The Design, Implementation and Outcomes of a Mentoring Program

This paper reports on the design, implementation and outcomes of a mentoring program involving 18 employees in the IT Division of WorkCover Queensland. The paper provides some background information to the development of the program and the design and implementation phases including recruitment and matching of participants, orientation and training, and the mentoring process including transition and/or termination. The paper also outlines the quantitative and qualitative evaluation processes that occurred and the outcomes of that evaluation. Results indicated a wealth of positive individual, mentoring, and organisational outcomes. The organisation and semi-structured processes provided in the program are considered as major contributing factors to the successful outcomes of the program. These outcomes are likely to have long-term benefits for the individuals involved, the IT Division, and the broader organisation

Program Annotations: Feedback for Students Learning to Program

This paper presents a novel program annotation mechanism which enables students to obtain feedback from tutors on their programs in a far simpler and more efficient way than is possible with, for example, email. A common scenario with beginning students is to email tutors with copies of their malfunctioning programs. Unfortunately the emailed program often bears little resemblance to the program the student has been trying to make work; often it is incomplete, a different version and corrupted. We propose an annotation mechanism enabling students to simply and easily annotate their programs with comments asking for help. Similarly our mechanism enables tutors to view students’ programs and to reply to their comments in a simple and structured fashion. This means students can get frequent and timely feedback on their programs; tutors can provide such feedback efficiently, and hence students’ learning is greatly improved.

Screening for drugs in oral fluid : illicit drug use and drug driving in a sample of urban and regional Queensland motorists

Police services in a number of Australian states and overseas jurisdictions have begun to implement or consider random road-side drug testing of drivers. This paper outlines research conducted to provide an estimate of the extent of drug driving in a sample of Queensland drivers in regional, rural and metropolitan areas. Oral fluid samples were collected from 2657 Queensland motorists and screened for illicit substances including cannabis (delta 9 tetrahydrocannibinol [THC]), amphetamines, ecstasy, and cocaine. Overall, 3.8% of the sample (n = 101) screened positive for at least one illicit substance, although multiple drugs were identified in a sample of 23 respondents. The most common drugs detected in oral fluid were ecstasy (n = 53), and cannabis (n = 46) followed by amphetamines (n = 23). A key finding was that cannabis was confirmed as the most common self-reported drug combined with driving and that individuals who tested positive to any drug through oral fluid analysis were also more likely to report the highest frequency of drug driving. Furthermore, a comparison between drug vs. drink driving detection rates for one region of the study, revealed a higher detection rate for drug driving (3.8%) vs. drink driving (0.8%). This research provides evidence that drug driving is relatively prevalent on Queensland roads, and may in fact be more common than drink driving. This paper will further outline the study findings’ and present possible directions for future drug driving research.