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Facilitating an inclusive pedagogy to close the gap that exists within the teaching of Indigenous Knowledge in Australia is a tall order for many teachers. This paper draws on responses to a national study and explores how music educators include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music and culture into their practice. An online survey (December 2022-February 2023, N=109) informed the findings. Using thematic analysis, two themes (teaching challenges and opportunities, and bridging the gap) are discussed and key recommendations offered. Findings suggest that walking carefully towards bridging the gap is an opportunity for educational change in contemporary Australian classrooms.

Communication as a discipline has a curious double life, being both disavowed in favor of something else, yet remains as a conceptual anchor point for a diverse range of intellectual projects. This argument focuses upon four challenges, or "turns," that communication as a field has experienced: the "cultural turn" associated with cultural studies; the global turn; the "creative turn"; and the "digital turn" associated with the Internet and social media. It is observed that these have been collectively incorporated into a broadened communication field, and that concepts associated with communication remain relevant to other disciplines and fields.

Purpose: This study aimed to realign the Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) curriculum at an Australian university with communication industry standards and student career goals. It proposes practical suggestions for a third-year communications studies WIL course that will effectively prepare students for professional success by integrating insights from industry and students. Design/methodology/approach: It analyses free-text feedback from student experience of course surveys (n = 20), semi-structured interviews with industry partners (n = 8), and conducts a detailed review of existing WIL course materials. Drawing from the Employability Capital Growth Model (ECGM) as a theoretical framework, the study explores the findings for links to capital. Findings: The findings emphasise the need for WIL programs to better align with the industry's evolving demands, incorporating practical, real-world experiences to enhance skill development and workforce readiness. Feedback from students and industry partners aligns with the ECGM framework and underscores the importance of integrating coaching and mentoring into the curriculum to support employability. Based on these insights, an integrated set of practical suggestions is presented. Originality/value: This project fills a gap in WIL scholarship by focussing on a communication studies environment, ensuring it aligns with industry demands while prioritising student engagement. By ethically involving industry partners and integrating student feedback, the suggestions set out a curriculum that is both current and resonates with learner experience and career readiness. It bridges the academic-professional divide, preparing students as confident, skilled professionals ready to enter the workforce.

As universities offer more flexible delivery options there are parallel concerns about increasing levels of engagement. Withdrawal and disconnection from study is most common during the first year of university as students experience social, cultural and financial adjustments and attempt to understand the nuances of academic learning. This article reports on the impact of a technology-enabled support system delivering timely, personalised and actionable feedback on online activity and support emails at critical periods in two courses. Learning analytics data was used to identify appropriate engagement metrics for personalising feedback to students with results indicating an improvement in course grades. While the learning analytics approach provides a technology-mediated means for scaling personalised feedback and communicating with large cohorts of learners, the qualitative results indicated that students felt they were noticed as individual learners, were more willing to contact educators for support, and more motivated to engage with the online course learning materials.

In 2011, Universities Australia published a best practice framework to support the Australian higher education sector to build Indigenous cultural competency institutionally, support Indigenous students and staff and to develop the Indigenous cultural competencies of students through curriculum and learning outcomes. For many institutions, this has resulted in the development of Indigenous graduate attributes aimed at building the Indigenous cultural competencies of all students, including non-Indigenous students, with specific Indigenous cultural competencies embedded as learning outcomes within discipline programmes. To date, there has been limited discussion of the embedding of Indigenous cultural competencies within practice-based Australian media and communication programmes such as journalism, film and video production or digital media. This article presents a case study on the embedding of an Indigenous Graduate Attribute within a digital media programme in 2018 and 2019, with an objective of building Indigenous cultural competencies in relation to students' digital media practice. This case study discusses the development of a set of integrated teaching and learning activities and an assessment foregrounding Indigenous content and principles and protocols designed to equip students with cultural competencies that can be applied to their future professional media practice. While the case study is specific, it has relevance to the ongoing discussion of embedding Indigenous competencies into media and communication programmes more broadly.

The shift from specialised studio environments to standardized classroom learning has changed the shape of Communication Design education today. As networked learning and augmented digital classrooms continue to dominate higher education, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of a repertoire of learning spaces on students' engagement within contemporary Communication Design studio learning. This study proposes educators and learning space coordinators employ a methodological framework, known as a Methods Process Model (MPM), to empower students to form their own strategies for learning in conventional studio and generic classroom spaces. This paper discusses the findings from two case studies in the UK and Australia.

