A Globalization Index for Academic Institutions

Ilyas, Mohammad; Bogotch, Ira (United States)

ABSTRACT:
A rapid growth in globalization has been providing opportunities for better awareness of various world cultures, improved relationships among citizens of different countries, and stronger social connectedness. Easy access and exchange of knowledge in an important factor propelling the process of globalization. The globalization, therefore, directly influences institutions of higher education. The institutions are assessing and making necessary adjustments to their operations to prepare their graduates for a globalized world. This paper presents a mechanism to assess preparedness of higher education institutions to address globalization challenges and opportunities. The mechanism proposes computation of a globalization index that combines several parameters relevant to globalization. The index can be used for assessing an institution’s preparedness for globalization, comparing that with other institutions, establishing trends, and forecasting.

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A Year of PR: A Collection from an Educational Service Center

Ash, George; Kokiko, Charles M.; Turner, Kelly (United States)

ABSTRACT:
The purpose of this review is to identify the impact that Public Relations and Marketing can have on the educational community. In many instances, the public only hears about schools when there is a tragedy, act of violence, scandal, or failing test scores. This review seeks to focus on the numerous positive activities that occur during each and every school day. With the use of Public Relations and Marketing, this information can be more effectively distributed. We will also discuss public relations pedagogy and how students can learn about the importance of what is reported or posted, and the impact each will have on the community perspective of the school district. With the help of this collection as an example, students of public relations can see how their work can shape the reputation of a school or business.

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Action-Orientation at German Vocational Schools in the Context of Work Process Knowledge

Rommel, Irina (Germany)

ABSTRACT:
This paper deals with the question of whether the working process knowledge required for professional practice can be initiated at German vocational schools. Therefore, the first part deals with the educational task of vocational schools and the corresponding educational ideals. Subsequently, an overview is given of the two concepts, work process knowledge and action orientation in educating students. Furthermore, the paper looks at the competence development at vocational schools and in companies and links the work process knowledge with action orientation in order to show how students can be prepared for becoming a reflective practitioner.

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AlfaMateca: A Mathematical Literacy Application for the Visually Impaired

Miranda, Jessica; Martini, Luiz; Miranda, Felipe (Brazil)

ABSTRACT:
Teaching mathematics for the visually impaired is a difficult task, especially when it is aimed at young students. Taking into account the current technologies, teachers can use various tools to assist them in this great challenge. Focusing on the mathematical literacy task, we present ALFAMATECA as a computational tool for assisting the educational process. ALFAMATECA is specially designed for the use with young visually impaired students, assisting the process of mathematical literacy adopting some concepts of gamification. As a result, ALFAMATECA is a free and scalable software, which is specifically designed for supporting the mathematical education of visually impaired students in an enjoyable and ludic tone.

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An e-Government Systems Development Methodology Framework

Ditibane, Lesego; Huisman, Hester (Magda); Mavetera, Nehemiah (South Africa)

ABSTRACT:
This paper presents the proposed e-Government systems development methodology framework (eGSDMF) that can be adopted when developing e-government systems. This eGSDMF is a framework that is made up of the characteristics of developing e-government systems and the different types of systems development methodologies. The paper followed the qualitative research method; interviews were conducted in four case studies involved in the development of e-government systems. Subsequently a cross-case analysis was performed on the four case studies. The research findings of this paper indicated that the appropriate use of systems development methodologies in the development of e-government systems helps to improve the quality of e-Government systems, reduces development costs, and also makes the development process effective and efficient. Based on the information gathered from the four case studies, developers in government find it difficult to select a suitable systems development methodology to use when developing e-government systems. Therefore the paper proposes a uniform e-Government system development methodology framework (eGSDMF) that can be used to select the appropriate methodology when developing e-Government systems.

