The ceiling to coproduction in university-industry research collaboration

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into government attempts at bridging the divide between theory and practice through university-industry research collaboration modelled under engaged scholarship. The findings are based on data sourced from interviews with 47 academic and industry project leaders from 23 large scale research projects. The paper demonstrates a ceiling to the coproduction of knowledge arising from the preconceived beliefs of both academics and industry partners regarding project roles and responsibilities. The findings show that coproduction was constrained by academic partners assuming control over much of the research activities and industry partners failing to confront or challenge academic decision-making because both academics and industry partners placed a higher value on academic knowledge compared with applied or practical knowledge. It is argued the theory of engaged scholarship, and consequent initiatives to encourage engaged scholarship, fail to account for the superior status of academic knowledge.

School-based education programmes for the prevention of child sexual abuse

Background Child sexual abuse is a significant global problem in both magnitude and sequelae. The most widely used primary prevention strategy has been the provision of school-based education programmes. Although programmes have been taught in schools since the 1980s, their effectiveness requires ongoing scrutiny. Objectives To systematically assess evidence of the effectiveness of school-based education programmes for the prevention of child sexual abuse. Specifically, to assess whether: programmes are effective in improving students’ protective behaviours and knowledge about sexual abuse prevention; behaviours and skills are retained over time; and participation results in disclosures of sexual abuse, produces harms, or both. Search methods In September 2014, we searched CENTRAL, OvidMEDLINE, EMBASE and 11 other databases.We also searched two trials registers and screened the reference lists of previous reviews for additional trials. Selection criteria We selected randomised controlled trials (RCTs), cluster-RCTs, and quasi-RCTs of school-based education interventions for the prevention of child sexual abuse compared with another intervention or no intervention. Data collection and analysis Two review authors independently assessed the eligibility of trials for inclusion, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias.We summarised data for six outcomes: protective behaviours; knowledge of sexual abuse or sexual abuse prevention concepts; retention of protective behaviours over time; retention of knowledge over time; harm; and disclosures of sexual abuse. School-

Strenthening information literacy through collaboration: Implications for AIM

Because of its size, its excellent VET history, and its emerging higher education provision, AIM is in a special position to be an exemplar of good practice in the VET-HE transition. Many dual sector providers, by virtue of their size, tend to focus on higher education, on the assumption that VET ‘competence’ implies that their VET entrants to HE are confident and capable in information literacy skills. While this is only one of the many challenges that such students face in their undergraduate programs, it is the most critical for most of them in their quest for academic success. All students (school leavers, gap-year participants, articulating, mature age) entering HE will face specific challenges. For articulating students, the nature of credit transfer arrangements will often mean they commence studies in units that are not designated first year units. In this case, the embedded support structures are not as prominent. The existing literature is not consistent in reports on the rates of completion, retention and attrition of articulating students. There is some evidence that VET-qualified students have higher retention rates than school leavers [1], but limited information literacy skills can lead to attrition [2].

Being here: Designing for distributed hands-on collaboration in blended interaction spaces

This paper describes a concept for supporting distributed hands-on collaboration through interaction design for the physical and the digital workspace. The Blended Interaction Spaces concept creates distributed work environments in which collaborating parties all feel that they are present “here” rather than “there”. We describe thinking and inspirations behind the Blended Interaction Spaces concept, and summarize findings from fieldwork activities informing our design. We then exemplify the Blended Interaction Spaces concept through a prototype implementation of one of four concepts.

The Library beyond (just) the book: Collaboration and co-working spaces for new technology and new technological practices

Libraries have often been first adopters of many new technological innovations, such as, punch cards, computers, barcodes, and e-book readers. It is thus not surprising that many libraries have embraced the advent of the internet as an opportunity to move away from just being repositories of books, towards becoming ideas stores and local network hubs for entrepreneurial thinking and new creative practices. This presentation will look at the case of “The Edge” – an initiative of the State Library of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, to establish a digital culture centre and learning environment deliberately designed for the co-creation and co-construction of knowledge. This initiative illustrates the potential role of libraries as testing grounds for new technologies and technological practices, which is particularly relevant in the context of the NBN rollout across Australia. It also provides an example of new engagement strategies for innovative co-working spaces that are a vital element in a trend that sees professionals, creatives and designers leave their traditional places of work and embrace the city as their office.

Creative interoperability: A new concept to guide, understand and evaluate innovation by cross-sector collaboration

Creative digital media are increasingly utilized by companies in all industries. Here cases studies of creative media innovations in manufacturing, mining and education were facilitated and evaluated. The cases dealt respectively with designs in manufacturing, visualizing mining data, and developing tools for adult literacy. The difficulties of merging creative media teams into these different contexts were noted and the idea of creative interoperability was developed. Creative interoperability explains how creative teams can connect with other disciplines to bring about innovations.

