Summative Stage Research Articles

An optimized design of delay-and energy-efficient Booth multiplier

Multipliers are essential computation units in virtually all computing systems, including processors and numerous AI accelerator architectures. This paper presents an optimized architecture for a Booth multiplier, targeting high performance while minimizing energy consumption and area utilization. The design optimization focuses on all three multiplier stages: partial product generation, reduction, and summation. To enhance delay and energy efficiency in the partial product generation stage, we first employed a simplified configuration comprising inverters and a sign selection unit instead of complex binary-to-two's complement circuitry. Next, to achieve further delay and area efficiency at this stage, logic optimization is applied at the partial product's generation circuitry by designing Booth encoders to remove redundant logic in multiplexers circuitry. Moreover, we introduced specialized sign compressors tailored for carry-save compression in the compression stage. Compared to conventional counterparts, these compressors offered lower power consumption and reduced critical path delay with only two XOR logic gates. Finally, in the summation stage, we proposed an optimized design segment for Carry Look-Ahead Adder for the final summation stage, designed to deliver swift throughput with minimal fan-in logic gates, even in the context of high bit-width configurations. This segment is cascaded to make a 13-bit final adder for the summation stage in the proposed design. The proposed architecture undergoes ASIC-targeted synthesis in Cadence Genus employing FreePDK CMOS 45 nm process technology. Synthesized results, along with theoretical design complexity comparison, demonstrate that the proposed design surpasses state-of-the-art 8 × 8 multiplier designs by critical metrics, including delay, power consumption, area utilization, power delay product, and area delay product.

STATE OF FORMATION OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETENCE IN FUTURE SPECIALISTS IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT OF THE ARMED FORCES OF UKRAINE

The paper is devoted to the coverage of the results of the summative stage of the pedagogical experiment on the formation of organizational competence of future professionals in physical culture and sports of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (hereinafter "the AFU"). An algorithm is presented for determining the levels of formedness of their organizational competence according to a number of criteria: value-motivational, cognitive, activity, managerial, individual-mental and subject and their corresponding components of the phenomenon under study. The application of these criteria and their indicators made it possible to determine the levels of formedness of organizational competence of the subjects (low, medium, high). The study was conducted with cadets of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Physical Culture and Sports and Health Technologies of the National Ivan Cherniakhovskyi University of Defense of Ukraine.
 In the 1st academic year, the high level of formedness of organizational competence was identified as following: high - 1.66%, medium – 15%, low – 83.33% and, accordingly, in the 2nd academic year, the high level of formation was: high 5.55%, medium – 22.22%, low – 72.22%; in the 3rd academic year, the high level was at 4.55%, medium – 19.69%, low – 75.75%; in the 4th academic year, the high level was at 5.12%, medium – 21.8%, low – 73.07%.
 These input data allow drawing a conclusion that the coefficients for each component have a low level of formedness of the organizational competence of future professionals in physical culture and sports, namely: value-motivational – 1.53, cognitive – 1.13, activity – 1.35, managerial – 1, individual-mental – 1.44 and subject – 1.13. The greatest difficulties occurred at the stage of diagnosing managerial, cognitive and subject components. The vast majority of respondents could not reach even a low level of formedness on these components. The results of the summative stage of the pedagogical experiment showed a low level of formedness of the organizational competence of future professionals in physical culture and sports, namely, the coefficient of formedness was 1.23. This made it possible, on the one hand, to establish the conditions that affect its formation, and on the other hand, to emphasize the need to introduce additional pedagogical conditions for its formation at the formative stage of the experiment.

Conditions for forming future language teachers’ lexical competence in pandemic times

Successful communication in English as a foreign language depends primarily on the amount of vocabulary learned, which ensures speech appropriateness in a particular communicative situation and adequate perception of information. The article reveals the conditions for forming future language teachers’ lexical competence in Ukrainian higher pedagogical education institutions on the example of vocabulary denoting coronalogisms. The summative stage revealed students’ positive motivation for learning new vocabulary, while the formative one was aimed at expanding students’ range of vocabulary on a particular topic. The work was carried out in three stages: introducing new vocabulary; practicing and consolidating new material; using the target vocabulary in written and oral speech. Determining the range of students’ vocabulary, their word knowledge quality and ability to use target vocabulary at the control stage gives grounds to state the effectiveness of conditions for forming future language teachers’ lexical competence during the pandemic: using ICT and time-conditioned blended learning as a combination of traditional and distance learning.