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Building Bridges to the Unknown Lands. Social Innovation, Co-Creation and the Role of Communication in Multiplex Social Systems

Muehlmann, Kay (Austria)

ABSTRACT:
Social innovation strategies aimed at solving the complex challenges of our societies often do not show the desired results. Even if criteria are applied, which are known from the investigation of innovation supporting criteria in economic systems, such as diversity or openness the results often do not keep up with the promises and hopes. This suggests that a different point of view on the dynamics of our societies has to be taken. If we look at social systems as multiplex systems embedded in and in constant exchange with their environments, building socio-ecological structures for coevolutionary emergence, then our conclusions must be different, than if we dealing with a single unit, as the requirements for any of those environments may differ substantially from each other. This makes it difficult for innovations, if they happen, to spread throughout the social network. The decentralized structure appearing in social networks may be one reason, why certain innovations stay isolated within the overall system network. This paper focuses on the use of system logic which happens in an emergent coevolutionary process to support social innovation and its efficacy for the overall system.

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Educational Data Mining - An Experience in UTN FRRe

La Red Martínez, David L.; Giovannini, Mirtha E.; Báez Molinas, María E.; Torre, Juliana I.; Yaccuzzi, Nelson (Argentina)

ABSTRACT:
This paper proposes the use of Data Warehousing and Data Mining techniques on performance, social, economic, demographic and cultural data from students who took “Algorithms and Data Structures”, which is a subject in the Information Systems Engineering curricula at UTN-FRRe (Resistencia, Chaco, Argentina), to establish generic academic performance profiles.

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ERP Selection: The Lifeblood of an Organization

Bishop, Desmond (Tres) (United States)

ABSTRACT:
Not available.

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Evaluating the Construct Validity of Basic Science Curriculum Assessment Instrument for Critical Thinking: A Case-Study

Chen, Chau-Kuang; Horner, Adriana Marie; Scott, Michelle; McClure, Stephanie C. (United States)

ABSTRACT:
The Rasch model is a practical framework for evaluating a construct validity of assessment instruments. It is capable of determining how the measurement of person’s ability (endorsement) and item difficulty matches with each other. This study aimed at evaluating the psychometric properties (reliability, validity, and utility) of a basic science curriculum assessment instrument. Special emphasis was placed on finding the strengths and challenges in the curriculum, and detecting the existence of multidimensional structure. A total of 130 medical students in academic year 2016/17 completed a 22-item assessment instrument. Three major steps were involved in this study. First, the parameters of person’s ability and item difficulty were separately estimated. Second, infit/outfit mean square residuals and standardized residual variance from principal component analysis (PCA) were used to validate the unidimentionality assumption. Lastly, differential item functioning (DIF) was assessed to determine the fairness of the assessment instrument. As a result, the baseline measures of the strengths and challenges in medical curriculum were established for continuous quality improvement. However, the unexplained variance for the first contrast value of 3.08 in PCA was greater than the criterion of 2.0, which shows some degree of violation of the unidimensionality assumption. Therefore, this instrument must be further revised for future application.

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Fault Diagnosis of Photovoltaic Module Based on Extreme Learning Machine Technique

Sun, Yan; Wang, Jixue; Yang, Qiang; Li, Xiaoxia; Yan, Wenjun (China)

ABSTRACT:
A simple PV module fault simulation model and a fault diagnosis model of extreme learning machine (ELM) based on the kernel function are proposed. Through the analysis of the output of the PV module under normal state and fault states, the input variables of the diagnosis model are obtained. Finally, the simulation and experimental results show that the fault diagnosis method for PV modules based on the kernel based ELM (K-ELM) can effectively diagnosis four types of fault for PV module such as short-circuit, open-circuit, abnormal degradation and partial shading.

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Flipped Classroom – A Flexible Way of Teaching Technology Usage for Diagnostics in the Medical Subdomain ENT

Koch, Walter *; Schachenreiter, Jochen *; Vogt, Klaus **; Koch, Gerda * (* Austria, ** Latvia)

ABSTRACT:
A special problem area which ENT-Head/Neck (ENT: Ear-Nose-Throat) surgery specialists have to deal with is the air flow in the nasal cavities and paranasal sinuses. To extend the morphological diagnostic by detailed functional analysis, i.e. the visualization of the nasal air stream and the physical analysis of its energetic is a burning problem. The simulation of the airflow via CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) is nowadays gaining importance for diagnostics and the visualization and simulation of airflows from the nostrils to the nasal pharynx afford in first place a precise and high quality 3D reconstruction of the nasal cavities. But the successive validation and interpretation of CFD simulation results is a challenge for non CFD specialists. The introduction of these new technologies requires special education and training for students as well as for medical experts in order to learn how to use and handle different tools and methods when preparing a surgery. “Flipped classroom”, a type of blended learning, is a preferred method for supporting knowledge transfer not only to students and employees but also among all kind of different members within organizations.

