A holistic, institution-wide approach to building sessional staff capacity

Sessional Academics enhance students’ learning experience by bringing a diverse range of perspectives and expertise into the classroom. As industry specialists, research students, and recent graduates who have excelled in their courses, they complement the discipline expertise of career academics. With increasing casualization of the academic workforce, Sessional Academics now deliver the majority of face-to-face undergraduate teaching in Australian Universities. To enable them to realize their full potential as effective contributors to student learning and course quality, universities need to offer effective training and access to advice and support and facilitate engagement in university life. However, in the face of complex and diverse contexts, overwhelming numbers, and the transitory nature of sessional cohorts, few universities have developed a comprehensive, systematic approach. During the past three years at QUT, we have set out to develop a multifaceted approach to Sessional Academic support and development. In this paper I will explain why and how we have done so, and describe the range of strategies and programs we have developed. They include a central academic development program, which is structured and scaffolded with learning objectives and outcomes, and aligned with a graduate certificate in Academic Practice; a Sessional Academic Success program, which deploys experienced, school-based sessional academic success advisors to provide local support, build a sense of community, and offer discipline focused academic development; an online, dialogic communication strategy; and opportunities to present and be acknowledged for good learning and teaching practices. Together, these strategies have impacted on sessional academics’ confidence, learning and teaching capacity, reflection and engagement.

The introduction of an Inter-professional learning unit: staff and student perspectives

Background The School of Clinical Sciences comprises a number of health disciplines including podiatry, paramedic science, pharmacy, medical imaging and radiation therapy. A new inter-professional unit was introduced in 2014, which covered key introductory learnings applicable for future health practitioners. This study examined teaching staff and student perspectives about their experience with the new unit for first year students. Methods Qualitative interviews with teaching staff (n=9) and focus group interviews with students (5 groups which ranged in size from 4-30) were conducted. Extensive notes were taken during the interviews Issues emerging from the interviews were identified and organised according to themes and subthemes. Results Four major themes were identified namely: Something new; To be or not to be that is the question; Advantages of the new unit; and Areas for improvement. Previous staff experience with inter-professional learning (IPL) had been ad-hoc, whereas the new unit brought together several disciplines in a planned and deliberate way. There was strong philosophical agreement about the value of IPL but some debate about the extent to which the unit provided IPL experience. The unit was seen as assisting students’ social and academic adjustment to university and provided opportunity for professional socialisation, exposure to macro and micro aspects of the Australian health care system and various types of communication. For podiatry students it was their first opportunity to formally meet and work with other podiatry students and moved their identity from ‘university student’ to ‘podiatry student’. Other positives included providing the opportunity for staff and students to interact at an early stage with the perceived benefit of reducing attrition. Areas for unit improvement included institutional arrangements, unit administration aspects and assessment. Conclusion The unit was seen as beneficial by staff and students however, students were more polarised in their views than staff. There was a tension between feeling apart of and learning about one's own profession and feeling apart of and learning about the roles of other health professionals in relation to patient care and the health care system.

Past-day recall of sedentary time: Validity of a self-reported measure of sedentary time in a university population

Background Sedentary behaviour is associated with several deleterious health consequences. Although device-based measures of sedentary time are available, they are costly and do not provide a measure of domain specific sedentary time. High quality self-report measures are necessary to accurately capture domain specific sedentary time, and to provide an alternative to devices when cost is an issue. In this study, the Past-day Adults’ Sedentary Time (PAST) questionnaire, previously shown to have acceptable validity and reliability in a sample of breast cancer survivors, was modified for a university sample and validity of the modified questionnaire was examined compared with activPAL. Methods Participants (n = 58, age = 18–55 years, 48% female, 66% students) were recruited from the University of Queensland (students and staff). They answered the PAST questionnaire, which asked about time spent sitting or lying down for work, study, travel, television viewing, leisure-time computer use, reading, eating, socialising and other purposes, during the previous day. Time reported for these questions was summed to provide a measure of total sedentary time. Participants also wore an activPAL device for the full day prior to completing the questionnaire and recorded their wake and sleep times in an activity log. Total waking sedentary time derived from the activPAL was used as the criterion measure. Correlation (Pearson's r) and agreement (Bland–Altman plots) between PAST and activPAL sedentary time were examined. Results Participants were sedentary (activPAL-determined) for approximately 66% of waking hours. The correlation between PAST and activPAL sedentary time for the whole sample was r = 0.50 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.28–0.67]; and higher for non-students (r = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.26–0.84) than students (r = 0.46, 95% CI = 0.16–0.68). Bland–Altman plots revealed that the mean difference between the two measures was 19 min although limits of agreement were wide (95% limits of agreement −4.1 to 4.7 h). Discussion The PAST questionnaire provides an acceptable measure of sedentary time in this population, which included students and adults with high workplace sitting. These findings support earlier research that questionnaires employing past-day recall of sedentary time provide a viable alternative to existing sedentary behaviour questionnaires.

