Education Commons^™

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2013, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Singapore Management University Wins Inaugural Teradata University Network Teaching Innovation Award, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases

Teradata Corporation, a leading global provider of analytic data platforms, marketing applications and analytics related consulting services, announced today the winner of the 2013 Teradata University Network (TUN) Teaching Innovation Award. Associate Professor Michelle Cheong and Mr Murphy Choy from the School of Information Systems at Singapore Management University (SMU) received the Award for their teaching case on "Effective Use of Data & Decision Analytics to Improve Order Distribution in a Supply Chain".

Workforce Preparedness Of Information Systems Students: Perceptions Of Students, Alumni, And Employers, Susan Bristow

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Employers of newly hired higher education graduates report their new workforce is not prepared. Further research was required to discover insights to the workforce readiness gap. This concurrent mixed methods study explored what competencies influenced employer's perceptions of the work-readiness of Information Systems (ISYS) undergraduate students and discovered ISYS graduates' and current ISYS students' perceptions of their work-readiness. Participants consisted of a convenience sample including 69 ISYS program upperclassmen, 20 ISYS program alumni, and 8 employers of the ISYS program graduates. ISYS program alumni completed an online Qualtrics survey to measure the participants' perception of their workforce preparedness. ISYS program …

The Effects Of Self-Explanation And Reading Questions And Answers On Learning Computer Programming Language, Nancy Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The current study explored the differential effects of two learning strategies, self-explanation and reading questions and answers, on students' test performance in the computer programming language JavaScript. Students' perceptions toward the two strategies as to their effectiveness in learning JavaScript was also explored by examining students' preferred strategy and the reasons for their choice. An online interactive tutorial instruction that implemented worked-examples and multimedia learning principles was developed for this study. A total of 147 high school students (ages ranging from 14 to 17) who were taking a Computer Introduction course participated in this study. The course was offered in …

A Local Social Network Approach For Research Management, Xiaoyan Liu, Zhiling Guo, Zhenjiang Lin, Jian Ma

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Traditional methods to evaluate research performance focus on citation count, quality and quantity of research output by individual researchers. These measures overlook the roles an individual plays in research collaboration, which is critical in an institutional research management environment due to the inherent interdependency among research entities. In order to address the organizational research management needs, we propose a research social network approach to better analyze local collaboration networks. For this purpose, we develop a new “collaboration supportiveness” measure to quantify an individual researcher's collaboration ability. Insights derived from this research are very helpful for managers to effectively allocate resources, …

Exploring The Implications Of Tutor Negativity Towards A Synthetic Agent In A Learning-By-Teaching Environment, Ma. Mercedes T. Rodrigo

Department of Information Systems & Computer Science Faculty Publications

We examine the implications of negativity in free-form dialogue between student tutors and a synthetic agent in APLUS, a learning-by-teaching online learning environment for Algebra. We attempt to determine whether the negativity of a student tutor's discourse with the agent indicates that the student is learning more or less of the material and whether the feedback they give the synthetic agent is more or less accurate. We found a weak negative correlation between tutor negativity and learning gains and a strong negative correlation between tutor negativity and accuracy of feedback. Negativity might indeed indicate that student tutors lack mastery of …

Adaptive Gameplay For Programming Practice, Chris Boesch, Sandra Boesch

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Over the past four years, we have collaborated to develop a set of online games to enable users to practice software languages in a self-directed manner and as part of a class. Recently we introduced a new adaptive difficulty feature that enables players to self-regulate the difficulty of the games they are playing to practice. These new features also provide additional information to further adapt the problem content to better meet the needs of the users.

