Social media in higher education: Strategy and support for staff and students

In 2013, social networking was the second most popular online activity after internet banking for Australians (ABS, 2014). The popularity and apparent ubiquity of social media is one of the most obvious and compelling arguments for integrating such technologies into higher education. Already, social media impacts a wide range of activities ranging in scope from marketing and communication to teaching and learning in higher education (Hrastinski & Dennen, 2012). Social media presents many exciting possibilities and opportunities for higher education. This session will focus on one staff focussed and one student focussed social media innovation currently underway at QUT. First, it will focus on the actions of QUT’s social media working group. The working group’s aim is to ensure an overarching social media policy for the university is developed and implemented that supports staff in the use of social media across a range of activities. Second, it will discuss the eResponsible and eProfessional Online resources for students project. The focus of this project is to develop a suite of online resources targeted at the devel opment of social media skills for undergraduate students at QUT. These initiatives are complementary and both aim to minimise risk while maximising opportuniti es for the university

“There’s nothing standard about standards”: Exploring tensions between two standards documents in higher education

Quality in education at the tertiary level is constantly questioned, and increasingly “professional standards” are offered as the solution to the perceived decline in quality. Foucauldian archaeological analysis of teacher graduate and geography graduate standards in Australia is conducted, revealing tensions between the different document sets. Teacher graduate standards reflect two discourses (one of knowledge and understanding, and one of skills) that are anti-intellectual and based on jargon and formulaic prescriptions. In contrast, disciplinary standards give primacy to geography as an intellectual inquiry such that its knowledge and understanding, skills, and concepts lead to progressively higher order thinking in graduates.

Promoting articulated action from diverse stakeholders in response to public policy scenarios: A case analysis of the use of ‘scenario improvisation’ method

In this paper we present a novel application of scenario methods to engage a diverse constituency of senior stakeholders, with limited time availability, in debate to inform planning and policy development. Our case study project explores post-carbon futures for the Latrobe Valley region of the Australian state of Victoria. Our approach involved initial deductive development of two ‘extreme scenarios’ by a multi-disciplinary research team, based upon an extensive research programme. Over four workshops with the stakeholder constituency, these initial scenarios were discussed, challenged, refined and expanded through an inductive process, whereby participants took ‘ownership’ of a final set of three scenarios. These were both comfortable and challenging to them. The outcomes of this process subsequently informed public policy development for the region. Whilst this process did not follow a single extant structured, multi-stage scenario approach, neither was it devoid of form. Here, we seek to theorise and codify elements of our process – which we term ‘scenario improvisation’ – such that others may adopt it.

Constellations: A participatory, online application for research collaboration in higher education interdisciplinary courses

The research establishes a model for online learning centering on the needs of integrative knowledge practices. Through the metaphor of Constellations, the practice-based research explores the complexities of working within interdisciplinary learning contexts and the potential of tools such as the Folksonomy learning platform for providing necessary conceptual support.

Principles to guide sustainable implementation of extended-scope-of-practice physiotherapy workforce redesign initiatives in Australia: Stakeholder perspectives, barriers, supports, and incentives

Sustainable implementation of new workforce redesign initiatives requires strategies that minimize barriers and optimize supports. Such strategies could be provided by a set of guiding principles. A broad understanding of the concerns of all the key stakeholder groups is required before effective strategies and initiatives are developed. Many new workforce redesign initiatives are not underpinned by prior planning, and this threatens their uptake and sustainability. This study reports on a cross-sectional qualitative study that sought the perspectives of representatives of key stakeholders in a new workforce redesign initiative (extended-scope-of-practice physiotherapy) in one Australian tertiary hospital. The key stakeholder groups were those that had been involved in some way in the development, management, training, funding, and/or delivery of the initiative. Data were collected using semistructured questions, answered individually by interview or in writing. Responses were themed collaboratively, using descriptive analysis. Key identified themes comprised: the importance of service marketing; proactively addressing barriers; using readily understood nomenclature; demonstrating service quality and safety, monitoring adverse events, measuring health and cost outcomes; legislative issues; registration; promoting viable career pathways; developing, accrediting, and delivering a curriculum supporting physiotherapists to work outside of the usual scope; and progression from "a good idea" to established service. Health care facilities planning to implement new workforce initiatives that extend scope of usual practice should consider these issues before instigating workforce/model of care changes. © 2014 Morris et al.

