Digital Commons Network^™

Developing Learning Communities In Fully Online Spaces: Positioning The Fully Online Learning Community Model, Todd Blayone, Roland Van Oostveen, Wendy Barber, Maurice Digiuseppe, Elizabeth Childs

Teaching and Learning in a Digital Context

The Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC), developed at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), is a social-constructivist model, addressing a paradigm shift in employment skills, and supporting key elements of transformational learning. Adopting a Problem-based Learning (PBL) approach to activity design, FOLC has served as basis for both undergraduate and graduate, fully online degree programs for almost a decade. In this time, it has demonstrated its ability to facilitate richly collaborative, socially cohesive, and constructively critical, learning communities supported by a flexible array of synchronous and asynchronous digital affordances. FOLC represents a “divergent fork” of the Community of …

Embedding High Definition Videoconferencing In Higher Education To Create Global Graduates, Lon Appleby, Paul Dervan

Internationalization, Globalization and Exchange in Higher Education

Study abroad programmes designed to meet industry needs for graduates with inter-cultural skills and a global outlook have low participation rates in Canada and Ireland due mainly to financial barriers. Embedding the use of High Definition Interactive Videoconferencing (HD IVC) in higher education has the potential to create ‘Global Graduates’ with the skills sought by employers today. The ‘Global Class’ is a concept which has been developed at Durham College, Canada. Using HD IVC, students from different countries can participate in a ninety-minute class facilitated by Durham College and led by an invited thought leader with expertise in a specific …

Qualibuild Train The Trainer Lessons Learned From The Development Of A Program For Training Trainers Of Construction, Mark Keys, Shaun Ferns, Robert Hickey, Richie Ryan, Jonathon Cussen, Douglas Hynes

Partnerships

In response to recent directives to promote quality energy efficient buildings throughout Europe, the EU funded Build UP Skills Ireland (BUSI) project launched a national skills gap analysis of the construction sector in 2011. Generally, the gap that was identified was one of knowledge rather than skills. However, this knowledge is fundamental for the successful implementation of low energy buildings. The BUSI analysis also found that the majority of trainers of construction related crafts lacked the experience and knowledge on the implementation of energy efficient buildings. Consequently, the follow on Build UP Skills QualiBuild project focussed on the development and …

On The Transformative Growth Of The Uoit Automotive Centre Of Excellence (Ace) From Industry Research To Collaborative Industry/Academic Research And Experiential Learning, Ramiro Liscano, Don Toporowski, John Komar, Gary Elfstrom

Partnerships

The Automotive Centre of Excellence (ACE) at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology is a research and development facility that offers chambers and technology for thermal management and aerodynamics including structural durability and life-cycle testing. Facilities include one of the largest and most sophisticated climatic wind tunnels (CWT) on the planet. ACE is a university-owned and operated research and development facility that commenced operations in 2011. Its original mandate was focused on the research and engineering development of automotive systems with an emphasis on Industry partnerships. Over the years ACE has diversified its market sectors and increased its community …

Technology Infusion Within Part-Time Professional Development Programmes For Academic Staff And Industry Practitioners, Claire Mcavinia, Claire M. Mcdonnell, Roisin Donnelly

Partnerships

This paper reports on the experiences of programme co-ordinators and includes findings from a two year (2013-15) evaluation pilot study on a key communication technology – audio feedback – conducted across three accredited part-time programmes for a blend of academic staff (faculty) in higher education and eLearning industry practitioners. Key to our decision making with regards to which tools to infuse in our programmes is our aim to help the educators who participate on our programmes to make better use of technology tools in their own instructional contexts. This paper focuses on the example of formative audio feedback. Anticipated benefits …

More Than Community Service: Providing Nationally Relevant And Large Scale Professional Development Opportunities For Public Sector Workers Through Immersion Into E-Learning, Ulrich Rauch Ph.D.

