Virtual reality or virtually real : blended teaching and learning in a Master's level research methods class

This paper examines the enabling effect of using blended learning and synchronous internet mediated communication technologies to improve learning and develop a Sense of Community (SOC) in a group of post-graduate students consisting of a mix of on-campus and off-campus students. Both quantitative and qualitative data collected over a number of years supports the assertion that the blended learning environment enhanced both teaching and learning. The development of a SOC was pivotal to the success of the blended approach when working with geographically isolated groups within a single learning environment.

Writing together, learning together : the value and effectiveness of a research writing group for doctoral students

The high level of scholarly writing required for a doctoral thesis is a challenge for many research students. However, formal academic writing training is not a core component of many doctoral programs. Informal writing groups for doctoral students may be one method of contributing to the improvement of scholarly writing. In this paper, we report on a writing group that was initiated by an experienced writer and higher degree research supervisor to support and improve her doctoral students’ writing capabilities. Over time, this group developed a workable model to suit their varying needs and circumstances. The model comprised group sessions, an email group, and individual writing. Here, we use a narrative approach to explore the effectiveness and value of our research writing group model in improving scholarly writing. The data consisted of doctoral students’ reflections to stimulus questions about their writing progress and experiences. The stimulus questions sought to probe individual concerns about their own writing, what they had learned in the research writing group, the benefits of the group, and the disadvantages and challenges to participation. These reflections were analysed using thematic analysis. Following this analysis, the supervisor provided her perspective on the key themes that emerged. Results revealed that, through the writing group, members learned technical elements (e.g., paragraph structure), non-technical elements (e.g., working within limited timeframes), conceptual elements (e.g., constructing a cohesive arguments), collaborative writing processes, and how to edit and respond to feedback. In addition to improved writing quality, other benefits were opportunities for shared writing experiences, peer support, and increased confidence and motivation. The writing group provides a unique social learning environment with opportunities for: professional dialogue about writing, peer learning and review, and developing a supportive peer network. Thus our research writing group has proved an effective avenue for building doctoral students’ capability in scholarly writing. The proposed model for a research writing group could be applicable to any context, regardless of the type and location of the university, university faculty, doctoral program structure, or number of postgraduate students. It could also be used within a group of students with diverse research abilities, needs, topics and methodologies. However, it requires a group facilitator with sufficient expertise in scholarly writing and experience in doctoral supervision who can both engage the group in planned writing activities and also capitalise on fruitful lines of discussion related to students’ concerns as they arise. The research writing group is not intended to replace traditional supervision processes nor existing training. However it has clear benefits for improving scholarly writing in doctoral research programs particularly in an era of rapidly increasing student load.

Sampling perceptions; testing reality : an evidence-based approach to measurably improve information literacy and student research skills

Do commencing students possess the level of information literacy (IL) knowledge and skills they need to succeed at university? What impact does embedding IL within the engineering and design curriculum have? This paper reports on the self-perception versus the reality of IL knowledge and skills, across a large cohort of first year built environment and engineering students. Acting on the findings of this evaluation, the authors (a team of academic librarians) developed an intensive IL skills program which was integrated into a faculty wide unit. Perceptions, knowledge and skills were re-evaluated at the end of the semester to determine if embedded IL education made a difference. Findings reveal that both the perception and reality of IL skills were significantly and measurably improved.

Reconnect action research kit

This kit, designed for youth and family services and practitioners, provides an outline of action research, suggested strategies and tools for undertaking action research, as well as discussion of various challenges.

An examination of the knowledge barriers in participatory design and the prospects for embedded research

Participatory design has the moral and pragmatic tenet of including those who will be most affected by a design into the design process. However, good participation is hard to achieve and results linking project success and degree of participation are inconsistent. Through three case studies examining some of the challenges that different properties of knowledge – novelty, difference, dependence – can impose on the participatory endeavour we examine some of the consequences to the participatory process of failing to bridge across knowledge boundaries – syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. One pragmatic consequence, disrupting the user’s feeling of involvement to the project, has been suggested as a possible explanation for the inconsistent results linking participation and project success. To aid in addressing these issues a new form of participatory research, called embedded research, is proposed and examined within the framework of the case studies and knowledge framework with a call for future research into its possibilities.