This review paper synthesizes peer-reviewed empirical research published between 2010 and 2021 about wildland fire communication practices. Our goal was to systematically review and provide an overview of how wildland fire communication has been empirically studied, and theoretical and methodological underpinnings and representativeness of this work. We found that researchers employ diverse theoretical and methodological approaches, yet most work originates from the western United States or Australia. Studies were published in diverse disciplinary journals, most frequently looked at residents as study subjects, and many sought to understand the effectiveness of communication. There is a need to build theoretical and methodological consistency in wildland fire communication research.

The power of the coloniser within colonial Australia is clear when we consider how central to the teaching and learning and schooling in Australia is the privileging of Standard Australian English. Prior to 1788, the peoples and the lands of this country were abound with languages. That was until the coloniser exerted their power and insisted on a supposedly monolingual society despite being an amalgamation of various Englishes. Quintessential to maintaining the status quo and assumed power of the coloniser is subject English. I want to query the privileged positioning of subject English and its role in privileging the dominant norm. The subject content, the privileging of the coloniser's language, the silencing of Indigenous voices, even the naming of the subject -- all work to maintain the status quo. In a world where technology auto-corrects and predicts our writings, where 'new' ways of communicating such as emojis are becoming prevalent, where the written word is reduced to memos, text messages and emails, where the evolution of language is studied and yet, the consistent message is that you must excel in Standard Australian English. There has never been a 'pure' English nor a standard Australian English in colonial Australia. Our curriculum makes this explicit when we ask students to explore the evolution of language. In this paper, I share the script from my Garth Boomer address provided in 2021 where I wanted to extend the provocation, I raised in 2019 -- why is Standard Australian English the only means of communication privileged in the Australian Curriculum? And be so bold to ask: could (or should) subject English be renamed? Why not Languages, literacy and communication as found in the Welsh Curriculum or how about, simply, Language Arts?

Employability has become an important focus for graduates and employers in Australia, as many universities contend with the notion of developing knowledgeable and problem-solving graduates who are workforce ready practitioners. This paper presents an example of how the higher education communication disciplines from across Victoria, Australia, have developed a forum that allows graduating students to engage directly with industry leaders to better prepare for the leap from higher education to professional employment in the communication and media sectors. This national award-winning education forum brings multi-institutional student groups, recent graduates, academics, and industry practitioners and leaders together in order to aid the development of student skills in areas such as: networking, job application, time management, and effective work habits.

Courses: Visual Rhetoric, Visual Communication, Multiplatform Journalism, Advertising, Journalism, Public Relations. Objective: This unit activity requires that students analyze and produce imagery with the help of semiotic theory. Students will: (1) learn to connect theory with practice holistically by simultaneously practicing visual analysis and synthesis; (2) practice visual rhetoric, a key skill for professionals from media and related sectors; and (3) understand the basics of visual storytelling.

Today's graduates need the skills to enable them to "persevere in the face of complexity and unresolvability" (McWilliam and Haukka 2008: 660), and to respond creatively in work environments that are increasingly dependent on digital technologies (Cunningham 2006). However, although many higher education institutions (HEIs) acknowledge the importance of creativity within the curriculum (McWilliam 2007a), it is argued that universities are failing to equip graduates with the creative skills they require to be effective in the workplace. Design-based learning (also referred to as learning by design) is ideally suited to facilitating the development of creative problem solving (CPS) skills by engaging students in complex learning activities involving the active construction of knowledge through a series of iterative cycles of experimentation and refinement of concepts (Naidu 2004). Similarly, design-based research (DBR) involves a series of iterative steps to design and develop learning environments and theories the design, while also informing the development of practical guidelines (Reeves, Herrington and Oliver, 2005). This paper reports on findings from a project funded by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching, which aimed to develop a CPS framework and supporting online system to scaffold teachers and students through a creative problem solving approach founded on the principles of DBR. The study employed a mixed-methods DBR approach involving multiple iterations to design, develop, trial and implement the framework and tool, as well as the development of principles and practical guidelines for application in the classroom. The findings reported in this paper focus on the DBR process and the experience trialling the CPS tool in a first-year undergraduate course offered in the School of Communication, International Studies and Languages at the University of South Australia. The paper reports on the implications of the findings from the project and the benefits of DBR as a methodology informing the design, development and implementation of a technology enhanced learning approach to fostering CPS in the undergraduate curriculum.

Technology has not only changed the work practice of designers but also how design is taught and learned. The emergence of digital technology has made computer labs a central learning space for design students. Since this change, studio-based learning in its traditional sense appears to be in decline in higher education institutions. This is in spite of the fact that characteristics of the studio have been identified as supporting interaction, active learning, and social engagement. These, however, are also characteristics connected to the use of Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook, Flickr, and Skype. Could these services be utilized to revitalize studio culture in a contemporary sense? How can new technologies be used to facilitate interactions between students inherent to traditional studio culture? These questions were explored in practice by documenting student reactions to using Flickr and Skype during a five week project requiring collaboration between first year creative arts students at two geographically distant institutions in Australia. Findings provide a better understanding of how to expand the studio idea into the digital environment, in particular regarding the challenging task of offering the media design major fully online in the near future.