Partnerships

The public service in Trinidad and Tobago is in need of streamlining and modernisation. In the 21st century the economic wellbeing of the country is tied into a global economy that demands entrepreneurship and quick and nimble business and administrative processes to retain a competitive advantage. In particular, Trinidad and Tobago needs to move from extracting ever diminishing hydro-carbon based natural resources such as oil and natural gas, to wealth creation through becoming a knowledge society, by marketing its collective intelligence and entrepreneurial acumen. This requires a well trained workforce and a civil administration that supports sustainable progress in all …

Integrating Work Experience Into The Digital Media Curriculum: A Case Study, Hugh Mccabe

Partnerships

We present a case study of the integration of a work experience component into an undergraduate degree in Creative Digital Media. This is a fully accredited academic module that immerses the student in a professional working environment for most of a semester. The aim is to facilitate the development of digital media skills by applying them within the workplace and to leverage the use of work-based learning in order to produce more competent, confident and employable graduates. Our case study is informed firstly by analysis of, and reflection on, our experiences of running the programme since its inception in 2010. …

Digital Literacy: Why It Matters, Allison Kavanagh, K.C. O'Rourke

Journal Articles

In the past two decades the internet, email, apps, mobile devices and all associated hardware and software have become firmly embedded in everyday life, to the extent that it often feels that we have had no control over this phenomenon. What are the implications for education?

Primary and secondary students today have grown up with the always-connected life which the internet has enabled. However, the credence given to the idea that this makes them fully comfortable and aware as "digital natives" is misguided. The social implications of the internet society – surveillance and the decline of privacy, cyberbullying and so …

The 12 Apps Of Christmas: An Innovative And Effective Online Student And Educator Support, Frances Boylan

Journal Articles

The 12 Apps of Christmas course is a free open online course that has run at the Technological University Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, in both 2014 and 2015. The 2014 version of this course was aimed specifically at instructors and went on to win the Mobile Learning Division of the International E-Learning Award (iELA) and come joint third-place at the eLearning Excellence Awards run as part of the 14th European Conference on eLearning. The 2015 iteration was aimed primarily at students of all ages undertaking further education, third-level education and/or postgraduate study, but also included additional supporting information for educators. This …

Towards Reusable Personas For Everyday Design, Ciaran O'Leary, Fredrick Mtenzi, Claire Mcavinia

Papers, presentations and other resources

Personas are artificial character based representations of user goals, attitudes, motivations and abilities which enable designers to focus their design efforts on key, targeted users. The success of personas in design is due to their capacity to enable designers to empathize with users and understand user goals. Persona development is rooted in the rigorous collection and analysis of data specifically related to the design project being undertaken. New design projects thus require the development of new personas. Since redevelopment is not always achievable attention has turned towards reuse of personas and the underlying data. This paper reports on ongoing research …

Controlling Microbial Safety Challenges Of Meat Using High Voltage Atmospheric Cold Plasma, Lu Han, Dana Ziuzina, Caitlin Marie Heslin, Daniela Boehm, Apurva Patange, David Millan-Sango, Vasilis Valdramidis, Patrick J. Cullen, Paula Bourke

Articles

Atmospheric cold plasma (ACP) is a non-thermal technology, effective against a wide range of pathogenic microorganisms. Inactivation efficacy results from plasma generated reactive species. These may interact with any organic components in a test matrix including the target microorganism, thus food components may exert a protective effect against the antimicrobial mode of action. The effect of an in-package high voltage ACP process applied in conjunction with common meat processing MAP gas compositions as well as bacteria type and meat model media composition have been investigated to determine the applicability of this technology for decontamination of safety challenges associated with meat …

Cytotoxic And Mutagenic Potential Of Solutions Exposed To Cold Atmospheric Plasma, Daniela Boehm, Caitlin Heslin, P.J. Cullen, Paula Bourke

Articles

The exposure of aqueous solutions to atmospheric plasmas results in the generation of relatively long-lived secondary products such as hydrogen peroxide which are biologically active and have demonstrated anti-microbial and cytotoxic activity. The use of plasma-activated solutions in applications such as microbial decontamination or anti-cancer treatments requires not only adequate performance on target cells but also a safe operating window regarding the impact on surrounding tissues. Furthermore the generation of plasma-activated fluids needs to be considered as a by-stander effect of subjecting tissue to plasma discharges. Cytotoxicity and mutagenicity assays using mammalian cell lines were used to elucidate the effects …

Artemisinin Production By Plant Hairy Root Cultures In Gas- And Liquid-Phase Bioreactors, Nivedita Patra, Ashok K. Srivastava

Articles

Key message

Alternative biotechnological protocol for large-scale artemisinin production was established. It featured enhanced growth and artemisinin production by cultivation of hairy roots in nutrient mist bioreactor (NMB) coupled with novel cultivation strategies.

