PEOI December 2010 Newsletter

Greetings to all PEOI volunteers: There is, for once, a lot of information in this newsletter. The first news item has some good and some bad. The good part is that PEOI courses are listed on Community College Open Textbook Collaborative at http://collegeopentextbooks.org/. The bad part is that PEOI’s accounting course in that list is marked “NR” for not recommended. Jackie Hood, the executive director of that website, could not give me a definitive explanation why the course was marked NR, but suggested that probably some examples or other materials were missing. This prompted me to review the course. In the process I removed several defective links, and confirmed that the course needs updating and some editing. Some of that had been done not long ago by Tibebe Mengistu (faculty #3291) … evidently not enough. Thus, volunteers with accounting background are asked to join in fixing PEOI’s accounting teaching. In fact, PEOI’s accounting courses are not the only ones in need of fixing. All PEOI’s courses are FOREVER subject to updating, expansion and correction. Please review courses in your specialty, and fix whatever needs fixing. Thanks.

The second news item is that PEOI now has a mechanism for students to submit assignments and for these assignments to be graded. I need some of you to try out the procedures and help me to debug them. The procedure to submit assignments is “Assignments – submit #2/22” which you find in the Procedure pull-down menu at the top of the screen after log in. Students have access to the procedure in course pages of completed courses that have assignments, and the courses that now have assignments set up for submission are AC101EN, EC101EN and EC102EN. The procedure for grading assignments is “Assignments – grade #3/12” (which I will also be asking you to try out once there are a few submitted assignments). The installation of these procedures was inspired from an analysis of Moodle classroom that has recently been installed at PEOI on the suggestion of Hubert Jay Lisas (staff #5146). The installation of Moodle is a separate story, and is intended to figure out how to share PEOI’s content with instructors who use Moodle for their teaching. For PEOI to have assignments submission and grading is an important turning point. It is indeed unprecedented in all of open education resources, and it complements PEOI’s knowledge assessment based on testing. As you will see when you visit “Assignments – grade”, PEOI’s grading method is a combination of five criteria (Address issue, Apply knowledge, Reach conclusion, Evidence of research, Writing quality), a grade on 100 basis, and comments. What some may find unusual is that grading can be done by any number of people (of course, individuals specialized in the field of the assignment, and have appropriate credentials). Thus, the grade may not be based on just one person, but an average of evaluations. Thus, in future newsletters, you can expect that I will be soliciting volunteers who can grade assignments. Observe also how important it is for you to develop assignments in all the courses you are working on. Thomas Sullivan (staff #1965) alerted me recently to the existence of the Khan Academy at http://www.khanacademy.org/ which uses video segments for teaching a wider range of subjects. I urge all you developing courses to see if any of Khan Academy’s videos can be useful links in your courses. When you visit the Khan Academy, you will notice that they are looking for translators, which can be of interest to some of you. The last item of news is that PEOI has one more method of working on course pages in a new procedure called “Edit Course page #4/32”. The procedure is similar to “Edit HTML text” that most of you use, but it differs in that the HEAD and TAIL of each course page is omitted from the TEXTAREA. There are several reasons to have such procedure:

1- no one needs to touch any part of a course page HEAD or TAIL: it is much better for the system to generate them;

2- the dense HTML code in these portions of course pages can only cause confusion for people not well versed in HTML, as most of us are;

3- when course content is saved in temporary files, it is far more economical save it without HEAD or TAIL;

4- when the course page is moved to permanent location, it is the proper time of these portions of course pages to receive the latest parameters of the course, such as the names of those who worked on the course page, which, at present, is not done at present and is a problem;

5- this TEXTAREA can accept paragraphs of plain text pasted in them: the system will insert the paragraph tags (but, however no other formating).

Other new developments:

New courses started or taken over in November 2010:

– “Wastewater treatment” by Daniela Blihoghe in English

– “Entrepreneurship” by JEAN BERTIN DJIOFACK in English

– “International financial management” by ERICK NONONE BRUCKMANN (faculty #5768) in English

– “Industrial design” by Gouri Goutam Borthakur (faculty #5354) in English

– “Computational electromagnetics” by Gouri Goutam Borthakur (faculty #5354) in English

– “Power Systems I” by Rizwan Mohammed (faculty #5774) in English

As in the past, this newsletter will cover

– presentation of new volunteers,

– review of statistics, – major recent work completed,

– what PEOI is working on now.

