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Teacher and student perceptions of using technology enhanced learning (TEL) in higher education have received growing attention, particularly during COVID-19, however existing studies are mainly disciplinespecific. This study adopts a holistic cross-disciplinary approach. It compares teacher and student perceptions on defining TEL, promotors and barriers for its use, and solutions offered for better use of TEL in the future. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from an Australian university. A total of 75 teachers and 48 students completed an online survey, and of these participants, 24 teachers and 29 students participated in follow-up focus group interviews that included Kahoot! surveys. Quantitative results show that teacher and student perceptions on TEL were generally aligned except that self-reported technology savviness and confidence was rated higher than how students and staff rated each other. Qualitative analyses reveal that both teachers and students identified the main promoters for TEL as being: modern and expected in higher education, while being equalising, efficient, engaging, authentic, collaborative and flexible. The common barriers for using TEL were identified as fear, time, organisational culture, knowledge and technical/support issues, along with the perceived pitfalls of distraction, and superficial student learning. Solutions offered for TEL in the future from staff focused on the institution and a desire for strategic, pedagogical and holistic approaches, while students focussed on the accessibility, flexibility and collaborative potential of TEL. This cross-discipline pre-COVID-19 study of TEL perceptions offered by teachers and students has contributed to knowledge in this area by identifying barriers and solutions for TEL common to all disciplines that have the potential to be applied to whole of institution strategic approaches for the more effective use of TEL in teaching and learning in higher education. Student accessibility to TEL and the development of pedagogically sound digital learning resources bringing together educational developers and discipline experts are of particular relevance during and post-COVID-19.

If graduates from STEMM -- science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medical sciences -- are to successfully navigate the labour market, they need diverse capabilities alongside self- and career awareness. The focus of this study was STEMM students' perceptions of self, career and employability. The study asked over 2,000 commencing students to respond to an open question which asked how long they intended to work in their discipline. The findings lend weight to the use of social cognitive career theory, which emphasises that career- and study-related decision making are influenced by feedback and feed-forward mechanisms and by intra- and inter-personal, historical, and contemporaneous dimensions. The article ends with implications for higher education teachers, including the need for strategies with which to help a diverse student body create meaning from the career-related messages that abound in public discourse.

Prior research on plagiarism has indicated that men may have a greater predisposition toward academic dishonesty than women. However, little research has been conducted using psychometrically tested instruments to validate such claims. To address this gap, a survey was conducted with 377 undergraduate students at a Canadian university on their attitudes toward plagiarism using a psychometrically validated instrument (the Attitudes Toward Plagiarism Questionnaire -- Revised). Using differential item functioning/Rasch analysis, no overall differences in attitudes toward plagiarism based on gender were found. A descriptive analysis of both men and women revealed that while only a concerning minority of students reported engaging in plagiarist behaviours; there was a tendency for students to take a permissive stance on plagiarism. These results are discussed within the wider context of plagiarism research in higher education.

Do the narratives of employability constructed by higher education institutions for marketing purposes differ from the conceptualisation and/or the realisation of employability within those institutions? The study reported here drew on interviews with 16 senior academic and student support staff who were tasked with developing student employability at one of nine institutions in Australia, Canada and the UK. We employed Holmes' conceptions of employability as possessional, positional or processual to analyse how the interviewees conceptualised employability and the presentation of employability on the institutional websites. We found that most institutions' employability marketing narratives were inconsistent with the institutional practice reported by staff. We explain this tension in the context of two competing characterisations of higher education: a university-student transaction view; and a learning view. We emphasise the need for internal and external narratives to align and advocate the need for engagement in a constructive and critical dialogue involving all stakeholders.

Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) is already possible for many radiation therapy planning and treatment processes with the aim of improving workflows and increasing efficiency in radiation oncology departments. Currently, AI technology is advancing at an exponential rate, as are its applications in radiation oncology. This commentary highlights the way AI has begun to impact radiation therapy treatment planning and looks ahead to potential future developments in this space. Historically, radiation therapist's (RT's) role has evolved alongside the adoption of new technology. In Australia, RTs have key clinical roles in both planning and treatment delivery and have been integral in the implementation of automated solutions for both areas. They will need to continue to be informed, to adapt and to transform with AI technologies implemented into clinical practice in radiation oncology departments. RTs will play an important role in how AI‐based automation is implemented into practice in Australia, ensuring its application can truly enable personalised and higher‐quality treatment for patients. To inform and optimise utilisation of AI, research should not only focus on clinical outcomes but also AI's impact on professional roles, responsibilities and service delivery. Increased efficiencies in the radiation therapy workflow and workforce need to maintain safe improvements in practice and should not come at the cost of creativity, innovation, oversight and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop yield must increase to keep pace with growing global demand. Past increases in crop production have rarely been attributable to an individual innovation but have occurred when technologies and practices combine to form improved farming systems. Inevitably this has involved synergy between genotypic and management improvements. We argue that research focused on developing synergistic systems that overcome clear production constraints will accelerate increases in yield. This offers the opportunity to better focus and multiply the impact of discipline-focused research. Here we use the rainfed grain production systems of south-eastern Australia as a case study of how transformational change in water productivity can be achieved with research focused on genotype × management synergies. In this region, rainfall is low and variable and has declined since 1990. Despite this, growers have maintained yields by implementing synergistic systems combining innovations in (i) soil water conservation, (ii) crop diversity, (iii) earlier sowing, and (iv) matching nitrogen fertilizer to water-limited demand. Further increases are emerging from synergies between genetic improvements to deliver flowering time stability, adjusted sowing times, and potential dual-purpose use. Collaboration between agronomists, physiologists, and crop breeders has led to development of commercial genotypes with stable flowering time that are in early phases of testing and adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harvest index (HI) is the ratio of grain to total shoot dry matter and is as a measure of reproductive efficiency. HI is determined by interactions between genotypes (G), environment (E), and crop management (M). Historic genetic yield gains due to breeding in wheat have largely been achieved by increasing HI. Environmental factors are important for HI and include seasonal pattern of water supply and extreme temperatures during crop reproductive development. Wheat production in Australia has been dominated by fast-developing spring cultivars that when sown in late-autumn will flower at an optimal time in early spring. Water limited potential yield can be increased by sowing slower developing wheats with a vernalization requirement (winter wheat) earlier than currently practiced such that their development is matched to environment and they flower at the optimal time. This means a longer vegetative phase which increases rooting depth, proportion of water-use transpired, and transpiration efficiency by allowing more growth during winter when vapour pressure deficit is low. All these factors can increase biomass accumulation, grain number and thus grain yield potential. However higher yields are not always realized due to a lower HI of early sown slow developing wheats compared to fast developing wheats sown later. Here, we evaluate genotype × management practices to improve HI and yield in early sown slow developing wheat crops using 6 field experiments conducted across south eastern Australia from 2014 to 2018 in yield environments ranging from ~1 to ~4.7 t/ha. Practices included low plant densities (30–50 plants/m²), mechanical defoliation, and deferred application of nitrogen fertilizer. Lower plant densities had similar yield and HI to higher plant densities. Defoliation tended to increase HI but reduce yield except when there was severe stem frost damage. Deferring nitrogen had a variable effect depending on starting soil N and in crop rainfall. All management strategies evaluated gave variable HI and yield responses with small effect sizes, and we conclude that none of them can reliably increase HI in early sown wheat. We propose that genetic improvement is the most promising avenue for increasing HI and yield in early sown wheat, and postulate that this could be achieved more rapidly through early generation screening for HI in slow developing genotypes than by crop management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the most widely-grown crop in the Mediterranean semi-arid (150–400 mm) cropping zones of both southern Australia and the inland Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the United States of America (United States). Low precipitation, low winter temperatures and heat and drought conditions during late spring and summer limit wheat yields in both regions. Due to rising temperatures, reduced autumn rainfall and increased frost risk in southern Australia since 1990, cropping conditions in these two environments have grown increasingly similar. This presents the opportunity for southern Australian growers to learn from the experiences of their PNW counterparts. Wheat cultivars with an obligate vernalization requirement (winter wheat), are an integral part of semi-arid PNW cropping systems, but in Australia are most frequently grown in cool or cold temperate cropping zones that receive high rainfall (>500 mm p.a.). It has recently been shown that early-sown winter wheat cultivars can increase water-limited potential yield in semi-arid southern Australia, in the face of decreasing autumn rainfall. Despite this research, there has to date been little breeding effort invested in winter wheat for growers in semi-arid southern Australia, and agronomic research into the management of early-sown winter wheat has only occurred in recent years. This paper explores the current and emerging