Public sector accounting education in Australian universities : an exploratory study

This study investigates the current state of public sector accounting education in Australian universities. The purpose of this research is to examine if and how public sector accounting is taught in university undergraduate courses. In particular, it will identify specific public sector accounting courses and subjects which are offered at Australian universities, numbers of students enrolled, future plans, and the extent to which public sector accounting topics are included in general accounting subjects. In addition, this project identifies strategies for making the accounting curriculum more public sector inclusive. The findings suggest that currently there is limited teaching of public sector accounting in Australian universities. The implications of these findings suggest that accounting graduates may not have gained basic knowledge of the accounting reporting requirements in the public sector. Universities and accounting departments appear to rely on academics who have a research interest in the public sector to include public sector accounting examples into their teaching and the curriculum. It is suggested that a multi-faceted effort is required from the professional accounting bodies, government agencies and accounting academics to facilitate greater public sector accounting in the curriculum

Intellectual capital reporting : an examination of local government in Victoria

The objective of this research is to examine how Victorian local government annual reports disclose information on intellectual capital. The idea of intellectual capital has become part of the working organisational vocabulary, and is widely held in management literature to be the pre-eminent economic resource and a key driver of efficiency, effectiveness and continual improvement in the private and public sectors. Under the recent Best Value Victoria policy, local governments are under increasing pressure to acquire and apply intellectual capital to improve responsiveness to community needs and meet cost and quality criteria. Annual reports exist as vehicles for communication, accountability and decision making. This study examines how the internal, external and human categories of intellectual capital are represented in the annual reports for the 2000 year for 77 of the 78 Victorian localgovernments. Using a matrix approach derived from Petty and Guthrie\u27s (2000) framework, content analysis is employed to examine the incidence and intensity with which specific elements of intellectual capital are reported. This research indicates that generally the content of annual reports have not provided clear and coherent representations of how local government in Victoria are developing, applying and measuring intellectual capital. The nature and extent of intellectual capital reporting varies considerably between councils, and the disclosure of the human elements of intellectual capital is particularly underdeveloped. The findings suggest that more research in this area is needed to determine the extent to which intellectual capital should be disclosed and whether the current paucity of disclosure stems from disinterest or technical problems. There is also the need for further research into the need to identify and describe elements of intellectual capital, and into effectivereporting strategies and techniques. This may lead to the development of a \u27best practice\u27 reporting model for intellectual capital. Furthermore, the preliminary investigations indicate a perceived need to raise the consciousness of public sectormanagers as to the existence of intellectual capital within their organisations, and ultimately lead to more informed and effective management of this asset. <br /

VERITAS:Mind-mapping in Virtual Reality

Inquiry based learning is a modern and innovative learning strategy that aims to stimulate students’ interest in a topic and target Bloom’s higher order cognitive process. Reflective tasks, such as mind mapping, support inquiry-based learning. Virtual Reality (VR) presents novel opportunities to help scaffold reflective tasks in inquiry-based learning by supporting use of the 3D space which is not available via existing 2D mind mapping applications. In this paper we present VERITAS, a VR application for mind-mapping based reflective tasks operating on the low-cost Oculus Go device. We discuss the interaction design for the mind-mapping task and evaluate the system from a usability perspective. Our results show that novice participants are able to learn how to use the interactions quickly and utilize them effectively to build mind-maps in 3D. VERITAS establishes the usability of VR and essential interactions to successfully perform abstract and complex reflective tasks like mind-mapping

Breaking Virtual Barriers : Investigating Virtual Reality for Enhanced Educational Engagement

