Rewriting Feminism in Katharine Susannah Prichard's Intimate Strangers

The paper discusses the rewriting of the ending of em Intimate Strangers/em and the way it reveals feminism and communism to be incompatible philosophies

Contract cheating: a survey of Australian university students

Recent Australian media scandals suggest that university students are increasingly outsourcing their assessments to third parties – a behaviour known as ‘contract cheating’. This paper reports on findings from a large survey of students from eight Australian universities (n = 14,086) which sought to explore students’ experiences with and attitudes towards contract cheating, and the contextual factors that may influence this behaviour. A spectrum of seven outsourcing behaviours were investigated, and three significant variables were found to be associated with contract cheating: dissatisfaction with the teaching and learning environment, a perception that there are ‘lots of opportunities to cheat’, and speaking a Language Other than English (LOTE) at home. To minimise contract cheating, our evidence suggests that universities need to support the development of teaching and learning environments which nurture strong student–teacher relationships, reduce opportunities to cheat through curriculum and assessment design, and address the well-recognised language and learning needs of LOTE students.No Full Tex

Scale and diversity of the physical technosphere: a geological perspective

We assess the scale and extent of the physical technosphere, defined here as the summed material output of the contemporary human enterprise. It includes active urban, agricultural and marine components, used to sustain energy and material flow for current human life, and a growing residue layer, currently only in small part recycled back into the active component. Preliminary estimates suggest a technosphere mass of approximately 30 trillion tonnes (Tt), which helps support a human biomass that, despite recent growth, is ~5 orders of magnitude smaller. The physical technosphere includes a large, rapidly growing diversity of complex objects that are potential trace fossils or ‘technofossils’. If assessed on palaeontological criteria, technofossil diversity already exceeds known estimates of biological diversity as measured by richness, far exceeds recognized fossil diversity, and may exceed total biological diversity through Earth’s history. The rapid transformation of much of Earth’s surface mass into the technosphere and its myriad components underscores the novelty of the current planetary transformation

Streamlining plagiarism detection: The role of electronic assessment management

This paper considers the problem of managing the workload implications of plagiarism detection as part of the larger issue of assessment management and within a holistic approach to educational integrity. It looks specifically at the potential for Electronic Assessment Management (EAM) to provide some of the solutions to this problem. It draws on the work of Mantz Yorke whose research into assessment management calls for the establishment of appropriate structures and mechanisms which support systems that achieve the dual imperatives of efficiency and effectiveness. This paper considers the workload issues related to plagiarism detection under these dual imperatives, looking first at the issue of effectiveness and then turning to consider the issue of efficiency. Finally, it argues for why and how these issues should be taken into account in the procurement of digital plagiarism detection software and how the use of these tools should fit within a rigorous and consistent holistic approach to educational integrity

Harnessing the Power of Distributed Learning: the potential benefits for Higher Education in the United Kingdom

Student learning isn't ever limited to just what happens in the classroom. Indeed, it takes place across a wide range of environments (at home, in the library, on the bus, in the pub) and it happens at all times of the day and night. Distributed Learning is a pedagogical strategy that aims to support student learning in as many of these places and times as possible. It connects face-to-face classes with other types of learning environments, through a range of communication and information technologies. Distributed Learning strategies have tended to be most widely used in geographically large countries, like Australia, the USA and Canada, as an alternative to distance learning. In this presentation, we will argue that Distributed Learning strategies can also bring significant benefits to HE institutions in geographically smaller nations like the UK. Our presentation will explore the key benefits that Distributed Learning strategies can bring to these institutions now and in the future. In the short term it is particularly useful to those delivering courses and modules across multiple campuses, in collaborative provision partnerships, and to mixed cohorts of part-time and full-time students. In the future it will become increasingly important as institutions strive to meet the demands of technically-savvy students who have grown up in an e-world and expect 'always on' learning environments. We will illustrate our presentation with examples from our own use of Distributed Learning strategies in the delivery of an interdisciplinary Humanities degree programme across the three campuses of the University of Huddersfield. Our paper will outline what has been achieved, in both quality and efficiency, through the application of Distributed Learning strategies. It will also outline what development support is required, in order to achieve successful outcomes

Building Online Essay Writing Support Tools

The English Studies Program at the University of Wollongong, with support from staff in the library and Learning Development, has linked together a series of learning support tools for use in their 100-level subjects. These tools — an online research and citation skills assessment task and an essay and quiz writing study guide — harness the world wide web as a means of augmenting and enhancing student learning at an undergraduate level. Each of these tools is flexibly delivered, student centred and curriculum integrated. This project is part of a broader initiative in the English Studies Program to develop an even more secure support infrastructure for undergraduate students as they approach their assessment tasks, and to guarantee concrete follow-up on assignments early in the students’ course of study. The early results of our evaluation and the anecdotal evidence we have received indicates the effectiveness of these projects and their value to our students as they develop generic skills. In addition, the administrative benefits of this project make a significant contribution to an efficient teaching environment. This paper provides an overview of these tools, explains the rationale behind their design and argues for the very powerful benefits of integrating and implementing them into undergraduate subjects

EBEAM interim report - September 2012

The interim report for the EBEAM project at the University of Huddersfield, September 201