Communication Commons^™

Promoting Student Learning Through Peer Tutoring - A Case Study, Barnard Clarkson, Joseph Luca

Research outputs pre 2011

The literature abounds with information about peer tutoring and the benefits that it can bring to student learning. This case study sought to explore ways of using peer tutoring to enhance the learning experience of a group of higher education students in a multimedia course, who had access to learning resources in an online environment. It illustrates how easily and effectively the basic principles of peer tutoring can be adapted and implemented following explicit guidelines from the literature.

A Question Of Balance: Using Self And Peer Assessment Effectively In Teamwork, Joseph Luca, Catherine E Mcloughlin

Research outputs pre 2011

There is a growing emphasis that students should develop professional skills in the course of their education. These include team skills, problem solving skills, decisionmaking skills, communication skills, information literacy skills, time management skills and many others. To develop such skills, tertiary learners have to engage in tasks that are likely to help students reflect on their own success in completing tasks, and that of their peers. In the literature on learning and self-regulation, self and peer assessment are important strategies used to help develop these skills as well as helping to promote skill transfer to the workplace. On-line learning …

The Internet And Traditional Media Displacement, Jessica Cartledge

Masters Theses

This study consists of a survey that measures how much of the Internet college students are using and why they are using it. Using the uses and gratifications perspective and an adapted version of Rubin's 1984 Television Motives Scale this study analyzes what gratifications media consumers are actively seeking to satisfy their communication needs. 217 students were surveyed and results showed that high Internet users were using traditional media less. The study also concluded that high and low Internet users have similar reasons for using the Internet.

Your Money Or Your Speech: The Children's Internet Protection Act And The Congressional Assault On The First Amendment In Public Libraries, Steven D. Hinckley

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the inherent conflict between This article examines the inherent conflict between two Congressional approaches to public access to the Internet - the provision of federal funding support to schools and public libraries to ensure broad access to online information regardless of financial means, and federal restrictions on children's use of school and public library computers to access content that the government feels could be harmful to them. It analyzes the efficacy and constitutionality of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), Congress's attempt to use its powers of the purse to control objectionable online content in the very …

Xml-Based Modeling And Simulation: Web Service Technologies And Their Synergy With Simulation, Senthilanand Chandrasekaran, Gregory S. Silver, John A. Miller, Jorge Cardoso, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

The World Wide Web has had an huge influence on the computing field in general as well as simulation in particular (e.g., Web-based simulation). A new wave of development based upon XML has started. Two of the most interesting aspects of this development are the Semantic Web and Web services. This paper examines the synergy between Web service technology and simulation. In one direction, Web service processes can be simulated for the purpose of correcting/improving the design. In the other direction, simulation models/components can be built out of Web services. Work on seamlessly using simulation as a part of Web …

Authorization And Access Control Of Application Data In Workflow Systems, Shengli Wu, Amit P. Sheth, John A. Miller, Zongwei Luo

Kno.e.sis Publications

Workflow Management Systems (WfMSs) are used to support the modeling and coordinated execution of business processes within an organization or across organizational boundaries. Although some research efforts have addressed requirements for authorization and access control for workflow systems, little attention has been paid to the requirements as they apply to application data accessed or managed by WfMSs. In this paper, we discuss key access control requirements for application data in workflow applications using examples from the healthcare domain, introduce a classification of application data used in workflow systems by analyzing their sources, and then propose a comprehensive data authorization and …

The Latent Maximum Entropy Principle, Shaojun Wang, Ronald Rosenfeld, Yunxin Zhao, Dale Schuurmans

Kno.e.sis Publications

We present an extension of Jaynes' maximum entropy principle to handle latent variables. We use an EM algorithm that incorporates nested iterative scaling to approximately calculate maximum entropy solutions for this principle, and give a proof of its convergence.

