Le passage de l’oralité à l’écrit et de l’indifférence à l’égard des outils de communication de savoir à leur intégration dans un projet éducatif a pris des siècles et il est passé par plusieurs épisodes. Malgré les différences qu’on peut constater quant aux rythmes et aux modalités de cette transformation pédagogique et communicationnelle entre l’Europe et le monde arabe, cette évolution de la réflexion sur les outils et médias éducatifs a fortement influencé la façon avec laquelle ces populations appréhendent aujourd’hui ces techniques de plus en plus numériques. En France, depuis des décennies, les plans numériques pour l’éducation se succèdent. En Tunisie, après la création en 2002 de l’université virtuelle de Tunis (UVT), on parle actuellement de l’intégration de tablettes numériques dans l’école publique. En dépit des différences que présentent ces deux pays quant aux contextes politiques, économiques, sociaux et culturels, nous avons noté des similitudes stratégiques qui caractérisent leurs démarches respectives pour le numérique éducatif. Nous pouvons remarquer, entre autres, une similitude dans l’installation volontariste des techniques pour apprendre accompagnée de discours annonçant plus de facilités, plus de fiabilité et plus de réussite. Dans le cadre de notre recherche, nous nous intéressons à la question de l’enseignement-apprentissage à distance, et aux outils éducatifs mis en œuvre pour ce faire. Nous ne prétendons pas faire une comparaison binaire entre un modèle d’utilisation des technologies dans le cadre de l’apprentissage qui serait français et un autre qui serait tunisien. Nous mettons en revanche en perspectives les deux expériences tout en insistant sur la démarche tunisienne. L’enseignement/apprentissage à distance est une situation de communication particulièrement délicate, d’une part par son inscription dans cette logique de contextes sociaux et économiques, mais aussi par l’éclatement de la notion de l’espace qui renforce le sentiment de l’isolement chez l’apprenant. Pour surmonter ce sentiment d’isolement et réussir son apprentissage à distance, plusieurs chercheurs proposent un processus d’autorégulation de l’apprentissage. Bien qu’il soit centré sur l’activité de l’apprenant lui-même, ce processus insiste sur l’importance de l’intervention des autres usagers du système éducatif (institution et corps pédagogique). Par notre recherche, nous avons voulu interroger cette question d’autorégulation de l’apprentissage dans le contexte tunisien de l’université virtuelle de Tunis. Nous avons alors cherché à comprendre le comportement autorégulé des apprenants tunisiens à la lumière du dispositif (humain et technique) de l’institution. Pour soulever ces questions nous avons opté pour une méthodologie multiple qui réunit observation participante, observation cachée, questionnaire, protocole géode et analyse de contenu. Cette recherche a abouti à trois résultats majeurs : la création de l’UVT est un projet avant tout politique destiné à véhiculer une image moderne de la Tunisie. En effet, à part l’expérience de l’institut supérieur de la formation continue crée en 1984, aucune réflexion autour d’une pédagogie adaptée à l’enseignement-apprentissage à distance dans le terrain tunisien n’a été entamée surtout que le dispositif UVT est basé sur les technologies numériques. De ce fait, le comportement autorégulé des apprenants oscille, selon le degré de contrôle pédagogique qu’exerce le dispositif UVT sur leur apprentissage, entre adaptation aux conditions formelles et création de conditions informelles contournant ainsi le dispositif de l’institution. / The transition from spoken (unwritten, said, told) to written and from the meaninglessness towards the communication tools and then to their integration in an educational project has taken centuries and has gone through several chapters. Despite the differences that can be perceived on the rhythms and modalities of this educational and communicational transformation between Europe and the Arab world, this evolution of thinking about educational tools and media has greatly influenced the way people apprehend these techniques. Especially considering that these techniques are more and more digital today. In France, for decades, several digital plans for education have been implemented. In Tunisia, after the creation of the Virtual University of Tunis in 2002, a project about the integration of digital tablets in public schools had been announced. Despite the political, economic, social and cultural differences between these two countries, we noticed strategic similarities that characterize their respective digital educational approaches. We can note, among others, a similarity in the voluntary installation of educational techniques accompanied by speeches announcing easiness, more reliability and more success. In the framework of our research, we focus on the issue of e-learning and the tools implemented for it. We are not doing a binary comparison between the way that technology in education is used in France and the way that technology in education is used in Tunisia. We, however, prospect both experiences while emphasizing the Tunisian approach. E-learning is a particularly delicate communication situation, not only because it is influenced by social and economic factors, but also because of the bursting of the notion of space that exasperate the learners’ feeling of isolation. To overcome this feeling of isolation and for successful distance learning, several researchers propose a self-regulation process. While it is centered on the activity of the learner himself, this process insists on the importance of the intervention of all education system users. Through our research, we wanted to ask the question of self-regulated learning in the Tunisian context represented by the Virtual University of Tunis (VUT). We then sought to understand the self-regulated behavior of Tunisian students (learners) in the light of the institute system. To raise these issues we opted for a methodology that combines observation, questionnaire, geode protocol and content analysis. This research led to three major outcomes: the creation of the VUT is a political project intended to convey a modern image of Tunisia. Indeed, besides the experience of the Higher Institute of Continuing Education, established in 1984, no reflection on a pedagogy adapted to distance learning in Tunisia has been implemented especially that the VUT is based on digital technologies. Thus, the self-regulated learner behavior varies, according to the degree of control exerted by the VUT environment on their learning activities, between adaptation to the formal requirements and creating informal conditions.

