A new H.E.L.P kit for teaching practical AC electronics to undergraduate distance students

An important part of educating students in electronics and electrical engineering is laboratory practicals. Providing effective practical experience to students by distance education has always been a significant challenge to the engineering educator. Deakin University has for many years taught practicals in basic digital electronics to off-campus students by means of a kit. The same students have performed related exercises in analogue electronics, which require generating and measuring AC signals, by means of either software simulations or on-campus attendance at lab classes. This year, for the first time, off-campus students are being provided with a new kit, which contains a low-cost, battery-powered AC signal generator, and an interface that allows a PC to be used as an oscilloscope. This kit allows the off-campus student further flexibility in learning basic electronics.

The career preferences of undergraduate nursing students

A quasi-experimental design was used to test the hypothesis "there is a positive relationship between theoretical and clinical exposure to psychiatric nursing and the desirability of psychiatric nursing as a career choice." Results found that overall psychiatric nursing initially emerged as being a relatively unpopular career option.

Self-reported empathy levels in undergraduate occupational therapy students.

Relevence to exploring Occupational therapy role transitions and processes: The skill of establishing an empathetic therapeutic relationship in collaboration with one’s clients is a valued professional competency. To prepare occupational therapy students for professional practice, aspects of empathy awareness should be explored early in their undergraduate education. Raising students’ awareness of empathy and transforming this into professional competency for building empathetic relationships requires time. Occupational therapy undergraduates should explore aspects of empathy, both theoretically and in practice at all levels, to ensure these developing professionals can build empathic therapeutic relationships in practice. 
Aim: This research was undertaken to determine if students in four different years of study in occupational therapy at an Australian university differed in self-reported levels of empathy.

Part-time employment trends for full-time undergraduate property and construction students : results of a two year sequential investigation

This paper reports on the initial findings of an investigation into the experiences and part-time work practices of undergraduates enrolled in the Bachelor of Property and Construction (BPC) and combined degree courses at the University of Melbourne. Initial data was collected from final year students during 2001 and for all four years of the course in 2002. The results suggest that students in earlier years of the course are more likely to work in non-industry (casual) related employment and work fewer hours. Students in later years of the BPC course are more likely to work in jobs in the construction industry and also to work longer hours than those in earlier years. An analysis of final year students shows that the students employed by contracting organisations work significantly more hours than students employed by other types of organisations including architectural practices. The consequences of part-time semester employment on academic performance and students' well-being are considered and proposals are put forward as to how to better manage the industry experience-University relationship.

Assessment method difference : comparisons between international and domestic students within a first year undergraduate management course

This paper investigates the assessment methods and student results within a first year undergraduate management course offered within the business faculty of an Australian university. This course is compulsory for those studying for a commerce or management degree. The assessment results of full fee paying international students were compared with those of domestic students, during four teaching semesters in 2009 and 2010. Analysis compares 2,682 students’ numerical results for two constructed response assignments to their results for an examination comprising both multiple choice questions and constructed response questions. It also compares the results of international and domestic students across metropolitan, regional and rural campuses. However due to little comparison data for multiple campuses, findings are consolidated by domestic and international students, university-wide. International students were found to achieve lower results than domestic students for constructed response assessment tasks, but higher results than domestic students for multiple choice question assessments. These findings have implications for instructors eager to provide a level assessment playing field for both domestic and international students, enabling both groupings to take advantage of existing strengths but also to improve their weaknesses. This research led to a restructuring and rescheduling of assessment tasks for the 2012 academic year.

Managing patient deterioration : a protocol for enhancing undergraduate nursing students’ competence through web-based simulation and feedback techniques

Aims: To describe a funded proposal for the development of an on-line evidence based educational program for the management of deteriorating patients.
Background: There are international concerns regarding the management of deteriorating patients with issues around the ‘failure to rescue’. The primary response to these issues has been the development of medical emergency teams with little focus on the education of primary first responders.
Design/Methods: A mixed methods triangulated convergent design. In this four phase proposal we plan to 1. examine nursing student team ability to manage deteriorating patients and based upon these findings 2. develop web based educational material, including interactive scenarios. This educational material will be tested and refined in the third Phase 3, prior to evaluation and dissemination in the final phase.
Conclusion: This project aims to enhance knowledge development for the management of deteriorating patients through rigorous assessment of team performance and to produce a contemporary evidence-based online training program.

Undergraduate electronics students' use of home experiment kits for distance education

Laboratory practicals form an essential component in any electronics or electrical engineering course. Many students choose to study engineering by means of distance education. Providing such students with effective and manageable practical experience has always been a significant challenge for those involved in providing distance education. Our university has employed an experimental electronics kit for teaching laboratory skills to distance-education students over the past several years. The chief limitation of the early kit was the inability to use it for performing AC experiments without an additional AC signal generator and an oscilloscope. We now supply distance-education students with the original components pack, and an additional “HELP” kit which contains the signal generator, PC-oscilloscope, a basic multimeter, logic probe, software and documentation. The combined kits allow these students to perform basic DC and AC electronics experiments at home in both freshman and sophomore electronics courses. A more recent development is introducing a small robot platform intended to enhance the student experience and interest in electronics and mechatronics, while still covering the basic skills necessary for the engineer-in-training. Distance-education students receive an updated experimental kit containing the robot, other equipment and components to allow them to complete a fuller suite of practical exercises in electronics in their first two years of study. Within this paper, we present these developments in our HELP kit and also make comparisons between on-campus and off-campus performance.

