Azzedine Lansari

Using a Learning Management System to Foster Independent Learning in an Outcome-Based University: A Gulf Perspective

Introduction Information and communication technology (ICT) has become a popular tool to facilitate and enhance teaching and learning. Many academic institutions are using ICT to provide support to their curriculum, expand student learning experiences and support the institutions academic program learning outcomes. Moreover, a number of universities are using ICT to be more competitive (Norman, 2007). The Gulf region has seen a major increase in the presence of universities from North America, Europe and Australia. Most of them offer a combination of face to face and distance learning programs. The number of students enrolling in these universities has increase dramatically as people are increasingly moving to the Gulf region for employment (Al-Doub, Goodwin, & Al-Hunaiyyan, 2008; Biju, 2010). Students in the Gulf face difficulties when joining universities offering US and Western style academic programs. One major challenge is the learning habits and styles that students have acquired while in middle and high school. Students are used to the guided teaching and fact based model compared to the independent project based model used in higher academic institutions particularly those offering distance learning programs. The second challenge comes from the fact that students in this part of the world generally graduate from segregated primary and secondary schools that focus on memorization to gain knowledge. Therefore, students have learned to completely depend on their teachers for acquiring knowledge. As a result the concept of problem solving and critical thinking is almost foreign to the majority of the students. This problem seems to be more severe with female students joining higher education institutions. Statistics show that more than two third of the students joining Colleges and Universities in the region are female students. Most public universities in this region are segregated and are trying to find solutions to the dependence of students on teachers. Some academic institutions have identified solutions that include using technology in the classrooms; others have adopted alternative educational models to encourage students to become independent learners and requiring them to own a laptop for an alternative way to learn, communicate, access resources, and share information. A recently established outcome-based university, Zayed University (ZU) has campuses for both female and male students. ZU offers specializations in the fields of business, communication and media sciences, education, information technology and arts and sciences. This segregated university uses an American educational model and has recently achieved accreditation by the Middle States Accreditation Body (http://www.msche.org/). Since its establishment, the University has focused on having a high tech campus that provides the latest technology to facilitate learning. The campus provides students and faculty with wired and wireless connections to various electronic resources. Currently, the University requires every student to purchase a laptop computer. In the year 2000, the University adopted an outcome based Academic Program Model (APM) to provide focus to its curricula and measure student achievement. Two sets of learning outcomes were adopted by the University. University learning outcomes (ULO) are high-level outcomes that focus on life skills, and College specific learning outcomes (CLO) which relate to the abilities needed by students to be successful in their field of study upon graduation. The University provides a technology mediated learning environment where each student and instructor has access to a wide range of ICT tools to communicate, collaborate and share resources. These tools provide anytime anywhere learning opportunities. Currently, more than 5,000 students have access to courses and learning materials on campus and from home via the Blackboard Course Management System (http://www. …

A new non-recursive algorithm for binary search tree traversal

Binary tree traversal refers to the process of visiting each node in a specified order. There are two ways to visit a tree: recursively and non-recursively. Most references introduce tree traversal using recursion only. Our literature survey indicated that most references only show the implementations of the recursive algorithms, and only few references address the issue of nonrecursive algorithms. In this paper, we investigate and compare recursive and non-recursive algorithms for in-order, preorder, and post-order traversals. The in-order traversal of a binary search tree is important in searching algorithms, operating systems, and compiler design. In this paper we propose a new non-recursive algorithm for in-order binary search trees that is both efficient and easy to understand. The implementation of this new algorithm was done in Java and the complete algorithm was tested. The new algorithm was found to be faster than other nonrecursive algorithms.

A Holistic Approach to Develop IS Curricula: Focusing on Accreditation and IT Certification.

