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Governments recognize that workers in the twenty-first century need to keep pace with increasingly technical employment environments in order to remain competitive in the global market. The Australian government has developed a set of policies to address impending shortfalls in high-level technicians and paraprofessionals across many professions. As a result, a new fledgling qualification, the associate degree, has been established within the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) to facilitate qualification upgrading for the existing workforce. This paper describes Australian associate degrees and highlights their similarities and differences to foundation degrees in the United Kingdom and associate degrees in the United States. In Australia, universities and higher education (HE) institutes have limited experiences catering to vocational training, since vocational education (VE) has been reserved for specialist technical and further education (TAFE) colleges. Interestingly, the AQF intends that associate degree qualifications can cut across sectors. This discussion paper details the development of an associate degree in information technology (IT) at Victoria University, where two education sectors, one vocationally-focused and one academically-focused, are collaborating to effect the degree. Eight areas of competency are identified as needed by graduates of the proposed IT program. Two models for the cooperation in curriculum development are proposed. Regardless of the model chosen, the collaboration provides the opportunity for the achievement of a program that would dovetail vocational skills with supporting academic competencies to meet the needs of information technology workers wishing to upskill. Under discussion are issues such as staffing and administration, program sustainability and context of delivery, industry partnerships, and their impact upon differing cohorts of students with variability in experience. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on an exploratory investigation of the perceptions of information and communication technology (ICT) as a field of study and work in German secondary schools. A total of 160 students from five secondary schools in Lower Saxony participated in the study in February 2007, and four teachers of the students were interviewed. The investigation is part of the research carried out by the authors within the Griffith University Women in Information Technology (WinIT) project, which has been studying the problem of low female participation since 1995. In this paper we discuss German school students' (male and female) and their teachers' views of ICT, its use at school and home, their influences in using technology, and their ideas about working with technology in the future. We drew on the challenges faced and opportunities available to teachers in the study to put this in context. We found that many senior secondary students have not decided what they want to do when they finish school, suggesting that the environment is ripe for them to receive relevant and useful information that may help them to choose to study tertiary ICT courses. By dispelling negative ICT perceptions and allowing students to make an informed choice as to whether to take up a career in ICT, we can hopefully encourage more students into this ever-growing and exciting industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education programs need to prepare their graduates for the practical challenges they can expect to face upon entering the workforce. Students can be better prepared if their academic learning is reinforced through authentic workplace experience, where the link between theory and professional practice can be realized. Increasingly, such learning in the workplace is being seen as an integral part of the university curricula as evidenced through the implementation of the Learning the Workplace & Community (LiWC) Policy at Victoria University, Australia. This policy mandates a minimum of 25% content and assessment of all academic programs be related to work-integrated learning. Recognizing the need for authentic workplace experience in the IT undergraduate program, a review found that the existing work-related learning component accounted for only half the required 25% LiWC commitment. Currently, the LiWC component is an industry-based capstone project that spans two semesters in the final year of study. These projects allow students to work on real-life software development tasks where they experience the practical challenges of building software systems whilst appreciating the needs of a business client. In a search of the literature, campus-located industry projects were identified as one of the two most common work-related learning experiences in IT programs, the other being internships sited in the workplace. By retaining the current project-based component, it was decided to add an internship to the program to further bolster the student learning experience and graduate outcomes. This paper details the existing program structure and explores two possible implementations for the achievement of the LiWC policy. The first approach necessitates the addition of one academic year of cooperative education internship to be placed strategically between the current second and third years. Alternatively, the second proposal sacrifices several elective units to accommodate a final semester internship experience. The paper discusses both alternatives against various issues under consideration: staffing and administration, assessment, industry partnerships, professional accreditation and its impact upon differing cohorts of students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is common to find final or near final year undergraduate Information Technology students undertaking a substantial development project; a project where the students have the opportunity to be fully involved in the analysis, design, and development of an information technology service or product. This involvement has been catalyzed and prepared for during their previous studies where the students have been told and shown how to develop similar systems. It is the belief that only through this 