Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Evolutionary Approach To Strategic Planning For Elearning, Sandra Wills, Kate Bowles

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Although all Australian universities have University-level strategic plans as well as Learning and Teaching plans plus underpinning Information Technology plans, it is estimated that only 11% of universities have a separate plan for eLearning. Instead eLearning is often integrated into either an Information Technology Plan or a Learning and Teaching Plan. As a result, the specific needs of eLearning can be overlooked, underestimated or tokenized.

The University of Wollongong has undertaken a process of interviews and consultation with committees, deans, managers, academics, students and support staff to develop a coherent strategic and educational vision for the use of eLearning, …

Enabling Leadership Capacity Through Authentic Learning: The Faculty Scholars Program, Geraldine E. Lefoe, Dominique Rene Parrish

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

An identified gap in the higher education sector is the development of leadership capacity for teaching and learning. Significant funding has been allocated by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) to support the development of academic leadership in higher education. The outcomes of this initiative will ultimately improve the student experience as a more scholarly approach to the many aspects of teaching and learning is adopted. One project funded by ALTC supported four universities to develop and trial a framework for leadership capacity development. Five critical factors for success were identified including authentic learning activities that were situated in …

Research Online: Digital Commons As A Publishing Platform At The University Of Wollongong, Australia, Rebecca Daly, Michael K. Organ

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Since 2006, Research Online, the University of Wollongong's open access institutional repository has utilised Bepress' Digital Commons software to make available published research outputs and digital theses. This article discusses the outcomes of recent academic demand for its use as a publishing tool of university journals and conference proceedings. The Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice is provided as an example. Digital Commons includes the editorial management software, EdiKit, which assists in managing submissions, editorial functions, and peer review. Also considered are changes to scholarly communication patterns arising out of the new open access, electronic only, publication regimes.

Client Service: Competencies And Communication, Donna Dee

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Long recognised for its philosophy of quality and service excellence, the University of Wollongong Library recently restated and simplified its key client service goal to read exceptional service. Achieving this bold promise included revisiting our commitment to training and development and improving sustainability through initiatives and innovation. Two recent developments are ensuring that this promise is being met. Significant increases in student numbers, bringing with them highly diverse needs and expectations have challenged established approaches to service delivery. The Client Services Division (Loans, Short Loans, Information Desk, shelving) and Roving Helpers articulated a need for more up-skilling and flexibility in …

One-Stop Repository Shop For University Of Wollongong, Michael K. Organ

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

The library's extensive collaboration with the UOW Research and Innovation Division is making possible a 'one-stop shop' for the collection of publications used for both the university's HERDC (research data collection for DEEWR) and ERA (Excellence in Research Australia) processes, as well as for deposit within Research Online, the UOW institutional repository.

Click Or Clique? Using Educational Technology To Address Students' Anxieties About Peer Evaluation, Ruth Walker, Graham C. Barwell

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Peer bias is recognised as a primary factor in negative student perceptions of peer assessment strategies. This study trialled the use of classroom response systems, widely known as clickers, in small seminar classes in order to actively engage students in their subject’s assessment process while providing the anonymity that would lessen the impact of peer pressure. Focus group reflection on the students’ impressions of the peer evaluation process, the use of clickers, and their anxieties about potential peer bias were analysed in the light of the results of teacher and class evaluations of each individual student presentation. The findings revealed …

Building Employability Skills In Ict Master Coursework Curriculum, Fazel Naghdy, Alison Hayes, Emily Purser

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Development and delivery of a subject called Employability Skills and ICT Workplace Practice, targeted at international students taking Masters of Engineering Studies is reported. Almost all of the students are international with a desire to stay and work in Australia. In practice however, seeking professional employment in Australia has proved quite challenging for many of these students. A study conducted by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry identifies certain ‘soft skills’ in demand by employers. These include: initiative, communication, teamwork, technology, problem solving, self-management and planning. The learning objectives of the subject are designed to further develop and enhance …

Good Practice Guidelines: Leading Teaching Teams, Alisa Percy, Gerry Lefoe, Jeannette Stirling, Rosemary Beaumont, Kathy Rudkin

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

1.The University of Wollongong is committed to providing an excellent teaching and learning experience for its staff and students. The University recognises that: a. the leadership of the Subject Coordinator can facilitate the development of a community of practice; b. an effective community of practice can result in a significant reduction in the overall time required for effective subject coordination; c. communities of practice entail a culture of respect, participatory engagement and collegiality where teaching and teachers are valued; d. teaching teams inspire teachers when they function as communities of practice; and e. the teaching team is a key site …

The Competition For Industry Research Funding: How Satisfied Are University Commercial Research Clients?, Troy Coyle

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Constrained public funding for universities and the emphasis placed on university-industry interactions mean that universities are increasingly required to compete for industrial funds for research. This in turn means that universities need to develop a customer service culture in order to be competitive and attractive to industry. Many studies examine industry-university relationships, their importance and ways to improve interactions but publications examining customer service quality in the context of the provision of university research services or technology transfer services to industry are lacking. This article recommends a modified SERVQUAL (service quality survey instrument) approach and the survey results identify several …

Originality, Imitaton And Plagiarism: Teaching Writing In The Digital Age: Book Review, Ruth Walker

