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Prevalence and characteristics of online child sexual victimization:findings from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study
No full textBackground: Online child sexual victimization is increasingly facilitated by technology, but evidence of its prevalence and characteristics remains scarce. Reliable population-based data is critical to understand the magnitude and nature of the problem, and inform evidence-based prevention. Objective: To determine the prevalence of nonconsensual sharing of sexual images of the child by any perpetrator, and of online sexual solicitation by any adult perpetrator; and to determine the characteristics of these experiences. Participants and setting: A nationally representative sample of 3500 individuals aged 16–24 years in Australia, comprising a sub-sample of participants in the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS). Methods: We administered the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire-R2: Adapted Version (ACMS). Survey items captured self-reported information from participants about whether, before age 18, they had experienced nonconsensual sharing of sexual images of themselves by any perpetrator, and online sexual solicitation by an adult. Follow-up items generated information about the characteristics of these experiences. We generated weighted national prevalence estimates for each experience, and estimated chronicity (number of times the experience occurred), age at onset, and perpetrator characteristics. Results: National prevalence of nonconsensual sharing of sexual images of the child before age 18 was 7.6 % (95 % CI 6.6–8.6 %), and of online sexual solicitation by an adult was 17.7 % (95 % CI 16.3–19.2 %). Girls were significantly more likely than boys to experience both nonconsensual image sharing victimization (10.9 % v 3.8 %) and online sexual solicitation by an adult (26.3 % v 7.6 %) before age 18. Gender diverse individuals experienced higher online sexual solicitation (47.9 %), although cell sizes were small. Chronicity of online sexual solicitation (median: n = 5) was higher than nonconsensual image sharing victimization (median: n = 2). Median ages at onset were 15 (image sharing) and 14 (sexual solicitation). Most perpetrators of nonconsensual image sharing were other known adolescents (48.8 %) and adolescents who were current or former romantic partners (23.4 %), while perpetrators of online sexual solicitation were typically unknown adults (86.7 %). Conclusions: Online childhood sexual victimization is widespread in Australia, especially for girls. Many children's experiences begin in middle childhood, and events are often chronic. Results can inform enhanced targeted prevention efforts.</p
Generative AI in higher education:A global perspective of institutional adoption policies and guidelines
No full textIntegrating generative AI (GAI) into higher education is crucial for preparing a future generation of GAI-literate students. However, a comprehensive understanding of global institutional adoption policies remains absent, with most prior studies focusing on the Global North and lacking a theoretical lens. This study utilizes the Diffusion of Innovations Theory to examine GAI adoption strategies in higher education across 40 universities from six global regions. It explores the characteristics of GAI innovation, including compatibility, trialability, and observability, and analyses the communication channels and roles and responsibilities outlined in university policies and guidelines. The findings reveal that universities are proactively addressing GAI integration by emphasising academic integrity, enhancing teaching and learning practices, and promoting equity. Key policy measures include the development of guidelines for ethical GAI use, the design of authentic assessments to mitigate misuse, and the provision of training programs for faculty and students to foster GAI literacy. Despite these efforts, gaps remain in comprehensive policy frameworks, particularly in addressing data privacy concerns and ensuring equitable access to GAI tools. The study underscores the importance of clear communication channels, stakeholder collaboration, and ongoing evaluation to support effective GAI adoption. These insights provide actionable insights for policymakers to craft inclusive, transparent, and adaptive strategies for integrating GAI into higher education.</p
Gone with the Wind, Waves, and Walking:Prioritizing Research at Vulnerable Archaeological Sites in Coastal Zones
No full textClimate change, rising seas, and encroaching public camping are escalating threats to cultural heritage places along much of Australia’s coastline. For the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation of southeastern Victoria, Australia, the documentation, research, and management of vulnerable coastal archaeological sites is a key priority. Here, we present the results of archaeological excavations undertaken at the Brataua site complex in Wellington Shire, Victoria. Despite site loss through coastal erosion, agriculture, and recreation, the excavation results revealed that people repeatedly visited the area for at least 3000 years for shellfishing and to obtain local quartz pebbles for stone tool manufacture. These findings call for a refinement and rethinking of the regional archaeological sequence established by pioneer researchers in the 1960s–1980s. They highlight the importance of storytelling in places that are highly vulnerable and in danger of destruction within a matter of years, months, or even weeks.</p
Measuring secondary education students' self-regulated learning processes with digital trace data
