O presente trabalho consistiu na proposta, desenvolvimento e teste de um ambiente computacional hierárquico que vise facilitar a criação, organização e gerenciamento de cursos para serem disponibilizados via Internet, inserido nos projetos de Educação a Distância conduzidos pelo CDCC (Centro de Divulgação Científica e Cultural da USP- São Carlos), tendo como objetivo inicial o treinamento e reciclagem de professores da rede pública, nas disciplinas de física e ciências. O ambiente possui um sistema especialista para o tratamento das dúvidas dos usuários, o Sistema Gerenciador de Dúvidas Online (SGDO) que se tornou uma ferramenta autônoma e hoje faz parte do Plantão de Dúvidas Online do CDCC/USP. O SGDO utiliza o conceito de Education Intelligence, através do uso de data mining, possibilitando ao instrutor selecionar dados, analisar informações, identificar tendência e tomar decisões no decorrer de um curso a distância. A ferramenta WebCourse é um ambiente hierárquico baseado na Web consistindo de quatro módulos: WebCourse Instrutor, WebCourse Monitor, WebCourse Aluno e WebCourse Administrador. Cada módulo possui ferramentas específicas, desenvolvidas para as necessidades dos agentes participantes do ambiente (instrutores, monitores, alunos e administradores). O ambiente é dito hierárquico porque algumas de suas ferramentas somente podem ser usadas por certos módulos. Cada módulo está altamente conectado aos outros e todas as ferramentas são baseadas em templates HTML, usando a linguagem script Lite, do banco de dados mSQL, para a geração de arquivos HTML dinâmicos. Todo o sistema é gerenciado através de um banco de dados mSQL, localizado num servidor web, onde os dados são armazenados e recuperados sob demanda. / The present work consisted on the proposal, development and test of a hierarchical computational environment to facilitate the creation, organization and management of courses to be available over the Internet, inserted on the projects of Distance Education conducted by CDCC (Center for Scientifical and Cultural Dissemination at the University of São Paulo at São Carlos). Its initial objective was training public school teachers of Physics and Sciences. The environment has a specialist system for the treatment of online doubts called Online Doubt Managing System (ODMS), which became an autonomous tool inside the Online Doubt Helping Center at CDCC/USP. ODMS utilizes the concept of Education Intelligence through the use of data mining, making it possible for instructors to select data, analyze informations, identify trends and take decisions during a course carried via Web. WebCourse is a hierarchical web-based tool for the creation and management of web-based courses which consists of four modules: WebCourse Instrutor (Instructor Module), WebCourse Monitor (Teacher Assistant Module), WebCourse Aluno (Student Module) and WebCourse Administrador (Administrator Module). Every module has a set of specific tools, developed to meet the necessities of the environment\'s participant agents (instructors, teacher assistants, students and administrators). The tool is said to be hierarchical since some of its tools can only be used by certain modules. Each module is highly connected to the others and every tool is template-based, using the mSQL database\'s Lite scripting facility in order to generate HTML files on-the-fly. All the system is managed through a mSQL database, located on a web server, where data is stored and recovered on demand.

