Computing-related programmes and modules have many problems, especially related to large class sizes, large-scale plagiarism, module franchising, and an increased requirement from students for increased amounts of hands-on, practical work. This paper presents a practical computer networks module which uses a mixture of online examinations and a practical skills-based test to assess student perf...

Although most schools offer and/or require a course in spreadsheet and database applications, the amount of meaningful learning derived from the class varies widely. The approach described in this paper involves a combination of demonstration and hands-on practice using two term-long cases to be used in an introductory course in spreadsheet and database applications. These cases, packaged toget...

The integration of technology into English teaching is a trend in primary education. The purpose of this study is to explore how the interactive whiteboard (IWB) can be used in the teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language. Through a wide range of interactive hands-on activities, the IWB’s features are illustrated for the design of English vocabulary learning. The students’ pretest...

An indispensable component of cyber security education is hands-on activities carried out in a lab to enable students to understand both offense and defense aspects of the cyber space. We describe our design and implementation of this course, and a resulting student organization Cyber Defense Club (CDC), at Kansas State University. Our 1.5-year experience in teaching this course and advising th...

The Data Curation Profiles Toolkit can be used in several ways to capture requirements for data sets, as articulated by researchers. As a flexible instrument it can facilitate dialog between librarians and researchers to discuss data concerns, current data workflow, and possible outcomes for the future. As a structured tool it can help identify areas of concern and need, to begin to making info...

In this paper, we show how existing adaptive educational hypermedia systems can be enhanced by policies. In traditional systems, the adaptation is based on predefined user and domain models and fairly restricted adaptation rules. Policies allow for sophisticated and flexible adaptation rules, provided by multiple stakeholders. We present the benefits and feasibility of the approach with AHA! as...

A pedagogical approach of hands-on learning that has formed the foundation of the nontraditional circuits and electronics laboratory courses at Virginia Tech (VT) is now being applied to enhance the learning in what has been a series of highly mathematical courses on abstract theory on electromagnetic fields. A set of experiments that demonstrate basic concepts in electromagnetic (EM) fields ha...

The paper presents an a ordable and comprehensive robotic model of critical aid to any engineering school involved in teaching robotics. We present the stages of designing a three-link robot manipulator prototype that was built as part of a research project for establishing a prototyping environment for robot manipulators. Building this robot helped determine the required subsystems and interfa...

Lab-centric instruction emphasizes supervised, hands-on activities by substituting lab for lecture time. It combines a multitude of pedagogical techniques into the format of an extended, structured closed lab. We discuss the range of benefits for students, including: increased staff interaction, frequent and varied self assessments, integrated collaborative activities, and a systematic sequence...

Norlin and Winters have an obvious passion for motivating libraries to produce compelling and useful Web sites. The book’s preface encourages library teams to strive for systems that, “are easy to navigate, are understandable, and have instructions that make all customers – those who come into the library and those who do not – as selfsufficient as possible.” However, although the book might he...