The impact of online peer mentoring on first year student transition, problem solving skills, and academic success

Transition to higher education is challenging, and first year students need support to facilitate a positive experience. Key issues include positive transition; problem-solving perceptions; and support from peers. This study examined relationships among student transition, problem-solving ability, and academic success. Student transition was measured using Lizzio's (2006) Student Transition Scale. problem-solving skills were measured by Beccaria and Machin's (2011) Problem-Solving Inventory-12-Item. Academic success was measured using grade point average and overall course grade. The current study (N = 171) involved foundation psychology students who received online peer mentoring from 34 third year students at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) in Semester 1, 2012. Results indicated mentees achieved higher academic success and adjusted to university better than did non-mentees. Mentees also became more self-aware of their problem-solving ability, identifying strategies to improve overall university experience, including maximising opportunities for academic success. These findings indicate that peer support can facilitate student transition and enhance the first year student experience

The ASCCR Frame for Learning Essential Collaboration Skills

Statistics and data science are especially collaborative disciplines that typically require practitioners to interact with many different people or groups. Consequently, interdisciplinary collaboration skills are part of the personal and professional skills essential for success as an applied statistician or data scientist. These skills are learnable and teachable, and learning and improving collaboration skills provides a way to enhance one's practice of statistics and data science. To help individuals learn these skills and organizations to teach them, we have developed a framework covering five essential components of statistical collaboration: Attitude, Structure, Content, Communication, and Relationship. We call this the ASCCR Frame. This framework can be incorporated into formal training programs in the classroom or on the job and can also be used by individuals through self-study. We show how this framework can be applied specifically to statisticians and data scientists to improve their collaboration skills and their interdisciplinary impact. We believe that the ASCCR Frame can help organize and stimulate research and teaching in interdisciplinary collaboration and call on individuals and organizations to begin generating evidence regarding its effectiveness.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure. Updated to this Version 5 by adding a few more references, discussing how to teach ASCCR in the classroom, calling on others to add to research supporting the use of the ASCCR Frame, and adding discussion of ethics and reproducible researc

Stranded Irrigation Assets

The staff working paper "Stranded Irrigation Assets" (Roper, H., Sayers, C. and Smith, A) was released on 28 June 2006. Prior to the National Water Initiative (NWI), irrigation authorities imposed restrictions on outward trade of water entitlements partly to protect remaining irrigators against the risks and consequences of having to recover the costs of "stranded" or under-utilised assets. This could be one of a number of reasons behind low levels of permanent water trade. This paper examines ways of minimising the financial impact of stranded assets on remaining irrigators with the relaxation of trading restrictions. The aim of the project was to research the options to address the perceived adverse financial consequences of stranded irrigation assets. The authors concluded that it is not certain that proposals under the NWI to relax restrictions on permanent water trading will necessarily result in widespread stranded irrigation assets. Furthermore, stranded assets do not represent an impediment to the efficient use of infrastructure, the allocation of entitlements, or the use of water. The key findings are that instead of using the ongoing payment of access fees, "retail tagging" and "exit" fees to manage financial impacts, a more efficient approach would involve abandoning charges for renewals annuities predicated on the full replacement of existing assets; revaluing under-utilised assets "appropriately" to reflect their current economic value in use; charging to recover costs fully; and the introduction of cost differentiated charges for individual irrigators within irrigation areas. The project is part of a larger suite of Commission research on water policy, which includes modelling regional economic impacts of changes in water trade and research into irrigation externalities. It also complements the commissioned research study on rural water use and the environment. The views expressed in this paper are those of the staff involved and do not necessarily reflect those of the Productivity Commission.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Public perceptions of recycled water: a survey of visitors to the London 2012 Olympic Park

The Old Ford Water Recycling Plant, operated by Thames Water, was used to supply non-potable recycled blackwater to some of the venues at the London 2012 Games. In an effort to learn from this experience, Thames Water commissioned a survey of visitors to the Olympic Park during the Games to explore public responses to the water recycling project. Results show a very high level of support for using non-potable recycled blackwater, both in public venues and in homes. Such findings may indicate a growing receptivity towards this technology, and show that Thames Water (and other private water companies) are well placed to encourage and even lead public discussion around the role of water reuse in the future of urban water supplies

The Coastal Barrier Island Network (CBIN): Future management strategies for barrier islands

Barrier islands are ecosystems that border coastal shorelines and form a protective barrier between continental shorelines and the wave action originating offshore. In addition to forming and maintaining an array of coastal and estuarine habitats of ecological and economic importance, barrier island coastlines also include some of the greatest concentrations of human populations and accompanying anthropogenic development in the world. These islands have an extremely dynamic nature whereby major changes in geomorphology and hydrology can occur over short time periods (i.e. days, hours) in response to extreme episodic storm events such as hurricanes and northeasters. The native vegetation and geological stability of these ecosystems are tightly coupled with one another and are vulnerable to storm-related erosion events, particularly when also disturbed by anthropogenic development. (PDF contains 4 pages