Status report on the NCRIS eResearch capability summary

Preface The period 2006 to 2014 has seen an approach to the national support of eResearch infrastructure by the Australian Government which is unprecedented. Not only has investment been at a significantly greater scale than previously, but the intent and approach has been highly innovative, shaped by a strategic approach to research support in which the critical element, the catchword, has been collaboration. The innovative directions shaped by this strategy, under the banner of the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), have led to significant and creative initiatives and activity, seminal to new research and fields of discovery. Origin This document is a Technical Report on the Status of the NCRIS eResearch Capability. It was commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Education and Training in the second half of 2014 to examine a range of questions and issues concerning the development of this infrastructure over the period 2006-2014. The infrastructure has been built and implemented over this period following investments made by the Australian Government amounting to over $430 million, under a number of funding initiatives

“making space” in practice and education: Research support services in academic libraries

Design/methodology/approach – The present paper uses data from a recent survey of research support provision by academic libraries in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland, (authors 2013), and provides additional in depth analysis of the textual responses to extend the analysis in the light of forces for change in higher education. The original online questionnaire surveyed current and planned research support in academic libraries, and constraints or support needs related to service developments. It was distributed to 219 institutions in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Ireland, and obtained 140 valid responses (response rate of 63.9 percent). Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics with thematic categorization and coding for the textual responses

OECD reviews of higher education in regional and city development, State of Victoria, Australia

With more than 5.3 million inhabitants Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Once a manufacturing economy, Victoria is now transforming itself into a service and innovation-based economy. Currently, the largest sectors are education services and tourism. In terms of social structure, Victoria is characterised by a large migrant population, 24% of population were born overseas and 44% were either born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas. About 70% of the population resides in Melbourne. Victoria faces a number of challenges, ranging from an ageing population and skills shortages to drought and climate change and increased risk of natural disasters. Rapid population growth, 2% annually, has implications for service delivery and uneven development as well as regional disparities. There are barriers to connectivity in terms of transport and infrastructure, and a high degree of inter-institutional competition in tertiary education sector. The business structure in Victoria includes some highly innovative activities such as in biotechnology, but other sectors, especially those with high number of small and medium-sized enterprises, are lagging behind. Most of the larger manufacturing enterprises are externally controlled and there is uncertainty over the long term investments they will make in the state, as well as the place of Victoria in the global production networks

The Experiences of Secondary School Administrators' Social Justice Leadership Praxis: A Phenomenological Study

This dissertation is a phenomenological study conducted in a Midwest urban school district that explores the social justice leadership experience of secondary school administrators (6th - 12th grades) under the supervision of a self-identified social justice advocate superintendent. This study uses principal and superintendent interview data to describe the phenomenon of social justice leadership. The study captures the unique experiences of school administrators of varied gender, cultural, socioeconomic and communal backgrounds who are charged with systematizing equitable academic and ancillary support for students from diverse and economically underprivileged backgrounds. The dissertation introduces the topic of social justice leadership in secondary schools, includes a review of the literature that contains definitions, characteristics, and the theoretical underpinnings of social justice leadership. This dissertation also presents a rationale for a hermeneutic and egological qualitative phenomenological design, maintaining that this approach is best suited to capture the multiple perspectives on social justice leadership that exist in one complex, diverse, and interconnected school district. Findings contribute to understanding the essence of social justice leadership in secondary urban schools.Ed.D.EducationUniversity of Michigan-Flinthttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146771/1/McClain2018.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146771/2/McClainSignatureMemo.pdfDescription of McClain2018.pdf : ThesisDescription of McClainSignatureMemo.pdf : Signature Mem

User retention and engagement with a mobile app intervention to support self-management in Australians with type 1 or type 2 diabetes (My Care Hub): mixed methods study

Background: Mobile health apps are commonly used to support diabetes self-management. However, there is limited research assessing if such apps are able to meet the basic requirements to retain and engage users. Objective: In this study, we aimed to evaluate participants' retention and engagement with My Care Hub (MCH), a mobile app for diabetes self-management. Methods: This study employed an explanatory mixed-method design. Participants were people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes who used the health app intervention for 2 weeks. Retention was measured by completion of the post-intervention survey. Engagement was measured using system log indices and interviews. Retention and system log indices were presented using descriptive statistics. Transcripts were analyzed using content analysis to develop themes interpreted according to the Behavioural Intervention Technology theory. Results: Of the 50 individuals enrolled, 42 (84%) adhered to the study protocol. System usage data showed multiple and frequent interaction with the app by most of the enrolled participants (84%, 42/50). Participants used the app on an average of 11 out of the 14 intervention days (range 2-14 days); where two-thirds of participants who inputted data returned to use the app after week 1 (85%, 36/42) and week 2 (71.4%, 30/42) of installation. Most daily used features were tracking of blood glucose (BG) (67.5%, 28/42) and accessing educational information (12.57%, 6/42). The interview results revealed the app's potential as a behavioural change intervention tool, particularly because it eased participants' self-care effort and improved their engagement with diabetes self-management activities such as BG monitoring, physical exercise and healthy eating. Participants suggested extra functionalities such as extended access to historical analytic data, automated data transmission from BG meter as well as periodic update of meals and corresponding nutrients to further enhance engagement with the app. Conclusions: The findings of this short-term intervention study suggested acceptable levels of participant retention and engagement with MCH, indicating that is a promising tool for extending diabetes self-management support and education beyond the confines of a physical clinic

