Comparative analysis of study orientations on on campus and offshore students

Understanding how students learn is fundamental in the quest for improving learning outcomes of students who are becoming increasingly diverse and mobile. Using a revised SPQ2F instrument (Biggs & Leung, 2001), this study undertakes a comparative analysis of the study approaches of on campus and offshore students and their perceptions of their learning strategies related to a marketing unit in an Australian university. The results indicate that the majority of students seem to adopt deep learning rather than surface learning approaches, though on campus students appear to have deep learning orientations compared with off shore campus students.

Ecology of fish inhabiting the inter-tidal zone of Swan Bay, Victoria, Australia

Swan Bay is a shallow marine embayment of Port Phillip Bay, just north of Queenscliff, Victoria. It has been part of the Harold Holt Marine Reserves since 1977 and is a seagrass habitat. This study investigated the species of fish present in the inter-tidal zone of Swan Bay, collected information on their ecology, investigated the importance of Swan Bay compared to Port Phillip Bay as a nursery and/or breeding area and compared these results with those of similar seagrsss habitats. Field work was carried out monthly over a two year period, from April 1981 to April 1983, using beach seine nets at Swan Bay and Portarlington. Forty four species of fish were identified from Swan Bay and nineteen from Portarlington. Fish were most abundant during the summer and autumn months when seagrass growth was at a maximum and least abundant during winter due to the absence of seasonal residents and decreased numbers of permanent residents. Swan Bay was found to be an important nursery ground for two commercially-caught species: the Yellow-eye Mullet and the King George Whiting. Juvenile Yellow-eye Mullet were more numerous in Swan Bay than at Portarlington. Smell juvenile King George Whiting were more abundant at Portarlington than in Swan Bay where older juveniles were more numerous. The fish fauna of Swan Bay was found to be similar to western Port but the abundance of species varied. Atherinosome microstoma was the dominant species in terms of abundance and biomass. Diet was found to be different from that reported by Robertson (1979) at Western Port due to the different range of prey items.

On-campus students' learning in asynchronous environments

Asynchronous online discussions have the potential to improve learning in universities. This thesis reports an investigation into the ways in which undergraduates learned in online discussions when they were included within their face-to-face courses. Taking a student perspective, four case studies describe and explain the approaches to learning that were used by business undergraduates in online discussions, and examine the influence of the computer-mediated conferencing (CMC) medium and curriculum design on student learning. The investigation took a qualitative approach where case studies were developed from multiple data sources. In each of the cases, a description of the setting of the online discussions introduced the learning environment. Further details of student learning behaviours in the online discussions were provided by an analysis of the systems data and a content analysis of the online discussion transcripts. In depth interpretation of interview data added student perspectives on the impact of CMC characteristics, the curriculum or learning design and the relationship between the online discussions and face-to-face classes. A comparative cross case analysis of the findings of the four cases identified and discussed general themes and broad principles arising from the cases. The campus-based students acknowledged that online discussions helped them to learn and their message postings evidenced deep approaches to learning. The students recognised the value for learning of the text based nature of the CMC environment but peer interaction was more difficult to achieve. Asynchronicity created time flexibility and time for reflection but it also presented time management problems for many undergraduates. Assessment was the most influential aspect of the curriculum design. The cases also identified the importance of a dialogical activity and the absence of the teacher from the online discussions was not problematic. The research identified new perspectives on the relationship between online discussions and face-to-face classes. Students regarded these two media as complementary rather than oppositional and affirmed the importance of pedagogic connections between them. A teaching and learning framework for online discussions was developed from these perspectives. The significance of this study lies in improved knowledge of student learning processes in online discussions in blended learning environments. The cases indicated the potential value of the CMC environment for constructivist philosophies and affirm the significant role of curriculum design with new technologies. Findings relating to the complementary nature of online and face to face discussions provided a platform for building a teaching and learning framework for blended environments which can be used to inform and improve pedagogical design, teacher expertise and student learning outcomes in asynchronous online discussions.