Introduction Information Systems (IS) are complex systems requiring both technical and organizational expertise for design, development, and management. Many academic institutions worldwide aim to generate an IS curriculum that produces graduates with solid foundation in IS and equipped with the skills that make them readily employable. However, all aspects of the computing fields including IS are faced with great pressure from industry to train students on specific IT technology and skills. As a result, university level IS curricula need frequent updating to answer the need of industry and to remain effective. The highly competitive Information Systems field requires universities and colleges to train students on the use of the latest technologies. Some academic institutions are redesigning their curricula to include IT certifications into their curricula. This process provides graduates with a solid foundation in IS and one or more IT certificate. Businesses today need college graduates to make an impact and become productive employees almost immediately after joining the work force. Information Systems (IS) programs are accredited by oversight bodies to determine whether the program provides quality education (Lidtke & Yaverbaum, 2003; Lunt, Lawson, Goodman, & Helps, 2002). Currently, ABET (Computing Accreditation Commission, 2004) is the accreditation body with responsibility for accrediting all programs in the computing field. The Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) is responsible for the accreditation of IS programs. The IS 2002 model curriculum provides recommendation for the core IS curriculum to meet ABET criteria. While ABET specifies the 120 credit hours for the Bachelor degree, IS 2002 addresses 33 credit hours only. Currently, there is a move by a number of colleges and universities to form partnership with IT vendors such as Microsoft and Cisco to provide hands-on experience that prepares students for successful entry into the job market and to sit for Industry Certification exams (Houston, Blesse, & Herrod, 2005). Many employers are looking for IS graduates to acquire certification in addition to their Bachelor degree. IS graduates can demonstrate that they have the necessary skills to be productive by acquiring one or more appropriate IT certificates. The IEEE and ACM recognize the importance of the IT certifications and provide their members with over four hundred online courses leading to technical certifications. In this paper, an IS model curriculum that addresses accreditation requirements and certification needs is proposed. The model addresses all ABET criteria, which provide recommendations for general education (GE), IS environment, major core courses, major electives and general elective courses. The model curriculum uses the IS 2002 report (Gorgone, Davis, Valacich, Topi, Feinstein, & Longenecker, 2002) to implement the IS core courses. The model also provides a framework to integrate IT certification in IS courses at various levels of the curriculum. n example of how to use the proposed model curriculum is developed. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The second section lists the criteria for accrediting IS programs. The third section introduces the IS 2002 recommendations for curriculum development and addresses some of the implementations issues. The fourth section discusses the proposed comprehensive IS curriculum. The fifth and sixth sections discuss embedding IT certification into the IS curriculum. The seventh section presents an example of how to implement the model curriculum. Finally the eighth section is the conclusion. ABET Criteria for Accrediting IS Programs ABET, a recognized accreditor for college and university programs in applied science, computing, engineering, and technology, is a federation of 30 professional and technical societies representing these fields. Among the most respected accreditation organizations in the U. …