NEW VOLUNTEERS WELCOME We are all delighted to have the following new volunteers among us:

13 staff volunteers in November

Fernando Americano (staff #5167) from Brazil, Project manager

kolonkouo donald (staff #5182) from Cameroon, Reference research specialist

Mohammadreza Feizi (staff #5175) from Iran, Web designer

Mohammed Galal (staff #5174) from Egypt, Internet search specialist

DAVID GUZMAN GUTIERREZ (staff #5172) from Mexico, Department chairman

Boobala Krishnan (staff #5178) from India, Audio specialist

Roberto Lopez (staff #5183) from Mexico, Translator

Hang Nguyen (staff #5180) from Viet Nam, Translator

Minh Nguyet Nguyen Quang (staff #5177) from Viet Nam, Translator

Rotimi Osabohien (staff #5181) from Nigeria, Student adviser

Edit Peronja (staff #5176) from Argentina, Web designer

Gonzalo Rodriguez Gonzalez (staff #5171) from Uruguay, Instructor

deepali sahoo (staff #5168) from India, Project manager

56 new faculty members in November

Dhanushka Abeyratne (faculty #5773) from Sri Lanka, Internet search specialist

Niazuddin Ahmed (faculty #5797) from Bangladesh, Author

Christy Ahn (faculty #5784) from Canada, Editor

Nataly Amalyan (faculty #5779) from Ukraine, Translator

Sa Angelica (faculty #5781) from Brazil, Reviewer

Mirza Uzair Baig (faculty #5794) from Pakistan, Author

Tulu Bedada (faculty #5790) from Ethiopia, Author

BRIAN BOMET (faculty #5759) from Kenya, Reference research specialist

Hector Remigio Cadena Garcيa (faculty #5783) from Colombia, Author

Meghana Chandra (faculty #5799) from India, Proofreader

Tran Chau (faculty #5785) from Viet Nam, Instructor

AMAR DATTA (faculty #5772) from India, Editor

Milind Diwanji (faculty #5793) from India, Assignments writer

Lilia Driukova (faculty #5754) from Ukraine, Translator

Khushbakht Ejaz (faculty #5795) from Pakistan, Country representative

OPARA ESTHER (faculty #5777) from United States, Professor

Roberto Fray da Silva (faculty #5787) from Brazil, Translator

Eren Gokce (faculty #5798) from Turkey, Translator

Esther Grieder (faculty #5748) from United Kingdom, Concepts summary writer

Hugaut Grondin (faculty #5756) from France, Author

Elena Hur (faculty #5767) from Russia, Translator

Jessica Idogun (faculty #5786) from Nigeria, Import course

Dalia Idris (faculty #5796) from Switzerland, Reference research specialist

mohamed khairallah khouja (faculty #5746) from Tunisia, Author

Kellen Kimani (faculty #5788) from Kenya, Proofreader

Yi-Jung Kuo (faculty #5760) from Taiwan, Translator

oanh le (faculty #5769) from Viet Nam, Translator

Nguyet Luong (faculty #5766) from Viet Nam, Translator

Huong Luong (faculty #5771) from Viet Nam, Translator

le ly (faculty #5763) from Viet Nam, Translator

Semra Macar (faculty #5745) from Turkey, Author

Betty Machlup (faculty #5749) from Brazil, Reviewer

Suganya Madhan (faculty #5764) from India, Test questions writer

Rizwan Mohammed (faculty #5774) from India, Author

Nrul Muen (faculty #5747) from Malaysia, Assignments writer

Nataly Namalyan (faculty #5780) from Ukraine, Translator

Kaveh Nematipour (faculty #5770) from Iran, Translator

Vأ¢n Nguyل»…n (faculty #5782) from Viet Nam, Translator

Mai Nguyen (faculty #5755) from Viet Nam, Translator

ERICK NONONE BRUCKMANN (faculty #5768) from United Kingdom, Author

Thanh Phan (faculty #5776) from Viet Nam, Translator

KAMI HUYEN PHUNG (faculty #5750) from Singapore, Concepts summary writer

Thaيs Pinheiro (faculty #5778) from Brazil, Translator

Alicia Plaza (faculty #5744) from Spain, Author

Sarah Powell (faculty #5753) from United States,

Sunil Rajapakse (faculty #5752) from Sri Lanka, Reviewer

Shellise Rajnauth (faculty #5789) from Trinidad and Tobago, Author

