Building and sustaining a culture to support peer review of teaching

1. Background/context This presentation will report on emerging results from a two phase project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC). The project was designed in partnership with five universities and aimed to embed peer review within the local teaching and learning culture by using a distributive leadership framework. 2. The initiative/practice The presentation will highlight research outcomes that bring together both the fundamentals of peer review of teaching with the broader contextual elements of Integration, Leadership and Development. It will be demonstrated that peer review of teaching can be implemented and have advantages for academic staff, teaching evaluation and an organisation if attention is given to strategies that influence the contexts and cultures of teaching. Peer review as a strategy to develop excellence in teaching is considered from a holistic perspective that by necessity encompasses all elements of an educational environment. Results demonstrate achievements that can be obtained through working to foster conditions needed for sustainable leadership and change. The work has implications for policy, research, teaching development and student outcomes and has potential application world-wide. 3. Method(s) of evaluative data collection and analysis The 2 phase project collected focus group and questionnaire data to inform research results that were analysed using a thematic qualitative approach and statistical exploration. 4. Evidence of effectiveness The presentation will demonstrate the effectiveness of distributive leadership and strategic approaches to working for cultural change through the presentation of project findings.

Assessing the immediate and short-term impact of flooding on residential property participant behaviour

The past decade has seen an increase in the number of significant natural disasters that have caused considerable loss of life as well as damage to all property markets in the affected areas. In many cases, these natural disasters have not only caused significant property damage, but in numerous cases, have resulted in the total destruction of the property in the location. With these disasters attracting considerable media attention, the public are more aware of where these affected property markets are, as well as the overall damage to properties that have been damaged or destroyed. This heightened level of awareness has to have an impact on the participants in the property market, whether a developer, vendor seller or investor. To assess this issue, a residential property market that has been affected by a significant natural disaster over the past 2 years has been analysed to determine the overall impact of the disaster on buyer, renter and vendor behaviour, as well as prices in these residential markets. This paper is based on data from the Brisbane flood in January 2011. This natural disaster resulted in loss of life and partial and total devastation of considerable residential property sectors. Data for the research have been based on the residential sales and rental listings for each week of the study period to determine the level of activity in the specific property sectors, and these are also compared to the median house prices for the various suburbs for the same period based on suburbs being either flood affected or flood free. As there are 48 suburbs included in the study, it has been possible to group these suburbs on a socio-economic basis to determine possible differences due to location and value. Data were accessed from realestate.com.au, a free real estate site that provides details of current rental and sales listings on a suburb basis, RP Data a commercial property sales database and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The paper found that sales listings fell immediately after the flood in the affected areas, but there was no corresponding fall or increase in sales listings in the flood-free suburbs. There was a significant decrease in the number of rental listings follow the flood as affected parties sought alternate accommodation. The greatest fall in rental listings was in areas close to the flood-affected suburbs indicating the desire to be close to the flooded property during the repair period.

Relationships between safety climate and safety performance of building repair, maintenance, minor alteration, and addition (RMAA) works

The importance of repair, maintenance, minor alteration, and addition (RMAA) works is increasing in many built societies. When the volume of RMAA works increases, the occurrence of RMAA accidents also increases. Safety of RMAA works deserves more attention; however, research in this important topic remains limited. Safety climate is considered a key factor that influences safety performance. The present study aims to determine the relationships between safety climate and safety performance of RMAA works, thereby offering recommendations on improving RMAA safety. Questionnaires were dispatched to private property management companies, maintenance sections of quasi-government developers and their subcontractors, RMAA sections of general contractors, small RMAA contractors, building services contractors and trade unions in Hong Kong. In total, data from 396 questionnaires were collected from RMAA workers. The sample was divided into two equal-sized sub-samples. On the first sub-sample SEM was used to test the model, which was validated on the second sub-sample. The model revealed a significant negative relationship between RMAA safety climate and incidence of self-reported near misses and injuries, and significant positive relationships between RMAA safety climate and safety participation and safety compliance respectively. Higher RMAA safety climate was positively associated with a lower incidence of self-reported near misses and injuries and higher levels of safety participation and safety compliance.

