Blog and design education : facilitating reflective learning

This paper discusses about effectiveness of blogs for reflective learning in design education. Students in two animation units were asked to complete their online journal via blog in terms of reflective learning. Students were encouraged to respond their weekly outcomes and project development process to their blog and share it with other students. A survey was undertaken to evaluate their learning experience and one of the key outcomes indicates that interaction design for social network is significantly important to blog based learning design.

Online nail art application : proceeding of the project development

Online Nail Artist (ONA) project aims to create a web-based application for nail salon customers. The application will help customers to customize their hands virtually and find suitable nail colors. The main research question is to reconfigure user experience in relation to product service in terms of customization of user needs. As results, the key function of the application will be to customize a virtual hand image by selecting a matched skin tone, a nail length, and a nail shape in accordance with their hands. The objectives of the project proceeding are to 1) identify customers’ experience in relation to the product features through preliminary research on existing products; 2) create a conceptual framework of the project development in order to reflect the user experience identified; and 3) present a mock up which include key features of the ONA for the future development.

Action learning of online marketing via a global contest

Introduction: The Google Online Marketing Challenge is a global competition in which student teams run advertising campaigns for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) using AdWords, Google’s text-based advertisements. In 2008, its inaugural year, over 8,000 students and 300 instructors from 47 countries representing over 200 schools participated. The Challenge ran in undergraduate and graduate classes in disciplines such as marketing, tourism, advertising, communication and information systems. Combining advertising and education, the Challenge gives student hands-on experience in the increasingly important field of online marketing, engages them with local businesses and motivates them through the thrill of a global competition. Student teams receive US$200 in AdWords credits, Google’s premier advertising product that offers cost-per-click advertisements. The teams then recruit and work with a local business to devise an effective online marketing campaign. Students first outline a strategy, run a series of campaigns, and provide their business with recommendations to improve their online marketing. Teams submit two written reports for judging by 14 academics in eight countries. In addition, Google AdWords experts judge teams on their campaign statistics such as success metrics and account management. Rather than a marketing simulation against a computer or hypothetical marketing plans for hypothetical businesses, the Challenges has student teams develop and manage real online advertising campaigns for their clients and compete against peers globally.

High impact training : achieving synergies between program management education and workplace practice

This paper addresses the challenges of transfer of training back to the workplace for programme and project managers who are being groomed for the leadership of large and complex projects. The paper draws on the experience of the development and delivery of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) education programs: an Executive Masters of Complex Project Management and a series of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) events for an Australian government agency, Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO). Drawing on notions of ‘far transfer’ (Laker 1990; Noe, 1986) and ‘transfer climate’ (Kozlowski & Salas, 1993; Yamnill & McLean, 2001), the paper describes the steps undertaken to achieve a design that ensures that programme and project leadership skills developed through these corporate education programs become successfully embedded back in the organisation. Further, the paper reports on a small qualitative study where the programme success was evaluated by the organisational sponsor, senior leaders and program participants. Nine interviews were conducted and analysed to identify the success of far transfer and transfer climate four months after the return of program participants from cohort 1 2008 to the workplace.

Online professional communities : understanding the effects of membership on teacher practice

Online communities offer teachers a forum to discuss ideas, seek support, engage in professional discussions and network with a wider peer group. The popularity of online communities for teachers is self-evident by the quantity that has emerged in recent years and they present as opportunities to engage in continued pedagogical growth. The study presented in this paper has focused on the electronic discussions of three online communities for teachers, two Australian-based communities and one UK-based community. The aim was to analyse the content of the messages, via content analysis using the Practical Inquiry Model (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2001) in an attempt to determine if membership had an impact pedagogy. This study will present findings that support the conclusion that membership to online communities provides genuine opportunities for continued pedagogical growth for teachers. It will also show that they are being used as a problem solving resource, provide opportunities for professional discourse and professional support.

It's All About Connections: Teachers, Online Communities and PD

The impact of the Internet on our lives has been pervasive. People are increasingly turning to the social interaction available on the Internet to satisfy their needs, whether these are professional or personal. The Internet offers users fast access to social contacts such as online chat groups and discussion lists helping us to make connections with others. Online communities are being increasingly used by teachers for professional support, guidance and inspiration. They present as a source of continuous professional development for teachers as they are able to deliver authentic and personalised opportunities for learning. This book will present the findings of a study that was conducted on three online communities for teachers. It will explore the nature of online community membership and offer some conclusions regarding their potential as a source of professional learning for teachers.

Developing consistency in teacher judgment formation through online meeting centres

This paper investigates the complex interactions that occur as teachers meet online to justify and negotiate their assessment judgments of student work across relatively large and geographically dispersed populations. Drawing from sociocultural theories of learning and technology, the technology is positioned as playing a role in either supporting or hindering teachers reaching a common understanding of assessment standards. Meeting transcripts and interviews with the teachers have been qualitatively analysed in terms of the interactions that occurred and teachers’ perceptions of these interactions. While online meetings offer a partial solution to address the current demands of assessment in education, they also present new challenges as teachers meet, in an unfamiliar environment, to discuss student work.

