Preparing for the future job market: Invent your own client report

No matter where students end up after university, an essential proficiency is the ability to communicate with ‘clients’, whether their employer, a business contact, or the research community. Regardless how the job market changes, students need to be able to convince stakeholders of the importance of their work. How can authentic, client-focused assessments in data science help students to gain this vital skill? Our study focuses on data from DATA1001 (Foundations of Data Science) at The University of Sydney, which has a large, diverse cohort of more than 2000 students per year. To prepare students for the future job market, the capstone data project takes the form of a “client report”, in which students choose one of three complex data sets, and then pose their own research questions for a chosen client. We investigate how the students approach the open-ended nature of this task, and the types of questions that they ask. Interesting results emerge in terms of the global and ethical nature of the chosen questions, and the nature of the clients, real or imagined. We also consider what type of statistical analysis was needed for such an open-ended investigation and how it aligns with learning outcomes

Disrupting the past paper pandemic – developing new question banks

One way of maintaining the academic standard and integrity of successive deliveries of a unit is to re-use a confidential multiple-choice question bank in the final exam. Such questions can be carefully workshopped to ensure a breadth of learning outcomes is being assessed, without repetition, at different performance levels. By necessity, the COVID-19 pandemic caused higher education institutions to quickly pivot to online exams, causing a pandemic of past papers being released on multiple forums, including student discussion boards and contract cheating companies. This included previously well-tested, confidential question banks. As a result, academics needed to rapidly produce new collections of questions, ideally different in form to those now available online. Our study focuses on exam data from DATA1001 (Foundations of Data Science) at The University of Sydney, with an annual cohort of more than 2000 students. We investigate patterns in the new multiple-choice question bank. What was the actual performance level compared to the expected performance level? What types of questions best differentiated between students of different abilities? What emerges is interesting findings about what students mastered, and what they struggled to learn, with implications for developing and reviewing multiple-choice questions

The super challenge of retirement income policy

Examines the economic impacts of Australia\u27s ageing population and decreasing housing affordability. Executive Summary Australia’s three-pillar approach to retirement income is internationally well regarded. However, many Australians currently approaching retirement face potential poverty, especially if they do not own their own homes. Australia’s aged dependency ratio (the number of people over 65 for every working-age person 15 to 64) is expected to double over the next 40 years, and the Australian Government recognises that current arrangements are fiscally unsustainable. Many Australians nearing retirement age today have not had compulsory superannuation for their entire working lives. While this issue will abate as the system matures, Australians are still worried they are not saving enough to live comfortably in retirement. Home ownership is a growing retirement issue. Renters not only have no owneroccupied housing wealth, but they also have considerably lower holdings of other forms of wealth. In  younger households, the net wealth of owners is around double that of renters. In older households, the net wealth of owners is around six times higher than that of renters. While home ownership among current retirees is up to 85 per cent, increasing numbers of retirees do not own their own dwellings and live at the mercy of the expensive private rental market in low economic resource (LER) households. The number of older income- and asset-poor households is likely to grow rapidly over the next 40 years, and many are likely to be in the private rental market

Personality, Gender and Careers in Information Technology

The downturn in information technology enrollment numbers in colleges and universities has spurred a stream of research focusing on identifying factors that inhibit students’ interest in information technology. Most of these studies measure individuals’ perceptions and beliefs. We argue that the profession is composed of multiple occupations and those occupations have different characteristics concerning the work performed, the opportunities available, and the people who are employed in those occupations. We investigate the relationship between personality and the intent of students to pursue careers in the information technology field. Last, we examine if there is a gender personality profile for students who decide to pursue careers in information technology. Our findings can be used by researchers and practitioners to better describe to students the specific opportunities and career paths available within the IT profession

Barriers, control and identity in health information seeking among African American women

Qualitative research methods were used to examine the role of racial, cultural, and socio-economic group (i.e., communal) identities on perceptions of barriers and control related to traditional and internet resources for seeking health information. Eighteen lower income, African American women participated in training workshops on using the internet for health, followed by two focus groups. Transcripts were analyzed using standardized coding methods. Results demonstrated that participants perceived the internet as a tool for seeking health information, which they believed would empower them within formal healthcare settings. Participants invoked racial, cultural, and socio-economic identities when discussing barriers to seeking health information within healthcare systems and the internet. The findings indicate that the internet may be a valuable tool for accessing health information among lower income African American women if barriers are reduced. Recommendations are made that may assist health providers in improving health information seeking outcomes of African American women

