Measuring student engagement : using 'flow' theory to guide question development

In December 2009 the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) issued a discussion paper, ‘An Indicator Framework for Higher Education Performance Funding’, with the purpose of contributing to the development of indicators for guiding ‘compact’ negotiations between Australian universities and the government. The discussion paper makes it clear that ‘student experience’ will be an important part of the indicators and discusses the possibility that the Government will develop a new
questionnaire to investigate the engagement and satisfaction of students in their first year of study. This paper contributes ideas to assist the development of such an instrument, particularly for the measurement of student engagement. We discuss problems with the predictive validity of existing instruments and argue that predictive validity may be improved by a focus on highly engaging ‘flow-type’ activities. Specifically, we
investigate flow activities in the context of online learning. Our findings suggest that some of the current questions from the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) do appear to capture flow activities. We also identify gaps in the AUSSE. Finally, we make recommendations about the inclusion of additional items that capture highly engaging, flow activities for either the AUSSE or the Government’s proposed new instrument.

Towards the development of a project decision support framework for adoption of an integrated building information model using a model server

This chapter discusses an action research study towards the development of a decision framework to support a fully integrated multi disciplinary Building Information Model (BIM) using a Model Server. The framework was proposed to facilitate multi disciplinary collaborative BIM adoption through, informed selection of a project specific BIM approach and tools contingent upon project collaborators’ readiness, tool capabilities and workflow dependencies. The aim of the research was to explore the technical concerns in relation to Model Servers to support multi disciplinary model integration and collaboration; however it became clear that there were both technical and non technical issues that needed consideration. The evidence also suggests that there are varying levels of adoption which impacts upon further diffusion of the technologies. Therefore the need for a decision framework was identified based on the findings from an exploratory study conducted to investigate industry expectations. The study revealed that even the market leaders who are early technology adopters in the Australian industry in many cases have varying degrees of practical experiential knowledge of BIM and hence at times low levels of confidence of the future diffusion of BIM technology throughout the industry. The study did not focus on the benefits of BIM implementation as this was not the intention, as the industry partners involved are market leaders and early adopters of the technology and did not need convincing of the benefits. Coupled with this there are various other past studies that have contributed to the ‘benefits’ debate. There were numerous factors affecting BIM adoption which were grouped in to two main areas; technical tool functional requirements and needs, and non technical strategic issues. The need for guidance on where to start, what tools were available and how to work through the legal, procurement and cultural challenges was evidenced in the exploratory study. Therefore a BIM decision framework was initiated, based upon these industry concerns. Eight case studies informed the development of the framework and a summary of the key findings is presented. Primary and secondary case studies from firms that have adopted a structured approach to technology adoption are presented. The Framework consists of four interrelated key elements including a strategic purpose and scoping matrix, work process mapping, technical requirements for BIM tools and Model Servers, and framework implementation guide. The BIM framework was presented in draft format again to key industry stakeholders and considered in comparison with current best practice BIM adoption to further validate the framework. There was no request to change any part of the Framework. However, it is an ongoing process and it will be presented again to industry through the various project partners. The Framework may be refined within the boundaries of the action research process as an ongoing activity as more experiential knowledge can be incorporated.

The Civic School : Australian-Indonesian professional collaboration to model and audit the development of democratic primary classrooms and teacher language using the index for inclusion

The study is a pilot project in Australian-Indonesian institutional collaboration for the professional development of primary school teachers in West Sumatra in citizenship education. Senior staff in the department of Pancasila and Citizenship Education at the State University of Padang (UNP), West Sumatra initiated the project. UNP staff sought the collaboration of the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania for bringing about and sustaining changes in teacher practice needed to implement the new civic goals in the 1999 Suplemen. The Index for Inclusion was used to model and audit the development of democratic primary classrooms and language use in a cluster of Padang schools in West Sumatra. The paper describes the background to the project and how the Index for Inclusion was understood during the initial two-week implementation phase by teachers and school principals. The significance of the study lies in the potential of the Index for Inclusion internationally to citizenship education, a field of education that was not considered in the initial development of the Index project and the contribution of the multiple fields of inquiry to the evolving theoretical understandings of inclusive education.

Texture and substructure development during post-dynamic softening in Ni-30%Fe austenite

The texture and substructure development during post-dynamic annealing of an austenitic Ni-30%Fe model alloy after complete dynamic recrystallization was investigated using electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A novel mechanism of metadynamic softening is proposed based on the experimental investigation of the grain structure, crystallographic texture and dislocation substructure evolution. The initial softening stage involved rapid growth of the dynamically formed nuclei and migration of the mobile boundaries. The subboundaries within DRX grains progressively disintegrated through dislocation climb and dislocation annihilation, which ultimately led to the formation of dislocation-free grains, while the grain boundary migration gradually became slower. As a result, the DRX texture was largely preserved throughout the annealing process.

Navigation of four-wheel-steering mobile robots using robust fault-tolerant sliding mode control

This paper addresses the leader-follower tracking problem of a four-wheel-steering robot subjected to nonlinear uncertainties. Two control laws have been developed, based on the adaptive sliding mode method and the adaptive input-output feedback linearization method. The proposed control schemes have been tested by means of simulations.

Exploring the development and assessment of work-readiness using reflective practice in construction education.

