Search

Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to describe the impact of a university-wide deposit mandate on the self-archiving practices of academics and to show how a mandate can make a positive difference. Design/methodology/approach — The paper explains the genesis of the eprints mandate at QUT and outlines the response of the academics to the endorsement of the policy. The implementation of the mandate is then examined in detail, including discussion and evaluation of specific implementation strategies and practices. Findings — The experience of Queensland University of Technology suggests that a university-wide eprints mandate definitely increases the rate of self-archiving. Cultural and organisation change takes time, even with a mandate. Advocacy initiatives and implementation strategies have to be aligned with current skills and needs of the researchers. For a self-deposit system to be successful, the barriers need to be as low as possible. Originality/value — Institutional repository administrators should consider creating a scaffolded deposit system that is fast, intuitive and requires only basic technology skills. The efforts of early adopters should be recognised as publicly as possible. Evidence of success is the best form of persuasion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frank Costello's long career represents a series of illuminating encounters with the development of Australian planning, design practice and education. His career stretched from the 1920s to the 1970s, first in Sydney and subsequently in Brisbane where he was the senior architect-planner at Brisbane City Council between 1941 and 1952. He also worked for a decade in the Queensland Department of Works. He had a parallel career as an educator, commencing part-time at Sydney Technical College in 1937 and from the mid-1940s at what is now the Queensland University of Technology where the final phase of his career came as a senior lecturer in architecture with special responsibility for town planning. Post-war Brisbane gave him the opportunity to put into practice much of the modernist ‘organic’ theory that he had accumulated from his extensive studies and travels abroad. This paper recounts Costello's life and times as a journeyman planner whose life stories and professional philosophy is illuminatingly representative of the evolution of mainstream Australian planning values and the limits to practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is committed to providing outstanding learning environments and programs that lead to excellent outcomes for students. This paper will discuss how the Faculty of Information Technology is helping to meet this commitment by using information and communication technology to transform teaching and learning in ways in which engage and challenge students. The paper will provide a case study explore how e-learning is being implemented within the Bachelor of Information Technology. The paper will discuss the practical implications of incorporating e-learning into the teaching curriculum and how it impacts on the teaching and learning process. Student attitudes and expectations towards e-learning will be explored. The paper concludes that e-learning should be a part of a 'whole of learning' approach in which technology is not just an add on to traditional teaching, nor is it the central focus of teaching, but rather, it is one of many tools that is integrated into the curriculum to foster learning. The current project suggests that students appreciate and prefer a mix of e-learning and face-to-face classes and that e-learning is most successful when a holistic approach to teaching and learning is taken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Queensland University of Technology badges itself as 'a university for the real world'. For the last decade the Law Faculty has aimed to provide its students with a 'real world' degree, that is, a practical law degree. This has seen skills such as research, advocacy and negotiation incorporated into the undergraduate degree under a university Teaching & Learning grant, a project that gained international recognition and praise. In 2007-2008 the Law Faculty undertook another curriculum review of its undergraduate law degree. As a result of the two year review, QUT's undergraduate law degree has fewer core units, a focus on first year student transition, scaffolding of law graduate capabilities throughout the degree, work integrated learning and transition to the workplace. The revised degree commenced implementation in 2009. This paper focuses on the 'real world' approach to the degree achieved through the first year programme, embedding and scaffolding law graduate capabilities through authentic and valid assessment and work integrated learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2007 the film-maker Michael Noonan embarked on a project initially entitled 'Laughing at the Disabled' (a title then changed to 'Laughing with the Disabled'), a collaboration between himself and three people with intellectual disabilities. A doctoral candidate in the Creative Industries at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Noonan's film was the subject of a furious attack by two QUT academics - and then became a cause celebre not only in Australia but around the world. The 'Laughing at/with the Disabled' project became a touchstone for the futility and contempt inherent in much contemporary academic research and teaching - but especially was viewed by many as proof of the troubling status of disability in Australian universities. While it has been widely discussed in the press, and with the furore continued online via blogs, YouTube, and email lists, there has been an absence of critical discussion of the case. Accordingly, in this paper, I analyze