Cognitive Activity Support Tools: Design Of The Visual Interface, Paul Parsons

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation is broadly concerned with interactive computational tools that support the performance of complex cognitive activities, examples of which are analytical reasoning, decision making, problem solving, sense making, forecasting, and learning. Examples of tools that support such activities are visualization-based tools in the areas of: education, information visualization, personal information management, statistics, and health informatics. Such tools enable access to information and data and, through interaction, enable a human-information discourse. In a more specific sense, this dissertation is concerned with the design of the visual interface of these tools. This dissertation presents a large and comprehensive theoretical framework to …

Fall 2013

In The Loop

Q&A with Dean Miller; College snapshot; Fear and loathing at the Premiere Film Festival 2013; The elephant in the virtual reality room; Cinespace collaboration yields 20,000-square-foot classroom; CDM launches alumna into the world of software and beyond; Many Dreams, One mission campaign for DePaul University; Around the college; Accolades

Development Of A Jobs Database For Tracking Knowledge And Skills Expectations In The Workplace, Esa M. Rantanen, Christopher Claeys, Daniel Roder

Articles

The primary objective of college education in applied disciplines is that it is relevant to the expectations for new professionals entering the labor market. Academic institutions should therefore pay close attention to the ever-changing skills and knowledge expectations in the labor market. These trends are not easy to track, however. Surveys of new professionals about their experiences in their first jobs or surveys of employers about their experiences with new hires suffer from low response rates, nonresponse bias, and the one-time nature of survey research. A better way to track labor market trends is to continually analyze human factors job …

Online Instruction Made Easy: Getting Started With The Guide On The Side, Erica Defrain

UVM Libraries Conference Day

Come learn about a great new tool for easily creating effective and engaging online tutorials built around the theory of active learning. The Guide on the Side was created by librarians at the University of Arizona and released as an open source download in 2012. We hope to soon have it installed for all to use at the UVM Libraries!

Managing Multidisciplinary Student Design Teams, Martin Masek, Joo Jung, Barnard Clarkson

Barnard Clarkson

The management of multidisciplinary student teams is a challenge. In this paper we describe our experience in running a shared assessment across several units. Four multidisciplinary teams were formed, and success was mixed, with one team splitting into two along discipline lines and all experiencing communication issues. The main management challenges that arose were based around difficulty in communication and the understanding of the other disciplines requirements. We outline the process we used to construct the shared assessment, and provide some insight in how the student groups dealt with issues that arose.

Has Safeer Improved Sacm's Work And Helped Saudi Students In The Usa Resolve Their Needs Quickly, Faisal M. Alzomily

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examined efficiency of the Safeer by gathering and analyzing the perception of 131 Saudi students from Bowling Green, KY. The purpose of the study was to ensure that the system is able to perform its function as the bridge between different institutions and Saudi students studying in the US who require assistance in processing their academic requirements. A self-administered survey using five scale points was employed. Results were summarized using descriptive statistics at 95% confidence level. The result confirmed the hypothesis that the use of the Safeer program provides quality service delivery within SACM, which in turn benefits …

Utilizing A Modular Approach To Gamification To Improve Nutrition And Fitness In Children, Chad Richards

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Obesity is a worldwide epidemic that affects adults and children, impacts over 30% of the population in several states of the U.S., damages national economies, and is a factor in four out of the six of the leading causes of death, including diabetes and heart disease. Obesity is preventable: solution approaches include better education, more exercise, better nutrition, and changing eating habits. Still, it is difficult for many people to remain interested enough to educate themselves and to learn new behaviors to change their eating and exercise habits.

Gamification is a relatively new research area that involves using video game …

Spring­11: Pdc In Cs1/2 And A Mobile/Cloud Intermediate Mobile/Cloud Intermediate Software Design Course, Joseph P. Kaylor, Konstantin Läufer, Chandra N. Sekharan, George K. Thiruvathukal

George K. Thiruvathukal

Recent changes in the environment of Loyola University Chicago’s Department of Computer Science include a better differentiation of our four undergraduate majors, growing interest in computing among science majors, and an increased demand for graduates with mobile and cloud skills. In our continued effort to incorporate parallel and distributed computing topics into the undergraduate curriculum, we are focusing on these three existing courses: CS1: In response to a request from the physics department, we started to offer a CS1 section aimed at majors in physics and other hard sciences this spring semester. This section includes some material on numerical methods …

Using Case Studies To Design And Deliver Technology-Centered Computing Education Courses: An Innovative Approach From An Undergraduate Information Systems Program In Singapore, Ilse Baumgartner

