There is a growing awareness among researchers about the apparent variations in the academic performance of students in tertiary institutions. Although, many studies have employed traditional statistical methods in identifying the factors responsible for the disparity, the statistical tool for setting a yardstick is yet to be established. Machine learning techniques have been employed as a paradigm in the modeling of students' academic performance in higher learning. However, they could be the springboard for improving prediction of students' academic performance. This work therefore aimed at designing a framework of intelligent recommender system, based on background factors, which can predict students' first year academic performance and recommend necessary actions for improvement.

In this paper we aim to identify ways to prevent and manage the inequality in education of Roma students. The research was based on the application of a questionnaire and an interview to teachers teaching Roma students in schools. The results of the survey and interview highlights important issues related to the discrimination of Roma students from both students and teachers. In addition, the responding teachers offer timely attempts to prevent and manage different types of discrimination against Roma students. The main ways of manifesting inequalities in Roma students, as teachers perceive, are the prejudices related to the social status of the Roma, the financial situation, as well as their isolation in communities far from the Romanian pupils. The article presents examples of good practices on preventing and managing discrimination situations for Roma students at school level.

No abstract

As society moves towards a preventative approach to healthcare, there is growing interest in scientific research involving technology that can monitor and prevent adverse health outcomes. The primary objective of this paper is to develop an Internet of Things (IoT) wearable system based on Fried’s phenotype that is capable of detecting frailty. To determine user requirements, the system’s architecture was designed based on the findings of a questionnaire administered to individuals confirmed to be frail. A functional prototype was successfully developed and tested under real-world conditions. This paper introduces the methodology that was used to analyze the data collected from the prototype. It proposes an interdisciplinary approach to interpret wearable sensor data, providing a comprehensive overview through both visual representations and computational analyses facilitated by machine learning models. The findings of these analyses offer insights into the ways in which different types of activities can be classified and quantified as part of an overall physical activity level, which is recognized as an important indicator of frailty. The results provide the foundations for a new generation of affordable and non-intrusive systems able to detect and assess early signs of frailty.

The rapid evolution of ICT in recent years has an important impact on the whole society, and also on the education system. The current article aims to look to the current state of integration of ICT in the school education in Romania in order to determine its role in educational activities. The research was conducted on a sample of 538 people (school principals, teachers and students) selected from four schools in Ilfov county, Romania, two urban and two rural. The methods and data collection tools were: survey-based questionnaire, interview and analysis of documents. The results of this research provides insights into the opinions of teachers and students regarding the use of new technologies in education, the extent to which the new technologies are used in the education process, the training of teachers and students in the use of multimedia, the modalities of integration of new technologies in teaching, the degree to which teachers and students use online sources of information and educational software. The conclusion is that although the use of new technologies in teaching is beneficial for both students and teachers there is no relation between 1) the level of how much IT equipment exists in schools (in Romania this level varies significantly between schools) associated with the level of the training of teachers in informatics (not every school in Romania has well trained teachers) and 2) the willingness of students to use new technologies in their learning activity.