Toward an Individual Binaural Loudness Model for Hearing Aid Fitting and Development.

The individual loudness perception of a patient plays an important role in hearing aid satisfaction and use in daily life. Hearing aid fitting and development might benefit from individualized loudness models (ILMs), enabling better adaptation of the processing to individual needs. The central question is whether additional parameters are required for ILMs beyond non-linear cochlear gain loss and linear attenuation common to existing loudness models for the hearing impaired (HI). Here, loudness perception in eight normal hearing (NH) and eight HI listeners was measured in conditions ranging from monaural narrowband to binaural broadband, to systematically assess spectral and binaural loudness summation and their interdependence. A binaural summation stage was devised with empirical monaural loudness judgments serving as input. While NH showed binaural inhibition in line with the literature, binaural summation and its inter-subject variability were increased in HI, indicating the necessity for individualized binaural summation. Toward ILMs, a recent monaural loudness model was extended with the suggested binaural stage, and the number and type of additional parameters required to describe and to predict individual loudness were assessed. In addition to one parameter for the individual amount of binaural summation, a bandwidth-dependent monaural parameter was required to successfully account for individual spectral summation.

The ways to achieve happiness

The paper examines the definitions of happiness in psychology, analyzes the components of happiness, describes various methods of achieving happiness: volunteering or working for a good cause, positive thinking, methods of expressive therapy such as music and art therapy. Particular attention is paid to the description of neuro acoustics (sound therapy) and special psychological methods like the Key method developed by H. Aliev, the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing method developed by F. Shapiro, and the wing wave method developed by C. Besser-Siegmund and H. Siegmund; psychological training and psychotherapeutic technologies such as the Be Set Free Fast technique. To prove our hypothesis that modern psychological methods affect the psychological correction of students’ personal anxiety and make a person happier, we conducted a study to look at the influence of modern psychological methods on the psychological correction of students’ anxiety. At the summative and control stages of the study, we used the adapted version of R. Phillips’ anxiety test (for students). At the formative stage of the study, we used the developed and tested program of psychological correction for personal anxiety. Group methods were used as key methods of psychological correction, including brain gymnastics by P. Dennison and G. Dennison, the Key method by H. Aliyev; individual lessons with certified psychologists using the eye movement desensitization, and reprocessing method by F. Shapiro, and wing wave method by C. Besser-Siegmund and H. Siegmund. The university psychologist taught students the Be Set Free Fast protocol, and students also listened to neuro acoustic programs at home. The results of the experimental study proved that the program, based on modern psychological methods, contributed not only to the psycho-correction of students’ personal anxiety but also to improving the mental health of students and their perception of a happier life. The program can be recommended for psychological correctional work with first-year university students during the period of adaptation to university studies and for work with all students who have an increased level of anxiety and stress.

Детермінанти соціально-педагогічної роботи з вимушено переміщеними особами в закладах вищої освіти

Problems of internally displaced people are considered in this article. It has been defined that people from the east of Ukraine were involuntarily displaced because their relocation was carried out within one country due to the fear of becoming a victim of military conflict unlike refugees who have to leave their own country because of the fear to be chased by racial, religion or national reasons or because of belonging to a certain social group or political belief. It has been discovered that the main context of functions and different directions of social work with involuntarily displaced people consists in the support of complementary social environment or the change of social environment in direction of its greater complementarity for people who leave their home and fall into another social environment. It has been emphasized that the system of social and pedagogical work with such people in institutions of higher education has to be designed on the basis of formation and reconstruction of social qualities. It has been revealed that the context of social and pedagogical work with involuntarily displaced people in institutions of higher education will be effective in case it is carried out in such directions as social, social and psychological, social and pedagogical, social and legal, material, social and informational, and social an career-related. The summative stage of the research has been presented. It has given a picture of the level of satisfaction, trust, and attitude of internally displaced people regarding the solution of their problems in higher education institutions, and the reasons of their dissatisfaction with the received services in the institutions.

