Evaluation of University of Queensland Library Spaces: three case studies at St Lucia Campus

Introduction: The paper reports on an evaluation study of spaces in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSHL), Biological Sciences (BSL) and Walter Harrison Law (WHLL) Libraries of the University of Queensland (UQ). The study was part of an evaluation of the quality and patterns of use of spaces in UQ libraries, which aimed to propose recommendations for future improvements and decision-making. This paper presents a study of areas of weakness in existing SSHL spaces, and impacts of the refurbishment of spaces at BSL and WHLL on students’ experiences. The findings evidence a link between students’ learning experiences and the quality of library spaces.Methods: An online survey, “Students’ Experiences and Perceptions of Library Physical Spaces”, was designed to collect data from students. The survey questions addressed seven topics: (1) overall satisfaction with spaces in the UQ Libraries; (2) welcoming nature of the library entry; (3) lighting; (4) acoustics; (5) furniture; (6) wayfinding; and (7) preferences for different space types in the library.Results: 1505 students completed the surveys, with 1098 responses recorded to open-ended questions on why students visited the libraries and the physical characteristics of the spaces that influenced their experiences. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data elucidated key design challenges and considerations. In particular, the data suggested that the provision of individual quiet study spaces remains an important role of academic libraries, with Studying Alone identified as the most important reason for student visits.Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of individual study spaces and propose a number of recommendations in relation to physical space design and management.Relevance: Academic libraries face the challenge to keep pace with change in relation to students’ demographics, pedagogy and technology. In doing so, it is important to have an understanding of the evolving patterns of students’ learning behaviours, space uses and preferences through ongoing evaluation of library spaces.

Lecturing and other face-to-face teaching – too much or too little? An assessment based on student feedback and fail rates

Institutes of higher learning are tending to reduce the amount of face-to-face teaching that they offer, and particularly through the traditional pedagogical method of lecturing. There is ongoing debate about the educational value of lectures as a teaching approach, in terms of both whether they facilitate understanding of subject material and whether they augment the student educational experience. In this study, student evaluation of teaching scores plus academic outcome (percentage of students who fail) was assessed for 236 course units offered by a science faculty at an Australian university over the course of one year. These measures were related to the degree to which lectures and other face-to-face teaching were used in these units, controlling for factors such as class size, school and year level. An information-theoretic model selection approach was employed to identify the best models and predictors of student assessments and fail rates. All the top models of student feedback included a measure reflecting amount of face-to-face teaching, with the evaluation of quality of teaching being higher in units with higher proportions of lectures. However, these models explained only 12–20% of the variation in student evaluation scores, suggesting that many other factors come into play. By contrast, units with fewer lectures have lower failure rates. These results suggest that moving away from lectures and face-to-face teaching may not harm, and indeed may improve the number of students who pass the subject, but that this may be incurred at the expense of greater dissatisfaction in students' learning experience.

A comparison of mobile learning attitudes among university students in four nations

This paper contains findings based on administering a Likert-type mobile learning attitude survey to 261 university students from four nations, China, Lebanon, the UAE and the USA. Students were asked to provide attitudes and perceptions toward the use of mobile technologies in education. The results of the survey indicate that students in different regions of the world tend to agree that mobile learning could empower informal learning and could enhance teaching and learning. Lebanon students were most similar to those from the USA, while students from China were more similar to those from the UAE. Similarities and differences in results among nations and implications of these findings are discussed.

Engineering Distance Education at Deakin University Australia

Increasing numbers of engineering departments are interested in offering their programs by distanceeducation. These schools grabble with several difficulties and issues associated with distance education:course structure, communication with students, delivery of course material, delivery of exams,accreditation, equity between on-campus and off-campus students, and especially the delivery ofpractical training.In the early 1990’s, Deakin University faced these same problems when it commenced teachingundergraduate engineering by distance education. It now offers a full Bachelor of Engineering degreein both on-campus and off-campus mode, with majors that include civil, mechanical,electrical/electronics, and mechatronics. Student cohorts are approximately 72% on-campus, 28% offcampus.Accredited by Engineers Australia and part of the Washington Accord, Deakin has adapted toadvances in communications technology and changes in education design. The future direction of theSchool includes an emphasis on design-oriented, project-based learning and “flipping the classroom”.As a result, differences between the more traditional off-campus and on-campus cohorts are becomingincreasingly blurred.