Building boundaries on boundary objects : a field study of a ubicomp tool in a design studio

In this paper, we provide the results of a field study of a Ubicomp system called CAM (Cooperative Artefact Memory) in a Product Design studio. CAM is a mobile-tagging based messaging system that allows designers to store relevant information onto their design artefacts in the form of messages, annotations and external web links. From our field study results, we observe that the use of CAM adds another shared ‘space’ onto these design artefacts – that are in their natural settings boundary objects themselves. In the paper, we provide several examples from the field illustrating how CAM helps in the design process.

Energy Transformed : Building Capacity in the Engineering Profession in Australia

Global pressures of burgeoning population growth and consumption are threatening efforts to reduce negative environmental pressures associated with development such as atmospheric, land and water pollution. For example, the world’s population is now growing at over 70 million per year or 1 billion per decade (Brown, 2007), increasing from 3.5 billion in 1970, to 5 billion in 1990, to 7 billion by 2010 (United Nations, 2002). In 1990 only 13 percent of the global population lived in cities, while in 2007 more than half did. More than 60 percent of the global population lives within 100 kilometers of the coastline (World Resources Institute, 2005) and nearly all of the population growth hereon is forecast to happen in developing countries (Postel, 1999). Future levels of stress on the global environment are therefore likely to increase if current trends are used for forecasting, which is particularly challenging as scientists are already observing significant signs of degradation and failure in environmental systems. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC, 2007) provided an nequivocal link between climate change and current human activities, in particular: the burning of fossil fuels; deforestation and land clearing; the use of synthetic greenhouse gases; and decomposition of wastes from landfill. The UK Stern Review concluded that within our lifetime there is between a 77 to 99 percent chance (depending on the climate model used) of the global average temperature rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius (Stern, 2006), with a likely greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere of 550 parts per million (ppm) or more by around 2100.

The Performance Nexus - A framework for improving energy efficiency in existing commercial buildings by considering a whole-of-building approach

Efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the buildings sector have been focused on encouraging green design, construction and building operation; however, the business case is not very compelling if considering the energy cost savings alone. In recent years green building has been driven by a sense that it will improve the productivity of occupants,i something with much greater economic returns than energy savings. Reducing energy demand in green commercial buildings in a way that encourages greater productivity is not yet well understood as it involves a set of complex and interdependent factors. This paper outlines an investigation into these factors and focuses on better understanding the performance of and interaction between: design elements, internal environmental quality, occupant experience, tenant/leasing agreements, and building regulation and management. In doing so the paper presents a framework for improving energy efficiency in existing commercial buildings by considering a range of interconnected and synergistic elements.

Analysis of damage to buildings following the 2010–11 Eastern Australia floods

This research analyses the extent of damage to buildings in Brisbane, Ipswich and Grantham during the recent Eastern Australia flooding and explore the role planning and design/construction regulations played in these failures. It highlights weaknesses in the current systems and propose effective solutions to mitigate future damage and financial loss under current or future climates. 2010 and early 2011 saw major flooding throughout much of Eastern Australia. Queensland and Victoria were particularly hard hit, with insured losses in these states reaching $2.5 billion and many thousands of homes inundated. The Queensland cities of Brisbane and Ipswich were the worst affected; around two-thirds of all inundated property/buildings were in these two areas. Other local government areas to record high levels of inundation were Central Highlands and Rockhampton Regional Councils in Queensland, and Buloke, Campaspe, Central Gold Fields and Loddon in Victoria. Flash flooding was a problem in a number of Victorian councils, but the Lockyer Valley west of Ipswich suffered the most extensive damage with 19 lives lost and more than 100 homes completely destroyed. In all more than 28,000 properties were inundated in Queensland and around 2,500 buildings affected in Victoria. Of the residential properties affected in Brisbane, around 90% were in areas developed prior to the introduction of floodplain development controls, with many also suffering inundation during the 1974 floods. The project developed a predictive model for estimating flood loss and occupant displacement. This model can now be used for flood risk assessments or rapid assessment of impacts following a flood event.

