This thesis represents the written documentation and evaluation of the lighting design for the Southern Illinois University Carbondale Department of Theater's production of Ken Ludwig's musical Crazy for You. It was produced on the McLeod Theater stage in October of 2010. The first chapter lays out my personal and artistic goals for the project, as well as my initial plan for the design process. The second chapter discusses my analysis of the text and my further research into the text, dance and musical styles found within the work. It includes a scene breakdown, a character breakdown, discussion of the theme, and use of metaphor in our production. The third chapter shines light on my design process and collaboration with the director and other designers. The final chapter is a self-evaluation of my design process and an assessment of the design and its implementation. It details my successes and shortfalls on the project and their implications for my future work as an artist and designer. The appendices of this document include the essential paperwork, and light plot.

We present platooning as a special case of crowd-sensing framework. After offering a policy that governs platooning, we review common scenarios and components surrounding platooning. We present a prototype that illustrates efficiency of road usage and vehicle travel time derived from platooning. We have argued that beyond the commonly reported benefits of platooning, there are substantial savings in acquisition and processing of sensory data sharing the road. Our results show that data transmission can be reduced to low of 3% compared to normal data transmission using a platoon formation with sensor sharing.

Lila A. Reid Master of Fine Arts Department of Dance June 2018 Title: Using Collaborative Processes and Touch-Based Partnering to Formulate Concept and Choreography for a Screendance The research in this study uses collaborative methodology, touch-based partnering, and screendance. The facilitator and two dancers aimed to understand how touch-based partnering and collaborative process curates movement material for the creation of screendance. The dancers and facilitator engaged in orienting movement workshops by studying three partnering idioms: Contact Improvisation, Country Swing, and Cha Cha. They later employed a methodology for collaborative choreography and ultimately filmed movement material in four filming shoots with reflective rehearsals interspersed. The facilitator independently created the screendance, Petrichor, from the footage. The film was premiered at a presentation event on January 19, 2018, where the dancers and facilitator also conducted a lecture-demonstration and talk-back with the audience. Reflections on the study resulted in new understandings about extended applications in touch-based partnering, collaborative methodologies, and the medium of screendance for dance educators and artists. The screendance, Petrichor, can be viewed as a supplemental file.

No ambiente urbano regido pela lógica capitalista são raros os momentos para estreitar laços, fazer novas amizades e usufruir de conversas pela simples satisfação que momentos como esses proporcionam. A sociabilidade, no sentido que lhe é atribuído por Georg Simmel, é dificultada pelos imperativos da vida moderna que resultam de uma lógica na qual as relações humanas são permeadas pela economia monetária. Tendo em vista que a sociabilidade é uma necessidade humana, as pessoas se organizam de maneira a contornar o isolamento produzido pela cidade capitalista. O objetivo dessa dissertação é investigar à luz das contribuições teóricas do sociólogo alemão, o modo pelo qual as pessoas organizam espaços que oportunizam momentos de compartilhamento e convivência fraterna no ambiente urbano. Por meio de uma abordagem qualitativa, tomamos o Projeto Vizinhança (PV) como objeto de investigação empírica e utilizamos entrevistas semi-estruturadas e pesquisa exploratória como técnicas de obtenção de dados. O PV é um coletivo aberto que ativa espaços ociosos transformando-os, por tempo determinado, em palcos para que as pessoas se conheçam, troquem experiências e compartilhem ideias enquanto realizam inúmeras atividades. Com o auxílio da análise de conteúdo foi possível verificar que iniciativas como o PV contribuem para amenizar o isolamento na vida urbana na medida em que atende à necessidade de sociabilidade que o capitalismo tardio não proporciona. / In the urban environment governed by the capitalist logic, there are few moments to strengthen ties, to make new friends and to enjoy conversations for the simple satisfaction that moments like these provide. Sociability, in the sense attributed to it by Georg Simmel, is hampered by the imperatives of modern life which result from a logic in which human relations are permeated by monetary economy. Given that sociability is a human need, people organize themselves in such a way as to avoid this isolation produced by the capitalist city. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate in the light of the theoretical contributions of the German sociologist, the way in which people organize spaces that provide opportunities for sharing and fraternal coexistence in the urban environment. Through a qualitative approach, we take the Neighborhood Project (PV) as an object of empirical research and use semi-structured interviews and exploratory research as data collection techniques. The PV is an open collective that activates idle spaces by transforming them, for a determined time, into places for people to get to meet each other, exchange experiences and share ideas while doing many activities. With the help of content analysis, it was possible to verify that initiatives such as the PV contribute to soften the isolation in urban life insofar.

abstract: This research investigated preservice teacher collaboration in the context of an undergraduate teacher preparation program. Small groups of preservice students were examined over five collaborative work sessions as they collaboratively designed and delivered instructional projects for their fellow classmates. This study contributes to understanding factors that influence the quality of preservice collaboration to help teacher educators better prepare preservice students for current collaborations with their peers and future collaboration in professional settings. A parallel mixed methods design, with an embedded two case study, was employed to analyze and interpret two research strands, quantitative, and qualitative. Quantitative results served as complementary to corroborate the qualitative findings. The quantitative results and qualitative findings indicate that past collaborative experiences and beliefs about future professional collaboration impacted students’ current collaborative efforts. Students with a flexible orientation toward collaboration and/or expanded beliefs about professional collaboration were more likely to heedfully interrelate than students with fixed orientations or simple beliefs about collaboration. Preservice students’ perceptions of the quality of their own heedful interrelating remained stable across the phases of the collaborative task. However, analysis of the HICES noted significant differences in groups’ perception of the quality of their collaborative interactions. Finally, analysis of the two-case study indicated that high quality heedful interrelating among group members created the more effective collaborative instructional project. A model of how preservice beliefs and orientations may influence their heedful interrelating during collaboration, and impact their efforts in designing and creating effective collaborative instruction was presented. The dissertation research contributed to a more thorough understanding of factors that influence preservice collaboration as they prepare for professional collaboration, when the outcomes of collaboration are critical not only for themselves, but also for their own students. Implications for educational practice and further research point towards the continued need to better understand the processes of preservice collaboration, and factors that impact their interaction as they learn to collaborate for improving instruction, and how teacher preparation programs can support and best address their needs as they prepare for their critical careers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Psychology 2016