Уроки иностранного языка как метод развития уверенно-достойного поведения личности учащихся

The authors of the article emphasize that modern realities require the development of skills of confident and worthy behavior in all situations, etc. It is noted that skills must be developed in learning process using various methods and techniques in the classroom and off-hour work using various psychological trainings to create a psychologically safe and comfortable educational environment. The study of the impact of applying personal-oriented teaching methods in English language learning process on the formation of self-confidence, improving academic performance and increasing interest in a foreign language is described in the article. The purpose, hypothesis, tasks, methodological and theoretical basis of the research, methods and experimental base of the research are defined in the article; the results of the research of the summative, formative and control stages are analyzed. The method of Yakubovskaya P. was chosen as a diagnostic method at the summative and control stages of the study. P. Yakubovskaya's assessment test is aimed at the ability to distinguish between confident, insecure and aggressive behavior of an individual. The summative stage of the study showed that the majority of students do not see the line between confident and insecure behavior of the individual in situations that were taken as examples. It is mentioned that some guys couldn't tell the difference between confident and aggressive behavior. At the formative stage of the study, students in the control group studied using the classical method. For students of the experimental group, English lessons were developed and tested using specially designed tasks of a personality-oriented nature. During the control stage of the study, students who were part of the experimental group showed a significant increase in correct answers while doing the test. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the use of personality-oriented approach in the educational process positively affects the formation of self-confidence, improving academic performance and increasing interest in a foreign language in general, as well as contributing to the formation of a strong and self-confident personality.

Psychological Support for the Foreign Language Training of the Students at International Relations Faculties

The article studies the innovative elements of psychological support for the professional foreign language training of students at international relations faculties, offers and experimentally verifies the effectiveness of techniques and exercises for the intensification of the foreign language training, based on professional communicative situations in high-risk foreign language environment. Such elements include the use of stress-management techniques and exercises based on real-life professional situations, along with practicing foreign language skills. The appropriateness of use of the elements of psychological support for the professional foreign language training of would-be professionals in international relations was proved to be effective through the experiment. It was conducted with students of international relations faculties through the comparison of levels of performance of two groups of students: those whose professional foreign language training include elements of psychological support and those with traditional training. In order to assess the difference between two groups of students at the summative stage of the experiment, the Mann –Whitney U test was used. The use of psychological support for the professional foreign language training is significant in terms of improvement of would-be specialists' in international relations professional competence.

The Results of the Summative Stage of the Experiment on the Development of the Informational and Communication Competence of Teachers in the System of Military Education

The Results of the Summative Stage of the Experiment on the Development of the Informational and Communication Competence of Teachers in the System of Military Education

THE ORGANIZATION AND THE ANALYSIS OF THE RESEARCH RESULTS OF PREPARATION OF FUTURE LECTURERS OF PEDAGOGICAL DISCIPLINES TO PROFESSIONAL INTERACTION BY MEANS OF INTERACTIVE LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES

The article has shown the results of experimental research of formation of readiness of future teachers of pedagogical disciplines to professional interaction by means of interactive technologies. Also it has Illuminated the logic of experimental research during 2016-2019 years in four stages: theoretical, summative, formative, productive and analytical. At the theoretical stage we have established the relevance of the research problem, defined the purpose, object, subject, research tasks. At the summative stage, the author has developed diagnostic tools to determine the levels of readiness of future teachers of pedagogical disciplines to professional interaction. The main purpose of the formative stage was the implementation of certain pedagogical conditions, such as: the motivation of future teachers of pedagogical disciplines to the interactive communication in the educational process; creation of professional and interactive environment based on the implementation of the special course "Professional interaction in the educational process of higher educational establishments"; the organization of students' reflexive activity for self-examination of readiness to professional interaction. The author has specified the features of the formation of the control and experimental groups, the observance of which guaranteed equal conditions of admission of future teachers of pedagogical disciplines in the experiment. Such factors are identified: digital indicators of levels of development of all components and overall readiness of future teachers of pedagogical disciplines in professional interactions, and almost the same quantitative composition in both categories. At the analytical stage we have announced that to prove the validity of the obtained results and the reliability of the experimental research we have used statistical methods of processing the factual material and digital pedagogical experiment using the Fisher criterion.