It is well known that the construction industry is characterized by the need for practical knowledge and skill. However, this creates special challenges for universities in the development of work readiness in graduates. This research investigates the attitudes of students towards a course which was designed to develop work-readiness skills in construction management. The paper focuses on the distinctive issues associated with Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) using a formally assessed industry-mentored course of study. Past research shows that university degrees should promote reflective thinking since, in construction, it is necessary to make reflective judgements which deal with ill-defined problems. This is a generic capability that is needed by all graduates in knowledge-based occupations. The study utilized reflective practice to examine the perceptions of construction management students towards the development of attributes which were known to improve work skills. The students were asked to capture their reflections on their experiences in the form of reflective diaries, which were prepared weekly throughout the course. The results showed that the students expressed very positive views about their learning experiences. This occurred in spite of the challenges caused by the formal assessment processes that were undertaken as part of the course. This paper compares the student perceptions with the teachers’ reflections on the ability of traditional assessment methods to measure graduate attributes and work-readiness. The research explores the issues associated with assessing work-readiness skills in higher education. The findings suggest that student reflection is a necessary precondition to the development of effective work-readiness. In addition, the research concludes that more nontraditional assessment approaches are needed in construction programmes in order to develop the type of graduate required by the industry.

Infrastructure development using alliances : lessons and observations

This research provides a deeper insight into the performance of Alliances for the construction of road, rail and water projects. The results review 18 public infrastructure projects across Australia that utilized the Alliance form of procurement. The results were based on interviews which addressed the most important management issues impacting on the performance of Alliances. The respondents were selected from a sample of members of the Alliance Leadership Teams (ALT) and the Alliance Management Teams (AMT) that had recently completed a range of infrastructure projects. Results revealed that communication and trust between the ALT and AMT teams was a major issue that impacted on the effectiveness of the Alliance. Further, the research identified several factors that are necessary preconditions for the Alliance to be successful. The study reported on the perceived performance of Alliances to deliver in the key areas that was identified by the client organizations prior to commencement of the project. There are an increasing number of international organizations contemplating construction projects using “Alliancing”. The results of this paper will assist clients in making more informed decisions about the possibility that this form of procurement will be effective in meeting the needs of the project and its stakeholders.

Mobile technology platforms for flexible access to information resources : considerations in the use of ebook readers, smart phones, netbooks and iPads

Smart phones are everywhere, people are taking eBook readers on holiday, the iPad has queues of people wanting to buy one, and some netbooks can fit in a pocket. The technology is attractive and increasingly affordable – how can it help an individual in their access to and use of texts, journals, databases, clinical sources, the web and day-to-day information? The Library has been investigating and trialling mobile devices during 2010, and has received interesting feedback from staff and students on the effectiveness of the technology in the University and personal environments. Each device has its strengths and weaknesses depending on the needs of the individual or activity it is supporting – productivity, research, study, clinical or recreational. The presentation will explore these issues along with some of the practical implications at Deakin, and international experiences in academic environments.

Development of twenty-four novel microsatellite markers for the freshwater crayfish, Geocharax gracilis, using next generation sequencing

The crayfish Geocharax gracilis is an important inhabitant of natural and agricultural drainage systems in south-eastern Australia. To investigate population structure, genetic diversity and patterns of connectivity in natural and human-altered ecosystems, we isolated and characterised 24 microsatellite loci using next generation sequencing. Loci were initially tested for levels of variation based on 12 individuals from across the species’ geographical range. A further 33 individuals from a single population were used to test for departures from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium and linkage disequilibrium. We detected high to moderate levels of genetic variation across most loci with a mean allelic richness of 8.42 and observed heterozygosity of 0.629 (all samples combined). We found no evidence for linkage disequilibrium between any loci and only three loci (Geo01, Geo24 and Geo47) showed significant deviations from Hardy–Weinberg expectations. These same three loci, plus two additional loci (Geo06 and Geo28), also showed the presence of null alleles. These 24 variable markers will provide an important tool for future population genetic assessments in natural and human altered environments.

Global software development : measuring, approximating and reducing the complexity of global software development using extended axiomatic design theory

This paper considers GSD projects as designed artefacts, and proposes the application of an Extended Axiomatic Design theory to reduce their complexity in order to increase the probability of project success. Using an upper bound estimation of the Kolmogorov complexity of the so-called ‘design matrix’ (as a proxy of Information Content as a complexity measure) we demonstrate on two hypothetical examples how good and bad designs of GSD planning compare in terms of complexity. We also demonstrate how to measure and calculate the ‘structural’ complexity of GSD projects and show that by satisfying all design axioms this ‘structural’ complexity could be minimised.

Development of a speaker recognition system using wavelets and artificial neural networks

This paper addresses the problem of speaker recognition from speech signals. The study focuses on the development of a speaker recognition system comprising two modules: a wavelet-based feature extractor, and a neural-network-based classifier. We have conducted a number of experiments to investigate the applicability of Discrete Wavelet Transform (D WT) in extracting discriminative features from the speech signals, and have examined various models from the Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) family of neural networks in classijjing the extracted features. The results indicate that DWT could be a potential feature extraction tool for speaker recognition. In addition, the ART-based classijiers have yielded very promising recognition accuracy at more than 81%.