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Health Wellness Monitoring Using the Scaling Exponent: A Heartbeat Interval Time Series Analysis

Yazawa, Toru (Japan)

ABSTRACT:
The cardio-vascular control system (CVCS) includes the heart, blood vessels, and neuronal/hormonal regulating systems. Ontogenetically and evolutionally, CVCS is designed, implemented and maintained by multi-cellular components. To endure proper operation as a mixture of different type of cells, CVCS functioning is automated with complex interaction with each other. When a certain state of CVCS becomes a malfunctioned state, physicians acknowledge that CVCS’s sickness might get started even the malfunctioned state is acute and temporary. However, it is not easy to quantify the state of CVCS. Using the scaling exponent (SI, scaling index), we have recently introduced a novel health technology to check CVCS’s state, which is “modified detrended fluctuation analysis (mDFA)”. mDFA-method simply calculates SI based on the electrocardiogram data. If our health wellness conditions are practically healthy, SI is nearly 1.0. If we bear a stressful condition, the value of SI decreases toward to 0.5. Intriguingly, if we would be at risk, for example, we are approaching unpredictable cessation of heart-pumping, we found that SI increase toward 1.5. This mDFA-rule is beneficial and applicable to “hearted” animals, from crustaceans to humans. Here we propose that mDFA can distinguish between healthiness and sickness of CVCS.

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Intelligent Fault Pattern Recognition of Aerial Photovoltaic Module Images Based on Deep Learning Technique

Li, Xiaoxia; Yang, Qiang; Wang, Jixue; Chen, Zhebo; Yan, Wenjun (China)

ABSTRACT:
The rise of photovoltaic industry has raised the difficulty of the operation and maintenance. Nowadays, the growing interest in the application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in civil monitoring and diagnostic applications has been observed. Such UAV-based inspection system can significantly improve the efficiency of system monitoring and fault detections. In this paper, an intelligent UAV-based inspection system is presented and implemented for asset assessment and defect classification for large-scale PV systems. The aerial imagery data of PV modules increase the complexity of the detection by traditional pattern recognition, a novel method based on the deep learning and supervision is proposed, which could solve the low quality and distortion flexibly and reliably. A conventional neural network (CNN) is adapted to the defects classification. Extracting features by the pre-trained architecture Vgg16, this paper added a full-connected layer and a SVM decision layer to classify the defects. Such pre-trained learning-based algorithm can meet the demand of the small datasets, and carry out a variety of deep features and condition classification in PV system, which could supervise with significantly promoted efficiency in comparison with conventional methods. The proposed solution is evaluated through numerical experiments and the result confirms its improved performance.

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Inter-Professional Approach in the Healthcare Professions

Dudley Smith, Clotilde (United States)

ABSTRACT:
Inter-Professional Education allows for an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of all health professions. Collaboration in health care, improving systems and skills and identifying best practices of interdisciplinary team based care can result in a reduction of communication errors and costs. Research correlating Inter-Professional Education with an increase in communication, quality care and patient safety, prompted the formation of the Inter-Professional Education (IPE) Committee at Sacred Heart University, College of Health Professions. The committee consists of twelve full time faculty from the undergraduate and graduate healthcare programs in the college. The committee meets once a month, ultimately creating inter-disciplinary activities for the undergraduate and graduate healthcare programs in the college. There are several activities offered to all students in health care disciplines, which commence in August and end in April. Previously held beliefs about other health care professions are explored and an appreciation for the contributions of all team members is developed.

