Search results for: learning environments

Authors: Fiseha M. Guangul, Annissa Muhammed, Aja O. Chikere

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Group task is one method to create the conducive environment for the active teaching-learning process. Performing group task with active involvement of students will benefit the students in many ways. However, in most cases all students do not participate actively in the group task, and hence the intended benefits are not acquired. This paper presents the improvements of students’ participation in the group task and learning from the group task by introducing different techniques to enhance students’ participation. For the purpose of this research Carpentry and Joinery II (WT-392) course from Wood Technology Department at Adama Science and Technology University was selected, and five groups were formed. Ten group tasks were prepared and the first five group tasks were distributed to the five groups in the first day without introducing the techniques that are used to enhance participation of students in the group task. On another day, the other five group tasks were distributed to the same groups and various techniques were introduced to enhance students’ participation in the group task. The improvements of students’ learning from the group task after the implementation of the techniques. After implementing the techniques the evaluation showed that significant improvements were obtained in the students’ participation and learning from the group task.

Keywords: Active learning, evaluation method, group task, students participation.

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Authors: Chaiwat Waree, Kalanyoo Petcharaporn

Abstract:

This research aims to develop and evaluate a training course to promote learning activities of 2nd year, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, faculty of education students using multiple intelligences theory. The process is divided into two phases: Phase 1 development of training course to promote learning activities consisting of principles, objectives of the course, structure, training duration, content, training materials, training activities, media training, monitoring, measurement and evaluation quality of the course. Phase 2 evaluation efficiency of training course was to use the improved curriculum with experimental group which is 2nd year, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, faculty of education students was drawn randomly 152 students. The experimental pattern was randomized Control Group Pre-Test Post-Test Design, Analysis Data by t-Test with the software SPFSS for Windows. Research has shown that: 1). the ability of teaching and learning according to the theory of multiple intelligences after training is higher than before training significantly in statistic at .01 level, 2). The satisfaction of students to the training courses was overall at the highest level.

Keywords: A training course, learning activities, multiple intelligences.

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Authors: Abdul-Khaliq M. Hussain, Bashir A. Tantosh, El-Sadeg A. Abdalla

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Corrosion of metallic water pipelines buried below ground surface is a function of the nature of the surrounding soil and groundwater. This gives the importance of knowing the physical and chemical characteristics of the pipe-s surrounding environment. The corrosion of externally – unprotected metallic water pipelines, specially ductile iron pipes, in localities with aggressive soil conditions is becoming a significant problem. Anticorrosive protection for metallic water pipelines, their fittings and accessories is very important, because they may be attached by corrosion with time. The tendency of a metallic substrate to corrode is a function of the surface characteristics of the metal and of the metal/protective film interface, the physical, electrical and electrochemical properties of the film, and the nature of the environment in which the pipelines system is placed. In this work the authors have looked at corrosion problems of water pipelines and their control. The corrosive properties of groundwater and soil environments are reviewed, and parameters affecting corrosion are discussed. The purpose of this work is to provide guidelines for materials selection in water and soil environments, and how the water pipelines can be protected against metallic corrosion.

Keywords: Corrosion, Drinking Water, Metallic WaterPipelines, Polluted Water.

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Authors: Yunxia Zhang, Jiti Zhou, Jianbo Guo, Xiuhong Zhang, Lihong Zhao, Shouzhi Yuan

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Novel nitrogen removal technologies via nitrite pathway attract increasing interest in recent years. In this study, batch experiments were performed to investigate nitrite accumulation characteristics and shifts in nitrifying community structure at different growth environments including ammonia concentration, pH and alkalinity. It was found that nitrite accumulation ratios were maintained at around 95% at studied conditions, and the optimum pH and Alk/N (ratio between alkalinity and nitrogen) for ammonium oxidization were 8.5 and 8.33, respectively. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis of nitrifying bacteria showed that high free ammonia (from influent ammonium or caused by high pH) significantly altered the structure of nitrifying community, leading to abundance of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), especially Nitrososmonas, and inhibition of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB). The results suggest that free ammonia plays more important role than other studied conditions on nitrite accumulation.