Calculating student aspiration: Bourdieu, spatiality and the politics of recognition

This paper reports on a recent study of aspirations for higher education by secondary school students from disadvantaged backgrounds in regional Australia. At the same time, it goes in search of explanations that transcend a Bourdieuian account of aspirations as produced by and reproductive of cultural histories and dominance, given the apparent inadequacy of these accounts in redressing disadvantage. To this end the authors distinguish between historicising and spatialising aspirations, taking up Appadurai’s notion of navigational capacity as a way of advancing greater agency for disadvantaged groups. Data from the research inform the analysis, including the mediation of students’ desired futures by their perception of what is possible given their differentiated locations and access to resources. It is concluded that while this spatial turn in theorising aspiration has potential for changing the terms of recognition internal to disadvantaged communities, there remain structural limits on change ‘from below’.

Student preferences for bachelor degrees at TAFE: the socio-spatial influence of schools

This report on Student Preferences for Bachelor Degrees at TAFE (Technical and Further Education) institutions is derived from research commissioned by Australia’s National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) hosted at Curtin University and conducted by researchers at Deakin University’s Strategic Centre for Research in Educational Futures and Innovation (CREFI). The report focuses on the influence of schools on their students’ higher education (HE) preferences – particularly their preferences for TAFE bachelor degrees – as recorded by the Victorian and South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centres (VTAC and SATAC). Influence is researched in terms of a school’s socioeconomic status, geographical location and sector. The SATAC data set is considerably smaller, at around 8 per cent of the VTAC data set.Bachelor degrees offered by TAFEs are relatively small in number but a growing higher education option for students in Australia (Gale et al. 2013). The Australian Government’s proposal to extend Commonwealth Supported Places (CSPs) to include Australian higher education not delivered by the nation’s public universities (Department of Education 2014b), is likely to fuel further growth in TAFE bachelor degree offerings. The recent Report of the Review of the Demand Driven Funding System in Australian higher education (Kemp & Norton 2014), which recommended this change, also makes special mention of non-university degree options as something that would be of particular benefit to students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds.The research reported herein is informed by a review of the international research literature, which indicates three main influences on students’ HE preferences: (1) students’ families and communities; (2) the socio-spatial location of their schools; and (3) school practices. This report contributes to understandings on the second of these: the influence of school context (their socio-spatial location) on students’ preferences for TAFE bachelor degrees.The research found that the annual rate of student preferences for TAFE bachelor degrees was relatively stable (at around 1,500 per annum) from 2009 to 2012 but rose significantly (by 30%) in 2013. Students from high socioeconomic status schools (and with an average ATAR of 56.9) were the group that registered the largest number of preferences. The number of preferences for TAFE bachelor degrees lodged by students from metropolitan schools exceeded the preferences of students from schools located in all other regions combined. This might reflect the fact that TAFE institutions offering bachelor degrees tend to be located in metropolitan areas.The research also found that students’ preferences for TAFE bachelor degrees increased after announcement of their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), by between 25 and 30 per cent each year. The post-ATAR increase was most noticeable in the Health and Education fields of study and among students from high socioeconomic status schools. The report concludes that while the public perception of TAFE is that it is a sector primarily for students from low SES backgrounds, this is not reflected in students’ preferences for TAFE bachelor degrees. Instead, the preferences of students from high socioeconomic schools outnumber other SES groups in almost every TAFE-degree field of study. This includes the fields of Health and Education, which are often seen to be typical low SES student choices in universities (Gale & Parker 2013).