Preparing Undergraduate Students for IT Certification

Introduction Certification establishes a standard of competency in specific area and job roles (Montante & Khan, 2001). This helps industry to determine that employees meet the required credentials for different jobs roles thus requiring less training during the initial employment period. Hence, some job criteria require individuals to be certified in order to be considered for employment. To the certified individual, certification provides a greater sense of confidence in their abilities and a measure of professional expertise and understanding of the job role and products used in that role. It is for these reasons that certification is be coming increasingly popular and in high demand. Many training companies are providing certification-training classes at high costs all across the globe. Unlike traditional academic degrees, some certificates are specific to narrow fields or even to individual products. The aim is to provide targeted skills that have immediate applicability in the workplace. Cisco, Microsoft, Sun, Novel, Oracle, and other vendors offer certification programs for their own products and related job roles. Third-party companies around the world provide certificate-training classes for these vendors and, increasingly, offer certifications of their own that are venders neutral. Academic institutions, from vocational and technical schools to large universities, are beginning to provide similar training in their curricula to prepare students for certification in special areas (Peterson, Morneau, & Saad, 2003). This paper presents ideas for making changes to the existing IS curricula so that courses would help students prepare for certifications in areas such as Networks, Java programming, Hardware and Software, and Internet Technology. Certification Consensus There appears to be a consensus in the community about the importance of certification (Tripp, 2002; Cantor, 2002). In a 2001 IEEE Computer Society survey of software engineering professionals, more than 70% of the respondents agreed that certification would fill a need for improving the software engineering profession and that a software engineering certification program could be used to improve the engineering workforce. More than 67% agreed that certification helps assess an individuals software engineering knowledge and skills. While the role of certification is primarily for the public benefit, individual practitioners may also benefit. The participants in this survey were given a list of eight possible benefits of certification and asked to pick up to three that would best describe the benefits to an individual software engineering practitioner. More than 80% of respondents felt that certification provides recognized evidence of professional capability. Two-thirds felt that certification helps assess an individuals software engineering knowledge and skills, while 44 percent felt that it leads to greater professional recognition. Individuals may also seek certification for personal benefits such as increased opportunity for upward mobility, better ability to compete in the job market, and increased professional credibility, although these benefits were much lower rated by respondents. In the same survey, respondents identified the benefits of certification to an employer hiring a practitioner. The highest ranking was given to the statement that certification provides confidence in a standard set of knowledge areas with which the individual will be familiar. Employers may also view certification as a means for improving job performance and rewarding employees. Employers may also find that training certified employees take less time. Although the survey targeted software engineering certification the same argument is true for any other IT certification. Motivation to Include IT Certification in IS Curricula Certification can be defined as an indicator or confirmation of a persons adequate knowledge and skills in a specified occupation or a particular specialty in that occupation. …

A novel electromyography (EMG) based classification approach for Arabic handwriting

In this paper, a novel classification approach for handwritten Arabic characters is proposed. Features for classification are extracted from electromyographic (EMG) signals detected on two forearm muscles. Noise cancellations in conjunction with a process parameter estimator for feature identification are proposed. Neural networks using a potentially damped least mean squared algorithm is used at the classification stage. The proposed new classification technique is used on handwritten Arabic characters.

Assessing a new academic model using artificial neural networks

Zayed University is a young University that adopted a new Academic Program Model-APM. The new academic program is an outcome based education-OBE model that was developed to address challenges that face a rapidly changing society such as the UAE. The Learning Outcome LO academic model was designed around six learning outcomes, Information Literacy and Communication, Information Technology, Critical Thinking and Reasoning, Global Awareness, Teamwork, Leadership, to help students develop critical intellectual capacities and skills that will help them. Furthermore the new academic model focuses on the process of student learning. To simulate the APM performance, a mathematical model that uses neural networks and fuzzy logic was developed. The neural network was trained on mapping 40 activities into a set of 24 indicators. Then, we used a number of well chosen fuzzy If-Then rules obtained from expert knowledge to classify the 24 indicators into the six ZU Learning Outcomes. The simulations were all successfully performed using the MATLAB simulation package. We believe that the combined neural networks-fuzzy logic modeling technique is a very effective and efficient tool to study how the APM performs under various conditions.

Integrating IT Certification into an Information System Course

The objective of this paper is to study the integration of IT certification goals into a course in Information Systems (IS). A popular IT certificate (CompTIA A+) goals are examined then mapped into the IT hardware and system software course. The A+ certificate objectives are studied from several view points, including lab requirement, faculty certification needs, certificate completion time, and certification exam requirements. IT hardware and software textbooks are also reviewed to select the best textbook that covers both course and certification objectives. Finally, a course syllabus is developed to combine course topics with certification objectives. The syllabus shows all course assessments and makes passing the certification exam a requirement for course completion. Integrating IT certification in computing curricula gives an edge to IS programs as students are looking to increase their skills and thus potential for employment

Using Student e-Portfolios to Facilitate Learning Objective Achievements in an Outcome-Based University