Keywords: Partial nitrification, Nitrite accumulation, Nitrifyingbacteria, Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH).

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Authors: M. Duran Toksarı, B. Uçarkuş

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In this paper, we propose two algorithms to optimally solve makespan and total completion time scheduling problems with learning effect and job dependent delivery times in a single machine environment. The delivery time is the extra time to eliminate adverse effect between the main processing and delivery to the customer. In this paper, we introduce the job dependent delivery times for some single machine scheduling problems with position dependent learning effect, which are makespan are total completion. The results with respect to two algorithms proposed for solving of the each problem are compared with LINGO solutions for 50-jobs, 100-jobs and 150- jobs problems. The proposed algorithms can find the same results in shorter time.

Keywords: Delivery times, learning effect, makespan, scheduling, total completion time.

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Authors: Fereshteh Afkari, Davood Bagheri

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The effect of teaching method on learning assistance Dunn Review .The study, to compare the effects of collaboration on teaching mathematics learning courses, including writing, science, experimental girl students by other methods of teaching basic first paid and the amount of learning students methods have been trained to cooperate with other students with other traditional methods have been trained to compare. The survey on 100 students in Tehran that using random sampling ¬ cluster of girl students between the first primary selections was performed. Considering the topic of semi-experimental research methods used to practice the necessary information by questionnaire, examination questions by the researcher, in collaboration with teachers and view authority in this field and related courses that teach these must have been collected. Research samples to test and control groups were divided. Experimental group and control group collaboration using traditional methods of mathematics courses, including writing and experimental sciences were trained. Research results using statistical methods T is obtained in two independent groups show that, through training assistance will lead to positive results and student learning in comparison with traditional methods, will increase also led to collaboration methods increase skills to solve math lesson practice, better understanding and increased skill level of students in practical lessons such as science and has been writing.

Keywords: method of teaching, learning, collaboration

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Authors: C. Ramsauer, J. Karandikar, D. Leitner, T. Schmitz, F. Bleicher

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Machining instability, or chatter, can impose an important limitation to discrete part machining. In this work, a networked implementation of milling stability optimization with Bayesian learning is presented. The milling process was monitored with a wireless sensory tool holder instrumented with an accelerometer at the TU Wien, Vienna, Austria. The recorded data from a milling test cut were used to classify the cut as stable or unstable based on a frequency analysis. The test cut result was used in a Bayesian stability learning algorithm at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. The algorithm calculated the probability of stability as a function of axial depth of cut and spindle speed based on the test result and recommended parameters for the next test cut. The iterative process between two transatlantic locations was repeated until convergence to a stable optimal process parameter set was achieved.

Keywords: Bayesian learning, instrumented tool holder, machining stability, optimization strategy.

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Authors: Melvin Chan, Chew Lee Teo

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There has been a growing emphasis in elevating the teachers’ proficiency and competencies through continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities. In this era of a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous (VUCA) world, teachers are expected to be collaborative designers, critical thinkers and creative builders. However, many of the CPD structures are still revolving in the model of transmission, which stands in contradiction to the cultivation of future-ready teachers for the innovative world of emerging technologies. This article puts forward the framing of CPD through a Principle-Based, Technological-Driven Knowledge Building Approach grounded in the essence of andragogy and progressive learning theories where growth is best exemplified through an authentic immersion in a social/community experience-based setting. Putting this Knowledge Building Professional Development Model (KBPDM) in operation via a Professional Learning Team (PLT) situated in a Secondary School in Singapore, research findings reveal that the intervention has led to a fundamental change in the learning paradigm of the teachers, henceforth equipping and empowering them successfully in their pedagogical design and practices for a 21^st century classroom experience. This article concludes with the possibility in leveraging the Learning Analytics to deepen the CPD experiences for educators.