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Introducing a Virtualization Concept in Space Operations

Kozlowski, Rolf; Singer, Thomas; Szczuka, Michael (Germany)

ABSTRACT:
This paper describes how the concept of virtualization was introduced and implemented at the DLR German Space Operartions Center and how deeply this impacted the concepts of the mission critical 24 / 7 space projects. The goal is not to describe how the virtualization technique was introduced on an IT level but to concentrate on the changes in the operational environment where many different space missions in different project stages are supported at the same time.

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Investments in Renewables Decision Making Based on Tangible and Intangible Criteria

Baracho, Renata Maria Abrantes; Bonatti, Rogério Amaral; Teixeira, Livia Marangon Duffles; Ferreira, Luiz Gustavo Fonseca; Baracho, Francisco Ricardo Abrantes Couy; Lima, Bernardo Cerqueira de; Silva, Cláudio Homero Ferreira (Brazil)

ABSTRACT:
The article presents an important stage of the Research and Technological Development Project "Information management for the sustainability of the portfolio of electric energy generation with alternative renewable sources" in the CEMIG (Minas Gerais Energy Company) P&D (Research and Development) Program executed by UFMG. The objective is to apply information management and knowledge assumptions to improve the decision-making process in a Brazilian energy company. The research presented leverages a previous models and methodology to produce a prototype application that will be used to determine optimum investment decisions for the electric power sector. This article presents the development methodology and validation of the system with a group of experts that correspond to the end users. For the validation, planning meetings were analyzed with the participation of seven specialists, CEMIG's electrical engineers and Professors. The prototype developed was used during the meetings. Two meetings were held as a proof of concept with a third meeting expected at the end of the project. The research project presents a partial result of the simulation of a real encounter with the use of the prototype to assist the managers in the decision-making process. The output of the model is a projection of the best investment to be made based on the extraction and evaluation of the knowledge of the specialists in a logical and mathematical way. The results of the research present a decision-making process based on more formal and less personal criteria, guaranteeing greater neutrality in the decision-making process.

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IT Strategies for Globalization Impact in de the SME’s (Aguascalientes Mexico Case)

Vivanco, Jesús Salvador; González, Martha; Martínez, Ma. Del Carmen (Mexico)

ABSTRACT:
The 73.9% of SMEs, in Mexico don’t use Internet in their commercial or industrial activity [9], taking in consideration that Numerous forms of communication, with low costs, leads up to opening the market for consumers throughout the world, the following factor is the impact of modern communication technologies. Rapid changes of all the forms of technology provide a rapid approach. These two factors have influenced the change of power in the market, from producer to consumer or end user, [10], also we have to consider that Globalization has systemically affected the way all firms undertake innovation. First, there has been a growing use of non-internal technology development, both by outsourcing and strategic alliances. Second, products are increasingly multi-technological. This has led to the growing use of networks by all firms, [11]. Throw This research using descriptive methodology, it was detected that using IT as a commercial strategy in Mexican SME’s could be the Detonating for increase the SME’s competitiveness in México.

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Optimal Path Planning for UAVs Based on an Improved Bat Algorithm

Xi, Zhipeng; Wang, Jixue; Yang, Qiang; Li, Xiaoxia; Zheng, Jun; Yan, Wenjun (China)

ABSTRACT:
The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have a rapid development and broad application prospects in military civil fields in recent years. Path planning is the key technology for UAVs to execute related tasks as well as a hot issue of UAV research. As a novel swarm intelligence (SI) algorithm, bat algorithm (BA) has been applied in the field of engineering because of the advantages of efficiency and convergence speed. Aiming at BA's defects, the paper proposes an improved BA and crossover in genetic algorithm is introduced in; the search space is expanded and a higher convergence speed can be obtained due to the improvement. This paper researches the relation between the initialization of the solutions and the improved algorithm. After obtaining the control points of the trajectory, B-spline curves are used to smooth the path. The simulation experiments clearly demonstrated that the improved algorithm outperforms the conventional solution in UAV path planning.