METHODS OF MENTAL HEALTH MAINTENANCE IN TEACHERS EXPERIENCING EMOTIONAL STRESS

Aim. The article deals with justifying theoretically and describing the authors’ methods of mental health maintenance in teachers experiencing emotional stress. Materials and methods. The proposed methods of mental health maintenance in teachers are based on the ideas of psychosomatics (S. Freud and I. Malkina-Pykh) and non-directive psychotherapy (C. Rogers). Three groups of methods have been described: self-analysis of a current life situation, energy recovery in teachers, and self-regulation of emotions in group interaction. Results. The authors studied neuro-psychological stress in teachers using Nemchin’s method. At the summative stage of the experiment, it was established that 56% of teachers experienced high neuro-psychological stress, and 26% – average. In 2018, the methods described were implemented at one of the comprehensive schools of the Russian Federation. The results of control diagnostics demonstrate a significant decrease in neuro-psychological stress in teachers who implemented these methods of mental health maintenance. This proves the effectiveness of the solutions proposed. Conclusion. This article contributes to the theoretical data on mental health maintenance in modern teachers. The scientific novelty and practical importance of this study are connected with the developed methods of mental health maintenance in teachers. The methods proposed can be used in practice for improving teachers’ expertise both in Russia and abroad.

Distributed Cognition: Understanding Complex Sociotechnical Informatics.

Distributed cognition theory posits that our cognitive tasks are so tightly coupled to the environment that cognition extends into the environment, beyond the skin and the skull. It uses cognitive concepts to describe information processing across external representations, social networks and across different periods of time. Distributed cognition lends itself to exploring how people interact with technology in the workplace, issues to do with communication and coordination, how people's thinking extends into the environment and sociotechnical system architecture and performance more broadly. We provide an overview of early work that established distributed cognition theory, describe more recent work that facilitates its application, and outline how this theory has been used in health informatics. We present two use cases to show how distributed cognition can be used at the formative and summative stages of a project life cycle. In both cases, key determinants that influence performance of the sociotechnical system and/or the technology are identified. We argue that distributed cognition theory can have descriptive, rhetorical, inferential and application power. For evidence-based health informatics it can lead to design changes and hypotheses that can be tested.

Pengembangan E-modul Interaktif Berbasis Android dan Nature of Science Pada Materi Ikatan Kimia dan Gaya Antar Molekul Untuk Menumbuhkan Literasi Sains Siswa

Chemical bond sand intermolecular forces have abstract characteristics. Thepresence of technology in learning media can help students understand theconcept. The learning media in question can be in the form of an androidbasedinteractive e-module that provides convenient accessibility for users. Topresent the atmosphere of science learning, the e-module can be structuredwith the orientation of the Nature Of Science. This research and developmentaims to produce an android-based interactive e-module prototype with thenature of science oriented on chemical bonding and intermolecular forcessubject material to foster students' scientific literacy. This type of researchand development study was carried out with the Nieven development modelwhich consisted of 4 stages: (1) preliminary research stage, (2) prototypingstage ,(3) summative evaluation stage, and (4) systematic reflection anddocumentation stage. However, due to limited resources, this study wascarried out until summative evaluation. With the presentation formula andwith the categories, the results of expert validation obtained an averagepresentation of 90% with very feasible categories, and practical test resultson chemistry teachers obtained avalue of 95% with very feasible categoriesand the results of limited group trials obtained 85% with very decentcategory. Therefore, it can be concluded that the interactive e-moduleprototype that developed is very feasible and can be proceed to abroaderstage in fostering students' literacy skills.

Experimental verification of the author's methodology for the development of multinational staff officers` communicative competency

