Student resources for the use of supervisors

The materials presented here are intended to: a) accompany the document Supervisor Resource and b) provide technology supervisors with materials that may be readily shared with students. These resources are not designed to be distributed to students without contextualization, they are intended for use in workshops or in discussions between supervisors and students. As authors, we anticipate that supervisors or workshop facilitators are most likely to extract individual resources of interest for particular occasions. The materials have been developed from conversations with supervisors from the technology disciplines.

Resource for supervisors and cases

The framework presented in the resource is intended to provide technology supervisors with a range of options available to them with respect to supervisory pedagogy. It has been developed to highlight different aspects of thinking about supervision as a teaching and learning practice; as well as approaches, strategies and roles associated with supervision. It will enable technology supervisors to become aware of the diverse options available to them and provide systematic ways of thinking about supervisory practices. Use of this framework will encourage supervisors to make choices based on broader, rather than more limited, repertoires. It will also encourage thinking about supervision as a teaching and learning practice.

Quality assurance in higher education : for whom and of what?

Over the past two decades the quality assurance of higher education institutions has captured a growing interest as evidenced by the increasing number of national and transnational bodies engaged in this area. Yet as the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, higher education systems and thus the regimes designed to ensure their quality are faced with significant complexity. Issues of accountability, authority and responsibility are paramount when responding to industry bodies, to globalisation and the transnational provision of higher education and to the use of market mechanisms. In this paper we raise some of the challenges for quality assurance for higher education presented by this growing complexity through the question, quality assurance in higher education, for whom and of what, highlighting our concern for a need to expand the centrality of accountability to include authority and responsibility as part of the quality assurance regimes for higher education

Designing for engagement : building IT systems

Context The School of Information Technology at QUT has recently undertaken a major restructuring of their Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) course. Some of the aims of this restructuring include a reduction in first year attrition and to provide an attractive degree course that meets both student and industry expectations. Emphasis has been placed on the first semester in the context of retaining students by introducing a set of four units that complement one another and provide introductory material on technology, programming and related skills, and generic skills that will aid the students throughout their undergraduate course and in their careers. This discussion relates to one of these four fist semester units, namely Building IT Systems. The aim of this unit is to create small Information Technology (IT) systems that use programming or scripting, databases as either standalone applications or web applications. In the prior history of teaching introductory computer programming at QUT, programming has been taught as a stand alone subject and integration of computer applications with other systems such as databases and networks was not undertaken until students had been given a thorough grounding in those topics as well. Feedback has indicated that students do not believe that working with a database requires programming skills. In fact, the teaching of the building blocks of computer applications have been compartmentalized and taught in isolation from each other. The teaching of introductory computer programming has been an industry requirement of IT degree courses as many jobs require at least some knowledge of the topic. Yet, computer programming is not a skill that all students have equal capabilities of learning (Bruce et al., 2004) and this is clearly shown by the volume of publications dedicated to this topic in the literature over a broad period of time (Eckerdal & Berglund, 2005; Mayer, 1981; Winslow, 1996). The teaching of this introductory material has been done pretty much the same way over the past thirty years. During this period of time that introductory computer programming courses have been taught at QUT, a number of different programming languages and programming paradigms have been used and different approaches to teaching and learning have been attempted in an effort to find the golden thread that would allow students to learn this complex topic. Unfortunately, computer programming is not a skill that can be learnt in one semester. Some basics can be learnt but it can take many years to master (Norvig, 2001). Faculty data typically has shown a bimodal distribution of results for students undertaking introductory programming courses with a high proportion of students receiving a high mark and a high proportion of students receiving a low or failing mark. This indicates that there are students who understand and excel with the introductory material while there is another group who struggle to understand the concepts and practices required to be able to translate a specification or problem statement into a computer program that achieves what is being requested. The consequence of a large group of students failing the introductory programming course has been a high level of attrition amongst first year students. This attrition level does not provide good continuity in student numbers in later years of the degree program and the current approach is not seen as sustainable.

