Showing papers on "Viewpoints published in 2017"

Open access to scientific articles: a review of benefits and challenges

Abstract: The Internet has fundamentally changed the publishing of scholarly peer reviewed journals, and the way readers find and access articles. Digital access is nowadays the norm, in particular for researchers. The Internet has enabled a totally new business model, Open Access (OA), in which an article is openly available in full text for anyone with Internet access. This article reviews the different options to achieve this, whether by journals changing their revenue structures from subscription to publishing charges, or authors utilizing a number of options for posting OA versions of article manuscripts in repositories. It also discusses the regrettable emergence of “predatory” publishers, who spam academics, and make money by promising them rapid publication with only the semblance of peer review. The situation is further discussed from the viewpoints of different stakeholders, including academics as authors and readers, practicing physicians and the general public.

Dynamic viewpoints on implicit leadership and followership theories : approaches, findings, and future directions.

Abstract: It has been more than 40 years since Eden and Leviathan (1975) demonstrated how Implicit Leadership Theories (ILTs) guide raters' sense-making processes when completing leadership questionnaires. In the intervening years, interest in implicit theories has been widespread and considerable research has been generated with significant implications for our understanding of leadership and followership processes in organizational settings (Epitropaki, Sy, Martin, Tram-Quon, & Topakas, 2013). Organizational members are sense-makers and they use their implicit theories to construct a simplified understanding of events that emphasize human qualities rather than the more complex effects of organization systems (Meindl, 1995). Such research recognizes the active, constructive role of perceivers in the social influence process that is at the heart of leadership. Recent theoretical developments (e.g., Lord, Brown, & Harvey, 2001; Lord & Shondrick, 2011) have highlighted the dynamic nature of leadership and followership schemas but empirical research has lagged behind. Thus, our motivation for this special issue was to showcase new empirical and conceptual work that captures ILTs and IFTs as dynamic, context-sensitive and time-sensitive phenomena. The early work of Lord, Foti, and De Vader (1984) applied social cognitive theory to understanding implicit theories and developed a theory of leadership that describes how categorization influences perception, memory and interactions with a potential leader. They proposed that ILTs are cognitive categories with a graded structure similar to other types of person (Canter & Mischel, 1977) and object categories (Rosch, 1978). Rather than being defined by concrete, specific critical features, that distinguish leaders, such categories develop around an abstract set of attributes and behaviors shared by different types of leaders. Thus, categories form around prototypes, the most typical examples or the most ideal types (Gabora, Rosch, & Aerts, 2008). These category structures are thought to be learned through experience, although they may originate early on from experience with caregivers (Keller, 1999, 2003). Individuals rely on these categories to distinguish leaders from non-leaders and the resulting categorization process is based on either recognition or inferential processes. Leadership perceptions based on recognition-based processes are the result of a match between the perceiver's leadership prototype and the perceived characteristics and behavior of potential leaders, whereas inferential-based processes rely on information about past performance to infer leadership. In understanding leadership as a social influence process, follower categorization is equally as important as leader categorization (Uhl-Bien & Pillai, 2007). A similar social cognitive process has been hypothesized in the case of Implicit Followership Theories (IFTs; Sy, 2010). IFTs are cognitive categories individuals hold regarding the traits and behaviors typically associated with followers (Sy, 2010; van Gils, van Quaquebeke, & van Knippenberg, 2010). Similar to ILTs, categories of IFTs can be based on the most typical instances or the most ideal; however, current research has focused on the former. Perceptions and identification of an individual as a follower can be recognition-based processes following from a match between the perceiver's followership prototype and perceived follower characteristics and behavior, but followership can also be inferred based on performance information (Sy, 2010). Match with a leader or follower category serves as an antecedent of organizational outcomes, such as leader-member exchange (Coyle & Foti, 2015; Engle & Lord, 1997; Epitropaki & Martin, 2005; Sy, 2010), as well as bias in behavioral ratings (Hansbrough, Lord, & Schyns, 2015). Thus, work in the area of implicit theories has advanced our understanding of the cognitive processes underlying leaders' and followers' perceptions, interpretations, and sense-making in response to both leadership and followership behaviors (DeRue & Ashford, 2010; Shamir, 2007; Shondrick & Lord, 2010), showing perceptions of both leaders and followers are critical to the leadership process. More recent perspectives (e.g., Hanges, Lord, & Dickson, 2000; Lord & Shondrick, 2011; Lord et al., 2001) have attempted to capture the inherently dynamic and complex nature of leadership and followership perceptions using a connectionist framework. In connectionist models, the process unfolds when top-down constraints such as goals and gender combine with bottom-up inputs such as behaviors of a potential leader or follower to activate multiple nodes in the prototype network. Such perspectives allow for the possibility that ILTs and IFTs are not static and change may take place at the individual, relational, or organizational

