Enhanced student learning in accounting utilising web-based technology, peer-review feedback and reflective practices: A learning community approach to assessment

Higher education is becoming a major driver of economic competitiveness in an increasingly knowledge-driven global economy. Maintaining the competitive edge has seen an increase in public accountability of higher education institutions through the mechanism of ranking universities based on the quality of their teaching and learning outcomes. As a result, assessment processes are under scrutiny, creating tensions between standardisation and measurability and the development of creative and reflective learners. These tensions are further highlighted in the context of large undergraduate subjects, learner diversity and time-poor academics and students. Research suggests that high level and complex learning is best developed when assessment, combined with effective feedback practices, involves students as partners in these processes. This article reports on a four-phase, cross-institution and cross-discipline project designed to embed peer-review processes as part of the assessment in two large, undergraduate accounting classes. Using a social constructivist view of learning, which emphasises the role of both teacher and learner in the development of complex cognitive understandings, we undertook an iterative process of peer review. Successive phases built upon students’ feedback and achievements and input from language/learning and curriculum experts to improve the teaching and learning outcomes.

A student-centred approach to support, reward and recognition of student peer ‘learnership’

The benefits for university graduates in growing skills and capabilities through volunteering experiences are gaining increased attention. Building leadership self-efficacy supports students develop their capacity for understanding, articulating and evidencing their learning. Reward and recognition is fundamental in the student’s journey to build self-efficacy. Through this research, concepts of reward and recognition have been explored and articulated through the experiences and perceptions of actively engaged student peer leaders. The research methodology has enabled a collaborative, student-centred approach in shaping an innovative Rewards Framework, which supports, recognises and rewards the learning journey from beginning peer leader to competent and confident graduate.

The short-term accommodation response to aniso-accommodative stimuli in isometropia

Purpose There have been only a limited number of studies examining the accommodative response that occurs when the two eyes are provided with disparate accommodative stimuli, and the results from these studies to date have been equivocal. In this study, we therefore aimed to examine the capacity of the visual system to aniso-accommodate by objectively measuring the interocular difference in the accommodation response between fellow dominant and non-dominant eyes under controlled monocular and binocular viewing conditions during short-term exposure to aniso-accommodative stimuli. Methods The accommodative response of each eye of sixteen young isometropic adults (mean age 22 ± 2 years) with normal binocular vision was measured using an open-field autorefractor during a range of testing conditions; monocularly (accommodative demands ranging from 1.32 to 4.55 D) and binocularly while altering the accommodation demand for each eye (aniso-accommodative stimuli ranging from 0.24 to 2.05 D). Results Under monocular viewing conditions, the dominant and non-dominant eyes displayed a highly symmetric accommodative response; mean interocular difference in spherical equivalent 0.01 ± 0.06 D (relative) and 0.22 ± 0.06 D (absolute) (p>0.05). During binocular viewing, the dominant eye displayed a greater accommodative response (0.11 ± 0.34 D relative and 0.24 ± 0.26 D absolute) irrespective of whether the demand of the dominant or non-dominant eye was altered (p = 0.01). Astigmatic power vectors J0 and J45 did not vary between eyes or with increasing accommodation demands under monocular or binocular viewing conditions (p>0.05). Conclusion The dominant and non-dominant eyes of young isometropic individuals display a similar consensual lag of accommodation under both monocular and binocular viewing conditions, with the dominant eye showing a small but significantly greater (by 0.12 to 0.25 D) accommodative response. Evidence of short-term aniso-accommodation in response to asymmetric accommodation demands was not observed.

Practices to enhance peer program implementation integrity to safeguard peer leaders and learners

The powerful influence of peers on fellow students’ learning engagement and their ability to foster self-efficacy is well recognised. A positive learner mindset can be fostered through establishment of guided meaningful relationships formed between peers. Recognising the value of peer connections in shaping the student learning experience, peer programs have been widely adopted by universities as a mechanism to facilitate these connections. While potentially beneficial, a lack of knowledge and inexperience by program implementers can lead to program outcomes being compromised. To mitigate this risk, QUT has established university wide systems and benchmarks for enacting peer programs. These measures aim to promote program implementation integrity by supporting and developing the knowledge and capabilities of peer leaders and program coordinators. This paper describes a range of measures that have been instigated to optimise the quality of programs and ensure outcomes are mutually constructive and beneficial for all stakeholders.