Osteryoung square wave voltammetric determination of lactose in food samples by a derivative procedure

A method for determination of lactose in food samples by Osteryoung square wave voltammetry (OSWV) was developed. It was based on the nucleophilic addition reaction between lactose and aqua ammonia. The carbonyl group of lactose can be changed into imido group, and this increases the electrochemical activity in reduction and the sensitivity. The optimal condition for the nucleophilic addition reaction was investigated and it was found that in NH4Cl–NH3 buffer of pH 10.1, the linear range between the peak current and the concentration of lactose was 0.6–8.4 mg L−1, and the detection limits was 0.44 mg L−1. The proposed method was applied to the determination of lactose in food samples and satisfactory results were obtained.

Higher Order Thinking through ICT: What do middle years teachers think really matters?

The middle years of schooling has emerged as an important focus in Australian education. Student disengagement and alienation, the negative effects of non-completion of the senior years of schooling and underachievement have raised concerns about the quality of education during the middle years. For many schools, reshaping the middle years has involved incorporating Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to motivate students. However, simultaneously there is a need to ensure that programs are academically rigorous. There is little doubt that there are potential benefits to integrating ICT into programs for middle years’ students. However, little is known about how middle years’ teachers perceive higher order thinking, which is a component of academic rigour. This paper investigates the question of What are teachers’ perceptions of higher order thinking in an ICT environment? The study is underpinned by socio-cultural theory which is based on the belief that learning occurs through social interaction and that individuals are shaped by the social and cultural tools and instruments they engage with. This investigation used a collective case study design. Two methods were used for data collection. These methods are semi-structured interviews with individual teachers and a class and a focus group discussion with teachers. Findings indicate that teachers hold various perceptions of higher order thinking that lead to productive approaches to integrating ICT in middle years’ classrooms. The paper highlights that there may be a continuum of perceptions of higher order thinking with ICT. This continuum may inform professional developers who are guiding and supporting teachers to integrate ICT into middle years’ classrooms.

Wellness as higher education curriculum: A comprehensive framework for health education and promotion

A number of studies in relation to the place, impact and purpose of Wellness curricula provide insight into the perceived benefits of Wellness education in university environments. Of particular note is the recommendation by many authors that curriculum design fosters personal experiences, reflective practice and active self-managed learning approaches in order to legitimise (give permission for) the adoption of wellness as a personal lifestyle approach in the frenetic pace of student life. From a broader educational perspective, Wellness education provides opportunities for students to engage in learning self regulation skills both within and beyond the context of the Wellness construct.To realise the suggested potential of Wellness education in higher learning, it is necessary that curricula overlay the principles from the domains of both self-regulation and Wellness, to highlight authentic learning as a means to lifelong approaches. Currently, however, systematic development and empirical examination of the Wellness construct have received limited academic investigation. Despite having a multitude of intended purposes from the educative to the therapy oriented goals of the original authors, most wellness models appear to be limited to the “what” of Wellness. Investigations of the “how” and “why” aspects of Wellness may serve to enhance currently existing models by incorporating behaviour modification and learning approaches in order to create more comprehensive frameworks for health education and promotion.It is also important to note that none of the current Wellness models actually address the educative framework necessary for an individual to learn and thus become aware or understand and make choices about their own Wellness.The literature reviewed within this paper would suggest that learner success is optimised by giving learners authentic opportunities to develop and practice self regulation strategies. Such opportunities include learning experiences that: provide options for self determined outcomes; require skills development; recognise principles of successful learning as outlined by the APA; and are scaffolded according to learner needs rather than in generic ways. Thus, configuring a learner centred curriculum in Wellness Education would potentially benefit from overlaying principles from the domains of both SRL and Wellness to highlight authentic learning as a means to lifelong approaches, triggered by undergraduate experiences.Student perceptions are a rich and significant data base for the measurement of their experiences, activities, practices and behaviours. Wellness undergraduate education, such as the “Fitness, Health and Wellness” unit offered by Queensland University of Technology, offers a context in which to confirm possibilities suggested by the literature reviewed in this paper in a practical, Australian context.