Open research data: Report to the Australian National Data Service (ANDS)

Main points Research data are an asset we have been building for decades, through billions of dollars of public investment in research annually. The information and communication technology (ICT) revolution presents an unprecedented opportunity to ‘leverage’ that asset. Given this, there is increasing awareness around the world that there are benefits to be gained from curating and openly sharing research data (Kvalheim and Kvamme 2014). Conservatively, we estimate that the value of data in Australia’s public research to be at least $1.9 billion and possibly up to$6 billion a year at current levels of expenditure and activity. Research data curation and sharing might be worth at least $1.8 billion and possibly up to$5.5 billion a year, of which perhaps $1.4 billion to$4.9 billion annually is yet to be realized. Hence, any policy around publicly-funded research data should aim to realise as much of this unrealised value as practicable. Aims and scope This study offers conservative estimates of the value and benefits to Australia of making publicly-funded research data freely available, and examines the role and contribution of data repositories and associated infrastructure. It also explores the policy settings required to optimise research data sharing, and thereby increase the return on public investment in research. The study’s focus is Australia’s Commonwealth-funded research and agencies. It includes research commissioned or funded by Commonwealth bodies as well as in-house research within research-oriented agencies wholly or largely funded by the Commonwealth. Government data or public sector information is a separate category of publicly-funded data – although there is some overlap at the margins (e.g. Commonwealth Government funding for Geoscience Australia). Main findings For the purposes of estimation, we explore a range of research funding and expenditure from total Australian Government funding support for research to the sum of government and higher education expenditure on research by sector of execution. The lower bound estimates are based on the labour-cost share of research funding and expenditure ($4.3 billion to$6.4 billion per annum), and upper bound estimates on total research funding and expenditure ($8.9 billion to$13.3 billion per annum)

Information Technology Standards in eResearch: A Conceptual Model of the Primary Adoption Process in Higher Education Organizations

Current research on IT standards tends to focus on their lifecycle: from the development and selection, to their implementation and use. This work proposed an interdisciplinary perspective to analyze primary adoption process in the eResearch domain. As organizations are the core entities in the innovation process, the analysis of IT standards adoption was applied to eResearch infrastructures within higher education organizations. The core argument was built on the adopter s viewpoint as it provides the most explanatory process about adoption. Two international case studies probed the suitability of a model to identify the determinant role of factors like external and internal networks, top management support and organization structure. This dissertation delivers new insights that contribute to bring certainty about one relevant context of standards adoption

Student Services In A Networked World

Details changes in support for distance students afforded by the Ne

School Advocacy and Community Outreach: Barriers to the Implementation of Social Media Tools for K-12 Principals

This qualitative study describes, analyzes, and interprets the perceptions and beliefs related to barriers of the use and efficacy of social media tools for school advocacy and community outreach by principals in the kindergarten through 12th grade setting in one suburban district located outside of a major metropolitan center. School advocacy is the active process of communicating the vision, mission, and beliefs of the educational organization to the greater community that the school serves. Community outreach signifies the steps schools take to build and maintain strong partnerships with members of the community at large. To successfully advocate for the school and reach out to the community, principals must have strong communication skills and the tools to successfully convey their messages. Although a growing menu of social media tools are popular in modern society, and competition for students has increased with the proliferation of school choice, some practicing principals have reservations about implementing social media tools into their comprehensive communication plan. Four themes related to perceptions of barriers to implementation of social media tools emerged from semi-structured interviews with practicing principals. Issues of privacy, time and fidelity, choice of tools, and roles as school promoters were discussed as they related to the framework of social cognitive theory.Ed.D.College of Education, Health and Human ServicesUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134060/1/James E. Anderson Final Dissertation.pdfDescription of James E. Anderson Final Dissertation.pdf : Dissertatio