Using simplified peer review processes to fund research: A prospective study

Objective: To prospectively test two simplified peer review processes, estimate the agreement between the simplified and official processes, and compare the costs of peer review. Design, participants and setting: A prospective parallel study of Project Grant proposals submitted in 2013 to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia. The official funding outcomes were compared with two simplified processes using proposals in Public Health and Basic Science. The two simplified processes were: panels of 7 reviewers who met face-to-face and reviewed only the nine-page research proposal and track record (simplified panel); and 2 reviewers who independently reviewed only the nine-page research proposal (journal panel). The official process used panels of 12 reviewers who met face-to-face and reviewed longer proposals of around 100 pages. We compared the funding outcomes of 72 proposals that were peer reviewed by the simplified and official processes. Main outcome measures: Agreement in funding outcomes; costs of peer review based on reviewers’ time and travel costs. Results: The agreement between the simplified and official panels (72%, 95% CI 61% to 82%), and the journal and official panels (74%, 62% to 83%), was just below the acceptable threshold of 75%. Using the simplified processes would save $A2.1–$A4.9 million per year in peer review costs. Conclusions: Using shorter applications and simpler peer review processes gave reasonable agreement with the more complex official process. Simplified processes save time and money that could be reallocated to actual research. Funding agencies should consider streamlining their application processes.

Author responsibilities in improving the quality of peer reviews: A rejoinder to Iivari (2016)

In this rejoinder to Iivari (2016), I discuss authors’ responsibilities in the process of ensuring quality reviews. I argue that one overlooked element in quality peer reviewing is authors’ unconstrained right to submit manuscripts in whatever form or quality they desire. As such, I suggest adding some constraints and offering more freedom to reviewers to maintain viability of the scholarly publication system. I offer three responses to Iivari’s suggestions and add two further suggestions for change.

Creative Industries come to China (MATE)

This paper introduces the special issue “China: Internationalizing the Creative Industries”, describing the Australian Research Council funded “MATE” project which provides the conceptual background for the questions the issue explores. The MATE project began with the expectation that as China evolves from its status as a developing country with an emphasis on primary industries and manufacturing, to a mature, market-driven economy benefiting from high levels of international investment, it will become more actively engaged with the global “knowledge economy” and “information society”. In this context, developments in the “creative industries”, which are playing such an important role in developed economies, might reasonably be expected in China. Although China continues to be characterised by strong central-policy settings, as the domestic consumer market matures there is greater scope for consumer-led creative business development. The “MATE” project aimed to capture some of these changes as they began to gain momentum across a range of services: Media, Advertising, Tourism and Education. This special issue continues this theme with papers that explore the theoretical challenges, economic questions and implications, and practical instantiations of creative industries growth in China. All papers contained in this special issue have been peer-reviewed.

Adolescent protective behaviour to reduce drug and alcohol use, alcohol-related harm and interpersonal violence

Typically adolescents' friends are considered a risk factor for adolescent engagement in risk-taking. This study took a more novel approach, by examining adolescent friendship as a protective factor. In particular it investigated friends' potential to intervene to reduce risk-taking. 540 adolescents (mean age 13.47 years) were asked about their intention to intervene to reduce friends' alcohol, drug and alcohol-related harms and about psychosocial factors potentially associated with intervening. More than half indicated that they would intervene in friends' alcohol, drug use, alcohol-related harms and interpersonal violence. Intervening was associated with being female, having friends engage in overall less risk-taking and having greater school connectedness. The findings provide an important understanding of increasing adolescent protective behavior as a potential strategy to reduce alcohol and drug related harms.