How politicians express different viewpoints in gesture and speech simultaneously

Abstract: Abstract Political speeches are a prime example of how discourse often requires speakers to convey multiple competing viewpoints, both their own and others’. Cognitive linguists have shown how, in speech, speakers express viewpoint through individual choices at the lexical and grammatical level. Recently, cognitive linguists have also shown that speakers express viewpoint using speech-accompanying gestures. To date, the study of viewpoint expression has focused on cases where speakers deliver the same viewpoint across modalities. By examining the persuasive uses of gesture in Obama’s A More Perfect Union speech, I show how speakers can communicate multiple different viewpoints across gesture and speech, simultaneously. There are moments when Obama expresses his opponents’ viewpoint in speech, while framing them in terms of his own viewpoint in gesture, and vice versa. I discuss how the deviation of viewpoints across modalities provides key insights into multimodal cognition, with respect to working memory, metaphor, and persuasion. Specifically, I argue that, as an implicit medium, gesture allows speakers to inject viewpoint into the uptake of speech, below the conscious radar of recipients, and I discuss how this rhetorical capacity is evolving as a result of communication technologies.

Video-based methodologies: the affordances of different viewpoints in understanding teachers’ tacit knowledge of practice that supports young children’s oral language

Abstract: Using video as a mode of data generation in research involving young children and their teachers has become a more common practice in educational research. Digital video recordings provide the opportunity to capture the complexity of interactions that occur between people, time, space and objects, however, working with this methodology and form of data can be complex and challenging. This paper focuses on the use of video as a methodology to understand teachers’ tacit knowledge of practice that supports young children’s oral language. This study explores four specific viewpoints that have been employed to investigate teachers’ practice: (1) camera, (2) teacher, (3) researcher and (4) peers. From our analysis of the affordances of the differing viewpoints, we propose that what can be ‘seen’ is directly impacted by the understandings of those involved in the research process in relation to data capture, viewing and analysing the data. We argue that these viewpoints are not neutral or mutually exclus...

Automated Essay Scoring System Based on Rubric

Abstract: In this paper, we propose an architecture of automated essay scoring system based on rubric, which combines automated scoring with human scoring. Rubrics are valid criteria for grading students’ essays. Our proposed rubric has five evaluation viewpoints “Contents, Structure, Evidence, Style, and Skill” and 25 evaluation items which are subdivided viewpoints. The system is cloud-based application and consists of several tools such as Moodle, R, MeCab, and RedPen. At first, the system automatically scores 11 items included in the Style and Skill such as sentence style, syntax, usage, readability, lexical richness, and so on. Then it predicts scores of Style and Skill from these items’ scores by multiple regression model. It also predicts Contents’ score by the cosine similarity between topics and descriptions. Moreover, our system classifies into five grades “A+, A, B, C, D” as useful information for teachers, by using machine learning techniques such as support vector machine. We try to improve automated scoring algorithms and a variety of input essays in order to improve accuracy of classification over 90%.

