Search results for "RESOURCES"

Open Educational Resources - in Engineering Education, Case Study at UC/AGH, UB and ULBS

2019

Abstract To change the educational scene in the epoch of the digital generation there is the possibility of using Open Education (OE) and Open Educational Resources (OER). The term “open educational resources” refers to resources with free access to use, adaptation and redistribution. The objectives of the research are to determine the degree of knowledge and use of OER in three Engineering Universities in three countries (Poland, Hungary and Romania) and to find out whether there is a relationship between the institutions in terms of knowledge and use of OER. The measurement is made by applying the survey method on a sample of n = 192. As a tool we use the questionnaire with 15 questions s…

Versatile tool for competence management - an e-portfolio management system for higher education in applied sciences

2011

In the line of outcome based education and transferability of credits, we study a Higher Education case and propose an e-Portfolio solution as a versatile tool for assessment tasks. The solution tackles the problems firstly, of accreditation of prior achievements from both institutional and experiential learning. Secondly, the developed tool carries the process of learning outcome definitions management (derived from the real employment world), and the learner self-assessment and self-reflection as well as the guidance and support for these. The e-Portfolio management system, ePofo, supports the identification, assessment, recognition and accreditation of prior learning achievements and lea…

Motivation and Job Satisfaction among Information Systems Developers — Perspectives from Finland, Nigeria and Estonia: A Preliminary Study

2006

Information Systems (IS) have become one of the most important assets in organisations over the past decades. Adopting and using IS bestows a variety of advantages to organisations that are adept at it (Senker and Senker, 1992). Developing IS within organisations, unarguably serves the objectives of management. To that end, information systems development (ISD) professionals are pivotal in the implementations of such systems and their motivation and job satisfaction equally paramount. Some researchers have also commented on economic value of IS professionals to organisations (Niederman and Crosetto, 1996) Apparently, there is a growing body of literature on the issue of motivation and job s…

Adapting teaching and assessment strategies to enhance competence-based learning in the framework of the european convergence process

2007

In the framework of the European higher education area, one of the key issues is to discuss how teaching, learning activities and assessment can be best organised to allow students to reach both transferable skills and subject related competences. In this context, during the 2005/06 academic year, our School decided to essay different strategies in a first-year Pilot Group, due to the traditional poor academic performance on these students. Thus, the proposal included a learning contract that must be signed for all the pupils enrolled on this particular group. Both active teaching-learning methods and additional assessment strategies were applied to achieve the objectives, defined in terms …

Sustainability evaluation of Sicily's lemon and orange production: An energy, economic and environmental analysis

2013

The island of Sicily has a long standing tradition in citrus growing. We evaluated the sustainability of orange and lemon orchards, under organic and conventional farming, using an energy, environmental and economic analysis of the whole production cycle by using a life cycle assessment approach. These orchard systems differ only in terms of a few of the inputs used and the duration of the various agricultural operations. The quantity of energy consumption in the production cycle was calculated by multiplying the quantity of inputs used by the energy conversion factors drawn from the literature. The production costs were calculated considering all internal costs, including equipment, materi…

Municipal waste management in Sicily: practices and challenges.

2006

There are numerous problems yet to be solved in waste management and although efforts towards waste recovery and recycling have been made, landfills are still the most common method used in the EU and many other industrialised countries. Thermal disposal, particularly incineration, is a tested and viable alternative. In 2004, only 11% of the annual waste production of Italy was incinerated. Sicily, with over five million inhabitants, is the second largest region in Italy where waste management is now a critical problem. The use of landfills can no longer be considered a satisfactory environmental solution; therefore, new methods have to be chosen and waste-toenergy plants could provide an a…

Evaluation of the Water Scarcity Energy Cost for Users

2013

Abstract: In systems experiencing water scarcity and consequent intermittent supply, users often adopt private tanks that collect water during service periods and supply users when the service is not available. The tank may be fed by gravity or by private pumping stations depending on the network pressure level. Once water resources are collected, the tank can supply users by gravity if it is located on the rooftop or by additional pumping if underground. Private tanks thus increase the energy cost of the water supply service for users by introducing several small pumping structures inside the network. The present paper aims to evaluate this users’ energy cost for different private tank con…

Open Educational Resources (OER) in gas and petroleum engineering education

2016

Economic feasibility study for wastewater treatment: a cost-benefit analysis.

2010

Water resource management should be made from a multidisciplinary perspective. In this sense, economic research into the design and implementation of policies for the efficient management of water resources has been emphasized by the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is one of the more widely accepted economic instruments since it is a rational and systematic decision-making support tool. Moreover, the wastewater treatment process has significant associated environmental benefits. However, these benefits are often left uncalculated because they have no market value. In this paper, using the concept of shadow price, a quantification of the environmental be…

Life cycle assessment of Italian citrus-based products. Sensitivity analysis and improvement scenarios

2009

Though many studies concern the agro-food sector in the EU and Italy, and its environmental impacts, literature is quite lacking in works regarding LCA application on citrus products. This paper represents one of the first studies on the environmental impacts of citrus products in order to suggest feasible strategies and actions to improve their environmental performance. In particular, it is part of a research aimed to estimate environmental burdens associated with the production of the following citrus-based products: essential oil, natural juice and concentrated juice from oranges and lemons. The life cycle assessment of these products, published in a previous paper, had highlighted sign…