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

While the advantages of using case studies as an educational vehicle in computing education appear to be more than obvious, there is a very limited amount of research works or practice papers reporting on actual implementations of undergraduate or graduate computing courses which would be largely based on case studies. This conference contribution reports on selected best practices of course design and delivery implemented in one of the core courses of the Bachelor of Science (Information Systems Management) degree program (BSc (ISM)) offered by the School of Information Systems (SIS) at the Singapore Management University (SMU). Nearly all assessments, exercises, …

“You Know You’Re Going To Fail, Right?”: Learning From Design Flaws In Just Press Play At Rit, Elizabeth L. Lawley, Andrew Phelps

Presentations and other scholarship

Abstract: In the fall of 2010, faculty in the School of Interactive Games & Media at the Rochester Institute of Technology began the initial planning for an achievement system meant to recognize and reward student engagement in non-curricular activities—specifically activities that successful graduates of the program regularly cited as significant factors in their undergraduate experience. This paper describes the design process used to create the initial version of the Just Press Play system, the results of the implementation during the 2011-12 academic year, and the significant redesign of the system that took place based on assessment of the first year …

Finding Evidence Of Metacognition In An Eportfolio Community: Beyond Text, Across New Media, Kathryn Wozniak, Jose Zagal

School of Continuing and Professional Studies Faculty Publications

Finding evidence of how metacognition is demonstrated in educational ePortfolios is often limited to written artifact analysis and ignores new media such as images, video, links, and navigation schema. This study seeks to begin to fill this gap through a qualitative content analysis of 30 learners’ ePortfolios developed in a networked ePortfolio community. We found evidence of learners’ metacognition in their choices, integration, and organization of new media content in the ePortfolio. We propose that intentional analysis of learners’ choices and arrangement of new media can help educators and researchers find additional evidence of metacognition beyond text within digital learning …

Euler And The Ongoing Search For Odd Perfect Numbers, Brian D. Beasley

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

Leonhard Euler, after proving that every even perfect number has the form given by Euclid, turned his attention to finding odd perfect numbers. Euler established a basic factorization pattern that every odd perfect number must have, and mathematicians have expanded upon this Eulerian form ever since. This paper will present a brief summary of Euler’s result and some recent generalizations. It will also note connections between odd perfect numbers and the abundancy index (the abundancy index of a positive integer is the ratio of the sum of its positive divisors to itself). In particular, finding a positive integer with an …

Forming The Analytical Society At Cambridge University, Richard Stout

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

The Analytical Society, an organization begun by students at Cambridge, was founded in 1812. Even though it was entirely student-led, the society was responsible for significant changes in the Cambridge mathematics curriculum and in the way mathematics was perceived in Britain throughout the nineteenth century. Its success was likely due to the outstanding students who formed the group, some of whom went on to become leaders in British science and mathematics for the next fifty years. In this paper we will briefly look at several of those who played important roles in forming and leading the society and we will …

Leading A Successful Missions Trip In Your Discipline, Tom Nurkkala, Darci Nurkkala

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

The global missions community goes wanting for skilled workers in almost every discipline. However, even students at a Christian institution that emphasizes global engagement remain largely unaware of the impact they can make in missions by leveraging their own academic specialty. In this paper, we draw on our experience leading discipline-specific missions trips as a means to encourage students to reframe their thinking about personal involvement in missions. We discuss the need for students to experience missions firsthand, and the student outcomes we have observed in intercultural awareness and spiritual formation. A key student outcome is an increased willingness to …

Reading Assignments And Assessments: Are Your Students Reading Math Texts Before Class, After Class, Both, Or Neither?, David Klanderman, Mandi Maxwell, Sharon Robbert, Bill Boerman-Cornell

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

In his recent book What the Best College Students Do [Bain, 2012], Ken Bain defines a number of different types of students including “surface learners,” “strategic learners,” “routine experts,” and finally, “deep learners.” In our mathematics courses at Trinity, we have found examples of all of these student types. A major determinant of their preferred approach to learning appears to be the ways and degrees to which mathematical texts and other written materials are read prior to class sessions. Each full-time member of the department both assigns and assesses the reading of mathematical materials prior to class sessions. Assessment methods, …