ERP systems in the higher education sector : a descriptive study

In response to a range of contextual drivers, the worldwide adoption of ERP Systems in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has increased substantially over the past decade. Though this demand continues to grow, with HEIs now a main target market for ERP vendors, little has been published on the topic. This paper reports a sub-study of a larger research effort that aims to contribute to understanding the phenomenon of ERP adoption and evaluation in HEIs in the Australasian region. It presents a descriptive case study conducted at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia, with emphasis on challenges with ERP adoption. The case study provides rich contextual details about ERP system selection, customisation, integration and evaluation, and insights into the role of consultants in the HE sector. Through this analysis, the paper (a) provides evidence of the dearth of ERP literature pertaining to the HE sector; (b) yields insights into differentiating factors in the HE sector that warrants specific research attention, and (c) offers evidence of how key ERP decisions such as systems selection, customisation, integration, evaluation, and consultant engagement are influenced by the specificities of the HE sector.

Extending the IS-Impact Model into the higher education sector

The study addresses known limitations of what may be the most important dependent variable in Information Systems (IS) research; IS-Success or IS-Impact. The study is expected to force a deeper understanding of the broad notions of IS success and impact. The aims of the research are to: (1) enhance the robustness and minimize limitations of the IS-Impact model, and (2) introduce and operationalise a more rigorously validated IS Impact measurement model to Universities, as a reliable model for evaluating different Administrative Systems. In extending and further generalizing the IS-Impact model, the study will address contemporary validation issues.

Identifying critical success factors of ERP Systems at the higher education sector

In response to a range of contextual drivers, the worldwide adoption of ERP Systems in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has increased substantially over the past decade. Though the difficulties and high failure rate in implementing ERP systems at university environments have been cited in the literature, research on critical success factors (CSFs) for ERP implementations in this context is rare and fragmented. This paper is part of a larger research effort that aims to contribute to understanding the phenomenon of ERP implementations and evaluations in HEIs in the Australasian region; it identifies, previously reported, critical success factors (CSFs) in relation to ERP system implementations and discusses the importance of these factors.

Biometric template security using higher order spectra

A method of improving the security of biometric templates which satisfies desirable properties such as (a) irreversibility of the template, (b) revocability and assignment of a new template to the same biometric input, (c) matching in the secure transformed domain is presented. It makes use of an iterative procedure based on the bispectrum that serves as an irreversible transformation for biometric features because signal phase is discarded each iteration. Unlike the usual hash function, this transformation preserves closeness in the transformed domain for similar biometric inputs. A number of such templates can be generated from the same input. These properties are illustrated using synthetic data and applied to images from the FRGC 3D database with Gabor features. Verification can be successfully performed using these secure templates with an EER of 5.85%

Numerical investigations of linear least squares methods for derivative estimation

The results of a numerical investigation into the errors for least squares estimates of function gradients are presented. The underlying algorithm is obtained by constructing a least squares problem using a truncated Taylor expansion. An error bound associated with this method contains in its numerator terms related to the Taylor series remainder, while its denominator contains the smallest singular value of the least squares matrix. Perhaps for this reason the error bounds are often found to be pessimistic by several orders of magnitude. The circumstance under which these poor estimates arise is elucidated and an empirical correction of the theoretical error bounds is conjectured and investigated numerically. This is followed by an indication of how the conjecture is supported by a rigorous argument.

Cardiac state diagnosis using higher order spectra of heart rate variability

Heart rate variability (HRV) refers to the regulation of the sinoatrial node, the natural pacemaker of the heart, by the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system. Heart rate variability analysis is an important tool to observe the heart's ability to respond to normal regulatory impulses that affect its rhythm. A computer-based intelligent system for analysis of cardiac states is very useful in diagnostics and disease management. Like many bio-signals, HRV signals are nonlinear in nature. Higher order spectral analysis (HOS) is known to be a good tool for the analysis of nonlinear systems and provides good noise immunity. In this work, we studied the HOS of the HRV signals of normal heartbeat and seven classes of arrhythmia. We present some general characteristics for each of these classes of HRV signals in the bispectrum and bicoherence plots. We also extracted features from the HOS and performed an analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. The results are very promising for cardiac arrhythmia classification with a number of features yielding a p-value < 0.02 in the ANOVA test.