Nadia Rodrigues (faculty #5765) from Portugal,

kammula satya (faculty #5758) from India, Internet search specialist

Devala Surendranath (faculty #5751) from India, Author

Nguyen Thao (faculty #5762) from Viet Nam, Translator

Tran Thuy (faculty #5792) from Viet Nam, Illustrator

Bui Trang (faculty #5800) from Viet Nam, Translator

BENMALOUGA YOUSR (faculty #5757) from Tunisia, Translator

Siddhesh Zare (faculty #5743) from India, Editor

Qian ZHU (faculty #5761) from China, Translator

If you have news about yourself that you would like to share with PEOI volunteer community, please, do not hesitate to let me know.

REVIEW OF STATISTICS In November 2010, 74 new faculty and staff volunteers joined PEOI. This brings to 4,394 the number of PEOI’s registered volunteers in November 2010; they come from 149 countries. By comparison, there were 68 new volunteers registered in November of previous year. In November 2010, 132 new students registered at PEOI, compared to 148 a year ago. This brings the total student registrations to 6,995 in November 2010. They come from 202 different countries. You can see the break down of student statistics in “Statistics – students” part of the “Students” section. Likewise you can see the breakdown of volunteers and information about individual volunteers in “Statistics – volunteers” part of the “Projects” section.

MAJOR WORK RECENTLY COMPLETED If you notice errors in any part of this or any other newsletter, please send me a message.

The following is a listing of most of the work performed in November 2010: in November 2010

– Lauren Montalvo (faculty #4756) contributed to section ch3z of ESL level 3 in English

– Zeina Shahla (faculty #5344) contributed to textqq in procedure text in Arabic

– Zeina Shahla (faculty #5344) translated chapters 0 5 6 7 8 9 and 13 of البرمجة بلغة C in Arabic

– Chong Aik (faculty #5401) contributed to sections ch1a and ch1c of Total Quality Management in English

– Chong Aik (faculty #5401) contributed to section ch2z of Workplace Performance Management in English

– Anca Barbuc (faculty #5581) contributed to section ch3c of Introduction to Java in English

– David Chester (faculty #5694) contributed to sections ch1a ch1b and ch1c of Theoretical Macroeconomics for Government in English

– Shuang Liu (faculty #5717) translated sections ch5d and ch14z of Financial analysis in Chinese Simplified

– Joao Paulo Lovo (faculty #5732) translated sections ch2b ch2c1 ch2c2 ch2d1 ch2d2 ch2d3 ch2d4 ch2d5 and ch2d6 of Financial analysis in Portuguese

– Mark Stephens (faculty #5736) contributed to sections ch1a ch1b ch1c ch1d1 ch1d2 ch1z ch2z and ch3z of Financial analysis in English

– Mark Stephens (faculty #5736) contributed to chapters 1 and 2 of Introduction to botany in English

– mohamed khairallah khouja (faculty #5746) translated chapters 6 and 7 of Programming in C in French

– Nguyen Thao (faculty #5762) translated chapter 1 of Accounting I in Vietnamese

– Nadia Rodrigues (faculty #5765) translated chapter 13 of Microeconomics in Portuguese

– Elena Hur (faculty #5767) translated chapters 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 and 11 of جبتذخ-فتخحخجبتہ in Russian – oanh le (faculty #5769) translated chapter 5 of Accounting I in Vietnamese

– oanh le (faculty #5769) translated section ch4z of Financial Analysis in Vietnamese

– Thanh Phan (faculty #5776) translated chapter 2 of Macroeconomics in Vietnamese

– Thaيs Pinheiro (faculty #5778) translated chapter 12 of Accounting I in Portuguese

– Vأ¢n Nguyل»…n (faculty #5782) translated chapter 6 of Accounting I in Vietnamese

– Roberto Fray da Silva (faculty #5787) translated chapter 1 of Macroeconomics in Portuguese