Supervision of students in social care education: practice teachers’ views of their role

Abstract: This paper presents findings from research about how practice teachers in social care education in Ireland view their role, in particular what elements they prioritise and what they see as relatively unimportant The aim of the research was exploratory, seeking to discover commonalities and differences in how practice teachers saw their role in the supervision of social care students Q methodology was used to compare the participants’ viewpoints Twenty practice teachers, from varying practice backgrounds and levels of experience, sorted statements outlining aspects of the practice teacher’s role, during individual interviews Analysis indicates participants had two ways of conceptualising the role One focuses within the agency, prioritising students’ awareness of the clients using the social care service and policies as guiding practice The second encapsulates a broader view of learning beyond the agency, focusing on the practice teacher assisting the student to integrate theory with practice

Experimental results on large-scale cyber-physical hybrid discussion support

Abstract: Purpose This paper aims to present a preliminary experimental result on a large-scale experiment on a cyber-physical hybrid discussion support environment in a panel discussion session in an international conference. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors propose a hybrid (cyber-physical) environment in which people can discuss online and also offline simultaneously. The authors conducted a large-scale experiment in a panel discussion session in an international conference where participants can discuss by using their online discussion support system and by physical communications as usual. Findings The authors analyzed the obtained date from the following three viewpoints: participants’ cyber-physical attention, keywords cyber-physical linkage and cyber-physical discussion flow. These three viewpoints indicate that the methodology of the authors can be effective to support hybrid large-scale discussions. Originality/value Online large-scale discussion has been focused as a new methodology that enable people to discuss, argue and make consensus in terms of political issues, social complex problems (like climate change), city planning and so on. In several cases, the authors found that online discussions are very effective to gather people opinions and discussions so far. Moreover, this paper proposes a hybrid (cyber-physical) environment in which people can discuss online and also offline simultaneously.

ViewpointS: When Social Ranking Meets the Semantic Web

Abstract: Reconciling the ecosystem of semantic Web data with the ecosystem of social Web participation has been a major issue for the Web Science community. To answer this need, we propose an innovative approach called ViewpointS where the knowledge is topologically, rather than logically, explored and assessed. Both social contributions and linked data are represented by triples agent-resource-resource called " viewpoints ". A " viewpoint " is the subjective declaration by an agent (human or artificial) of some semantic proximity between two resources. Knowledge resources and viewpoints form a bipartite graph called " knowledge graph ". Information retrieval is processed on demand by choosing a user's " perspective " i.e., rules for quantifying and aggregating " viewpoints " which yield a " knowledge map ". This map is equipped with a topology: the more viewpoints between two given resources, the shorter the distance ; moreover, the distances between resources evolve along time according to new viewpoints, in the metaphor of synapses' strengths. Our hypothesis is that these dynamics actualize an adaptive, actionable collective knowledge. We test our hypothesis with the MovieLens dataset by showing the ability of our formalism to unify the semantics issued from linked data e.g., movies' genres and the social Web e.g., users' ratings. Moreover, our results prove the relevance of the topological approach for assessing and comparing along the time the respective powers of 'genres' and 'ratings' for recommendation.

Towards a Hybrid MAS Organizational Model: Combining the ACMAS and OCMAS Viewpoints

Abstract: The organizational aspects are currently getting a great attention within the multi-agent systems (MAS) community. The motivation towards this trend is finding a way to handle the increasing complexity and distribution of modern agent-based applications using higher order abstractions such as agent organizations. It is a transition from concerning the micro level (individual agents) to concerning the macro level (the whole system) to handle complexity. A large number of MAS organizational models can be found in MAS literature. Some of them adopt the ACMAS (Agent-Centered MAS) viewpoint and others adopt the OCMAS (Organizational-Centered MAS) viewpoint. Each of the ACMAS and OCMAS viewpoints has its advantages and disadvantages; therefore, combining them into a hybrid model is expected to give us the chance to take benefit of their advantages and avoid their disadvantages. This chapter presents our recent work towards the conceptual design of a hybrid MAS organizational model that combines both of the ACMAS and OCMAS viewpoints. KeywORdS Hybrid Organizational Model, MAS Organization, MAS Organizational Models, Multi-Agent Systems