Keywords: Continual professional development, knowledge building, learning paradigm, andragogy.

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Authors: Donald C. Lantu, Henndy Ginting, M. Yorga Permana, Dany M. A. Ramdlany

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We constructed a training program for top-talents of a Bank with Scharmer Theory-U as the model. In this training program, we implemented the action learning perspective, as it is claimed to be the most effective one currently available. In the process, participants were encouraged to be more involved, especially compared to traditional lecturing. The goal of this study is to assess the effectiveness of this particular training. The program consists of six days non-residential workshop within two months. Between each workshop, the participants were involved in the works of action learning group. They were challenged by dealing with the real problem related to their tasks at work. The participants of the program were 30 best talents who were chosen according to their yearly performance. Using paired difference statistical test in the behavioral assessment, we found that the training was not effective to increase participants’ leadership competencies. For the future development program, we suggested to modify the goals of the program toward the next stage of development.

Keywords: Action learning, behaviour, leadership development, Theory-U.

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Authors: Salsabeel F. M. Alfalah, Jannat F. Falah, Nadia Muhaidat, Amjad Hudaib, Diana Koshebye, Sawsan AlHourani

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Educational technology is changing the way how students engage and interact with learning materials. This improved the learning process amongst various subjects. Virtual Reality (VR) applications are considered one of the evolving methods that have contributed to enhancing medical education. This paper utilizes VR to provide a solution to improve the delivery of the subject of Embryology to medical students, and facilitate the teaching process by providing a useful aid to lecturers, whilst proving the effectiveness of this new technology in this particular area. After evaluating the current teaching methods and identifying students ‘needs, a VR system was designed that demonstrates in an interactive fashion the development of the human embryo from fertilization to week ten of intrauterine development. This system aims to overcome some of the problems faced by the students’ in the current educational methods, and to increase the efficacy of the learning process.

Keywords: Virtual reality, student assessment, medical education, 3D, embryology.

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Authors: Chin Chin Wong, Chor Min Tan, Pang Leang Hiew

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Business scenario is an important technique that may be used at various stages of the enterprise architecture to derive its characteristics based on the high-level requirements of the business. In terms of wireless deployments, they are used to help identify and understand business needs involving wireless services, and thereby to derive the business requirements that the architecture development has to address by taking into account of various wireless challenges. This study assesses the deployment of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) solutions for several business scenarios in Asia Pacific region. This paper focuses on the overview of the business and technology environments, whereby examples of existing (or suggested) wireless solutions (to be) adopted in Asia Pacific region will be discussed. Interactions of several players, enabling technologies, and key processes in the wireless environments are studied. The analysis and discussions associated to this study are divided into two divisions: healthcare and education, where the merits of wireless solutions in improving living quality are highlighted.

Keywords: Broadband Wireless Access, business scenarios, network deployment, Wireless Local Area Network.

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Authors: Mridul Sharma, Praveen Saroha

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In today's world, everyone has become so busy in their to-do tasks and daily routine that they tend to ignore some of the basal components of our life, including exercise and diet. This comparative study analyzes the pathways of the relationship between exercise and brain plasticity and also includes another variable diet to study the effects of diet on learning by answering questions including which diet is known to be the best learning supporter and what are the recommended quantities of the same. Further, this study looks into inter-relation between diet and exercise, and also some other approach of the relation between diet and exercise on learning apart from through Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF).

Keywords: Basolateral amygdala, brain derived neurotrophic factor, brain plasticity, diet, exercise, mediterranean diet.

