new edition of Enhancing the Learner Experience in Higher Education published

A new edition of the Journal Enhancing the Learner Experience in Higher Education (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14234/elehe.v6i1) was published today.

Included within are a paper and a book review from two members of the School of Science and Technology:

Understanding student engagement with social entrepreneurship: a case study of the University of Northampton Terry Louis Tudor, Cleber Dutra 4-20 International Students in the Asia Pacific – Mobility, Risks and Optimism (Peter Kell & Gillian Vogl, 2012)
Rashmi Dravid

Completed contents

Vol 6, No 1 (2014)

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14234/elehe.v6i1

Table of Contents

Editorial

Editorial	PDF
Anna Crouch, Rachel Maunder, Simon Sneddon, Scott Turner	1-3

Articles

Understanding student engagement with social entrepreneurship: a case study of the University of Northampton	PDF
Terry Louis Tudor, Cleber Dutra	4-20

Learning from student expectations of higher education: a study in a public university in Malaysia	PDF
Premalatha Karupiah, Intan Hashimah Mohd Hashim, Norzarina Mohd-Zaharim	21-34

Big Ears – sonic art for public ears: Reflections on collaborative training	PDF
Franziska Schroeder, Koichi Samuels, Tullis Rennie	35-48

Work in progress

Using focus groups to enhance student voice: a work-in-progress exploration of student learning experiences in large classes	PDF
Caitlin C Finlayson	49-52

Book reviews

International Students in the Asia Pacific – Mobility, Risks and Optimism (Peter Kell & Gillian Vogl, 2012)	PDF
Rashmi Dravid	53-55

ISSN: 2041-3122

The Journal Enhancing the Learner Experience in Higher Education can be found at: http://journals.northampton.ac.uk/index.php/elehe/index



All views are the authors, and may not reflect the views of any organisation the author is connected with in any way.

Rate my NILE award winners May 2012

Well done to those in the school who won in the student voted Rate my NILE awards namely:



CSY1017 Computer Communications Rashmi Dravid
ENG3010 CORROSION ANALYSIS Steve Mabbutt
ENG3012 THERMOGRAPHIC IMAGING Muhammad Zaid


and related GEOG1013 Geographical Techniques Faith Tucker.


Comments made by students across the university about NILE modules taken from: http://blogs.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/2012/06/04/rate-my-nile-awards-may-2012/ by Rob Howe

The tutor has a very different approach when using the Nile site. He has a very unique way of presentening the site design and navigation and the content that he uses is just superb. Very helpful, and has really enhanced my learning while I have been in and outside university.He does not just use the Nile site for his lecture notes. But, he also puts new material on the Nile site, also online lectures and a array of activities for us to do. That will enhance our knowledge not only in lectures but for the upcoming assignments.

It clearly outlines the criteria to help one achieve success in the module.

You receive a great amount of help for each assessment and for seminar work. You also are told straight away about updates as soon as they can be put up on NILE. All the lecture notes and seminar work is put up straight away giving you plenty of time to do your work and giving enough time to do other module work. The criminal law tutors go out of their way to help students who are stuck providing help over email or face to face help…which helps those that are shy. You are also provided with quizzes which help you to revise and motivate you as the revision is put across in an interesting activity.

The tutor spent time putting articles and other information on to nile which has helped enormously with learning, and for future reference. her module was outstanding and this is reflected in the content on nile.

As an international student with no previous experience of site like NILE as a resource, the tutor the way she present the information on the site, is really helpful and efficient. Always there to help her students, my experience as an international student was enhanced by the collaboration of my tutor.

The good thing about Nile is that i can access your learning material, communicate with the lecturers easily and from anywhere.

Kept up to date quickly. Guidelines given to direct students in an informative way. Very helpul and allayed a lot of anxieties. Innovative and informative materials given to us as students.

It is definitely a place where I can find all I need to do the module. To me the NILE page is my virtual tutor.

Very well organised with lots of useful information and resources. Interactive multiple choice quizzes are also very useful in identifying areas of weakness for revision.

The powerpoints are always readily available before the lesson so you can read up and prepare yourself for what you will be learning. Also there is extra reading information for extra research. All the information on this Module proves that a lot of time and effort is put into this NILE site.

Everything is easy to find, convenient & organised. The site is functional holding all the essential module information; yet easy signposting to relevant further reading is an excellent way of allowing students to continue analysis into a topic without having to trawl through Westlaw.The NILE Site is also updated with topical relevant module related information. This sparks interest in the Module and also helps relate the topics to the ‘real world’.Ultimately we are all perturbed by crime;yet this website makes it so devine

Site is clear and has everything we need to access from each week. Easy to find group blogs and assessment hand in or feedback.

Model for Computer Forensics

An paper on teaching computer forensics was recent published at 7th Annual Teaching Computer Forensics Workshop University of Sunderland on the 10^th Nov 2011.


