Exploring factors impacting student engagement in open access courses

Studies on student engagement in learning have mainly focused on undergraduate degree courses. Limited attempts have been made to examine student engagement on open access enabling courses, which is targeted to underrepresented students in higher education. Students on open access enabling courses are at high risk due to a low academic achievement in high school, the gap between schooling, work and post-secondary education, and different kinds of personal and academic barriers. This paper reports on a pilot quantitative study using a survey method undertaken at an Australian university. The study examined a range of issues related to student engagement, including learning barriers, engagement and experience in learning, skills attained, motivation to complete study, career pathway, and key reasons for selecting a particular pathway. The study found that online students are less engaged in learning and, therefore, efforts need to be made to improve their sense of belonging to the university. The findings of the study are critical due to high attrition on open access enabling courses and it argues the need to improve the engagement, retention, and success of students on such courses.© 2018, © 2018 The Open University

Political travel constraint: The role of Chinese popular nationalism

This study extends the leisure constraint model by examining the role that popular nationalism has in Chinese outbound travel. Using a case study approach based on the 2012 Diaoyu/Senkaku Island Incident between China and Japan, the study demonstrates how Chinese popular nationalism has the potential to shape the geopolitical environment of all outbound Chinese tourism. The study proposes a new model that can be used to illustrate how popular nationalism may affect bilateral tourism in other settings. Findings of this study offer important insights for both scholars and practitioners contributing to the understanding of the impact of Chinese popular nationalism on bilateral tourism flows. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Closing the loop on student feedback: the case of Australian and Scottish universities

Universities have a long history of collecting student feedback using surveys and other mechanisms. The last decade has witnessed a significant shift in how student feedback is systematically collected, analysed, reported, and used by governments and institutions. This shift is due to a number of factors, including changes in government policy related to quality assurance, and the increased use of the results by various stakeholders such as governments, institutions, and potential students and employers. The collection, analysis, and reporting of results are systematically carried out in many institutions worldwide. However, how to use student feedback to effectively improve student learning experience remains an issue to be addressed. This paper will contribute to this debate by comparing how Australian and Scottish universities use student feedback results to inform improvements. Based on thematic analysis of external quality audit reports of all Australian and Scottish universities, this paper suggests that universities have systematic processes to collect student feedback using a range of mechanisms, but limited work is done to use the data to inform improvements. This paper argues the need for universities to genuinely listen to student voice by facilitating partnership between students and institutions to act on their feedback as part of quality assurance

The impact of popular nationalism on Chinese tourist flows to Japan

This study examines the role of popular nationalism as a potential to constrain Chinese outbound travel. Undertaken within an interpretative paradigm using in-depth interviews, this study offers a unique perspective on the impact of Chinese popular nationalism as a political travel constraint to Japan using the Diaoyu/Senkaku Island Incident. The study shows that Chinese popular nationalism emerged as a major travel constraint that now shapes the geopolitical environment of outbound Chinese tourism in contemporary China. Findings of this study offer important implications for both scholars and practitioners in understanding the Chinese popular nationalism phenomenon

Exploring Chinese students’ experience of curriculum internationalisation: A comparative study of Scotland and Australia

Society for Research into Higher EducationIncreasing enrolment of Chinese students has become a key feature of internationalisation for Western universities, but there is limited research into how curriculum internationalisation affects Chinese students’ learning experiences. Using the typologies of curriculum internationalisation as a framework, this paper explores and compares how Scottish and Australian universities integrate international and intercultural elements into their curriculum to support Chinese postgraduate taught students’ study. Interviews, focus groups and a survey are used as the main research methods. Analysis reveals that the practice of curriculum internationalisation in both countries is rather limited, and that Chinese students express a desire for more international perspectives in the course content, and for more mobility experiences, in order to prepare for their future careers. The mismatch between academics’ and students’ understandings of curriculum internationalisation is highlighted as an arena of power differential and an area for further study. © 201

Next-Generation Morphometry for pathomics-data mining in histopathology

Pathology diagnostics relies on the assessment of morphology by trained experts, which remains subjective and qualitative. Here we developed a framework for large-scale histomorphometry (FLASH) performing deep learning-based semantic segmentation and subsequent large-scale extraction of interpretable, quantitative, morphometric features in non-tumour kidney histology. We use two internal and three external, multi-centre cohorts to analyse over 1000 kidney biopsies and nephrectomies. By associating morphometric features with clinical parameters, we confirm previous concepts and reveal unexpected relations. We show that the extracted features are independent predictors of long-term clinical outcomes in IgA-nephropathy. We introduce single-structure morphometric analysis by applying techniques from single-cell transcriptomics, identifying distinct glomerular populations and morphometric phenotypes along a trajectory of disease progression. Our study provides a concept for Next-generation Morphometry (NGM), enabling comprehensive quantitative pathology data mining, i.e., pathomics