Thesis (MTech (Graphic Design))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. / This research investigates students’ perceptions of the relationship between work experience and university learning. The subjects of the study were third-year students from the Faculty of Informatics and Design at a university of technology in Cape Town, South Africa, and the research focused on the graphic design department within this faculty. The research was approached from an interpretivist’s lens in an attempt to explain and understand the experience that students have in their short time in the industry, namely a two-week work placement, and how they related this to university learning. Students were interviewed before and after work placement in terms of their experience and insight into the relationship between university and the workplace. The research shows how design students experience the processes of learning at the workplace, compared with the processes of learning at university. The research results indicate that students found collaboration and teamwork in the workplace valuable and meaningful. In addition, the different levels of skills in the community of practice in workplaces gave students a wider variety of solutions as they could draw from fellow workers’ experience and skills. This contrasted with university where they work alone and have to produce solutions on their own. Further investigation highlighted that at university there was evidence of interesting findings of timetables, value of the work group, and that at university students are taught in sections compared with the workplace where they draw on anything and everything to complete the assignment. This research makes a few recommendations based on the data collected. These insights can be used to inform policy and practices, further research and development work in the future.

Online learning environments are being increasingly utilised in academic settings, with many universities developing online and blended programmes (Adekola, 2016). The student experience, in relation to working with others, when studying online, has been widely researched (Garrison et. al, 2000, Kehrwald, 2008). The tutor experience has not (Arbaugh, 2014). There are now a generation of experienced online tutors, particularly in institutions who were quick to take up online delivery, who have developed expertise teaching online. Their experience and knowledge of practice can add to the research, and knowledge base, on effective online learning. This research observed the role of the online tutor, when utilising collaborative activities in their teaching. An ethnographic observation of online practice was drawn, using an iterative mixed-methods approach. Data from the online space was used to observe the participation patterns of over fifty tutors, and over eight hundred students. Fifteen tutors were then interviewed, ten of whom took part in a subsequent focus group. Taking a narrative approach to analysis, the data gathered painted a rich picture of collaborative online practice. Qualitatively different approaches were observed in tutor's facilitation of collaborative online tools. Tutors were observed to be situated within layers of context, online teaching being culturally situated and mediated by the digital technology utilised. Text-based communications reified dialogue, mediating the interactions between participants. Many of the face-to-face feedback cues which tutors utilised in their teaching were lost in the online environment. The setting was opaque, but at the same time mediated higher levels of disclosure. The online environment challenged traditional physical and temporal boundaries; the responsibility for establishing boundaries becoming that of the tutor, rather than the institution. Tutors drew on previous experiences; their participation was shaped by the situated nature of their practice and their own aspirations for the future. The observation drawn, of pedagogic collaboration, highlighted the social and cultural nature of online participation.

abstract: This study investigated the effects of a guided collaboration approach during professional learning community meetings (PLC's) on the perceptions of general and special educators as well as the effect on student performance as measured by benchmark evaluation. A mixed methodology approach was used to collect data through surveys, weekly teacher reflections and benchmark assessment results. Findings indicate that collaborative relationships and trust affected teachers' perceptions of collaboration between general and special education teachers. Recommendations for further study include lengthening the duration of the study to allow teams time to build trust and determine if results are changed based on time to build trust. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2013

abstract: Benefits and Challenges of Collaboration and Autonomy in a High School Beginning Art Class In the twenty-first century students are used to communicating. Using social media they often collaborate with peers. Despite this students may prefer to work independently rather than collaborating with fellow students in art class. Also, collaboration has become more common with twenty-first century artists. This study addresses the possible disconnect between the popular culture of today's art students' preference for the traditional independent autonomous practices in the art classroom, and the collaborative practice of many contemporary artists. The purpose of this study is to investigate how working collaboratively or working autonomously affects the artworks and oral and written responses about their artwork of high school beginning art students. I used a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to gather data. Data for this study are the artworks made by the participants, idea starter sheets, participant written reflections, their oral answers to interview questions, and my observations of the classes. The participants in this study are students from four intact classrooms of high school beginning art. This study produced multiple findings, such as: The artworks revealed differences between collaborative classes and autonomous classes. Additionally, no differences were revealed from the written and oral responses made by the participants in the two classes. I conclude that, when given the opportunity to collaborate or work autonomously, high school beginning art students in this study made different artworks but made no different oral and written responses. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Art 2014

abstract: This thesis is an initial test of the hypothesis that superficial measures suffice for measuring collaboration among pairs of students solving complex math problems, where the degree of collaboration is categorized at a high level. Data were collected in the form of logs from students' tablets and the vocal interaction between pairs of students. Thousands of different features were defined, and then extracted computationally from the audio and log data. Human coders used richer data (several video streams) and a thorough understand of the tasks to code episodes as collaborative, cooperative or asymmetric contribution. Machine learning was used to induce a detector, based on random forests, that outputs one of these three codes for an episode given only a characterization of the episode in terms of superficial features. An overall accuracy of 92.00% (kappa = 0.82) was obtained when comparing the detector's codes to the humans' codes. However, due irregularities in running the study (e.g., the tablet software kept crashing), these results should be viewed as preliminary. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2014