Junge Hochschul- und Mediendidaktik. Forschung und Praxis im Dialog

Am 29./30.05.2012 fand in Hamburg die Konferenz “Junges Forum Hochschul- und Mediendidaktik” (JFHM) statt. Ausgerichtet vom Zentrum für Hochschul- und Weiterbildung (ZHW) der Universität Hamburg, kooperierten bei der Konzeption und Durchführung der Tagung Vertreterinnen und Vertreter aus hochschul- und mediendidaktischer Berufspraxis mit Vertreterinnen der wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchsförderung aus der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hochschuldidaktik (DGHD) und der Gesellschaft für Medien in der Wissenschaft (GMW). Das Ziel der Tagung war die Sichtbarmachung und Vernetzung theoretischer und praktischer hochschul- und mediendidaktischer Arbeit. Der vorliegende Sammelband vereint Beiträge der Konferenz und gibt so einen Einblick in aktuelle Themen von Hochschul- und Mediendidaktik - und zwar speziell aus der Perspektive jüngerer Forscherinnen und Forscher sowie Praktikerinnen und Praktiker. Er gibt damit auch Anhaltspunkte dafür, welche Themen diese Arbeitsbereiche in Zukunft (weiter) beschäftigen werden. (DIPF/Autor)

Qualitätssicherung für nachhaltige Strukturen in der ICT-basierten Lehreraus- und -fortbildung

Das Institut für Ökonomische Bildung (IÖB) an der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg ist u.a. mit der wissenschaftlichen Durchführung des Projekts „Ökonomische Bildung online“ befasst, mit dem die Entwicklung eines vollständigen internetbasierten Studiengangs, differenzierter Fort- und Weiterbildungsprofile für Lehrkräfte an allgemein bildenden Schulen und die Vorbereitung des Exports des Studiengangs nach Russland erreicht werden soll. Ein vertraglich fixiertes Hauptaugenmerk bei der Entwicklung dieser Angebote liegt auf der Nachhaltigkeit, d.h. nach Ablauf der Projektförderdauer (7/2001–12/2004) sollen sich die Produkte auf dem wachsenden Bildungsmarkt selbst refinanzieren. Wie versucht werden soll die Nachhaltigkeit zu erreichen, ist Gegenstand dieses Artikels. Im Mittelpunkt stehen dabei Maßnahmen der Qualitätssicherung, die m.E. aber nicht bei der Betrachtung der Produkte an sich, d.h. der Inhalte und Kurse selbst beschränkt bleiben kann, sondern auch die Ausrichtung an der Marktsituation, die Bedürfnisse der Zielgruppen, die Kooperationsbeziehungen, die Finanzierung und die Technik ins Blickfeld nehmen muss. (DIPF/Orig.)

Das verflixte (?) siebte Jahr – Sieben Jahre Virtuelle Universität

Im Wintersemester 1996 wurde am Lehrgebiet Praktische Informatik I mit einigen wenigen Kursen und ebenso wenig Studierenden die Virtuelle Universität (VU) der FernUniversität in Hagen gestartet. Heute arbeiten mehr als 25.000 Nutzer aktiv mit dieser Plattform und können aus über 300 Kursen aller Fachbereiche ihr individuelles Studienprofil auswählen. Die Virtuelle Universität (VU) hat allerdings nicht nur enorme Veränderungen von Lehren und Lernen bewirkt, auch die Organisation als Ganzes erfährt inzwischen durch die VU einen Strukturwandel. Viele Publikationen beschäftigen sich mit den technologischen, didaktischen und auch juristischen Aspekten des Wandels; aber kaum jemand beschreibt die kompletten Auswirkungen durch den Einsatz eines solchen Systems und doch wird genau danach sehr häufig gefragt. Nicht nur Studierende, auch Lehrende, Verwaltungsangestellte und Techniker werden vor neue Herausforderungen gestellt. Im folgenden Papier werden die Erfahrungen aus dem Projekt Virtuelle Universität der FernUniversität in Hagen zusammengefasst. Am Beispiel des Projektes soll gezeigt werden, wie ein Initiativprojekt eine ganze Organisation in seinen Bann zog und vielfältige Veränderungen in allen Bereichen bewirkt hat. (DIPF/Orig.)

