The use and usefulness of non-assessed online learning: Tracking students\u27 behaviour on LAMS

Recent reviews of active and participatory learning design are critical of the effectiveness of such strategies, pointing out that students’ participation levels in technology-mediated discussion tasks are generally low. In addition, they note that when students are made to participate, through the attachment of assignment points to participation in online discussions, students become skilled in taking full advantage of the assignment points, without necessarily engaging in deep learning. These reviews point to a disturbing trend in student engagement that needs urgent attention. Does student effort or the lack of it pose an inherent problem for the design of online discussion tasks? Is there a need to factor in students’ ambivalence towards online communicative collaboration when designing LAMS learning tasks? In this paper, I document the use and usefulness of non-assessed discussion forum learning design, discussing the meaning of student content engagement and its relationship to deep learning before reporting preliminary research results that sought to investigate current student engagement with non-assessed learning tasks. My findings illustrate the importance of reassessing current conceptualisation of learning and assessment tasks as a linear progression. Moreover, I conclude that it is counter-productive to ‘make students collaborate’ through the simple attachment of assignment points to tasks, because it rewards compliance rather than learning

Cooperative Caching and Transmission Design in Cluster-Centric Small Cell Networks

Wireless content caching in small cell networks (SCNs) has recently been considered as an efficient way to reduce the traffic and the energy consumption of the backhaul in emerging heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNets). In this paper, we consider a cluster-centric SCN with combined design of cooperative caching and transmission policy. Small base stations (SBSs) are grouped into disjoint clusters, in which in-cluster cache space is utilized as an entity. We propose a combined caching scheme where part of the available cache space is reserved for caching the most popular content in every SBS, while the remaining is used for cooperatively caching different partitions of the less popular content in different SBSs, as a means to increase local content diversity. Depending on the availability and placement of the requested content, coordinated multipoint (CoMP) technique with either joint transmission (JT) or parallel transmission (PT) is used to deliver content to the served user. Using Poisson point process (PPP) for the SBS location distribution and a hexagonal grid model for the clusters, we provide analytical results on the successful content delivery probability of both transmission schemes for a user located at the cluster center. Our analysis shows an inherent tradeoff between transmission diversity and content diversity in our combined caching-transmission design. We also study optimal cache space assignment for two objective functions: maximization of the cache service performance and the energy efficiency. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves performance gain by leveraging cache-level and signal-level cooperation and adapting to the network environment and user QoS requirements.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, submitted for possible journal publicatio

Putting the Professional into Practice-based Learning

Assessment in an undergraduate physics subject was re-designed to challenge and inspire students to develop and apply their disciplinary and non-disciplinary skills in a practice-based, authentic assignment task. The aims of the re-design were to expose students to workplace practice and increase their engagement in the subject. Traditionally, as a response to its emphasis on disciplinary theory, science is assessed by way of content focussed class tests and examinations, activities not reflected in workplace practice. These summative assessment types measure student attainment of knowledge rather than enable deeper understanding and learning. However, introducing students to ‘real-world’ practice-oriented assessment tasks can enhance student engagement and promote learning. To achieve these aims, the assignment was carefully scaffolded to give students the opportunity to improve their scientific writing skills, develop an approach to systematic research, build a greater understanding of the peer-review process and acquire skills in self and team management. The task required students to work in groups to research and write a research paper based on a meta-study model. Their papers were then compiled and published in a student peerreviewed research journal. The impact of this intervention was evaluated through a focus group discussion, with the majority of the students commenting positively on their learning and engagement in the subject. This reflective article discusses the effectiveness of the assignment design, its scaffolding, the peer-review process and the authenticity of the workplace-setting. Suggestions are made as to how to further improve this type of assignment design. This workplace-focused intervention may be of interest to educators in other disciplines

What seals the deal? How compensation and benefits affect women’s decisions to accept expatriation in the oil and gas industry

