Computer-aided publishing and open learning materials

The authors discuss the potential impact of computer-aided publishing hardware and software on the production of distance education and self-instructional study material. They compare the capabilities of computer-aided publishing systems with those of other equipment. General typographic design criteria are raised.
The implications of the availability of computer-aided publishing systems are then discussed in relation to the production of printed learning materials. Computer-aided publishing systems have benefits in revealing instructional design strategies, aiding development and revision, and in the production and incorporation of graphics. However, an ability to operate the software does not guarantee the production of high quality printed materials. The knowledge and skills of the graphic designer are as necessary as ever.     

Computer-aided Engineering Education and Technical Management

The computer-aided engineering (CAE) system gives an engineer a set of powerful new tools for proper realization of his/her design tasks. Therefore, it is also necessary to accept this methodological development adequately within the engineering curriculum of technical universities in the successful education of the new generation of engineers. CAE methodology influences all areas of an engineer's work and should be accompanied by principal changes in the traditionally used methods of engineering education. But the student's use of computer tools within many engineering disciplines hides the danger of gaining practical skills by means of the computer instead of traditional educational goals concerning the proper understanding of the solution principles of technical problems. Sometimes the students are not able to recognize the significance of, for example, software development problems or engineer workstation organization problems, in view of the main goal of engineering design—to develop a new technical system. To avoid this danger it is necessary to present methods of technical management as an integral part of CAE education. Such orientation has an important role within an engineer's education in the twentieth century.     

A Study of the Use of Ontologies for Building Computer-Aided Control Engineering Self-Learning Educational Software

This paper describes research on the use of knowledge models (ontologies) for building computer-aided educational software in the field of control engineering. Ontologies are able to represent in the computer a very rich conceptual model of a given domain. This model can be used later for a number of purposes in different software applications. In this study, domain ontology about the field of lead–lag compensator design has been built and used for automatic exercise generation, graphical user interface population and interaction with the user at any level of detail, including explanations about why things occur. An application called Onto-CELE (ontology-based control engineering learning environment) uses the ontology for implementing a learning environment that can be used for self and lifelong learning purposes. The experience has shown that the use of knowledge models as the basis for educational software applications is capable of showing students the whole complexity of the analysis and design processes at any level of detail. A practical experience with postgraduate students has shown the mentioned benefits and possibilities of the approach.     

Challenging Prospective Computer Engineers to Design Educational Software by Engaging Them in a Constructivist Learning Environment

This study focuses on the development of prospective computer engineers' knowledge of educational software design through their involvement in a constructivist learning environment emphasizing project based learning. Within this environment prospective computer engineers (PCE) adopted a variety of roles namely: learners, teachers, users, designers, implementers and evaluators of educational software dealing with concepts of computer science while also taking into account theoretical educational considerations regarding constructivism and social views of knowledge construction. The analysis of the data shows that PCE frequently start by considering traditional behavioristic views regarding teaching and learning as well as regarding the design of educational software. The PCE progressed to accept more constructivist views regarding teaching and learning as well as to designing educational software by communicating their knowledge with their colleagues and the teacher in the project based context. PCE also progressed through the evaluation of the educational software using real classrooms. By exploiting the given feedback, PCE improved the quality of software specifications.     

Computer-aided Engineering Education at the K.U. Leuven

This contribution deals with recent initiatives and developments relative to various aspects of computer-aided design in the largest Belgian faculty of engineering. After a brief survey of the engineering curriculum, the various computer facilities as well as the main software packages available, are highlighted. The presence of some important research centres, closely collaborating with the faculty considerably enhances the efforts of the university. The more general education CAE programs for students are described and also some specific CAD educational initiatives. A few typical research projects involving students collaboration as final thesis work are also reviewed.     