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Pan-Tilt and Flight Attitude Control for UAV Based Inspection System of Photovoltaic Farm

Lou, Zhuo; Wang, Jixue; Yang, Qiang; Li, Xiaoxia; Chen, Zhebo; Yan, Wenjun (China)

ABSTRACT:
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has expended its application range from military fields to industrial and civilian areas in recent years. For instance, it can facilitate the inspection of large-scale photovoltaic (PV) farm by mounting camera and processing images. Due to the installation angle of PV modules, perspective distortion exists in images captured by the airborne camera, which brings difficulties to further image processing. In this paper, a novel algorithm is proposed to detect PV module, calculate the adjusting angles of pan-tilt and flight displacement. The performance of proposed method is assessed through simulation experiment as well as trial study in a given situation and the numerical result confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed solution.

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Partnering for Innovation: Developing a Next-Gen Laboratory for Exponential Technology

Liotine, Matthew (United States)

ABSTRACT:
The Next-Gen Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago serves as a center of knowledge that concentrates expertise and resources in exponential technologies. In addition to being a hub for networking and knowledge exchange, Next-Gen provides member firms with access to resources that would not otherwise be easily obtainable. Through Next-Gen’s co-innovation partnerships, enterprises have exclusive access to early talent, futurists, systems thinkers, designers, strategists, modelers and data scientists to help innovate and solve complex business problems. Next-Gen provides firms with a cost-effective alternative to rapidly realize innovation outcomes that would not be easily attainable in a normal corporate environment. The center’s programs and research emphasize information systems, operations and supply chain management, and business data analytics. Through connections with students, startups, academic researchers, accelerators and venture firms, enterprises have opportunities to achieve new design concepts, prototype applications and business models to reimagine business. Students and faculty engage with industry partners through projects focusing on real-life industry challenges, applying design thinking, business model methodologies and exponential technologies. With faculty comprised of researchers and industry professionals, the lab can be a model for developing the next generation of industry leaders in cutting-edge technologies and processes that increasingly define business success.

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Privacy Preservation Data Publishing of Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana Using Identity Base Encryption Scheme

Kissi Mireku, Kingsford; Zhang, Fengli; Gbongli, Komlan; Djimesah, Isaac Edem (China)

ABSTRACT:
In the domain of healthcare professionals, their essential aim is to provide healthcare to patients while preserving the privacy of the patients and protecting the confidentiality of their healthcare data. While in the arena of health insurance providers, the disclosure of clients’ health information is a requirement for the dispensation of insurance claims. But in the scenario of nations, the provision of good healthcare and accessibility of health facilities and benefits for their residents are some of their main priorities. Ghana; a developing country has introduced the National Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as its contribution towards the affordable healthcare for its residents. The publication of data for insurance claims and also for accountability transparency have always been an impending encounter towards the privacy preservation of the residents. This paper provides a privacy preservation data publishing for the national insurance system by applying the Identity-Based Encryption (IBE) scheme. The scheme delinks members’ identity from the healthcare data during data publishing. Ensuring the smooth continuity and securing the NHIS, it is essential to provide solutions to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the NHIS since it is of significantly relieved for the residence in Ghana.

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Proposing an Education System to Judge the Necessity of Nuclear Power in Japan

Kusumi, Ariyoshi (Japan)

ABSTRACT:
In environmental education, the importance of education to promote thinking has been repeatedly emphasized. Further, following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant incident on March 11, 2011, judging the necessity of nuclear power is a controversial and important issue in Japan. Therefore, it is clear that education to promote thinking and judgment is important, especially as far as the necessity of nuclear power is concerned. In this research, I focus on the development of education to promote making judgments. I developed an easy-to-use education system, designed to enable individual citizens to judge the necessity of nuclear power in Japan. The system is designed to allow people to judge whether “YES” or “NO” regarding the using of nuclear power. First of all, a preliminary judgment is called for from each of a range of nine perspectives. Then, a comprehensive judgment is expected to be made from each of the nine perspectives. For those who cannot make judgments easily, I developed a quantitative system and made it available so that anyone can judge. Through the use of a questionnaire, I was able to make tentative evaluations of the appropriateness and effectiveness of the education system that I had developed.