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Authors: P. I. Adzongo, O. A. Aloga

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The purpose of the study was to examine lifelong education for teachers as a tool for achieving effective teaching and learning. Lifelong education enhances social inclusion, personal development, citizenship, employability, teaching and learning, community and the nation. It is imperative that the teacher needs to update his knowledge regularly to be able to perform optimally, since he has a major position in the inculcation of desirable elements in students, and the challenges of lifelong education were also discussed. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 80 teachers as sample from a population of 105 senior secondary school teachers in Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State. A 20-item self designed questionnaire subjected to expert validation and reliability was used to collect data. The reliability Alpha coefficient of 0.87 was established using Cronbach’s Alpha technique, mean scores and standard deviation were used to answer the 2 research questions while chi-square was used to analyse data for the 2 null hypotheses, which states that lifelong education for teachers is not a significant tool for achieving effective teaching and lifelong education for teachers does not significantly impact on effective learning. The findings of the study revealed that, lifelong education for teachers can be used as a tool for achieving effective teaching and learning, and the study recommended among others that government, organizations and individuals should in collaboration put lifelong education programmes for teachers on the priority list. The paper concluded that the strategic position of lifelong education for teachers towards enhanced teaching, learning and the production of quality manpower in the society makes it imperative for all hands to be on “deck” to support the programme financially and otherwise.

Keywords: Lifelong Education, Tool, Effective Teaching and Learning.

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Authors: Tharwat N. Hijjawi

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Learning oral skills in an Arabic speaking environment is challenging. A blended course (material, activities, and individual/ group work tasks …) was implemented in a module of level B1 for undergraduate students of French as a foreign language in order to increase their opportunities to practice listening and speaking skills. This research investigates the influence of this modality on enhancing active learning and examines the effectiveness of provided strategies. Moreover, it aims at discovering how it allows teacher to flip the traditional classroom and create a learner-centered framework. Which approaches were integrated to motivate students and urge them to search, analyze, criticize, create and accomplish projects? What was the perception of students? This paper is based on the qualitative findings of a questionnaire and a focus group interview with learners. Despite the doubled time and effort both “teacher” and “student” needed, results revealed that the NTIC allowed a shift into a learning paradigm where learners were the “chiefs” of the process. Tasks and collaborative projects required higher intellectual capacities from them. Learners appreciated this experience and developed new life-long learning competencies at many levels: social, affective, ethical and cognitive. To conclude, they defined themselves as motivated young researchers, motivators and critical thinkers.

Keywords: Active learning, critical thinking, inverted classroom, learning paradigm, problem-based.

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Authors: Abdelghani Boudiaf

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The profusion of studies relating to the concept of organizational learning shows the importance that has been given to this concept in the management sciences. A few years ago, companies leaned towards ISO 9001 certification; this requires the implementation of the quality management system (QMS). In order for this objective to be achieved, companies must have a set of skills, which pushes them to develop learning through continuous training. The results of empirical research have shown that implementation of the QMS in the company promotes the development of learning. It should also be noted that several types of learning are developed in this sense. Given the nature of skills development is normative in the context of the quality demarche, companies are obliged to qualify and improve the skills of their human resources. Continuous training is the keystone to develop the necessary learning. To carry out continuous training, companies need to be able to identify their real needs by developing training plans based on well-defined engineering. The training process goes obviously through several stages. Initially, training has a general aspect, that is to say, it focuses on topics and actions of a general nature. Subsequently, this is done in a more targeted and more precise way to accompany the evolution of the QMS and also to make the changes decided each time (change of working method, change of practices, change of objectives, change of mentality, etc.). To answer our problematic we opted for the method of qualitative research. It should be noted that the case study method crosses several data collection techniques to explain and understand a phenomenon. Three cases of companies were studied as part of this research work using different data collection techniques related to this method.

Keywords: Changing mentalities, continuous training, organizational learning, quality management system, skills development.

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Authors: Julius Onyancha, Valentina Plekhanova

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One of the significant issues facing web users is the amount of noise in web data which hinders the process of finding useful information in relation to their dynamic interests. Current research works consider noise as any data that does not form part of the main web page and propose noise web data reduction tools which mainly focus on eliminating noise in relation to the content and layout of web data. This paper argues that not all data that form part of the main web page is of a user interest and not all noise data is actually noise to a given user. Therefore, learning of noise web data allocated to the user requests ensures not only reduction of noisiness level in a web user profile, but also a decrease in the loss of useful information hence improves the quality of a web user profile. Noise Web Data Learning (NWDL) tool/algorithm capable of learning noise web data in web user profile is proposed. The proposed work considers elimination of noise data in relation to dynamic user interest. In order to validate the performance of the proposed work, an experimental design setup is presented. The results obtained are compared with the current algorithms applied in noise web data reduction process. The experimental results show that the proposed work considers the dynamic change of user interest prior to elimination of noise data. The proposed work contributes towards improving the quality of a web user profile by reducing the amount of useful information eliminated as noise.