Energia eólica pode ser convertida através de turbina de pequeno porte, inclusive em edificações residenciais e pequenos comércios, configurando a “geração distribuída”. Alguns benefícios de gerar a própria energia elétrica ainda não são conhecidos pela maioria das pessoas. No Brasil, o fato de receber créditos de energia ao gerar quantidade maior do que o consumo próprio, não é divulgado adequadamente pelas concessionárias de energia, nem pelos órgãos reguladores. Neste sentido, o presente trabalho apresenta um método para desenvolvimento e a implementação de um sistema de informação para área de energia eólica. O processo de elaboração do sistema foi derivado da metodologia RMM para desenvolvimento de aplicativos. A partir da metodologia proposta, o sistema foi implementado e disponibilizado ao público em geral. O sistema conta com um aplicativo de simulação de geração de energia com turbina eólica de pequeno porte. O aplicativo de simulação está dividido em sete seções onde o usuário poderá saber, por exemplo, quais as dimensões de uma turbina eólica para suprir toda sua demanda por energia elétrica. Além disso, o aplicativo informa características de quatro tipos de turbinas comerciais e quatro não comerciais, o valor de investimento no equipamento, o tempo de retorno deste investimento e o quanto de CO2 – gás do efeito estufa, o usuário deixa de emitir ao usar o sistema de geração simulado. O sistema de informação proposto está sendo avaliado com o uso de duas ferramentas: Google Analytics para se obter informações de acessos e Google Formulários, que possibilitou a obtenção de respostas relacionadas ao uso geral do sistema a partir de um questionário online. Em relação aos dados de acesso ao sistema, foram obtidas 5244 visualizações incluindo 1085 simulações realizadas em 243 dias monitorados. Durante este período, 1505 usuários de 9 países acessaram o sistema. Em relação ao questionário, aproximadamente dois terços responderam que consideram o aplicativo muito intuitivo e quase 85% dos que responderam consideram investir em um sistema de geração própria de energia após interagir com o sistema. / Wind energy can be converted through small turbine, including for use in residential buildings and small trades, creating the distributed generation. Some benefits of generating electricity itself are still not known for most people. In Brazil, the receipt of energy credits for generating amount greater than the actual consumption is not disclosed properly by power utilities, let alone by regulators. Thus, this work presents a method for the development and the implementation of an information system for wind energy area. The system development process was derived from the RMM methodology for application development. From the proposed methodology, the system was implemented and made available to the general public. The system has a simulation application for wind energy generation. The simulation application is divided into seven sections where the user can know, for example, what are the dimensions of a wind turbine to supply its entire demand for electricity. In addition, the application informs features of four types of commercial and four non-commercial turbines, the amount of investment in equipment, return time investment and how much CO2 avoid with use of the simulated turbine. The proposed information system is being evaluated using two tools: Google Analytics to obtain information access to the system and Google Form, which allowed obtaining answers related to the general use of the system from an online evaluation questionnaire. In relation to the system access data, 5244 visualizations were obtained, including 1085 simulations performed in 243 monitored days. During this time, 1505 users from 9 countries accessed the system. Regarding the questionnaire, approximately two-thirds responded that they considered the application very intuitive and almost 72% of respondents consider investing in a system of own power generation after interacting with the system.

The history of science is rich in examples of the importance of theories and hypotheses. Among the various disciplines of science, theories and hypotheses have been important in guiding research, including such large ideas as the atomic theory, theory of evolution, laws of motion in physics, and plate tectonics. One of the major ways science progresses is to gather evidence in relation to theories and hypotheses and to refine our explanations of how natural events occur both at very small scales of space and time or at the level of the universe. This dissertation research focused on understanding science teachers' conceptual models about theories, and the use of corroborating evidence based on a critical rationalist stance in science. The study explored a sample of science teachers' level of understanding of critical rationalism, and issues in modeling science within a `critical rationalist', post-positivist framework. During the initial phase of the research, a pilot study was done to gather contextual evidence obtained from a sample of teachers' views on the nature of science (NOS) who responded to an online questionnaire. Subsequently, a more comprehensive study based on the findings from this initial pilot study was done. In the subsequent more comprehensive study, an online learning module on NOS, containing core concepts within a critical rational stance, was presented to a second sample of pre- and in-service teachers. This module specifically focused on how theories are initiated and rigorously tested under the highest risk conditions within a critical rationalist model. It also explained why this is a more productive approach than an exclusively verificationist cognitive framework underlying some logical positivist approaches. The results of a pretest, and post-test assessment, following the completion of the online learning module, provided robust evidence that the teachers who initially demonstrated significantly weak understandings of a critical rational stance improved to a level where they reached a preset benchmark level of accomplishment established by the researcher prior to the online intervention. The pretest results of the comprehensive study also aligned well with the results of the pilot study. That is, science teachers' pre-learning views on scientific theories and experimentation fall mostly within inductive verification-based models, more closely aligned with a positivistic worldview, outside of a contemporary critical rationalist view of a hypothetico-deductive or falsification approach. In this study, a convenient and reliable method of online learning and associated assessment instruments regarding critical rationalist understanding of NOS is presented and evaluated. The evaluation of the pre- and post-learning assessments, and analyses of questionnaire responses by the participants, showed that the use of the online learning module significantly improved science teachers' cognitive understandings of the nature of science, and that the learners generally reported favorable responses about the learning experiences based on quantitative and qualitative evidence. Based on this initial evidence, the online learning module and related assessment instruments appear to be a valuable resource for assessing teacher understanding of a modern critical rational view of science, and as a potentially productive way to introduce pre-service and in-service teachers to these modern views of NOS through application of the online learning module.

