Professional Development Week
The 10th Professional Development Week was a resounding success, offering faculty members a range of insightful workshops designed to enhance teaching and learning practices. Among the highlights was the keynote session, "Confessions of a Converted Lecturer," delivered by Dr. Eric Mazur, Academic Dean for Applied Sciences and Engineering and Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University. Dr. Mazur shared transformative strategies for engaging students and improving learning outcomes.
Dr. Curtis Bradley, Associate Professor of Physics at CEPS, led a session on "Building Effective Teams in Project-Based and Senior Design Courses with CATME." His workshop focused on using the CATME tool to create and manage effective student teams in engineering and STEM education.
In another workshop session, Dr. Gihan El Bait, Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences at CMHS, presented "Inspire Students with Immersive STEM Learning." This session explored the use of virtual labs to enhance student engagement and mastery of science skills, showcasing innovative approaches to immersive STEM education. Other sessions led by CTL team members focused on teaching with technology, Effective assessments and grading strategies, and ways of upholding the quality of academic standards and processes.
Overall, around 100 faculty members attended the two-day workshops, and 8 earned certificates for attending multiple sessions, demonstrating a solid commitment to professional development and continuous improvement in teaching excellence at Khalifa University.
University Consortium for Quality Online Learning (UCQOL)
KU has actively participated in the UCQOL project, with faculty and lab instructors undergoing intensive training to redesign high-enrollment courses into a student-centered, blended format. Launched in Spring 2020 with a needs assessment, the project has led to the development of nine blended courses, including video components, by 13 faculty members. Over 4,000 students have benefited from these redesigned courses, which use a unified template to ensure consistent learning experiences. Regular feedback is collected to support continuous improvement.
As a result of KU's outstanding performance in the project, the CTL applied for and secured a 2 million AED grant from the Al Ghurair Foundation to support further capacity building in technology-enhanced learning. The grant will fund the purchase of portable video production tools, the construction of a studio at the SAN campus, and the creation of Coursera specializations.
Additionally, CTL was invited to join the training team for a three-day intensive digital transformation program at the University of Sharjah, another UCQOL member. The program, titled "Certified Intensive Professional Development Program on: Digital Trailblazers: Building Hybrid Learning Modules—Course Design & Production," aimed to deepen participants' understanding of digital transformation, enhance their practical skills in multimedia content creation, and strengthen their abilities in designing hybrid lessons. Fifty-seven faculty members successfully completed the training, produced modules for their courses, and earned UCQOL certificates.
LMS and Beyond: We've upgraded to a new Blackboard (LMS) interface featuring a centralized navigation system. This design brings together grades, courses, streams, the calendar, and tools into one cohesive platform. The streamlined interface enhances your experience with more intuitive and efficient navigation, allowing you to easily manage your academic activities, stay organized, and keep track of important dates and resources all in one place. Click here to learn more.
We’ve introduced the Instructor Dashboard to give you deeper insights into student performance and activities. To access it, log in to Blackboard, navigate to Tools, and select Instructor Dashboard. This new feature will enhance your ability to monitor and manage student progress more efficiently
If you are an instructor managing multiple courses or sessions and find it challenging to share content or send messages to each, try using Qwickly Course Tools. Simply log in to Blackboard, go to Tools, and select Qwickly Course Tools. This feature will streamline your workflow, making it easier to manage and distribute content across all your courses.
For non-credit short courses, we are now using Qwickly Attendance, which makes using QR codes for the check-in procedure simple. Instructors gain from an effective and automatic attendance tracking system, and students can simply mark their attendance by scanning a code. This method streamlines the procedure, saving time and cutting down on administrative work.
Click here to learn more.
Classroom Readiness: In preparation for the new academic year, CTL, in collaboration with FM and IT, has checked and confirmed the readiness of classrooms on both campuses for the upcoming fall semester. Training workshops for students have taken place during the summer and more workshops are forthcoming. The scheduled workshops include sessions about the use of our learning Management System (Blackboard) and UAE Cultural Appreciation.
Experiential Learning Symposium: Exciting event! The 4th Experiential Learning Symposium is happening from Nov 05–07, 2024. Don’t miss this chance to dive into hands-on experiences and connect with peers! Submit your proposal by September 05: ctl.ae/EXL2024
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more powerful people are looking to use it to assist with their research needs. Library research databases is one area where AI can help–though with some caveats. One can find research database-related tasks AI does well, as well as other things it still struggles with.
What Works
AI can be helpful if you are struggling to come up with keywords. Since different authors use different terminology for the same concept, using multiple keywords in a search will help ensure you find as much related to a topic as possible. Using ChatGPT (which is used for the other examples used here), you can ask for different keywords related to Elderly. The AI provided me with 20 search terms meaning roughly the same thing, including Gerontology, Seniors, and Aging. If you are struggling to think of terminology or perhaps you are not familiar with the terminology in English, this can help propel your search forward.