Tracing and Enhancing Serendipitous Learning with ViewpointS

Abstract: This is a position paper describing the author’s views on a potential new research direction for assessing, constructing and exploiting brain-founded models of learning of individual as well as collective humans. The recent approach – called ViewpointS – aiming to unify the Semantic and the Social Web, data mining included, by means of a simple “subjective” primitive – the viewpoint - denoting proximity among elements of the world, seems to offer a promising context of innovative empirical research in modeling human learning less constrained with respect to the previous three other ones. Within this context, a few phenomena of serendipitous learning have been simulated, showing that the process of collective construction of knowledge during free navigation may offer interesting side effects of informal, serendipitous knowledge acquisition and learning. We envision therefore an extension of the modeling functions within ViewpointS by adding measures of the emotions and mental states as acquired during experimental sessions. These brain-related components may in a first phase allow to describe and classify models in order to understand the relations among knowledge structures and mental states. Subsequently, more predictive experiments may be envisaged. These may allow to forecast the acquisition of knowledge as well as sentiment from previous events during interactions. We are convinced that useful applications may range, for instance, from Tutoring, to Health, to consensus formation in Politics at very low investment costs as the experimental set up consists of minimal extensions of the Web.

Using Q Methodology in Quality Improvement Projects

Abstract: Q methodology consists of a philosophical framework and procedures to identify subjective viewpoints that may not be well understood, but its use in nursing is still quite limited. We describe how Q methodology can be used in quality improvement projects to better understand local viewpoints that act as facilitators or barriers to the implementation of evidence-based practice. We describe the use of Q methodology to identify nurses' attitudes about the provision of skin-to-skin care after cesarean birth.

Social media adoption in higher education: a case study involving IT/IS students

Abstract: This paper discusses the adoption and use of social media in Higher Education (HE). The aim of the research reported in this paper was to identify the main factors and problem areas in the adoption and use of social media in HE. Our study included a survey involving students of Information Technology and Information Systems in Greece and in Finland. In order to verify the findings from the survey, a follow-up survey was also undertaken. The unified technology adoption approach was identified to be a suitable underlying theory for this study. The analysis of viewpoints of students was needed in order to understand converging and diverging viewpoints. The results showed that infrastructure is the most important issue in the planning of learning/teaching activities based on social media, followed by the role of social influence. Based on the analysis, guidelines for planning social-media-based learning activities are proposed. Indications of further work complete the paper.

Computational Thinking in Computer Science Classrooms: Viewpoints from CS Educators

Abstract: Computational thinking (CT) has been described as a mental activity, a problem solving approach, and a skill fundamental to most disciplines. For teachers, the varied definitions of CT make it difficult to integrate into the curriculum. The purpose of this study was to examine how secondary computer science teachers perceive computational thinking practices and concepts in their own introductory computer science classes. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with CS teachers, we investigated how their existing curriculum was structured, their impressions of computational thinking concepts, and whether they identified computational thinking concepts within their curriculum. The results from the study suggested that computer science teachers are generally not familiar with computational thinking concepts, but when made aware of them, they find them relevant to their curricula. The findings inform CS teacher education, and refine both the theory and practice of CT in K-12 classrooms.

