The role of goal importance in predicting university students’ high academic performance

We examined goal importance, focusing on high, but not exclusive priority goals, in the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to predict students’ academic performance. At the beginning of semester, students in a psychology subject (N = 197) completed TPB and goal importance items for achieving a high grade. Regression analyses revealed partial support for the TPB. Perceived behavioural control, but not attitude or subjective norm, significantly predicted intention, with intention predicting final grade. Goal importance significantly predicted intention, but not final grade, indicating that perceiving a performance goal as highly, but not necessarily exclusively, important impacts on students’ achievement intentions.

A case study in flood fatality : Beijing July 2012 flood

Background The aim of this study is to examine the flood fatality with a view to identifying risks which may inform public policy responses to future flood. On July 21st, 2012, Beijing suffered the heaviest rain since 1963. The average rainfall was 215 mm over a 24 hour period in the central city (301mm in Fangshan District). The rain resulted in a flood that caused severe health, social and financial impact. Results This flood caused 79 deaths. Of the 71 deaths for which a specific cause could be identified, 5 were rescue team members, 42 were killed by drowning (11 in the car), and the others by electricity shock, fallen house, falling items and lightning. The total financial cost was estimated to be US$ 1.7 billion. The causations of the deaths inform the risks associated with the flood. Discussion This flood had a catastrophic impact on Beijing, mainly due to the intensity of the rain (the rain was the heaviest in the modern Beijing history; possibly due to global warming and urban heat island effect), the vulnerability of the infrastructure (poor standards of drainage, disorganized water management systems and decreased permeability of the earth as a result of the city’s rapid development), and the capacity of the response system (mainly dependent on the awareness of the citizens, warning systems and the capacity of the emergency rescue). Implication Many risk management measures have been implemented as a result of this flood, including water level warning marks, flood safety education and warnings sent to mobile phones, a project to move about 74,500 farmers away from the flood-prone areas within 5 years. However, further measures targeted at the fundamental issues identified by this analysis are necessary, especially those targeting at health issues. These may include better planning, improved drainage systems and ecological development to increase permeability etc..

Enhancing social work interprofessional learning through across university and industry collaboration : early steps in the Advanced Health Directives Project

There is ongoing interest in strategies for enhancing the reciprocal benefit derived from social work placements by students, host agencies, and universities. There is also recognition that interprofessional learning is an important aspect of social work education,and that field education placements have a role to play in this learning. This article reports on an innovation in community-engaged learning undertaken between a major public hospital and a university, where a team of social work and law students contributed to a focused inquiry into a socio-legal practice challenge faced by the hospital, namely the use of Advanced Health Directives (AHDs).Various collaborative processes involved in the early phase of the AHD project are reflected on by participants.A preliminary evaluation supports the value of taking a systematic approach to university–industry engagement where interprofessional collaboration occurs vertically and horizontally within and across university and placement hosting agencies.

A participatory library model for university libraries

This research investigated the ways academic libraries are using social media and adopting participatory principles in their programs and services. Using the Grounded Theory method the research developed an empirically derived model for participatory libraries. The research revealed three core categories representing the participatory library: community, empowerment, and experience. The research provides library professionals, researchers and the library community, with a fresh perspective and holistic picture of the contemporary library. The findings can be used to guide the development of participatory libraries in Australia and internationally.

Exploring the effect of achievements on students attending university orientation

University orientation is a key event for new students that aids in the transition from a school to a university environment. A smartphone orientation application was built to aid students attending the event. Achievements were added to the application in an attempt to engage students further with the orientation activities and application. An exploratory field study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of the achievement system on participants attending orientation. Forty-six new students were recruited to test the orientation application. Twenty-six participants used a gamified version of the orientation application and twenty participants used a non-gamified version. While the gamification was generally well received, no impact on user experience was evident. Some effect on engagement with orientation activities was shown. Participants who used the gamified system reported the game elements as fun, but some negative issues arose, such as cheating.

