Wie funktioniert eine Suchmaschine?

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Das Speichern von Information und Wissen ist seit Jahrtausenden Teil der Menschheitsgeschichte. Die Erfindung des Buchdrucks hat zu enormen Bibliotheken geführt, um das vorhandene Wissen zu konservieren und zugänglich zu machen. Mit den riesigen Mengen an Informationen und Wissen wurde es aber auch immer schwerer, relevante von irrelevanter Information zu trennen und Informationen wiederzufinden. Mit dem Erfolg des Internet schließlich kam es zu einer Explosion an öffentlich zugänglichen Informationen und neue Inhalte werden in nie dagewesenem Ausmaß produziert. Dieser Informationsflut Herr zu werden haben sich Suchmaschinen verschrieben.

In diesem Kurs wollen wir in die technischen Grundlagen einführen und einfache Konzepte des „Information Retrievals“ im Webkontext näher beleuchten: Wie ist eine Suchmaschine aufgebaut? Was passiert, wenn ich eine Suchanfrage eintippe? Nach welchen Kriterien werden Ergebnislisten erstellt? Auf Themen wie Suchmaschinenoptimierung (SEO) oder die konkrete Benutzung bestimmter Suchmaschinen wird dabei nicht näher eingegangen.

Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion

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Der Kurs vermittelt Grundlagen der Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion. Studierende sollen dadurch befähigt werden, nicht nur interaktive Systeme selbst zu evaluieren, sondern auch Grundlagen auf Seiten des Menschen (z. B. Wahrnehmungsaspekte) und der Maschine (z. B. technische Rahmenbedingungen) zu verstehen und UI/UX-Designaspekte künftig in der Konzeption eigener interaktiven Systeme zu beachten.

Stadt | Land | DatenFluss

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Der Kurs „Stadt | Land | DatenFluss“ sensibilisiert für einen souveränen Umgang mit Daten in einer digitalisierten Welt und weckt das Interesse an neuen datengestützten Technologien. Er ist kostenlos unter der Lizenz CC BY-SA 4.0 verfügbar und basiert auf der gleichnamigen App, die der Deutsche Volkshochschul-Verband (DVV) entwickelt hat.

Datenschutz für Einsteigerinnen und Einsteiger

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Frau Dr. Ina Haarhoff, Justiziarin am Hasso-Plattner-Institut, stellt im Kurs “Datenschutz für Einsteiger” die rechtlichen Grundlagen des Datenschutzes in Deutschland dar. Sie erklärt wesentliche Elemente wie die Betroffenenrechte, die Auftragsverarbeitungsvereinbarung, das Verfahrensverzeichnis und die Datenschutzfolgenabschätzung. Außerdem erläutert sie die Voraussetzungen für ein Datenschutzmanagementsystem, das den Vorgaben der Datenschutzgrundverordnung (DSGVO) genügt. Schlussendlich erhalten Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer konkrete Hinweise, was im Falle eine Datenpanne zu unternehmen ist.

10th Grade ELA: Information Fluency

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In this unit, students will understand where “fake news” comes from, why it exists and how they can think like fact checkers to become fluent consumers, evaluators, and creators of information. They will apply this knowledge by selecting a controversial topic to evaluate, synthesize, and analyze all aspects before sharing with a local audience.

 

 

Expanding The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to Examine Faculty Use of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) In Higher Education Institutions

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Universities have made a considerable investment in the use of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) to facilitate their teaching learning processes; however these systems are not used by the faculty members to their fullest capabilities.

To address this issue, this study investigated factors that affect faculty members’ LMSs usage behavior, focusing on user related variables and their pivotal role in determining faculty attitudes toward LMSs.

This study offers an empirical evaluation of an extension of Davis’s (1989)’s Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to investigate how faculty members’ beliefs and attitudes influence their intention and actual use of LMSs under conditions of non-mandatory use of LMSs in higher education institutions.

Data were obtained from 560 faculty members (from two universities) and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The study results revealed that the three proposed external variables: system quality; perceived self-efficacy and facilitations conditions were significant predictors of faculty attitude towards LMSs.

Similar to prior research findings, the study results further confirmed the validity of the extended TAM in determining users’ technology acceptance behavior.

The study also addressed the implications of the findings for researchers and practitioners.

Content or platform: Why do students complete MOOCs?

