Open University of Catalonia

About: Open University of Catalonia is a education organization based out in Barcelona, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Higher education. The organization has 1943 authors who have published 4646 publications receiving 64200 citations. The organization is also known as: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya & UOC.

Some Basics on Privacy Techniques, Anonymization and their Big Data Challenges

Abstract: With the progress in the information and communication fields, new opportunities and technologies for statistical analysis, knowledge discovery, data mining, and many other research areas have emerged, together with new challenges for privacy and data protection. Nowadays several personal records are kept in computerized databases. Personal data is collected and kept in census databases, medical databases, employee databases, among others. There has always been an asymmetry between the benefits of computerized databases and the rights of individual data subjects. Some data protection principles can be derived from the legal framework. In this survey, we present some basic cryptographic and non-cryptographic techniques that may be used for enhancing privacy, we focus mainly on anonymization in databases and networks, discuss some differences and interactions among the well-known models of k-anonymity and differential privacy and finally present some challenges to privacy that come from big data analytics.

Affective Dimension of University Professors about their Teaching: An Exploration through the Semantic Differential Technique

Abstract: The main objective of this study is to increase our knowledge regarding professors’ emotions about their teaching, as a component of teacher identity. In the first part, we present a comprehensive review of the literature about the types of teachers’ emotions and teaching. In the second part we present the results of a validity study with a semantic differential scale developed to explore the emotions of university professors about their teaching. This scale was fulfilled by a sample of 198 university teachers and comprises a list of pairs of bi-polar adjectives that summarize a broad range of affective classifications about teaching in higher education. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure of emotions about teaching in higher education: Motivation for teaching, Evaluation of oneself as a teacher, and Teaching performance. The cross-referencing of the scale to Trigwell and Prosser’s (2004) teachers’ approaches to teaching is analysed and discussed. Our results suggest new lines of research about teachers’ emotions in higher education, proposing further studies to collect more validity evidences about the affective dimensions of teaching.

Reseña de "El proyecto Facebook y la posuniversidad. Sistemas operativos sociales y entornos abiertos de aprendizaje" de Alejandro Piscitelli, Iván Adaime e Inés Binder (compiladores)

Abstract: El proyecto Facebook, llevado a la practica en la catedra de Introduccion a la informatica, a la telematica y al procesamiento de datos, dirigida por el profesor Alejandro Piscitelli, se presenta como una excusa para experimentar la filosofia edupunk ( Do it yourself o 'hagalo usted mismo') en el contexto universitario. Su objetivo es superar el desafio vinculado a la necesidad de innovar en las practicas de ensenanza a traves de la busqueda de nuevos modelos pedagogicos que respondan a los cambios sufridos en el escenario educativo.

The potential of video imagery from worldwide cabled observatory networks to provide information supporting fish-stock and biodiversity assessment

Abstract: This work was funded by the following project activities: ARIM (Autonomous Robotic sea-floor Infrastructure for benthopelagic Monitoring; MartTERA ERA-Net Cofound), ARCHES (Autonomous Robotic Networks to Help Modern Societies; German Helmholtz Association), RESBIO (TEC2017-87861-R; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades, Spanish Government), RESNEP (CTM2017-82991-C2-1-R; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades, Spanish Government), and SmartLobster (EMSO-LINK Trans National Access-TNA). The EMSO_SmartBay cabled observatory was funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) as part of a SFI Research Infrastructure Award Grant No. 12/RI/2331.

Cultural and gender influences on age identification

Abstract: Age identification plays a significant role in young adults’ mass, interpersonal, intergenerational, and intercultural communication. This research examines cultural and gender influences on young people's age identity by measuring the social age identity of male and female young adult members of five cultures varying in individualism/collectivism (Laos, Thailand, Spain, Australia, and the U.S.A.). We found cultural influences on age identity to be both unexpected in nature and modest in effect. American and Laotian respondents had similar and nominally higher levels of age identity than Australian, Thai, and Spanish respondents, with all having a markedly different age identities than those of Japanese respondents as reported by other researchers. No direct effect for gender on age identity emerged, though American females were more age identified than all other respondents. Across cultures, the social identity scale was found to be a reasonably adequate measure of age identity.