Keywords: Web log data, web user profile, user interest, noise web data learning, machine learning.

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Authors: Diriba Gemechu, Lamessa Abebe

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The aim of this study was to examine the effect of cooperative learning method on student’s academic achievement and on the achievement level over a usual method in teaching different topics of mathematics. The study also examines the perceptions of students towards cooperative learning. Cooperative learning is the instructional strategy in which pairs or small groups of students with different levels of ability work together to accomplish a shared goal. The aim of this cooperation is for students to maximize their own and each other learning, with members striving for joint benefit. The teacher’s role changes from wise on the wise to guide on the side. Cooperative learning due to its influential aspects is the most prevalent teaching-learning technique in the modern world. Therefore the study was conducted in order to examine the effect of cooperative learning on the academic achievement of grade 9 students in Mathematics in case of Mettu secondary school. Two sample sections are randomly selected by which one section served randomly as an experimental and the other as a comparison group. Data gathering instruments are achievement tests and questionnaires. A treatment of STAD method of cooperative learning was provided to the experimental group while the usual method is used in the comparison group. The experiment lasted for one semester. To determine the effect of cooperative learning on the student’s academic achievement, the significance of difference between the scores of groups at 0.05 levels was tested by applying t test. The effect size was calculated to see the strength of the treatment. The student’s perceptions about the method were tested by percentiles of the questionnaires. During data analysis, each group was divided into high and low achievers on basis of their previous Mathematics result. Data analysis revealed that both the experimental and comparison groups were almost equal in Mathematics at the beginning of the experiment. The experimental group out scored significantly than comparison group on posttest. Additionally, the comparison of mean posttest scores of high achievers indicates significant difference between the two groups. The same is true for low achiever students of both groups on posttest. Hence, the result of the study indicates the effectiveness of the method for Mathematics topics as compared to usual method of teaching.

Keywords: Cooperative learning, academic achievement, experimental group, comparison group.

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Authors: Hyunjin Rho, Bongjin Shin, Okbok Lee, Yu-Hyun Choi, Jiyoung Lee, Jaerang Rho

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The increasing usage of antibiotics in the animal farming industry is an emerging worldwide problem contributing to the development of antibiotic resistance. The purpose of this work was to investigate the prevalence and antibiotic resistance profile of bacterial isolates collected from aquatic environments and meats in a peri-urban community in Daejeon, Korea. In an antibacterial susceptibility test, the bacterial isolates showed a high incidence of resistance (~ 26.04 %) to cefazolin, tetracycline, gentamycin, norfloxacin, erythromycin and vancomycin. The results from a test for multiple antibiotic resistance indicated that the isolates were displaying an approximately 5-fold increase in the incidence of multiple antibiotic resistance to combinations of two different antibiotics compared to combinations of three or more antibiotics. Most of the isolates showed multi-antibiotic resistance, and the resistance patterns were similar among the sampling groups. Sequencing data analysis of 16S rRNA showed that most of the resistant isolates appeared to be dominated by the classes Betaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria in the phylum Proteobacteria.

