Learning support : what do students want?

Assumptions are often made about students' needs, especially in the area of learning support. In this study 89 students were asked 8 questions relating to receiving learning support. The results are presented both qualitatively and quantitatively, and indicate that all students have individual needs that cannot be assumed. The findings reveal that the most common area of perceived need was in literacy. There were some differences between primary and middle school students' responses to withdrawal from the classroom, but the majority of students in both groups indicated a preference for withdrawal because they could concentrate better in an environment that was less noisy and because they felt they might look 'stupid' if they remained in class.

"Okay girl, it's up to you": a case study of the use of a seizure alert dog to improve the wellbeing of a student with epilepsy

The relationship between student well-being and the other vital outcomes of school is unequivocal. Improved outcomes in all aspects of student well-being are positively associated with improved outcomes in all other aspects of schooling. This educational imperative only serves to strengthen and support the moral imperative for schools and schooling to be inclusive, supportive and nurturing in order to maintain and support student well-being. (Fraillon 2005, p. 12)

Harnessing assessment and feedback in the first year to support learning success, engagement and retention

It has been argued that intentional first year curriculum design has a critical role to play in enhancing first year student engagement, success and retention (Kift, 2008). A fundamental first year curriculum objective should be to assist students to make the successful transition to assessment in higher education. Scott (2006) has identified that ‘relevant, consistent and integrated assessment … [with] prompt and constructive feedback’ are particularly relevant to student retention generally; while Nicol (2007) suggests that ‘lack of clarity regarding expectations in the first year, low levels of teacher feedback and poor motivation’ are key issues in the first year. At the very minimum, if we expect first year students to become independent and self-managing learners, they need to be supported in their early development and acquisition of tertiary assessment literacies (Orrell, 2005). Critical to this attainment is the necessity to alleviate early anxieties around assessment information, instructions, guidance, and performance. This includes, for example:  inducting students thoroughly into the academic languages and assessment genres they will encounter as the vehicles for evidencing learning success; and  making expectations about the quality of this evidence clear. Most importantly, students should receive regular formative feedback of their work early in their program of study to aid their learning and to provide information to both students and teachers on progress and achievement. Leveraging research conducted under an ALTC Senior Fellowship that has sought to articulate a research-based 'transition pedagogy' (Kift & Nelson, 2005) – a guiding philosophy for intentional first year curriculum design and support that carefully scaffolds and mediates the first year learning experience for contemporary heterogeneous cohorts – this paper will discuss theoretical and practical strategies and examples that should be of assistance in implementing good assessment and feedback practices across a range of disciplines in the first year.

Sampling perceptions; testing reality : an evidence-based approach to measurably improve information literacy and student research skills

Do commencing students possess the level of information literacy (IL) knowledge and skills they need to succeed at university? What impact does embedding IL within the engineering and design curriculum have? This paper reports on the self-perception versus the reality of IL knowledge and skills, across a large cohort of first year built environment and engineering students. Acting on the findings of this evaluation, the authors (a team of academic librarians) developed an intensive IL skills program which was integrated into a faculty wide unit. Perceptions, knowledge and skills were re-evaluated at the end of the semester to determine if embedded IL education made a difference. Findings reveal that both the perception and reality of IL skills were significantly and measurably improved.

Australian student reactions to U.S. tourism advertising : a test of advertising as public diplomacy

A study among Australian college students gauged their reactions to a television commercial produced for the U.S. Commerce Department to bolster sagging tourism numbers among international visitors. In addition to using traditional measures applied to tourism advertisements, the student also concluded items to measure attitudes toward the U.S. government and its people Pre- and post-viewing results indicated that while the Hollywood-movie-themed commercial was not well received by the Australian students as a tourism message, it did result in more favorable attitudes toward the U.S. government, though not the U.S. people. The findings lend partial support for the potential of tourism advertising efforts to exert a "bleed-over effect" in terms of their contributions to overall attitudes toward a country, regardless of whether viewers plan to visit the country whose travel advertisements they see.

Australian student reactions to US tourism advertising : a test of advertising as public diplomacy

A study among Australian college students gauged their reactions to a television commercial produced for the US Commerce Department to bolster sagging tourism numbers among international visitors. In additional to using traditional measures applied to tourism advertisements, the study also included items to measure attitudes toward the US government and its people. Pre- and post-viewing results indicated that although the Hollywood-movie-themes commercial was not well received by the Australian students as a tourism message, it did result in more favourable attitudes toward the US government, although not the US people. The findings lend partial support for the potential of tourism advertising efforts to exert a 'bleed-over effect' in terms of their contribution to overall attitudes toward a country, regardless of whether viewers plan to visit the country whose travel advertisements of which they see.