This work discusses alternative methods to detect outliers in spatial point patterns. Outliers are defined based on location only and also with respect to associated variables. Throughout the thesis we discuss five case studies, three of them come from experiments with spiders and bees, and the other two are data from earthquakes in a certain region. One of the main conclusions is that when detecting outliers from the point of view of location we need to take into consideration both the degree of clustering of the events and the context of the study. When detecting outliers from the point of view of an associated variable, outliers can be identified from a global or local perspective. For global outliers, one of the main questions addressed is whether the outliers tend to be clustered or randomly distributed in the region. All the work was done using the R programming language.

Online coursework is common in Special Education Programs that train teachers for rural areas. Does every student have the potential to learn well online? This session will discuss a study where half of the students were face-to-face and the other half were online. The two sections will be compared.

This experiment investigated the processes underlying similarity-based free categorization. Of particular interest was how temporal distance between similar objects affects the likelihood that people will put them into the same novel category. Participants engaged in a free categorization task referred to as binomial labeling. This task required participants to generate a two-part label (A1, B1, C1, etc.) indicating family (superordinate) and species (subordinate) levels of categorization for each object in a visual display. Participants were shown the objects one at a time in a sequential presentation; after labeling each object, they were asked to describe the similarity between that object and previous objects by selecting one of five choices from a drop down menu. Our main prediction was that temporal distance should affect categorization, specifically, that people should be less likely to give two identical objects the same category label the farther apart they are shown in the display. The primary question being addressed in this study was whether the effects of distance are due to a decreased likelihood of remembering the first object when labeling the second (what we refer to as a stage 1 or sampling effect) or to factors during the actual comparison itself (a stage 2 or decision effect)? Our results showed a significant effect of distance on both the likelihood of giving identical objects the same label as well as on the likelihood of mentioning the first object when labeling the second object in an identical pair. Specifically, as the distance between two identical objects increased, the likelihood of giving them the same label, as well as mentioning their similarity, both decreased. Importantly, the decreased probability of giving the second object the same label seemed entirely due to the decreased probability of remembering (sampling) the first object, as indicated by the menu responses. These results provide strong support for the idea that the effect of temporal distance on free categorization is mainly due to stage 1 factors, specifically to its effect on the availability of the first instance in memory when labeling the second. No strong evidence was found in this experiment supporting a separate distance effect at the comparison-decision stage (i.e., stage 2).

Bangladesh introduced open and distance learning as a means of providing education for people in isolated and remote locations through the establishment of the Bangladesh Open University (BOU). The broad aim of the BOU is to provide flexible and needs-based education to those unable or not wishing to enter conventional educational institutions. The BOU is presently the only university in Bangladesh to provide mass education and also to provide continuing education and professional and technical education to support the existing educational system. The BOU has a mission that encompasses secondary and higher levels of education. BOU operates its programs through a centralised academic and administrative staff, and regional and local offices throughout Bangladesh that organise local tutorials and distribute information and materials. BOU has adult students in all parts of the country, and most of the students live in rural areas. They need support that is appropriate to their local circumstances. Using an interpretive approach, this research examines the support needs of students studying for the Secondary School Certificate and the Bachelor of Education, assesses the effectiveness of current support services and explores alternatives to the current system. The underlying assumption is that support needs to be appropriate to the country’s culture and circumstances, and useful and feasible from the perspectives of students, staff, administrators and senior university officials. To investigate the appropriate support for distance education students, this research was conducted in four sample regions. Two were selected from areas of sparse population where the terrain makes transport difficult and two from areas that are more densely populated and where transport is easier. A questionnaire survey and focus groups were conducted with students, focus groups with local staff and interviews with Regional Directors within the four sample regions. Interviews were also undertaken with central University senior staff to get their perspectives on current and future policies for student support.