the public record covering the criticisms of this research project, disciplinary action by QUT, and responses by those involved in the research. Rather than making judgments on the project, I explore this case for the light it sheds on the place of disability in Australian culture, the role of power, questions of ethics - and, perhaps most importantly, the cultural politics of disability in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A graduate destination survey can provide a snap shot in time of a graduate's career progression and outcome. This paper will present the results of a Queensland University of Technology study exploring the employment outcomes of students who had completed a library and information science course from the Faculty of Information Technology between 2000 and 2008. Seventy-four graduates completed an online questionnaire administered in July 2009. The study found that 90% of the graduates surveyed were working and living in Queensland, with over three quarters living and working in Brisbane. Nearly 70% were working full-time, while only 1.4% indicating that they were unemployed and looking for work. Over 80% of the graduates identified themselves as working in "librarianship". This study is the first step in understanding the progression and destination of QUT's library and information science graduates. It is recommended that this survey becomes an ongoing initiative so that the results can be analysed and compared over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the work of the ARC Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation at Queensland University of Technology. They have attempted to deal with some of the definitional and policy ambiguities surrounding the DCMS's re-branding of 'cultural industries' as 'creative industries'. The paper focuses on three central claims. First, that Art falls outside the creative industries; second, that the creative industries moves beyond a cultural policy paradigm towards that of innovation systems; third, that the notion of 'social network markets' represents the central defining characteristic of the creative industries. The paper suggests that the attempt to separate out art and culture from the creative industries is misplaced and represents a significant shift away from a longer trajectory of 'cultural industries' policies with some damaging consequences for cultural policy and creative businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the stereotype of libraries as peaceful retreats, unacceptable behaviour is a reality that desk staff have to deal with. This paper outlines the results of two surveys conducted at Charles Darwin University Library to investigate the extent to which this is a problem in Australian academic libraries. The first survey went to CAUL (Council of Australian University Librarians) and the results made available via the CAUL website. As this survey was completed only by management, a second survey was conducted with front desk staff and via the Lending and Document Delivery Group of the Queensland University Libraries Office of Cooperation (QULOC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses an innovative approach Io teaching cataloguing. At Queensland University of Technology (QUT), students enrolled in the Graduate Diploma of Library and Information Studies were involved m an independent learning activity which aimed to develop LIS students' foundation knowledge of descriptive cataloguing, while simultaneously encouraging students to think critically about broader issues that would inevitably impact on their role as information professionals. In the self-study program, learning activities included an interactive multimedia CD-ROM and a primed workbook with exercises, argument by the opportunity for group discussion in weekly tutorials to enable students to share key aspects of their independent learning. Students were asked to critically evaluate the CD-ROM and the workbook and also to develop their own professional views about the arguments for and against the inclusion of cataloguing in the LIS curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a teaching model, The Teaching Artist, developed to address the pedagogical and cultural divide between the traditional dance teacher and the dance artist who teaches: traditionally, one teaching about dance and the other, teaching through dance. The Teaching Artist model was developed through the Q150 Project. The Q150 Project provided an opportunity to meld these cultural idioms. It involved pre-service secondary dance teachers in their second year of teacher training at the Queensland University of Technology. The Project's design involved three components: artistic development, pedagogic development and implementation. The participants researched social and artistic dance histories and practices across Queensland towns. From their research, they created dance works specific to those local communities. The works created formed the basis for primary and secondary school workshops taught by the participants. By their participation in the Project, the pre-service teachers created tangible links with the schools in which they will practise and experienced the nexus between artist and teacher in an authentic teaching and learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities are important players in the global development of knowledge economy, alongside being significant contributors to the economic development of their host cities. They are both significant knowledge enterprises and the suppliers of the human and intellectual capital on which the knowledge-based economy depends. What seems under-explored is how deliberative partnerships between universities and city authorities can develop around projects of mutual benefit, especially based on