Suchergebnisse

Second Life is a virtual world where many universities have established an educational presence. Hoping to serve as a useful example for others that are considering the creation of a virtual campus, this article follows how the Second Life campus of James Madison University was created in 2008. It details the nontraditional ways that it was used by faculty and students for museum studies, student projects, and in-world conferencing. It also reviews the major reasons why the project failed in April 2012 after four years of successful use, concluding with thoughts on best practices for Second Life university campuses.

ABSTRACTWeb‐based homework (WBH) Technology can simplify the creation and grading of assignments as well as provide a feasible platform for assessment testing, but its effect on student learning in business statistics is unknown. This is particularly true of the latest software development of Web‐based tutoring agents that dynamically evaluate individual students' skill level and purport to respond with appropriate, targeted teaching to improve learning efficiency. In this article, we compare traditional, textbook‐based homework assignments with three systems of WBH for undergraduate business statistics courses: ALEKS, PH Grade Assist, and custom‐made online quizzes in Blackboard. These systems represent a range of media from artificial intelligence–based tutoring to instructor‐controlled objective testing. Using a common assessment test, we compare the performance of students taught with these different systems. Our study finds, as we anticipated, that student performance depends significantly upon teacher experience and student academic competence. Once these factors are controlled for, however, the technique used to deliver homework makes little difference in student success. In contrast to other published research, we do not find any advantage to automated tutoring and identify some limitations of this approach based on both instructor and student feedback.

The current goal of many US firms is to become the highest quality
and lowest cost leaders in their markets. Achieving this goal requires
major changes in how products and services are produced. Many systems
have been developed to assist firms in accomplishing this goal; they
include such diverse areas as Just‐in‐Time manufacturing (JIT), Material
Resource Planning II (MRP II), Automatic Storage and Retrieval Systems
(ASRS), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), CAD/CAM, Computer Integrated
Manufacturing (CIM), and Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS). One key
element in the success of these systems is that accurate data concerning
plant operations must be immediately available to those who need it.
More and more frequently, this requirement is being addressed through
the use of automatic data collection systems (ADC). Seeks to provide
insights into the application of ADC systems in US industries. Considers
the type of data collection system installed, the implementation and
operational problems encountered, and the degree of success enjoyed by
the firm using ADC. Data were gathered via a survey instrument
administered to the membership of a national organization, the Institute
of Certified Professional Managers (ICPM).