Communicating outcomes of students' evaluations of teaching and learning: one-size-fits-all?

Student evaluations of teaching are increasingly used to measure the teaching of individual academics in Australian higher education. The outcomes of these evaluations are variably made available to the individual academics themselves, to university management and to the public. However, communicating evaluation outcomes to each of these audiences assumes a different purpose and necessitates different objectives, foci and methodology. The need for these differences is sometimes forgotten with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach in Australian higher education. This paper examines these differences and discusses some of the issues surrounding the communication of the outcomes of student evaluations of teaching.

The effect of the introduction of teaching interventions and assessment strategies in first year management units

This Scholarship of Teaching research aimed to ultimately become a report and a series of recommendations on the teaching of first year Management units in universities. Many of the Australian universities benchmark themselves against the leaders in the Course Experience Questionnaires (CEQ) (Ramsden 1991) of graduating students in Australia. Most Australian universities have their own student satisfaction evaluation method. In this study the subject university uses the Student Evaluation of Teachers and Units (SETU) as their internal method of measuring the effectiveness of teaching on units on a cohort by cohort basis. This project, using one of the largest units in a Business and Law Faculty had specific measurable objectives; the results of the unit teams' interventions demonstrate that it is possible to increase student satisfaction during their transition year by as much as 11.5%. The ten recommendations ranging from changes to unit objectives, assessment methods and updated methods of marking, communication and student support, if acted upon, should have ongoing benefits for teaching and learning of first year management units.

Australian higher education institutions transforming the future of teaching and learning through 3D virtual worlds

What are educators‟ motivations for using virtual worlds with their students? Are they using them to support the teaching of professions and if this is the case, do they introduce virtual worlds into the curriculum to develop and/or expand students' professional learning networks? Are they using virtual worlds to transform their teaching and learning? In  recognition of the exciting opportunities that virtual worlds present for higher education, the DEHub Virtual Worlds Working Group was formed. It is made up of Australian university academics who are investigating the role that virtual worlds will play in the future of education and actively implementing the technology within their own teaching practice and  curricula. This paper presents a typology for teaching and learning in 3D virtual worlds and applies the typology to a series of case studies based on the ways in which academics and their institutions are exploiting the power of virtual worlds for diverse purposes ranging from business scenarios and virtual excursions to role-play, experimentation and language development. The case studies offer insight into the ways in which institutions are transforming their teaching for an unknown future through innovative teaching and learning in virtual worlds. The paper demonstrates how virtual worlds enable low cost alternatives to existing pedagogies as well as creating opportunities for rich, immersive and authentic activities that would otherwise not be feasible or maybe not even be possible. Through the use of virtual worlds, teaching and learning can be transformed to cater for an unknown future.

An investigation of issues in the teaching and management of large classes

In a quest for a more efficient education system, many organizations have opted to increase class size. It is a common perception that large subjects are economical to run and small subjects are not. Many in the tertiary education system have had concerns with issues involved in the teaching of large classes, including teaching quality and whether there are effective learning outcomes for students. As with any complex issue, there are several approaches that could be utilized to assess whether the needs of stakeholders are being met. Stakeholders include the institution, the teaching staff, the community and the students. This study aims to assess whether universities are satisfying the needs of students as class size is increased. The study focuses on satisfaction with large classes and includes an assessment of the satisfaction of students' psychological needs. These constructs are measured in small, medium and large classes to identify the change in the level of satisfaction. The study used a multi-method approach consisting of a literature review, a qualitative phase involving in-depth interviews, focus groups, and a quantitative survey. The results show that while customer satisfaction is being met, the satisfaction of students' psychological needs are not being fully realised. It was also found that there were notable variations between individual students, the subjects being studied and degree streams of students taking the same subject. The implications of these findings and suggestions for further investigation are discussed in this paper.

Review of approximate analyses of sheet forming processes

Approximate models are often used for the following purposes: in on-line control systems of metal forming processes where calculation speed is critical; to obtain quick, quantitative information on the magnitude of the main variables in the early stages of process design; to illustrate the role of the major variables in the process; as an initial check on numerical modelling; and as a basis for quick calculations on processes in teaching and training packages. The models often share many similarities; for example, an arbitrary geometric assumption of deformation giving a simplified strain distribution, simple material property descriptions - such as an elastic, perfectly plastic law - and mathematical short cuts such as a linear approximation of a polynomial expression. In many cases, the output differs significantly from experiment and performance or efficiency factors are developed by experience to tune the models. In recent years, analytical models have been widely used at Deakin University in the design of experiments and equipment and as a pre-cursor to more detailed numerical analyses. Examples that are reviewed in this paper include deformation of sandwich material having a weak, elastic core, load prediction in deep drawing, bending of strip (particularly of ageing steel where kinking may occur), process analysis of low-pressure hydroforming of tubing, analysis of the rejection rates in stamping, and the determination of constitutive models by an inverse method applied to bending tests.

Teaching primary science : emotions, identity and the use of practical activities

This paper uses cultural historical activity theory to examine the interactions between the choices primary teachers make in the use of practical activities in their teaching of science and the purposes they attribute to these; their emotions, background and beliefs; and the construction of their identities as teachers of science. It draws on four case studies of science lessons taught over a term by four exemplary teachers of primary science. The data collected includes video recordings of science lessons, interviews with each teacher and some of their students, student work, teachers’ planning documents and observation notes. In this paper, we examine the reflexive relationship between emotion and identity, and the teachers’ objectives for their students’ learning; the purposes (scientific and social) the teachers attributed to practical activities; and the ways in which the teachers incorporated practical activities into their lessons. The findings suggest that it is not enough to address content knowledge, pedagogy and pedagogical content knowledge in teacher education, but that efforts also need to be made to influence prospective primary teachers’ identities as scientific thinkers and their emotional commitment to their students’ learning of science.