Alberta Academic Review最新文献

{"title":"A Walk Through the City of Edmonton","authors":"Vienna Chen, Wanda Goulden, J. Tolsma, Christina Tatarniuk, K. Vie, Kristi Olson, C. Fuchs, Kristen Kavich","doi":"10.29173/AAR56","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/AAR56","url":null,"abstract":"As an industry placement through the WISEST Summer Research Program, an opportunity was provided to work with the City of Edmonton in an exploration of careers in engineering and architecture. The focus and scope of this placement was mainly centred around the Integrated Infrastructure and Engineering Services at the City. Through shadowing multidisciplinary engineers, technologists and architects, experience in both administrative and more hands-on work was gained. Some career pathways that were explored include materials engineering, geotechnical engineering, facilities (structural, mechanical and electrical) engineering, environmental engineering, geomatics engineering, and architecture. Throughout the duration of the program, information about the different roles and their collaboration with each other was gathered. Instead of performing research in labs, absorption of information was conducted mainly through means of observation. The City of Edmonton provided opportunities to attend various site visits, building and lab tours, and even to meetings in downtown. Tasks such as reviewing reports and drawings, attending meetings, and sitting in on business calls, all demonstrated the administrative nature of engineering and architecture. On the other hand, the more hands-on aspects of engineering were also emphasised through tasks such as assisting with field work, on-site testing, sample collecting, and data logging. With Integrated Infrastructure Services (IIS), the collaborative and interconnected nature of these careers were displayed, as each branch worked in conjunction with each other. The role of each different type of engineering and architecture is further defined in sequential order of the stages that leads to the life cycle of a construction project. This shows the direct results of each career field in contributing to the development, progression and completion of a project.","PeriodicalId":239812,"journal":{"name":"Alberta Academic Review","volume":"41 4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125749176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Wing polymorphisms of Pterostichus melanarius (Coleoptera: Carabidae) (Illiger, 1978) in Alberta pulse crops","authors":"Saraiah Cottrell-Callbeck, M. Macdonald, M. Evenden","doi":"10.29173/aar57","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/aar57","url":null,"abstract":"In a 6 week research project, a wing-dimorphic carabid species was studied to identify the proportions of macropterous (large functional wings) individuals and brachypterous (short, rudimentary wings) individuals from different pulse growing regions of Alberta. Pterostichus melanarius I. (Coleoptera: Carabidae) can be short-winged (SW) due to brachyptery being a dominant gene or long-winged (LW) individuals causing macroptery. Although macroptery is a recessive trait, the LW morph persists through the recolonization of populations due to human disturbance. Their ability to fly facilitates their dispersal across Alberta to uncolonized areas. Samples of P. melanarius were captured as bycatch from pea leaf weevil, Sitona lineatus L. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) pitfall traps from the East, Capital, and Central regions of Alberta. Traps were positioned on a 175 meter transect pea and faba field margins in spring and again in the fall. Captured P. melanarius were identified and separated by collection site and date and stored in 95% ethanol until measurements. The beetles from the bycatch samples were sexed using tarsal characteristics. Anterior tarsal segments of the front pair of tarsi are dilated in males and normal in females. After being identified and recorded as “M” or “F”, they were mounted on a foam board with insect pins for measurement. The elytra (forewings) length and width was measured followed by measurement of their hindwings. They were classified as “SW” or “LW” depending on the functionality of their wings. Out of 440 individuals from the Capital region, 17.1% of captured P. melanarius were LW and 83.0% were SW. From the Central region 21.6% of 495 beetles were LW and 83.4% of them were SW. In the East region less P. melanarius were captured and from 94 individuals, 46.8% were LW and 53.2% were SW. Macropterous individuals are more common in the East region due to recolonization of populations whereas in the Central and Capital region the proportions of SW are much larger. In regions that have established populations of P. melanarius the proportions of SW are greater than LW.","PeriodicalId":239812,"journal":{"name":"Alberta Academic Review","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128898827","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Changes in the Mechanical Response of Dental Stone to Submersion in Saline","authors":"Joanne Cai, K. Houg, D. Romanyk","doi":"10.29173/aar55","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/aar55","url":null,"abstract":"Previously, dental stone has been utilized in mechanical testing of