Queensland floods anniversary : Angela Emmerson

"We're marking the anniversary of the destructive floods that hit Queensland a year ago this week with our series of interviews from survivors. Today's story is from Helidon teenager and university student Angela Emmerson, who tells Amanda Gearing how she and her sister scrambled to the roof to escape the dangerous flash flood which suddenly engulfed their house on the 10th of January last year. Tomorrow we'll hear from Grantham resident Rob Wilkin who rescued 31 local people using his car and boat. He helped them escape to safety as 138 houses in the town were destroyed. To mark the anniversary of the floods in Queensland, ABC Open has compiled Aftermath, an extensive look at the Queensland floods as well as floods in NSW, Victoria and remote Western Australia; Cyclone Yasi and the 2009 Victorian 'Black Saturday' bushfires. Australia certainly has been hit by a few disasters in the past two or so years. The site has a timeline showing content from these six disasters, with links to about 40 people effected by these disasters. If you go to that site you will be able to choose a person to watch videos about them."

Cartels – What are they and how to avoid being part of one : the implications of University fee deregulation

Universities supply a range of services to students. These include most obviously, tuition services in relation to undergraduate and postgraduate courses; research supervision services in relation to research degrees; as well as consultancy services in relation to Government and industry work. For the purposes of the CCA, universities are trading corporations. They engage in trade or commerce through the provision of a range of services for reward. As such Universities are subject to the same rules and regulations that govern the conduct of other trading corporations, such Coles and Woolworths. As senior officers and managers of a trading corporation you need to acquire some basic understanding of the rules that govern competition in the education sector. In other sectors, companies generally undertake a risk assessment of those areas where they are most at risk of contravening the CCA; to ascertain in advance how problems might arise so that they can put in place strategies to mitigate the risk of inadvertent contraventions.

Designing fashion : an exploration of practitioner research within the university environment

This thesis positions practitioner research within the emerging discipline of fashion and disputes that practitioner knowledge of fashion is predominantly tacit. This research contributes to the understanding of practitioner knowledge and proposes an object based model of practitioner research as an alternative to existing practice-led methodologies. The thesis theorises fashion objects as a site of significant knowledge and argues their potential to record and communicate fashion knowledge and disseminate practice-led research.

Nornalup Bushfire Research - BAL40 House

For Construction - Architectural drawing package. House designed to AS3959:2009 Bushfire Attack Level 40. QUT-Client Agreement 100% Research (HERDC definition of Research).

Ausma Bushfire Research - BAL40 House

Construction drawings for Built work of Architecture. Completed July 2013. House designed to AS3959:2009 Bushfire Attack Level 40. 100% Commercial Research Project (HERDC Definition of Research)

Day in the Lab : Urban Informatics Research Lab, Queensland University of Technology

The Urban Informatics Research Lab brings together a group of people who focus their research on interdisciplinary topics at the intersection of social, spatial, and technical research domains—that is, people, place, and technology. Those topics are spread across the breadth of urban life—its contemporary issues and its needs, as well as the design opportunities that we have as individuals, groups, communities, and as a whole society. The lab’s current research areas include urban planning and design, civic innovation, mobility and transportation, education and connected learning, environmental sustainability, and food and urban agriculture. The common denominator of the lab’s approach is user-centered design research directed toward understanding, conceptualizing, developing, and evaluating sociotechnical practices as well as the opportunities afforded by innovative digital technology in urban environments.

Framing student evaluations of university learning and teaching : discursive strategies and textual outcomes

Evaluation in higher education is an evolving social practice, that is, it involves what people, institutions and broader systems do and say, how they do and say it, what they value, the effects of these practices and values, and how meanings are ascribed. The textual products (verbal, written, visual, gestural) that inform and are produced by, for and through evaluative practices are important as they promulgate particular kinds of meanings and values in specific contexts. This paper reports on an exploratory study that sought to investigate, using discourse analysis, the types of evaluative practices that were ascribed value, and the student responses that ensued, in different evaluative instruments. Findings indicate that when a reflective approach is taken to evaluation, students’ responses are more considered, they interrogate their own engagement in the learning context and they are more likely to demonstrate reconstructive thought. These findings have implications for reframing evaluation as reflective learning.