Virtual reality (VR) is an innovative technology that has regained popularity in recent years. In the field of education, VR has been introduced as a tool to enhance learning experiences. This thesis presents an exploration of how VR is used from the context of educators and learners. The research employed a mixed-methods approach, including surveying and interviewing educators, and conducting empirical studies to examine engagement, usability, and user behaviour within VR. The results revealed educators are interested in using VR for a wide range of scenarios, including thought exercises, virtual field trips, and simulations. However, they face several barriers to incorporating VR into their practice, such as cost, lack of training, and technical challenges. A subsequent study found that virtual reality can no longer be assumed to be more engaging than desktop equivalents. This empirical study showed that engagement levels were similar in both VR and non-VR environments, suggesting that the novelty effect of VR may be less pronounced than previously assumed. A study against a VR mind mapping artifact, VERITAS, demonstrated that complex interactions are possible on low-cost VR devices, making VR accessible to educators and students. The analysis of user behaviour within this VR artifact showed that quantifiable strategies emerge, contributing to the understanding of how to design for collaborative VR experiences. This thesis provides insights into how the end-users in the education space perceive and use VR. The findings suggest that while educators are interested in using VR, they face barriers to adoption. The research highlights the need to design VR experiences, with understanding of existing pedagogy, that are engaging with careful thought applied to complex interactions, particularly for collaborative experiences. This research contributes to the understanding of the potential of VR in education and provides recommendations for educators and designers to enhance learning experiences using VR

Why should I conserve water when others get to use so much? A water conservation panel discussion

Proceedings of the 2003 Georgia Water Resources Conference, held April 23-24, 2003, at the University of Georgia.The purpose of this paper is to show that, regarding water conservation in Georgia, all water use sectors are involved. This panel has representatives from the green industry, state government – institutional, state government – agriculture, private industry, and municipal government. Each panel representative will give an example of water conservation from their perspective and experience. Coordination of all of these efforts is needed, which is the main objective of the newly formed Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Water Conservation Program

Logibot:Investigating Engagement and Development of Computational Thinking Through Virtual Reality

In this study we assess the effects of teaching fundamental programming concepts through a virtual reality (VR) block-based programming application and its impact on engagement. As a comparison study, participants played an existing desktop-based game (LightBot) and the developed VR game (LogiBot) covering similar gameplay mechanics and blockbased programming. Initial results indicate that traditional desktop applications are currently more engaging than VR for teaching programming. We thus identify the need for careful design of interaction methods to support ease of use and reward factors to promote engagement in VR-based learning applications beyond the initial wow-factor

Overview of Spirit Microscopic Imager Results

This paper provides an overview of Mars Exploration Rover Spirit Microscopic Imager (MI) operations and the calibration, processing, and analysis of MI data. The focus of this overview is on the last five Earth years (2005-2010) of Spirit's mission in Gusev crater, supplementing the previous overview of the first 450 sols of the Spirit MI investigation. Updates to radiometric calibration using in-flight data and improvements in high-level processing are summarized. Released data products are described, and a table of MI observations, including target/feature names and associated data sets, is appended. The MI observed natural and disturbed exposures of rocks and soils as well as magnets and other rover hardware. These hand-lens-scale observations have provided key constraints on interpretations of the formation and geologic history of features, rocks, and soils examined by Spirit. MI images complement observations by other Spirit instruments, and together show that impact and volcanic processes have dominated the origin and evolution of the rocks in Gusev crater, with aqueous activity indicated by the presence of silica-rich rocks and sulfate-rich soils. The textures of some of the silica-rich rocks are similar to terrestrial hot spring deposits, and observations of subsurface cemented layers indicate recent aqueous mobilization of sulfates in places. Wind action has recently modified soils and abraded many of the rocks imaged by the MI, as observed at other Mars landing sites. Plain Language Summary The Microscopic Imager (MI) on NASA's Spirit rover returned the highest-resolution images of the Martian surface available at the time of the 2004-2010 mission. Designed to survive 90 Mars days (sols) and search for evidence of water in the past, Spirit returned data for 2210 sols, far exceeding all expectations. This paper summarizes the scientific insights gleaned from the thousands of MI images acquired during the last 5years of the mission, supplementing the summary of the first 450 sols of the Spirit MI investigation published previously (Herkenhoff et al., ). Along with data from the other instruments on Spirit, MI images guided the scientific interpretation of the geologic history of the rocks and soils observed in Gusev crater on Mars. We conclude that the geologic history of the area explored by Spirit has been dominated by impacts and volcanism, and that water, perhaps very hot water, was involved in the evolution of some of the rocks and soils. More recently, winds have moved soil particles and abraded rocks, as observed elsewhere on Mars. These results have improved our understanding of Mars' history and informed planning of future missions to Mars.National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationPublic domain articleThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]