(De-)Thematisierung von Geschlecht. Rekonstruktionen bei Studierenden der Erziehungs- und Bildungswissenschaften

Wie wird Geschlecht von Studierenden der Erziehungs- und Bildungswissenschaften rezipiert? Wie stehen die Studierenden zu Geschlechterfragen? Ausgehend von der Beobachtung, dass das Interesse an Geschlechterfragen zum Teil als individuelle, zudem etwas anachronistische Neigung erscheint, rekonstruiert diese empirische Studie u.a., welchen Einfluss das Studium des spezifischen Fachgebietes auf die Studierenden hat. Zudem wird deutlich, dass die studentische (De-)Thematisierung von Geschlecht auch maßgeblich von rhetorischen Modernisierungsprozessen und gesellschaftlichen Verdeckungszusammenhängen beeinflusst wird. (DIPF/Verlag)

Studies on the occurrence and growth rates of two intertidal fouling bryozoans in the Mattancherry channel of Cochin harbour, south-west coast of India

Occurrence and growth rates of two species of intertidal fouling bryozoans namely Electra bengalensis (Stoliczka) and Electra crustulanta (Pallas) are presented in this paper. The former was a typically marine form, settling on panels only during the high saline conditions of the pre-monsoon period and were absent during the low salinity conditions of the monsoon period, while the latter appeared to be a typical brackish water form settling on panels during the low saline conditions existing during the monsoon and post-monsoon periods and were totally absent during the pre-monsoon months. Regression co-efficient of the former was higher than that of the latter suggesting more pronounced growth in Electra bengalensis. Maximum growth for this species was noticed during March, April and May (pre-monsoon) while for the other species growth was more or less similar during monsoon and post-monsoon months (June-January) showing that the species was at home in oligohaline and mesohaline waters.

Toward a pedagogy of advanced studies in the University : the production of an inventive academic writing in the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

In search of academic identity : physical education, sport science and the field of human movement studies

This thesis addresses the problem of the academic identity of the area traditionally referred to as physical education. The study is a critical examination of the argu ments for the justi cation of this area as an autonomous branch of knowledge. The investigation concentrates on a selected number of arguments. The data collection comprised articles books and proceedings of conferences. The preliminary assessment of these materials resulted in a classi cation of the arguments into three groups. The rst group comprises the arguments in favour of physical education as an academic discipline. The second includes the arguments supporting a science of sport. The third consists of the arguments in favour of to a eld of human movement study. The examination of these arguments produced the following results. (a) The area of physical education does not satisfy the conditions presupposed by the de nition of academic discipline. This is so because the area does not form an integrated system of scienti c theories. (b) The same di culty emerges from the examination of the ar guments for sport science. There is no science of sport because there is no integrated system of scienti c theories related to sport. (c) The arguments in favour of a eld of study yielded more productive results. However di culties arise from the de nition of human movement. The analysis of this concept showed that its limits are not well demarcated. This makes it problematic to take human movement as the focus of a eld of studies. These aspects led to the conclusion that such things as an academic discipline of physical education sport science and eld of human movement studies do not exist. At least there are not such things in the sense of autonomous branches of knowledge. This does not imply that a more integrated inquiry based on several disciplines is not possible and desirable. This would enable someone entering phys ical education to nd a more organised structure of knowledge with some generally accepted problem situations procedures and theories on which to base professional practice.

What We Are Learning About the Diverse Backgrounds of Academic Library Users: An Overview of Research Designs and Methods in Information Behaviour Studies

Academic libraries increasingly serve a more diverse population of users not only in regard to race and ethnicity, but also to age, gender, language, sexual orientation, and national and cultural backgrounds. This papers reports the findings of the study that explored information behaviour research as a potential source of information about diversity of academic library users and examined the relationship between the use of different research designs and data collection methods and the information gathered about users’ diverse backgrounds. The study found that information behaviour research offers limited insight into the diversity of academic library users. The choice of a research design was not critical but the use of multiple data collection played a role in gathering information about culturally diverse users.