ViewpointS: Capturing formal data and informal contributions into an adaptive knowledge graph

Abstract: Formal data is supported by means of specific languages from which the syntax and semantics have to be mastered, which represents an obstacle for collective intelligence. In contrast, informal knowledge relies on weak/ambiguous contributions e.g., I like. Reconciling the two forms of knowledge is a big challenge. We propose a brain-inspired knowledge representation approach called ViewpointS where formal data and informal contributions are merged into an adaptive knowledge graph which is then topologically, rather than logically, explored and assessed. We firstly illustrate within a mock-up simulation, where the hypothesis of knowledge emerging from preference dissemination is positively tested. Then we use a real-life web dataset (MovieLens) that mixes formal data about movies with user ratings. Our results show that ViewpointS is a relevant, generic and powerful innovative approach to capture and reconcile formal and informal knowledge and enable collective intelligence.

On Stealing Viewpoints

Abstract: The form of actor-training known as The Viewpoints has emerged in recent years from being a relatively unknown practice to become a standard curriculum in actor training programmes, particularly in...

A Comparative Study of Teachers’ Perceptions towards School’s Professional Development according to Their Demographics at No. 26 Basic Education High School in Mandalay, Myanmar

Abstract: The main purpose of this study was to compare the significant differences in the teachers’ perceptions towards school’s professional development according to their demographics: age, grade level currently teaching and years of teaching experience at No. 26 Basic Education High School in Mandalay, Myanmar. The participants of this study were 96 teachers from No. 26 Basic Education High School at Mandalay, Myanmar during the academic year 2015-2016. This study was designed as quantitative and comparative study. Data was gathered using the research instrument, 5 Likert scaled questionnaire that consisted of two parts; Part I investigated the participants’ demographics and Part II compared the teachers’ perceptions. The data collected from the survey was analyzed by descriptive statistics; Frequency & Percentage, Mean, Standard Deviation and comparative analysis; One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The transformed data of this study showed that teachers from No. 26 Basic Education High School, Mandalay had “positive” perceptions towards their school’s development activities. However, the comparative analysis described that there were no significant differences in the teachers’ perceptions towards school’s professional development according to their demographics: age, and grade level currently teaching and years of teaching experience at No. 26 Basic Education High School in Mandalay, Myanmar. Though the findings revealed no significant differences, it gave some ideas to create a professional development encompassing teachers’ multiple viewpoints in order to professionally organized learning environment where teachers’ wants, needs meet and it will make the students learn successfully.

A Dialogic Vaccine to Bridge Opposing Cultural Viewpoints Based on Bakhtin's Views on Dialogue and Estrangement.

Abstract: Today, we face global conflicts between opposing ideologies that may be described in terms of cultural viewpoints and value judgments. It is difficult for individuals to determine whether ideologies are right or wrong because each ideology has its own worldview and sense of justice. Psychologists have an urgent mission to defuse the likelihood of fatal clashes between opposing cultural perspectives (ideologies), and to propose paradigms for peaceful coexistence. This paper examines the series of papers (Oh, Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 51, 2017; Sakakibara, Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 51, 2017; Watanabe, Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science, 51, 2017) contributed to this volume that investigate the effects of high school and university educational programs promoting productive dialogue aimed at bridging, or transcending, conflicting perspectives among Japanese, Chinese, and Korean students. Here, I have evaluated the capacity of these educational programs to coordinate opposing cultural ideologies using the framework of Bakhtin's theories of dialogue and estrangement. Bakhtin viewed discourse with others who had opposing viewpoints as an opportunity to learn to overcome the one-sidedness of ideology, which ensues from automatic value judgments made by each speaker according to their culture, and he affirmed the value of flexible attitudes toward opposing viewpoints. In this paper, I review Bakhtin's theories relating to communication in a context of different cultural viewpoints, assess the general values of the educational practices mentioned above, and propose new concepts for applying these methods to other educational fields in the future using Bakhtin's theoretical viewpoints.