Using The Internet To Provide Authentic Professional Development For Beginning Teachers, Anthony Herrington, Janice Herrington, Arshad Omari

Research outputs pre 2011

How can the Internet be used to provide authentic professional development for newly appointed teachers? This paper reports on work-in-progress of an industry partnership research study between Edith Cowan University education staff and students, and the Education Department of Western Australia teachers and curriculum advisers. The study involves developing a web site to assist novice teachers solve realistic school-based problems and will involve approximately 120 K-7 and middle school teachers from ECU who have undertaken training in the use of the website. Teachers appointed in 2003 from the university cohort will be invited to use the website in their first …

Exploring The Development Of Learning Communities In Online Settings, Ron Oliver, Christopher Brook

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper discusses the notion of community as an outcome of working within an online environment. In particular, the paper explores the concept of users' development of a sense of community as an outcome of working within an online environment designed to support the professional and personal development of its users. The paper discusses previous research, which has explored the development of a sense of community and reports a study that investigates the development of a sense of community among users of a community-oriented site supporting teachers' professional development. The data gathered in this inquiry provided evidence that the users …

Online Learning Design For Dummies: Professional Development Strategies For Beginning Online Designers, Ron Oliver, Janice Herrington

Research outputs pre 2011

Much of the conventional development of Web-based learning environments stems from design strategies that are based on providing delivery of the course content. Contemporary courseware delivery systems encourage teachers to see the design of online learning as settings as a process of electronic delivery of content and information. As a consequence Web-based courses have tended to display limited evidence of an underpinning learning design and varying degrees of use of the opportunities and affordances of the new technologies. This paper provides an overview of instructional design principles that can guide beginning designers in the creation of Web-based learning materials that …

Formalising The Description Of Learning Designs, Ron Oliver, Barry Harper, John Hedberg, Sandra Wills, Shirley Agostinho

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper describes an activity being undertaken by researchers involved in the AUTC funded Project: Information and Communication Technologies and Their Role in Flexible Learning. The project is seeking to investigate and develop generic and reusable frameworks for the provision of technology-enhanced high quality learning experiences in higher education. To achieve this, the researchers have been exploring ways to formalise generic descriptions of some learning designs that foster knowledge construction and problem solving. This paper provides a summary of the work that has been undertaken and describes the generic descriptions that have been developed in this process.

Authentic Activities And Online Learning, Ron Oliver, Janice Herrington, Thomas Reeves

Research outputs pre 2011

There has been a renewed interest in the role of student activities within course units as constructivist philosophy and advances in technology impact on educational design and practice. This paper proposes ten characteristics of authentic activities, based on a substantial body of educational theory and research, which can assist teachers to design more authentic activities for online learning environments. The paper includes a short review of the literature, together with the list of characteristics attributed to appropriate authors and theorists. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the affordances of Internet technologies can facilitate the operationalisation of authentic activities …

Open Online Assessment: Keeping The Tutors Honest!, Corri Barrett, Joseph Luca

Research outputs pre 2011

Tutors often find it difficult to mark consistently across all students in their classes. Students will occasionally complain about marking inconsistencies noticed when they compare assignments. The task of maintaining consistency in marking becomes much more difficult when all students can openly see everybody’s solutions, marks and tutors’ comments. This task becomes even more difficult when the marking of tutors from other classes is also available to be seen openly. This case study describes a learning environment that had four tutors in four separate classes with a total of 85 students. Students were required to post solutions to an online …

Satisfying Real Client Requirements Through Student-Centred Coursework, Kenneth Ireland, Pina Tarricone, Joseph Luca

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper outlines a rationale and course design strategy used for creating a course that was student-centred and focused on satisfying the needs of industry clients through project work. The pedagogical underpinnings of the course are based on authentic assessment, which is used to promote motivation and interest of students in a higher education institution. Students were given the opportunity in a multimedia development course to develop real E-commerce business solutions. This is the third evolutionary development of the unit. The design of the unit now reflects contemporary pedagogy, taking into consideration the needs of students and the changing requirements …

Developing Evaluation Frameworks For Assessing Quality Ict-Based Learning In Higher Education, Ron Oliver, John Hedberg, Barry Harper, Sandra Wills, Shirley Agostinho

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper describes the evaluation of high quality learning designs which are being selected for possible redevelopment in a National Project funded by the Australian University Teaching Committee (AUTC). The project focuses on "Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Their Role in Flexible Learning" and is evaluating over 50 projects with a view to developing a range of software tools, templates and/or guidelines based on those that are deemed to be effective ICT-based learning projects. The approach is unique in that it tries to pinpoint the key attributes of ICT-based projects that make them suitable for application in other contexts …