the periodontal ligament, which connects the tooth to the alveolar bone. This was achieved by casting swine mandibles in dental stone for displacement controlled testing. The stone was used as a riding base to hold the mandible in place. However, this was done in dry, ex vivo conditions, failing to simulate the natural presence of vascular fluid in the periodontal ligament. While this can be simulated with submersion in saline, the mechanical response of dental stone to saline is currently unknown, and thus cannot yet be used to secure the mandible in saline. To identify differences in the strength of dental stone after submersion in saline, Coecal Type III Dental Stone samples were cast in a 3D printed mold, then submerged in 0.9% NaCl solution for varying time periods: 0 hours, 0.5 hours, 1 hour, 4 hours, and 24 hours. Samples were then removed from the solutions, patted dry, and placed in an Instron ElectroPuls E3000 for compression tests. The Instron preloaded samples to 3 N, displaced them to 0.1 mm at 0.025 mm/s, held them for 10 s, then offloaded at 0.025 mm/s. This cycle was repeated five times per test, with each sample undergoing two tests. Results showed that the last three cycles of each test were most consistent, and were the only ones considered in further analysis of results. The average peak force and average force during the 10 s hold of each test were compared across submersion times, and, considering standard deviation, showed no consistent differences. A linear regression was completed to determine statistical differences between the force values. The p-values of the average peak force and average force were 0.624 and 0.892 respectively, approaching the required value of 1, and therefore failed to reject the null hypothesis, representing no significant difference in the average force across submersion times. As a result, it can be assumed that submersion in saline has no effect on the strength of dental stone. These results can be applied to further research on the periodontal ligament, involving submersion of the swine mandible in saline solutions.","PeriodicalId":239812,"journal":{"name":"Alberta Academic Review","volume":"69 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132448720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Analyzing the Rare Earth Elements (REEs) and Trace Metals in Tailings","authors":"R. Butler, D. Pudasainee, Monir Khan, RajenderKumar Gupta","doi":"10.29173/aar54","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/aar54","url":null,"abstract":"In the process of producing bitumen from oil sand, a by-product called tailings is produced. Tailings are a mixture of clay, fine particles, water, solvent and residual bitumen. The industry’s current approach is to leave them in tailings ponds; however, that may cause environmental impacts to the ecosystems around them due in part to the toxic trace metals found in them. Research has shown that there are also valuable rare Earth elements (REEs) present in tailings. REEs found in tailings include Cerium, Neodymium, Lanthanum etc. Iron, Titanium, and Zirconium are not considered REEs but are still valuable enough to be extracted. The objective of this research was to determine the concentration of REEs and trace metals in bitumen froth treatment tailings (FTT). Our research team used acid digestion and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) to measure the concentration of REEs and trace metals in several samples of FTT ash. We learned that Cerium was the most prevalent REE in tailings samples (>1000ppm), followed by Neodymium and Lanthanum. Zirconium was the most prevalent trace metal found in this tailings sample (>1000ppm), followed closely by Vanadium. Knowing the exact concentration of harmful trace metals in tailings will allow us to determine the extent of tailings ponds environmental effect and toxicity. Collecting and selling expensive metals found in tailings could be the start of a new precious metals economy in Alberta, which would provide new investment opportunities and jobs. This would also encourage corporations to invest in finding new ways to extract these precious metals, resulting in more purified tailings and less tailings overall going into tailings ponds.","PeriodicalId":239812,"journal":{"name":"Alberta Academic Review","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132670553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Can the Adaptive Multi-Paddock Grazing System Increase Carbon Sequestration in Alberta's Grassland Soils?","authors":"S. Breitkreuz, L. Sobrinho, Leah Stachniak, Scott X. Chang","doi":"10.29173/aar52","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/aar52","url":null,"abstract":"Natural grasslands cover around 40% of the Earth’s surface and play an important role as a source of ecological goods and services. By sequestering around 30% of terrestrial global carbon, grasslands play a critical part in the alleviation of climate change. Despite their ecological significance, grasslands have been reduced to a fraction of their original extent. In Canada, up to 70% of grasslands have been destroyed, making it the most endangered ecosystem in North America. What remains is often intensely grazed and a diverse ecosystem of wild animals is replaced by domestic livestock. The