Computer mediated simulation learning opportunities

Market approaches have effected both the health care and higher education sectors in Australia. As a result of changes to funding the nursing profession has had to develop strategies in an effort to continue to provide adequate under-graduate nursing education. Specifically, new education challenges have occurred due to the shortage of experienced clinical nursing staff and reduced supply of clinical placements for undergraduate students. In light of the market forces we discuss computers as providers of simulation learning opportunities and a viable means of responding to the constraints and improving undergraduate nurse education.

Managing social and intellectual capital to inform design and development of learning objects : issues, applications and technologies

The purpose of this paper is to present and analyse a case example of the development and implementation of a digital learnmg object in context with academic literature in the field. The paper's content describes the creation of a multimedia learning object from conception in 2004 to completion m 2006. Provided is the rationale and outcome of a strategically funded University project aimed at illuminating an industrial case study of good management and communication practices for use in classrooms throughout the entire university. This paper is intended to act as a guide for others. Our experience as academics in successful dialogue With educational technologists will inspire and inform those embarking on similar projects, and aspects of it will generalise to development and implementation Issues for other kinds of learning objects.

A touch of sugar : a multimedia case study to facilitate student dietitians learning about the clinical management of diabetes

This paper describes the development, implementation and evaluation of a multimedia case study on dietetic case management of diabetes. A multimedia web-based program was developed to use the interactive capacity of the web-based environment to enable student dietitians to develop the skills of clinical reasoning and to trigger their learning about the nutritional management of diabetes. A case study of a person with diabetes was developed using a simulated medical history, video clips and sound clips. The students were asked to manage the patient online by responding to the patient's questions, attending a team meeting and outpatient clinic, attending to food service tasks and responding to visual cues. Tutors were able to access the student's responses to submissions online. Evaluation of the program was by questionnaire, which gathered quantitative and qualitative data on the student's perceptions of their experiences in using the web-based case. The students rated the content and the interactive parts of the case highly but experienced technical difficulties and found the case took too much time to complete.

Studio - learning and teaching environment for multimedia

This paper is a case study of the introduction of a studio environment for the teaching of multimedia practice. This change is in the context of multimedia being placed within an information technology degree program, where the conventions and traditions of computer science prevail. The studio based teaching was accepted and now new studios are being built at the university and a research project is proposed with the Queensland University of Technology to explore further teaching and learning issues using studio
teaching methods.

New learning networks and their invisible students : policy as simulation or the avoidance game?

Within a climate of policy hysteria, it is often claimed that a 'preoccupation with performance' develops, focussing on individual success stories, resulting in 'fad-like waves of adoption and abandonment'. Within this increasing pace and intensity of reform, new networks are formed and new relationships developed, with key players taking on new forms of identity to morph into the constantly changing policy climate. Despite continued evidence of young people's pathways from school being more like mosaic than linear, new policy still seeks to define and limit the possible lines of flight and trajectories, closely managing the education and training of young people at risk. In Victoria, the major policy initiative has involved the establishment of LLENs, the local all purpose solution to young people who might not be sticking to the linear policy pathway. So are we involved in 'an avoidance game', filling up the post compulsory policy space with more and more policies, which in fact seek to continue to regulate and constrain young people, rather than supporting them? This paper interrogates the policies and practices which have created the learning networks, of the SGR LLEN through policy analysis and case studies.

Optimising discrete event simulation models using a reinforcement learning agent

A reinforcement learning agent has been developed to determine optimal operating policies in a multi-part serial line. The agent interacts with a discrete event simulation model of a stochastic production facility. This study identifies issues important to the simulation developer who wishes to optimise a complex simulation or develop a robust operating policy. Critical parameters pertinent to 'tuning' an agent quickly and enabling it to rapidly learn the system were investigated.

Extending robust industrial optimisation using simulation and reinforcement learning

Traditional optimisation methods are incapable of capturing the complexity of today's dynamic manufacturing systems. A new methodology, integrating simulation models and intelligent learning agents, was successfully applied to identify solutions to a fundamental scheduling problem. The robustness of this approach was then demonstrated through a series of real-world industrial applications.

Investigation into the design and development of the Toad Interactive Multimedia Program (TIMMP) and its use by first year biology undergraduates learning dissection procedures and in situ functional anatomy

Investigates how first year biology undergraduates learn dissection when they have access to such interactive multimedia technology. Related design and developmental factors were evaluated in relation to how they helped students learn the content in the multimedia program. Through the use of interactive technology students can learn at their own pace without the need for actual animal dissection.

Simulation-based learning for control of complex conveyor networks

This research investigated the problem of path planning in complex conveyor networks. A reinforcement learning approach was applied to derive a control strategy for routing traffic. The derived strategy was verified in real world systems and was found to improve network performance by prioritising traffic flows and balancing network load.

A comparative study of supervised learning techniques for data-driven haptic simulation

This paper focuses on the choice of a supervised learning algorithm and possible data preprocessing in the domain of data-driven haptic simulation. This is done through a comparison of the performance of different supervised learning techniques with and without data preprocessing. The simulation of haptic interactions with deformable objects using data-driven methods has emerged as an alternative to parametric methods. The accuracy of the simulation depends on the empirical data and the learning method. Several methods were suggested in the literature and here we provide a comparison between their performance and applicability to this domain. We selected four examples to be compared: singular learning mechanism which is artificial neural networks (ANN), attribute selection followed by ANN learning process, ensemble of multiple learning techniques, and attribute selection followed by the learning ensemble. These methods performance was compared in the domain of simulating multiple interactions with a deformable object with nonlinear material behavior.

Significance of a multimedia resource in the professional learning of preservice teachers

This phenomenological inquiry seeks to understand the complexity of teacher professional learning through analysis of the use of a multimedia curriculum resource in initial teacher education programs. The study follows seven preservice teachers at three points over the course of an eighteen month period to gain understandings of how they are making meaning of their becoming teacher journeys. For the purposes of this paper only one aspect of the doctoral study is reported on due to the limitations of space. Consequently, this paper focuses on the findings of the significance of using a multimedia curriculum resource, known as QuILT, for professional learning. The qualitative study used questionnaires that included open-ended questions and semi-structured interviews with each of the seven preservice teachers at three points over an eighteen month period; as well as artefacts such as their QuILT related assessment. The paper reports on the findings that the multimedia resource and its pedagogical use provide a rich professional learning environment for preservice teachers.