Keywords: Antibiotics, Antibiotic resistance, Antimicrobial resistance, Multi-resistance

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Authors: Konstantinos Perifanos, Eirini Florou, Dionysis Goutsos

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This paper presents and benchmarks a number of end-to-end Deep Learning based models for metaphor detection in Greek. We combine Convolutional Neural Networks and Recurrent Neural Networks with representation learning to bear on the metaphor detection problem for the Greek language. The models presented achieve exceptional accuracy scores, significantly improving the previous state-of-the-art results, which had already achieved accuracy 0.82. Furthermore, no special preprocessing, feature engineering or linguistic knowledge is used in this work. The methods presented achieve accuracy of 0.92 and F-score 0.92 with Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and bidirectional Long Short Term Memory networks (LSTMs). Comparable results of 0.91 accuracy and 0.91 F-score are also achieved with bidirectional Gated Recurrent Units (GRUs) and Convolutional Recurrent Neural Nets (CRNNs). The models are trained and evaluated only on the basis of training tuples, the related sentences and their labels. The outcome is a state-of-the-art collection of metaphor detection models, trained on limited labelled resources, which can be extended to other languages and similar tasks.

Keywords: Metaphor detection, deep learning, representation learning, embeddings.

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Authors: Nur Aisyah Jalalludin, Arwindra Rizqiawan, Goro Fujita

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In this study, we aim to demonstrate a microgrid system experimental simulation for an easy understanding of a large-scale microgrid system. This model is required for industrial training and learning environments. However, in order to create an exact representation of a microgrid system, the laboratory-scale system must fulfill the requirements of a grid-connected inverter, in which power values are assigned to the system to cope with the intermittent output from renewable energy sources. Aside from that, during fluctuations in load capacity, the grid-connected system must be able to supply power from the utility grid side and microgrid side in a balanced manner. Therefore, droop control is installed in the inverter’s control board to maintain a balanced power sharing in both sides. This power control in a stand-alone condition and droop control in a grid-connected condition must be implemented in order to maintain a stabilized system. Based on the experimental results, power control and droop control can both be applied in the system by comparing the experimental and reference values.

Keywords: Droop control, droop characteristic, grid-connected inverter, microgrid, power control.

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Authors: David L. Olson, Stephen B. H. Bruder, Adam S. Watkins, Cleon E. Davis

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In global navigation satellite system (GNSS) denied settings, such as indoor environments, autonomous mobile robots are often limited to dead-reckoning navigation techniques to determine their position, velocity, and attitude (PVA). Localization is typically accomplished by employing an inertial measurement unit (IMU), which, while precise in nature, accumulates errors rapidly and severely degrades the localization solution. Standard sensor fusion methods, such as Kalman filtering, aim to fuse precise IMU measurements with accurate aiding sensors to establish a precise and accurate solution. In indoor environments, where GNSS and no other a priori information is known about the environment, effective sensor fusion is difficult to achieve, as accurate aiding sensor choices are sparse. However, an opportunity arises by employing a depth camera in the indoor environment. A depth camera can capture point clouds of the surrounding floors and walls. Extracting attitude from these surfaces can serve as an accurate aiding source, which directly combats errors that arise due to gyroscope imperfections. This configuration for sensor fusion leads to a dramatic reduction of PVA error compared to traditional aiding sensor configurations. This paper provides the theoretical basis for the depth camera aiding sensor method, initial expectations of performance benefit via simulation, and hardware implementation thus verifying its veracity. Hardware implementation is performed on the Quanser Qbot 2™ mobile robot, with a Vector-Nav VN-200™ IMU and Kinect™ camera from Microsoft.

Keywords: Autonomous mobile robotics, dead reckoning, depth camera, inertial navigation, Kalman filtering, localization, sensor fusion.

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Authors: Chul Kwak, Oh-Wook Kwon

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In this paper, an extreme learning machine with an automatic segmentation algorithm is applied to heart disorder classification by heart sound signals. From continuous heart sound signals, the starting points of the first (S1) and the second heart pulses (S2) are extracted and corrected by utilizing an inter-pulse histogram. From the corrected pulse positions, a single period of heart sound signals is extracted and converted to a feature vector including the mel-scaled filter bank energy coefficients and the envelope coefficients of uniform-sized sub-segments. An extreme learning machine is used to classify the feature vector. In our cardiac disorder classification and detection experiments with 9 cardiac disorder categories, the proposed method shows significantly better performance than multi-layer perceptron, support vector machine, and hidden Markov model; it achieves the classification accuracy of 81.6% and the detection accuracy of 96.9%.