continuous application of poor grazing management by ranchers is one of the main causes for the depletion of natural grasslands, resulting in the release of stored soil carbon back into the atmosphere. Fortunately, 60-70% of the depleted carbon can be re-sequestered through the adoption of improved grazing management, thus improving grassland ecosystems. The Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) grazing system is an example of improved grazing management. AMP grazing is a system in which livestock is frequently rotated between multiple fenced paddocks. Compared to conventional grazing practices (Non-AMP), the AMP system is a favorable solution which can improve carbon sequestration in world wide grasslands soils– and in turn, contribute to the mitigation of climate change. By regenerating grassland ecosystems, AMP grazing could potentially aid in creating a more sustainable, resilient agroecosystem. Our goal is to study the effect of AMP grazing on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration in Canadian grasslands. First, we collected soil cores from 30 study sites located throughout the grassland ecoregions in Canada. Each site consisted of a pair of ranches: one AMP and one Non-AMP. Second, we analyzed the soil cores for total carbon using an elemental analyzer. There does not seem to be any substantial difference in total carbon between AMP and Non-AMP systems, however we have yet to differentiate between soil organic carbon and soil inorganic carbon. Once we distinguish the two variables we will be able to confirm the effectiveness of the AMP grazing system in increasing carbon sequestration in Canadian grasslands. \u0000Literature Cited: \u0000Derner, J. D., & Schuman, G. E. (2007). Carbon sequestration and rangelands: a synthesis of land management and precipitation effects. Journal of soil and water conservation, 62(2), 77-85. \u0000Gauthier, D. A., & Wiken, E. B. (2003). Monitoring the conservation of grassland habitats, Prairie Ecozone, Canada. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 88(1-3), 343-364. \u0000Samson, F., & Knopf, F. (1994). Roundtable: prairie conservation in North America. BioScience, 44(6), 418-421 \u0000Kraus, D. (2016). Why Canada’s Prairies are the World’s Most Endangered Ecosystem. Retrieved from: http://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/blog/archive/grasslands-the-most.html#.XUnsE-hKi70 \u0000Lal, R. (2002). Soil carbon dynamics in cropland and rangeland. Environmental pollut","PeriodicalId":239812,"journal":{"name":"Alberta Academic Review","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131448953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Education Matters: Certified health professionals have higher credibility than non health professionals on Instagram","authors":"Brandi S. Goddard, A. Black, Sophie Desroches, M. Fernandez, K. Raine","doi":"10.29173/aar51","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/aar51","url":null,"abstract":"Social media serves as an accessible source of health information and nutrition information. Instagram, an internationally known social media platform with an average of more than 1 billion monthly active users, allows its users to create and share content. However, the credibility of the nutrition content created by users with unknown qualifications may be questionable. The objective of this study is to assess the credibility of content created by nutrition influencers on Instagram by comparing health professionals with non-health professionals. \u0000 For this study, “influencer” is defined as an Instagram user with at least 15,000 followers who promotes products, services, or ideas and who creates nutrition- or health-related content. For each influencer (n=29), two posts were selected every month from August 2018 to July 2019. Using the “Credible Information Factsheet” from the Dietitians of Canada, a credibility score based on four dichotomous criteria was created. Looking at the 24 posts of each influencer holistically, a credibility score out of 4 was calculated, with 0 being the least credible and 4 being the most credible. \u0000 Without exception, a greater proportion of health professionals compared to non-health professionals met each criterion from the “Credible Information Factsheet”. 92% of the health professionals met criteria 1 (Miracle Cure) compared to only 31% of non-health professionals. This demonstrates how the vast majority of health professionals would not promise a miracle cure, while most non-health professionals would readily promise a miracle cure. Additionally, 46% of health professionals met criteria 4 (Research-based) compared to only 19% of non-health professionals, which demonstrates how non-health professionals do not support claims with research. When looking at the total credibility scores for health professionals and non-health professionals, not a single health professional scored a total of 0, while not a single non-health professional scored a total of 4. Most importantly, health professionals had an average credibility score of 2.4, which is twice as high as that of non-health professionals (1.2). \u0000 Overall, health professionals appeared to be more credible than non-health professionals. By viewing nutrition information posted on Instagram