Dancing the Thesis : Potentials and Pitfalls in Practice-led Research

Practice-led or multi modal theses (describing examinable outcomes of postgraduate study which comprise the practice of dancing/choreography with an accompanying exegesis) are an emerging strength of dance scholarship; a form of enquiry that has been gaining momentum for over a decade, particularly in Australia and the United Kingdom. It has been strongly argued that, in this form of research, legitimate claims to new knowledge are embodied predominantly within the practice itself (Pakes, 2003) and that these findings are emergent, contingent and often interstitial, contained within both the material form of the practice and in the symbolic languages surrounding the form. In a recent study on ‘dancing’ theses Phillips, Stock, Vincs (2009) found that there was general agreement from academics and artists that ‘there could be more flexibility in matching written language with conceptual thought expressed in practice’. The authors discuss how the seemingly intangible nature of danced / embodied research, reliant on what Melrose (2003) terms ‘performance mastery’ by the ‘expert practitioner’ (2006, Point 4) involving ‘expert’ intuition (2006, Point 5), might be accessed, articulated and validated in terms of alternative ways of knowing through exploring an ongoing dialogue in which the danced practice develops emergent theory. They also propose ways in which the danced thesis can be ‘converted’ into the required ‘durable’ artefact which the ephemerality of live performance denies, drawing on the work of Rye’s ‘multi-view’ digital record (2003) and Stapleton’s ‘multi-voiced audio visual document’(2006, 82). Building on a two-year research project (2007-2008) Dancing Between Diversity and Consistency: Refining Assessment in Postgraduate Degrees in Dance, which examined such issues in relation to assessment in an Australian context, the three researchers have further explored issues around interdisciplinarity, cultural differences and documentation through engaging with the following questions:  How do we represent research in which understandings, meanings and findings are situated within the body of the dancer/choreographer?  Do these need a form of ‘translating’ into textual form in order to be accessed as research?  What kind of language structures can be developed to effect this translation: metaphor, allusion, symbol?  How important is contextualising the creative practice?  How do we incorporate differing cultural inflections and practices into our reading and evaluation?  What kind of layered documentation can assist in producing a ‘durable’ research artefact from a non-reproduce-able live event?

Research Monograph: Managing ubiquitous eco cities: telecommunication infrastructure networks, technology convergence and intelligent urban management systems

Efficient and effective urban management systems for Ubiquitous Eco Cities require having intelligent and integrated management mechanisms. This integration includes bringing together economic, socio-cultural and urban development with a well orchestrated, transparent and open decision making mechanism and necessary infrastructure and technologies. In Ubiquitous Eco Cities telecommunication technologies play an important role in monitoring and managing activities over wired, wireless or fibre-optic networks. Particularly technology convergence creates new ways in which the information and telecommunication technologies are used and formed the back bone or urban management systems. The 21st Century is an era where information has converged, in which people are able to access a variety of services, including internet and location based services, through multi-functional devices such as mobile phones and provides opportunities in the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities. This research paper discusses the recent developments in telecommunication networks and trends in convergence technologies and their implications on the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities and how this technological shift is likely to be beneficial in improving the quality of life and place of residents, workers and visitors. The research paper reports and introduces recent approaches on urban management systems, such as intelligent urban management systems, that are suitable for Ubiquitous Eco Cities.

The use of narrative text for injury surveillance research : a systematic review

Objective: To summarise the extent to which narrative text fields in administrative health data are used to gather information about the event resulting in presentation to a health care provider for treatment of an injury, and to highlight best practise approaches to conducting narrative text interrogation for injury surveillance purposes.----- Design: Systematic review----- Data sources: Electronic databases searched included CINAHL, Google Scholar, Medline, Proquest, PubMed and PubMed Central.. Snowballing strategies were employed by searching the bibliographies of retrieved references to identify relevant associated articles.----- Selection criteria: Papers were selected if the study used a health-related database and if the study objectives were to a) use text field to identify injury cases or use text fields to extract additional information on injury circumstances not available from coded data or b) use text fields to assess accuracy of coded data fields for injury-related cases or c) describe methods/approaches for extracting injury information from text fields.----- Methods: The papers identified through the search were independently screened by two authors for inclusion, resulting in 41 papers selected for review. Due to heterogeneity between studies metaanalysis was not performed.----- Results: The majority of papers reviewed focused on describing injury epidemiology trends using coded data and text fields to supplement coded data (28 papers), with these studies demonstrating the value of text data for providing more specific information beyond what had been coded to enable case selection or provide circumstantial information. Caveats were expressed in terms of the consistency and completeness of recording of text information resulting in underestimates when using these data. Four coding validation papers were reviewed with these studies showing the utility of text data for validating and checking the accuracy of coded data. Seven studies (9 papers) described methods for interrogating injury text fields for systematic extraction of information, with a combination of manual and semi-automated methods used to refine and develop algorithms for extraction and classification of coded data from text. Quality assurance approaches to assessing the robustness of the methods for extracting text data was only discussed in 8 of the epidemiology papers, and 1 of the coding validation papers. All of the text interrogation methodology papers described systematic approaches to ensuring the quality of the approach.----- Conclusions: Manual review and coding approaches, text search methods, and statistical tools have been utilised to extract data from narrative text and translate it into useable, detailed injury event information. These techniques can and have been applied to administrative datasets to identify specific injury types and add value to previously coded injury datasets. Only a few studies thoroughly described the methods which were used for text mining and less than half of the studies which were reviewed used/described quality assurance methods for ensuring the robustness of the approach. New techniques utilising semi-automated computerised approaches and Bayesian/clustering statistical methods offer the potential to further develop and standardise the analysis of narrative text for injury surveillance.