Background: The success of public health campaigns to engender healthy behavior depends on effective communication of desired messages that inspire action utilizing health information that must be successfully understood. Research, however, illustrates that health guidelines are differentially interpreted, with health literacy and proclivities varying. Purpose: This article presents findings from a study examining major Australian health guidelines and behaviors regarding sun exposure, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and smoking. Methods: An online survey of rural and regional Australian university employees was designed and utilized to gather data about respondent health literacy relative to national guidelines. Results: Findings reveal disparate health literacy and behaviors among the 60 university employees surveyed, with antismoking being the most effectively communicated health message known and adopted. Discussion: Given that "Dr. Google" was respondents' preferred source for health and health risk information, surpassing medical professionals, friends/family, and other media sources, the study raises concerns about the quality, availability, and suitability of Internet-based health information. Translation to Health Education Practice: Reconceptualizing health messages beyond "lose/gain" frameworks is suggested as a way to improve health knowledge to better assist individuals with negotiating conflicting content/quality of information available, differing health literacy, and differing sociocultural environments. A AJHE Self-Study quiz is online for this article via the SHAPE America Online Institute (SAOI) http://portal.shapeamerica.org/trn-Webinars

This paper reflects on some of the themes emerging from a consideration of recent research at the nexus of technologies, learning and culture. The authors comment on the expansive nature of the concept of learning spaces in papers featuring an investigation of technology enhanced learning (TEL) and communication design studios in the UK and Australia, the use of interdisciplinary research collaborations to develop novel implementations of TEL learning spaces, and the challenges of developing an e-university in Malawi. They also examine a comparative study focused on classroom-based learning spaces augmented by computer-based assessment technologies, and the role of TEL both within and in response to protests at universities in South Africa. Massive open online courses are then considered as distinctive educational designs that may offer diverse student experiences, either formal or informal. The next emerging theme considers the sources of tension and richness arising from the widely divergent values that can be embedded in TEL. This is followed by consideration of infrastructural issues and the technologies--learning--culture nexus, followed by the use of theory in TEL work, leading to interdisciplinary theory-informed TEL projects that may be beneficial in the wider project of reimagining higher education for work and study. Finally, the paper examines the theme of mobile TEL and the hegemonic issues surrounding the building of sustainable and authentic foundations for learning with mobiles in the globalised South. The theme points to the methodologically challenging and problematic aspects of this hegemonic analysis and considers how the arguments may be further developed.

For most students assessment guides their study and learning practice. Yet in the literature associated with the first year of study at university, few have mobilised the power of assessment to develop and engage first year undergraduate students. This paper presents a model of assessment for first year students which separates the semester into three overlapping assessment phases: assessment for transition, assessment for development and assessment for achievement. The implementation and usefulness of the model is supported by examples from mathematics, engineering, computing, communication and nursing studies at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). Particular attention is paid to assessments for transition which occur early in the semester and are linked more closely with processes than specific content. Evidence is collated on the success of assessments in improving the participation of students, especially distance education students.

Background: The question whether old media are driven out of existence by new media has been a long concern in academic and industrial research but has received no definitive answer. Aim: This paper goes beyond most previous studies of Internet impact on traditional media, which have placed their relationship within a competition-based framework, to specifically investigate the complementary effect of online news and information usage on traditional sources. Method: Secondary data analysis of a national survey of 4270 Australians conducted in late 2003, employing hypothesis testing for the mean, partial correlations, and a linear regression analysis. Results: Online news and information usage at different usage levels is positively associated with the use of traditional news and information sources, especially those that are more information-intensive. Those who relied on the Internet the most for news and information still used traditional sources substantially. Conclusion: The findings suggest that even if a displacement effect takes place, there will be no replacement (absolute displacement): traditional media will still exist to complement the Internet in serving human beings' news and information needs.

A strategic approach to internationalize learning in higher education institutions is to use the curriculum and classroom cultural diversity to create opportunities to broaden students' intercultural perspectives, appreciate sociocultural variability in professional practice, and improve their intercultural interaction skills. There is no clear consensus, however, on how to "link the global classroom to the global workplace." The article examines an evidence-based approach to embed intercultural competency development in classroom teaching using an established intercultural resource (EXCELL) in an international human resource management course; a general communication course; a pharmacy course comprising only Saudi Arabian students; and a generic first year pharmacy course. Subsequently, stakeholder analyses with Business, Nursing, and Pharmacy academics and professionals led to the development of intercultural critical incidents for the curriculum. Strengths and limitations of the intercultural resource and recommendations for incorporating intercultural competency development in curriculum design in Business and Health disciplines are discussed.

