speed of writing such as alerting the user when using a plural term to indicate one person.

Keywords: Arabic language acquisition and learning, natural language processing, morphological analyzer, part-of-speech

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: H. M. Anitha, Anusha N. Rao

Abstract:

The current developments in technology and ideas have given entirely new dimensions to the field of research and education. New delivery methods are proposed which is an added feature to the engineering education. Particularly, more importance is given to new teaching practices such as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). It is vital to adopt the new ICT methods which lead to the emergence of novel structure and mode of education. The flipped classroom, think pair share and peer instruction are the latest pedagogical methods which give students to learn the course. This involves students to watch video lectures outside the classroom and solve the problems at home. Students are engaged in group discussions in the classroom. These are the active learning methods wherein the students are involved diversely to learn the course. This paper gives a comprehensive study of past and present research which is going on with flipped classroom, thinks pair share activity and peer instruction.

Keywords: flipped classroom, think pair share, peer instruction, active learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 369

Authors: Elisam Magara

Abstract:

Like any other property, Intellectual Property (IP) must be regarded, respected, and remunerated to address the historical, ethical, economical and informational needs of society. Article 26 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995, the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (CNR) Act 2006 and CNR Regulations 2010 guide copyright protection in Uganda. However, an unpredictable environment has negatively impact on certain author/intellectual freedoms; and the infringements on academic works that affect the economic rights of authors that limit authors from fully enjoying the benefits of authorship. Notwithstanding the different licensing systems and copyright protection avenues, educational institutions and custodians of copyright works (libraries, archives) have continued to advocate for open access to information resources, under the legal exceptions of fair use for educational purposes. Thus, a study was conducted in educational institutions, libraries and archives in Uganda to assess the state of copyright infringement in Uganda in an increased use of academic authored works. The study attempted to establish the nature and forms of Copyright Infringement, the circumstances for copyright infringement, assessed the opinions from the custodians on strategies for balancing copyright protection for economic and moral gains by authors and increased access to information for educational purposes and fair-use. Through a survey, using a self-administered questionnaire, interviews and physical visits, the study was conducted in higher education institutions, libraries and archives among the officers that manage and keep copyright works. It established that the uncontrolled reproduction of copyright works in educational institutions and information institutions, have contributed copyright infringement robbing authors of their potential economic earnings and limiting their academic innovativeness and creativity. The study also established that lack of consciousness and awareness on copyright issues by lecturers, universities and libraries has made copyright works in Universities highly susceptible to copyright infringement. Thus the increased access to materials without restrictions has resulted in copyright infringement among the educational institutions, libraries and archives. A strategic alliance by the collecting Society (Uganda Reproduction Rights Organisation (URRO), government, Universities and right holders organisations (UTANA) to work together and institute a programme to address copyright protection and access to information is pertinently required.

Keywords: access to information, academic Writing, copyright, copyright infringement, copyright protection, exemptions of fair use, intellectual property rights

Procedia PDF Downloads 436

Authors: Bakari Mohammed

Abstract:

Sports performance and achievements have been the avenue through which great nations of the world exhibit their supremacy over others through sports development strategy. Effective sports development, therefore, requires variables like sports policy, sports funding, sports programme, sports facilities and sponsorship. The extent to what these variables are met shall no doubt affects the effectiveness of any sports development. Two distinguishing features of the Nigerian sports system are its central organization and its employment for specific socio-political objectives, it is against this backdrop that this paper will x-ray the politicization of sports which parallels sports development in the enhanced role of sports and in contrast with developed nations system and management.

Keywords: sport development, sport policy, personnel, program, facilities, funding, sponsorship

Procedia PDF Downloads 504