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Poster
Interactive Ultrasound Program
Bonita Anderson, Faculty of Science
Presenter available for questions: 10 am - 12 pm
This interactive program was developed to allow students to perform various linear measurements of heart chamber sizes from still frame ultrasound images, thus, enabling them to enhance and evaluate their knowledge with respect to these measurements.
In particular, by attempting this activity students are able to: (1) identify the correct timing for measurements with reference to the cardiac cycle, (2) recognise correct interfaces for calliper placement for measurements and (3) accurately perform various measurements.
This program can be utilised as a self-assessment program or can be reformatted for a formal assessment.
Expansion of this ultrasound program may include the use of real-time, moving images whereby students can select a particular frame to trace areas and volumes of various heart structures.
Yookoso Interactive
Barbara Bourke, Faculty of Business
Presenter available for questions: 10 am - 1 pm
In this project, a Flash template and reusable components have been developed to allow lecturers to create an interactive learning environment for students of the Japanese language. The software has been designed to complement the textbook and workbook packages in use in the first two years of Japanese at QUT.
The advantages of the electronic materials over the paper versions include: immediate feedback on whether answers are correct or incorrect; feedback/hints on partially correct text entry answers; answers provided after three incorrect attempts; transcripts to support all listening activities; large-sized character animations for demonstrating correct stroke order for the three different Japanese scripts (hiragana, katakana and kanji); and an interactive glossary (with sound) for each chapter. The program, which is delivered via Blackboard, allows easy navigation within and between chapters. It is intended principally for students’ self-study, but could equally well be used by lecturers in class situations.
Integrating the Cultural Bridge to Classroom video project into the English for Academic Purposes Blackboard Community and Units at QUT International College
Darren Brookes, International College
Presenter available for questions: 10 am - 5 pm
International students can face many challenges studying in Australia. Not only are there language difficulties, but there are also many cultural issues in regards to the kinds of learning styles and lecturer expectations experienced in the home country.
The Cultural Bridge to Classroom video project was designed to help international students re-examine learning styles and lecturer expectations of home cultures and contrast these with learning styles and lecturer expectations at QUT. A final stage of this project was to integrate these videos into International College Blackboard Sites where appropriate.
The English for Academic Purposes program Blackboard sites were deemed to be appropriate places to host these videos. The Blackboard sites also provide accompanying teaching materials and online quizzes that help students to reflect on their own learning at QUT, what things are common to both academic cultures and how students can make their own adjustments to academic study at QUT.
On-line interactive tutorials to support student experience in on- and off-campus laboratory practicals.
Dr Richard Brown, Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering
Available for Questions: 12pm – 2pm
Funding to support intensive laboratory practicals has been reduced considerably in the last two decades. Therefore resources for physical equipment and staff are very limited. Recent student feedback indicated that students did not find laboratory practicals very meaningful because they did not have the required theoretical and practical knowledge to understand the hardware or related theory. Our solution was a combination of on-line interactive tutorials to support existing laboratory practicals and the development of new laboratory practicals off-campus. Following the changes the feedback on the Unit from the students sits in the top quartile and reflects high student satisfaction.
Air Gondwana
Professor Des Butler, Faculty of Law
Presenter available for questions: 10 am - 2 pm
The first year units Contracts A and Contracts B in the QUT Faculty of Law teach the skill of negotiation to a basic level as part as an integrated graduate capabilities program. Air Gondwana is designed to provide instruction in the basics of negotiation utilising a realistic setting of various negotiations involving a fictional airline.
The five modules of the program are embedded in the QUT Blackboard learning management system. It provides students with instruction in negotiation theory and practice, presents demonstrations of good and bad negotiation practices, and includes formative exercises that allow students to practise applying negotiation theory in an engaging and challenging environment at their own pace and at their own convenience.
It utilises a variety of multimedia, including machinima produced using the Second Life virtual environment, to create an authentic learning experience for students, irrespective of whether they study full time, part time or externally.
Style or Substance? Reflections on using Keepad technology to promote Active Learning in a First Year Management Unit
Abby Cathcart, Faculty of Business
Presenter available for questions: 12 pm - 2 pm
The Poster examines whether Audience Response Technology adds anything of value to the first year experience. Following successive semesters of student’s feedback indicating low levels of satisfaction with traditional style lectures in a core Management unit we started to explore alternative ways of engaging students.