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The advent of massive open online courses (MOOCs) poses new learning opportunities for learners as well as challenges for researchers and designers. MOOC students approach MOOCs in a range of fashions, based on their learning goals and preferred approaches, which creates new opportunities for learners but makes it difficult for researchers to figure out what a student’s behavior means, and makes it difficult for designers to develop MOOCs appropriate for all of their learners. Towards better understanding the learners who take MOOCs, we conduct a survey of MOOC learners’ motivations and correlate it to which students complete the course according to the pace set by the instructor/platform (which necessitates having the goal of completing the course, as well as succeeding in that goal). The results showed that course completers tend to be more interested in the course content, whereas non-completers tend to be more interested in MOOCs as a type of learning experience. Contrary to initial hypotheses, however, no substantial differences in mastery-goal orientation or general academic efficacy were observed between completers and non-completers. However, students who complete the course tend to have more self-efficacy for their ability to complete the course, from the beginning.

eLene4Life Lessons Learned Kit

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eLene4Life is an Erasmus+ project that supports curriculum innovation in higher education (HE) through the development of active learning approaches for transversal skills, with the ultimate aim of improving students’ employability. eLene4Life brings together a group of five European universities, two higher education associations and a Foundation specialised in university-corporate cooperation. 

According to the 2018 World Economic Forum Report ‘Towards a Reskilling Revolution: A Future of Jobs for All’, the rise of artificial intelligence, robotics and other digital developments is upending the primacy of human expertise in the economy. The individuals who will succeed in the economy of the future will be those who can complement the work done by mechanical or algorithmic technologies, and ‘work with the machines’. The 2018 European Commission Proposal on Key Competences also draws attention to these disruptions affecting European societies and economies, stating that “Skills such as creativity, critical thinking, taking initiative and problem solving play an important role in coping with complexity and change in today’s society.”

In a previous Erasmus+ project, eLene4Work, the development of HE students’ (digital) soft skills was experimented through the use of MOOCs and OERs. The results showed that, while autonomous learning indeed played a significant role, real impact would only come from fully integrating these into the curriculum. The project also found a mismatch between employers’ expectations and students’ perceptions of the labour market with respect to these transversal skills.

The Lessons Learned Kit takes the form of three multimedia publications based on the project outputs. 

State of the Art Analysis: innovative active learning approaches in higher education and the corporate sector for the development of soft skills (results of Transnational Analysis-HE and Transnational Analysis-Corporate).

Implementation and Experience: results of the students’ and teachers’ learning and teaching experience supported by the Dynamic Toolkit and the Pilot Projects.

Network and Discussion: recommendations for transferability supported by the Community of Practice and the results of the discussion-based MOOC,  and including key messages from the overall project.

Faculty-Perceived Barriers of Online Education

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At institutions of higher learning, there is an increased demand and need for online courses. However, the number of faculty developing and teaching these courses does not match the growth in online education. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived barriers to online teaching experienced by various faculty groups at a public institution located in the southeastern United States using a new survey instrument, which was developed from recent research findings. This study sought to identify the most prevalent barriers to online instruction for the faculty group surveyed. In addition, these findings may identify prevalent barriers for faculty groups in an effort to inform administrative decisions concerning policy, training, and compensation as well as to facilitate involvement for specific types of online instruction for faculty development. A number of novel and important differences were found in the perceived barriers that exist between faculty groups on four constructs identified through an exploratory factor analysis. The factors found were: (1) interpersonal barriers; (2) institutional barriers; (3) training and technology barriers; and (4) cost/benefit analysis barriers. The results of this study may be of use to other institutions as they develop online instruction training programs.

Combattere il digital divide e promuovere l’inclusione

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Il numero della rivista Bricks di dicembre 2021, ha come tema “Combattere il digital divide e promuovere l’inclusione”.
Si tratta di due questioni distinte ma interconnesse. Il periodo terribile del lockdown, da un lato ha rivelato tutta la pericolosità del digital divide e,
contemporaneamente, ha fornito una spinta per il suo superamento. C’è stato un salto quantitativo nell’uso della rete, dei dispositivi, delle App. Limitandoci al mondo della scuola: docenti che non usavano il digitale per la didattica di punto in bianco hanno dovuto farlo in modo massiccio; studenti che usavano lo smartphone solo per sentire la musica, guardare video e chattare con gli amici lo hanno usato per seguire le lezioni, studiare e fare i compiti e hanno scoperto e imparato ad usare nuove applicazioni per comunicare e collaborare; per i DS priorità sono diventati dispositivi, connessione, infrastrutture, formazione digitale dei docenti; le famiglie hanno spesso dovuto acquistare nuovi dispositivi e potenziare la banda e hanno preso coscienza delle attività didattiche in cui i figli sono quotidianamente impegnati. Per necessità sono aumentate le competenze digitali e la comprensione del ruolo e delle potenzialità del digitale. Ed è aumentata, in modo diffuso, la coscienza dei gap da superare.  E d’altro canto quei gap sono emersi in tutta la loro drammaticità. Gap di competenze ma anche gap “strutturali”. Il digital divide, che sia dovuto a mancanza di competenze o di dispositivi o di connessione, causa esclusione. Molti degli articoli che trovate in questo numero parlano di iniziative per combatterlo sviluppando le competenze digitali.