campus development. In this paper, with the help of five case studies (QUT, MIT, Harvard, Twente and Newcastle universities), we investigate how the spatial development of universities can be one of the main meeting points between the city and university and how it can be used for stimulating economic development and managing growth. These cases show that university—city collaborative initiatives focused on the university properties represent a desire to produce creative and competitive new urban spaces, which reinforce the position of the university and the city in global economy. They also show that these developments need to be jointly managed to avoid undesirable impacts on either side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research project described in this paper was designed to explore the potential of a wiki to facilitate collaboration and to reduce the isolation of postgraduate students enrolled in a professional doctoral program at a Queensland university. It was also intended to foster a community of practice for reviewing and commenting on one another's work despite the small number of students and their disparate topics. The students were interviewed and surveyed at the beginning and during the face-to-face sessions of the course and their wikis were examined over the year to monitor, analyse and evaluate the extent to which the agency of the technology (wiki) mediated their development of scholarly skills. The study showed that students paradoxically eschewed use of the structured wiki and formed their own informal networks. This paper will contend that this paradox arose from a mismatch between the agency of technology and its intended purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes that the secret to becoming a winning advocate is a confident communicator style (Norton, 1983; Moss Kanter, 2004). The paper explores strategies that may help a law student develop the essential communicative confidence to handle the ‘Socratic Method’ (Garner, 2000) and become a successful advocate. As so much of the law has to do with speaking, one such strategy is to give students an understanding of the principles of rhetoric, including the opportunity to work on the practice of their persuasive power: both verbal and non-verbal. The paper investigates a critique of the ‘Socratic Method’ (Garner, 2000), which dominates the tradition of the law in the western world. The question of the potential of the Socratic Method to be misogynistic (Garner, 2000) is investigated to show that Socratic teaching in legal education is a daunting prospect for many students. The case study used is an elective unit that prepares students for mooting and court work and that is currently taught at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Law School. This paper outlines aspects of the teaching approach and uses feedback from students to analyse its effectiveness in developing communicative confidence and overcoming the fear associated with Socratic courtroom processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities now have a lot to say about tertiary teaching. University policy, teaching units, and promotion criteria have a very specific understanding of good teaching within the academy. This case study of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) found that good teaching has two central features: it is necessarily student centred, and it is `innovative', a characteristic that, at QUT at least, is increasingly equated with the use of technology. This paper – based upon interviews with twenty-four QUT academics across three faculties (Education, Science, and Law), an analysis of QUT's teaching and learning policies, and some additional historical research – will suggest four things. First, that the concept of student centred learning, based on ideals of progressive education, is neither an historical inevitability nor theoretically unproblematic. Second, that irrespective of discipline, all lecturers espouse an underpinning `progressive' teaching philosophy, even though, in practice, teaching style appears to be determined primarily by subject-matter. Third, given that, in practice, the progressive model seems to suit some faculties and subject areas better than others (i.e. Education, as opposed to Science and Law) this has significant professional implications for the lecturers concerned. Finally, that rather than promoting a `progressive' pedagogy, the use of technology in teaching actually appears to reinforce traditional teaching techniques. Consequently, it is suggested that monolithic understandings of good teaching, when applied across the academy irrespective of context, are often inappropriate, ineffective and inequitous, and that universities need to think through their teaching policies and programmes more thoroughly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on events held by the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA). The association had its 2009 conference held at the Creative Industries Precinct at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Queensland that featured the grant of the Christopher Newell Prize for best paper. It mentions the ANZCA's management of a pre-conference event that targeted postgraduates and gave them mentoring and critical feedback.

The article focuses on the discovery by physicist Stephen Hughes from the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Queensland, of an error on the meaning of the word "siphon" found at the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). It mentions the effort to revive a lake by siphoning water into it to raise its water level. Hughes noticed that the meaning of "siphon" in the dictionary made no mention of "gravity." The 99-year-old OED definition will be revised and will be published later in 2010.

