College of Sciences and Technology

CST Teaching and Learning Showcase 2005

Teaching Development Poster Abstracts

Implementation and evaluation of a comprehensive approach to the professional development of final year veterinary science students
John Baguley, Grahame Feletti, Rosanne Taylor, David Hodgson, Robert Ratcliffe, Melanie Robson and Federico Costa, Faculty of Veterinary Science
John Baguley

In 2004, the Faculty of Veterinary Science introduced a new experiential learning program for final year based upon 10 one month supervised professional placements. These placements consisted of four intramural rotations through University of Sydney Veterinary Centres at Sydney and Camden; three core extramural rotations, one of each through small animal practice, rural mixed practice and rural public practice; and three elective rotations in areas of career interest defined by the student and approved by Faculty.A TIF grant together with Faculty funding enabled three important aspects of this new program to be evaluated:

1. Does the new rotation model provide an excellent and sustainable learning experience
2. Does the new rotation model produce excellent graduates
3. Can the program identify and correct for risk factors contributing to sub-standard outcomes.

These questions were addressed through analysis of data collected from students, Faculty and both intramural and extramural supervisors.

Developing Generic Skills: The Current State of Play of Teaching Input and Student Autonomy
Kathryn Bartimote, Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
Kathryn Bartimote

The work has been carried out from two perspectives - that of the teacher and that of the student. Coordinators of Year 1 and 2 units of study in the Bachelor of Land and Water Science degree have been interviewed (with some results to come) regarding which skills they are targeting, and how. The results from the interviews will be shown as a progression through Semesters, however whether the current curriculum engenders a sound pedagogical progression will be discussed. The student perception of what is taught in each of the units is explored where data is currently available. The poster also highlights examples of teaching activities or assessment tasks employed by teaching staff where a generic skill or range of skills has been intentionally embedded within a unit curriculum.

Finally the issue of student autonomy and responsibility in developing their generic skills will be discussed. Students from a range of year groups are to be interviewed in November regarding their approach to developing generic skills; in particular skills that will make them employable upon graduation. A self assessment activity from a Year 2 unit will be highlighted, as well as the joint work on the re-development of the Life Long Earning website - http://www.lifelongearning.science.usyd.edu.au/

dotFOLIO: An Open Source E-Portfolio System for Personal Learning and Development
Nick Carroll and Rafael Calvo, Faculty of Engineering
Nick Carroll

dotFOLIO is an open source e-portfolio application that is being developed for the purpose of supporting personal learning and development. dotFOLIO can be used to construct a thoughtful collection of work and experience that leads to a desired outcome or educational goal. Further extensions to the system will allow learners to preserve more knowledge over time and to forge richer connections between academic and work endeavours.

dotFOLIO is currently being trialled in a first year engineering Unit of Study called "ENGG1803 Professional Engineering". The development of the system for the Faculty of Engineering was funded by a TIF grant. The system has been evaluated by students enrolled in the course, and the results look promising.

Teaching Development Poster The Science behind CSI
R. Clarke, A. F. Masters and R. Syna, Faculty of Science
Ricky Syna

Forensic chemistry is an important branch of chemistry that has garnered significant interest as is evident from the popularity of television shows such as Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) and Navel Criminal Investigation Services (NCIS).

The scientific concepts and technologies that underpin forensic chemistry span a broad range of chemical backgrounds. A typical forensic chemistry course includes concepts and synthetic skills demonstrated in diverse fields such as analytical, physical, inorganic and organic, such that, a well balanced syllabus of general chemistry knowledge may be attained. Despite the broad array of concepts and skills covered, a complete (lectures and laboratory) forensics course at The University of Sydney, is underdeveloped. Currently, several subjects are needed to illustrate theoretical principles and synthetic skills, all of which can be adequately combined and demonstrated in a single forensics subject. We describe here the integration of several key chemistry concepts into a single laboratory exercise. This process illustrates need for students to combine concepts from a range of chemistry units of study into a "real world" experiment.