'real' project do they get the chance to experience something similar to what is expected of them when they embark on their chosen profession; that is, as an information technology professional. The high value of 'near real life' educational experience is recognized by many universities across the globe. The aim of this paper is to present examples from three countries - Australia, United Kingdom and South Africa, of the delivery of these team, capstone or industrial experience projects; their curricula and management processes. Academics from institutions in each of the countries share experiences, challenges and pitfalls encountered during the delivery of these information technology projects within their institutions. An overview of each institution's strategies is provided and highlights specific issues such as the selection of projects, allocation of teams to projects, legal requirements, assessment methods, challenges and benefits. The pedagogies presented here are not exhaustive; however, the three institutions do have in common the implementation of a combination of constructivism with a community of practice approach in delivering the project unit. The three universities recognize the need for industrial experience and learning of applied skills, and therefore make these projects a compulsory part of the curriculum. The projects tend to be real life business problems which are solved over a period of two semesters, and in the case of Cape Town it could be two consecutive years of two semesters each. These projects tend to involve practical development (for example databases and web sites). The process of project-to-team allocation is generally similar in all cases. Despite their differences, team work related problems are quite similar in all three cases presented, and seem to appear as a result of team work complexity, and the number of stakeholders involved. The intention of this paper is not to propose solutions to these problems (as these would be context dependent), but to draw the attention to the main problem categories for similar schemes, these are; • project selection, • management of students, • management of academic staff, • student team motivation, • equality and diversity, • passengers, and • assessment. Furthermore, it is not the intention of the authors to portray one approach as better than another, however, the approaches are representative of how team projects are being delivered across the globe, and in particular, in the contributing institutions. It is hoped that the assimilation and dissemination of information regarding the various approaches presented will nurture further discussion, and open communication across the globe with the view to enhancing the teaching and learning experience of such projects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores and analyses similarities and differences in ICT curricula, policies, and assessment between the Vietnamese and Australian educational systems for the final years of secondary educational level. It was found that while having a common core set of tendencies, the Australian ICT curricula, policies, and assessments differ markedly from the Vietnamese counterparts. These differences can be explained by economic and cultural factors, national-wide educational trends, ICT strategies, and their degrees of implementation in schools. We found that limited constructivist implementations are used in ICT curricula in both countries, as Australian education has high expectations in national evaluations with an emphasis on standardized tests and Vietnamese education is still entrapped in prescriptive lessons of traditional pedagogy, emphasizing transmission model of information. We found that lack of opportunities in teacher professional development in ICT training is common for both countries. While the Australian educational system still struggles, especially in providing opportunities for learning theoretical and programming aspects, multiple challenging aspects were found in the ICT content and policies of the Vietnamese educational system that call for immediate change and improvement. In this sense, Vietnamese administrators are recommended to extensively follow up their educational strategies and policies, in order to make sure that their reforms are adequately implemented in schools. In order to bridge the gap and implement adequate ICT curricula, rigorous professional training in ICT teaching is essential for both Australian and Vietnamese teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents the outcomes of a study that focused on identifying what motivates students to use mobile devices for learning and to engage in m-learning. An outcome of this study was to provide a better understanding of what educators should consider when adapting their course for mobile learners. The research included seven classes from three Australian universities. The students in this study used laptops or tablet PCs, and in three of the classes, these were provided by the university as part of a laptop/tablet program. The findings indicated that mobility was the key motivator for the use of laptops, and the learning tasks that students found to be most motivating involved accessing information, authoring (e.g., writing, blogging, note taking) and communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender imbalance in the IT sector is a problem with few females choosing information technology (IT) as a career. This paper describes an initiative conducted in Victoria, Australia, that aimed to expand the career horizons of secondary school girls aged 14 to 18 by showing them the range of career opportunities available in information technology. The event was a two day showcase where industry speakers from a wide variety of areas within the sector spoke about their careers. The event participants - students and their accompanying teachers - were surveyed. Both students and teachers indicated that the Showcase had been a worthwhile event that had made them much more aware of some of the career options available in the IT sector. The most significant finding was that after the event a considerable percentage of the students indicated that they would consider a career in IT, when only about half of those