Technology-Enhanced Learning and the Virtual University


Book Description

Since the first works on Higher Education Administration in the 1970s no comprehensive work in terms of purpose and scope of Higher Education has been published. There have been important changes in people’s aspirations vis-à-vis higher education globally. In parallel, the higher education systems, worldwide, have been undergoing constant transformation in response to these aspirations. From governments, employers and prospective students and their parents, the stakeholders in higher education system are now extremely varied paying close attention to the various aspects of higher education - from infrastructure, on-campus safety and security to administration, faculty and curricula. The present series attempts to take into account the issues of importance to all the stakeholders. Hence the series not only pays attention to the purpose and outcomes of higher education but also the economics surrounding higher education vis a vis marketization. The nitty gritty of running and maintaining a university infrastructure, impact of globalization and internationalization on delivery and demand of higher education, the commoditization of research, and changing paradigms of teaching and learning fall within the purview of the series. The increasing competition from other entities to provide degrees, certificates or other forms of credentials makes it important to have a work that brings all of the elements together to see how they actually interact and inter-relate from a systems perspective. The present series attempts to comprehensively attend to these issues and provide a complete reference resource to all those involved and interested in setting up of a Higher Education institution and its administration.




Online and Distance Learning: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications


Book Description

"This comprehensive, six-volume collection addresses all aspects of online and distance learning, including information communication technologies applied to education, virtual classrooms, pedagogical systems, Web-based learning, library information systems, virtual universities, and more. It enables libraries to provide a foundational reference to meet the information needs of researchers, educators, practitioners, administrators, and other stakeholders in online and distance learning"--Provided by publisher.




Virtual Technologies: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications


Book Description

"This publication presents incompassing research of the concepts and realities involved in the field of virtual communities and technologies"--Provided by publisher.




Understanding Learning in Virtual Worlds


Book Description

Since the publication of the companion volume Researching Learning in Virtual Worlds in 2010, there has been a growth not only in the range and number of educational initiatives taking place in virtual worlds, but also in the depth of analysis of the nature of that education. Understanding Learning in Virtual Worlds reflects those changes through a collection of chapters that are extended versions of research presented at the second Researching Learning in Virtual Environments conference (ReLIVE 11), an international conference hosted by the Open University UK. Included in this book are chapters that explore the philosophical and methodological underpinnings of understanding learning in virtual worlds, identify and analyse the factors that support learning in these environments, and present case studies that demonstrate some of the various ways in which virtual worlds can be applied to facilitate learning and teaching. The links between learning in a virtual world and learning in the physical world are made apparent throughout, and the authors reveal how understanding learning in one informs the other. Understanding Learning in Virtual Worlds is an important book not only to those who teach in virtual worlds, but to anyone for whom understanding learning, in all its forms, is of interest.




Knowledge-Based Software Engineering


Book Description

The papers in this publication address many topics in the context of knowledge-based software engineering, including new challenges that have arisen in this demanding area of research. Topics in this book are: knowledge-based requirements engineering, domain analysis and modeling; development processes for knowledge-based applications; knowledge acquisition; software tools assisting the development; architectures for knowledge-based systems and shells including intelligent agents; intelligent user interfaces and human-machine interaction; development of multi-modal interfaces; knowledge technologies for semantic web; internet-based interactive applications; knowledge engineering for process management and project management; methodology and tools for knowledge discovery and data mining; knowledge-based methods and tools for testing, verification and validation, maintenance and evolution; decision support methods for software engineering and cognitive systems; knowledge management for business processes, workflows and enterprise modeling; program understanding, programming knowledge, modeling programs and programmers; and software engineering methods for intelligent tutoring systems.




Strategic Applications of Distance Learning Technologies


Book Description

Distance learning technologies have reshaped the diffusion of communication within the educational system. Within this expanding field, the possibilities for an interactive, cross-boundary education are endless. Strategic Applications of Distance Learning Technologies provides tactical uses of distance education technologies to assist instructors and researchers in their quest to provide a progressive, alternative approach to traditional education techniques. This collection of advanced research incorporates global challenges and opportunities of technology integration while outlining strategies for distance learning within developing countries.