Artemisinin is used for the treatment of cerebral malaria. Presently, its main source is from seasonal plant Artemisia annua. This study featured investigation of growth and artemisinin production by A. annua hairy roots (induced by Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated genetic transformation of explants) in three bioreactor configurations—bubble column reactor, NMB and modified NMB particularly to establish their suitability for commercial production. It was observed that cultivation of …

Augmented Reality And The Events Curriculum: The Students' Perspective, Mary O'Rawe, Alex Gibson

Conference papers

The emergence of Augmented Reality (AR) as a ground-breaking technology has transcended both business and academic sectors. Despite its rapid rise commercially, evidence of the benefits of AR in the classroom at higher education is slower to emerge, with only a limited focus to date on its specific relationship with curriculum development and learning outcomes. To respond to the changing characteristics of the higher education learning environment, and the shift towards mobile learning (M Learning) and ubiquitous learning (U Learning), it is clear that educators should reflect these trends in curriculum design and didactic methods. This paper presents the findings …

The Right Way To Write: An Academic Writing Guide For First Year Undergraduates, Mary O'Rawe, Brian Murphy

Student Resources

This booklet has been designed to provide a first-year undergraduate student with a single source of information and guidelines to help them produce better work at the level of writing required at college. It is intended for first-year undergraduates, whether on a level 7 or level 8 degree, so that they can start to build the skills and learning required on the student journey towards their degree.

Harnessing The Power Of Text Mining For The Detection Of Abusive Content In Social Media, Hao Chen, Susan Mckeever, Sarah Jane Delany

Conference papers

Abstract The issues of cyberbullying and online harassment have gained considerable coverage in the last number of years. Social media providers need to be able to detect abusive content both accurately and efficiently in order to protect their users. Our aim is to investigate the application of core text mining techniques for the automatic detection of abusive content across a range of social media sources include blogs, forums, media-sharing, Q&A and chat - using datasets from Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Kongregate, Formspring and Slashdot. Using supervised machine learning, we compare alternative text representations and dimension reduction approaches, including feature selection and …

Understanding The Everyday Designer In Organisations, Ciaran O'Leary, Fredrick Mtenzi, Claire Mcavinia

Conference papers

This paper builds upon the existing concept of an everyday designer as a non-expert designer who carries out design activities using available resources in a given environment. It does so by examining the design activities undertaken by non-expert, informal, designers in organisations who make use of the formal and informal technology already in use in organisations while designing to direct, influence, change or transform the practices of people in the organisation. These people represent a cohort of designers who are given little attention in the literature on information systems, despite their central role in the formation of practice and enactment …

Using Concatenation Cost For Unit Selection Of Homosonic Segments In Concatenative Sound Synthesis, Noris Mohd Norowi, Mas Rina Mustaffa, Eduardo Reck Miranda

School of Art, Design and Architecture

This paper studies the issues surrounding the search and selection process in a general CSS system which may affect the synthesis result, namely the homosonic segments. Homosonic segments are first termed in this study, where it refers to audio files which have one or more of the same sonic properties with each other, but do not sound the same acoustically when played due to the limited audio features extracted during the analysis process. These homosonic segments create confusions within the CSS selection engine. This study proposes a robust solution to overcome this issue by introducing the concatenation cost in addition …

Mass-Participation Architecture: Social Media And The Decentralisation Of Architectural Agency As A Commercial Imperative, Alexander Lorimer

School of Art, Design and Architecture Theses

A key problem in the field of architecture and urban planning since the 1960s has been the marginal role played by the general public in directly shaping significant aspects of the built environment. This thesis draws on theories around participatory planning, and in particular, the seminal 1969 publication ‘Non-plan: An Experiment in Freedom’. Non-plan suggested the potential of digital technology to facilitate self-organising public participation in architectural design and urban planning, while also taking inspiration from consumer- responsive activities across commercial disciplines. Now, half a century later, advancing web-technologies are beginning to facilitate mass-participatory design as a commercial imperative, and …

The Impact Of Fibre Connectivity On Smes: Benefits And Business Opportunities, Ad Phippen, H Lacohee