Student opportunities in materials design and manufacture: Introducing a new manufacturing with composites course

The shift towards strong and lightweight fibre reinforced polymer-matrix composites for many high performance applications has resulted in an increasing need to expose students to composite design and manufacture courses in the undergraduate curriculum. In contrast, student exposure to composite materials is often still limited to a topic within a materials or manufacturing related course (unit). This paper presents the initial offering of a composite materials elective at Griffith University in Australia. The course also addresses environmental concerns through the inclusion of natural fibre composites. An evaluation of student perceptions is considered from Griffith’s Student Experience of Course (SEC) and separate Student Experience of Teaching (SET) surveys. These evaluations demonstrate the high level of student engagement with the course, but also highlighted areas for improvement, including the need to incorporate even more hands-on practical work. Interestingly, the inclusion of natural fibre composites and the related discussion surrounding environmental and societal issues are not focused on in student feedback.

Class size and student evaluations in Sweden

This paper examines the effect of class size on student evaluations of the quality of an introductory mathematics course at Lund University in Sweden. In contrast to much other studies, we find a large negative, and statistically significant, effect of class size on the quality of the course. This result appears to be quite robust, as almost all other influences but class size have effectively been accounted for.

Designing blended spaces to maximise student learning in work integrated learning programs

This paper describes a case study at a large metropolitan university in Australia where a range of technology-enabled blended spaces are used for interaction, communication and reflection between the work and university environments to enrich students' learning experiences during their work placement year. Blended space design requirements to maximise the learning experience of students undertaking work integrated learning are identified. © 2009 Friederika Kaider, Kathy Henschke, Joan Richardson and Mary Paulette Kelly.

Attachment, developmental tasks and coping in the transition to university

 Students commencing university were surveyed three times to identify what individual variables facilitated positive adjustment experiences. Student’s attachment orientations were found to be strongly associated with their university adjustment, and this was mediated by students’ use of different coping strategies and their negotiation of the developmental tasks of young adulthood.

Student knowledge: curriculum, assessment and reporting

At a time when national and international high-stakes testing has assumed such prominence, one might begin to wonder about the status of teacher judgement when assessing and reporting on children’s knowledge and skills against the descriptors specified in curriculum standards. Were standardised test results congruent with the judgements that teachers make when reporting on students’ achievement, concern about how one type of judgement might compare with another would perhaps be unwarranted. This article draws on research that has investigated whether standardised assessments in the state of Victoria, Australia are actually comparable with teacher’s judgements about their students’ work to illustrate that discrepancies do exist. These results have been interpreted within an analytical framework that derives from Aristotle’s (350BC/2000) distinction between three types of knowledge, namely epistemic, technical and phronetic knowledge.

The impact of an authentic, simulated learning activity on student preparedness for work-integrated learning

Student preparation for work-integrated learning using simulated learning experiences is an under researched field in occupational therapy. In 2013 the Deakin University occupational therapy degree introduced a simulated learning experience for students aimed at preparing them for work-integrated learning experiences. The session gave students an opportunity to practice fundamental skills of the discipline. A Likert scale survey was written and critically reviewed by the authors. Students rated the extent to which they felt that they could communicate effectively, build rapport, safely transfer clients, apply occupational health and safety principles and write case notes, prior to and after participation in the simulated learning experience. A statistically significant improvement was found for all outcomes measured. Students also reported improved confidence and valued opportunities to practice and receive feedback on skills. The results demonstrate that participation in a simulated learning activity improves confidence and skills in a range of areas that are relevant to work-integrated learning placement.