by non-health professionals, followers potentially expose themselves to misinformation. Further research should be undertaken to validate the credibility score based on the “Credible Information Factsheet” by determining how adept the factsheet is at differentiating credibility for Instagram content.","PeriodicalId":239812,"journal":{"name":"Alberta Academic Review","volume":"64 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126944823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Text Recognition and Machine Learning: For Impaired Robots and Humans","authors":"Brandi S. Goddard, Nadia Gifford, Rafiq Ahmad, Mario Soriano Morales","doi":"10.29173/aar42","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/aar42","url":null,"abstract":"As robots and machines become more reliable, developing tools that utilize their potential in manufacturing and beyond is an important step being addressed by many, including the LIMDA team at the University of Alberta. A common and effective means to improve artificial performance is through optical character recognition methods. Within the category of artificial intelligence under classification machine learning, research has focussed on the benefits of convolutional neural networks (CNN) and the improvement provided compared to its parent method, neural networks. Neural networks serious flaw comes from memorization and the lack of learning about what the images contain, while CNN's combat those issues. CNN’s are designed to connect information received by the network and begins to closely mimic how humans experience learns. Using the programming language Python and machine learning libraries such as Tensorflow and Keras, different versions of CNN’s were tested against datasets containing low-resolution images with handwritten characters. The first two CNN’s were trained against the MNIST database against digits 0 through 9. The results from these tests illustrated the benefits of elements like max-pooling and the addition of convolutional layers. Taking that knowledge a final CNN was written to prove the accuracy of the algorithm against alphabet characters. After training and testings were complete the network showed an average 99.34% accuracy and 2.23% to the loss function. Time-consuming training epochs that don’t wield higher or more impressive results could also be eliminated. These and similar CNN’s have proven to yield positive results and in future research could be implemented into the laboratory to improve safety. Continuing to develop this work will lead to better translators for language, solid text to digital text transformation, and aides for the visual and speech impaired.","PeriodicalId":239812,"journal":{"name":"Alberta Academic Review","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126113300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Optimal Zwitterionic Surfactant Slug for an Improved Oil Recovery in Oil Wet Carbonate Rocks - Silurian Dolomite","authors":"Yosamin Esanullah, B. Nwani, M. Barth","doi":"10.29173/aar40","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/aar40","url":null,"abstract":"The increase in energy demand has led to extensive research and development on economically, environmentally and technically feasible ways of improving the ever-growing energy demand. A common derivative of energy is from hydrocarbons, specifically oil. The process of oil recovery can be divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary recovery (also known as enhanced oil recovery). Once the internal pressure of a reservoir has depleted enough during primary and secondary recovery, more advanced techniques in enhanced oil recovery mechanisms are used to recover 50-80% of oil in the reservoir. Tertiary recovery includes the use of surfactants to reduce interfacial tension (IFT) or alter wettability. In this work, a zwitter ionic surfactant at two different concentrations is evaluated for its ability to reduce the interfacial tension between oil and water, as well as altering wettability in silurian dolomite. To achieve this, fluid-fluid analysis was done by a compatibility test, phase behavior test and interfacial tension measurements. Rock-fluid analysis was also completed by means of floatation test, carried out with carbonate rock particles to analyze the surfactant’s ability to alter wettability. Solution pH measurements were taken to validate the qualitative floatation test results. Results show that the surfactant, chembetaine C surfactant, is compatible with all ranges of salinities investigated, though was not able to produce a winsor type III micro-emulsion. The results of the interfacial tension measurements are in line with the phase behavior test, as none of the measurements were at ultra-low values. Surfactant retention is likely to occur with the analyzed zwitterionic surfactant based on the fluid-fluid analysis. Qualitative results from the floatation test show that the wettability of the carbonate rock particles cannot be significantly altered to more water-wet conditions. The pH of the solution remains at alkaline values, which can be beneficial in enhanced oil recovery in producing soap in situ, also known as saponification. Overall, tests conclude that this zwitterionic surfactant at 1% concentration would be most effective at 10,000 