Posters

 

Supporting the Development of Information Literacy Skills
Donna Berthelsen, Kerryann Walsh, Irene Ryan, and Peter Sondergeld
School of Early Childhoo,d Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology

Information literacy encompasses both technological skills and skills to locate, evaluate, manage and use information from a range of sources. Such skills are best acquired within the specific context of students' learning needs. Within a subject concerned with the inclusion of children with special needs in early childhood programs in an undergraduate Bachelor of Education course, the skills for information literacy were operationalised as the ability to use and retrieve items from the University library catalogue system, to access and search electronic databases, and to browse and evaluate internet sites. Students were required to complete two tasks around the demonstration of those skills. Students were found to have a wide range of skills for the set tasks. The implications for skill development are discussed in terms of support needs to develop skills and the need for systematic planning and integration of a range of such tasks across students' undergraduate programs.

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Dimensions of Flexibility
Allison Brown
Learning Resources Development Unit (LRDU), TEDI, the University of Queensland

In higher education, there are pressures on lecturers to look at delivering courses more flexibly, and increasingly this is taken to mean delivering online. But just how flexible is online delivery? While this may be suitable for some courses and some learners it may not necessarily be suitable for all.

This paper describes an approach to developing flexible learning resources that involves analysing a number of dimensions of flexible delivery. This approach will give lecturers many more options to consider and help them to integrate delivery modes according to their own educational purposes and the learning needs of their students. The range of options described will help lecturers new to technology to see how they could start integrating technology into their current delivery practices. Those already bitten by the technology bug will be guided by the options to evaluate the educational usefulness of their own approaches.

 

Student centred learning with a large group of students
Nola Caffin
Food Science and Technology, School of Land and Food, the University of Queensland
and
Lisa Schubert
Nutrition Program, the University of Queensland

Nutrition and Food Science, a first year subject in the Bachelor of Applied Science (Food Science and Nutrition) was offered for the first time last year in student centred learning format. The number of students was around 50. The positive evaluation of the subject encouraged us to continue with the same format. However this year the numbers have doubled and the challenge was to continue to present the subject in a student centred format with a larger group of students. In order to do this successfully the staff input had to be doubled and the structure of the subject altered. This paper discusses the revised structure, the issues and student reaction.

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"Bingo for beginners"
Angela Coco, Alex Cody, Gillian Lupton, Andrew Peake, Kirstyn Shaw, and Ian Woodward
Department of Anthropology and Sociology, the University of Queensland

This poster demonstrates the use of a game strategy to deliver substantive sociological information to a large first year class. The strategy also enables the teacher to elicit reactions to the process, which then serve as teaching points about the theory and practice of social research. In this process ideas about theoretical concepts and operational definitions are tackled in a manner which students find meaningful and enjoyable (and therefore memorable). The approach would be suitable for modification to other large group teaching situations.

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Academic Workloads and Assessment
Robin Fisher, School of Nursing, Queensland Australian Catholic University

Assessment drives student learning. But academic workloads drive assessment. As workloads climb and pressure increase on academics to produce, research, reach out to the community, teach larger classes in less time, what gets left out? Perhaps the creative, authentic, time-consuming assessment techniques we believe are essential for deep learning are the only areas to be sacrificed to the time squeeze. In the past year, management has put through changes which increased workloads without consultation with staff. Another such change is proposed. This paper recounts the changes made by a small number of academics to their assessment practices in response to these increases in workloads. Some adaptations are positive but some put quality education at risk.

 

Flexibility and efficiency in university soil science education
Peter V Lockwood and Heiko Daniel
School of Rural Science and Natural Resources, University of New England

We are in the process of substantially changing our approach to teaching soil science at the University of New England. These changes are occurring in an environment of shrinking teaching budgets, but expanding educational technology opportunities, and incentives being offered by the University for teaching innovation and excellence. Our curriculum is becoming more flexible, more interactive and more appropriate to the needs of our diverse pool of students. The restructuring has involved, for example, use of our multimedia soils teaching program (Oz Soils), the introduction of online teaching resources, and more effective assessment procedures. Demonstrations, evaluations, and reflections on these are presented.

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Kernel Ideas: Developing Transformative Understanding in Literary Studies
Jock Macleod School of Humanitie,s Griffith University (Logan campus)

The paper describes changes I have made to a first year literature subject in response to a set of problems commonly faced by teachers of literature. The previous version of the subject was designed along traditional 'survey' lines. The new version (initiated in 2/1998) is based on a pedagogy and consequent strategy whereby students generate their own 'kernel ideas' of the subject early in the semester, and then explore and test their kernel ideas in a limited range of new and challenging contexts in order to refine and re-organise - 'transform' - their understanding of the subject. Assessment includes reflection on their changed understandings. Evaluation of the first offering of the modified subject suggests that the changes achieved some but not all of the goals I wanted.

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The medical student's approach to problem-based learning in the clinical years of the Graduate Medical Course
Philip Masel, Postgraduate Certificate in Education (1999 Student), the University of Queensland,
Kevin Forbes, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Royal Brisbane Hospital
David Price, Queensland Medical Education Centre, Medical School, the University of Queensland
Ian Scott, Director of Internal Medicine, Princess Alexandra Hospital

Since problem-based learning (PBL) was first introduced into medical schools in the 1970's, there has been a growing interest in this form of learning. Current evidence supports the efficacy of PBL in the pre-clinical years. Less is known about the utility of the PBL approach in the clinical years. It is possible that students may benefit from a different strategy as they make the transition from medical school to hospital. I aim to analyse the PBL process in this setting by using a focus group of six medical students who are going through their clinical rotations. After video-taping a tutorial, I will interview one of the students. I will be analysing their thoughts in relation to problem-solving to try to ascertain their method of clinical reasoning. To assist the students' recall, the tape will be played during the interview. I hope to interview each student during three different types of clinical rotations.

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Teaching and Educational Development Institute,
The University of Queensland
Brisbane, Queensland 4072 Australia
    Phone: +61 (7) 3365 2788
Authorised by: ACE Group, Teaching and Educational Development Institute
Modified: 8 March 2002
© 2002 The University of Queensland