Student perceptions of the impact of online discussion forum participation on learning outcomes

Choosing the “right” type of technology, either synchronous or asynchronous, to facilitate learning outcomes is a new challenge as the pace of emerging technologies increases and diversifies. Teachers are encouraged to design courses that require collaboration in online learning communities to facilitate the development of higher order thinking skills for life long learning. It is therefore important to gather evidence of the kinds of opportunities afforded to students and whether the students themselves endorse collaborative online tools as a legitimate method of assisting in their learning. This paper outlines the way in which one secondary school has used an online discussion forum to support students in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program in enhancing research skills and skills for lifelong learning. The paper considers whether online collaborative tools are perceived by students as a positive way to improve learning outcomes.

Coordinated research support services at Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a large multidisciplinary university located in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. QUT is increasing its research focus and is developing its research support services. It has adopted a model of collaboration between the Library, High Performance Computing and Research Support (HPC) and more broadly with Information Technology Services (ITS). Research support services provided by the Library include the provision of information resources and discovery services, bibliographic management software, assistance with publishing (publishing strategies, identifying high impact journals, dealing with publishers and the peer review process), citation analysis and calculating authors’ H Index. Research data management services are being developed by the Library and HPC working in collaboration. The HPC group within ITS supports research computing infrastructure, research development and engagement activities, researcher consultation, high speed computation and data storage systems , 2D/ 3D (immersive) visualisation tools, parallelisation and optimization of research codes, statistics/ data modeling training and support (both qualitative and quantitative) and support for the university’s central Access Grid collaboration facility. Development and engagement activities include participation in research grants and papers, student supervision and internships and the sponsorship, incubation and adoption of new computing technologies for research. ITS also provides other services that support research including ICT training, research infrastructure (networking, data storage, federated access and authorization, virtualization) and corporate systems for research administration. Seminars and workshops are offered to increase awareness and uptake of new and existing services. A series of online surveys on eResearch practices and skills and a number of focus groups was conducted to better inform the development of research support services. Progress towards the provision of research support is described within the context organizational frameworks; resourcing; infrastructure; integration; collaboration; change management; engagement; awareness and skills; new services; and leadership. Challenges to be addressed include the need to redeploy existing operational resources toward new research support services, supporting a rapidly growing research profile across the university, the growing need for the use and support of IT in research programs, finding capacity to address the diverse research support needs across the disciplines, operationalising new research support services following their implementation in project mode, embedding new specialist staff roles, cross-skilling Liaison Librarians, and ensuring continued collaboration between stakeholders.

Temporal-based support vector machines for facial expression recognition

When classifying a signal, ideally we want our classifier to trigger a large response when it encounters a positive example and have little to no response for all other examples. Unfortunately in practice this does not occur with responses fluctuating, often causing false alarms. There exists a myriad of reasons why this is the case, most notably not incorporating the dynamics of the signal into the classification. In facial expression recognition, this has been highlighted as one major research question. In this paper we present a novel technique which incorporates the dynamics of the signal which can produce a strong response when the peak expression is found and essentially suppresses all other responses as much as possible. We conducted preliminary experiments on the extended Cohn-Kanade (CK+) database which shows its benefits. The ability to automatically and accurately recognize facial expressions of drivers is highly relevant to the automobile. For example, the early recognition of “surprise” could indicate that an accident is about to occur; and various safeguards could immediately be deployed to avoid or minimize injury and damage. In this paper, we conducted initial experiments on the extended Cohn-Kanade (CK+) database which shows its benefits.

Changing relationships: activating student and staff engagement in a design studio

In the design studio learning environment, traditional student and staff expectations are of close contact teaching and learning. In recent years at QUT students have experienced reduced personal staff attention, and have increasingly felt “anonymous” and correspondingly disengaged, to the detriment of quality learning (Carbone 1998: 8; Biggs 2003). Concurrently, there has been a necessary increase in teaching by sessional staff at QUT with varied levels of experience and assurance. This paper outlines the first iteration of an action research project exploring whether changing the current QUT design studio student and staff relationships may lead to more engaged, dynamic learning environments. “Engagement” is understood as a primarily emotional, rather than operational student concern (Solomonides and Martin 2008; Austerlitz and Aravot 2007). The project inverted the standard QUT design studio teaching structure, and evaluated the new structure and activation of student engagement across four identified markers: attendance, participation, learning and performance (ACER 2009; NSSE 2005; Chapman 2003). Student and staff surveys and focus groups, corporate data, and informal feedback informed these evaluations. Overall, the results support the premise that when students and staff feel part of a reasonably-sized studio class with a dedicated lecturer and self-selected project, the majority are inclined to value these relationships, to feel actively engaged, and to experience some improvement in their learning and teaching performances.