Open access spatial data and collaboration

On 19 June 2015, representatives from over 40 Australian research institutions gathered in Canberra to launch their Open Data Collections. The one day event, hosted by the Australian National Data Service (ANDS), showcased to government and a range of national stakeholders the rich variety of data collections that have been generated through the Major Open Data Collections (MODC) project. Colin Eustace attended the showcase for QUT Library and presented a poster that reflected the work that he and Jodie Vaughan generated through the project. QUT’s Blueprint 4, the University’s five-year institutional strategic plan, outlines the key priorities of developing a commitment to working in partnership with industry, as well as combining disciplinary strengths with interdisciplinary application. The Division of Technology, Information and Learning Support (TILS) has undertaken a number of Australian National Data Service (ANDS) funded projects since 2009 with the aim of developing improved research data management services within the University to support these strategic aims. By leveraging existing tools and systems developed during these projects, the Major Open Data Collection (MODC) project delivered support to multi-disciplinary collaborative research activities through partnership building between QUT researchers and Queensland government agencies, in order to add to and promote the discovery and reuse of a collection of spatially referenced datasets. The MODC project built upon existing Research Data Finder infrastructure (which uses VIVO open source software, developed by Cornell University) to develop a separate collection, Spatial Data Finder (https://researchdatafinder.qut.edu.au/spatial) as the interface to display the spatial data collection. During the course of the project, 62 dataset descriptions were added to Spatial Data Finder, 7 added to Research Data Finder and two added to Software Finder, another separate collection. The project team met with 116 individual researchers and attended 13 school and faculty meetings to promote the MODC project and raise awareness of the Library’s services and resources for research data management.

A happy compromise: Collaborative approaches to school library designing

Designing a school library is a complex, costly and demanding process with important educational and social implications for the whole school community. Drawing upon recent research, this paper presents contrasting snapshots of two school libraries to demonstrate the impacts of greater and lesser collaboration in the designing process. After a brief literature review, the paper outlines the research design (qualitative case study, involving collection and inductive thematic analysis of interview data and student drawings). The select findings highlight the varying experiences of each school’s teacher-librarian through the four designing phases of imagining, transitioning, experiencing and reimagining. Based on the study’s findings, the paper concludes that design outcomes are enhanced through collaboration between professional designers and key school stakeholders including teacher-librarians, teachers, principals and students. The findings and recommendations are of potential interest to teacher-librarians, school principals, education authorities, information professionals and library managers, to guide user-centred library planning and resourcing.

Caught in the act of collaboration: Students’ experiences of collective learning within a real-world design studio context

This study is an evaluation of design students’ perceptions of the benefits of collective learning in a real-world collaborative design studio. Third year students worked in inter-disciplinary teams representing architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and industrial design. Responding to a real-world brief and in consultation with an industry partner client and early childhood education pre-service teachers, the teams were required to collectively propose a design response for a community-based child and family centre, on an iconic koala sanctuary site. Data were collected using several methods including a participatory action research method, through the form of a large analogue, collaborative jigsaw puzzle. Using a grounded theory methodology, qualitative data were thematically analysed to reveal six distinct aspects of collaboration, which positively impacted the students’ learning experience. The results of this study include recommendations for improving real world collaboration in the design studio in preparation for students’ transition into professional practice.

Final report of Working Group 2: Traffic psychology [A COST Action TU1101 / HOPE collaboration]

BACKGROUND The workgroup of Traffic Psychology is concerned with the social, behavioral, and perceptual aspects that are associated with use and non-use of bicycle helmets, in their various forms and under various cycling conditions. OBJECTIVES The objectives of WG2 are to (1) share current knowledge among the people already working in the field, (2) suggest new ideas for research on and evaluation of the design of bicycle helmets, and (3) discuss options for funding of such research within the individual frameworks of the participants. Areas for research include 3.1. The patterns of use of helmets among different users: children, adults, and sports enthusiasts. 3.2. The use of helmets in different environments: rural roads, urban streets, and bike trails. 3.3. Concerns bicyclists have relative to their safety and convenience and the perceived impact of using helmets on comfort and convenience. 3.4. The benefit of helmets for enhancing visibility, and how variations in helmet design and colors affect daytime, nighttime, and dusktime visibility. 3.5. The role of helmets in the acceptance of city-wide pickup-and-drop-off bicycles. 3.6. The impact of helmets on visual search behaviour of bicyclists.