Undergraduate nursing students' performance in recognising and responding to sudden patient deterioration in high psychological fidelity simulated environments: an Australian multi-centre study

Objectives
This paper reports the quantitative findings of the first phase of a larger program of ongoing research: Feedback Incorporating Review and Simulation Techniques to Act on Clinical Trends (FIRST2ACTTM). It specifically aims to identify the characteristics that may predict primary outcome measures of clinical performance, teamwork and situation awareness in the management of deteriorating patients.

Design
Mixed-method multi-centre study.

Setting
High fidelity simulated acute clinical environment in three Australian universities.

Participants
A convenience sample of 97 final year nursing students enrolled in an undergraduate Bachelor of Nursing or combined Bachelor of Nursing degree were included in the study.

Method
In groups of three, participants proceeded through three phases: (i) pre-briefing and completion of a multi-choice question test, (ii) three video-recorded simulated clinical scenarios where actors substituted real patients with deteriorating conditions, and (iii) post-scenario debriefing. Clinical performance, teamwork and situation awareness were evaluated, using a validated standard checklist (OSCE), Team Emergency Assessment Measure (TEAM) score sheet and Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT). A Modified Angoff technique was used to establish cut points for clinical performance.

Results
Student teams engaged in 97 simulation experiences across the three scenarios and achieved a level of clinical performance consistent with the experts' identified pass level point in only 9 (1%) of the simulation experiences. Knowledge was significantly associated with overall teamwork (p = .034), overall situation awareness (p = .05) and clinical performance in two of the three scenarios (p = .032 cardiac and p = .006 shock). Situation awareness scores of scenario team leaders were low overall, with an average total score of 41%.

Conclusions
Final year undergraduate nursing students may have difficulty recognising and responding appropriately to patient deterioration. Improving pre-requisite knowledge, rehearsal of first response and team management strategies need to be a key component of undergraduate nursing students' education and ought to specifically address clinical performance, teamwork and situation awareness.

Challenges for undergraduate speech pathology students undertaking cross-cultural clinical placements

Background: Two Australian undergraduate speech pathology students completed a series of clinical placements working with people with complex communication needs in cross-cultural contexts. Aims: To describe the challenges that the students faced and how best to prepare future students for such experiences. Methods & Procedures: The students completed the placements in Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh, India and South Africa. They used personal journaling to record their experiences. The students used the journals as the basis for reflective discussion when considering the challenges they experienced in applying their knowledge and skills. Outcomes & Results: The challenges were (1) to prepare adequately ahead of the placements; (2) to select appropriate models of service delivery; (3) to use existing service approaches, resources and infrastructure appropriately; (4) to access professional support; (5) to define their professional role; (6) to manage variable shared language proficiency; (7) to adapt personally; and (8) to work using an undergraduate level of knowledge, skills and experience. Conclusions: The students encountered challenges related to their clinical preparation and their capacity to adapt in both a professional and personal sense. Future students preparing to undertake such placements need to attain at least minimum clinical competencies before placements. They will be helped if they have some clinical experience in working with people with complex communication needs in cross-cultural contexts, information about the cultures they will visit, and if they set professional and personal learning goals for each clinical placement. This preparation will aid students in maximizing their learning experience.

Graduating Students' Perceptions of Learning Design in an Undergraduate Engineering Course

BACKGROUNDUndergraduate Civil Engineering Course at Deakin University, Australia is relatively a new course. It graduated its second main cohort in 2013. Since its beginning in 2012, this study has been running an internal annual Course Experience Surveys targeted at uncovering the graduating students’ perceptions on three components of contemporary learning system provided by Deakin University learning design, learning environment and the human factor. Learning design covers the learning curriculum, learning resources, learning activities and learning supports; learning environment includes physical environment, virtual environment and psychosocial environment; and human factor includes learners, facilitators/teachers and help/support staff and their culture. There is a common agreement among educators in higher education that these three components of learning system should interact and complement each other in order to maximise student learning. This paper coversonly learning design aspect of the overall surveys from 2012 and 2013.PURPOSEThe aim of this study is to analyse the students’ perceptions of learning design provided by Deakin University to its undergraduate civil engineering students in 2012 and 2013. This will help track down the progresses in different aspects of learning design and to understand whether the learning design provided by the institution have actually helped students in their learning and met their learning expectations.DESIGN/METHODThis study adopts questionnaire approach to collect original data by asking students about their perceptions of learning design provided by the institution. 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire survey (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree) is developed and responses are collected. The responses are then statistically analysed in order to uncover the students’ perceptions of learning design provided by the university.RESULTSThe statistical analysis shows that the graduating students in both 2012 and 2013 did not perceive some important aspects of the learning design of the undergraduate civil engineering program/course as good as they expected. Moreover, in line with the shift in the learning design paradigm from content-centric to more inclusive learning design where soft skills, self-directed learning skills and research skills are incorporated, graduating students clearly perceived these changes. However, respondents’ perceptions on some components of learning design got slightly down in 2013 compared with 2012 particularly the ‘learning resources’, ‘learning activities’ and ‘learning supports’.CONCLUSIONSThe shift in the learning design paradigm of the undergraduate civil engineering program/course at Deakin University from teacher-centric to student-centric between 2012 and 2013 has not been perceived by students positively as expected. Students have clearly indicated that they prefer improved curriculum, quality learning resources, customised learning activities and additional learning supports in order to successfully implement student-centric learning design.

Situation awareness in undergraduate nursing students managing simulated patient deterioration

Nursing work often occurs in complex and potentially hazardous settings. Awareness of patient and practice environments is an imperative for nurses in practice.