One of the most intensely studied sub-disciplines of forensic chemistry is the visualisation of latent (Latin; meaning lie hidden) fingerprints, and thus, large amounts of literature are available to demonstrate the wide scope of chemistry covered. The development of fingerprint images is intimately associated with the constituents that make up a print and the success of fingerprint visualization may be related to the breadth of knowledge acquired from diverse chemical fields.

A series of experiments have been developed that illustrates the innovative methods and instruments used to acquire irrefutable evidence. These investigations explore the theoretical concepts, synthetic skills and characterization tools used regularly in organic, physical/theoretical and inorganic chemistry. Moreover, the combination of concepts and skills demonstrated through this work is at the forefront of cutting-edge science, which is directly applicable to areas within, but more importantly, outside academia.

Curriculum alignment and innovation in a new degree: Bachelor of Animal and Veterinary Biosciences
Melanie Collier, Sarah Jobbins, Rosanne Taylor, Stephen Cattle*, Paul Sheehy, Irene van Ekris, Kathryn Bartimote* and Daniel Tan*, Faculty Veterinary Science and *Faculty Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
Melanie Collier

This TIF funded project had several main aims:1. To provide Unit of study co ordinators with support to design sustainable WebCT sites for 16 units currently without a WebCT presence offered by FAFNR and FVS in a new degree BAnVetBiosc offered for the first time in 2005. All WebCT sites of units in the degree used a template and similar buttons improving the ease of student navigation of the sites.2. Student learning in 7 of the WebCT sites was supported by the provision of 9 interactive tasks delivered in a blended mode. The scope of these tasks was diverse from animal handling skills (1st year), to case studies in Soil Science (2nd year) and on line case studies in endocrinology, digestion and nutrition and respiratory physiology (3rd year).3. The Graduate Attributes (GA) for the new degree were drafted to reflect the revised curriculum using the 5 clusters of the University Generic Graduate Attributes of (i) information literacy,(ii) communication, (iii) research & inquiry, (iv) personal & intellectual autonomy and (v) ethical, social and professional understanding. The drafted GAs were evaluated by all stakeholders: students, staff and employers and industry bodies with feedback from these groups incorporated into the final draft to go before the Faculty Teaching and Learning committee4. The development and assessment of these GAs will now be mapped through the curriculum.

The cycle of innovation: using student feedback in the ongoing development of online report writing programs in the sciences
Helen Drury, Learning Centre, Jill Johnston, Dale Hancock, School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences, Aida Yalcin, School of Biological Sciences and Lisa Karlov, School of Psychology
Helen Drury

Since 1999, a number of programs to support student learning of the laboratory report genre in the sciences have been developed collaboratively with subject area specialists, language and learning specialists and technical programmers and designers. These programs have been integrated into courses in biology (first and second year), chemical engineering (third year) and biochemistry (first and second year). Extensive evaluations by both students and staff have been carried out to assess the effectiveness of these programs both in terms of design and learning. Although, evaluations have been strongly positive, student users have made useful suggestions for improving the programs, especially the second year program in biochemistry. A TIF grant has enabled us to use this feedback, as well as interviews and focus group discussions with current students and staff, in the further development of the second year biochemistry program.

Teaching Development Poster Supporting Students' Learning when they're never around
H. Forsyth, J.A. Toribio, R. Fulton, C. Thornley, M Vost, R. Whittington, R. Taylor, S. Graham, F. Costa, S. Atkinson, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences Hannah Forsyth

Veterinary Public Health Management (VPHMgt) is a postgraduate distance program aimed at providing high quality online education to animal health professionals working in a range of regional and international locations. Support of students' learning at a distance is key to the program's success. The goals are to provide: a vibrant learning environment; reassurance throughout all learning experiences and a confidence in the help available; learning resources that are accessible, high quality, clear and friendly; an active online community; high levels of student identification with the program; opportunities to interact with industry; flexibility; and opportunities for networking.

Our experience shows: when enquirers feel confident that their learning will be actively supported, they are more likely to enrol; when students are supported throughout study, learning is enhanced; when students identify as a member of a community, they are more likely to continue their candidature; when students feel certain of what they need to do to administer their study, their satisfaction with their learning experience is increased. This poster describes how this has been achieved and students' responses.