Transforming teaching practice through virtual classrooms: A study of staff and student views of synchronous learning

Australia is a vast land and access to quality higher education is challenging for many Australians that live outside the larger metropolitan areas. In 2010, the School of Education at an Australian university (Curtin University in Western Australia) moved to flexible delivery of a fully online Bachelor of Education degree for their rural students. The new model of delivery allows access for students from any location provided they have a computer and an internet connection.A number of teaching staff had previously used an asynchronous environment to deliver learning modules housed within a learning management system (LMS) but had not used synchronous software with their students. To enhance the learning environment and to provide high quality learning experiences to students learning at a distance, the adoption of synchronous software (Elluminate Live) was introduced. This software is a real-time virtual classroom environment that allows for communication through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and video conferencing, alongside a large number of collaboration tools to engage learners.This research paper reports on the integration of a live e-learning solution into the current Learning Management System (LMS) environment. Staff were interviewed about their perceptions and a questionnaire was administered to a sample of students to identify their experience with the synchronous software in order to inform future practice.

Risk assessment for airborne infectious diseases between natural ventilation and split-system air conditioner in a university classroom

Indoor air quality is a critical factor in the classroom due to high people concentration in a unique space. Indoor air pollutant might increase the chance of both long and short-term health problems among students and staff, reduce the productivity of teachers and degrade the student’s learning environment and comfort. Adequate air distribution strategies may reduce risk of infection in classroom. So, the purpose of air distribution systems in a classroom is not only to maximize conditions for thermal comfort, but also to remove indoor contaminants. Natural ventilation has the potential to play a significant role in achieving improvements in IAQ. The present study compares the risk of airborne infection between Natural Ventilation (opening windows and doors) and a Split-System Air Conditioner in a university classroom. The Wells-Riley model was used to predict the risk of indoor airborne transmission of infectious diseases such as influenza, measles and tuberculosis. For each case, the air exchange rate was measured using a CO2 tracer gas technique. It was found that opening windows and doors provided an air exchange rate of 2.3 air changes/hour (ACH), while with the Split System it was 0.6 ACH. The risk of airborne infection ranged between 4.24 to 30.86 % when using the Natural Ventilation and between 8.99 to 43.19% when using the Split System. The difference of airborne infection risk between the Split System and the Natural Ventilation ranged from 47 to 56%. Opening windows and doors maximize Natural Ventilation so that the risk of airborne contagion is much lower than with Split System.

Student facilitated PBL - A capstone collaborative learning experience in the Griffith University MBBS program

We report on an innovation in teaching and learning designed to extend the collaborative learning of PBL, that occurs during the first two years of a four year graduate entry medical program, to a capstone learning experience to assist the transition to a hospital based year 3. During the last five weeks of Year 2 the PBL sessions consist of an initial student facilitated session early in the week followed by a large format session for the entire class convened by two clinicians. The new format PBL was perceived positively by the students and staff involved and may have advantages over traditional formats in developing students' clinical reasoning and differential diagnosis skills.