environmental constraints of cropping in semi-arid southern Australia and, using the genotype × management strategies developed over 120 years of winter wheat agronomy in the PNW, highlights the potential advantages early-sown winter wheat offers growers in low-rainfall environments. The increased biomass, stable flowering time and late-summer establishment opportunities offered by winter wheat genotypes ensure they achieve higher yields in the PNW compared to later-sown spring wheat. Traits that make winter wheat advantageous in the PNW may also contribute to increased yield when grown in semi-arid southern Australia. This paper investigates which specific traits present in winter wheat genotypes give them an advantage in semi-arid cropping environments, which management practices best exploit this advantage, and what potential improvements can be made to cultivars for semi-arid southern Australia based on the history of winter wheat crop growth in the semi-arid Pacific Northwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Contouring has become an increasingly important aspect of radiation therapy due to inverse planning, and yet is extremely time-consuming. To improve contouring efficiency and reduce potential inter-observer variation, the atlas-based auto-segmentation (ABAS) function in Velocity was introduced to ICON cancer centres (ICC) throughout Australia as a solution for automatic contouring. Methods: This paper described the implementation process of the ABAS function and the construction of userdefined atlas sets and compared the contouring efficiency before and after the introduction of ABAS. Results: The results indicate that the main limitation to the ABAS performance was Velocity's sub-optimal atlas selection method. Three user-defined atlas sets were constructed. Results suggested that the introduction of the ABAS saved at least 5 minutes of manual contouring time (P < 0.05), although further verification was required due to limitations in the data collection method. The pilot rollout adopting a 'champion' approach was successful and provided an opportunity to improve the user-defined atlases prior to the national implementation. Conclusion: The implementation of user-defined ABAS for head and neck (H&N) and female thorax patients at ICCs was successful, which achieved at least 5 minutes of efficiency gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stable flowering time of winter wheat in response to varied sowing dates potentially limits its adaptation across environments with different optimal flowering periods (OFPs). This study assessed the importance of diverse phenology for yield adaptation of winter wheat to environments with varied OFPs. A reciprocal cross between two spring wheat cultivars was made; twelve recombinant inbred winter wheat lines were derived and divided into three phenology groups – very quick, quick and mid-winter types. Lines were sown at three environments with contrasting OFPs across south-eastern Australia, with eight field experiments conducted between 2018 and 2020. Environments were categorised as early OFP (late August to early September), mid OFP (mid-September) or late OFP (early October). Heading date, yield and yield components were measured at all sites. Growing season rainfall was variable between sites, especially at the early OFP environment (82 – 265 mm) and late OFP environment (195–408 mm). Observed phenology of the different lines was consistent across years and between OFP environments, while yield was strongly influenced by seasonal climatic conditions. Across all sites, very quick lines yielded 15 – 16 % more than other phenology groups in the early OFP environment, and displayed good adaptation to mid and late OFP environments (407–482 g m−2). Quick lines also yielded well at sites with mid (465 g m−2) and late OFPs (507 g m−2), while yield of the mid phenology group was low in all environments (233–467 g m−2). Results indicate that quick and very quick developing winter wheat has broad adaptation to diverse OFPs, and phenology may be less important for adaptation to different OFP environments than previously thought. This is in part due to seasonal variation in OFP within environments. • Winter wheat has good adaptation across optimal flowering period (OFP) environments. • Seasonal variation in OFP reduced the role of phenology in winter wheat adaptation. • Lines with quicker phenology showed better adaptation than mid-developing lines. • Growers in early OFP environments need quicker phenology than currently available. • Good adaptation increases incentive to invest in breeding winter wheat germplasm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relative time to maturity of grain crops is an important consideration for producers, yet there are no universally accepted classification schemes for cultivar phenology to guide decisions on variety selection and time of sowing. A first edition of an industry guide for wheat variety maturity was recently developed for use across Australia, representing a significant step forward for the grains industry. The aim of this paper was to revise and extend this industry guide to make it more robust, agronomically functional and meaningful to industry. The Australian Cereal Phenology Classification (ACPC) presented herein was developed using an unprecedented phenological data set with a diverse array of genotypes, environments and management. Field experiments were carried out with 70 wheat and 30 barley cultivars at 15 sites across Australia between 2017 and 2020. Thermal time to anthesis data were used to rank cultivars according to their relative phenology and divide them into classes, and then boundary cultivars of both species were selected to separate these classes. The resulting classification scheme divides wheat and barley into phenology classes ranging from 'quick' to 'mid' to 'slow'. New cultivars to market can be assigned a phenology classification based on their thermal time to anthesis relative to the boundary cultivars. The ACPC will help growers, agronomists, breeders and researchers make informed decisions regarding cultivar comparison and selection while reducing misclassification and confusion across regions. The same methodology used to derive and validate the ACPC can be applied internationally to standardise descriptions of crop phenology. [Display omitted] • There is a need for industry-standard classification schemes to describe crop cultivar phenology. • A phenology classification scheme was created for wheat and barley cultivars grown in Australia. • The scheme was derived from cultivar × environment × management field experiments. • It provides a standard approach to describing development using thermal time to anthesis data. • This phenology classification methodology can be extended internationally and to other crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]