From Prosumer to Produser: Understanding User-Led Content Creation

Alvin Toffler’s image of the prosumer (1970, 1980, 1990) continues to influence in a significant way our understanding of the user-led, collaborative processes of content creation which are today labelled “social media” or “Web 2.0”. A closer look at Toffler’s own description of his prosumer model reveals, however, that it remains firmly grounded in the mass media age: the prosumer is clearly not the self-motivated creative originator and developer of new content which can today be observed in projects ranging from open source software through Wikipedia to Second Life, but simply a particularly well-informed, and therefore both particularly critical and particularly active, consumer. The highly specialised, high end consumers which exist in areas such as hi-fi or car culture are far more representative of the ideal prosumer than the participants in non-commercial (or as yet non-commercial) collaborative projects. And to expect Toffler’s 1970s model of the prosumer to describe these 21st-century phenomena was always an unrealistic expectation, of course. To describe the creative and collaborative participation which today characterises user-led projects such as Wikipedia, terms such as ‘production’ and ‘consumption’ are no longer particularly useful – even in laboured constructions such as ‘commons-based peer-production’ (Benkler 2006) or ‘p2p production’ (Bauwens 2005). In the user communities participating in such forms of content creation, roles as consumers and users have long begun to be inextricably interwoven with those as producer and creator: users are always already also able to be producers of the shared information collection, regardless of whether they are aware of that fact – they have taken on a new, hybrid role which may be best described as that of a produser (Bruns 2008). Projects which build on such produsage can be found in areas from open source software development through citizen journalism to Wikipedia, and beyond this also in multi-user online computer games, filesharing, and even in communities collaborating on the design of material goods. While addressing a range of different challenges, they nonetheless build on a small number of universal key principles. This paper documents these principles and indicates the possible implications of this transition from production and prosumption to produsage.

Sociometric stability and the behavioral correlates of peer acceptance in early childhood

This paper presents findings from an Australian study examining the behavioral correlates and stability of social status for preschool-aged children. The social status of an initial sample of 187 (94 boys and 93 girls) preschool children (mean age 62.4 months, SD = 4.22) was determined through sociometric assessment. Children classified as rejected, neglected and popular (n = 70) were selected for observation. Children were observed for a total of 25 minutes over a three-month period engaging in free play within their preschool centers. Results indicated that children classified as popular were more likely than rejected or neglected children to engage in cooperative play, ongoing connected conversation and to display positive affect. Popular children were less likely than rejected or neglected children to engage in parallel play, onlooker behavior or alone directed behavior. Six months after initial sociometric classification, sociometric interviews were repeated to test for stability and change. Results indicated that preschool-aged children’s social status classifications showed a moderate to high rate of stability for those children classified as popular, rejected and neglected.

Completing the jigsaw : ESL and EFL undergraduate views on interactive peer-based learning

English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students often face incongruence with Western teaching methods and learning expectations. The aim of this paper is to explore the potential for interactive peer-based learning to engage ESL and EFL language learners provide authentic communication experiences and accelerate learning through two case studies in different contexts. A study was undertaken to investigate student ‘voice’ (Rudduck, 1999, 2005; Rudduck & Flutter, 2004) during an intervention of communicative language teaching using peer-based learning strategies. This article describes unique similarities and subtle differences between ESL and EFL undergraduate learning in two different cultural contexts, using a 'stages of learning matrix' teaching tool to encourage civic skills and self-efficacy. It also suggests ways for teachers to improve on inconsistencies in group-based learning in order to promote more inclusive and congruent learning experiences for English language learners.

Enhancing peer support

A useful way to enhance peer support among young people is to provide peer counsellor training programmes. Research has shown, however, that there are problems associated with typical peer counselling programmes for young people. Most rely on teaching young people counselling skills that are commonly used by professional counsellors when counselling adults and these are not compatible with typical conversation behaviours used by young people. Another problem is that they suggest some commonly used communication processes evident in the conversations of young people are unhelpful, whereas research has shown that this is not the case (Geldard, 2006). In order to overcome these problems, a peer counsellor training programme has been developed for young people as an outcome of research into training young people as peer counsellors (Geldard, 2006).