The Social Attention and Communication Study involved the successful implementation of developmental surveillance of the early markers of autism spectrum disorders in a community-based setting. The objective in the current study was to determine the most discriminating and predictive markers of autism spectrum disorders used in the Social Attention and Communication Study at 12, 18 and 24 months of age, so that these could be used to identify children with autism spectrum disorders with greater accuracy. The percentage of "yes/no" responses for each behavioural marker was compared between children with autistic disorder (n = 39), autism spectrum disorder (n = 50) and developmental and/or language delay (n = 20) from 12 to 24 months, with a logistic regression also conducted at 24 months. Across all ages, the recurring key markers of both autistic disorder and autism spectrum disorder were deficits in eye "contact" and "pointing", and from 18 months, deficits in "showing" became an important marker. In combination, these behaviours, along with "pretend" play, were found to be the best group of predictors for a best estimate diagnostic classification of autistic disorder/autism spectrum disorder at 24 months. It is argued that the identified markers should be monitored repeatedly during the second year of life by community health-care professionals. (Contains 3 tables, 7 figures and 7 notes.)

The way in which private schools use rhetoric in their communications offers important insights into how these organizational sites persuade audiences and leverage marketplace advantage in the context of contemporary educational platforms. Through systemic analysis of rhetorical strategies employed in 65 "elite" school prospectuses in Australia, this paper contributes to understandings of the ways schools' communications draw on broader cultural politics in order to shape meanings and interactions among organizational actors. We identify six strategies consistently used by schools to this end: identification, juxtapositioning, bolstering or self-promotion, partial reporting, self-expansion, and reframing or reversal. We argue that, in the context of marketization and privatization discourses in twenty-first-century western education, these strategies attempt to subvert potentially threatening discourses, in the process actively reproducing broader economic and social privilege and inequalities. (Contains 2 tables.)

Corporate sponsorship of sports, causes, and the arts has become a mainstream communications tool worldwide. The unique marketing opportunities associated with major events also attract nonsponsoring companies seeking to form associations with the event (ambushing). There are strategies available to brands and events which have been ambushed; however, there is only limited information about the effects of those strategies on attainment of sponsorship objectives. In Experiment 1, university staff and students participated by studying paragraphs linking a sponsor to a novel event. Relative to each sponsor-event pair, they then studied one of three different messages about a competitor. Results find a message which linked the competitor and the event increased competitor recall given the event as a cue and event recall given the competitor as a cue. These effects were moderated if there was information about the competitor not being the sponsor. In Experiment 2 ambushing and counter-ambushing information was presented over 2 days. Both types of messages increased competitor recall given the event as a cue and event recall given the competitor as a cue. In addition, "not sponsor" information was not always used even when it should have been recallable. The results can be explained if participants are using three cues: a specific cue such as a brand name, a contextual cue, and a category cue, such as the concept of an event. Findings suggest to sponsoring firms and event properties that counter-ambushing communications may have the unintended effect of strengthening an ambusher-event relationship in memory. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

The Brisbane Media Map is both an online resource and a tertiary-level authentic learning project. The Brisbane Media Map is an online database which provides a detailed overview of about 600 media industry organizations in Brisbane, Australia. In addition to providing contact details and synopses for each organization's profile, the Brisbane Media Map also includes supplementary information on current issues, trends, and individuals in the media and communication industry sectors. This resource is produced and updated annually by final-year undergraduate Media and Communication students. This article introduces the Brisbane Media Map, its functionality and systems design approach, as well as its alignment with key learning infrastructures. It examines authentic learning as the pedagogical framework underpinning the ongoing development work of the resource and highlights some synergies of this framework with participatory design principles. The Brisbane Media Map is a useful example of an authentic learning approach that successfully engages students of non-traditional and non-design areas of study in human-computer interaction, usability, and participatory design activities.

This article undertakes a detailed case study of "The Campaign", a teaching and learning innovation in media and communications that uses an online educational role-play. The case study draws on the qualitative analysis of classroom observations, online communications and semi-structured interviews, employing an interpretive approach informed by models drawn from social theory and sociotechnical theory. Educational authors argue that online educational role-plays engage students in authentic learning, and represent an improvement over didactic teaching strategies. According to this literature, online role-play systems afford students the opportunity of acting and doing instead of only reading and listening. Literature in social theory and social studies of technology takes a different view of certain concepts such as performance, identity and reality. Models such as "performative self constitution" and "actor network theory" ask us to consider the constructed nature of identity and the roles of all of the actors, including the system itself. This article examines these concepts by addressing a series of research questions relating to identity formation and mediation, and suggests certain limitations of the situationist perspective in explaining the educational value of role-play systems. (Contains 1 figure.)