OOZS: an Object-Oriented Structured Formal Specification Language

lintroductionTileproblemsraisedinthedevelopmentandmaintenanceoflargeandcomplexsoftwaresystemsinacompetitiveanddynamicenvironmenthavebeenstudiedfi.omvariousperspectives.Theterm'softwarecrisis'describesthisproblemandmanyeffoltshavebeenmadetoovercomeit.Reusa…     

‘To Give an Example is a Complex Act’: Agamben’s pedagogy of the paradigm

Abstract

Agamben’s notion of the ‘paradigm’ has far-reaching implications for educational thinking, curriculum design and pedagogical conduct. In his approach, examples—or paradigms—deeply engage our powers of analogy, enabling us to discern previously unseen affinities among singular objects by stepping outside established systems of classification. In this way we come to envision novel groupings, new patterns of connection—that nonetheless do not simply reassemble those singular objects into yet another rigidly fixed set or class. Agamben sees this sort of ‘paradigmatic understanding’ as our richest source of intelligibility. For Agamben the paradigm is ultimately about learning to see again, starting not with already perfectly known and categorized objects (or ideas), but rather with a fresh experience of one individual object and the analogical relations it may have to others, and to novel groupings that may arise. The paradigm is a method, a way in which educators might respond to a wide range of educational challenges. For a paradigmatic relation suspends while exposing, deactivates while revealing, complicates while clarifying. But articulating the enigmatic paradigmatic relation between example and class is far more than a method. It is epistemological (a way of knowing and conception of knowledge), ethical (a fostering of freedom from presupposed categories and reified principles) and ontological (a type of being that exposes the potential of knowing and communicating—their intelligibility and communicability). In these qualities, paradigms exhibit to educators a free, a new use of singularities.     

Selecting a learning management system (LMS) in developing countries: instructors' evaluation

Learning management systems (LMSs) contain hidden costs, unclear user environments, bulky developer and administration manuals, and limitations with regard to interoperability, integration, localization, and bandwidth requirements. Careful evaluation is required in selecting the most appropriate LMS for use, and this is a general problem in web-based education. One possibility is to automate this evaluation process using computer-aided techniques. In this article, the researcher has focused on the idea of automating the evaluation process and has developed a computer-aided system named Easy Way to Evaluate LMSs (EW-LMS), for the quick and efficient evaluation of LMSs, especially for developing countries, where the idea of using an LMS may be relatively new. The investigation described in this article was carried out with 88 voluntary higher education instructors to test the usefulness of the developed system. Two types of quantitative questionnaires were used during the study. The results obtained indicate that the instructors were highly satisfied using the developed system, and the EW-LMS is technically sound and well developed. Theevaluation system can help instructors to select the best LMS appropriate to their educational needs and their type of usage in the shortest possible time, with little effort, without any specialized technical knowledge/training and by following simple, user-friendly steps. The system is oriented to anyone interested in evaluating and using an LMS in web-based education. Those individuals who may be interested in using this software are instructors, students, or anyone else who may have an interest in LMSs, and educational organizations such as universities, schools, and institutes.     

对"销售点终端系统"进行面向对象建模

面向对象的分析和设计方法是当前软件工程学的主流方法。其核心思想是利用面向对象的概念和方法为软件需求建立模型，完成系统设计。以“销售点终端系统”的设计为例，可以很好地说明如何将面向对象理论应用于开发实践系统。     

The Assessment Agent System: design, development, and evaluation

This article reports the design, development, and evaluation of an online software application for assessing students’ understanding of curricular content based on concept maps. This computer-based assessment program, called the Assessment Agent System, was designed by following an agent-oriented software design method. The Assessment Agent System is composed of five types of software agents: instructor agent, student agent, management agent, assessment agent, and reporting agent. Software agents in the system, through communication and cooperation, collectively provide the functionalities of user-system interaction, user management, task authoring and management, assessment delivery, task presentation, response collection, automatic assessment, and reporting. One-to-one evaluations and group evaluations were conducted to reveal students’ perceptions of the Assessment Agent System. Measures of visual clarity, system functionality, consistency, as well as error prevention and correction indicate that the Assessment Agent System is a useful tool for large-scale assessment based on concept maps. Through the process of design, development, and evaluation of the Assessment Agent System, this study demonstrates the agent-oriented approach for producing educational software applications. Furthermore, this research explored the concept map assessment method for the Assessment Agent System. When node terms and linking phrases are provided, the assessment of student concept maps can be conducted automatically by comparing student concept maps with the criterion concept map, proposition by proposition. However, the validity of the proposition-comparing method depends on the accuracy and thoroughness of the criterion propositions. Therefore, assessment criteria need to be continually refined and improved through the examination of student-created propositions.     