Design of a Corporate SDI in Power Sector Using a Formal Model

Abstract: Geospatial data are essential for the decision-making process. However, obtaining and keeping such data up to date usually require much time and many financial resources. In order to minimize the production costs and incentivize sharing these data, countries are promoting the implementation of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) at the different public administration levels. The International Cartographic Association (ICA) proposes a formal model that describes the main concepts of an SDI based on three of the five viewpoints of the Reference Model for Open Distributed Processing (RM-ODP). Afterwards, researchers extended ICA’s model to describe, more properly, the actors, hierarchical relationship and interactions related to the policies that drive an SDI. However, the proposed extensions are semantically inconsistent with the original proposal. Moreover, the use of ICA’s formal model and its extensions has not been assessed yet to specify a corporate-level SDI. This study describes the merger of actors and policies proposed by the ICA and its extensions in order to eliminate differences in the semantics or terminology among them. This unified model was applied to specify a corporate SDI for a large Brazilian corporation, the Minas Gerais Power Company (Companhia Energetica de Minas Gerais (Cemig)), which is comprised of about 200 companies in the power sector. The case study presents part of the specification of the five RM-ODP viewpoints, i.e., the three viewpoints featured in ICA’s formal model (Enterprise, Information, and Computation) and the other two viewpoints that make up the RM-ODP (Engineering and Technology). The adapted ICA’s model proved adequate to describe SDI-Cemig. In addition, the case study may serve as an example of the specification and implementation of new SDIs, not only corporate ones, but also of public agencies at any hierarchical level.

The Story-Presenting Method: a Method for Constructing Multiple Viewpoints to Understand Different Cultures

Abstract: This study will show the results of four dialogical cultural exchange classes, which were held between Japanese and Chinese high school students, and examine the shifts in students’ viewpoints and changes in cultural understandings that occurred during those classes. In the first cultural exchange class, students of both countries read a story which described an older student who carelessly wore a T-shirt inside out, and younger students passed by without greeting him. Students of both countries were then asked to write their comments about it. From the second to the fourth class, students discussed the story with each other through exchanging their comments. By presenting another story, which introduced the viewpoint of a third person, and asking them questions that allowed them to reflect on their lives, students also experienced four different viewpoints during these cultural exchange classes. At the beginning of the cultural exchange, students of both countries tended to focus on the similarities in each other’s comments, which led to the closing down of the discussion. However, through discussions and experiencing the four different viewpoints, they found there are some essential differences between them around ‘ways of greeting’ and ‘hierarchical relationships between older and younger students’, which motivated them to understand their counterparts’ culture. Moreover, in the last comments of these cultural exchange classes, it was found that they acquired the viewpoints of cultural others. Given the results of these classes, it is shown that it is effective to present various stories to stimulate cultural understanding.

The Medical Students' Viewpoints in Achieving Clinical Objectives of Medical Education Program in Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences in 2010: A Short Report