surveyed indicated that they had considered IT beforehand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In tertiary institutions in Australia, and no doubt elsewhere, there is increasing pressure for accountability. No longer are academics assumed a priori to be responsible and capable of self management in teaching and assessing the subjects they run. Procedures are being dictated more from the 'top down'. Although academics may not always appreciate 'top down' policies on teaching and learning, they should at least be open to the possibility that the policies may indeed have merit. On the other hand, academics should never be expected to blindly accept policies dictated from elsewhere. Responsible academics generally also need to evaluate for themselves the validity and legitimacy of externally introduced new policies and procedures. At one Australian tertiary institution, the Academic Board recently endorsed a new assessment policy, to implement criterion referenced assessment (CRA) throughout the university. This new policy is being promoted by the university's teaching and learning support services and is to be implemented gradually throughout the university. As stated in the university's manual of policies and procedures (MOPP) the 'fundamental approach' to the assessment of students was to be one based on 'criterion referencing'. Such Assessment was to be free of any notion of awarding grades dependent on a bell curve, and the criteria against which a student's work was to be assessed would have to be communicated in a detailed and clear way in advance of the actual assessment. Thus, for each piece of assessment, criteria must be given to students, with performance standards for each criteria detailing clearly what standard must be reached on each criterion to achieve a certain result. It is stated in the MOPP that CRA will give the assessment process 'a great deal of objectivity' and will contribute to the 'reliability and validity of the assessment task'. Moreover, it is stated that high, but attainable, standards will 'motivate students and focus their energy on learning rather than on competition with peers'. The teaching team of the final year Information Technology Project Management subject had a strong commitment to continuous improvement processes in the presentation and running of the subject. Given that the university had endorsed a new assessment policy that would soon relate to third year courses, the team decided to apply for, and were subsequently awarded, a faculty grant to implement and test the possible benefits of the endorsed CRA policy. An independent project, funded at faculty level, was undertaken to evaluate the effect of the new assessment policy on a final year unit. The project took a team-based approach to studying the use and effectiveness of criterion referenced assessment. All seven members of the unit's teaching and marking groups were included in the decision making surrounding the design, development, and implementation of CRA and an environment was created in which the team members could openly communicate their experience of CRA. Members of the group initially held a variety of beliefs about CRA that ranged from a dismissal of CRA as merely the latest teaching and learning fad, to keen interest in how it might practically operate in the unit. This diversity of thought was regarded as valuable and in keeping with the attempt to take an impartial 'warts and all' view of the CRA implementation, noting equally its positive and negative impacts. It was found that many of the purported advantages attributed in the literature to CRA were not forthcoming. Moreover, some unexpected results were uncovered. While prior research suggests that CRA's failures are due to implementation errors, our work suggests that the real problem is that the assumptions behind CRA are flawed. This paper discusses the outcomes of the project for the students, for the academics, and for the institution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Year-long team projects with external clients provide a well recognized opportunity for students to gain industry experience, whilst being supported and guided by staff to minimize risks. Each group should be supervised to ensure that they have enough direction and confidence to approach a new problem of significant size, without being daunted. A structure is needed that is flexible and adaptable to suit various institutional cultures but, at the same time, provides the safety net to ensure that success is likely. This paper presents a reflective analysis of teaching at three different institutions and presents the resulting distilled wisdom of experience that has produced a structured framework for capstone project units. The proposed structure is scalable to any class size and portable across institutions and potentially across technical disciplines. The structure leads to team student projects that are successfully engaging and provide excellent experience toward producing work-ready graduates. The structure is flexible in design so that the teaching workload does not increase too much as class sizes increase, but students are still well supported with appropriate scaffolding and mentoring. We detail the key factors in our framework: careful project selection, appropriate sign posts, and helpful guides that together improve upon overall project success. We argue that students need appropriate projects, 'good' clients, and a well formed team. The sign posts support students through the 'uncharted waters' of ill-defined problem-based learning. Sign posts include: deliverables, deadlines, team notebook, progress reports, and accountable time-tracking. Helpful guides spread the teaching workload broadly: relying on cultural expectations, technology, team supervisor, feedback, and clear marking guidelines. This structure has been successfully implemented in at least three different universities in Australia and several remote partner teaching sites in different countries over many years. We have provided case study examples of implementations in three different Australian Universities: a large urban university (The University of Melbourne), a small urban university (Victoria University) and a regional university (The