A Typology For Identifying Teachers' Progress In Ict Uptake, Barnard Clarkson, Ron Oliver

Research outputs pre 2011

This paper describes the design of an instrument to help identify teachers' level of ICT uptake. The instrument takes the form of a typology matrix comprising four stages in ICT uptake across a continuum describing teachers' levels of dependence. Identification of teachers' positions in the typology matrix is determined by their affective, cognitive and demonstrated states of ICT application and use. The paper describes the process of determining the position of two elementary school teachers within the typology and discusses the reliability and validity of the instrument and the placement process.

Keeping An Anchor Watch: Industry Partnership A Basis For Learning, Catherine E Mcloughlin, Joseph Luca

Research outputs pre 2011

During the 1990’s Australia has heard the call for graduates equipped with generic skills as a key theme in the development appropriate curriculum and pedagogy. In tertiary contexts, skills and knowledge are often decontextualised and transferable, and work-related skills are not accorded sufficient emphasis in teaching and assessment. The present study is an example of industry involvement on tertiary learning and assessment enhances the student experience and contextualises the curriculum. The context of the study is a project management unit at tertiary level that utilising online learning and self-directed learning pedagogies. The design of the environment is presented within a …

Successful Teamwork: A Case Study, Pina Tarricone, Joseph Luca

Research outputs pre 2011

Why are some teams successful and others unsuccessful? What criteria or attributes are needed for success? Contemporary teaching and learning practice over the past few years in higher education institutions has seen a proliferation of open-ended constructivist learning designs that incorporate collaboration. This has promoted the need for identifying essential attributes needed for successful teamwork. This study reviews the literature with a view of identifying a framework that educators can use to help promote effective teamwork in their classes. A case study is used to investigate two teams of final year multimedia students completing a project-based unit, in which teamwork …

Designing For Reflection In Online Courses, Ron Oliver, Janice Herrington

Research outputs pre 2011

Reflection can be described as both an individually-mediated and a socially-mediated process. In this paper we describe an online unit in a Graduate Certificate of Online Learning that has been designed to enhance the opportunities for students to reflect on their learning. Rather than being promoted as a learning strategy to supplement the unit curriculum, reflection has been integrated fully within the course design. Students are encouraged to reflect as they complete their chosen project (reflection-in-action) and in a more sustained and extended manner (reflection-on-action) as they write up their experiences in an article of publishable quality. The technology and …

Experiential Learning On-Line: The Role Of Asynchronous Communication Tools, Catherine E Mcloughlin, Joseph Luca

Research outputs pre 2011

The needs of learners are changing rapidly and continually in response to an environment that is characterised by change at economic, political and technological levels. There is greater pressure on universities to work more closely with employers in contributing to the process of economic development through the creation of a skilled workforce. Universities are becoming increasingly flexible in their responses to meeting the lifelong learning agenda. Online experiential learning is an essential element in the move towards more situated and professional orientations and with the drive to providing students with real world working knowledge. Asynchronous communication tools and tasks are …

Enhancing The Quality Of The Student Experience Online: Revisiting The Imperative Of Learning As Socially Based, Catherine E Mcloughlin, Joseph Luca

Research outputs pre 2011

Delivery of quality educational services and opportunities is becoming increasingly more complex as Web-based learning tools and support structures continue to evolve. Although much effort is devoted to examining the use of technology to teach course content, an emerging area of some importance in online teaching is how to enhance the student experience of learning and communicating online. Associated with this is the creation of social and supportive environments for learning when there is little face-to-face contact between distance learners and their teachers. This paper provides a framework and a set of strategies that can be used to create a …

From Impartial Objectivity To Responsible Affectivity: Some Ethical Implications Of The 9/11 Attacks On America And The War On Terror, Lelia Rosalind Green, Steven Maras

Research outputs pre 2011

In this paper we trace same of the ways a responsibility to affect might be thought of in the wake of the events of 9/11, and examine what it might mean to shift the orientation of journalistic ethics away from an ethics based on objectivity to an ethics of affectivity.