Professional education in built environment and design

Early and rich conversations with a range of stakeholders – academics, professionals and graduates in their early years of practice – quickly clarified that the singular challenge for most parties centres on the ways in which courses prepare graduates for the pace, diversity and flux of contemporary professional practice.---------In pursuing understanding of this central challenge this study has focused on new graduates in BED disciplines by canvassing their views and those of two other major stakeholder groups (academic staff and professional practitioners in the disciplines studied). The first crucial years of a young graduate’s life in the workforce are shaped by a number of factors including the quality of the transition-to-work experience. The quality of this life-shaping transition is dependent on a range of factors including the ways in which graduates are educated in universities, their personal developmental characteristics and those of the professional people around them and the preparedness of workplaces and other professional groups to guide new recruits through the transition experience. This study makes recommendations about how the variations in transition experience, resulting from the vagaries of all these factors across a range of worksites, may be better understood, perhaps normalised, and, at least, supported. . Early and rich conversations with a range of stakeholders – academics, professionals and graduates in their early years of practice – quickly clarified that the singular challenge for most parties centres on the ways in which courses prepare graduates for the pace, diversity and flux of contemporary professional practice. The study proceeded through literature review, focus group interviews, national online survey and workshops. Through all these methods a number of challenges and factors essential to the transition experience, and the quality of education which precedes it, were identified. Firstly the study found further evidence of the importance of higher-order graduate capabilities, namely, the development of judgment, critical enquiry and strategic thinking. Alongside these capabilities the importance of the development of emotional intelligence, particularly interpersonal and social skills, was stressed by all stakeholders. At the time of writing the global economic crisis was providing challenges to the sector and its young graduates. This phenomenon proved the value of the development of resilience and persistence in graduates, the education system was called upon by all stakeholders as a place where the future-proofing of neophytes would ensure that the unknown challenges of the future could also be confronted. The study found that the challenges of transition to work are best supported by authentic undergraduate experiences both on and off campus, inside and outside classrooms, and that commencing professional life is made easier for new graduates when university courses and workplace settings develop, sustain and support high standards and high expectations of students. All these findings indicate the importance of stakeholder expectations, roles and responsibilities in respect of the transition-to-work experience. Whilst full agreement about how these things should occur is not necessary, a process (amongst stakeholders) which seeks value alignment around transition through discussion, debate and agenda-setting would probably assist to address what is seen as a major challenge in built environment and design education.

Bridging the gap : developing an innovative online resource for international graduate students

This paper describes the development of an innovative online website for international graduate students studying at universities in Australia. In 2008, the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia identified as a key goal the development of its profile as a research intensive university. One of the performance indicators in realising this goal was to increase the proportion of international graduate students from 20% to 50% over a five-year period. To support these students, the University Research Students Centre (RSC) decided to develop an innovative interactive website called the ‘Doorway to Research’ to help prepare students for their arrival in Australia, by providing access to information and support between the period of their acceptance to their graduate programs and their arrival into the country.

Assessment of online discussion forums for law students

This paper goes beyond the existing literature and explores the innovative topic of designing criterion-referenced assessment for online discussion forums. There are several benefits of embedding online discussion forums into subjects including engaging students in collaborative learning, and encouraging deeper analysis, critical thinking and reflection. Using the assessment principles of validity, reliability and transparency, this paper offers a range of practical strategies to tutors who plan to develop criterion-referenced assessment as opposed to norm-referenced assessment for online discussion forums, applies the assessment principles in the context of an undergraduate law subject, and exemplars a rubric for an online discussion forum in a work placement subject.

A constraints-led perspective to understanding skill acquisition and game play: A basis for integration of motor learning theory and physical education praxis?

Background: In order to design appropriate environments for performance and learning of movement skills, physical educators need a sound theoretical model of the learner and of processes of learning. In physical education, this type of modelling informs the organization of learning environments and effective and efficient use of practice time. An emerging theoretical framework in motor learning, relevant to physical education, advocates a constraints-led perspective for acquisition of movement skills and game play knowledge. This framework shows how physical educators could use task, performer and environmental constraints to channel acquisition of movement skills and decision making behaviours in learners. From this viewpoint, learners generate specific movement solutions to satisfy the unique combination of constraints imposed on them, a process which can be harnessed during physical education lessons. Purpose: In this paper the aim is to provide an overview of the motor learning approach emanating from the constraints-led perspective, and examine how it can substantiate a platform for a new pedagogical framework in physical education: nonlinear pedagogy. We aim to demonstrate that it is only through theoretically valid and objective empirical work of an applied nature that a conceptually sound nonlinear pedagogy model can continue to evolve and support research in physical education. We present some important implications for designing practices in games lessons, showing how a constraints-led perspective on motor learning could assist physical educators in understanding how to structure learning experiences for learners at different stages, with specific focus on understanding the design of games teaching programmes in physical education, using exemplars from Rugby Union and Cricket. Findings: Research evidence from recent studies examining movement models demonstrates that physical education teachers need a strong understanding of sport performance so that task constraints can be manipulated so that information-movement couplings are maintained in a learning environment that is representative of real performance situations. Physical educators should also understand that movement variability may not necessarily be detrimental to learning and could be an important phenomenon prior to the acquisition of a stable and functional movement pattern. We highlight how the nonlinear pedagogical approach is student-centred and empowers individuals to become active learners via a more hands-off approach to learning. Summary: A constraints-based perspective has the potential to provide physical educators with a framework for understanding how performer, task and environmental constraints shape each individual‟s physical education. Understanding the underlying neurobiological processes present in a constraints-led perspective to skill acquisition and game play can raise awareness of physical educators that teaching is a dynamic 'art' interwoven with the 'science' of motor learning theories.