Learning styles, personalisation and adaptable e-learning

Common Learning Management Systems (for example Moodle [1] and Blackboard [2]) are limited in the amount of personalisation that they can offer the learner. They are used widely and do offer a number of tools for instructors to enable them to create and manage courses, however, they do not allow for the learner to have a unique personalised learning experience. The e-Learning platform iLearn offers personalisation for the learner in a number of ways and one way is to offer the specific learning material to the learner based on the learner's learning style. Learning styles and how we learn is a vast research area. Brusilovsky and Millan [3] state that learning styles are typically defined as the way people prefer to learn. Examples of commonly used learning styles are Kolb Learning Styles Theory [4], Felder and Silverman Index of Learning Styles [5], VARK [6] and Honey and Mumford Index of Learning Styles [7] and many research projects (SMILE [8], INSPIRE [9], iWeaver [10] amonst others) attempt to incorporate these learning styles into adaptive e-Learning systems. This paper describes how learning styles are currently being used within the area of adaptive e-Learning. The paper then gives an overview of the iLearn project and also how iLearn is using the VARK learning style to enhance the platform's personalisation and adaptability for the learner. This research also describes the system's design and how the learning style is incorporated into the system design and semantic framework within the learner's profile

OUR SOUTHEAST ASIA POLICY

Political Economy,

Arkansas Small-Grain Cultivar Performance Tests 2004-2005

Small-grain cultivar performance tests are conducted each year in Arkansas by the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences. The tests provide information to companies developing cultivars and/or marketing seed within the state and aid the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service in formulating cultivar recommendations for smallgrain producers

The Determination of the Effective Resistance of a Spindle Supporting a Model Airfoil

An attempt was made to determine the effect of spindle interference on the lift of the airfoil by measuring moments about the axis parallel to the direction of air flow. The values obtained are of the same degree as the experimental error, and for the present this effect will be neglected. The results obtained using a U.S.A. 15 wing (plotted here) show that the correction is nearly constant from 0 degrees to 10 degrees incidence and that at greater angles its value becomes erratic. At such angles, however, the wing drag is so high that the spindle correction and its attendant errors become relatively small and unimportant

Compound compositional data processes

Compositional data is non-negative data subject to the unit sum constraint. The logistic normal distribution provides a framework for compositional data when it satisfies sub-compositional coherence in that the inference from a sub- composition should be the same based on the full composition or the sub-composition alone. However, in many cases sub-compositions are not coherent because of additional structure on the compositions, which can be modelled as process(es) inducing change. Sometimes data are collected with a model already well validated and hence with the focus on estimation of the model parameters. Alternatively, sometimes the appropriate model is unknown in advance and it is necessary to use the data to identify a suitable model. In both cases, a hierarchy of possible structure(s) is very helpful. This is evident in the evaluation of, for example, geochemical and household expenditure data. In the case of geochemical data, the structural process might be the stoichiometric constraints induced by the crystal lattice sites, which ensures that amalgamations of some elements are constant in molar terms. The choice of units (weight percent oxide or moles) has an impact on how the data can be modelled and interpreted. For simple igneous systems (e.g. Hawaiian basalt) mineral modes can be calculated from which a valid geochemical interpretation can be obtained. For household expenditure data, the structural process might be how teetotal households have distinct spending patterns on discretionary items from non-teetotal households. Measurement error is an example of another underlying process that reflects how an underlying discrete distribution (e.g. for the number of molecules in a sample) is converted using a linear calibration into a non-negative measurement, where measurements below the stated detection limit are reported as zero. Compositional perturbation involves additive errors on the log-ratio space and is the process that does show sub-compositional coherence. The mixing process involves the combination of compositions into a new composition, such as minerals combining to form a rock, where there may be considerable knowledge about the set of possible mixing processes. Finally, recording error may affect the composition, such as recording the components to a specified number of decimal digits, implying interval censoring, which implies error is close to uniform on the simplex.postprin

Coherence-Preserving Quantum Bits

Real quantum systems couple to their environment and lose their intrinsic quantum nature through the process known as decoherence. Here we present a method for minimizing decoherence by making it energetically unfavorable. We present a Hamiltonian made up solely of two-body interactions between four two-level systems (qubits) which has a two-fold degenerate ground state. This degenerate ground state has the property that any decoherence process acting on an individual physical qubit must supply energy from the bath to the system. Quantum information can be encoded into the degeneracy of the ground state and such coherence-preserving qubits will then be robust to local decoherence at low bath temperatures. We show how this quantum information can be universally manipulated and indicate how this approach may be applied to a quantum dot quantum computer.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

A 60 pc counter-rotating core in NGC 4621

We present adaptive optics assisted OASIS integral field spectrography of the S0 galaxy NGC 4621. Two-dimensional stellar kinematical maps (mean velocity and dispersion) reveal the presence of a 60 pc diameter counter-rotating core (CRC), the smallest observed to date. The OASIS data also suggests that the kinematic center of the CRC is slightly offset from the center of the outer isophotes. This seems to be confirmed by archival HST/STIS data. We also present the HST/WFPC2 V-I colour map, which exhibits a central elongated red structure, also slightly off-centered in the same direction as the kinematic centre. We then construct an axisymmetric model of NGC 4621: the two-integral distribution function is derived using the Multi-Gaussian Expansion and the Hunter & Qian (1993) formalisms. Although the stellar velocities are reasonably fitted, including the region of the counter-rotating core, significant discrepancies between the model and the observations demonstrate the need for a more general model (e.g. a three-integral model).Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Research on graphite reinforced glass matrix composites

A composite that can be used at temperatures up to 875 K with mechanical properties equal or superior to graphite fiber reinforced epoxy composites is presented. The composite system consist of graphite fiber, uniaxially or biaxially, reinforced borosilicate glass. The mechanical and thermal properties of such a graphite fiber reinforced glass composite are described, and the system is shown to offer promise as a high performance structural material. Specific properties that were measured were: a modified borosilicate glass uniaxially reinforced by Hercules HMS graphite fiber has a three-point flexural strength of 1030 MPa, a four-point flexural strength of 964 MPa, an elastic modulus of 199 GPa and a failure strain of 0.0052. The preparation and properties of similar composites with Hercules HTS, Celanese DG-102, Thornel 300 and Thornel Pitch graphite fibers are also described