There is widespread recognition that higher education institutions (HEIs) must actively support commencing students to ensure equity in access to the opportunities afforded by higher education. This role is particularly critical for students who because of educational, cultural or financial disadvantage or because they are members of social groups currently under-represented in higher education, may require additional transitional support to 'level the playing field.' The challenge faced by HEIs is to provide this 'support' in a way that is integrated into regular teaching and learning practices and reaches all commencing students. The Student Success Program (SSP) is an intervention in operation at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) designed to identify and support those students deemed to be at risk of disengaging from their learning and their institution. Two sets of evidence of the impact of the SSP are presented: First, its expansion (a) from a one-faculty pilot project (Nelson et al. in Stud Learn Eval Innov Dev 6:1-15, ) to all faculties and (b) into a variety of applications mirroring the student life cycle; and second, an evaluation of the impact of the SSP on students exposed to it. The outcomes suggest that: the SSP is an example of good practice that can be successfully applied to a variety of learning contexts and student enrolment situations; and the impact of the intervention on student persistence is sustained for at least 12 months and positively influences student retention. It is claimed that the good practice evidenced by the SSP is dependent on its integration into the broader First Year Experience Program at QUT as an example of transition pedagogy in action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2009, the Faculty of Health at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia introduced a short writing assessment task to first year undergraduate students in four courses including Public Health, Nursing, Social Work and Human Services, and Human Movement Studies. Over 1,000 students were involved in the initial trial. The task was assessed using an adaptation of the MASUS Procedure (Measuring the Academic Skills of University Students) (Webb & Bonanno, 1994). Students who achieved the benchmark score or above were considered to have writing skills at the level needed for university study and were awarded 10% of their overall grade for the unit. Those who achieved below the benchmark score were required to attend academic writing workshops in order to obtain the same 10%. These developmental workshops targeted their academic literacy needs. Much was learned from the trial, about task design and timing, as well as options for integrating the workshops into the units. What we learned from the trial will be presented as well as how we are reining the initiative in the current teaching year . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No abstract received. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning support in mathematics and statistics has arisen and developed in response to student needs in many universities. After discussing background to such support, this article gives a brief overview of learning support in mathematics and statistics in Australian universities as found in an Australian Learning and Teaching Council project and of the provision in Queensland University of Technology. Qualitative and quantitative data on student usage and student progression are discussed. Analysis of data for students studying mathematics and statistics contributes to growing evidence that such learning support is fulfilling needs across the range of student capabilities, including students choosing mathematics degree programs. The article closes with discussion of the contribution of learning support in the spectrum of learning in mathematics and statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the opportunities and challenges surrounding a viable cross-disciplinary engagement between the Humanities disciplines and the Creative Practice disciplines within the innovative context of the Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of Technology. This will involve a charting of the intersection of the emerging field of creative practice-led research with various disciplines in the Humanities such as cultural studies. The potential for a reciprocal, transformative process in these creative fields will be addressed. Several examples of postgraduate students' research will be foregrounded as case studies of the issues involved in fostering a genuine cultural critique both within and through creative practice. Some observers may argue that the research higher degree creative practitioner in effect looks outward from the symbolic material forms being created, in search of an interpretative paradigm, thereby trawling the Humanities for a theory. Several current debates within the postgraduate research arena regarding the balance between the theoretical exegesis and the creative work (e.g. performance, drama, dance, visual art, creative writing, film and screen production, music, interactive media etc) will also be critically examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although transformative learning theory remains one of the most influential theories in the field of adult education, studies on fostering transformative learning, particularly in groups and in the workplace, remain sparse. This article summarises some evidence of transformational learning that influenced changes to practice, processes, and the organisational culture in a case study. It is based on a cohort of 12 worker-learners enrolled in a Graduate Certificate in Education (Executive Leadership) course offered by an Australian university (Queensland University of Technology). Data for this article were drawn from interviews with 10 participants, a focus group with 6 of them, their assessment presentations, and reflective notes of the course facilitators. Also included here are the effects on transformational learning of Taylor's five elements of work-based learning design, Fuller and Unwins' features of expansive learning, and Billett's workplace pedagogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study on the constraints encountered in developing and introducing a geography discipline program in the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Queensland. It relates the development of geography in QUT to changes in geography education in Australia. It evaluates how the practical aspects of working in multi-campus setting, limited staffing resources and policy obstacles to discipline identification influence the evolution of geography in the program.

Emphasizes the importance of cultural and educational diversity of first-year engineering students in Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Queensland. Common problems encountered by first-year students; Goals of the orientation programs conducted by school administrators; How students can adapt with their transition to university life.

The article offers information on the International Council of Sports Science and Physical Education (ICSSPE). A round table discussion on physical education was organized with the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (ACHPER) on July 7, 2009 at the Queensland University of Technology. ICSSPE's Bulletin No. 57 will be published on September 30, 2009. ICSSPE also offers a comprehensive training seminar on the role of sports in post-disaster intervention to deliverers.