Explore Global Opportunities For Mathematics Scholarship, Teaching, And Service, Ron Benbow

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

There are numerous overseas opportunities in which to apply your knowledge and interest in mathematics. These international experiences allow you to expand your scholarship, to extend your teaching skills, to offer professional services to K-12 teachers or other university instructors, and to provide much personal enrichment as well. Examples from recent professional experiences in Liberia, Haiti, Guatemala, and Ecuador will be shared to illustrate the connections to teaching, scholarship, and service. Information regarding MAA Study Tours, Fulbright Specialist grants, and other relevant organizations will be provided.

The Unity Of Knowledge And The Faithfulness Of God: The Theology Of Mathematical Physicist John Polkinghorne, Matt Delong

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

In this paper we will give a brief introduction to Polkinghorne's life and work. We will give an introduction to Polkinghorne's approach to philosophy and theology. We will introduce the two most significant influences on Polkinghorne's development as a theologian and philosopher of science. We will then give a necessarily telegraphic review of some of the topics addressed in Polkinghorne's theology, including his thoughts on science and religion, natural theology, evil, providence, prayer, resurrection, the soul and eschatology. We will then conclude with a few short examples of Polkinghorne's thoughts on mathematics.

Teaching Complex Analysis As A Lab-Type Course With A Focus On Geometric Interpretations Using Mathematics, William M. Kinney

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

I taught complex analysis for the first time in my career during the spring of 2013. I decided to do something “radical” and teach it as a lab-type course with a focus on geometric interpretations using the computer program Mathematica. The students and I met in a computer lab and, during most meetings, we spent a large portion of our time experimenting and exploring using Mathematica to visualize key concepts in complex analysis. Because of this, there was a heavy emphasis on viewing analytic functions as conformal mappings as well as considering associated vector fields and flows. Mathematica was used …

Computing Foundations For The Scientist, Catherine Bareiss, Larry Vail

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

There is a need for a new style of supporting a computer course. Although it is widely recognized that computer technology provides essential tools for all current scientific work, few university curricula adequately ground science majors in the fundamentals that underlie this technology. Introducing science students to computational thinking in the areas of algorithms and data structures, data representation and accuracy, abstraction, performance issues, and database concepts can enable future scientists to become intelligent, creative and effective users of this technology. The intent of this course is not to turn scientists into computer scientists, but rather to enhance their ability …

A Different Approach, Catherine Crockett

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

This paper discusses an approach used to encourage science majors to rethink their attitudes and study habits in a first semester calculus course. Two activities were used to enhance study habits. They are outlining concepts and in-class quizzes designed for self-evaluation of skills. After using both methods in two sections of the calculus course, the students were surveyed to determine if these activities were successful. A majority of the students felt the activities were helpful and wanted to continue them.

Open Source Software: What Is It, And Why Should We Care?, Karl-Dieter Crisman

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

This paper examines the distinctions in talking about computer software that has implications for both mathematics and moral thought.

Delaware, Dickeson, Assessment And How You Can Help, Greg Crow, Maria Zack

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

How much release time should a chair receive? What is the cost per unit for a particular academic program? What is a student credit hour (SCH) anyway and why would anyone care? Why are so many boards enamored of Delaware, Dickeson and Assessment? The answer to these and many related questions will be presented in this talk. Analytics and various“efficiency measures” are becoming increasingly important in higher education and mathematicians and computer scientists are being regularly recruited to help university administrators make meaning from large volumes of data. Come and learn about this trend and how you can be of …

Faith Integration Projects For First-Year Students, Doug Phillippy

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2013

This talk will consider the use of projects to motivate students to think deeply about how their faith connects with mathematics. This talk will begin by describing what a faith integration project is, including the goals and objectives of such a project. The talk will briefly describe a number of projects written by the speaker, with a more detailed look at one of those projects. The talk will conclude by discussing how these projects are being used to assess how students are doing at articulating a maturing understanding of the connection between faith and mathematics