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Student Relationship Engagement System Community of Practice (SRES-CoP)
Full text linkNOTE: It is recommended you bring a laptop to this workshop but not essential.
GOAL
To deliver a hands-on workshop that will expand knowledge on SRES, derive inspiration through demonstrated practices and develop networks with SRES users across the institutions.
BACKGROUND
The Student Relationship Engagement System (SRES) is a bespoke student engagement system that allows you collect, filter and output student data. Data can be collected from direct input, learning management system (LMS) synchronisation or directly from the student themselves. The information output can be as simple as a filtered spreadsheet through to automated emails and webpages. This output can be tailored to teachers (eg listing at-risk students) or students (eg providing personalised messages or feedback). The multitude of functions and options that SRES provides has resulted in unique and innovative applications of SRES which deserve recognition.
AIMS
In this session, we will share our collective experiences and practices of SRES across a range of disciplines and Australian institutions. Participants from all science disciplines and SRES experience (or lack of) are invited. For new or non-SRES users, it’s an opportunity to see what SRES is and what applications are possible. For experienced users, the workshop can facilitate the implementation of more advanced practices or inspire new ways to utilise SRES. Overall, the objective of the workshop is to capture how educators use SRES and to establish a network of users that can facilitate support beyond this workshop.
DELIVERABLES
Through this workshop we aim to facilitate the following deliverable outcomes:
Introduce SRES and hear some SRES experiences and practices from a panel of SRES users;
Collect a list of SRES practices and their creators (to share with the community);
Demonstration: Escape room-style Lab Safety Activity
Dedicated time for participants to interact with SRES mentors to troubleshoot their current SRES issues or build a practical solution to ideas they wish to implement in SRES.
PROPOSED WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
Introduction (10 mins) – What is SRES? How does it work?
Panel examples (40 mins) – How have the workshop panelist used SRES in their practices?
Workshop task (20 mins) – How do you use SRES in your practices?
Networking Session (20 mins) –Talk ideas or troubleshoot SRES challenges with colleagues and workshop panelists.
Molecular phylogenetic study of Utricularia section Oligocista in Australia and a new Cape York endemic species
Full text linkUtricularia section Oligocista A.DC. (Lentibulariaceae) is distributed across the old and new world tropics. Wepresent a molecular phylogeny using a matrix of the nuclear ITS and two chloroplast markers that includes 19of the 37 recognised species sampled across the range of each species. The phylogenetic study also includesmembers of the closely allied sections Enskide (Raf.) P.Taylor (including section Minutae Lowrie, Cowie &Conran) and Stomoisia (Raf.) Kuntze from across each of their distributions. The phylogeny shows that Australiacontains species from the two major clades of section Oligocista, with each involving ancestors with yellow andpurple/mauve corolla colours. This study provides morphological and molecular evidence for recognition of anew species, Utricularia irwinica R.W.Jobson & Baleeiro, from Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. A lectotypeis designated for the name Utricularia cyanea var. alba Benth. We also recommend changes to the taxonomyof sections Enskide and Oligocista based on the phylogenetic results and morphology
Australian first-year teachers’ need for support in their transition to work during the Covid-19 Pandemic
No full textTeacher education has been disrupted considerably by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the Australian context, the placement days required to meet the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) standards were reduced among the 2020 final year graduate teachers. Meanwhile, the complexities of schools were increasingly demanding after the Covid-19 disruptions, posing significant challenges to first-year teachers. This study investigated the ways that the Covid-19 pandemic has shaped three first-year teachers' need for support in their transition into Australian schools. Data for the study were generated through semi-structured interviews and analysed with thematic analysis. The findings revealed a tension between the unpredictability of the classroom realities and the insufficient practical skills of first-year teachers. Besides, first-year teachers need support in handling workload, managing students’ behavioural issues and differentiating instructional strategies for students with special needs. These findings accentuate the urgent need to embed a comprehensive school support structure to facilitate first-year teachers in their transition to the teaching workforce
Students’ experiences of Open Distance Learning: A Samoan case study
Full text linkThe rise of Open Distance Learning (ODL) has created new learning opportunities for teacher education students, particularly in geographically remote small island states. Alongside increasing access to education, ODL is designed to promote independent and self-directed learning. Despite this highly individualised pedagogical orientation, little is known about how ODL is experienced in collectivist cultures, such as Samoa, where cultural practices are centred around a deep and interconnected relationality. This article responds to these concerns by employing fa’afaletui research methodology to investigate the pedagogical experiences of sixteen teacher education students in Samoa, who were completing a two-year teacher upgrade programme delivered through ODL. The findings reveal that students placed a high value on relationality at all stages of their ODL programme. Students exercised agency to maintain relational connections by organizing their own informal face-to-face meetings or telephone conversations with fellow students and lecturers in order to enhance their learning. These findings suggest that relational connections and dialogic interactions were crucial for their learning, despite ODL providing few of these relational and dialogic opportunities. In a time where the global pandemic has accelerated the implementation of ODL, the findings of this study challenge the assumption that ODL can be unproblematically implemented, irrespective of context and culture, and offers important considerations for the international teacher education community
Perinatal support for breastfeeding using mHealth: A mixed method feasibility pilot of the My Baby Now app
No full textBackground: The antenatal period provides an opportunity to support mothers’ infant feeding decisions. Breastfeeding provides well-established benefits for infants and mothers; however, breastfeeding rates are low. Breastfeeding interventions may target breastfeeding intentions, confidence and attitudes. Few studies have explored the impact of antenatal mHealth interventions. The My Baby Now (MBN) app provides evidence-based infant feeding information and continuous support to parents.