Communication and meaning : the first year experience of off-campus study

The substantive field of the thesis is the sociology of distance education. The issues investigated centre on the relationship between off-campus students and the institutions of higher education with which they enrol, in which the first year experience is construed as an encounter between the students’ personal contexts and institutional cultures. A theoretical framework is constructed which synthcsises elements of phenomenology, hermeneutics and feminist theory. The author reports research into the way a small sample of people experienced off-campus study. The students selected resided in Victoria, Australia, and were enrolled with one of two Victorian tertiary institutions: the (then) Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education and Deakin University. Using a case study approach, the subjective experiences of the students were studied by means of a series of interviews which took place at their homes or places of employment in the period January 1988 to November 1989. Methodological issues relating to the application of hermeneutic principles to the use of interviews in educational research are explored. The results of the interpretation of the interview material are presented in terms of an integrationist model of socialisation. The thesis argued is that certain theoretical and practical issues in distance education are best understood as social and cultural phenomena rather than as technical problems. The implications of the findings about the effects of gender and culture on student experience are discussed in relation to the issues of access and equity, student support, and models of teaching and learning.

Monitoring the marine environment adjacent to a petroleum refinery on Corio Bay, Victoria, Australia /Peter James Gilbert

The objective of the work reported in this thesis was to design and implement an ecological effects environmental monitoring program which would: 1) Collect baseline biological information on sessile epibiotic fouling communities from an area adjacent to a petroleum refinery located on Corio Bay, Victoria, to allow comparison with results of future monitoring for the assessment of long term temporal water quality trends. 2) Detect and — if possible - estimate the magnitude of any influence on epibiotic fouling communities within the Corio Bay marine ecosystem attributable to operations at the Shell Petroleum Refinery. 3) Investigate the extent of thermal stratification and rate of dispersal of the petroleum refinery main cooling-water outfall plume (discharging up to 350,000 tonnes of warmed seawater per day), and its effect on epibiotic communities within the EPA-defined mixing zone. A major component of the work undertaken was the design and development of artificial-substrate biological sampling stations suitable for use under the conditions prevailing in Corio Bay, and the development of appropriate quantitative underwater photographic sampling techniques to fulfil the experimental criteria outlined above. Experimental and other constraints imposed on the design of the stations precluded the simple suspension of frames from jetties or pylons, a technique widely used in previous work of this type. Artificial substrate panels were deployed along three radial transects centred within and extending beyond the petroleum refinery main cooling-water mixing zone. Identical substrate panels were deployed at a number of control sites located throughout Corio Bay, each chosen for differences in their degree of exposure to such factors as water movement, depth, shipping traffic and/or comparable industrial activity. The rate of colonisation (space utilisation) and the development of epibiotic fouling communities on artificial substrate panels was monitored over two twelve-month sampling periods using quantitative underwater photographic sampling techniques. Sampling was conducted at 4-8 week intervals with the rate of panel colonisation and community structure determined via coverage measurements. Various species of marine algae, polychaete tubeworms, hydroids, barnacles, simple and colonial ascidians, sponges, bivalve molluscs and encrusting bryozoans were all detected growing on panels. Communities which established on panels within the cooling-water mixing-zone and those at control sites were compared using statistical procedures including agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis. A photographic sample archive has been established to allow comparison with similar future studies.