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Consuming Culture: Effects Of Globalization In American Japanese Restaurants, Danielle Wenning 16

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

Mechanisms Of Pancreatic Beta Cell Dysfunction In Diabetes, Vaibhav Sidarala

Wayne State University Dissertations

Diabetes is a serious medical condition characterized by decreased insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells and decreased insulin sensitivity in the peripheral tissues, resulting in elevated levels of blood glucose. According to the International Diabetes Federation, about 387 million cases have been reported worldwide in the year 2013 and it is estimated that about 500 million people would be affected by 2050. Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for about 90% of the total number of cases, is caused by decreased insulin sensitivity in the peripheral tissues and decreased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from the pancreatic β-cells. The underlying mechanisms involved in β-cell …

What Do Students Value? Exploring Instructor Behaviors In Face-To-Face And Online Higher Education Classrooms, Daria S. Lafave

Wayne State University Dissertations

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Oxygen Transport, Shear Stress, And Metabolism In Perfused Hepatocyte-Seeded Scaffolds With Radial Pore Architecture: Experimental And Computational Analyses, Chijioke Mbanu

Wayne State University Dissertations

Several modalities have been proposed as treatments or temporary stop-gap for patients suffering from liver failure until a suitable organ is available. However there is still an urgent need for an off-the-shelf device that can accommodate clinically relevant cell numbers, be cultured at physiological oxygen tensions and, can be fully integrated into and heal the injured hepatic space. In this study we investigated the effects that convective and direct oxygenation had on hepatocyte functionality, morphology and viability while cultured in bulk 3D chitosan scaffolds and perfusion bioreactor systems. Cylindrical chitosan scaffolds with radial directed pore structures were fabricated by a …

Development Of Single And Array Electro-Chemical Sensors For Real-Time Trace Metal Analysis In Aqueous Environmental Media, Yuanyuan Yang

Wayne State University Dissertations

Detection of trace metals has great importance in environmental and biological applications. While traditional electrochemical techniques have played critical roles in this field, their usefulness is limited by temporal resolution, Hg toxicity and stability concerns. Recently, we developed a method using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) at carbon-fiber microelectrodes (CFMs) to achieve rapid measurement of metal ions with high sensitivity, selectivity, and stability. Through optimizations this method showed strengths in real-time trace metal analysis. ‬‬‬‬‬‬

‪Analytical selectivity was improved via covalent functionalization on CFMs. We employed diazonium electrochemical reduction followed by click chemistry to create robust covalent attachments. We showcased its …

Kontra Publik Keagamaan Dalam Media Baru: Islam, Kebudayaan Populer, Dan Media Sosial Pada Gerakan #Indonesiatanpajil, Imam Ardhianto

Antropologi Indonesia

This article explores the rise of contemporary Islamic movement that emerged as a result of a counter-public phenomenon over the discourse of liberal Islam in Indonesia. The phenomena explain the new entry point to understand the relationship between social media, popular culture, and the articulation of Islamic identity and piousness among urban youth in Indonesia. Taking case on the emerging popular-religious movement of #IndonesiatanpaJIL, that were arise from social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube), this article examined how this movement was creatively playing Islamic discourse and the notions of nationalism/citizenship through urban pop culture materiality and commercialized public spaces. …

Laws Of Conception: A Queer Genealogy Of Canada’S Assisted Human Reproduction Act, Stu Marvel

FIU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Politically Correct Eugenics, Seema Mohapatra

FIU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Juvenile Offenders: Victims Of Circumstance With A Potential For Rehabilitation, Andrea Huerta

FIU Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Comprehensive Model Of The Transport Phenomena In Gas Metal Arc Welding, Junling Hu, Zhenghua Rao, Hai-Lung Tsai

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A comprehensive two-dimensional gas metal arc welding (GMAW) model was developed to take into account all the interactive events in the gas metal arc welding process, including the arc plasma, melting of the electrode, droplet formation, detachment, transfer, and impingement onto the workpiece, and the weld-pool dynamics and weld formation. The comprehensive GMAW model tracks the free surface using the volume of fluid method and directly modeled the coupling effects between the arc domain and the metal domain, thus eliminating the need to assign boundary conditions at the interface. A thorough investigation of the plasma arc characteristics was conducted to …