Improving the design of online applications for social benefit through a behaviour change model

Community support agencies routinely employ a web presence to provide information on their services. While this online information provision helps to increase an agency’s reach, this paper argues that it can be further extended by mapping relationships between services and by facilitating two-way communication and collaboration with local communities. We argue that emergent technologies, such as locative media and networking tools, can assist in harnessing this social capital. However, new applications must be designed in ways that both persuade and support community members to contribute information and support others in need. An analysis of the online presence of community service agencies and social benefit applications is presented against Fogg’s Behaviour Model. From this evaluation, design principles are proposed for developing new locative, collaborative online applications for social benefit.

Longitudinal Evidence on Educational and Occupational Outcomes Amongst South Sudanese Men from Refugee Backgrounds Living in Urban and Regional Southeast Queensland

Australia has continued to benefit from the human, social and economic capital contributed by immigrant resettlement over many years. Humanitarian entrants have also made significant economic, social and civic contributions to the Australian society. Since 2000, approximately 160,000 people have entered Australia under the refugee and humanitarian resettlement program; around 15% have come from South Sudan and one third of these are adult males. In response to the 2003 evaluation of the Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Strategy (IHSS), which recommended to seek further opportunities to settle humanitarian entrants in regional Australia, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has since encouraged regional settlement to “address the demand for less skilled labour in regional economies and to assist humanitarian entrants to achieve early employment”. There is evidence, however, of the many challenges faced by humanitarian arrivals living in regional areas. This chapter focuses on the educational and occupational outcomes among 117 South Sudanese adult men from refugee backgrounds. In particular, the chapter uses both cross-sectional (at first interview) and longitudinal data (four interviews with each participant at six-month intervals) to compares outcomes between men living in Brisbane and those living in the Toowoomba–Gatton region in Southeast Queensland.

Driver perceptions of the benefits of reducing their driving speed on safety, emissions, and stress and road rage

The existing literature shows driving speed significantly affects levels of safety, emissions, and stress in driving. In addition, drivers who feel tense when driving have been found to drive more slowly than others. These findings were mostly obtained from crash data analyses or field studies, and less is known regarding driver perceptions of the extent to which reducing their driving speed would improve road safety, reduce their car’s emissions, and reduce stress and road rage. This paper uses ordered probit regression models to analyse responses from 3538 Queensland drivers who completed an online RACQ survey. Drivers most strongly agreed that reducing their driving speed would improve road safety, less strongly agreed that reducing their driving speed would reduce their car’s emissions and least strongly agreed that reducing their driving speed would reduce stress and road rage. Younger drivers less strongly agreed that these benefits would occur than older drivers. Drivers of automatic cars and those who are bicycle commuters agreed more to these benefits than other drivers. Female drivers agreed more strongly than males on improving safety and reducing stress and road rage. Type of fuel used, engine size, driving experience, and distance driven per week were also found to be associated with driver perceptions, although these were not found to be significant in all of the regression models. The findings from this study may help in developing targeted training or educational measures to improve drivers’ willingness to reduce their driving speed.

Snapshots of informed learning : LIS and beyond

Responding to the need for innovative LIS curriculum and pedagogy, grounded in both information and learning theory, this paper introduces the theory and practice of informed learning. After explaining how informed learning originated within the LIS discipline we outline the principles and characteristics of informed learning. Then we present snapshots of three units of study from LIS programs at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), followed by an overview of informed learning developments in a varied range of educational contexts beyond LIS programs. Finally, we reflect upon the relevance of informed learning to LIS education and its wider contribution to learning and teaching in higher education.

To what extent is the Mayer and Salovey (1997) model of emotional intelligence a useful predictor of leadership style and perceived leadership outcomes in Australian educational institutions?

Researchers have found that transformational leadership is related to positive outcomes in educational institutions. Hence, it is important to explore constructs that may predict leadership style in order to identify potential transformational leaders in assessment and selection procedures. Several studies in non-educational settings have found that emotional intelligence is a useful predictor of transformational leadership, but these studies have generally lacked methodological rigor and contextual relevance. This project, set in Australian educational institutions, employed a more rigorous methodology to answer the question: to what extent is the Mayer and Salovey (1997) model of emotional intelligence a useful predictor of leadership style and perceived leadership outcomes? The project was designed to move research in the field forward by using valid and reliable instruments, controlling for other predictors, obtaining an adequately sized sample of current leaders and collecting multiple ratings of their leadership behaviours. The study (N = 144 leaders and 432 raters) results indicated that emotional intelligence was not a useful predictor of leadership style and perceived leadership outcomes. In contrast, several of the other predictors in the study were found to predict leadership style.

Mixing higher education teaching and learning with mobile devices and social media

The use of mobile devices and social media technologies are becoming all-pervasive in society: they are both transformative and constant. The high levels of mobile device ownership and increased access to social media technologies enables the potential for ‘anytime, anywhere’ cooperation and collaboration in education. While recent reports into emerging technologies in higher education predict an increase in the use of mobile devices and social media technologies (Horizon Report, 2013), there is a lack of theory-based research to indicate how these technologies can be most effectively harnessed to support and enhance student learning and what the impacts of these technologies are on both students and educators. In response to the need to understand how these technologies can be better embraced within higher education, this study investigated how first year education students used mobile devices and social media technologies. More specifically, the study identified how students spent most of their time when connected online with mobile devices and social media technologies and whether the online connected time engaged them in their learning or whether it was a distraction.