No full textThis study investigates secondary education students' self-regulated learning (SRL) processes with digital trace data, particularly whether SRL processes found in secondary education are comparable to those observed in higher education. We therefore adapted a digital learning environment and rule-based AI algorithm originally designed to measure SRL in higher education and collected multi-trace data from 13-year-old students (N = 179) across three European countries during an essay-writing task. Hidden Markov modeling was employed to capture latent SRL processes. Four latent SRL processes emerged: orientation, first-reading, writing, and re-reading combined with monitoring. By clustering sequences of these latent SRL processes, we identified four sequential patterns of SRL processes at the task level: writing with metacognitive monitoring, writing intensively, reading first, writing next, and reading and writing simultaneously. Our findings highlight how AI and multi-trace data can be used to measure SRL during learning, providing a basis for enhancing personalized support. Educational relevance and implications statement: Self-regulated learning (SRL) is vital in the digital world. In this study, we investigated secondary education students' SRL processes with digital trace data. We also demonstrated that the instrumentation of a digital learning environment and rule-based AI algorithm originally designed to measure SRL processes in higher education can be leveraged to measure SRL processes in secondary education students. The real-time measurement of covert SRL processes is important as this information can 1) raise students' awareness on their learning, 2) help teachers to support students' learning, and 3) form the basis for providing personalized support for these processes with the help of AI-enhanced learning technologies.</p
From complexity to integration:insights for process design from an empirical case study of transdisciplinary planetary health collaboration in Indonesia
No full textTransdisciplinary research has been increasingly advocated as necessary to address complex planetary health challenges spanning environmental and human health in different socio-economic contexts. Recognising global interdependence, such research must engage in equitable co-production for lasting, meaningful impact. Existing transdisciplinarity frameworks and practices from the environment, health, and development fields primarily focus on research processes and outcomes, generically mentioning ‘collaboration’ without sufficiently expanding how the process can be designed to facilitate equitable and sustained outcomes. This case study undertakes an empirical deep-dive into a planetary health research in Indonesia to better understand transdisciplinary collaboration from participants' experiences. Deductive and inductive analyses of the enabling and constraining factors offer novel insights into the collaborative process of stakeholder engagement, interaction, and integration. Rich examples from the case study were then synthesised into process design strategies to overcome structural constraints through boundary spanning, adaptive project management, and creating spaces for social learning and reflexivity. (150 words).</p
Explainable exercise recommendation with knowledge graph
No full textRecommending suitable exercises and providing the reasons for these recommendations is a highly valuable task, as it can significantly improve students’ learning efficiency. Nevertheless, the extensive range of exercise resources and the diverse learning capacities of students present a notable difficulty in recommending exercises. Collaborative filtering approaches frequently have difficulties in recommending suitable exercises, whereas deep learning methods lack explanation, which restricts their practical use. To address these issue, this paper proposes KG4EER, an explainable exercise recommendation with a knowledge graph. KG4EER facilitates the matching of various students with suitable exercises and offers explanations for its recommendations. More precisely, a feature extraction module is introduced to represent students’ learning features, and a knowledge graph is constructed to recommend exercises. This knowledge graph, which includes three primary entities — knowledge concepts, students, and exercises — and their interrelationships, serves to recommend suitable exercises. Extensive experiments conducted on three real-world datasets, coupled with expert interviews, establish the superiority of KG4EER over existing baseline methods and underscore its robust explainability.</p
Quality appraisal of household recycling influences research found evidence was mostly insufficient for drawing conclusions
No full textResearch on recycling behaviour and its influences is critical to supporting public policy efforts to mitigate the negative effects of waste. However, recent reviews have raised concerns about the quality of recycling research. Despite this, no previous reviews have conducted quality appraisals. This is partly because validated appraisal tools have typically been developed for intervention reviews in the health/medicine fields, creating difficulties applying to behaviour influence reviews in environmental fields. This update of a previous systematic review aims to fill this gap. We developed and piloted a novel quality appraisal framework tailored to interdisciplinary reviews of influences on recycling behaviours. Application of the novel framework to 118 recycling papers highlighted a lack of strongly-rated evidence, particularly for causal claims and operationalisation of behaviour. Specifically, over 80% of papers contained insufficient causal evidence, while 90% contained insufficient or cautious evidence of influence on actual behaviour. Only four papers (1%) produced strong evidence across both measures, allowing compelling confidence in their conclusions. Lack of quality evidence undermines the ability of remaining papers (and the body of literature as a whole) to draw strong conclusions about what factors have causal influence on actual recycling behaviour. This has implications for how well the field can guide interventions to improve recycling outcomes. To strengthen future research, this review identifies feasible instances of better practice to increase quality of evidence. Implementing such recommendations could increase the field's confidence in what influences household recycling. The quality appraisal framework may also be of interest for other pro-environmental behaviours.</p