This study investigated the potential application of web-based pedagogy for teachers of elementary statistics, using A Pedagogical Information System (APIS), in order to explore ways in which teachers can enhance instruction via technology in the classroom. This information system would provide new opportunities for practical teacher education, given that the literature on statistics pedagogy and web-based teaching and learning is sparse. The purpose of the study was to examine issues of efficacy, efficiency, and effectiveness of the use of Internet websites in the instruction of introductory statistics at the college level. The design of the study was qualitative and used a phenomenological interpretive method. The participants in this study were four instructors of introductory statistics courses at the undergraduate level of higher education in a northeastern state in the United States. They were interviewed individually for approximately 60 minutes in a semi-structured format in which they discussed their experiences and perceptions about using Internet sources for instruction of students in Introductory Statistics. The results of the study indicated that teachers welcomed incorporating technology into their classrooms. Participants found that having students with different learning styles, allocating time to deal with details, and having difficulty managing the interplay between topics as being key problems that could arise in the organization of a web-based introduction to an elementary statistics course. Although all participants agreed that there is a lack of uniformity among statistical topics, most wanted to emphasize descriptive statistics, distributions, probability, inference, confidence intervals, and regression. They acknowledged that web-based learning would radically alter student and teacher roles, so that the teacher would become a mentor and students would become active learners. Instruction would be geared more to practical applications than to theory. Instructors would have to make decisions about how much web-based information they would use and would have to become knowledgeable about web content.

Drawing upon qualitative methods of semi-structured interviews and observational talk-through interviews, this qualitative dissertation investigates the ways in which graduate students in an online course context experience online instructional videos. A conceptual framework of user experience and multimodality, as well as the framework of sense-making developed by McCarthy and Wright (2004) guided this study and data analysis. The findings of this dissertation have implications for how students are participating in, interacting with, and making sense of online learning environments. Some of the findings of this research include: (a) students do not necessarily experience course videos as discrete elements (or differentiate them with other aspects of the course); (b) the times and contexts in which students view instructional videos shifts (e.g., between home and commuting); (c) student motivations and expectations shape how they approach and orient themselves towards watching online course videos; and (d) multimodal design elements influence students’ meaning-making of online instructional videos. These data findings are all in support of the overarching conclusion of this dissertation, which is that students have significant agency in these online environments, and their meaning-making of online videos may not align with designers’ intentions. This conclusion argues against deterministic views of design. The emerging findings have design implications related to the creation of learning environments in online spaces, such as: (a) fully integrating videos within the broader instructional design of a course; (b) foregrounding the embedded context of instructional videos; and (c) accounting for the shifting times, places, and contexts in which viewers watch instructional videos. This dissertation is situated in the growing field of online education, in particular higher education, where significant money and resources are increasingly dedicated towards the development of online spaces while still much is unknown in relation to the design, experiences, and impact of these online learning environments.

The purpose of this study was to compare student achievement and satisfaction in online versus traditional introductory statistics courses. The sample studied were undergraduates at a small liberal arts school enrolled in introductory statistics over a period of six semesters. There were a few significant findings in student achievement in the overall sample and other meaningful results were found when assessing nursing and business majors specifically. Student satisfaction results between the two formats were inconclusive. Future studies on this topic can include hybrid education data in addition to online and traditional to see if there are any differences in achievement or student satisfaction in that population. Another possible study could be done regarding achievement in students who took preparatory training prior to enrolling in an online course.