The utility and challenges of using ICD codes in child maltreatment research : a review of existing literature

Objective: The objectives of this article are to explore the extent to which the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) has been used in child abuse research, to describe how the ICD system has been applied and to assess factors affecting the reliability of ICD coded data in child abuse research.----- Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, PsychInfo and Google Scholar were searched for peer reviewed articles written since 1989 that used ICD as the classification system to identify cases and research child abuse using health databases. Snowballing strategies were also employed by searching the bibliographies of retrieved references to identify relevant associated articles. The papers identified through the search were independently screened by two authors for inclusion, resulting in 47 studies selected for the review. Due to heterogeneity of studies metaanalysis was not performed.----- Results: This paper highlights both utility and limitations of ICD coded data. ICD codes have been widely used to conduct research into child maltreatment in health data systems. The codes appear to be used primarily to determine child maltreatment patterns within identified diagnoses or to identify child maltreatment cases for research.----- Conclusions: A significant impediment to the use of ICD codes in child maltreatment research is the under-ascertainment of child maltreatment by using coded data alone. This is most clearly identified and, to some degree, quantified, in research where data linkage is used. Practice Implications: The importance of improved child maltreatment identification will assist in identifying risk factors and creating programs that can prevent and treat child maltreatment and assist in meeting reporting obligations under the CRC.

Recruiting older adults to health research studies : a systematic review

Objective: To provide a systematic review of papers comparing the effectiveness of different strategies to recruit older adults (aged 50 years and over) to participate in health research studies, to guide successful recruitment in future research. Methods: Four major databases were searched for papers published between 1995 and 2008 with: target group aged 50 years or over; participants allocated to receive one of two or more recruitment strategies; and an outcome measure of response rate or enrolment in study. Results: Twelve papers were included in the review. Conclusion: For postal questionnaires, recruitment strategies used with older adults had comparable outcomes to those used to recruit from the general population. For other types of studies, strategies involving face-to-face contact may be more effective than indirect methods, but this needs to be balanced against feasibility. Overall, little evidence on the topic exists and more rigorous investigation is necessary.

The effective and the evocative : reflecting on practice-led research approaches in art and design

Early in the practice-led research debate, Steven Scrivener (2000, 2002) identified some general differences in the approach of artists and designers undertaking postgraduate research. His distinctions centered on the role of the artefact in problem-based research (associated with design) and creative-production research (associated with artistic practice). Nonetheless, in broader discussions on practice-led research, 'art and design' often continues to be conflated within a single term. In particular, marked differences between art and design methodologies, theoretical framing, research goals and research claims have been underestimated. This paper revisits Scrivener's work and establishes further distinctions between art and design research. It is informed by our own experiences of postgraduate supervision and research methods training, and an empirical study of over sixty postgraduate, practice-led projects completed at the Creative Industries Faculty of QUT between 2002 and 2008. Our reflections have led us to propose that artists and designers work with differing research goals (the evocative and the effective, respectively), which are played out in the questions asked, the creative process, the role of the artefact and the way new knowledge is evidenced. Of course, research projects will have their own idiosyncrasies but, we argue, marking out the poles at each end of the spectrum of art and design provides useful insights for postgraduate candidates, supervisors and methodologists alike.

How relevant is tourism research

One of the definitions of the term myth is ‘an unproved or false collective belief that is used to justify a social institution’ (see http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/myth). Before we are criticized for suggesting such an irreverent thought might apply to tourism academia, readers must recognize that organizations and industries often operate using shared collective myths (see Meyer and Rowan 1977). Institutionalized rules and processes function as myths that provide legitimacy. The question of interest in this paper is not in the context of the quality of tourism academic research output, which is addressed by other papers in this research probe section. Rather, of importance is enhancing understanding of the extent to which our collective knowledge, legitimized through publishing in peer reviewed academic publications, is proving of value to industry stakeholders, an axiom that appears to be largely unquestioned and unproven.

Assessing information systems success models : empirical comparison (Research in Progress)

Information System (IS) success may be the most arguable and important dependent variable in the IS field. The purpose of the present study is to address IS success by empirically assess and compare DeLone and McLean’s (1992) and Gable’s et al. (2008) models of IS success in Australian Universities context. The two models have some commonalities and several important distinctions. Both models integrate and interrelate multiple dimensions of IS success. Hence, it would be useful to compare the models to see which is superior; as it is not clear how IS researchers should respond to this controversy.