Analyzing Paradigms Used in Education and Educational Psychology


Book Description

In education, there is an aim to construct an authentic framework of educational paradigms in order to provide a sharing knowledge system as a result of re-examining contemporary trends, educational currents, case studies from the classrooms, and educational psychology directions. It is an intellectual need of meta-comprehension and new educational approaches based on educational psychology outcomes. Analyzing Paradigms Used in Education and Educational Psychology is a critical scholarly book that discusses sophisticated paradigms from academic narratives and educational realities. Featuring a range of topics such as classroom management, lifelong education, and theology, this book is essential for researchers, teachers, educational psychologists, education professionals, administrators, academicians, practitioners, and students.




Measuring Multiple Intelligences and Moral Sensitivities in Education


Book Description

In this book, we introduce several sensitivity measures in educational contexts that can be used in research, education and self-evaluations. In Chapter 1 we discuss the framework of Howard Gardner‘s Multiple Intelligences theory and introduce our Multiple Intelligences Profiling Questionnaire. We present the psychometrical qualities of the instrument with empirical data sets of children, youth and adults. In Chapter 2 the Spiritual Sensitivity Scale is introduced with the theoretical framework it is connected to. The existence of spiritual intelligence has been a widely debated issue and not everybody is ready to call advanced thinking in religious or spiritual domains as intelligence. This has guided us to use the term sensitivity, which is easier to justify than intelligence in these areas of human behavior. In Chapter 3 we introduce the Environmental Sensitivity Scale, which is quite close to the possible intelligence of naturalist suggested by Gardner. In Chapter 4, Ethical Sensitivity Scale is introduced followed by Emotional Leadership Questionnaire in Chapter 5. All these scales have a solid theoretical framework and earlier empirical work to support the instrument building. Chapter 6 introduces Intercultural and Interreligious Sensitivity Scales with their theoretical frameworks and earlier empirical work. Following each chapter, we have included a ready-to-use version of the questionnaire and SPSS syntax to compute factors. A commentary by Dr. Seana Moran compliments the book and challenges the readers to further reflect the meaning of education in supporting holistic development of learners in their life-long journey. We have authored this book to contribute to this goal and hope it will be used in the hands of researchers, teachers and students in their mutual effort to grow and to learn new things in life.




Soft Computing Methods in Human Sciences


Book Description

An in-depth look at soft computing methods and their applications in the human sciences, such as the social and the behavioral sciences. Soft computing methods - including fuzzy systems, neural networks, evolutionary computing and probabilistic reasoning - are state-of-the-art methods in theory formation and model construction. The powerful application areas of these methods in the human sciences are demonstrated, including the replacement of statistical models by simpler numerical or linguistic soft computing models and the use of computer simulations with approximate and linguistic constituents. "Dr. Niskanen's work opens new vistas in application of soft computing, fuzzy logic and fuzzy set theory to the human sciences. This book is likely to be viewed in retrospect as a landmark in its field" (Lotfi A. Zadeh, Berkeley)




Teaching Entrepreneurship


Book Description

“Entrepreneurship that is something you learn in practice”. “Entreprene- ship is learning by doing”. This is often heard when you tell others that you teach entrepreneurship, but maybe entrepreneurship is more “doing by learning”. Nevertheless, in entrepreneurship practice and theory are int- woven. For this reason the Learning Cycle introduced by Kolb (1984) is an often used teaching approach. According to this Learning Cycle there are four phases (“cycle”) that are connected: 1. Concrete experience (“doing”, “experiencing”) 2. Reflection (“reflecting on the experience”) 3. Conceptualization (“learning from the experience”) 4. Experimentation (“bring what you learned into practice”) In teaching you can enter this cycle at any stage, depending on the students. And that brings us to the different types of students. Based on Hills et al. (1998) a plethora of student groups can be distinguished (of course this list is not exhaustive), e.g: Ph.D. students, who do a doctoral programme in Entrepreneurship; the emphasis is on theory/science. DBA students, who do a doctoral programme that is, in comparison to the Ph.D. more practice oriented. MBA students, who take entrepreneurship as one of the courses in their programme. Most of the time MBA students are mature students, who after some work experience return to the university; the programme is practice oriented.