Disruptive innovations are used to lower costs and augment access to high-quality, affordable higher education, but little systematic research is available on the topic. Higher education institutions use disruptive innovations to save students time and money. To understand the process of disruptive innovation, I investigated the rapid diffusion of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which are free or low-cost college courses available online. Specifically, I examined the drivers of disruptive innovation over time and by institution type, and augmented the existing theory on the diffusion of disruptive innovation in higher education. The key for this systematic study was to have a dataset that encompassed a large sample of adopters and non-adopters. I constructed a new dataset merging 4 years of IPEDS data with MOOC data (n = 1,470). Analytically, I used competing drivers of institutional change, specifically prestige-seeking versus economic competition, to investigate rate and drivers of adoption, how drivers varied over time, and which institutions were most and least likely to innovate. I employed time-series inferential statistics, specifically discrete time hazard modeling (DTHM), and latent class analysis (LCA), as well as descriptive statistics. Three research questions guided this dissertation. 1. When is MOOC adoption most likely? How does prestige-seeking behavior compared to economic competition influence the adoption of MOOCs? 2. Does partnership with a for-profit versus nonprofit provider differ by prestige-seeking behavior or economic competition? Do these partnerships change over time? 3. To what extent does a typology of institutional innovators based on prestige-seeking behavior and economic competition exist? To what extent does this typology of innovators relate to MOOC adoption? How does the adoption of innovation by institutional subgroup vary over time? The findings suggested that rate of adoption, at its height, was a little over 3% in academic year 2013, 2 years after the launch of MOOCs. Both prestige-seeking behavior and economic competition were important predictors of innovation, although institutions most likely to innovate were very prestigious and strategic about the markets they chose for competition. Specifically, the most likely adopters of disruptive innovation were highly competitive in distance education and in pursuing private grants and contracts from industry, but often did not cut costs (e.g., replacing full-time faculty with adjuncts or expanding managerial capacity) to streamline affairs on campus or manage market expansion. By contrast, institutions that did not innovate often exhibited the opposite characteristics. Finally, because the first two results suggested different adopters, I found five different types of institutional innovators (Accelerators, Wealth Managers, Pragmatists, Opportunists, and Laggards). Approximately 15% of colleges were Accelerators (primed to be disruptive innovators), while the rest were characterized by limited motivate to change or limited institutional capacity to innovate.

The main goal of the theses is the analysis and selection of open-source, web-based project management tools for support of project management. The theoretical chapter focuses on basic project management definitions and functions. The methodological chapter briefly describes multi-criteria decision-making and other methods used in the practical section. The practical chapter includes a short summary of the IQUAP Czech Republic, Ltd. Company, then research on available project management tools, two round multi-criteria evaluation of the selected tools, selection and pilot testing of the final tool TeamLab, evaluation of the pilot testing by using questionnaires. The main benefit of the theses is the analysis and evaluation of the project management tools in relation to the utilization within practice.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to create derivative-focused web pages as a new part of a high school mathematics educational web portal. The web portal is operated by the Department of Mathematics Education, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague. It is primarily intended as an additional learning resource for high school students. The diploma thesis consists of two main parts. The first part describes a search for and evaluation of similar web pages in Czech, Slovak, English and Hebrew, which deal with the topic of derivative. The second part details the creation of new web pages. In creating the web pages the author integrated interactive elements based on JavaScript, and interactive applets created with use of GeoGebra software. To display mathematical expressions on the web, the author used the technology MathJax, which works with languages of the typesetting systems TeX and LaTeX.

A World-Wide Web (WWW) tem se desenvolvido enormemente, facilitando o compartilhamento de informações. Muito rapidamente as aplicações do seu potencial educacional se tornaram aparentes, especialmente para a Educação à Distância (ED). Neste sentido, a WWW possui um maior apelo, devido a sua capacidade de exibição de documentos multimídia, capacidade de hipertexto/hipermídia e sua arquitetura cliente-servidor, possibilitando a interação entre aluno e professor em ED. Este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento da ferramenta Web Course, desenvolvida no IFSC-USP, que visa facilitar a criação de provas na WWW. A ferramenta também faz a correção automática das provas. Web Course é uma ferramenta baseada em templates, usando formulários HTML criados por programas CGI que são preenchidos pelos instrutores para a criação de provas. / The World-Wide Web (WWW) has been developed largely to facilitate sharing of information. Very quickly, potential educational applications of this technology became apparent, especially for Distance Education (DE). In this regard, WWW has more appeal, because of its capability to exhibit multimedia documents, its hypertext/hypermedia capability and its client-server architecture, making possible the interaction between students and instructors. This work presents the development of Web Course, a tool developed at IFSC-USP that facilitates the creation of tests on the WWW, providing also the automatic correction of them. Web Course is template based, using HTML forms created by CGI files that instructors simply fill in to create tests.