Bringing the internet down to earth : emerging spaces of locative media

Web 1.0 referred to the early, read-only internet; Web 2.0 refers to the ‘read-write web’ in which users actively contribute to as well as consume online content; Web 3.0 is now being used to refer to the convergence of mobile and Web 2.0 technologies and applications. One of the most important developments in mobile 3.0 is geography: with many mobile phones now equipped with GPS, mobiles promise to “bring the internet down to earth” through geographically-aware, or locative media. The internet was earlier heralded as “the death of geography” with predictions that with anyone able to access information from anywhere, geography would no longer matter. But mobiles are disproving this. GPS allows the location of the user to be pinpointed, and the mobile internet allows the user to access locally-relevant information, or to upload content which is geotagged to the specific location. It also allows locally-specific content to be sent to the user when the user enters a specific space. Location-based services are one of the fastest-growing segments of the mobile internet market: the 2008 AIMIA report indicates that user access of local maps increased by 347% over the previous 12 months, and restaurant guides/reviews increased by 174%. The central tenet of cultural geography is that places are culturally-constructed, comprised of the physical space itself, culturally-inflected perceptions of that space, and people’s experiences of the space (LeFebvre 1991). This paper takes a cultural geographical approach to locative media, anatomising the various spaces which have emerged through locative media, or “the geoweb” (Lake 2004). The geoweb is such a new concept that to date, critical discourse has treated it as a somewhat homogenous spatial formation. In order to counter this, and in order to demonstrate the dynamic complexity of the emerging spaces of the geoweb, the paper provides a topography of different types of locative media space: including the personal/aesthetic in which individual users geotag specific physical sites with their own content and meanings; the commercial, like the billboards which speak to individuals as they pass in Minority Report; and the social, in which one’s location is defined by the proximity of friends rather than by geography.

The potential for a web based intervention to improve young adult passenger safety

Young drivers aged 17-24 are consistently overrepresented in motor vehicle crashes. Research has shown that a young driver’s crash risk increases when carrying similarly aged passengers, with fatal crash risk increasing two to three fold with two or more passengers. Recent growth in access to and use of the internet has led to a corresponding increase in the number of web based behaviour change interventions. An increasing body of literature describes the evaluation of web based programs targeting risk behaviours and health issues. Evaluations have shown promise for such strategies with evidence for positive changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviour. The growing popularity of web based programs is due in part to their wide accessibility, ability for personalised tailoring of intervention messages, and self-direction and pacing of online content. Young people are also highly receptive to the internet and the interactive elements of online programs are particularly attractive. The current study was designed to assess the feasibility for a web based intervention to increase the use of personal and peer protective strategies among young adult passengers. An extensive review was conducted on the development and evaluation of web based programs. Year 12 students were also surveyed about their use of the internet in general and for health and road safety information. All students reported internet access at home or at school, and 74% had searched for road safety information. Additional findings have shown promise for the development of a web based passenger safety program for young adults. Design and methodological issues will be discussed.

A pilot study utilising cross-age peer tutoring as a method of intervention for anxious adolescents

Anxiety disorders are the most common psychopathology experienced by young people, with up to 18% of adolescents developing an anxiety disorder. The consequences of these disorders, if left untreated, include impaired peer relationships, school absenteeism and self-concept problems. In addition, anxiety disorders may play a causal role in the development of depression in young people, precede eating disorders and predispose adolescents to substance abuse disorders. While the school is often chosen as a place to provide early intervention for this debilitating disorder, the fact that excessive anxiety is often not recognised in school and that young people are reluctant to seek help, makes identifying these adolescents difficult. Even when these young people are identified, there are problems in providing sensitive programs which are not stigmatising to them within a school setting. One method which may engage this adolescent population could be cross-age peer tutoring. This paper reports on a small pilot study using the “Worrybusters” program and a cross-age peer tutoring method to engage the anxious adolescents. These anxious secondary school students planned activities for teacher-referred anxious primary school students for a term in the high school setting and then delivered those activities to the younger students weekly in the next term in the primary school. Although the secondary school students decreased their scores on anxiety self-report measures there were no significant differences for primary school students’ self-reports. However, the primary school parent reports indicated a significant decrease in their child’s anxiety.