– Roberto Fray da Silva (faculty #5787) translated section ch1a of Financial analysis in Portuguese

– Shellise Rajnauth (faculty #5789) contributed to section ch5a of Beginning Computer Programming using Java in English

– Tran Thuy (faculty #5792) translated chapter 1 of Accounting I in Vietnamese

– Tran Thuy (faculty #5792) translated section ch2a of Financial Analysis in Vietnamese

– Yelena Shliomenzon (faculty #4888) translated test questions in chapters 5 8 and 9 of جبتذخ-فتخحخجبتہ in Russian

– Zeina Shahla (faculty #5344) translated test questions in chapter 1 of البرمجة بلغة C in Arabic

– Piyal Alam (faculty #5556) contributed test questions in chapters 1 and 3 in Chemistry I in English

– Ana Figueiredo (faculty #5584) translated test questions in chapter 1 of Accounting I in Portuguese

– lourdes altamar (faculty #5641) translated test questions in chapters 11 and 12 of Anلlisis financiero in Spanish

– Anna Rioland (faculty #5684) translated test questions in chapter 4 of جہتذخ-فتخحخجبتہ in Russian

– Lilia Driukova (faculty #5754) translated test questions in chapter 8 of ءسأہثزإذبك II in Russian

– Nguyet Luong (faculty #5766) translated test questions in chapter 9 of Macroeconomics in Vietnamese

– Elena Hur (faculty #5767) translated test questions in chapter 1 of جبتذخ-فتخحخجبتہ in Russian

– Elena Hur (faculty #5767) translated test questions in chapter 1 of ءسأہثزإذبك II in Russian

– Huong Luong (faculty #5771) translated test questions in chapter 10 of Macroeconomics in Vietnamese

– Thaيs Pinheiro (faculty #5778) translated test questions in chapter 1 of Accounting I in Portuguese

– Thaيs Pinheiro (faculty #5778) translated test questions in chapter 1 of Financial analysis in Portuguese

– Zeina Shahla (faculty #5344) created course files for البرمجة بلغة C in Arabic

– Dr Gouri Goutam Borthakur (faculty #5354) proposed course for Certificate in Industrial design in English

– Dr Gouri Goutam Borthakur (faculty #5354) proposed course for Certificate In computational Electromagnetics in English

– Mamek Heydari Seradj (faculty #5638) created course files for Communicable Disease Control in English

– David Chester (faculty #5694) proposed course for Theoretical Macroeconomics for Government in English

– Shuang Liu (faculty #5717) created course files for Macroeconomics in Chinese Simplified

– Hugaut Grondin (faculty #5756) created course files for International marketing in English

– Hugaut Grondin (faculty #5756) created course files for Principles of Management in English

– ERICK NONONE BRUCKMANN (faculty #5768) proposed course for International Financial Management in English

– Rizwan Mohammed (faculty #5774) proposed course for Power Systems I in English Edward ZHU (staff #4826) contributed to section ch11z of ESL level 1 in English

– Isabel Mendes (staff #5004) translated chapter 9 of Microeconomics in Portuguese

– Edward ZHU (staff #4826) uploaded 1 image for ESL level 1 in English

 

Thank you for all this good work. It should be mentioned that this work is only the one recorded when authors, editors, translators and other volunteers are online, make use of PEOI’s procedures, and their work is recorded. It is known that twice as much work is carried out offline, which is not recorded, and we thank those who put in all these efforts.

WHAT PEOI IS WORKING ON NOW One important features that is not working properly in PEOI’s course page processing is the determination and recording of changes. In other words, each time a course page is saved it is useful to know what changed in the page for instance in order to give recognition to those volunteers who make the most significant changes (and to disregard meaningless changes). Programmers working in C, you are invited to take a look at the code for eda.c #0 in “Edit cgi” procedure, and I will give you the change determination function that needs fixing. As mentioned above, your critique and suggestions are solicited for the new procedures “Assignment – submit”, “Assignment – grade” and “Edit Course page”, so that these procedures can be improved. CONCLUDING REMARKS As you can see in this long newsletter (apologies for its length!), PEOI’s platform is not a finished product: it is evolving and endlessly improving. And it is evolving and improving only thanks to your suggestions, your ideas and your work. Keep it up. Together, we are doing a great job. Thanks.