Curriculum evaluation : approaches and methodologies

Curriculum evaluation, as a field of study, is dynamic. For over the years it has been responsive to the developments in the conceptualization of curriculum and the associated processes of curriculum change. The concept of curriculum is integral to curriculum evaluation and can be defined in terms of what can and shall be taught to whom, when, where, how, and why. Much of the decision making relates to what knowledge is to be selected for inclusion in the curriculum.

The development of a "Good Practice Guide" for first year curriculum development, revision and evaluation : a moving feast

Since 2002 QUT has sponsored a range of first year-focussed initiatives, most recently the Transitions In Project (TIP) which was designed to complement the First Year Experience Program and be a capacity building initiative. A primary focus of TIP was The First Year Curriculum Project: the review, development, implementation and evaluation of first year curriculum which has culminated in the development of a “Good Practice Guide” for the management of large first year units. First year curriculum initiates staff-student relationships and provides the scaffolding for the learning experience and engagement. Good practice in first year curriculum is within the control of the institution and can be redesigned and reviewed to improve outcomes. This session will provide a context for the First Year Curriculum Project and a concise overview of the suite of resources developed that have culminated in the Good Practice Guide.

Pollutant characteristics on roof surfaces for evaluation as a stormwater harvesting catchment

This paper presents the outcomes of a study which focused on evaluating roof surfaces as stormwater harvesting catchments. Build-up and wash-off samples were collected from model roof surfaces. The collected build-up samples were separated into five different particle size ranges prior to the analysis of physico-chemical parameters. Study outcomes showed that roof surfaces are efficient catchment surfaces for the deposition of fine particles which travel over long distances. Roof surfaces contribute relatively high pollutant loads to the runoff and hence significantly influence the quality of the harvested rainwater. Pollutants associated with solids build-up on roof surfaces can vary with time, even with minimal changes to total solids load and particle size distribution. It is postulated that this variability is due to changes in distant atmospheric pollutant sources and wind patterns. The study highlighted the requirement for first flush devices to divert the highly polluted initial portion of roof runoff. Furthermore, it is highly recommended to not to harvest runoff from small intensity rainfall events since there is a high possibility that the runoff would contain a significant amount of pollutants even after the initial runoff fraction.

Evaluation of distributed control signaling protocols in GMPLS

GMPLS is a generalized form of MPLS (MultiProtocol Label Switching). MPLS is IP packet based and it uses MPLS-TE for Packet Traffic Engineering. GMPLS is extension to MPLS capabilities. It provides separation between transmission, control and management plane and network management. Control plane allows various applications like traffic engineering, service provisioning, and differentiated services. GMPLS control plane architecture includes signaling (RSVP-TE, CR-LDP) and routing (OSPF-TE, ISIS-TE) protocols. This paper provides an overview of the signaling protocols, describes their main functionalities, and provides a general evaluation of both the protocols.

The design and evaluation of a mobile sensor/actuator network for autonomous animal control

This paper investigates a mobile, wireless sensor/actuator network application for use in the cattle breeding industry. Our goal is to prevent fighting between bulls in on-farm breeding paddocks by autonomously applying appropriate stimuli when one bull approaches another bull. This is an important application because fighting between high-value animals such as bulls during breeding seasons causes significant financial loss to producers. Furthermore, there are significant challenges in this type of application because it requires dynamic animal state estimation, real-time actuation and efficient mobile wireless transmissions. We designed and implemented an animal state estimation algorithm based on a state-machine mechanism for each animal. Autonomous actuation is performed based on the estimated states of an animal relative to other animals. A simple, yet effective, wireless communication model has been proposed and implemented to achieve high delivery rates in mobile environments. We evaluated the performance of our design by both simulations and field experiments, which demonstrated the effectiveness of our autonomous animal control system.

In the Rough : In-Field evaluation of an autonomous vehicle for golf course maintenance

Maintenance is a time consuming and expensive task for any golf course or driving range manager. For a golf course the primary tasks are grass mowing and maintenance (fertilizer and herbicide spreading), while for a driving range mowing, maintenance and ball collection are required. All these tasks require an operator to drive a vehicle along paths which are generally predefined. This paper presents some preliminary in-field tsting results for an automated tractor vehicle performing golf ball collection on an actual driving range, and mowing on difficult unstructured terrain.

Experimental evaluation of position control methods for hydraulic systems

Presents a unified and systematic assessment of ten position control strategies for a hydraulic servo system with single-ended cylinder driven by a proportional directional control valve. We aim at identifying those methods that achieve better tracking, have a low sensitivity to system uncertainties, and offer a good balance between development effort and end results. A formal approach for solving this problem relies on several practical metrics, which is introduced herein. Their choice is important, as the comparison results between controllers can vary significantly, depending on the selected criterion. Apart from the quantitative assessment, we also raise aspects which are difficult to quantify, but which must stay in attention when considering the position control problem for this class of hydraulic servo systems.

Expanding ethical vistas of IT professionals

In this paper we argue for an experientially grounded view of IT professionals’ ethical formation and support. We propose that for such formation and support to be effectual, it should challenge professionals’ conceptualisations of their field and of ethics, and it should do so with the aim of changing their experience. To this end, we present a Model of Ethical IT, which is based on an examination of the nature of ethics and on empirical findings concerning IT professionals’ experience of ethics. We argue that for IT professionals to be enabled to become more ethical in their practice: the purpose of IT must be primarily understood to be user-oriented; the nature of professional ethics must be primarily understood to be other-centred; and the goal of ethics education must be understood as primarily promoting a change in awareness.