The article is devoted to the experimental verification of the author's methodology for the development of the communicative competency of multinational staff officers in the process of their military-professional training for the participation in international peace and security operations. The program of the experimental research, peculiarities of carrying out the pedagogical experiment, results of the experimental verification of the author's methodology have been covered.The experimental study has been carried out in accordance with the experimental work program, which includes the analytical-summative, analytical-research, research-experimental and final-generalizing stages, and contains a list of activities planned for the implementation.The specificity of the multinational staff officers` military training for the participation in international peace and security operations has led to carrying out a consistent pedagogical experiment aimed at identifying significant differences in the levels of development of officers` communicative competency, based on substantiated criteria and indicators in one experimental group before and after the formative phase of the pedagogical experiment. In the formation of the study sample, an all-encompassing sampling method has been used, which means that everyone of a relatively small actual sample has to be examined.According to the results of the formative stage of the experiment, the positive influence of the author's methodology on the dynamics of the development of the student-officers` communicative competency has been proved. After the approbation of the author's methodology, the number of students with a high level of development of communicative competency has increased by 37.3%, and the number of students with a sufficient level – by 16%. At the same time, the number of students with a satisfactory level decreased by 41.3%. All students with a low level at the summative stage of the experiment moved to higher levels of development of their communicative competency. The integral coefficient of the development of the communicative competency of student-officers in the experimental group after the formative stage of the experiment (3.41) has increased by 1.03 in comparison with the indicator at the summative stage (2.38).By calculating the reliability of the experimental data on the T-criterion of Wilcoxon, it has been found that the indicators after the formative stage of the pedagogical experiment exceed the values of the indicators at the summative stage. This made it possible to conclude that the implementation of the author's methodology for the development of the communicative competency of multinational staff officers has had a positive impact on the growth of the coefficient of its development

Binocular contrast-gain control for natural scenes: Image structure and phase alignment

In the context of natural scenes, we applied the pattern-masking paradigm to investigate how image structure and phase alignment affect contrast-gain control in binocular vision. We measured the discrimination thresholds of bandpass-filtered natural-scene images (targets) under various types of pedestals. Our first experiment had four pedestal types: bandpass-filtered pedestals, unfiltered pedestals, notch-filtered pedestals (which enabled removal of the spatial frequency), and misaligned pedestals (which involved rotation of unfiltered pedestals). Our second experiment featured six types of pedestals: bandpass-filtered, unfiltered, and notch-filtered pedestals, and the corresponding phase-scrambled pedestals. The thresholds were compared for monocular, binocular, and dichoptic viewing configurations. The bandpass-filtered pedestal and unfiltered pedestals showed classic dipper shapes; the dipper shapes of the notch-filtered, misaligned, and phase-scrambled pedestals were weak. We adopted a two-stage binocular contrast-gain control model to describe our results. We deduced that the phase-alignment information influenced the contrast-gain control mechanism before the binocular summation stage and that the phase-alignment information and structural misalignment information caused relatively strong divisive inhibition in the monocular and interocular suppression stages. When the pedestals were phase-scrambled, the elimination of the interocular suppression processing was the most convincing explanation of the results. Thus, our results indicated that both phase-alignment information and similar image structures cause strong interocular suppression.

The Development of Deconstructive Learning History Model to Promote the Higher Order Thinking Skill of University Students

AbstractThe presented research develops a deconstructive learning history model to promote the Higher Order Thinking Skill (HOTS) of university students. According to Thiagarajan, Semmel, & Sernrnels ( 1974) approach, the model was developed in four stages: defining, design, development, and dissemination. The research participants were 120 students of the History Education Department, Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia. The authors found the main problems related to the aspects of chronological thinking, students' passive attitude, and the availability of learning path. Based on those problems, the author designed a deconstructive learning history model, consisting of four learning stages: problem statement, deconstruction, construction, and articulation. At the development and summative evaluation stages, the learning model proved feasible and effective in promoting the HOTS, thus, the learning model can solve the problems of time orientation and students' passive attitude. Considering the findings and results of the research, the authors state that the learning model becomes a decisive factor in provoking students to reach the higher cognitive level in Bloom's taxonomy.Keywords: higher order thinking skill, learning history, learning model, deconstructive

Creating spaces for Whānau wellbeing, literacy and numeracy in the context of neoliberalism in Aotearoa, New Zealand

This article reviews current research about three short focused literacy, language and numeracy programmes designed to assist New Zealand Māori (indigenous) adult students and their whānau. Whānau is a complex Māori concept that includes physical and metaphysical dimensions based on the Māori worldview of whakapapa (genealogy) and is at the heart of whānau adult literacy programmes. The programme's success was measured by the way students grew self confidence in their own literacy and numeracy abilities that translated into positive impacts for their whānau wellbeing. For example, students who did not have books in the home prior to participating in a programme now created spaces with books in the home for quiet reading as a result of attending an introduction to the public library. Through embedding appropriate literacy and numeracy techniques, Literacy Aotearoa tutors developed a reliable baseline to capture students' progress in their formative and summative stages of the programmes against a backdrop of neoliberal ideologies. Dominant neoliberal policies impact and outweigh educational policies through the demands for more transparency, efficiency and accountability as part of a quality improvement shift to market adult education in New Zealand. Despite this shift in policy, this article focused on ways to co-opt strategies that at a basic level may counter the disconnect between factors that drive the achievement gaps for vulnerable students learning to learn and the tensions that arise in order to comply with neoliberal policies that underpin New Zealand's changing adult education sector. Â

