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Over 4 iterations of a large course (>180 students) in introductory emedia design in a first year computer science course we have seen a year on year improvement. We believe this is down to the use of evs clickers for feed-forward assessment: that is to say a method of getting the whole class to evaluate previous cohorts' submissions in public and discussing them, bringing to light the various properties they posess and how this maps to the marking rubric. This impacts on the students practices as they attempt their assignment. Over time, the practice has become more refined, principally through a rewritten criteria sheet, better training samples, and finally the development of a hybrid in-class assessment: the swarmative assessment combining both formative and summative practices and relying on its visibly social nature for its transformative power. This involves (a) evaluating previous submissions (in a non-graded way) - allowing for the free exercise of discriminative judgment not measured against any "authoritative" standard, but also (b) answering a set of objective questions about the work being assessed (what techniques were used to realize various effects). It ensures full cohort coverage together with engagement with the marking criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years there has been much encouragement to investigate the use of classroom technologies to enhance the student learning experience especially in the STEM subjects but now extending across other subject areas as well. A typical classroom technology is electronic voting system (EVS) handsets which allow a lecturer to invite students to vote for their choice from a selection of given answers. Recently, a medium-size UK University has purchased over 9000 EVS handsets for use across the academic Schools as an innovative means for supporting formative and summative testing. Numerous training and support sessions have been provided to staff with the intention of supporting new and experienced users and increasing the take up by academics. As noted in earlier research reported at ECEL 2013, the student feedback was very positive for the use of EVS for formative activities, and less so, for its use in summative assessment. A recent review of the trends of EVS adoption at the University has been undertaken to inform decision-making and future use and support for the technology. One aspect of this review has considered the effectiveness of the strategies adopted by different academic Schools. EVS adoption and use across the University has been compared and placed within Rogers' theory of the diffusion of innovation. This paper further considers a set of six different strategies adopted for EVS use by academic Schools. They have been categorised according to several variables, including their choice of speed of uptake and the number of handsets in use. The inherent strengths and possible weaknesses of the approaches adopted are considered. Among the questions raised were, does a strategy of large-scale technology adoption over a short time period indicate a greater likelihood of long term engagement and ultimate adoption of the technology? Or, does a longer elapsed time taken for a gradual purchase and adoption of EVS technology suggest a greater inclination for the embedding of technology for enhancing learning? What other success factors should be considered alongside the training and support provided for technology adoption to enhance the likelihood of long term adoption of classroom technologies? The discussion provides a comparison of six different strategies identified across the university and the rationale behind them and then proposes a set of strategy choices which can lead to a greater likelihood of successful adoption of classroom technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce the dependence on the scarce petroleum supply in the mere future and greenhouse gases emissions, Electric vehicles (EVs) are being introduced worldwide. However, the adoption of EVs remains low mainly because of its battery related problems including price, weight and range limitation. Electrified roadway, which allows to charge of EVs while they are in operation (in motion or stop), is a promising technology to overcome all of battery related issues. Even though there were huge developments in electrified roadway concerning inductive power transfer (IPT), there is still a need for an applicable road pavement technology where devices for IPT are installed. This paper will define the prerequisite conditions for electrified roadways under civil engineering point of view. Based on the predefined conditions, all types of high performance pavements are studied. In conclusion, jointed precast concrete pavement is proved to be a suitable approach for implementation of electrified roadway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State-of-Charge(SOC) is a key factor for evaluating the accumulation statues of energy battery in Electric-Vehicles (EVs). For Kalman Filter (KF) can usually be used to estimate the SOC of EVs while the effectiveness and robustness remains to be raised currently, the paper presents an improved KF integrated with the Coulomb Counting and Open-Circuit Voltage method. Considering that the performance of battery is liable to be influenced by the change of some status parameters, such as temperature, cycle times, self-discharge rate and so on, a fading memory recursive lease squares algorithm is presented to online identify the concerned parameters of battery model which is indispensable on the process of SOC estimation using the KF. By taking advantage of the algorithm, the improved KF is able to be time-varied with battery status. The experimental results verify that the proposed method can effectively increase the precision of SOC estimation, which is significant to optimize the running of energy battery and raise the efficiency of energy transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]