The approach chosen was to pilot the use of Audience Response Technology in first year Management lectures across three campuses. The research focused on both the practical issues associated with using technology in such a large unit as well as the pedagogical issues of enabling students to participate more actively in lectures with 500 other students. The pilot compared three methods of audience response: Keepad Handsets using Turning point Technology; Mobile Phone voting using free Votapedia software, and traditional ‘hands-up’ interactive questions.
The research concludes that students have a clear preference for independent audience response technology (Keepads) and that when this is used; there is significantly more engagement in and satisfaction with lectures. A secondary finding is that the students preferred system is the lecturers least preferred system because of the practical difficulties involved in booking, distributing and returning Keepads to Audio Visual Services. This indicates that if the University wishes to encourage academic staff to develop their use of Audience Response Technology in large units, support systems need to be implemented.
Virtual Law Placement
Tina Cockburn, Faculty of Law
Presenter available for questions: 10 am - 5 pm
From semester two 2008 QUT law students will be offered the opportunity to participate in its Virtual Law Placement unit (VLP). Given that advances intechnology have resulted in radical changes to the nature of workplaces and work practices, the QUT Law Faculty is applying the available technology to offer virtual work placements for undergraduate QUT law students.
The VLP will provide mutually beneficial opportunities for both employers and students, particularly in cases where a physical placement is not possible or practical, though it will not be limited to those circumstances. Students will apply legal knowledge and skills to complete a real world workplace project in a team, using online communication technologies to enable students to be virtually, rather than physically, present at the workplace and to engage with the other participants in the workplace, including the workplace supervisor of the virtual placement.
The technological platform will provide an appropriate mix of online communication, such as video, skype, discussion forum, online chat, and email, with opportunities for face to face communication where possible and desirable. It is anticipated that the range of virtual employers will extend across the spectrum of law firms, government, industry and community organisations, reflecting the wide variety of employment opportunities which are open to today’s law graduates. At the conclusion of the unit (where the nature of the task allows) students will also have the opportunity to see the impact of their work in the real world.
Landscape Architecture in Second Life
Stef Gard &
Marisha McAuliffe, Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering
Presenter available for questions: 10 am - 12 pm
The unit “Fundamentals of Synthetic Environments” introduces students from the School of Design to the concept of 3D modelling as a design tool. The term ‘Synthetic Environment’ refers to an interactive computer generated 3-dimensional multi-discipline representation of an existing environment or conceptual design.
This unit provides an overview of Virtual Reality (VR) focusing on the application to Design and Engineering disciplines as a tool for enhanced communication within a design process. The theory (lecture) component provides an overview of historical and contemporary issues related to Virtual Reality, whereas the tutorials provide the students with the necessary skills for the creation of an interactive 3D Virtual Environment; and the case studies provide the opportunity for the students to reflect on their experience of designing in this environment.
This 3D environment is created in Second Life, giving the students the opportunity to work and design interactively in real time without having to be in the same location; and because SL allows avatars to share the same (virtual) space and work on the same object, it provides an unprecedented opportunity for real time collaboration in a virtual world.
Developing curriculum, including assessment, for Bachelor of Education programs: a Developmental Map
Dr Annah Healy, Faculty of Education
Presenter available for questions: TBA
Traditionally, units and their assessment tend to be created on the basis of content and may not be relative to the year in which the unit is placed or designed consciously as one part of a more encompassing developmental process in which students are required to create and recreate their history in increasingly sophisticated ways. If assessment is conceived as for, of and as learning within a whole of program design, its processes measure student learning in relation to the year in which the unit is placed. This is quite different from the measurement of learning of a unit in and of itself.
So what does this mean for practice? First, the integration of learning principles – such as those advanced in the Developmental Map - and assessment seems crucial. This requires curriculum development at the unit level to be cognizant of the macro picture of the program, so that the unit at the micro level has appropriate fit. Visibility of connection and relevance for students is crucial, their learning scaffolded both for the short-term attainment of particular and limited objectives, and as part of longer-term goals.
Career Development Modules
Dr Alan McAlpine, Student Support Services
Presenter available for questions: 10am - 5pm
As part of the Transitions Out Project, Careers & Employment was commissioned to develop a co-curricular program of career development activities which would be recognised officially when completed. 30 core modules plus electives are grouped into 6 different courses which reflect critical incidents in student life. Each Module has been designed and presented within Blackboard and can be taken as a stand alone activity or the content can be integrated into the formal curriculum in either face to face or an on-line environment
A sound basis to build on: Enhanced podcasts as a flexible learning tool
Nathan Moss, Faculty of Health
Presenter available for questions: 12pm - 5pm
Podcasts provide students with a flexible means of reviewing lecture material using a simple subscription system, in which the audio of each new lecture (or “episode” in podcasting terms) is automatically downloaded to a student’s computer. Students can choose not only what platform they wish to review material on, such as a computer, or a portable music player, but can easily access the portions of the material they wish to access.