Integrating engineering practice and problem based learning
V. G. Gomes, G. W. Barton, P. Papworth, Department of Chemical Engineering
Vincent Gomes

The Department of Chemical Engineering has incorporated an integrated framework for teaching core concepts, enabling technologies and engineering practice courses. Initially, the desired graduate attributes were determined, followed by the design of mechanisms to impart them to the graduating students. The engineering practice segment was established with a program predicated on a PBL approach, which incorporates a diversity of major projects. The new curriculum has been introduced since in stages from the first year onwards. Initially, the graduate attributes were determined. Time and continued debate helped develop a shared understanding and ownership of the graduate attributes. Motivating staff to get involved in unfamiliar territory has been a challenge, but team teaching has helped to provide a sense of peer-support.

PBL is both a curriculum and a process: one that consists of carefully selected and designed problems that demand acquisition of critical knowledge, problem solving proficiency, self-directed learning strategy, and team participation. The process involves a systemic approach to resolve a real-life situation. Our PBL approach incorporates a web-plant for hands-on experiments in conjunction with simulation work for analysis and for conducting virtual experiments to deepen the experience. The PBL approach has been helping students to have better development of critical thinking and problem solving skills, improved interpersonal and communication skills.

Re-engineering of Human Biology course content for WebCT-based online activities: HBOnline
Osu Lilje, Alison Lewis, Aida Yalcin, Karen Scott*, Lyn Melville and Mary Peat, School of Biological Sciences & *Flexible Online Learning Team
Osu Lilje

HBOnline currently targets 120 Advanced Human Biology students at the University of Sydney, 2005. This online learning resource, supported through WebCT, incorporates activities, which in previous years were paper-based laboratory class activities or independent study modules. The main criticism from students of the paper-based format was that they were unable to access feedback for these activities outside structured classes and consultation time. In addition, many students found it difficult to complete all the activities within the timetabled class. To address these issues the HBOnline project was developed collaboratively with the University's Flexible Online Learning Team and the School of Biological Sciences. The aims of HBOnline are: to increase flexibility of the learning environment; enhance student participation in coursework material; provide timely and constructive feedback; monitor students progress through the coursework; and, enhance utilisation of the online environment. It is envisaged that after evaluation of HBOnline it will be introduced into the Standard Human Biology course (approximately 900 students) in 2006. This poster describes why and how HBOnline was developed.

Students' experiences of learning in professional placements
Susan Matthew, Rosanne Taylor and Rob Ellis, Faculty of Veterinary Science, and Institute for Teaching and Learning, University of Sydney
Rosanne Taylor

The final-year Veterinary Science curriculum is lecture-free and provides students with ten months of experiential learning in diverse professional placements. This 'intern' year is designed to ensure all students attain the Veterinary Graduate Attributes, thus facilitating a smooth transition to practice.

The quality of students' learning outcomes during clinic-based learning is likely to be strongly related to their conceptions of clinic-based learning, or what students think they are learning about during their clinical placements, and their approaches to learning, or how they go about learning in clinical placements. In turn, students' approaches to learning are made up of both their intentions in learning and their strategies for learning. Students' conceptions of, and approaches to, learning are influenced by their perceptions of the clinic-based learning environment, with these together comprising students' experiences of learning in professional placements (1).

This project investigated students' experiences of clinic-based learning during Year 5, with the goal of improving learning outcomes obtained by the final-year curriculum. To do this, a combination of open- and closed-ended surveys, together with in-depth interviews, were used to explore students' conceptions of, approaches to, and perceptions of learning in professional placements. Open-ended survey and interview questions asked students what they were learning in clinical placements, their intentions and strategies when learning, and the perceived relevance of what they were learning to what they will be doing after graduation. The closed ended survey (86 items) was composed of three questionnaires contextualised for veterinary clinic-based learning from those in published literature, including the Revised Study Process Questionnaire (1), and the Course Experience Questionnaire (3).