Investigation of educator adoption of knowledge media

Human development has occurred against a timeline that has seen the creation of and diffusion of one innovation after another. These innovations range from language to complex computing and information technologies. The latter are assisting with the distribution of information, and extend to the distribution of the human species beyond the planet Earth. From early times, information has been published and mostly for a fee to the publisher. The absorption and use of information has had a high priority in most societies from early times, and has become institutionalised in universities and institutes of technical learning. For most in Western societies, education is now a matter of ‘lifelong learning’. Today, we see higher education institutions, worldwide, adapting their organisational structures and operating procedures and forming strategic alliances with communications content providers and carriers as well as with information technology companies. Modern educational institutes seek productivity and efficiency. Many also seek to differentiate themselves from competitors. Technological convergence is often seen by management to be a saviour in many educational organisations. It is hoped that lower capital and recurrent costs can be achieved, and that competitors in an increasingly globalised industry can be held at bay by strategic use of knowledge media (Eisenstadt, 1995) commonly associated with distance education in the campus setting. Knowledge media set up costs, intellectual property costs and training costs for staff and students are often so high as to make their use not viable for Australian institutes of higher education. Against this backdrop, one might expect greater educator and student use of publisher produced textbooks and digital enhancements to the textbook, particularly those involved in distance education. A major issue is whether or not the timing of instructor adoption of converging information technology and communications technologies aligns with the wishes of both higher education management and government, and with those who seek commercial gain from the diffusion and adoption of such technologies. Also at issue is whether or not it is possible to explain variance in stated intentions to recommend adoption of new learning technologies in higher education and implementation. Will there occur educator recommendation for adoption of individual knowledge media such as World Wide Web access to study materials by students? And what will be the form of this tool and others used in higher education? This thesis reports on more recent changes in the technological environment and seeks to contribute to an understanding of the factors that lead to a willingness, or unwillingness, on the part of higher education instructors, as influencers and content providers, to utilise these technologies. As such, it is a diffusion study which seeks to fill a gap in the literature. Diffusion studies typically focus on predicting adoption based on characteristics of the potential adopter. Few studies examine the relationship between characteristics of the innovation and adoption. Nearly all diffusion studies involve what is termed discontinuous innovation (Robertson, 1971). That is, the innovation involves adoptees in a major departure from previous practice. This study seeks to examine the relationship between previous experience of related technologies and adoption or rejection of dynamically continuous innovation. Continuous and dynamically continuous innovations are the most numerous in the real world, yet they are numerically the least scrutinised by way of academic research. Moreover, the three-year longitudinal study of educators in Australian and New Zealand meets important criteria laid down by researchers Tornatzky and Klein (1982) and Rogers (1995), that are often not met by similar studies. In particular the study examines diffusion as it is unfolding, rather than selectively examining a single innovation and after the fact, thus avoiding a possible pro-innovation bias. The study examines the situation for both ‘all educators’ and ‘marketing / management educators’ alone in seeking to meet the following aim: Establish if intended adopters of specific knowledge media have had more experience of other computer-based technologies than have those not intending to adopt said knowledge media. The analytical phase entails use of factor analysis and discriminant analysis to conclude that it is possible to discriminate adopters of selected knowledge media based on previous use of related technologies. The study does not find any generalised factor that enables such discrimination among educators. Thus the study supports the literature in part, but fails to find generalised factors that enable unambiguous prediction of knowledge media adoption or otherwise among each grouping of educators examined. The implications are that even in the case of related products and services (continuous or dynamically continuous innovation), there is not statistical certainty that prior usage of related products or technologies is related to intentions to use knowledge media in the future. In this regard, the present study might be said to confirm the view that Rogers and Shoemaker's (1971) conceptualisation of perceived innovation characteristics may only apply to discontinuous innovations (Stratton, Lumpkin & Vitell, 1997). The implications for stakeholders such as higher education management is that when seeking to appoint new educators or existing staff to knowledge media project teams, there is some support for the notion that those who already use World Wide Web based technologies are likely to take these technologies into teaching situations. The same claim cannot be made for computer software use in general, nor Internet use in general.

Byron Bay hysteria

"This time lapse video work of De Bruyn's evidences the bold rythmic structures found in his nahd-painted 16 mm film work. A prolific fimmaler, de Bruyn is a master of his craft and shows in this work that that mastery knows no bounds in this format."  Fractured Light exhibition catalogue

Fisheries ecology of sand flathead in Port Phillip Bay

Age data revealed that growth of sand flathead samples caught within Port Phillip Bay is very different compared to those caught from outside the Bay. Results also show that recruitment is variable (dependent of several environmental parameter), and that this variability is largely responsible for trends in abundance.

Byron Bay

Another time-lapse video piece by de Bruyn, Byron Bay #04/09 evokes nostalgia in its subject matter of the coastline of northern New South Wales.