<p>The distance to empty (DTE) for a heavy vehicle is valuable information both forthe driver and the hauler company. The DTE is estimated as the ratio between the current fuel level and a representative mean fuel consumption. This means the fuel consumption is a prediction of the most likely future mean fuel consumption based on earlier data. It is calculated by applying a forgetting filter on the signal of the momentary fuel consumption in the engine. The filter parameter control how many values that contributes to the output. This is a balance between desired robustness and adaptability of the estimate.</p><p>Initially, a pre-stored value is used as an estimate of the mean fuel consumption. By this, the driver gets a first hint of the DTE value and the estimation of the DTE gets a good starting point. Stored values will adapt continuously with an online algorithm using vehicle data from previous runs. An alternative to showing the DTE is to present the time to empty when the vehicle speed is close to zero.</p><p>The accuracy of the proposed algorithm depends on the quality of the input signals. With the current input signals, it is possible to get a DTE estimate that, over a longer time period, decrease in the same pace as the distance meter increase. This is considered as a good validation measurement. If altitude data for the current route would be used, a more accurate DTE estimate could be obtained. The sample distance for this altitude data could however be set to a 1000 meter without affecting the estimate significantly.</p> / <p>Sträckan till tom tank för ett tungt fordon är värdefull information, både för den enskilde föraren och åkeriet. Förkortad som DTE (Distance to empty) kan detta värde estimeras som kvoten av den nuvarande bränslenivån i tanken och en genomsnittlig bränsleförbrukning.</p><p>Denna genomsnittliga bränsleförbrukning är en prediktion av den troligaste framtida snittförbrukningen baserad på tidigare värden. Detta görs genom att ett glömskefilter appliceras på signalen för den aktuella bränsleförbrukningen i motorn. Filterparametern avgör hur snabbt gamla värden på insignalen ska klinga av och när den anpassas så måste önskad stabilitet vägas mot önskad känslighet hos skattningen.</p><p>Initialt så används förlagrade värden som skattning för den genomsnittliga bränsleförbrukningen. Detta gör att föraren får en första aning om hur långt fordonet kan köras samt ger DTE estimeringen en bra utgångspunkt. Dessa lagrade värden uppdateras under drift med information från det aktuella fordonet. För att hanterade problem som kan uppstå vid låga hastigheter eller tomgång kan istället tiden till tom tank visas.</p><p>Resultatet av DTE skattningen beror på kvalitén på insignalerna. Med de nuvarande insignalerna fås en DTE skattning som över en längre tidsperiod minskar sitt värde i samma takt som avståndsmätaren ökar sitt, vilket är ett önskvärt uppförande.</p><p>Om höjddata för en den aktuella rutten skulle användas skulle DTE estimeringen kunna göras mer noggrant. Det skulle dock räcka med att använda höjdinformation var 1000:e meter och ändå få en tillräckligt noggrann skattning.</p>

This study was conducted to determine if there were possible areas of student individuality and uniqueness that might contribute to successful completion of distance education courses as compared to successful completion of traditional classroom courses. Five areas of possible differences were identified and studied: 1) differences between the number of successful completers, 2) differences in individual student learning styles, 3) differences in individual student self-directed learning readiness, 4) differences in individual student motivation, and 5) differences in individual student personal profiles. The data collected in this research project came from 132 students enrolled in Psychology 111, a distance education course and traditional classroom course at University of Alaska Anchorage. Three survey instruments were used to collect the data as follows: Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (LSI), Guglielmino's Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS), and a General Questionnaire. In addition, students' final class standings (Pass/Fail) were used to determine completion status. Findings of the study indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the number of successful completers of distance education courses as compared to successful completers for traditional classroom courses. Findings also indicated that areas of learning style and learning readiness had no effect on the successful completion rates of students enrolled in distance education courses as compared to students enrolled in traditional classroom courses. Motivational differences appeared between the two groups studied in two areas, "Retraining" and "Fits my work schedule." The study findings also suggested that there were statistically significant differences in distance education students' personal profiles as compared to traditional classroom students' personal profiles in such areas as gender, full-time student status, marital status, and number of dependents. / Graduation date: 1994

My research is concentrated on applications of linear algebra in engineering, including wavelet analysis and structured matrices and (currently) approximation of large dense matrices by a mosaic of low rank blocks. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Thesis (Ph.D. (International Commerce))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Boise State University, 2006. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-144). Also available online via the ProQuest Digital Dissertations database.