An Embedded Pedagogic Model for Computer Forensics within an
Undergraduate Programme
Authors: Ali Al-Sherbaz , Amir Minai, James Xue, Rashmi Dravid , The University of Northampton


Abstract
The discipline of computer forensics which has a strong mutli-disciplinary background derives from the computing subjects in networking, programming, security and mathematics. Increasing awareness of cybersecurity and emphasising the need for a common vision among students addresses the challenges. The proposed pedagogic model is to embed the computer forensics materials within the undergraduate modules to extend students’ knowledge and skills in a practical context. However, it is also recognised that the depth of knowledge required learning such topics as cyber security should be offered from the underlying principles to their abstraction.


Cyber crimes are on the rise however, Cyber security professionals are in a depressingly low numbers. The lack of focus on this area has certainly resulted in a limited number of experts. Today, there is a demanding need to create new cyber security jobs, which should hopefully bring leverage to the uncontrollable rise of cyber crimes. It is, therefore, necessary to develop the analytical skills which create challenges in building a constructive approach to learning. Also, reflecting the technological fluctuations, it is seen as essential for students to be continuously updated.


The proposed model focuses on the delivery and assessment of certain computing modules, with an evaluation of its efficiency on the use of time and effort in order to satisfy the minimum requirements of the curriculum. The study has also discovered that some of the modules already cover part of computer forensics implicitly. Therefore, highlighting these topics to the students and making them more visible as computer forensics is one of the main objectives. Another objective is to enhance the existing computing modules by dedicating certain amount of lecture time on computer forensic related concepts. The model can then be adopted by Universities when considering developing new modules.


Over  the  last  few  years  there  have  been  large  increases  in  cyber-crimes  which  have  threatened individuals and organisations. To reduce the threat it is imperative that the computing courses within universities increase the level of student awareness by providing them with professional education in computer forensics and cyber-security without the need to create a separate specialised pathway.

Defining women in IT

Rashmi Dravid and Catherine Klimes recently presented (12th Annual Conference of the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Information and Computing Sciences, University of Ulster 23-25th August, 2011) their work on addressing the gender imbalance in Computing.

Redefining Women in IT

Recent presentation from the School of Science and Technology at the University of Northampton's Widening Participation Seminar.

 

Redefining Women in IT - Special Commendation

A poster has presented at the ‘Gender and Interdisciplinary Education for Engineers -  GIEE 2011’ UPMC - Campus des Cordeliers, Paris, France., By Rashmi Dravid (School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton) and Catherine Klimes (Head of Careers and Employability, University of Northampton). The poster focused on their work on encouraging and developing women in technological subjects. 

Their poster received special commendation at the Conference.

Funding for Women in Computing Mentoring

The six-month-long pilot project is being run at the University of Northampton. This a collaboration between Rashmi Dravid (School of Science and Technology) and Catherine Klimes (Head of Careers and Employability) sees female students undertaking Computing degrees at The University of Northampton being mentored by professional women already working in the sector. They will be taking part in seminars, conferences and workshops as part of the project, supported by some of the leading organisations in the computing sector and independent IT consultants

The project also aims to motivate, inspire and mentor younger girls by the university students  supporting career days and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) based events at the University and secondary schools

For more details can be found by the following this link or contact Rashmi Dravid.

Brief Overview of Women in Engineering Event

The School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton, is hosting the Women in Engineering event on 14^th July 2010, at its impressive new facilities in the Newton Building at Avenue Campus.  The focus of the event is to promote, encourage and inspire young women, aged 13, to pursue careers in science, technology and engineering. Over 80 Year 8 girls and their teachers from local Northampton schools are invited to join female engineers from the University and local industry for a fun morning to explore the exciting world of engineering, computing and science.  The event will feature inspirational presentations from female engineers and scientists, providing a snapshot of their career highlights and successes, workshops to work alongside female role models on exciting hands-on activities, and opportunity to network with and be inspired by women working in the industry. 


A more detailed report of this event can be found at http://www.wisecampaign.org.uk/viewitem.cfm?cit_id=383525

Subject talks and Employability

This is part of the subject talks in computing programme organised by Rashmi Dravid, a recent talkby Dr Iqbal Adjali (Mathematics & Informatics Expertise Team Leader, Unilever R&D Discover) looked at Personalisation Algorithms for Grocery Recommender Systems. 

This informative (and interesting) talk  introduced some of the concepts involved in developing personalisation algorithms for the grocery retail sector, and discussed wider aspects such as the business challenges that have or are likely to be addressed.

  

The talk used the work of Unilever's  Mathematics & Informatics group to illustrate how recommender system work. This group has been investigating various personalisation algorithms, in order to understand how their performance varies according to different data sets and application scenarios. The work of the group was illustrated by examples, the group has been working on, including the Swiss online supermarket LeShop (www.LeShop.ch), in analysing individual shopping basket (cf. loyalty card) data. As part of this collaboration, an on-line personalised retail recommender systems was developed, which also serve as a test-bed to evaluate the performance of their personalisation algorithms.

This programme is an example of the school's on-going activities to improve the student's employability. Another example is the Northampton Engineering Training Partnership, Daniel Bailey has the role of the Northamptonshire Engineering Training Partnership (NETP) Company Liaison Manager