AUSpace

Online Interest Groups: Virtual Gathering Spaces to Promote Graduate Student Interaction

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:58:59 GMT

Title: Online Interest Groups: Virtual Gathering Spaces to Promote Graduate Student Interaction

Authors: Getzlaf, Beverley; Melrose, Sherri; Moore, Sharon L.; Ewing, Helen; Fedorchuk, James; Troute-Wood, Tammy

Abstract: This article discusses a 15 month educational innovation project, the objective of which was to investigate the perceptions of health profession students about their participation in a program-wide virtual community gathering space (Clinical Interest Groups) during their online graduate studies. Participants were students in two graduate programs who joined online forum discussions of the Clinical Interest Groups. The project was developed as action research and employed an exploratory, descriptive methodology to generate data from three sources: participant responses to a 15-item Likert type questionnaire, five open-ended questions included on the questionnaire, and online postings contributed by participants to the forum discussions. Findings of use to online educators are that the Clinical Interest Groups provided a gathering place in which graduate students could discuss common interests and support one another, and that participation in the groups was limited due to competing demands on students’ time from other commitments.

The Cento, Romanticism, and Copyright

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 22:58:59 GMT

Title: The Cento, Romanticism, and Copyright

Authors: McCutcheon, Mark A.

Abstract: This article excavates the obscure literary genre of the cento – a genre of poetry defined by its wholly derivative composition from quotations of other works – and its supplementary relation to Romantic literature and the period’s transformations of copyright regulation. The cento’s Romantic reworkings position this genre as a precedent for later appropriation art, especially digital culture’s sampling and remix practices. Specific uses of the cento form by the essayist William Hazlitt and the poet William Wordsworth suggest precedents in the period’s culture of literary production for fair dealing, the “user’s right” to the limited appropriation of copyrighted works that has more recently become ensconced in copyright law. By investigating the place of the cento in Romantic literary production, this study argues for the importance of fair dealing to both creative and critical forms of writing, and contributes historical context to the present-day “copyfight.” This reprint of "The Cento, Romanticism, and Copyright" is made available for Open Access distribution with the author's grateful acknowledgement of English Studies in Canada (ESC) for the original publication of the article.

NEXT GENERATION: TRANSFORMATION TO A 21ST CENTURY UNIVERSITY VIA CORE STRATEGIC PROJECTS

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 22:58:59 GMT

Title: NEXT GENERATION: TRANSFORMATION TO A 21ST CENTURY UNIVERSITY VIA CORE STRATEGIC PROJECTS

Authors: Kennepohl, Dietmar; McGreal, Rory; Ives, Cindy; Stewart, Brian

Abstract: thabasca University (AU) is recreating itself as a 21st century university. As an open and distance learning (ODL) university, its mandate is to remove barriers to university-level education. This is the vision and institutional context for any changes. Herein, we describe a series of projects with particular focus on two recent major initiatives that challenged our capacity to deal with large complex programs. An analysis of the effect of the start-up and operation of these two major programs with particular emphasis on project management, organizational change, acceptance by the academy, and absorbing the additional work is given. We offer, in the form of lessons learned, our experience for successful systematic integration of ICTs within an open university. These lessons, we believe are relevant for technology integration at any large educational organization.

Findings from a survey of openness in assessment and accreditation practices in post-secondary institutions

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 16:20:55 GMT

Title: Findings from a survey of openness in assessment and accreditation practices in post-secondary institutions

Authors: Murphy, Angela; Witthaus, Gabriele

Abstract: This working paper shares the findings and lessons learned from a small-scale survey on perceptions, practices and policies relating to openness in assessment and accreditation in post-secondary institutions. The study was carried out jointly in mid-2012 by Dr Angela Murphy at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Australia, as part of the ORION project, and Gabi Witthaus at the University of Leicester as part of the TOUCANS study, which was a project in the SCORE programme in the UK. One of the aims of both projects was to ascertain perceptions of stakeholders in tertiary education towards the Open Educational Resources university (OERu) concept. The OERu is a global consortium of post-secondary institutions collaborating around the assessment and accreditation of learners’ achievements based on the study of OERs, with the aim of providing affordable opportunities on a massive scale for students who lack the financial means to access traditional higher education.