Organization studies as an applied science:the generation and use of academic knowledge about organizations : introduction to the special issue

The relationship between theory and practice has been discussed in the social sciences for generations. Academics from management and organization studies regularly lament the divide between theory and practice. They regret the insufficient academic knowledge of managerial problems and their solutions, and criticize the scholarly production of theories that are not relevant for organizational practice (Hambrick 1994). Despite the prevalence of this topic in academic discourse, we do not know much about what kind of academic knowledge would be useful to practice, how it would be produced and how the transfer of knowledge between theory and practice actually works. In short, we do not know how we can make academic work more relevant for practice or even whether this would be desirable. In this introduction to the Special Issue, we apply philosophical, theoretical and empirical perspectives to examine the challenges of studying the generation and use of academic knowledge. We then briefly describe the contribution of the seven papers that were selected for this Special Issue. Finally, we discuss issues that still need to be addressed, and make some proposals for future avenues of research.

Australasian horror special issue editorial : putting Australian and New Zealand horror movies on the map of cinema studies

This Australasian horror special issue is an important step forward in putting Australian and New Zealand horror movies on the map of film and cinema studies as a subject worthy of intellectual debate. The journal issue is the first devoted solely to the academic discussion of Australasian horror movies. While an Australian horror movie tradition has produced numerous titles since the 1970s achieving commercial success and cult popularity worldwide, the horror genre is largely missing from Australian film history. While there have been occasional essays on standout titles such as Wolf Creek (Mclean, 2005), an increasing number of articles on ‘Ozploitation’ movies, and irregular discussion about Australian Gothic, overall the nature of Australian horror as a genre remains poorly understood. In terms of New Zealand, debate has tended to revolve around ‘Kiwi Gothic’ and of course Peter Jackon’s early splatter films, rather than Kiwi horror as a specific filmmaking tradition.

Re-generating the praxis of academic staff development through arts-based learning : beyond paradox

Effective staff development remains a challenge in higher education. This paper examines the non-traditional methodology of arts-based staff development, its potential to foster transformational learning and the practice of professional artistry, through perceptions of program impact. Over a three year period, eighty academics participated in one metropolitan Australian university’s arts-based academic development program. The methodology used one-on-one hermeneutic-based conversations with fifteen self-selected academics and a focus group with twenty other academics from all three years. The paper presents a learning model to engender academic professional artistry. The findings provide developers with support for using a non-traditional strategy of transformational learning.

Does legal heritage affect obesity? The channel of motor vehicle dependence

We find a robust relationship between motor vehicle ownership, its interaction with legal heritage and obesity in OECD countries. Our estimates indicate that an increase of 100 motor vehicles per thousand residents is associated with about a 6% point increase in obesity in common law countries, whereas it has a much smaller or insignificant impact in civil law countries. These relations hold whether we examine trend data and simple correlations, or conduct cross-section or panel data regression analysis. Our results suggest that obesity rises with motor vehicle ownership in countries following a common law tradition where individual liberty is encouraged, whereas the link is small or statistically non-existent in countries with a civil law background where the rights of the individual tend to be circumscribed by the power of the state.

Open and networked initiatives and the digital transformation of academic publishing in China