A pilot study was undertaken to test the journal diffusion factor (JDF) as an alternative to journal impact factors (JIFs) for ranking journals. Bibliometric research methods were applied to rank Australian architecture, communications and education journals by the JDF; this was with the total number of citations they attract in ISI indexed journals, the proportion of articles published that attracted citations, and publishing characteristics. It was found that JDF does not provide a comparable alternative journal ranking method to JIF, although it may contribute to our understanding of the nature of a journal. Until further research is conducted, a JDF ranking should be considered as an independent measure of journal rank. (Contains 4 tables, 2 figures and 26 notes.)

This article focuses on the kinds of work that language does in contemporary workplaces, the discursive resources that are available to workers, and the challenges that they face, as they learn to build on established language practices, and develop new language practices, in order to do their work. In particular, we are interested in the ways in which workers learn to use language and communications technologies to make and use knowledge in contested workspaces. We argue that it is more helpful to think about contemporary workplaces as "workspaces"; networks of people, technologies and practices stretched across countries and regions and joined up by communications technologies. A distinguishing feature of these networks is that different generations of communications technologies sit side by side, demanding and permitting different kinds of language practice. Through a case study we focus on the ways in which new language practices emerge and become significant in shaping working knowledge and working relationships.

Many libraries are using co-browsing chat products to provide reference services to their patrons, whilst their patrons are online and using the internet. The concept of such an online service is highly desirable, but many libraries are concerned that they will never be able to afford such a system. This may have changed: Instant Messaging (IM) can provide a very cost-effective way to offer an online reference service with an improved level of communications flexibility that can attract a new group of information seekers, especially those using mobile communications devices. How was this conclusion reached? How effective a solution can IM be, and what types of libraries can best utilise an IM-based solution?

This study discusses benchmarking the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in teaching and learning between two universities with different missions: one an Australian campus-based metropolitan university and the other a British distance-education provider. It argues that the differences notwithstanding, it is possible to develop a useful and rigorous benchmarking relationship between such institutions that draws on previous benchmarking research and improves the approach by benchmarking key processes, not just outcomes. By defining a process used to embed ICT in subjects and using this as a focus of the benchmarking, a relational and prospective approach to quality assurance for ICT can be clarified, one which promotes coherence amongst the benchmarks that can be used for the purposes of improvement.

Findings of an investigation of parents' perceptions of early childhood service quality identified limitations in staff-parent communication which inhibit the development of a shared parent and staff approach to children's care and education. These findings have informed the development of an accretion model of communication for crossing the boundaries which hinder the promotion of relevant communications. The Communication Accretion Spiral process explains how the accrual of information and knowledge of parents and staff is built up over time. These communications are the basis for shared understandings of children's learning and development across home/service contexts, promoting and sustaining meaningful communications which lead to informed shared decision-making. (Contains 1 figure and 5 tables.)

Summarizes various stakeholder surveys and factor analyses that attempt to delineate transferable skills, such as problem solving, communication, teamwork, and critical thinking. Points out that employer skill requirements may vary among countries and these differences may not always be cultural, but are related to different uses of terminology and categorization. (CAJ)

Describes a project that developed a coordinated strategy for integrating information and communication technology materials into the core curriculum of an Australian preservice teacher education program. The project is designed so that students can acquire requisite knowledge, skills, and commitment to information and communications technologies and appropriately translate this into sustainable teaching practices and use of computers to manage information. (SM)

Discusses technical advances in satellite technology since the 1960s, and the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization's role in these developments; describes how AUSSAT, Australia's domestic satellite system, exemplifies the latest developments in satellite technology; and reviews satellite system features, possible future developments, and options being considered for second generation AUSSAT satellites. (MBR)

Discusses the role of communications technologies in distance education; the communication needs of distance education; problems confronting New South Wales (Australia) in providing distance education on the primary and secondary levels; and solutions to those problems by way of technology. The specific case of an electronic mail system is described. (MBR)

Offers some generalizations resulting from the Hunters Wetlands Trust of New South Wales (Australia). Deals with credibility and factual information, use of the broadcast and print media, field days, the use of local talent, timing and opportunism, lobbying, positive thinking, the magnifier effect and evaluation. (TW)