AI is also helpful with organizing your search terms. In the above example we were presented with 20 terms. If we are building a more complex search string for a database search, you will often need to use specific syntax using things like Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT). AI can help you quickly format this, saving you time. For example, asking AI to help me organize the above 20 terms I can quickly arrive at:
(Elderly OR "Older adults" OR "Aging population" OR Geriatrics OR Gerontology OR Seniors OR Aging OR Aged OR "Senior citizens" OR "Advanced age" OR "Elderly care" OR "Frail elderly" OR "Aging process" OR "Elderly health" OR "Geriatric health" OR "Age-related conditions" OR Longevity OR Ageing OR "Older people" OR "Elderly patients")
This can be then combined with other search terms, or further refined in different ways. It takes some practice to get here, but once you understand how the AI interprets your requests, you can prepare searches more quickly and with less effort.
What Does Not Work
However, AI still comes up short in some areas. It does really understand the meaning behind keywords and search strings. If you are familiar with subject terms as an option and supplement to keywords, AI can help you find them. Using the PubMed and Embase databases, AI can provide the subject terms (MeSH and Emtree, respectively) for the 20 keywords we found for Elderly earlier. While the list of PubMed MeSH terms is mostly accurate, it does make up at least one MeSH term that will not work when you search.
One thing AI does not currently seem to be able to do is work with citations. For example, if you take an article reference number (e.g., the PMID “35409935” from PubMed) and ask ChatGPT to format it in APA style you get the following:
Sone, K., Toyoshima, M., Tsuji, S., Takahashi, Y., Ushiku, H., Hayashi, T., ... & Oda, K. (2022). Molecular subtype classification is a better predictor of the clinical outcome than the anatomical site of origin in high-grade serous ovarian cancer. Journal of Ovarian Research, 15(1), 55. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13048-022-00951-3
Other than formatting issues, like indentation, it looks pretty good, right? The only problem is the AI made up the citation and it is not the PMID 35409935 in PubMed. Why? I do not know, but I have also seen AI make up references to insert at the end of the paper.
So, as you explore and play with AI and look to using it more for serious tasks like library database research, one must pay attention to see how it is helping you and where it might be leading you astray. As powerful as AI is (and useful for other tasks), it still has a long way to go before it can replace the human element of database research.
We are excited to announce our extended plan for hosting and conducting a variety of workshops, training, and events throughout Fall 2024. These activities aim to enrich the academic experience for students, faculty, and staff, offering opportunities for personal growth, professional development, and community engagement.
This semester, we are engaging in our most ambitious slate of offerings ever. While in the past, the library has hosted at least one event each week, this semester we are offering multiple sessions almost every week. Over the course of the semester, we cover the gamut of services and products that the library provides to our university community. Our staff arrange workshops that show users how best to utilize the dozens electronic resources that we provide, resources that can enable and enhance your scholarly output. We offer sessions that explain how to get your research published, including choosing a publisher and journal, using tools that improve and simply your work, and even provide information on how to get your paper's Open Access fees paid.
We cover topics for improving your teaching, such as how you can use social media and artificial intelligence in your work, how to present more effectively and how to use internet tools, such as citation managers. Our librarians will show you how to improve you research impact by registering and maintaining your ORCiD account, which ensures that you will receive full credit for each citation and reference to your work. We will even help you navigate the sometimes-confusing world of patents and standards.
You can always find out what events are coming up by reading our weekly announcement emails, by visiting the library's homepage, or by visiting the library calendar. Or, of course, you can ask your favorite librarian, who is always ready to help in any way.
We hope to see you soon at a workshop designed for you!
Sunlight powers the Earth: light generated by the nuclear fusion reaction at the Sun reaches our planet, enabling life.
Light also plays a crucial role in our society: data flows between continents in optical fiber cables, which are tiny glass fibers about the diameter of human hair, that guide light between far-away destinations. Together with lasers and light-emitting diodes, this are the technologies that enable the Internet and its various applications such as social media, online banking, AI bots.
Lasers are light sources that have been engineered for special application, either for data transmission, precision clocks and rulers, sensing and metrology, materials characterization and processing, being everywhere from your fiber-to-home internet box, to the robotic laser welders in the automotive industry, to medical applications in eye surgery. You also find them in 3D scanners, barcode readers, intrusion detection. Some more powerful lasers are used in nuclear fusion attempts to recreate a mini-Sun on Earth: an immense source of clean energy. Other applications of lasers to rain enhancement and cloud seeding are also surfacing.
Photonics is the field of science that studies and develops new materials, devices and systems that manage light. From all the applications mentioned above, to endeavors onto the forefront of quantum technology and artificial intelligence, the future of computing.