Acacia Light Wall

The Acacia Light Wall is a permanent public artwork within the 3 stage Eden on the Yarra – a residential / commercial development on Victoria Street Abbotsford, Melbourne. The work was commissioned by the Hampton Group for Acacia Place, the first building in the development. The stylised screen was inspired by tangled wattle trees (Australia’s most common Acacia). The work consists of two walls, made from laser cut aluminium screen, acrylic ‘windows” Philips Colour Kinetic controllable LED (1250 nodes), Philips Colour Kinetics control ‘iPlayers”. One wall is 10 m long x 3 to 5 metres and the second is 12m by 3m. The windows are lit by an array of 600+ LED’s in each wall. These lights change colour from week to week marking the progress of the seasons. We worked with the project horticulturalist to develop a palate of colours for each week’s ‘light show’ that was drawn from local flowers and foliage likely to be in bloom that week. The lighting display is not static but rather a very slow moving (morphing) light show. It isn’t fast and flashy. Instead it’s restful and profound.

Dry tropics water smart : a community based approach to residential outdoor water consumption

This paper discusses the Townsville City Council Dry Tropics Water Smart (DTWS) initiative, developed by TCC Integrated Sustainability Services (ISS) and Townsville Water, and informed by The University of Adelaide. The program draws on many years of experience by the TCC team to blend key community-based research approaches in order to develop this residential outdoor water conservation program. Several community pilots have been conducted to test different behaviour change strategies and messages. This paper outlines recent steps taken to develop the community trials, as guided by a combination of behaviour change theories including community-based social marketing and thematic communications methods. Some preliminary results are outlined focused on community uptake of different strategies, community perceptions of communication materials, and some insights into the effectiveness of outdoor water hardware.

Overview of building information modelling in healthcare projects

In this paper, we explore how BIM functionalities together with novel management concepts and methods have been utilized in thirteen hospital projects in the United States and the United Kingdom. Secondary data collection and analysis were used as the method. Initial findings indicate that the utilization of BIM enables a holistic view of project delivery and helps to integrate project parties into a collaborative process. The initiative to implement BIM must come from the top down to enable early involvement of all key stakeholders. It seems that it is rather resistance from people to adapt to the new way of working and thinking than immaturity of technology that hinders the utilization of BIM.

The Interaction of lean and building information modeling in construction

Lean construction and building information modeling (BIM) are quite different initiatives, but both are having profound impacts on the construction industry. A rigorous analysis of the myriad specific interactions between them indicates that a synergy exists which, if properly understood in theoretical terms, can be exploited to improve construction processes beyond the degree to which it might be improved by application of either of these paradigms independently. Using a matrix that juxtaposes BIM functionalities with prescriptive lean construction principles, 56 interactions have been identified, all but four of which represent constructive interaction. Although evidence for the majority of these has been found, the matrix is not considered complete but rather a framework for research to explore the degree of validity of the interactions. Construction executives, managers, designers, and developers of information technology systems for construction can also benefit from the framework as an aid to recognizing the potential synergies when planning their lean and BIM adoption strategies.

Lean construction, building information modelling and sustainability

This paper investigates the mutual relations of three current drivers of construction: lean construction, building information modelling and sustainability. These drivers are based on infrequently occurring changes, only incidentally simultaneous, in their respective domains. It is contended that the drivers are mutually supportive and thus synergistic. They are aligned in the sense that all require, promote or enable collaboration. It is argued that these three drivers should be implemented in a unified manner for rapid and robust improvements in construction industry performance and the quality of the constructed facilities and their benefits for stakeholders and wider society.

Analysis framework for the interaction between lean construction and building information modelling

Building with Building Information Modelling (BIM) changes design and production processes. But can BIM be used to support process changes designed according to lean production and lean construction principles? To begin to answer this question we provide a conceptual analysis of the interaction of lean construction and BIM for improving construction. This was investigated by compiling a detailed listing of lean construction principles and BIM functionalities which are relevant from this perspective. These were drawn from a detailed literature survey. A research framework for analysis of the interaction between lean and BIM was then compiled. The goal of the framework is to both guide and stimulate research; as such, the approach adopted up to this point is constructive. Ongoing research has identified 55 such interactions, the majority of which show positive synergy between the two.