Several researchers define e-portfolios as a digital collection of students’ work accomplished throughout their time of studies in an academic program (Buzzetto-More, 2006; Love, McKean and Gathercoal, 2004; Paulson, Paulson, & Meyer, 1991; Siemens, 2004). E-portfolios can be a rich resource for students and faculty. Students learn to identify and reflect on their learning experiences and show accomplishment of learning outcomes. Faculty members provide students with feedback and guidance to help them accomplish these learning outcomes. In this study student eportfolios consist mainly of a collection of project-based activities that provide students with opportunities to demonstrate mastery of skills and abilities. The College of Technological Innovation (CTI) has been evaluating student e-portfolios using an E-portfolio Assessment Management System (EAMS). The EAMS was developed by the University to provide students with an electronic environment to submit, get feedback, reflect and save key learning experiences. The rationale of the EAMS is to allow students to gather, store and present important projects. The students’ e-portfolios are also used to demonstrate growth toward achieving specific learning outcomes to measure what students have learned and are able to do when they complete their degree program. Students start using the EAMS in semester three of their degree programs and begin the development of a working e-portfolio by archiving all major projects, their instructors’ feedback as well as their reflections.

Effect of Windows XP Firewall on Network Simulation and Testing

Introduction Cisco Networking Academy (CNA) is widely used in high schools, colleges, and universities all over the world. The Cisco Networking Academy Programs provide critical skills needed by students to work in the IT field. The program offers Web-based content, online assessment, handson labs, instructor training, and preparation for industry certifications such as CCNA and CCNP (http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/netacad/). The networking academy is used primarily to prepare students for Cisco certifications; it is also used for non Cisco certificates, such as CompTIA A+ and Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP). The Cisco Networking Academy courses include lab components which are an integral part of all CNA courses. For instance, the CCNA1-CCNA4 courses lab components include routers, switches, as well as some basic equipment and cables, to simulate and test network protocols in a lab environment using Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS). Cisco Networking Academy also promotes a product called Packet Tracer 4.0 (PT4) to simulate and test LAN connectivity. It is used as an alternative to the hardware lab to assist students who have no access to CNA hardware lab. Typical Cisco Networking Academy Program which offers CCNA1-CCNA4 consists of a rack-mounted routers and switches along with few other devices to simulate and test network connectivity. The lab deals with different routing protocols: some of them are Cisco proprietary routing protocols such as EIGRP, and some non Cisco proprietary protocols such as RIP and OSPF. The simulation problem under investigation in this paper involves two Cisco routers, one Cisco switch, and two PCs (hosts) running Windows XP along with a serial cable (DCE/DTE) to connect the two routers. Following the completion of a particular Cisco Networking Academy lab simulation, it is typical to test the connectivity between the host computers using Windows ping.exe and tracert.exe which implement the TCP/IP protocol ICMP. A successful ping from all the hosts means that the network is functioning properly at the network layer level. If the ping is not successful it is necessary to start troubleshooting the network until the ping is successful. However, there are cases when the ping is not successful and yet it was not possible to find any problem with the network. On the other hand repeating the same simulation using Cisco Packet Tracer 4.0 simulation software the phenomena is not observed. The objective of this paper is to investigate the reasons behind the ping failure when a network is configured a certain way under the Windows XP, and provides a solution to resolve this connectivity issue in a lab environment. A brief introduction to Windows XP Firewall settings is given in the last section of this paper. Connectivity Tests using Ping and Tracert The ping command is a good tool for troubleshooting Layer 1 through 3 of the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model and diagnosing basic network connectivity (Odom, 2005). Using ping sends an ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) packet to the specified device (host, server, router or switch) and then waits for reply. The IP address or host name can be pinged. In order to ping the host name of a router, there must be a static host lockup table in the router or a DNS server for name resolution to IP addresses. The traceroute command, abbreviated as trace, is an excellent utility for troubleshooting the path that a packet takes through an internetwork of routers. It can help to isolate problem links and routers along the way. The tracert command uses ICMP packets and the error message generated by routers when the packet exceeds its Time-To-Live (TTL). The Windows version of this command is tracert. Cisco Networking Academy uses the ping command in the lab of the CCNA1-CCNA4 curriculum as a means to verify that the network layer between the source and destination is working properly. …