Keywords: Heart sound classification, extreme learning machine

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Authors: Subramaniam Chandran

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This paper examines the interplay of policy options and cost-effective technology in providing sustainable distance education. A case study has been conducted among the learners and teachers. The emergence of learning technologies through CD, internet, and mobile is increasingly adopted by distance institutes for quick delivery and cost-effective factors. Their sustainability is conditioned by the structure of learners and well as the teaching community. The structure of learners in terms of rural and urban background revealed similarity in adoption and utilization of mobile learning. In other words, the technology transcended the rural-urban dichotomy. The teaching community was divided into two groups on policy issues. This study revealed both cost-effective as well as sustainability impacts on different learners groups divided by rural and urban location.

Keywords: Distance Education, Mobile Learning, Policy, Technology

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Authors: J. L. Andrade-Pineda, J.M. León-Blanco, M. Calle, P. L. González-R

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The enrollment in current Master's degree programs usually pursues gaining the expertise required in real-life workplaces. The experience we present here concerns the learning process of "Project Management Methodology (PMM)", around a cooperative/collaborative mechanism aimed at affording students measurable learning goals and providing the teacher with the ability of focusing on the weaknesses detected. We have designed a mixed summative/formative evaluation, which assures curriculum engage while enriches the comprehension of PMM key concepts. In this experience we converted the students into active actors in the evaluation process itself and we endowed ourselves as teachers with a flexible process in which along with qualifications (score), other attitudinal feedback arises. Despite the high level of self-affirmation on their discussion within the interactive assessment sessions, they ultimately have exhibited a great ability to review and correct the wrong reasoning when that was the case.

Keywords: Cooperative-collaborative learning, educational management, formative-summative assessment, leadership training.

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Authors: Vishnu Pratap Singh Kirar

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Artificial Neural Network (ANN) can be trained using back propagation (BP). It is the most widely used algorithm for supervised learning with multi-layered feed-forward networks. Efficient learning by the BP algorithm is required for many practical applications. The BP algorithm calculates the weight changes of artificial neural networks, and a common approach is to use a twoterm algorithm consisting of a learning rate (LR) and a momentum factor (MF). The major drawbacks of the two-term BP learning algorithm are the problems of local minima and slow convergence speeds, which limit the scope for real-time applications. Recently the addition of an extra term, called a proportional factor (PF), to the two-term BP algorithm was proposed. The third increases the speed of the BP algorithm. However, the PF term also reduces the convergence of the BP algorithm, and criteria for evaluating convergence are required to facilitate the application of the three terms BP algorithm. Although these two seem to be closely related, as described later, we summarize various improvements to overcome the drawbacks. Here we compare the different methods of convergence of the new three-term BP algorithm.

Keywords: Neural Network, Backpropagation, Local Minima, Fast Convergence Rate.

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Authors: Radoslav Židek, Veronika Šidlová, Radovan Kasarda, Birgit Fuerst-Waltl

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Machine learning represents a set of topics dealing with the creation and evaluation of algorithms that facilitate pattern recognition, classification, and prediction, based on models derived from existing data. The data can present identification patterns which are used to classify into groups. The result of the analysis is the pattern which can be used for identification of data set without the need to obtain input data used for creation of this pattern. An important requirement in this process is careful data preparation validation of model used and its suitable interpretation. For breeders, it is important to know the origin of animals from the point of the genetic diversity. In case of missing pedigree information, other methods can be used for traceability of animal´s origin. Genetic diversity written in genetic data is holding relatively useful information to identify animals originated from individual countries. We can conclude that the application of data mining for molecular genetic data using supervised learning is an appropriate tool for hypothesis testing and identifying an individual.

Keywords: Genetic data, Pinzgau cattle, supervised learning.