The Cyborgian Self: Toward A Critical Social Theory Of Cyberspace, Michael Ian Borer

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Contemporary social theory currently remains at a virtual standstill, quivering over the decision to radically leave the past behind or to continue within the historical narrative of the Enlightenment. Postmodern social theorists, advocating the position that we have, in fact, entered a new historical epoch, pose serious challenges to our perception of modernity and cultural identity. As an influential strategy that has infiltrated both the humanities and the social sciences for more than thirty years, postmodernism can no longer be dismissed as merely a fad or trend. In a world where the use of complex, and often mobile, …

Creating A User Friendly Website For The Boys & Girls Clubs Of Black Hawk County, Kimberly M. Carter

Graduate Research Papers

Website design can be overwhelming for many viewers. Many times viewers discontinue using sites, because it.is not easy to navigate through the site. In creating the website for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Black Hawk County, user-friendliness was the focal point of the project. The Chief Professional Officer along with the staff at the Boys & Girls Clubs assisted with the development of a website by providing information that was to be included on the site. To ensure a professional look the designer relied on the four basic principles of design: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. The design simplicity …

Terra Incognita, Leslie Hill

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

Celebrity Memes, Audioshop, And Participatory Fan Culture: A Case Study On Keanu Reeves Memes, Danielle Nielsen, Diane Sabenacio Nititham

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

Contemporary meme culture keeps Keanu Reeves' image at the forefront of our imagination. Numerous Keanu-related memes circulate on the internet, featuring images of him from on and off screen. In this article, we argue that the rise of user-generated content, such as memes and social media, requires us to reconsider how audiences and fans consume, adapt, and circulate Keanu’s stardom. Specifically, we contend that memes and their attending participatory culture make Keanu familiar by placing him in knowable spaces and perpetuating his extraordinary ordinariness. To do so, we examine the 2019 ‘Keanu Reeves Walking in Slow Motion’ video clip from …

E-Commerce And Smes In Malaysia : Challenges And Future Prospects, Ruslan Halim Islahudin

Student Works (2000-2009)

Electronic Commerce is poised to radically transform the way business is conducted in the future. The advancement of the Information Age has been accelerated by the invention of the Internet, which in tum is turning the whole world into a global village. Globalization will only benefit nations that is well versed in the new rules of the game of the Information Economy. It is imperative for a country like Malaysia to close the digital skill gap by improving the capacity of their workforces to play an active role in the Internet age. Malaysia needs to quickly close the Electronic Commerce …

The Cellular Divide: A Comparative Analysis Of Mobile Phone Usage In Spain And The United States, Deborah J. Slezak

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

The usage of mobile phones has dramatically increased in the past decade, narrowing the boundaries of size, space, and time. It is this “death of distance” that will be the single most important economic force shaping all of society over the next half century. The economic prosperity of the United States has contributed to the increase in this “luxury” telecommunication device, but how can the rapid increase in European countries with lower per capita incomes such as Spain be explained? The purpose of this paper is to examine mobile phone usage and penetration rates in the United States compared to …

Technology, Libraries And The Internet: A Comparison Of The Impact Of The Printing Press And World Wide Web, Gentry Lankewicz Holbert

E-JASL: Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship (1999-2009, Volumes 1-10)

In thinking about technology and libraries, what struck me most is that we are living and experiencing a great turning point in history. "May you live in interesting times" is an ancient Chinese curse. Interesting times indeed, with all their glory, advantages, and pitfalls. We are still in the process of discovering what to do with new technology in the dissemination of information.

With the dawn of the Internet, computer automation, and intricate databases, I feel that, as a librarian, I am at the helm of the true information age. And how interesting to be here at the Vernadsky Library, …

Market Power In Chinese Taipei: Laws, Policies And Treatments, Kung-Chung Liu, Yun-Peng Chu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The experience of Chinese Taipei shows that opening up a previously protected market to new entrants can be a more effective and reliable way to enhance competition than regulating the behavior of dominant or monopolistic firms. Moreover, when opening up the market, the liberalizing measures adopted by government should be market-structure-neutral. That is, it should not try to dictate the direction and results of market competition. A more pressure-resistant mechanism should be designed to deal with market power, taking the form of a regime that is cross-sector, independent and collective in its decision-making, such as has been the case with …