Description and evaluation of a Newton-based electronic appetite rating system for temporal tracking of appetite in human subjects

This study assessed the reliability and validity of a palm-top-based electronic appetite rating system (EARS) in relation to the traditional paper and pen method. Twenty healthy subjects [10 male (M) and 10 female (F)] — mean age M=31 years (S.D.=8), F=27 years (S.D.=5); mean BMI M=24 (S.D.=2), F=21 (S.D.=5) — participated in a 4-day protocol. Measurements were made on days 1 and 4. Subjects were given paper and an EARS to log hourly subjective motivation to eat during waking hours. Food intake and meal times were fixed. Subjects were given a maintenance diet (comprising 40% fat, 47% carbohydrate and 13% protein by energy) calculated at 1.6×Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), as three isoenergetic meals. Bland and Altman's test for bias between two measurement techniques found significant differences between EARS and paper and pen for two of eight responses (hunger and fullness). Regression analysis confirmed that there were no day, sex or order effects between ratings obtained using either technique. For 15 subjects, there was no significant difference between results, with a linear relationship between the two methods that explained most of the variance (r2 ranged from 62.6 to 98.6). The slope for all subjects was less than 1, which was partly explained by a tendency for bias at the extreme end of results on the EARS technique. These data suggest that the EARS is a useful and reliable technique for real-time data collection in appetite research but that it should not be used interchangeably with paper and pen techniques.

The use of visual analogue scales to assess motivation to eat in human subjects: a review of their reliability and validity with an evaluation of new hand-held computerized stsytems for temporal tracking of appetite ratings.

This present paper reviews the reliability and validity of visual analogue scales (VAS) in terms of (1) their ability to predict feeding behaviour, (2) their sensitivity to experimental manipulations, and (3) their reproducibility. VAS correlate with, but do not reliably predict, energy intake to the extent that they could be used as a proxy of energy intake. They do predict meal initiation in subjects eating their normal diets in their normal environment. Under laboratory conditions, subjectively rated motivation to eat using VAS is sensitive to experimental manipulations and has been found to be reproducible in relation to those experimental regimens. Other work has found them not to be reproducible in relation to repeated protocols. On balance, it would appear, in as much as it is possible to quantify, that VAS exhibit a good degree of within-subject reliability and validity in that they predict with reasonable certainty, meal initiation and amount eaten, and are sensitive to experimental manipulations. This reliability and validity appears more pronounced under the controlled (but more arti®cial) conditions of the laboratory where the signal : noise ratio in experiments appears to be elevated relative to real life. It appears that VAS are best used in within-subject, repeated-measures designs where the effect of different treatments can be compared under similar circumstances. They are best used in conjunction with other measures (e.g. feeding behaviour, changes in plasma metabolites) rather than as proxies for these variables. New hand-held electronic appetite rating systems (EARS) have been developed to increase reliability of data capture and decrease investigator workload. Recent studies have compared these with traditional pen and paper (P&P) VAS. The EARS have been found to be sensitive to experimental manipulations and reproducible relative to P&P. However, subjects appear to exhibit a signi®cantly more constrained use of the scale when using the EARS relative to the P&P. For this reason it is recommended that the two techniques are not used interchangeably

Design and evaluation of an MRI compatible axial compression device for 3D assessment of spinal deformity and flexibility in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) offers a valuable research tool for the assessment of 3D spinal deformity in AIS, however the horizontal patient position imposed by conventional scanners removes the axial compressive loading on the spine. The objective of this study was to design, construct and test an MRI compatible compression device for research into the effect of axial loading on spinal deformity using supine MRI scans. The device was evaluated by performing unloaded and loaded supine MRI scans on a series of 10 AIS patients. The patient group had a mean initial (unloaded) major Cobb angle of 43±7º, which increased to 50±9º on application of the compressive load. The 7° increase in mean Cobb angle is consistent with that reported by a previous study comparing standing versus supine posture in scoliosis patients (Torell et al, 1985. Spine 10:425-7).

Regulating IVF and pre-implantation tissue-typing for the creation of "saviour siblings" : a harm analysis

Scientific discoveries, developments in medicine and health issues are the constant focus of media attention and the principles surrounding the creation of so called ‘saviour siblings’ are of no exception. The development in the field of reproductive techniques has provided the ability to genetically analyse embryos created in the laboratory to enable parents to implant selected embryos to create a tissue-matched child who may be able to cure an existing sick child. The research undertaken in this thesis examines the regulatory frameworks overseeing the delivery of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in Australia and the United Kingdom and considers how those frameworks impact on the accessibility of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedures for the creation of ‘saviour siblings’. In some jurisdictions, the accessibility of such techniques is limited by statutory requirements. The limitations and restrictions imposed by the state in relation to the technology are analysed in order to establish whether such restrictions are justified. The analysis is conducted on the basis of a harm framework. The framework seeks to establish whether those affected by the use of the technology (including the child who will be created) are harmed. In order to undertake such evaluation, the concept of harm is considered under the scope of John Stuart Mill’s liberal theory and the Harm Principle is used as a normative tool to judge whether the level of harm that may result, justifies state intervention or restriction with the reproductive decision-making of parents in this context. The harm analysis conducted in this thesis seeks to determine an appropriate regulatory response in relation to the use of pre-implantation tissue-typing for the creation of ‘saviour siblings’. The proposals outlined in the last part of this thesis seek to address the concern that harm may result from the practice of pre-implantation tissue-typing. The current regulatory frameworks in place are also analysed on the basis of the harm framework established in this thesis. The material referred to in this thesis reflects the law and policy in place in Australia and the UK at the time the thesis was submitted for examination (December 2009).