The structure and distribution of household wealth in Australia: cohort differences and retirement issues

This paper uses the 2002 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) wealth module data to examine levels of wealth and debt in Australia among different age groups. This paper analyses the 2002 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) wealth module data to derive the following information: the structure and composition of household wealth and debt and whether this has changed in recent years; the distribution of wealth, including among and within age cohorts and between the most and least wealthy cohorts; retirement issues, focusing on the capacity of pre and post-retirement cohorts for self-funding during retirement; the wealth and debt levels of vulnerable groups in society, especially income support recipients and lone parents; and the main factors (demographic, educational, income related) that determine levels of wealth and debt

Year two: the impact of addictions education and the experiential activities on attitudes of students

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of education and experiential learning on counseling student’s perceptions of substance use and counseling those with substance-related problems. Some counselors report having had negative experiences and beliefs about substance use, abuse, and persons with substance related-problems. A counselor’s negative beliefs and experiences can impair their capacities of working effectively and empathetically with persons who seek help for substance abuse problems. Research reports that education can assist helping professionals to be able to work more efficiently with clients with substance abuse struggles by increasing awareness of substance abuse problems, enhancing empathy, increasing professional’s ability to relate with what clients may be experiencing, training in appropriate interventions, and referral skills. Design/methodology/approach – This study measured changes in students’ attitudes toward addictions following completion of a 15-week addictions counseling course, which incorporated multiple experiential activities in conjunction with information about the effects of various substances and different treatment modalities. Findings – The results revealed significant changes in treatment intervention and non-stereotyping. Originality/value – These changes suggest education might affect attitudes toward substance abuse. The implications of this study can guide counselor educators in designing effective addictions courses and can lead to future discussions on how to use experiential learning in the classroom

Choose your own adventure: Experiencing research through first-year group projects in data science

Traditionally, an undergraduate’s first experience of statistics has been intentionally sanitised, with well-defined research questions on very clean or contrived datasets. As a result, the learning experience is not only dull, but students are quarantined from the authentic research experience of problem solving with data. Responding to the seminal Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) recommendations (Carver et al., 2016; Franklin et al., 2007), our new data science curriculum allows thousands of students to experience the messy but exhilarating process of independent data discovery from day one. Through the introduction of an integrated series of collaborative group data-projects, students experience genuine data science research within a scaffolded environment that supports their learning experience. Moving through different data types (sourced data, survey data, client data), students choose their own adventure by constructing their own research questions and then presenting their unique findings to their tutor and peers for interrogation. The use of reproducible RMarkdown documents enables collaboration and the production of professional reports, consistent with any research environment. Though challenging, students report their research experience as satisfying and motivating for their statistics study, as well as transferring to other domains. References Carver, R., Everson, M., Gabrosek, J., Horton, N., Lock, R., Mocko, M., . . . Witmer, J. (2016). Guidelines for assessment and instruction in statistics education: College Report 2016. Retrieved from http://www.amstat.org/education/gaise Franklin, C., Kader, G., Mewborn, D., Moreno, J., Peck, R., Perry, M., & Scheaffer, R. (2007). Guidelines for assessment and instruction in statistics education (GAISE) report. Alexandria: American Statistical Association

Southern California Regional Workforce Development Needs Assessment for the Transportation and Supply Chain Industry Sectors

COVID-19 brought the public’s attention to the critical value of transportation and supply chain workers as lifelines to access food and other supplies. This report examines essential job skills required of the middle-skill workforce (workers with more than a high school degree, but less than a four-year college degree). Many of these middle-skill transportation and supply chain jobs are what the Federal Reserve Bank defines as “opportunity occupations” -- jobs that pay above median wages and can be accessible to those without a four-year college degree. This report lays out the complex landscape of selected technological disruptions of the supply chain to understand the new workforce needs of these middle-skill workers, followed by competencies identified by industry. With workplace social distancing policies, logistics organizations now rely heavily on data management and analysis for their operations. All rungs of employees, including warehouse workers and truck drivers, require digital skills to use mobile devices, sensors, and dashboards, among other applications. Workforce training requires a focus on data, problem solving, connectivity, and collaboration. Industry partners identified key workforce competencies required in digital literacy, data management, front/back office jobs, and in operations and maintenance. Education and training providers identified strategies to effectively develop workforce development programs. This report concludes with an exploration of the role of Institutes of Higher Education in delivering effective workforce education and training programs that reimagine how to frame programs to be customizable, easily accessible, and relevant