A university-based clinical exercise facility that serves as a clinical, teaching and research space

Deakin University opened its Clinical Exercise Learning Centre (CELC) in May 2011, initially staffed by four (now seven) Accredited Exercise Physiologists (AEP), and funded by the university. The main objectives of CELC are to provide (i) excellent clinical practicum learning opportunities for postgraduate students enrolled in the Master of Clinical Exercise Physiology that prepare students for subsequent external placements; (ii) learning opportunities that are vertically integrated with the preparatory components of the Masters, including pathophysiology units and pre-clinical units; (iii) learning opportunities that are also integrated with the external clinical practicum program that is embedded in the Masters; (iv) a clinical service to the community and strong referral networks with local GPs; (v) a research centre that is focussed on evaluating the efficacy of Accredited Exercise Physiology (AEP) services for a range of clinical situations, with a view to contributing to a future national evidence-based practice network supported by ESSA. Deakin University funds the CELC facility, equipment, consumables, limited car parking, practice management software and server and, most importantly, the staff. Therefore CELC runs at a loss even against fees charged and this was built into the original model. Staff include an AEP clinical practicum coordinator, two casual AEPs and several academic AEPs; the latter practise as a small part of their approved workloads. The practice model is for all AEPs to provide clinical services with referred clients who are billed as if CELC is a private practice, whilst concurrently teaching and mentoring students; the latter are expected to be active learners in CELC and have exposure to a wide range of pathologies and clinical situations. Billable hours are always provided by AEPs, not students, but students can assist. CELC provides clinical services 1:1:1 (client: AEP: student), 1:1:5 and 8:1:5. CELC was awarded national runner-up in the ESSA Exercise Physiology clinic of the year in 2011 and has grown its caseload to > 200 referrers in 2013. CELC recently designed a generic research platform and has begun to roll out research projects that are designed to translate 'traditional' research-based evidence of exercise benefits for chronic disease in order to evaluate AEP efficacy of practice in the Australian context. CELC provides a model for other universities, provided those universities see it for its learning value, and not to generate revenue or profit.

Improving student-industry engagement through project oriented curriculum

Industry expects a creative and innovative academic practice that provides students with valuable practical knowledge focused on graduate ready skills for future careers. The learning environment in engineering is inadequate for students to become a skillful graduate. The practical role of engineering is gained through working on real world problems in an industry collaborative environment through projects. Industry academia collaboration seems to be actively increasing in the development of engineering education in various parts of the globe. The close relationship between industry and academia is a vital component of the engineering pedagogy to improve student engagement in industry through projects. By engaging students with industry, students will acquire global perspective about the core attributes expected in future engineering jobs. In today’s large-scale industrial market, companies tend to prefer graduates with design skills attained through the project approach. Thus, universities should open their doors and accept the challenges of interacting with students with industrial experiences and expectations. This paper is focused on improving student industry engagement through project/design oriented curriculum. Through quantitative and qualitative research, the paper shows the industry perspectives and students views on university and industry collaboration. The research results show that students and industry can possibly maintain their engagement by providing regular feedback, reviewing goals and objectives, improving communication, keeping focused, and sharing a similar vision.

A comparison of different study load classifications and their association to student performance: an exploratory study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the alternative study load measures (dichotomous full-time/part-time classification and the number of units enrolled) and their association to student performance by using student data from a final year accounting unit in a large Australian university.

Design/methodology/approach – Using regression analysis, the authors compare the two measures to ascertain the explanatory power of the two approaches in explaining student performance.

Findings – A positive association is found between study loads and student performance when using the “number of units enrolled” measure. This relationship was not found when the dichotomous measure (full-time vs part-time) was used. The results suggest that a scaled measure of study loads is a better measure compared to a binary (dichotomous) measure.

Research limitations/implications – The study will assist future researchers to better control for study loads, and also to gain a better understanding of the association between study loads and student performance. This may possibly assist educational institutions and academics to use a more appropriate pedagogical design in the structure of courses when determining study load allocations across the different cohorts.

Practical implications – This study will help in methodology of future researchers controlling for study loads and student performance.
Originality/value – The study adds to existing literature by providing an alternate study load measure in methodology for controlling for student performance.