Paving for diverse pathways : using industry-linked learning to support Performing Arts students in their transition to protean careers

Statistics presented in Australia Council reports such as Don’t Give Up Your Day Job (2003), and Artswork: A Report On Australians Working in the Arts 1 and 2 (1997, 2005), and in other studies on destinations for Performing Arts graduates, demonstrate the diversity of post-graduation pathways for our students, the prevalence of protean careers, and the challenges in developing a sense of professional identity in a context where a portfolio of work across performance making, producing, administration and teaching can make it difficult for young artists to establish career status and capital in conventional terms (cf. Dawn Bennett, “Academy and the Real World: Developing Realistic Notions of Career in the Performing Arts”, Arts & Humanities in Higher Education, 8.3, 2009). In this panel, academics from around Australia will consider the ways in which Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies as a discipline is deploying a variety of practical, professional and work-integrated teaching and learning activities – including performance-making projects, industry projects, industry placements and student-initiated projects – to connect students with the networks, industries and professional pathways that will support their progression into their career. The panellists include Bree Hadley (Queensland University of Technology), Meredith Rogers (La Trobe University), Janys Hayes (Woolongong University) and Teresa Izzard (Curtin University). The panelists will present insights into the activities they have found successful, and address a range of questions, including: How do we introduce students to performance-making and / or producing models they will be able to employ in their future practice, particularly in light of the increasingly limited funds, time and resources available to support students’ participation in full-scale productions under the stewardship of professional artists?; How and when do we introduce students to industry networks?; How do we cater for graduates who will work as performers, writers, directors or administrators in the non-subsidised sector, the subsidised sector, community arts and education?; How do we category cater for graduates who will go on to pursue their work in a practice-as-research context in a Higher Degree?; How do we assist graduates in developing a professional identity? How do we assist graduates in developing physical, professional and personal resilience?; How do we retain our connections with graduates as part of their life-long learning?; Do practices and processes need to differ for city or regionally based / theoretically or practically based degree programs?; How do our teaching and learning activities align with emergent policy and industrial frameworks such as the shift to the “Producer Model” in Performing Arts funding, or the new mentorship, project, production and enterprise development opportunities under the Australia Council for the Arts’ new Opportunities for Young and Emerging Artists policy framework?

International students in Australian universities : gap between student expectations and realities

Australian Universities are very successful in attracting large number of international students. A large proportion of University revenue comes from the full fee paying international students. However, there have been many reports that international students face numerous problems when they arrive in Australia. The common management practice is to provide support staff services to deal with the orientation and welfare of international students. Such service units act as intermediaries between the students and the teaching and learning community of the university. However, the actual experience of international students may be difficult for support staff, counsellors, advisers and academic staff to anticipate. There is little information on the actual experience of students relative to their expectations. This study aimed at securing a deeper understanding of the contextually relevant issues facing by international students in Australian universities in order to develop management strategies aimed at improved teaching and learning outcomes for international students. Using a highly reliable survey questionnaire, a questionnaire survey was conducted among the international students at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia. About 180 engineering students responded in the survey resulting in a response rate of 81%. Results indicate that international students face many difficulties including understanding colloquial language, Australian accent, cost of tuition, feelin isolation, safety, security, health services, accommodation and part time jobs. They also face difficulty in coping with learning methods in Australia, particularly in research report writing. However, they are happy with their lecturers and find them very helpful. Many of the students lacked the information regarding various community groups, recreational and sports facilities in Australia before arriving. Findings of the study show that there is a significant gap between the expectation of the students before coming to Australia and actual experience they experience here. Importantly, there is a lack of coordination between international students, international student services (ISS) and university management and as a consequence there have been little improvement in conditions. There is no direct link between student experience and University management. Many important suggestions arisen from this study and most important suggestion is that the student information system should be integrated with the University enterprise resource planning (ERP) to reduce the huge gap between international student expectation and actual experiences.

Virtual communities as tools to support teaching practicum

The impact of Web 2.0 and social networking tools such as virtual communities, on education has been much commented on. The challenge for teachers is to embrace these new social networking tools and apply them to new educational contexts. The increasingly digitally-abled student cohorts and the need for educational applications of Web 2.0 are challenges that overwhelm many educators. This chapter will make three important contributions. Firstly it will explore the characteristics and behaviours of digitally-abled students enrolled in higher education. An innovation of this chapter will be the appli- cation of Bourdieu’s notions of capital, particularly social, cultural and digital capital to understand these characteristics. Secondly, it will present a possible use of a commonly used virtual community, Facebook©. Finally it will offer some advice for educators who are interested in using popular social networking communities, similar to Facebook©, in their teaching and learning.