Guideline for Operational Nuclear Usability and Knowledge Elicitation (GONUKE)

As nuclear power plants undertake main control room modernization, a challenge is the lack of a clearly defined human factors process to follow. To fill in guidance gaps and create a step-by-step process for control room modernization, we have developed the Guideline for Operational Nuclear Usability and Knowledge Elicitation (GONUKE). This approach builds on best practices in the software industry, which prescribe an iterative user-centered approach featuring multiple cycles of design and evaluation. Nuclear regulatory guidance for control room design emphasizes summative evaluation—which occurs after the design is complete. In the GONUKE approach, evaluation is also performed at the formative stage of design—early in the design cycle using mockups and prototypes for evaluation. The evaluation may involve expert review (e.g., software heuristic evaluation at the formative stage and design verification against human factors standards like NUREG-0700 at the summative stage). The evaluation may also involve user testing (e.g., usability testing at the formative stage and integrated system validation at the summative stage). An additional, often overlooked component of evaluation is knowledge elicitation, which captures operator insights into the system. In this paper we outline these evaluation types across design phases that support the overall modernization process. The objective is to provide industry-suitable guidance for steps to be taken in support of the design and evaluation of a new human-machine interface (HMI) in the control room.

Combining the formative with the summative: the development of a twostage online test to encourage engagement and provide personal feedback in large classes

The aim of this action research project was to improve student learning by encouraging more “time on task” and to improve self-assessment and feedback through the introduction of weekly online tests in a Year 2 lecture module in biological sciences. Initially voluntary online tests were offered to students and those who participated achieved higher exam marks than those who did not, but completion rate was low. Making the tests compulsory led to high completion rates, but class performance decreased, indicating that using the same assessment for formative and for summative purposes is not always beneficial for learning. Finally, these problems were resolved by introducing a two-stage approach: the first stage of each test was formative and provided prompt feedback. However, students had to achieve 80% to progress to the second summative stage of the test. The two-stage online tests led to significantly improved class performance. This novel test design ensures that students go through at least two attempts and therefore fully benefit from the learning opportunities presented by the formative stage. Two-stage online tests present the opportunity to provide regular feedback in large classes and to improve performance not only of good but also of “weak” students.Keywords: e-learning; e-assessment; action research; higher education(Published: 29 April 2013)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2013, 21: 19153 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v21i0.19153

An e-assessment approach for evaluation in engineering overcrowded groups

The construction of the European Higher Education Area has been an adaptation challenge for Spanish universities. New methodologies require a more active role on the students' part and come into conflict with the previous educational model characterised by a high student/professor ratio, a lecture-based teaching methodology and a summative assessment. The use of computers is a key factor to face this situation. In previous works, the authors found that e-assessment was a helpful tool for the diagnostic and formative assessment of mechanics in engineering when working with large groups. The aim of this work was to put forward a global proposal for the assessment of mechanics in engineering with overcrowded groups based on the use of e-assessment in all the diagnostic, formative and summative stages of the assessment process and, in particular, to analyse the extent to which e-assessment could successfully replace the traditional assessment of mechanics in engineering. Sixty students participated in an experiment by answering both a computer multiple-choice e-test and a traditional paper-based problem-solving examination. The results obtained by comparing the two assessment methodologies highlight the idea that both can be considered alternatives from a global perspective, as a significant correlation was observed between the global grades obtained through both tests. However, no equivalent assessment of specific competences was observed, which could be attributed to the fact that the tests evaluated different aspects of the same learning outcome. This work proposes a new assessment approach that considers a combination of traditional and computer-based online activities to achieve a more complete and fair students' evaluation. Furthermore, the new proposal implies a considerably lighter workload for lecturers.