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Relating Consulting via Research: Evidence-Based Findings Applied to a Formative Evaluation and Curriculum Revision of the Department of Defense’s Substance Abuse Common Military Training

Schafer, Maureen Lucy; Chukwura, Chizoba L. (United States)

ABSTRACT:
Inclusion of evidence-based methods in consulting is context reliant with its implementation occurring throughout the business project stages. At each stage different evidence-based methods and tools are relevant, as demonstrated, through this presented Department of Defense (DoD) project. In response to the DoD Instruction 1322.31, Lead Proponent for Substance Abuse, the Psychological Health Center of Excellence, a component of the Defense Health Agency, developed a core curriculum for the Substance Abuse Common Military Training. This enterprise level evaluation framed via the Systems Life Cycle Model provided a logical and sequential process outlining project tasks. The Medical Research Council Process Evaluation Framework guided both the review and assessment of data on military service-specific implementation (fidelity, dose, adaptations, reach) of substance misuse prevention programs. The project yielded two essential products: (a) an analysis of the DoD substance misuse prevention policy implementation across the Services and (b) conclusions and recommendations supporting a centralized, and evidence-based military substance misuse prevention curriculum. The proper application of research to recommend a rigorous training system innovation and substance misuse core curriculum, as demonstrated in this consulting project, is proposed as an effective, sustainable and evidence-based approach.

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Sound Driven Elderly People Monitoring System. Fostering Co-Working between Higher and Lower Education Systems

Guaragnella, Cataldo; Palieri, Matteo; De Scisciolo, Graziano; Dentamaro, Giuseppe; Di Lecce, Vincenzo (Italy)

ABSTRACT:
Recently Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research launched an innovative approach to foster collaboration between universities, companies and Secondary schools in the attempt to enhance the information interchange and allow secondary school students to face jobs and the working activities before the end of the secondary school. The program “Alternanza scuola Lavoro” asks to develop project in conjunction between group of students in the school to be carried out either in public structures and/or in local companies. In this work the experience carried out at Politecnico di Bari between a group of students and SST lab, a Research laboratory of Politecnico di Bari is described. The activities and results are presented and the thorough applied methodology s presented.

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Stories, Metaphors, and True-Life Adventures: Useful Tools in Psychotherapy

Stehouwer, R. Scott (United States)

ABSTRACT:
In a very real sense, the processes of counseling and psychotherapy not only rely on, but rest upon the foundation of oral tradition [1]. Virtually any learning, particularly passing on knowledge that produces healthy insight, adaptive action, and therapeutic relationships relies heavily on, and indeed appears based on the oral tradition of counseling and psychotherapy. This article describes stories, metaphors, and true-life adventures that can be useful in the process of counseling and psychotherapy. It also serves as an encouragement for therapists to use storytelling as a powerful, concise, and memorable tool for promoting therapeutic gains.

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Students’ Motivation in Undergraduate Courses

Pournaghshband, Hassan (United States)

ABSTRACT:
Education theory suggests that student learning is enhanced when students pay attention to their own learning. There are numerous effective techniques discussed in literature that instructors can employ to encourage their students to pay this attention and enhance their learning. It is important to note that not all these techniques work equally for both, graduate and undergraduate courses. Students vary in culture, socioeconomic status, language, gender, motivation, ability/disability, personal interests and more, and teachers must be aware of these varieties as they plan curriculum. This distinction, specifically considering motivation, ability and personal interests, would even play more significant role when dealing with undergraduate students versus graduate students. In this paper, we address a teaching technique that although it would effectively work for both, graduate and undergraduate courses, but it is better tailored for undergraduate courses. The main idea behind our approach is that it will allow students to grasp the highlights of a topic before its respective lecture is given. The effectiveness of our approach has been evident through higher number of students successfully completing the course as well as the students’ feedback at the end of the semester indicating their pleasure about the course.