The People-Game-Play model for understanding videogames’ impact on wellbeing

Given the increasing popularity of videogames, understanding when, how and for whom they have a positive or negative impact on wellbeing is critical. We propose a model for exploring these questions based on existing literature and our own research. The People-Game-Play model identifies player characteristics, game features and the experience of play as key determinants of the impact of videogame play on wellbeing. We propose research exploring the relationships within and between each of these key factors is needed and identify some examples of future research in this space.

Does activity in computer game play have an impact on creative behavior?

This paper describes a behaviour analysis designed to measure the creative potential of computer game activities. The research approach applies a behavioural and verbal protocol to analyze the factors that influence the creative processes used by people as they play computer games from the puzzle genre. Creative components are measured by examining task motivation as well as domain-relevant and creativity-relevant skills factors. This paper focuses on how three puzzle games embody activity that might facilitate creative processes. The findings show that game playing activities significantly impact upon creative potential of computer games.

Positively playful : when videogames lead to player wellbeing

Videogames are an increasingly popular entertainment choice, yet we have a limited understanding of their potential wellbeing benefits. The current research used an online survey (N = 429) to investigate how gameplay choices and the psychological experience of gameplay impact on player wellbeing. Specifically, a hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to determine if, controlling for age and gender, current gameplay choices (amount of play, game genre, mode of play) and play experience (flow, psychological need satisfaction) predicted current wellbeing. Results indicated that age, social play, relatedness during gameplay and flow were positively associated with player wellbeing. Implications for our understanding of player wellbeing, as well as directions for future research are discussed.

Prevalence, trends and associated socio-economic factors of obesity in South Asia

Aim Worldwide obesity levels have increased unprecedentedly over the past couple of decades. Although the prevalence, trends and associated socio-economic factors of the condition have been extensively reported in Western populations, less is known regarding South Asian populations. Methods A review of articles using Medline with combinations of the MeSH terms: 'Obesity', 'Overweight' and 'Abdominal Obesity' limiting to epidemiology and South Asian countries. Results Despite methodological heterogeneity and variation according to country, area of residence and gender , the most recent nationally representative and large regional data demonstrates that without any doubt there is a epidemic of obesity, overweight and abdominal obesity in South Asian countries. Prevalence estimates of overweight and obesity (based on Asian cut-offs: overweight ≥ 23 kg/m(2), obesity ≥ 25 kg/m(2)) ranged from 3.5% in rural Bangladesh to over 65% in the Maldives. Abdominal obesity was more prevalent than general obesity in both sexes in this ethnic group. Countries with the lowest prevalence had the highest upward trend of obesity. Socio-economic factors associated with greater obesity in the region included female gender, middle age, urban residence, higher educational and economic status. Conclusion South Asia is significantly affected by the obesity epidemic. Collaborative public health interventions to reverse these trends need to be mindful of many socio-economic constraints in order to provide long-term solutions.

A new era : personal technology challenges educational technology

As we race towards a new era, rapid change of conventional models has become the norm. Just as technology has etched itself to the core of society, the sheer quantity of student devices connecting to university networks presents a sector wide challenge coinciding almost perfectly with many universities creating technology rich learning spaces. New fears include future proofing. It is not just a matter of technology becoming outdated. In seeking to accommodate the teaching styles and experience of staff across diverse faculties, is this technology simply too vanilla to meet their needs as they become increasingly skilled and inspired by technology’s potential? Through the early findings of a study into staff use of technology within Queensland University of Technology's next generation collaborative learning spaces, this paper explores whether the answers lie in a model presented by students equipping themselves with the tools they need to learn in the 21st century.

A social matching system : using implicit and explicit information for personalized recommendation in online dating service

Online dating websites enable a specific form of social networking and their efficiency can be increased by supporting proactive recommendations based on participants' preferences with the use of data mining. This research develops two-way recommendation methods for people-to-people recommendation for large online social networks such as online dating networks. This research discovers the characteristics of the online dating networks and utilises these characteristics in developing efficient people-to-people recommendation methods. Methods developed support improved recommendation accuracy, can handle data sparsity that often comes with large data sets and are scalable for handling online networks with a large number of users.

Improving usability of e-commerce websites via tag-based customisation : a study on online and mobile banking

This thesis is an exploration of customisation in online and mobile banking. It investigates the application of user-tags to facilitate customised interactions in desktop and mobile devices, and its impact on usability. The thesis through a comparative study explains that customisation can positively affect usability especially for younger users, leading to higher levels of satisfaction.

Communication models of institutional online communities : the role of the ABC cultural intermediary

The co-creation of cultural artefacts has been democratised given the recent technological affordances of information and communication technologies. Web 2.0 technologies have enabled greater possibilities of citizen inclusion within the media conversations of their nations. For example, the Australian audience has more opportunities to collaboratively produce and tell their story to a broader audience via the public service media (PSM) facilitated platforms of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). However, providing open collaborative production for the audience gives rise to the problem, how might the PSM manage the interests of all the stakeholders and align those interests with its legislated Charter? This paper considers this problem through the ABC’s user-created content participatory platform, ABC Pool and highlights the cultural intermediary as the role responsible for managing these tensions. This paper also suggests cultural intermediation is a useful framework for other media organisations engaging in co-creative activities with their audiences.