Design/methodology/approach A triangulated qualitative research approach draws upon: policy analysis in two oil and gas firms; interviews with two International Assignments Managers in Human Resources; and indepth interviews with 26 female expatriates with experience of a variety of assignment types. Purpose This paper examines how decisions to undertake organisationally-assigned expatriation are influenced by employers’ international assignment compensation and benefits policies, seen through the lens of female expatriate breadwinners working in the male-dominated oil and gas exploration and production industry. Findings The paper identifies premiums that uplift salary, housing quality, access to health care, travel and leave arrangements, dual careers and children’s education as women’s main deal makers. Research limitations/implications Longitudinal studies and comparisons of men’s and women’s views on policy aspects that support assignment acceptance and cause assignment rejection are needed across a range of industries. Practical implications Housing quality is a key factor in women’s assignment acceptance. Good communication prior to expatriation can help build confidence in healthcare provision. Employers should consider how travel and leave policy can be implemented flexibly. Assistance with seeking work visas for partners and coordinating dual career couples’ assignments can facilitate female expatriation. Originality/value This article provides new knowledge on how the content of organisations’ international compensation and benefits policies influences female expatriate breadwinners’ assignment acceptance set within the theoretical framework of compensating differentials. It proposes a model to depict financial and non-financial deal makers to women’s assignment acceptance

Learning within Digital Media: Investigating the Relationships Between Student Citation Networks, Assignment Structures, and Learning Outcomes

Students are comfortable sharing digital content with others, yet the effect of sharing of digital media for learning remains largely unexplored. Building on research in social network analysis and learning analytics, this research explores the use and sharing of digital media in learning activities, analyzing the effects of the design of the learning activities on the resulting networks of students and their cited resources, and exploring relationships between attributes of these citation networks and students’ perceptions of the learning outcomes. Results suggest that the extent to which an assignment is well-structured and converges towards a single solution positively influences the density and clustering coefficient of the resulting citation network, and that these network measures in turn have a positive influence on students’ perceptions of learning from the assignment

Reframing e-assessment: building professional nursing and academic attributes in a first year nursing course

This paper documents the relationships between pedagogy and e-assessment in two nursing courses offered at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. The courses are designed to build the academic, numeracy and technological attributes student nurses need if they are to succeed at university and in the nursing profession. The paper first outlines the management systems supporting the two courses and how they intersect with the e-learning and e-assessment components of course design. These pedagogical choices are then reviewed. While there are lessons to be learnt and improvements to be made, preliminary results suggest students and staff are extremely supportive of the courses. The e-assessment is very positively received with students reporting increased confidence and competency in numeracy, as well as IT, academic, research and communication skills

Wikipedia editing and information literacy: A case study

Purpose: This paper aims to evaluate the success of a Wikipedia editing assessment designed to improve the information literacy skills of a cohort of first-year undergraduate health sciences students. Design/methodology/approach: In this action research case study (known hereafter as “the project” to differentiate this action research from the students’ own research), students researched, wrote and published Wikipedia articles on Australia-centric health topics. Students were given a pre- and post-test to assess levels of self-confidence in finding, evaluating and referencing information. Student work was also analysed in terms of article length and quantity and the type of information sources used. Findings: Tests revealed that students’ self-confidence in their information literacy skills improved overall. Analysis of student work revealed that students wrote longer articles and incorporated more references than expected. References used were of appropriate quality relevant to the article despite minimal instructions. Originality/value: There are few studies that investigate information literacy development through Wikipedia editing in Australian universities. This study shows that Wikipedia editing is an effective way to carry out student assessment prior to essay writing and an innovative platform to improve information literacy skills in undergraduate students

The effect of functional roles on perceived group efficiency during computer-supported collaborative learning

In this article, the effect of functional roles on group performance and collaboration during computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is investigated. Especially the need for triangulating multiple methods is emphasised: Likert-scale evaluation questions, quantitative content analysis of e-mail communication and qualitative analysis of open-ended questions were used. A comparison of fourty-one questionnaire observations, distributed over thirteen groups in two research conditions – groups with prescribed functional roles (n = 7, N = 18) and nonrole groups (n = 6, N = 23) – revealed no main effect for performance (grade). Principal axis factoring of the Likert-scales revealed a latent variable that was interpreted as perceived group efficiency (PGE). Multilevel modelling (MLM) yielded a positive marginal effect of PGE. Most groups in the role condition report a higher degree of PGE than nonrole groups. Content analysis of e-mail communication of all groups in both conditions (role n = 7, N = 25; nonrole n = 6, N = 26) revealed that students in role groups contribute more ‘coordination’ focussed statements. Finally, results from cross case matrices of student responses to open-ended questions support the observed marginal effect that most role groups report a higher degree of perceived group efficiency than nonrole groups