Problem-based learning in an e-learning environment: A case study at Griffith University School of Medicine

Increasing numbers of medical schools in Australia and overseas have moved away from didactic teaching methodologies and embraced problem-based learning (PBL) to improve clinical reasoning skills and communication skills as well as to encourage self-directed lifelong learning. In January 2005, the first cohort of students entered the new MBBS program at the Griffith University School of Medicine, Gold Coast, to embark upon an exciting, fully integrated curriculum using PBL, combining electronic delivery, communication and evaluation systems incorporating cognitive principles that underpin the PBL process. This chapter examines the educational philosophies and design of the e-learning environment underpinning the processes developed to deliver, monitor and evaluate the curriculum. Key initiatives taken to promote student engagement and innovative and distinctive approaches to student learning at Griffith promoted within the conceptual model for the curriculum are (a) Student engagement, (b) Pastoral care, (c) Staff engagement, (d) Monitoring and (e) Curriculum/Program Review. © 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Enhancing the learning experiences through Industry-Based Learning from Indonesian university perspective

This paper investigates how students’ learning experience can be enhanced by participating in the Industry-Based Learning (IBL) program. In this program, the university students coming into the industry to experience how the business is run. The students’ learning media is now not coming from the textbooks or the lecturers but from learning by doing. This new learning experience could be very interesting for students but at the same time could also be challenging. The research involves interviewing a number of students from the IBL programs, the academic staff from the participated university who has experience in supervising students and the employees of the industry who supported and supervised the students in their work placements. The research findings offer useful insights and create new knowledge in the field of education and learning. The research contributes to the existing knowledge by providing a new understanding of the topic as it applied to the Indonesian context.

Administrative Placement of the Information Systems Discipline in Universities - A SWOT Analysis of Queensland University of Technology

In some Queensland universities, Information Systems academics have moved out of Business Faculties. This study uses a pilot SWOT analysis to examine the ramifications of Information Systems academics being located within or outside of the Business Faculty. The analysis provides a useful basis for decision makers in the School studied, to exploit opportunities and minimise external threats. For Information Systems academics contemplating administrative relocation of their group, the study also offers useful insights. The study presages a series of further SWOT analyses to provide a range of perspectives on the relative merits of having Information Systems academics administratively located inside versus outside Business faculties.

A Best Practice Process for Fleet Safety Training

This paper outlines a process for fleet safety training based on research and management development programmes undertaken at the University of Huddersfield in the UK (www.hud.ac.uk/sas/trans/transnews.htm) and CARRS-Q in Australia (www.carrsq.qut.edu.au/staff/Murray.jsp) over the past 10 years.

Automated Feedback for 'Fill in the Gap' Programming Exercises

Timely feedback is a vital component in the learning process. It is especially important for beginner students in Information Technology since many have not yet formed an effective internal model of a computer that they can use to construct viable knowledge. Research has shown that learning efficiency is increased if immediate feedback is provided for students. Automatic analysis of student programs has the potential to provide immediate feedback for students and to assist teaching staff in the marking process. This paper describes a “fill in the gap” programming analysis framework which tests students’ solutions and gives feedback on their correctness, detects logic errors and provides hints on how to fix these errors. Currently, the framework is being used with the Environment for Learning to Programming (ELP) system at Queensland University of Technology (QUT); however, the framework can be integrated into any existing online learning environment or programming Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

The Impact of Internal Market Orientation on Staff Service Behaviours

The impact of service direction, service training and staff behaviours on perceptions of service delivery are examined. The impact of managerial behaviour in the form of internal market orientation (IMO) on the attitudes of frontline staff towards the firm and its consequent influence on their customer oriented behaviours is also examined. Frontline service staff working in the consumer transport industry were surveyed to provide subjective data about the constructs of interest in this study, and the data were analysed using structural equations modelling employing partial least squares estimation. The data indicate significant relationships between internal market orientation (IMO), the attitudes of the employees to the firm and their consequent behaviour towards customers. Customer orientation, service direction and service training are all identified as antecedents to high levels of service delivery. The study contributes to marketing theory by providing quantitative evidence to support assumptions that internal marketing has an impact on services success. For marketing practitioners, the research findings offer additional information about the management, training and motivation of service staff towards service excellence.