In fact, when I was an undergraduate student, the courses where we learn the physics and engineering of lasers, were named Quantum Electronics, the original name of the field.
That brings me further along memory lane to my adolescence, recalling an exhibition I saw at the University of Porto, Portugal, about the secrets of the micro and nanoscale world, organized by the Physics Department. In that exhibition, the magic of hologram could be experienced live, as well as doing some laser experiments. Also in the exhibition, a there was a demonstration of an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and images obtained from Electron Microscopes giving an insight of the nanoscale world. I found the topics amazing and inspiring and set course for my studies in Physics for the following years.
This demonstrates the power of academic outreach, as a way of informing the general population and to attract interested students to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). A picture is worth a thousand words; an experience is worth a thousand pictures.
At the beginning of September, the library made an important upgrade to the university proxy server that all users need to be aware of.
As you probably know, the proxy server allows the KU community to access, from anywhere in the world, the dozens of electronic resources that we subscribe to. All you need to do is authenticate via the university's Single Sign On server, and all the thousands of journals and e-books that we provide are yours to use.
The upgrade to the service will increase the speed and reliability of this service. However, it has required us to change the URL of the service. We have updated all the URLs on the library's Electronic Resources Page; if you are using these links to access the resources, you will not need to make any changes to access the sites.
If, however, you have bookmarked a page that you use frequently, you will need to update this link. You can probably most easily do this by accessing the site via the links on the electronic resources page and creating a new bookmark. But, if you want to directly edit the URL, you can do this as well.
Just right mouse click on the bookmark you want to change and choose Edit from the popup menu. Find the URL field, and look for the string kuconnect.ku.ac.ae. Simply replace this string with khalifa.idm.oclc.org.
If you need any additional help, please contact us at libse@ku.ac.ae.
"Mother without a Mask: A Westerner’s Story of Her Arab Family" by Patricia Holton is a masterful memoir and work of cultural understanding. It is the story of an Englishwoman’s growing friendship with an Emirati family in the early days of the UAE. Holton established a relationship with the family through caring for a son from the family while he studied in London. She was then invited to visit the family in Al Ain.
Told with insight and compassion, she tells the story of her gradual learning of Emirati traditions and mores, slowly becoming a close friend of the Sheikhah, matriarch of the large family.
Holton’s story is revealed in keen detail, observing not only what things are different between her culture and that of her friends, but why. Holton is masterful storyteller, relating fascinating tales of what life was like in those less developed days, before the major highways, when a trip from Abu Dhabi to Al Ain took an entire day. Her stories include many fascinating events during her many months living in Al Ain over the years.
This book is highly recommended, not only because it is well-written, but also because it shows how the commitment to coexistence and peace have been woven into the Emirati nation from its very beginning. I strongly encourage everyone to read this story to learn more about Emirati history and culture.
Goodreads is a mobile app and website that is great for discovering new titles and connecting with avid readers across the globe! Since its launch in 2007 it has become the world’s largest site for personalized book recommendations. You register with your Apple ID, Amazon account or any email address. Then you can customize your profile by listing your interests and the type of books you like to read. After rating 20 books, the Goodreads algorithm will recommend books based upon genre and the books you have on your shelf! If you are still stuck looking for that next late-night page-turner, Goodreads’ Listopia feature allows readers to create and vote for booklists by tag. Here you explore lists like “The book was better than the movie”, “Best strong female fantasy novels”, and “Best Humorous Books”.
Top Features
• Register for reading challenges
• Track what you are currently reading
• Sync your reading progress from your Kindle
• Manage your personal bookshelves
• Explore community groups and join discussions
You can become a part of the Goodreads community by going to www.goodreads.com or downloading the app form Google Play or the App Store.
Librarians as Codebreakers
Did you know that librarians helped crack enemy codes in support of the US war effort during World War II? Librarians played a crucial role in the U.S. during World War II, by serving as codebreakers. Their skills in cataloging and analyzing information made them valuable assets in cracking enemy codes, particularly at places like Bletchley Park in the UK, where many were involved in decoding encrypted messages. Richard Hayes was one of the most prominent librarian codebreakers during the war.
A Library on the Back of a Camel
In Kenya, there is a mobile library service that delivers books to remote communities via camelback. The Kenya National Library Service's Camel Mobile Library started in 1996 and travels across arid regions where access to books is limited, providing education and reading materials to children and adults alike.
Library of Alexandria Revived
A revival of the legendary Library of Alexandria is found in Alexandria, Egypt. Dubbed the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, it has shelf space for 8 million books and houses books in English, French and Arabic. It also hosts museums and exhibitions within its wide expanse. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina also houses the Digital Assets Repository which contains digital library collections.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_Alexandrina
https://www.knls.ac.ke/mobile-library-services/
https://nlmdirector.nlm.nih.gov/2019/04/30/code-breaking-librarians/