Embedding transformative innovation into mission-oriented policy and innovation districts:the case of Melbourne
No full textThis chapter presents key interventions to provide a step-change in the understanding of innovation, from orthodox to transformative, in the development of local government public policy in the Melbourne Innovation District (MID) City North, Australia. Innovation refers to the introduction of new technological, organisational, and social solutions in response to problems and challenges that arise in existing social, economic, and environmental settings. A step-change is necessary as traditional innovation practice is not currently fit for purpose to deliver a more inclusive and sustainable society. To illustrate this step-change, we reference the MID City North with the key actors including the City of Melbourne (CoM) and two universities (University of Melbourne and RMIT). The MID City North, established in 2017, is a maturing initiative that has evolved over a period of time punctuated by considerable disruptions, particularly the Australian bushfire (Black Summer 2019–2020) catastrophe and the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue these disruptions are a catalyst for change and therefore an important context for the social shaping of the evolving policy discourse relevant to the MID City North. Both disruptions were powerful pressures, as well as windows of opportunity, to effect policy reform mainly by the key actor: the CoM. We propose four key interventions to build on the policy-reform momentum to better develop pathways to deliver on transformative innovation in policy, specifically for the MID City North and the CoM. These interventions are key because they foster the establishment of favourable policy mixes supporting innovation for the transformative change required for cities transitioning towards sustainability
“We'd rather have a clean planet than anything else”:Household values and automated future electric vehicle charging
No full textThe increasing uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) presents both opportunities and challenges for the future electricity grid. Managing the uncertainties associated with EV uptake, charging routines, and household energy consumption patterns is crucial for grid operators to ensure stability and efficiency. This study responds to the prevalent belief within the energy industry that in lieu of effective time-of-use (TOU) tariffs and price-based incentives, smart appliances (dishwashers, EV chargers, water heaters, pool pumps) should be automated to manage home-based EV charging and balance demand during peak periods. However, this strategy overlooks the complexities of household energy routines and the reluctance of households to automate smart appliances. Drawing on a mixed-methods research project with households in Australia, including ethnographic insights and survey data, this study explores EV charging practices within broader household energy contexts. The findings challenge the assumption that correct price incentives or orchestrated charging are the most effective solutions for managing future EV charging. Specifically, we illustrate opportunities for demand management strategies to target household values such as environmentalism and sustainability. Further, we suggest leveraging current practices among EV households such as their preference for solar self-consumption and time spent working from home. We conclude by emphasising the need for policies aimed at apartment dwellers and renters that tackle inequalities in access to solar and home-based EV charging to allow broader participation in the energy transition to decarbonised and decentralised grid.</p
Intersectionality in policy:feminist breakthrough?
No full textThe language of intersectionality has been increasingly adopted in Australia by leading gender-equality and gender-focused organisations, as well as policy makers, advocates and other stakeholders. In this article we seek to interrogate the application and operationalisation of intersectionality in policy. We examine the way the use of this terminology at times reflects the co-option of an approach that originally sought to capture the complex realities of power differentials. To do this, we explore three Australian examples and use these to interrogate how intersectionality has been operationalised with respect to migrant and refugee women and consider some of the implications this may have for policy and practice in the areas of gender equality and violence. Our key concern is that in specific contexts, including the policy sphere, the language of intersectionality has moved beyond the origins of a conceptual framework, analytical or methodological approach to speak to complex power relations and has instead become a ‘catch all’ term used to denote diversity and/or difference.</p