Time, place and space – student group collaboration using Google Drive

Virtual working environments are intrinsic to the contemporary workplace and collaborative skills are a vital graduate capability. To develop students’ collaborative skills, first year medical laboratory science students undertake a group poster project, based on a blended learning model. Learning is scaffolded in lectures, workshops in collaborative learning spaces, practitioner mentoring sessions, and online resources. Google Drive provides an online collaborative space for students to realise tangible outcomes from this learning. A Google Drive document is created for each group and shared with members. In this space, students assign tasks and plan workflow, share research, progressively develop poster content, reflect and comment on peer contributions and use the messaging functions to ‘talk’ to group members. This provides a readily accessible, transparent record of group work, crucial in peer assessment, and a communication channel for group members and the lecturer, who can support groups if required. This knowledge creation space also augments productivity and effectiveness of face-to-face collaboration. As members are randomly allocated to groups and are often of diverse backgrounds and unknown to each other, resilience is built as students navigate the uncertainties and complexities of group dynamics, learning to focus on the goal of the team task as they constructively and professionally engage in team dialogue. Students are responsible and accountable for individual and group work. The use of Google Drive was evaluated in a survey including Likert scale and open ended qualitative questions. Statistical analysis was carried out. Results show students (79%) valued the inclusion of online space in collaborative work and highly appreciated (78%) the flexibility provided by Google Drive, while recognising the need for improved notification functionality. Teaching staff recognised the advantages in monitoring and moderating collaborative group work, and the transformational progression in student collaborative as well as technological skill acquisition, including professional dialogue.

Making an IMPACT: Campus-wide collaboration for course and learning space transformation

At Purdue University, the Libraries participate in a provost-initiated, campus-wide course redesign program called Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT). This initiative aims to bring active-learning to foundational courses traditionally taught through lectures. Purdue librarians recognized the IMPACT initiative as one way to enter the conversations blooming on our campus about the nature of learning, curriculum design, and how space design impacts potential learning. This article presents three perspectives: 1) the information literacy coordinator, 2) a libraries’ administrator with a gift for space planning, and; 3) an in-the-trenches liaison to course redesign projects. Each discusses the IMPACT initiative from his or her unique perspective and view of its impact on librarian roles. Collectively, the article explains why we think it is essential that this kind of campus effort is supported by libraries.

Understanding file access mechanisms for embedded ubicomp collaboration interfaces

This paper explores the nature of interfaces to support people in accessing their files at tabletop displays embedded in the environment. To do this, we designed a study comparing people's interaction with two very different classes of file system access interface: Focus, explicitly designed for tabletops, and the familiar hierarchical Windows Explorer. In our within-subjects double-crossover study, participants collaborated on 4 planning tasks. Based on video, logs, questionnaires and interviews, we conclude that both classes of interface have a place. Notably, Focus contributed to improved collaboration and more efficient use of the workspace than with Explorer. Our results inform a set of recommendations for future interfaces enabling this important class of interaction -- supporting access to files for collaboration at tabletop devices embedded in an ubicomp environment.

A decade of supply chain collaboration and directions for future research

Purpose This paper aims to conduct a systematic review of the literature on supply chain collaboration published over a 10-year period from 2005 to 2014. It explores the nature and extent of research undertaken to identify key themes emerging in the field and gaps that need to be addressed. Design/methodology/approach The authors review a sample of 207 articles from 69 journals, after using an iterative cycle of defining appropriate search keywords, searching the literature and conducting the analysis. Findings Key themes include the meaning of collaboration; considerations for supply chain collaboration theory; emerging areas in collaboration for sustainability, technology-enabled supply chains and humanitarian supply chains; and the need for a more holistic approach, multi-tier perspectives and research into B2C collaborations. Research limitations/implications The paper provides discussion and scope for future research into the area which would contribute to the field tremendously. Originality/value There have been very few reviews in the past on supply chain collaboration, and this is one of the first extensive reviews conducted to address how well the body of knowledge on supply chain collaboration corresponds with our contemporary society.

Fostering collaboration in the management of family finances

Managing finances is a practice carried out daily in homes across the world. Despite this, the practice is not yet a strong focus for HCI work in the home. This paper looks specifically at the ways that families organise and manage their finances. Based on a process of in-situ qualitative interviews, we find that money management is often a collaborative process in the family and occurs in a similar way to other household tasks; as part of existing divisions of domestic labour. Participating families reflected upon the creative and often low-tech systems they used to manage their finances and ideas they had for “ideal” technologies that would better help them organise their money. This paper presents ideas for fostering collaboration around family finances. Design propositions are made towards a Family Holiday Expense Tracker and family-situated bill payment reminder, both of which aim to encourage whole-of-family collaboration around money management and better including children in what is, at-present, an activity they are largely excluded from.