Enhanced podcasts expand the original format further, by synchronising the audio of the lecture, with the powerpoint images used in the lecture itself, thus creating reference “chapters”, which improve both the richness of the material contained in the podcast and the ease with which it is accessed. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be presented to demonstrate how students are using enhanced podcasts as a positive and flexible learning tool to reinforce their current activities in a complex learning environment.
Interactive & Integrated learning modules for Interdisciplinary
Ji Yong Park, Creative Industries Faculty
Presenter available for questions: 10am - 12pm
The concept of interdisciplinary learning is a new form of knowledge production based on collaboration of multiple disciplines and professions, and has been adopted as an education strategy in many higher education sectors. Contemporary technologies and media also enhance interdiscipliarity in higher education sectors. To realise truly interdisciplinarity in higher education and to achieve better learning experience, characteristics of technology, learning content and the interdisciplinarity have to be holistically considered in terms of creating an integrated and interactive learning framework.
In this paper, an interfaculty unit jointly operated by Faculty of Information Technology and Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Australia has been reviewed from the interdisciplinarity and we found that there are two pedagogical issues that are firstly the integration of visual design learning modules with IT professionals and secondly multi-tutors quality assurance.
A proposed delivery model that is mainly incorporation of video podcasting and online learning technologies could solve those issues in a more effective pedagogical way. The student and academic staff members’ evaluation of and feedback on the unit have been conducted and there were positive responses from their learning and teaching.
The Histology Challenge
Neil Richardson, Faculty of Science
Presenter available for questions: 10am - 12pm
An online teaching and learning programme called the Histology Challenge has been developed to supplement learning experiences offered in several first year anatomy and physiology units at QUT. The programme is designed to be integrated with existing online unit Blackboard sites.
There are several key elements of this programme, each of which has been designed to promote specific aspects of student learning;
- A minimum of text is used, instead there is a strong emphasis on instructive artwork and original, high quality, histology images presented within a framework that reinforces learning and promotes problem solving skills.
- Students are required to demonstrate an integrated understanding of gross, systemic and cellular
del.icio.us – a Library/Creative Industries Faculty social bookmarking adventure
Alice Steiner, Luisa Rositto and Shannon Robinson, Liason Librarians
Presenter available for questions: 10 am - 5 pm
del.icio.us is a web-based social bookmarking tool for storing, sharing and finding web bookmarks - http://del.icio.us/QUT_Creative_Industries_Library
In 2007, Creative Industries librarians redeveloped their web-based subject guides by tagging all of the web sites embedded within them using del.icio.us. Now instead of having thirty or forty subject guides with the good web resources hidden away, we have a one-stop del.icio.us site of over three hundred sites gathered in one place, described in plain language that students can understand and bundled together by the Creative Industries disciplines at QUT.
Students using our del.icio.us site can also recommend good web sites that they know of, plus we can buddy up with other del.icio.us users who are also collecting great web resources across the creative industries. The CI del.icio.us site is being linked from CI Faculty community and unit Blackboard sites. We’ve tapped into the power of the creative crowd.
QUT Creative Industries Transitions Program: an internship program for the real world.
Dr Jason Sternberg, Creative Industries Faculty
Available for Questions: 10:00am – 11:00, 1:30pm – 2:30pm
QUT’s Creative Industries Transitions Program is a win-win partnership linking QUT Creative Industries students and industry partners.
Because QUT is a university for the real world, we believe that it’s important for our students to gain first-hand experience to enhance their future employability and to add depth to their learning experience. For creative industries students, this isn’t just about work experience. Employment opportunities across the evolving creative industries sector are diverse – that’s why we developed the CI Transitions program specifically for the creative industries, with opportunities in internships, service learning and project work.
For students, a creative internship is a great way to start a career path and explore what it’s really like. It allows students to spend time putting course knowledge into practice, developing professional skills and building industry networks.
Employers can access free, skilled labour, and the opportunity to trial potential new employees. Students are highly motivated and competent final-year undergraduates and postgraduates who are willing and eager to learn and are expected to make a worthwhile contribution to the employing organisation. We provide comprehensive support for students and industry partners in the program, as well as insurance coverage for our students.
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