Many aspects of China's academic publishing system differ from the systems found in liberal market based economies of the United States, Western Europe and Australia. A high level of government intervention in both the publishing industry and academia and the challenges associated with attempting to make a transition from a centrally controlled towards a more market based publishing industry are two notable differences; however, as in other countries, academic communities and publishers are being transformed by digital technologies. This research explores the complex yet dynamic digital transformation of academic publishing in China, with a specific focus of the open and networked initiatives inspired by Web 2.0 and social media. The thesis draws on two case studies: Science Paper Online, a government-operated online preprint platform and open access mandate; and New Science, a social reference management website operated by a group of young PhD students. Its analysis of the innovations, business models, operating strategies, influences, and difficulties faced by these two initiatives highlights important characteristics and trends in digital publishing experiments in China. The central argument of this thesis is that the open and collaborative possibilities of Web 2.0 inspired initiatives are emerging outside the established journal and monograph publishing system in China, introducing innovative and somewhat disruptive approaches to the certification, communication and commercial exploitation of knowledge. Moreover, emerging publishing models are enabling and encouraging a new system of practising and communicating science in China, putting into practice some elements of the Open Science ethos. There is evidence of both disruptive change to old publishing structures and the adaptive modification of emergent replacements in the Chinese practice. As such, the transformation from traditional to digital and interactive modes of publishing, involves both competition and convergence between new and old publishers, as well as dynamics of co-evolution involving new technologies, business models, social norms, and government reform agendas. One key concern driving this work is whether there are new opportunities and new models for academic publishing in the Web 2.0 age and social media environment, which might allow the basic functions of communication and certification to be achieved more effectively. This thesis enriches existing knowledge of open and networked transformations of scholarly publishing by adding a Chinese story. Although the development of open and networked publishing platforms in China remains in its infancy, the lessons provided by this research are relevant to practitioners and stakeholders interested in understanding the transformative dynamics of networked technologies for publishing and advocating open access in practice, not only in China, but also internationally.

Ensuring sessional academic success by rethinking the place of academic development

There has been growing recognition of the contribution that Sessional Academics make to student learning in higher education; with recent studies concluding that around half Australian university teaching is now performed by casual staff [Red Report 2008; May, 2013]. However, sector-wide research and institutional audits continue to raise concerns about academic development and quality assurance, as well as the recognition and retention of Sessional Academics. In response, universities offer academic development programs. However, while such centrally offered programs are undoubtedly useful, they are necessarily generic and cannot address the local contexts of faculties or provide ‘on the ground’ support. This paper presents a new, distributed model of academic support and development for Sessional academics at Queensland University of Technology. Entitled the Sessional Academic Success program, it employs the principles of distributed leadership. Experienced Sessional academics are trained and supported to assume roles as Sessional Academic Success Advisors within their schools. Complementing our central programs, they design bespoke, locally situated, peer-to-peer academic development for new Sessional teachers; provide ‘just in time’, safe and reliable advice; and build supportive communities of teaching practice in their local contexts. This distributed model re-envisages the forms and places of academic development and support. It helps ensure that new Sessional Academics are embraced by faculty life. And, recognizing that experienced Sessional Academics have much to contribute to the advancement of learning and teaching, it builds their capacity through leadership opportunities. As the designer/facilitator of the program and a Sessional Academic Success Advisor, the authors take a dialogic approach and together describe the design, implementation and outcomes of the program.

Admission as a lawyer : the fearful spectre of academic misconduct

Notwithstanding a cultural critique of the concepts that underpin the values of academic integrity, both the university, as a community of scholarship, and the legal profession, as a vocation self-defined by integrity, retain traditional values. Despite the lack of direct relevance of plagiarism to legal practice, courts now demonstrate little tolerance for applicants for admission against whom findings of academic misconduct have been made. Yet this lack of tolerance is neither fatal nor absolute, with the most egregious forms of academic misconduct, coupled with less than complete candour, resulting in no more than a deferral of an application for admission for six months. Where allegations are of a less serious nature, law schools deal with allegations in a less formal or punitive fashion, regarding it as an educative function of the university, assisting students to understand the cultural practices of scholarship. For law students seeking admission to practice, applicants are under an obligation of complete candour in disclosing any matters that bear on their suitability, including any finding of academic misconduct. Individual legal academics, naturally adhering to standards of academic integrity, often have only a general understanding of the admissions process. Applying appropriate standards of academic integrity, legal academics can create difficulties for students seeking admission by not recognising a pastoral obligation to ensure that students have a clear understanding of the impact adverse findings will have on admission. Failure to fulfil this obligation deprives students of the opportunity to take prompt remedial action as well as presenting practical problems for the practitioner who moves their admission.