1,720,960 research outputs found
Strengthening the Internal Quality Assurance Mechanisms in Open and Distance Learning Systems
No full textThe term quality is a difficult concept to define. The concept is easily misconstrued because of its rather nebulous characteristics. While many people have a fair idea as to what they construe the quality of a phenomenon or an object to be, they find it difficult to define the term. Dictionaries define quality as degree of excellence. This suggests that quality is not some kind of fixed, immutable target or destination that may be attained merely by striving sufficiently hard, but a dynamic or moving target whose attainment at each point in time is facilitated by a set of strategies that are themselves also dynamic(Ekhaguere, 2006). In industrial organizations, where the assembly line production format is popular, control measures are used by managers to ascertain and sustain the credibility and standard of the product being released into the market. According to Duncan (1978) there are two types of control measures for goal attainment –feedback control and preventive control. While the feedback control is based on the information from the end-users of a product regarding the performance of the product, after they must have obtained and made use of it; preventive control relies on preventive planning to minimize variance or deviation in the production process. Quality assurance is a component of the preventive control mechanisms which involves ensuring that all intermediate products in production process conform as much as possible to specifications. It is believed that the lack of variance in intermediate products guarantees final product quality, all things being equal.</jats:p
Impact of Instructional Radio Delivery Mode on Academic Achievement of Distance Learning Students’ in Computer Science
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Poverty and Phobia of Internet Connectivity and Usage Among University Students in Southwestern Nigeria
No full textThe impact of the Internet on teaching and learning processes has taken previously unimaginable dimensions, by curriculum specialists and educational technologists, from both developed and developing societies. Though the Internet has transformed the way knowledge is created, presented and acquired, it has also deepened the fundamental inequalities which have affected the quality of higher education provision in the 21st century, especially in developing societies like Nigeria, where poverty and underdevelopment are still an integral part of the social realities. This chapter examines the phenomenon of poverty and phobia regarding Internet connectivity and usage among university students in south-western Nigeria. Using the descriptive survey research method, a five-point likert-type structured questionnaire was administered on 362 randomly selected students from 7 universities in south-western Nigeria. Findings indicated that respondents have a high confidence level of 78% for Internet usage, with the major challenge being the cost and low quality Internet connectivity, notwithstanding the urban locations of the institutions. Internet access by students is generally low due to high costs of Internet connectivity, access, sporadic and unstable electricity. There is general absence of financial aid mechanisms and this makes it difficult for students to procure reliable Internet access, even though they have high confidence level to utilize it.</jats:p
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