Aims: Examine the impact of the MBN app on breastfeeding knowledge, intention, confidence and attitudes across the perinatal period.
Methods: A mixed-method pre-post pilot study was conducted in 2021. The MBN app was offered to first-time mothers between 20-30 weeks gestation. Mothers completed surveys at baseline (T1), 36-38 weeks gestation (T2) and 8-12 weeks post-partum (T3), measuring breastfeeding knowledge, intentions, attitudes and confidence. App engagement was measured via app analytics. Qualitative interviews were conducted post-T3 with a purposeful sample.
Results: Of 266 participants recruited, 169 (64%) completed T2 and 157 (59%) completed T3. Mothers without university education perceived the app to be higher quality, more useful and impactful, than mothers with university education. From T1-T2, breastfeeding knowledge and exclusive breastfeeding intentions increased significantly. Breastfeeding attitudes and confidence increased significantly across T1-T2 and T1-T3. Level/intensity of app engagement during pregnancy predicted changes in breastfeeding attitudes from T1-T2 amongst mothers without university education, but did not predict changes in breastfeeding knowledge, confidence or intentions.
Conclusions: The MBN app provided an acceptable source of breastfeeding support, particularly for women without university education. Further randomised controlled trials should examine MBN effectiveness on breastfeeding outcomes.
The Youth Engagement Study (YES!): How can we optimise adolescent participation in chronic disease prevention research?
No full textBackground: Adolescent participation in decision-making is now widely accepted to enhance chronic disease prevention research and intervention development. However, optimal modes to engage adolescents, particularly in the digital age remains unknown.
Aims: To identify a) how adolescents perceive youth participation, b) barriers and facilitators to participation c) how adolescents want to be engaged in chronic disease prevention decision-making.
Methods: Two phases between Feb-July-2022: 1) digital cross-sectional survey, 2) digital focus groups. Eligible participants were 13-18 years-old and living in Australia. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analyses, respectively.
Results: Overall, 520 participants completed the study (cross-sectional survey n=501, focus groups n=19; mean age 16 years SD1.2, 60% (319/520) female, 37% (194/520) culturally and linguistically diverse and 23% (121/520) lived rurally. Twenty percent (100/501) reported engagement in health promoting activities. Those who had not been involved reported ‘lack of opportunity’ (>60%, 171/278) as the major barrier to participation. Furthermore, 45% (227/501) of participants reported ‘hybrid’ participation combining digital and face-face components as preferred delivery method. Adolescents reported that participatory methods such as co-design, advocacy, leadership and advisory groups (42%, 213/501) would provide the most influence over health promoting activities for adolescents. Focus group data established a need for digital participatory methods to permit flexibility and accessibility.
Conclusion: This digital study enabled the inclusion of a diverse sample of adolescent participants from across Australia. Findings suggest adolescents are rarely engaged in health promoting activities that affect them. Identified barriers need to be addressed to ensure meaningful engagement
How Do Online Actors Navigate Facebook In Communicating Vaccination Messages
No full textBackground: Factually, health information is important to tackle issues around vaccination. The distribution of false information from online actors about the efficacy of vaccination online and on social media platforms has also been on the rise. This paper examines how various vaccination activists use Facebook to communicate critical messages about vaccination in Australia.
Aims: This paper argues that online actors leverage and negotiate the affordances of Facebook in different ways to communicate vaccination messages. Social media affordances are platform features that enhance, promote, or encourage communication practices and social interactions (Bucher & Helmond, 2017). It is also a relationship between the technology and the users and the possible or actual outcomes from the user's interactions with that platform (Evans, Pearce, Vitak, & Treem, 2017).
Methods: As this paper focuses on vaccination contents produced by online anti-vaccination groups, data was gathered using semi-structured interviews to identify specific techniques and practices used to communicate messages about childhood vaccination in Australia
Results: This paper offers an understanding of the specificity and complexity of communication techniques and practices of online actors on Facebook and how that influences the understanding of vaccination in Australia.
Conclusions: Findings from this paper significantly show an understanding of the evolving nature of social media platforms. Additionally, understanding online users' communication techniques, practices, and communities have uncovered some novel strategies for navigating Facebook
Co-designing the user experience of a parenting and early childhood development mHealth app in lower- and middle-income countries
No full textBackground: The ubiquity of mobile phones globally presents an opportunity to deliver parenting and early childhood development information to promote and optimise the socio-emotional and cognitive development of children during the first five years of life. However, it is crucial to ensure that mobile health (mHealth) solutions appreciate, among other things, cultural and linguistic diversity, especially in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). To that end, co-design is one way forward.
Aims: Overall, this work aims to co-create a parenting app “Thrive by Five” to ensure usability, acceptability, and cultural appropriateness in LMICs. Here, findings from nine countries in Asia and Africa relating to the user experience are presented.
Methods: Thematic analysis was applied to co-design workshops conducted with 174 parents and caregivers and 58 in-country subject matter experts from Afghanistan, Indonesia, Namibia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, and Ethiopia. To best inform user experience design, workshop participants were given a walkthrough of the app prototype or a period of hands-on user testing, when possible.
Results: Key feedback on the app user experience indicated several necessary changes, including simplifying and localising language, including short videos, adding more bright colours, illustrations, and animations, and numerous improvements to the app features and functionality.
Conclusions: Using co-design, vital feedback on user experience was elicited to further the ongoing co-creation of a parenting app with and for nine select LMICs