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The Index of Higher Education-Business Engagement – A Methodology of the Instrument Monitoring University-Business Relations

Poszytek, Paweł; Jeżowski, Mateusz Wit (Poland)

ABSTRACT:
In a world driven by innovation the cooperation between academia and business is a prerequisite to a sustainable economic growth, employment and prosperity. Even though the examples of university-business cooperation can be easily identified, the phenomenon has not yet been fully described and analyzed. The Index of Higher Education-Business Engagement (HEBE Index), based on a set of precise indicators, constitutes a framework for comparative analysis which can provide a detailed picture to what extent individual universities in different countries cooperate with industry and business. The index as a tool for monitoring the level of adherence of national policies and practices to European and globally accepted and acknowledged recommendations and solutions, seeks to capture the attention of leaders in government and can be used as a benchmarking tool for universities and business.

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The Outer Banks Study – Physio-Chemical Parameters for Water Quality Testing in a Professional Development Program for K-12 Teachers-Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

Stringer, Joseph; Bowman, Timothy; Vinson, Keith; Warnecke, Catherine; Lewis, Nora; Slattery, William; Lunsford, Suzanne K. (United States)

ABSTRACT:
This paper describes the study of the water quality testing being carried out /analyzed during a professional development program held along the Outer Banks of North Carolina for in-service teachers. The professional development participants were engaged in learning to use different types of water quality testing equipment. These participants found the advantages of utilizing electrodes and a photometer for reproducible results in examining the environmental impacts of possible industry located around the area sites studied. The water analysis project has allowed the in-service teachers to learn the use of various technologies and software needed for real-world problem solving related to water quality their student’s learning-PBL (Problem-Based Learning).

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The Potentials of Open and Distance Education in Solving the Problems of Limited Access to Higher Education in Nigeria: National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN)

Adamu, Abdulkadir (United Kingdom)

ABSTRACT:
The role of education within the modern society cannot be underestimated. Key researchers – at individual and research level – have linked education with the individual, communal, national, and international development. While the 21st century has seen governments channel efforts towards ensuring access to quality education, some nations still lag in providing equitable access to education. More specifically, most countries in Africa have not been able to provide the required level of access to quality education, especially in higher education. Where efforts have been made, a plethora of challenges have hindered the fruition of endeavours strategically formed to foster education. However, the onset of technological advancements has consequently changed the nature of operations in the field of education. NOUN as one of the most prominent Open and Distance Education institution (ODE) in Nigeria has facilitated access for thousands of individuals yearning for Higher Education (HE) through ease of admission, flexibility and affordability. In this regard, ODE ranks as the most promising means of solving the problem of access to higher education within the country.

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When the Campus Becomes the Classroom: Texas A&M’s Campus Transportation Technology Initiative

Brydia, Robert E.; Vázquez, Jr., José A. (United States)

ABSTRACT:
University campuses are unique ecosystems that provide living laboratories in which to test new ideas and innovations. Institutions can combine their academic and research missions to conduct collaborative projects that focus on solving real-world problems. Texas A&M University [1] developed the Campus Transportation Technology Initiative (CTTI) [2] for just this reason. Under this initiative, private-sector transportation innovations are brought to campus to enhance safety, mobility, and quality of life, for students, staff, faculty, and visitors. CTTI projects, managed by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) [3], a transportation research agency recognized internationally for research excellence, focus on spot deployments of new technologies within the campus. These deployments are evaluated by student teams from the University, departmentally approved, capstone courses. To date, the initiative has provided 25 projects across five Texas A&M academic colleges. Sample projects have included such innovations as autonomous shuttles, geo-fenced payment options for parking, parking lot analytics, in-place evaluation and mechanical property testing of solar luminescent pavement markings, evaluation of people-mover options for campus, and development of technologies for pedestrian heat maps. Although CTTI focuses on spot deployments, the results of the evaluations feed into Texas A&M’s master plan update, with the overall goals of moving the campus to a greener, more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly environment, while accounting for the significant growth and rise in enrollment taking place at the University. The proposed article would emphasize how the initiative was proposed and developed, the methods employed to successfully engage both the private and academic sectors, and the results of the initiative to date. In addition, several topical projects will be presented as examples of success stories for collaborating across the academic, research, and private sectors.

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