TEXTVISION,conceptual representation beyond the HYPERTEXT metaphor

Research into knowledge representation for explorative learning by computers resulted in «TEXTVISION», a prototypic computer program. Beyond the HYPERTEXT facilities it enables the user to configure the inter concept relations on a graphical level. In the background of the user actions the graph is computed for the centrality of the nodes which is reflected in the size of the displayed concept nodes. After 4 years of design and doing research with knowledge representation systems this article will present you a state of the art view on current trends in knowledge engineering by means of educational computer programs. Secondly I will focus on the HYPERMEDIA metaphor like present in HYPERCARD and CD(I)-ROM applications in next future. Thirdly «TEXTVISION» will be presented to you, together with a preliminary analysis of empirical results with 4 browsing modes in HYPERTEXT. Sequential effects in the logged user interactions can be distinguished and can be interpreted in terms of «content» versus «procedural» driven user behavior.     

Design of Interactivity in Virtual Reality Applications with Emphasis on Educational Software Using Formal Interaction Specification

Virtual Reality (VR) technology has already entered into the area of the educational software and delivers systems where the trainees can use interactive virtual microworlds and benefit by transfer of experience, interacting directly with the learning domain. This paper describes the Virtual Multi Flow Graph (Virtual-MFG) graphical formal model and the Interaction Specification Workspace (ISW) software architecture for the interaction specification and design of VR applications with emphasis on educational software. The interaction designer specifies the interaction issues of the final system formally, using the tools of ISW. The virtual microworld's objects database is updated with these interaction specifications which include both the virtual objects' dynamic properties and their tutoring capabilities. The model is validated by applying it on an existing VR educational software (EIKON). The Virtual-MFG graphs specifying a learning scenario of EIKON along with the application of ISW on EIKON are also presented.     

A Plea for a Poor Man’s HCI Component in Software Engineering and Computer Science Curricula; After all: The Human-Computer Interface is the System

Most software development approaches and curricular guidelines seem to ignore the fact that in many software systems the user interface is a decisive factor for product quality. As a result, it is often designed rather independently of the system’s functionality. Chances are then that it does not get the attention it deserves. In the approach to software development we sketch, the design of the user interface and the design of the functionality go hand in hand. We give a number of examples of user interface problems, and illustrate how these can be caught early if a more integrated approach is taken. We conclude with an outline of a minimal course on humancomputer interaction that we feel should be part of everyone’s software engineering or computer science curriculum.     

Thinking in Objects and their Collaboration: Introducing Object-Oriented Technology

Although many professionals in education believe that an ‘objects first’ approach is the best method of introducing object-oriented technology, there is no common agreement on how to start such courses. Current study programs often begin by teaching a chosen object-oriented programing language, where students are confronted by a large amount of syntactical detail. Instead of focusing on the basics of object-oriented technology, namely objects and their collaborations, difficulties in handling the details of the programing language lead to a very scattered knowledge of object-oriented concepts. This is dangerous, as learners are left with a set of unconnected knowledge fragments. Approaches which embed different knowledge fragments in an overall knowledge view are known as “cognitive apprenticeship” approaches. The main idea of cognitive apprenticeship is continuous practice. We present a learning environment for introducing object-oriented technology in upper secondary schools based on cognitive apprenticeship. We use a visual programing language to away from the details and provide tool support to aid practice. We present the learning sequencewhich is used and show the impacts it makes on the course structure in our experiment in the chosen object-oriented programming language The Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula IEEE Computer Society.     