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

At one stage in the anthology Originality, imitation and plagiarism: Teaching writing in the digital age, it is pointed out that students 'worry' about plagiarism in the same way that they worry about engaging in file-sharing or illegally downloading software. That is - they don't. The attendant risks of getting caught or becoming vulnerable to a computer virus are recognised as the potential bad outcomes, but have become steadily normalised. This analogy, with its viral undertones, nicely expresses the quandary at the heart of a discussion of students' writing in the digital age, where the expanded possibilities of online research …

One Million Downloads For Uow's Research Online, Kate Mcilwain, Michael K. Organ, Katina Michael, M. G. Michael

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

UOW’s open access research repository, Research Online, has reached one million full text article downloads since the site went live in 2006. Research Online allows anyone to download papers and articles by UOW academics, including student theses and research papers from a wide range of areas. Manager of Repository Services, Michael Organ said the millionth download is quite a landmark for the university. “One million downloads is a lot of people accessing our papers,” he said. The millionth paper to be accessed was a 2006 conference paper by Faculty of Informatics academics Katina Michael, A. McNamee and MG Michael entitled …

Facilitating Staff And Student Engagement With Graduate Attribute Development, Assessment And Standards In Business Faculties, Tracy Taylor, Darrall G. Thompson, Lucille Clements, Lynette Simpson, Andrew Paltridge, Marty Fletcher, Mark Freeman, Lesley Treleaven, Fiona Rohde, Romy Lawson

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Executive Summary The aim of the project was to promote and support strategic change in advancing graduate attribute development in Business education through engagement of staff and students with learning and assessment processes that embed graduate attribute development. The focus on graduate attributes currently is of upmost importance as Australian Business schools obtain, or seek to attain, international accreditation such as AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business). The quality assurance process of AACSB requires each degree program1 to specify learning goals, and demonstrate a student's achievement of these learning goals. The participating institutions had all achieved initial AACSB …

Reusability Of Online Role Play: Learning Objects Or Learning Designs?, Sandra Wills, A. Mcdougall

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

This study tracks the uptake of online role play in Australia from 1990 to 2006 and the affordances to its uptake. It examines reusability, as one affordance, from the perspective of two often polarized constructs: Learning Object and Learning Design. The study treats “reuse” on two levels: reuse of an existing online role play and reuse of an online role play as the model for another role play. In keeping with terminology that has come into recent use, we propose that the first level implies the online role play is used as a Learning Object and the second level implies …

Encouraging Role Based Online Learning Environments - The Blue Report, Sandra Wills, E. Rosser, E. Devonshire, E. Leight, C. Russell, J. Shepherd

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Project EnROLE has been a two year $200,000 ALTC project to encourage uptake of online role based learning environments, with particular focus on what is commonly referred to by us as role play. Role play is widely acknowledged to be a powerful teaching technique in face to face, blended and online teaching contexts and has been previously singled out as an example of good practice by ALTC predecessors: CAUT, CUTSD and AUTC. The project goal was to encourage uptake of online role based learning environments using the strategy of building a community of practice at university, state and national levels …

Tutors' Forum: Engaging Distributed Communities Of Practice, Rosemary Beaumont, Jeannette Stirling, Alisa Percy

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

The need to engage students studying at a distance in order to reduce isolation, foster a sense of belonging, and enhance learning has received significant attention over the past few years. Conversely, very little research has focused on teachers working in this type of environment. In fact, we argue, they appear to be the forgotten dimension in „communities‟ of distance learning. In this paper we identify some of the problems generated by teaching university subjects simultaneously across a network of campuses: a practice known as multi-location teaching. We examine strategies for engaging multi-location teachers as key contributors to a quality …

Thermoregulatory Adaptation In Humans And Its Modifying Factors, Narihiko Kondo, Nigel A.S. Taylor, Manabu Shibasaki, Ken Aoki, Ahmad M. Che Muhamed

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

No abstract provided.

Issues Of Inclusivity For Online Distance Learners: An Academic Learning Support Perspective, M. Chatterjee-Padmanabhan, Paul Moore

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Inclusivity is one form of educational integrity that is enshrined as an abiding principle in higher education irrespective of mode of delivery or educational program. In course provision, it might take the form of providing equal access to diverse groups of learners. In on-campus contexts, systems are in place to ensure (not unproblematically) that inclusivity is practised. Distance learners, because of their various commitments and the diverse competence and skills they bring to their studies, are a highly heterogeneous group. ‘Inclusivity’ in this context could have different meanings. In the present paper, we interpret the term ‘inclusivity’ to mean greater …

Maps And Movies: Talking With Deepa Mehta, Sukhmani Khorana

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

I met Deepa Mehta in a suburban mall in Brampton, a city in greater Toronto with a substantial Indian settlement. She was in the production phase of her latest film, Heaven on Earth about the spousal abuse rampant amongst Punjabi families living in Canada. Some of the scenes were being shot amidst the city's hustle and bustle, with regular shoppers stopping to see what the fuss was about, and Mehta's assistant, Dusty Mancinelli, graciously permitting me to film from a distance. Other scenes would take place in a makeshift Canadian classroom that had been created by Hamilton-Mehta Productions in a …