Use and perceptions of worked example videos for first-year students studying mathematics in a primary education degree

Worked example videos have great potential to be useful for students when learning mathematics as they can work through the questions at their own pace, pausing as needed, but still learn from the way the demonstrator thinks and solves problems. We created worked example videos each week for a mathematics subject taught in the first year of a primary education degree and investigated student perceptions and their usage patterns. An additional aspect of this undertaking was the inclusion of subtitles to make the videos accessible to hearing impaired and ESL students. This report will reflect on the process of creating these videos, as well as some initial findings on their success.

Staff perceptions of risk of assault in psychiatric settings

This thesis examined current perceptions and experiences of staff relating to threatening and assaultive patient behaviours in mental health and forensic settings. The research uncovered the interrelated nature of staff experiences of assault and perceived vulnerability, with the view to optimising patient care and staff wellbeing in psychiatric settings.

Cloud-linked and campus-linked students’ perceptions of collaborative learning and design based learning in engineering

The aim of this paper is to analyse and present cloud- link as well as campus-linked students’ perceptions of collaborative learning and design based learning in engineering. Project oriented design based learning (PODBL) is a learning and teaching approach, where students learn through design activities while being driven by project(s). PODBL enhances cloud-linked and campus-linked students’ ability to acquire career essential skills that fulfill future industry needs. A paper-based survey is used to recognise a cohort of students' experience of collaborative learning and design based learning in engineering. The paper-based survey was given to 30 students from an engineering discipline. The quantitative analysis of the survey results shows that more than 50% of the students view collaborative learning to have a large benefit in design-based learning.

Building academic resilience: A longitudinal study of Master of Teaching students’ perceptions of written feedback on high stakes assessment

This paper reports on a two-year study of tertiary education students’ perceptions of written feedback on assessment. Contextualised in a regional Australian university and drawing on a cohort of Master of Teaching pre-service teachers, a survey approach was used to collect data from participants in both years of their graduate-level entry program. The paper contributes to the emerging body of literature on students’ perceptions of written feedback on assessment by discussing four themes that emerged from the study. It concludes with a number of recommendations for teacher educators to enhance current feedback practices.

School practitioners’ perceptions of the pre-service teacher education practicum: a comparative study

The importance of strong school-university partnerships in bridging the so-called theory- practice gap in pre-service teacher education has been well established in the literature. The experiences of pre-service teachers during practicum have in particular been shown to be enhanced where there are strong links between the two educational sectors. This paper draws from research conducted in two diverse Australian pre-service teacher education programs to evaluate factors that are perceived to profoundly impact on the professional experiences of pre-service teachers during practicum. The particular focus of this paper is the beliefs and experiences of school practitioners and university staff members regarding the efficacy of the practicum in enabling students to enact theory in practice. A mixed methods approach was adopted for both studies, one of which was located in an urban university in Tasmania, the other in a regional university in Queensland. Findings generated from the comparative study of both programs revealed some differences but predominantly a number of similarities between the perceptions of the two samples of school practitioners and university staff members towards practicum. Three key findings are presented and discussed in this paper.

eVALUate: an evaluation instrument for measuring students’ perceptions of their engagement and learning outcomes

In the current climate in Australian higher education, quality assurance in university teaching is a priority. In particular, the introduction of the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund (LTPF) has refocused attention on universities’ internal student evaluation survey instruments. This paper reports the development, validation and implementation of a new unit survey instrument which prompts students to reflect on what helps their achievement of unit learning outcomes, and to report their levels of motivation, engagement and overall satisfaction with a semester‐long course or unit of study. The instrument (eVALUate) was created from precepts reported in the research literature, current practices in evaluating teaching, and sound quality assurance practices appropriate to a university outcomes‐focused education paradigm.

Structural equation modeling for evaluating the user perceptions of E-learning effectiveness in higher education

A crucial prerequisite for sustainable e-learning is the understanding of learners’ preferences for various pedagogical strategies, technologies, and the management of learning resources. This paper presents an empirical study aiming to empirically test the theoretical (pedagogies, technologies and management) (PTM) model on the preference of learners and on the perceived impact of the effectiveness of e-learning. This study uses structural equation modelling (SEM) to identify the critical dimensions in the PTM model for augmenting the effectiveness of e-learning. This leads to the development of a PTM model with the path coefficients showing weak to strong relationships ranging from 0.15 to 0.42 with acceptable significance levels. The results support the hypothesis that management, technology, resources and metadata ontology dimensions affect the effectiveness of elearning both directly and indirectly through enhancing the management effectiveness of learning resources. However, the result does not support positive influence of pedagogical strategy per se on e-learning effectiveness. The implications of this study indicate the criticality of effective management of learning resources to enhance e-learning effectiveness.

The perceptions of learners on the effectiveness of e-learning in higher education: An empirical study

This paper examines the critical dimensions of the effectiveness of e-learning from the perspective of e-learners within the framework of pedagogy, technology and management of learning resources in higher education. A survey is conducted in an Australian University for exploring the association between the critical dimensions of e-learning and the learners' perceived impact of these dimensions on the e-learning effectiveness using multiple regression analysis. The results show that technology, management of learning resources, metadata and management effectiveness of learning resources positively influence the effectiveness of e-learning in higher education.