温儒敏语文教育思想的知识背景

温儒敏语文教育思想开始成为影响中学语文教育的重要思想之一。就其知识源流而言,温儒敏语文教育思想的形成基础主要来源于西方知识分子理念、中国士人传统和五四精神传承。     

CAD/CAE system for the ring planetary reducer with small tooth number difference

A CAD／CAE system of the ring-type planetary reducer with small tooth number difference is presented.It is a parameterized CAD/CAE system adopting the object-oriented technique and comprising in itself the geometric feature database(including the modules of ring-plates with ineer te4eth,eccentric shaft modules and output shaft modules),standard componentdatabase and material database.In cdomparison with design by handwork,this computer aided design and analysis system has the advantages of improved quality,shortened design period and reduced cost.The reliability of the system has been verified by a illustrative example.     

大规模在线开放课程的新发展与应用：从cMOOC到xMOOC

在教育全球化和信息化的背景下,基于＂开放共享＂理念的开放教育资源运动是全球教育发展的重要趋势。大规模在线开放课程（MOOC）是开放教育资源运动的新发展和突破,对人类文明传承和知识学习方式产生着深刻影响。目前,MOOC主要有两种模式：基于关联主义学习理论的cMOOC模式和基于行为主义学习理论的xMOOC模式。cMOOC课程模式侧重知识建构与创造,强调创造、自治和社会网络学习;而xMOOC课程模式更接近传统教学过程和理念,侧重知识传播和复制,强调视频、作业和测试等学习方式。xMOOC是MOOC的一种新型发展形式。利用xMOOC,在教学模式上可以设计自主学习模式和翻转课堂模式;在学习支持上可以提供课程索引、评价、推荐等功能;在学习分析上可以支持课程海量数据的学习分析,提高学习系统的适应性。xMOOC构建了一个由技术环境、社会环境和教学环境组成的学习生态系统,为开放教育带来了革新和新的研究问题。     

WebCT and Its Growth as a Type II Application

Abstract

Maddux, Johnson, and Willis mentioned in 1992 some “yet-to-be-developed types” that “have the potential to be Type II software if they are used in such a way that the user is given the ability to learn in new and better ways.” The authors of this paper will frame the discussion of learning management systems (LMS) around the concept of Type I and Type II applications of computers in education. We suggest that with the new trends of interoperability within WebCT, more researchers will accept WebCT as a potential Type II application. As more interactive learning objects are developed and shared on the WebCT format, it should be easier for instructors to create and teach courses that reflect the value systems expressed in the concept of Type II learning.     

Rise and decline of education systems: a contribution to the history of the modern state

If by ‘education systems’ we understand institutional units, constituted by common legal provisions, organizational structures, curricular goals and value foundations, the current period signals their decline. This indicates the decline of the modern nation state, which has characterized the political map of Europe for 300 years and gradually expanded to the other continents. Therefore education systems in their ‘state‐bound’ constitution must be identified as a category of ‘organized space’ within a given historical period—and not as a perpetual phenomenon. This understanding of the current ‘education system’ points the way to the concept of ‘educational spaces’ in periods preceding the modern nation state. It helps to identify the current stages of transition, indicated by the emergence of regional ‘educational spaces’, the expansion of private sectors, and the invasion of the globalizing markets into the ‘knowledge society’.     

The evolutionary design of a Knowledge Network to support knowledge management and sharing for lifelong learning

Knowledge Management (KM) and knowledge sharing are important factors that support lifelong learning, and enable people to continue developing throughout their careers. The concept of a Community of Practice ( Wenger, 2000 ) is attractive in drawing together people whose work shares similar aspects, and consideration is given here to how technology can be used to develop and support such a community. In this paper, concepts from the Community of Practice literature are used to consider the development of a software environment for people working as a community in the area of lifelong learning. The intention was to design the system in an evolutionary way, using a minimal set of essential elements which would be elaborated according to user feedback. Three key design questions are considered: Who can contribute resources to such a system? What happens to existing practices? How is the community engaged? We conclude that, in lifelong learning, knowledge management supported by a software environment offers a good way to bring together communities, resources and experience, but to achieve these benefits, great care needs to be exerted in introducing the system and maintaining existing work practices.