Abstract: هدیکچ :فده و هنیمز ا ی یلاب عطاقم یکشزپ نایوجشناد تارظن نییعت فده اب هعلاطم ن رد ناجنسفر یکشزپ مولع هاگشناد ین اپ مولع سورد شقن دروم ی تسد رد ه ی با ی لاب فادها هب ی ن ی حارط ، ی و ارجا درگ ی .د شور و داوم اه : لاس رد یفیصوت هعلاطم نیا 1389 قیرط زا ، ندرک رپ همانشسرپ تمسقود ی م لماش ی مها ناز ی ت مادکره اپ مولع سورد زا ی ا هئارا هوحن و ه ی تسد رد سورد ن ی ا ب ی لاب فادها هب ی ن ی وجشناد طسوت ی کشزپ نا ی (يزروراک و يزومآراک) یسررب دروم هنومن مجح .دش ماجنا 58 زا سپ .دوب رفن عمج يروآ هداد ،تاعلاطا اه نومزآ و یفیصوت رامآ زا هدافتسا اب يرامآ t تلااؤس زا کی ره هب هک يزایتما دصرد و نیگنایم نییعت اب و لقتسم همانشسرپ دش هداد زجت دروم ، ی لحت و ه ی ل .تفرگ رارق هتفای اه : ار یموتانآ و يژولویزیف ،بیترت هب يزروراک و يزومآراک هرود نایوجشناد هب ناونع مهم رت ی ن و سرد هورگ ود ره هب ار یکشزپ کیزیف سرد ناونع مک مها ی ت رت ی ن خشت ینیلاب فادها هب یبایتسد رد سرد ی هئارا هوحن دروم رد .دنداد ص لع سورد تلااؤس ندوب گنهامه هب طوبرم زایتما رثکادح ،ینیلاب فادها هب یبایتسد رد هیاپ مو اپ ی نا مرت اب عماج ناحتما و .دوب نیلاب رد هیاپ مولع سورد دربراک هب طوبرم زایتما نیرتمک و یسرد تاعوضوم هجیتن :يریگ هتفای هب هجوت اب اه هبنج رب دیکأت ،هعلاطم نیا ي اه ینیلاب دربراک ي زا یکشزپ شزومآ رد هیاپ مولع سورد شور رد يرگنزاب رما نیا .تسا رادروخرب يدایز تیمها اه باجیا ار یکشزپ رد هیاپ مولع سورد شزومآ یلعف ي یم .دیامن هژاو لک ياه ی د ي : ناجنسفر ،ینیلاب ،یکشزپ ،یشزومآ تیعضو

Divergent Teacher Viewpoints of Technology Integration in the Language Classroom

Abstract: This chapter presents a qualitative analysis of the beliefs and practices of three language teachers in Thailand vis-à-vis their integration of technology in the classroom as well as their views regarding social networking site participation as a facilitative tool for instruction. The study brings together research on the identity development work of teachers and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Through the analysis of extensive teacher interview data and classroom observations, the study demonstrates how these teachers self-identify as users of technology, and how this sense of self interacts with and shapes various aspects of their teaching practice. The three teachers in this study represent a range of divergent viewpoints related to technology use and integration in the classroom, and the analysis of these viewpoints helps to illustrate the specific factors underlying how and why they choose to make pedagogic use of technology.

Age of earth and evolution – can religion and science reconcile?

Abstract: The debate about the creation of Earth and the beginning of life is often considered one of the main reasons for tensions between the religious and the scientific communities. There is a lack of agreement regarding how the process of creation (or evolution) began and how it moved forward. What do major Abrahamic religions really believe about the creation of Earth and origins of life on its? Is there a difference of viewpoints about these aspects within the religions? Do these viewpoints in contradiction to the scientific theories in full, or are there any commonalities between the two perspectives? Is it possible to offer new interpretations for the religious texts to ensure compatibility with the scientific discoveries? This paper has been written with an aim to explore answers to these questions while referring to the religious scriptures as well as the relevant scientific theories. We have started this discussion with an explanation of the scientific viewpoint of the creation of Earth. It is then followed by an overview of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic perspective. Next, the discussion moves on to the beginning of life on Earth. This aspect is explored from evolutionary as well as creationist point of views. After setting the context and necessary background, we have discussed in detail how these various viewpoints contradict or support each other.

E-learning in higher education institutions and its determinants

Abstract: In the knowledge era, the e-learning has become vital. E-learning incorporates numerous tools that provide academic institutions efficient and effective ways to store, manage, share its academic resources and knowledge and supplement their traditional way of teaching. The adoption of e-learning has become a requirement at universities as it is enhancing the teaching and learning environment.The students’ viewpoints, lecturers’ performance, characteristics of LMS and support of university that play a significant role in determining e-learning implementation. In conclusion, universities should support e-learning deployment through improving learners’ viewpoints, must ensure that lecturers are entirely on board regarding the implementation of e-learning, should guarantee the quality of the utilized system, must highlight the importance of LMS on curriculum and provide good enough service for effective LMS implementation in blended learning environment. Keywords: E-Learning, Blended Learning, Determinants of E-Learning