Leadership and creativity in higher education

Leadership and creativity have received increasing attention from researchers in the field of higher education; however, empirical studies investigating these topics simultaneously are rare. In this study, the authors examined relationships between PhD students' perceptions of their advising professors' passive-avoidant, transactional, and transformational leadership behaviors and professors' ratings of their students' work-related creativity. Data were provided by 71 dyads of professors and PhD students. Consistent with expectations based on the leadership literature on followers' identification with their leaders, results showed that students' perceptions of professors' transformational leadership positively predicted professors' ratings of their students' creativity above and beyond students' perceptions of professors' passive-avoidant and transactional leadership. Contrary to expectations, students' perceptions of professors' passive-avoidant and transactional leadership did not significantly predict professors' ratings of students' creativity. Implications for future research on leadership and creativity as well as tentative practical applications of the findings in higher education settings are discussed.

The puzzle of falling enrolments in physics and chemistry courses: Putting some pieces together

This paper reports and discusses the principal findings of an Australian study exploring the decisions of high achieving Year 10 students about taking physics and chemistry courses (Lyons, 2003). The study used a ‘multiple worlds’ framework to explore the diverse background characteristics that previous quantitative research had shown were implicated in these decisions. Based on analyses of questionnaire and interview data, the study found that the students’ decisions involved the complex negotiation of a number of cultural characteristics within their school science and family worlds. Many of the students regarded junior high school science as irrelevant, uninteresting and difficult, leaving them with few intrinsic reasons for enrolling in senior science courses. The study found that decisions about taking physical science courses were associated with the resources of cultural and social capital within their families, and the degree to which these resources were congruent with the advantages of choosing these courses. The paper concludes that the low intrinsic value of school science and the erosion of its strategic value contribute to the reluctance of students to choose physical science courses in the senior school.

Exploring the role of entrepreneurial marketing in entrepreneurship education

This is a conceptual paper that seeks to explore the role of entrepreneurial marketing in promoting entrepreneurship in tertiary education. We postulate that the subject of entrepreneurship is marketed in different ways as a means of introducing (a) new learners to the subject area of entrepreneurship and (b) the wide ranging possibilities of entrepreneurship education. This research explores both the entrepreneurial marketing and the entrepreneurship literature to capture how they meet at the interface to solve the issue of appropriately marketing entrepreneurship courses within the context of university education. Whilst empirical evidence of entrepreneurial marketing has tended to concentrate on profit-making and small organizations, fewer studies have sought to understand the role of entrepreneurial marketing in public sector organizations, including the university. Although this article is exploratory in nature, it shows the benefits of utilizing the extensive research within the fields of entrepreneurial marketing and entrepreneurship to determine the value of entrepreneurship education for policymakers, universities and students.

Developing an evolutionary/ecological approach in enterprise education

This paper presents an ecological/evolutionary approach to enterprise education. Ecological approaches are used at the University of Tasmania to heighten the awareness of students to a raft of difficult to observe environmental factors associated with developing enterprising ideas. At Sheffield University, the discovery and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities is viewed as a co-evolving system of emerging business ideas, and routines/heuristics respectively. It is argued that using both approaches enables students to develop a greater awareness of their situated environment, and ultimately the degree of fit between their learning process and a changing external world. The authors argue that in order to improve the chances of longer-term survival what is needed is a new level of organisation where the individual is capable of developing a representation of the external world that he or she can use to sense the appropriateness of local decisions. This reinterpretation of events allows individuals to step back and examine the broader consequences of their actions through the interpretation and anticipation of feedback from the environment. These approaches thus seek to develop practice-based heuristics which individuals can use to make sense of their lived experiences, as they learn to evolve in an increasingly complex world.

