Giving lectures a voice for a cross-cultural audience

The purpose of this poster is to outline a current research project investigating the value of the inclusion of online audio lectures, in units involving cross-cultural student audiences. This research project arose from two contributing factors: The increase in the number of international students, studying both on and off campus, and the movement for universities to go \u27online\u27.<br /

Self-adaptive clock synchronization for computational grid

This paper presents an innovative method to synchronize physical clocks for a computational grid, in particular for a computational grid linked through the asynchronous Intranet or Internet environments. The method discussed is an asynchronous self-adaptive clock synchronization mechanism. Two strategies for clock synchronisation are introduced. (1) Use continuous time intervals to calculate the precision of clocks, which can reduce the effect of network delay efficiently. (2) Every node synchronizes its clock with its leader actively. In addition, a node self-adaptive model is presented, and the relationship between the clock precision and synchronization time is induced, hence a node can predict when it should begin the synchronization process. Detailed simulation and extension of this issue are provided at the end of the paper. The presented model is both practical and feasible.<br /

Self-adaptive clock synchronisation based on clock precision difference

This paper presents an innovative strategy to synchronize all virtual clocks in asynchronous Internet environments. Our model is based on the architecture of one reference clock and many slave clocks communicating with each other over the Internet. The paper makes three major contributions to this research area. Firstly, one-way information transmission is applied to reduce traffic overhead on the Internet for the purpose of clock synchronization. Secondly, the slave nodes use local virtual time and the arrival timestamp, from the reference node, to create linear mathematical trend models and to retrieve the clock precision differences between reference clock and slave clocks. Finally, a fault-tolerant and self-adaptive model executed by each slave node based on the above linear trend model is created in order to ensure that the virtual clock is running normally, even when the link between the reference node and this slave node has crashed. We also present detailed simulations of this strategy and mathematical analysis on real Internet environments.<br /

Usability in mLearning

As higher education students access educational content using a variety of mobile devices, the question then arises: Does the content across different mobile devices vary in terms of usability? Does usability determine a user&rsquo;s willingness to engage in mobile learning? Hence, it is necessary to investigate the usability of the learning applications and the mobile devices used to access these applications. This paper outlines results from a pilot study conducted at a large Australian University. The study highlights the importance of usability across different mobile devices whilst accessing educational content. This research lays the foundation for a future study that will broaden the investigation to extend from usability for mLearning to usability for mLearning

Supporting blended learning in an E-learning environment

The main goal of this research was to develop a Blended Learning Model which incorporated traditional learning technologies into e-learning. The model is aimed at assisting students to learn in an environment that contains elements of their preferred learning style whilst still being emerged in the local learning environment

Blended learning for cross-cultural e-learning

The emergence of cross-cultural classrooms has been steadily increasing in Australian tertiary institutions, thus signifying a change in the student demographics. This change has acknowledged that a more flexible approach is needed in the way that the unit content is conveyed to the learner. Studies have indicated that students from different cultures responded variably in different learning environments, the two most clearly identifiable learning environments being instructor-centered and student centered. Students from various cultures have shown their levels of compatibility to these learning environments through their interaction and participation. However tertiary institutions are now expanding towards the online forum for delivery of units. Therefore to ensure that all students are able to participate in this new learning domain, preparations have to be made to accommodate all cultural types. Therefore with the importance on creating flexible learning environments for all students the blended learning approach has been selected for application.<br /

Video lectures for cross-cultural use: a three phase model

This paper will discuss the contributing factors of; increasing numbers of international students, and the advancement of learning technologies; that lead to the development of an exploratory research study into the creation of a three phase online lecture model. Aspects such as the differences between the major cultural groups currently enrolled in Australian Universities, indicates the variations that can be expected in student learning styles. This research study aims at determining the educational value of the inclusion of online lectures for a diverse and distributed cross-cultural audience.<br /

Cultural issues in online learning - is blended learning a possible solution?

The emergence of cross-cultural classrooms has been steadily increasing in Australian tertiary institutions, due to the growing population of international students enrolling to complete their degrees. This increase in international students has signified a change in the student demographics, thus recognizing the differences in students&rsquo; learning styles, and indicating that a more flexible approach is needed for learner content delivery. Research has suggested that students from different cultures have varying compatibility with different learning environments. With tertiary institutions now expanding towards the online forum for delivery of units, these compatibilities of students are even more evident. Hence, in order to ensure that all students are able to participate in this domain, preparations are needed to accommodate all cultural types. Therefore with the emphasis on creating flexible learning environments for all students the blended learning approach has been suggested as a solution.<br /