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Authors: Linda Mei Sui Khoo, Dorit Maor, Renato Schibeci

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Graduate attributes have received increasing attention over recent years as universities incorporate these attributes into the curriculum. Graduates who have adequate technical knowledge only are not sufficiently equipped to compete effectively in the work place; they also need non disciplinary skills ie, graduate attributes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of an eportfolio in a technical communication course to enhance engineering students- graduate attributes: namely, learning of communication, critical thinking and problem solving and teamwork skills. Two questionnaires were used to elicit information from the students: one on their preferred and the other on the actual learning process. In addition, student perceptions of the use of eportfolio as a learning tool were investigated. Preliminary findings showed that most of the students- expectations have been met with their actual learning. This indicated that eportfolio has the potential as a tool to enhance students- graduate attributes.

Keywords: Eportfolio, Communication Skills, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills and Teamwork Skills

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Authors: Denise Levy, Helen J. Khoury

Abstract:

Nuclear technology is a controversial issue among a great share of the Brazilian population. Misinformation and common wrong beliefs confuse public’s perceptions and the scientific community is expected to offer a wider perspective on the benefits and risks resulting from ionizing radiation in everyday life. Attentive to the need of new approaches between science and society, the Nuclear Energy Museum, in northeast Brazil, is an initiative created to communicate the growing impact of the beneficial applications of nuclear technology in medicine, industry, agriculture and electric power generation. Providing accessible scientific information, the museum offers a rich learning environment, making use of different educational strategies, such as films, interactive panels and multimedia learning tools, which not only increase the enjoyment of visitors, but also maximize their learning potential. Developed according to modern active learning instructional strategies, multimedia materials are designed to present the increasingly role of nuclear science in modern life, transforming science education into a meaningful learning experience. In year 2016, nine different interactive computer-based activities were developed, presenting curiosities about ionizing radiation in different landmarks around the world, such as radiocarbon dating works in Egypt, nuclear power generation in France and X-radiography of famous paintings in Italy. Feedback surveys have reported a high level of visitors’ satisfaction, proving the high quality experience in learning nuclear science at the museum. The Nuclear Energy Museum is the first and, up to the present time, the only permanent museum in Brazil devoted entirely to nuclear science.

Keywords: Nuclear technology, multimedia learning tools, science museum, society and education.

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Authors: Andreas D. Jansson

Abstract:

The availability of inexpensive, yet competent hardware allows for increased level of automation and self-optimization in the context of Industry 4.0. However, such agents require high quality information about their surroundings along with a robust strategy for collision avoidance, as they may cause expensive damage to equipment or other agents otherwise. Manually defining a strategy to cover all possibilities is both time-consuming and counter-productive given the capabilities of modern hardware. This paper explores the idea of a model-free self-optimizing obstacle avoidance strategy for multiple autonomous agents in a simulated dynamic environment using the Q-learning algorithm.

Keywords: Autonomous vehicles, industry 4.0, multi-agent system, obstacle avoidance, Q-learning, simulation.

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Authors: Petar Halachev

Abstract:

Forecasting the values of the indicators, which characterize the effectiveness of performance of organizations is of great importance for their successful development. Such forecasting is necessary in order to assess the current state and to foresee future developments, so that measures to improve the organization-s activity could be undertaken in time. The article presents an overview of the applied mathematical and statistical methods for developing forecasts. Special attention is paid to artificial neural networks as a forecasting tool. Their strengths and weaknesses are analyzed and a synopsis is made of the application of artificial neural networks in the field of forecasting of the values of different education efficiency indicators. A method of evaluation of the activity of universities using the Balanced Scorecard is proposed and Key Performance Indicators for assessment of e-learning are selected. Resulting indicators for the evaluation of efficiency of the activity are proposed. An artificial neural network is constructed and applied in the forecasting of the values of indicators for e-learning efficiency on the basis of the KPI values.

Keywords: artificial neural network, balanced scorecard, e-learning

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