ppm salinity brine, though overall is not suitable for chemically enhanced oil recovery.","PeriodicalId":239812,"journal":{"name":"Alberta Academic Review","volume":"145 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132024703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Flying Spiders: A Reconfigurable Spider Drone For Education","authors":"Rakshanda Alam, Rafiq Ahmad","doi":"10.29173/aar37","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/aar37","url":null,"abstract":"Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, most commonly known as drones are the raging fire of this generation. Attracting a vast age ranges from children to adults. Not only can drones be used for fun, but they can inspect dangerous places for humans which reduces health risks. These facts helped create the curiosity to research how a drone works and different designs. The reason for which, the main purpose of this research was to come up with a design that will have all the components necessary for a drone to function. Additionally, a safe design that will protect the body (the brain too) of the drone. That is the most expensive and important, whereas the arms and propellers are easy to repair and cheaper. Therefore, the first step of the methodology was the idea generation. This research was inspired by things seen around from day-to-day. In particular, spiders, shuriken (Japanese throwing knife) and step stools. The incorporation of the two led to the next step of the methodology of mechanical engineering design known as task classification. The main objective being safety and efficiency. Moving on to the third step being concept design, where three drones needed to be designed, later choosing the safest and efficient one. The final and fourth step being detailed design. Where the best design, being the upside-down spider, is chosen for LEGO Digital Design. This step was the most important one for future research purposes. For example, the correct components and pieces had to be present for the drone to be used as a step by step assembly station for third and fourth-year mechanical engineers. To conclude, the spider drone was the best design because its arms which are like spider legs gave more lift to the drone which made it perform before and protecting the body, also known as the brain. That is the most expensive part of the drone, and the arms are the inexpensive part that can be easily replaced. Additionally using legos as the main building material let the parts be used for other things such as cars and planes. For that reason, the upside-down spider was the best choice.","PeriodicalId":239812,"journal":{"name":"Alberta Academic Review","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123088709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Analyzing the Sentiment of MOOC Discussion Posts","authors":"Haniya Ahmed, Kenny Wong","doi":"10.29173/aar36","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/aar36","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of the project is to identify common difficulties that learners may face and to understand their emotions as they progress through MOOCs. MOOC is an abbreviation for the Massive Open Online Course and the research deals with the data from ten different courses from Coursera. The data is used to extract pieces of text that students have made. Then, those certain texts are required to be sent to Google Cloud Natural Language API. This app allows users to get a sentiment analysis of a text. The main goal is to assist instructors with monitoring MOOC to make it more efficient and easier for students to progress since it assists to improve the courses. \u0000 To achieve this, the first step is to gather all the data from each of the courses. Then use programming to dump all that data into one big database. The program that is used here is called Pycharm and user is required to use python and sql to aid him in dumping the data in the database. Once the database is created, coding is done to only select out the pieces of information that are needed. These texts should be where students make comments or ask questions. Next, the data is queried to send these texts to Google Cloud Natural Language API. Here, the program breaks down all the sentences to only be just words. Then the program is going to categorize each word according to whether its connotation is positive, negative or neutral. Next, all the words are sorted according to their connotations. The overall sentiment depends on the emotion that has the highest number. If positives and negatives are all balanced out then the sentiment is neutral. Sentiment scores range from -1 to 1, where -1 is the most negative, 1 is the most positive and anywhere near 0 is neutral. \u0000 Positive sentiment scores indicate instructors that students are doing well on their course and neutral sentiment scores indicate that the course is balanced out with difficulties and easy tasks. However, negative sentiment is the most important to instructors since it indicates them that students are struggling and they need to improve the course.","PeriodicalId":239812,"journal":{"name":"Alberta Academic Review","volume":"128 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115590351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}