University of Ballarat). Students benefit from such an experience in their final stages of an undergraduate computing degree. The scaffolding and support provided by the structure enables students to improve their skills in technical development, communication, team work, project management and client negotiation. The project unit provides opportunities for independent self directed learning and realistic experiences in an environment that allows for experiential learning. Students are engaged when working with real problems for real industry clients. Our student feedback supports our view that students' confidence in their ability to manage a project is enhanced through their project experience. Based on our own observations and anecdotal feedback, we believe that our students benefit and are helped to become 'industry ready' graduates through the learning experienced in the capstone project course. This same structure could be used successfully in similar programs. We would encourage others to consider adapting this framework to their institutional context, as we have collectively found it a positive model to help us manage the considerable workload in offering successful year long undergraduate software projects with clients. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In a Finnish study of four different academic disciplines, Ylijoki (2000) found that in Computer Science there was a disparity between the conceptions held by undergraduate students and staff about their discipline; students viewed it as being far more pragmatic and results focused than did their instructors. Not surprisingly, here at our Australian university where the undergraduate Computer Science program emphasizes programming and problem solving skills, the authors had noticed a similar inconsistency between staff and student beliefs. This paper reports on an effort to realign these conceptions and broaden student experience using an assessment task. Centered on solutions to the popular 'Sudoku' puzzle (Sudoku, 2005), the task was designed and introduced into an Intelligent Systems course, a final year elective of a Computer Science degree. The goal was to expose students to some of the 'pure' rather than applied aspects of the Computer Science discipline (Becher & Trowler, 2001), by using assessment to encourage experimental learning (Kolb & Fry, 1975). The assessment specification instructed students to design and conduct several 'in silica' Computer Science experiments to solve and/or create Sudoku puzzles. Importantly, students were asked to keep a Research Diary documenting their thoughts, attempts, backtracking and progresses as they attempted the assignment. Most unique from a student's perspective was that 'failure' to solve the given problem by experimentation was a viable option; their efforts would be rewarded given they conducted themselves 'scientifically' in their attempt. The inclusion of a Research Diary as part of the assessment proved beneficial to both students and staff, particularly as the Diaries focused students on the doing, rather than on the results achieved. For staff, these journals allowed the privilege of seeing what students were thinking and doing as they engaged in the problem. An early analysis of Diary entries shows evidences of students 'thinking scientifically', that is, understanding and thinking about the problem before formalizing an approach to a solution. In addition, Diary entries also show evidences of students 'behaving scientifically' as they reported conducting experiments and analyzing their results, before concluding about their experiences. For students, regardless of whether they able to complete the task, the Research Diaries were valuable testaments to their efforts and experimentations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This document reports on the investigation of senior managers' interpretation of Intellectual Assets and their value to the corporation. The participants included ten senior managers from nine large Australian organizations. Confidential qualitative interviews were employed and emerging themes were identified. The research participants recognize the need to manage intellectual assets and their importance to operations and competitive advantage. However, because of the intangible nature of Intellectual Assets there is a lack of management of this valuable resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'new' ICT professional should be an articulate problem-solver who understands business and technology, in particular how technology can solve business problems. Furthermore, the ideal ICT student should be adaptable. The adaptable student embraces change, learns quickly, understands the job market, thrives on variety, is autonomous, predicts change, and acts as a change agent in the organization. This study examines the adaptability of a sample of second-year Australian ICT students. The evidence suggests that these students are less adaptable than might be expected of people who have chosen to study a subject characterized by change. One reason for this might be the fact that these students have limited knowledge about the realities of work in ICT beyond negative perceptions about stress and long hours. A small number of more mature students with some work experience appear to be more adaptable. An interesting paradox emerges. Younger students in particular appear to be highly adaptable in their personal lives and seek careers that maximize personal choice. On the other hand, they still prefer a degree of stability, a relatively defined career path, job security, and a career that is relatively stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an ideal world, review and changes to computing curricula should be driven solely by academic concerns for the needs of students. The process should be informed by industry accreditation processes and international best practice (Hurst et al., 2001). However, Australian computing curricular review is often driven by the need for financial viability of programs with declining student numbers as much as concerns for academic merit. Worldwide there remains a strong job market and high demand for computing professionals (Liu, 2007; Melymuka, 2006), which predicates