Moving beyond the business plan in enterprise education

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to approach the debate surrounding the role of business plans in enterprise/entrepreneurship education from a different perspective; that of the student. The paper argues that much of the consternation within this stubborn debate derives from a lack of appreciation of the context actually occurring in the lives of our students. The paper aims to explore several arguments directly related to these contexts. Design/methodology/approach The approach is to build around a combining of cycles of reflective practice via the authors' iterative consultation with each other. The paper seeks to explore the world of the student via an enfolding of the literature, but ultimately we do not claim to have hidden our personal biases. Findings It is important to separate enterprise education (EE) from entrepreneurship education when discussing the role of the business plan. While the business plan has a place in the latter, it makes little sense for it to be a focal learning activity in the former. In addition, we see this outcome as a positive outcome for our field with little point in continuing on with what has become a fairly pointless debate. Practical implications: The paper concludes that once EE is viewed as being distinctly different from entrepreneurship education it is free to be considered with more precision what learning needs exist. Focusing on learning needs changes the direction of the discussion, with the business plan only up for discussion if it contributes a learning activity related to pre-determined learning outcomes. Originality/value The paper offers a constructive way forward from a debate that has been beset with extreme vested interests for too long.

The radical in arts education research

Arts education research, as an interdisciplinary field, has developed in the shadows of a number of research traditions. However amid all the methodological innovation, I believe there is one particular, distinctive and radical research strategy which arts educators have created to research the practice of arts education: namely arts-based research. For many, and Elliot Eisner from Stanford University was among the first, arts education needed a research approach which could deal with the complex dynamics of arts education in the classroom. What was needed was ‘an approach to the conduct of educational research that was rooted in the arts and that used aesthetically crafted forms to reveal aspects of practice that mattered educationally’ (Eisner 2006: 11). While arts education researchers were crafting the principles and practices of arts-based research, fellow artist/researchers in the creative arts were addressing similar needs and fashioning their own exacting research strategies. This chapter aligns arts-based research with the complementary research practices established in creative arts studios and identifies the shared and truly radical nature of these moves. Finally, and in a contemporary turn many will find surprising, I will discuss how the radical aspects of these methodologies are now being held up as core elements of what is being called the fourth paradigm of scientific research, known as eScience. Could it be that the radical dynamics of arts-based research pre-figured the needs of eScience researchers who are currently struggling to manage the ‘deluge of Big Data’ which is disrupting their well-established scientific methods?

Building resilience in teacher education: An evidenced informed framework

This paper proposes a framework for building resilience in teacher education. The framework is informed by a focused review of relevant literature to determine factors that may be addressed in teacher education to support teacher resilience and ways in which this may occur. Findings show that personal and contextual resources along with use of particular strategies all contribute to resilience outcomes and that many of these can be developed in teacher education. Using these findings, a comprehensive resilience framework is proposed with five overarching themes - understanding resilience, relationships, wellbeing, motivation and emotions. Implementation possibilities are discussed.

Perceptions of audio feedback in higher education assessment

The aim of this paper is to present results of research investigating the effectiveness of audio feedback in a third year undergraduate unit. While there is a large and growing body of literature about providing assessment feedback, there is little focussing on the use of audio media. This study employs a mixed method approach, involving semi-structured interviews with academic staff and a survey of students. Analysis of the interview data suggests that there are a number of issues surrounding acceptance of using audio feedback by lecturers. The next stage of the study is to examine the extent to which lecturers change their perceptions as they use audio feedback and to analyse the perceptions of the students (n=120), including the perceived importance of feedback, the ways in which they used the audio feedback and the extent to which they believe they control events that affect them. Ultimately, this study seeks to provide recommendations appropriate to the implementation of audio feedback in higher education.

Web 2.0 technology: Social learning tools in higher education in Saudi Arabia

Information and communication technology (ICT) has created opportunities for students' online interaction in higher education throughout the world. Limited research has been done in this area in Saudi Arabia. This study investigated university students' engagement and perceptions of online collaborative learning using Social Learning Tools (SLTs). In addition, it explored the quality of knowledge construction that occurred in this environment. A mixed methods case study approach was adopted, and the data was gathered from undergraduate students (n=43) who were enrolled in a 15-week course at a Saudi university. The results showed that while the students had positive perceptions towards SLTs and their engagement, data gathered from their work also showed little evidence of high levels of knowledge construction.

Formalising the vernacular: Social media skills in higher education

This paper discusses the issue of social media skills using a literacy framework. Firstly, it argues that social media skills are a form of vernacular, or ‘everyday’, literacy and articulates the issues associated with trying to formalise these skills within the curriculum. Secondly, it calls for greater explicit attention to social media skills within higher education, by arguing that social media literacies are a part of new literacies. It evaluates QUT’s “Create a Better Online You” suite of social media resources in light of this framework, and discusses the role of libraries in addressing social media skills.