Analysing queer student media using a combined queer theoretical and media studies approach

Australian queer (GLBTIQ) university student media is an important site of cultural and political self-representation. These groups exist within university student unions and the unions provide them with space, financial support and resources. Community media is a significant site for the development of queer identity, community and a key part of queer politics. This paper reviews my research into queer community media which is grounded in a Queer Theoretical perspective of identity performativity. Cover argues that Queer Theoretical approaches that study media products fail to consider the material contexts which contribute to their construction. I use an ethnographic approach combined with discourse analysis in order to reveal queer student activists’ media representations of queer, and the production contexts which shape them. My research contributes to queer media scholarship by using a methodology to address the gap that Cover identifies.

Student engagement with an ePortfolio : a case study of pre-service education students

The emergence of ePortfolios is relatively recent in the university sector as a way to engage students in their learning and assessment, and to produce records of their accomplishments. An ePortfolio is an online tool that students can utilise to record, catalogue, retrieve and present reflections and artefacts that support and demonstrate the development of graduate students’ capabilities and professional standards across university courses. The ePortfolio is therefore considered as both process and product. Although ePortfolios show promise as a useful tool and their uptake has grown, they are not yet a mainstream higher education technology. To date, the emphasis has been on investigating their potential to support the multiple purposes of learning, assessment and employability, but less is known about whether and how students engage with ePortfolios in the university setting. This thesis investigates student engagement with an ePortfolio in one university. As the educational designer for the ePortfolio project at the University, I was uniquely positioned as a researching professional to undertake an inquiry into whether students were engaging with the ePortfolio. The participants in this study were a cohort (defined by enrolment in a unit of study) of second and third year education students (n=105) enrolled in a four year Bachelor of Education degree. The students were introduced to the ePortfolio in an introductory lecture and a hands-on workshop in a computer laboratory. They were subsequently required to complete a compulsory assessment task – a critical reflection - using the ePortfolio. Following that, engagement with the ePortfolio was voluntary. A single case study approach arising from an interpretivist paradigm directed the methodological approach and research design for this study. The study investigated the participants’ own accounts of their experiences with the ePortfolio, including how and when they engaged with the ePortfolio and the factors that impacted on their engagement. Data collection methods consisted of an attitude survey, student interviews, document collection, a researcher reflective journal and researcher observations. The findings of the study show that, while the students were encouraged to use the ePortfolio as a learning and employability tool, most students ultimately chose to disengage after completing the assessment task. Only six of the forty-five students (13%) who completed the research survey had used the ePortfolio in a sustained manner. The data obtained from the students during this research has provided insight into reasons why they disengaged from the ePortfolio. The findings add to the understandings and descriptions of student engagement with technology, and more broadly, advance the understanding of ePortfolios. These findings also contribute to the interdisciplinary field of technology implementation. There are three key outcomes from this study, a model of student engagement with technology, a set of criteria for the design of an ePortfolio, and a set of recommendations for effective practice for those implementing ePortfolios. The first, the Model of Student Engagement with Technology (MSET) (Version 2) explored student engagement with technology by highlighting key engagement decision points for students The model was initially conceptualised by building on work of previous research (Version 1), however, following data analysis a new model emerged, MSET (Version 2). The engagement decision points were identified as: • Prior Knowledge and Experience, leading to imagined usefulness and imagined ease of use; • Initial Supported Engagement, leading to supported experience of usefulness and supported ease of use; • Initial Independent Engagement, leading to actual experience of independent usefulness and actual ease of use; and • Ongoing Independent Engagement, leading to ongoing experience of usefulness and ongoing ease of use. The Model of Student Engagement with Technology (MSET) goes beyond numerical figures of usage to demonstrate student engagement with an ePortfolio. The explanatory power of the model is based on the identification of the types of decisions that students make and when they make them during the engagement process. This model presents a greater depth of understanding student engagement than was previously available and has implications for the direction and timing of future implementation, and academic and student development activities. The second key outcome from this study is a set of criteria for the re-conceptualisation of the University ePortfolio. The knowledge gained from this research has resulted in a new set of design criteria that focus on the student actions of writing reflections and adding artefacts. The process of using the ePortfolio is reconceptualised in terms of privileging student learning over administrative compliance. The focus of the ePortfolio is that the writing of critical reflections is the key function, not the selection of capabilities. The third key outcome from this research consists of five recommendations for university practice that have arisen from this study. They are that, sustainable implementation is more often achieved through small steps building on one another; that a clear definition of the purpose of an ePortfolio is crucial for students and staff; that ePortfolio pedagogy should be the driving force not the technology; that the merit of the ePortfolio is fostered in students and staff; and finally, that supporting delayed task performance is crucial. Students do not adopt an ePortfolio just because it is provided. While students must accept responsibility for their own engagement with the ePortfolio, the institution has to accept responsibility for providing the environment, and technical and pedagogical support to foster engagement. Ultimately, an ePortfolio should be considered as a joint venture between student and institution where strong returns on investment can be realised by both. It is acknowledged that the current implementation strategies for the ePortfolio are just the beginning of a much longer process. The real rewards for students, academics and the university lie in the future.