an impending IT workforce shortage. However, computing programs currently do not attract students due to perceived problems of the inadequacy of courses to prepare students sufficiently to cope with the practical challenges in current technologies adoption, to acquire strong communication skills and business aptitude (Taft, 2007), to foster problem solving skills, and to find the relevance of program contents to specific occupations. Therefore, computing curricula wishing to attract students need to have specialized studies that are of industrial strength that are updated regularly to reflect the progress in the discipline (Finkelstein & Hafner, 2002; Lui, 2007). Yet the challenge for universities is to weigh this need against preparing students to be universal and lifelong learners. Given the impetus to be financially independent, the greatest challenge since 2004 for the School of Computer Science and Mathematics at Victoria University, Melbourne, has been the steady decline in both local and international student numbers. In response, between 2004 and 2006 the School underwent various restructurings, reviews, and assessments to meet government legislative requirements, professional accreditation needs and to capture new market share. In 2007, continued poor enrolment numbers threatened the School's long term sustainability necessitating urgent strategic analysis and decision making surrounding the future of computing programs. It was decided that a new and innovative program embracing emerging computing paradigms was needed to attract potential students. The proposed program structure would be based upon input from industry representatives, senior academics, and government reports whilst operating within existing budget constraints. Essentially, existing programs were to be condensed into a core offering with six specializations in a) Interactive Digital Media and Game Development, b) Web Technologies and Mobile Computing, c) IT Security, d) Computational Finance, e) Business Intelligence and Service Computing, and f) Aviation Technology. The choice of specializations was made to firstly incorporate the major characteristics and paradigm shifts in the ICT industry, secondly to cater for the broad diversity of student interests, and thirdly to capitalize on historical strengths. Through these specializations, the program offers prospective students the necessary skills needed for future predicted employment shortages. With adequate marketing, it is hoped that the proposed new structure will allow for quick responses to external positive changes in demand and thus attract student interest. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the rapid expansion of the transnational education market, more and more universities join the ranks of transnational education providers or expand their transnational education offerings. Many of those providers regard fully-online provision of their programs as an economic alternative to face-to-face teaching. Do transnational students accept this model as a viable and effective educational alternative? A recent research study investigated students' attitudes towards fully-online provision of computing education programs in one of the most important Australian transnational education markets: Hong Kong. Of interest were students' perceptions about the suitability of fully-online mode of teaching and learning with respect to computing studies, and their views on the importance of face-to-face interaction in their programs. Students from three transnational computing programs, offered in Hong Kong by Australian universities in co-operation with Hong Kong partners, participated in the study; the programs are delivered in face-to-face sessions and rely on the Internet for support and communication (unit Web sites, bulletin boards, email, etc.). The rationale behind the choice of locale and participants for the study was threefold: first, Hong Kong is one of the largest Australian transnational education markets (hence, the results of the study would be of importance); second, it is a well-developed territory where English is commonly spoken (hence, participants would not be biased towards online education because of lack of suitable technological infrastructure or inadequate linguistic skills); and thirdly, computing students were technology savvy and, therefore, would not be biased in their views of online education because of technophobia. Approximately three hundred students participated in the study, which was based on analysis of data collected though a survey and group interviews with students. Results from the survey revealed that students did not regard fully-online provision of transnational programs as a preferred alternative to the current model -- that is one that is based on face-to- face communication and uses the Internet for support. Their opposition was pronounced and ranged from total rejection of fully-online provision in one of the programs (100% of students against the idea), to marginal support of fully-online provision from students in the other two programs (9% and 13% respectively). Students repeatedly stated the importance of face-to-face communication as the most important reason for preferring the current program model. The subsequent group interviews with students sought to explore further the reasons behind the students' views. Students again responded in favor of the current model of the programs reiterating the importance of face-to-face interaction. They regarded face-to-face communication as more conducive to the learning process, affording better opportunity to sharing knowledge and asking for help, "easier" and more interactive, and more compatible with the needs of Hong Kong students. However, the respondents acknowledged the usefulness of the Internet as a means for providing course material, facilitating submission of assignments, and enabling communication with lecturers outside classes. The findings of the study endorse the current trends of Australian transnational education in South East Asia and support the prediction that Web-supported face-to-face delivery is likely to continue as a principal model of transnational tertiary education programs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]