The key findings were:

• Students held a range of conceptions about clinic-based learning which can be categorised in a four-tiered hierarchy that spans fragmented and cohesive understandings, findings similar to those published for undergraduates in other disciplines (2,3).
• Students displayed a variety of approaches to clinic-based learning, ranging from surface to deep approaches, with a hierarchy formed by six categories.

It is likely that the current research group will demonstrate relationships between approach and learning outcome.

1. Biggs, J., Kember, D., and Leung, D.Y.P. (2001). The revised two-factor Study Process Questionnaire: R-SPQ-2F. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 71, 133-149.
2. Marton, F. and Booth, S (1997) Learning and Awareness. Erlbaum Associates, N.J. pp. 224.
3. Ramsden, P (2000). Learning to Teach in Higher Education. Routledge Farmer, London. pp. 290.

Nutritional Science: Establishing Benchmark Consensus
Jennifer McArthur and Samir Samman, School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences
Samir Samman

Aims:
To develop and trial a methodology that identifies discipline agreed specific nutritional science benchmarks.
To gain some consensus on the core elements of nutritional science programs that will enable fundamental comparisons to be made between courses.
To develop a database increasing our understanding of the nutrition studies available to students of this discipline.
Methods:
Design a series of questionnaires to elicit consensus on the specific demands of nutrition using established language, definitions and benchmarks.
The focus is on the leading and learning indicators of benchmarks and not past performance (outcomes).
Design a database not limited to the discipline of nutrition.
Outcomes:
Some agreement on nutritional science program content across Australia.
A methodology that can be utilised by other disciplines trying to make benchmarking tangible.
Identification of partners for further benchmarking activities.
A database not limited to the discipline of nutrition.

Collaborative enhancement of a skills-based web site: Transition from one faculty into related disciplines
Danielle Merrett, Karen Scott, Mary Peat and Charlotte Taylor, Faculty of Science & Flexible Online Learning Team
Danielle Merrett

Recently the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney launched a web site for students to encourage them to take responsibility for developing generic attributes which embody the values of scholarship, citizenship and life long learning, and which may be directly related to the qualities sought by employers. The web site includes pages covering: What employers are looking for; Developing your skills; How to build a portfolio; Preparing job applications; Case studies; and Employment links.

Presentations of the website at various Showcases and the UniServe Science Conference in 2004 came at a time when we had unprecedented activity in Teaching and Learning within USYD. We are working on a number of fronts to make changes to curriculum across all discipline areas, to enhance collaboration in teaching and learning within and between faculties and degree programs and to incorporate innovations in ICT at a university level. This project sat comfortably within this environment and has been taken up as a joint initiative for a number of faculties within the College of Sciences and Technology. Use of this template has allowed each faculty to pursue its own agenda in terms of generic attributes, be it attached to new curricula based in a PBL framework, or linked to accreditation.

This poster outlines how this original web site Life Long Earning, http://www.lifelongearning.science.usyd.edu.au/ is now being extended to cater for students in the Faculties of Engineering, Veterinary Science, Agriculture and the School of Information Technologies, in addition to the incorporation of an e-portfolio too.

Development of learning resources for the integration of veterinary anatomy/physiology and diagnostic imaging within the Veterinary Science curriculum
Jacqui Norris, Jan Williamson, Gerard Marcus, Rhondda Canfield, Jane Stevenson, Rachael Gray and Glenn Shea, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences
Jacqui Norris

The main aims of the project are to digitally capture radiographs and ultrasound images to support the teaching of anatomy and physiology in years 1and 2 of the Veterinary Science curriculum; and utilise these images to develop clinically relevant in-class and online teaching resources that challenge the students' understanding of structure and function. Radiographic images of the appendicular and axial skeleton of the dog were acquired from the University Veterinary Centre Sydney and digitally captured using high quality radiographic scanner. An interactive online resource was delivered to Year 1 students in Veterinary Anatomy and Physiology 1A. It included a didactic introductory tutorial for veterinary imaging followed by an interactive resource that used the scanned radiographs to allow students to test their knowledge of skeletal and axial anatomy. Students were given instant feedback on their progress. Many radiographs, myelograms and some contrast radiographic studies have been acquired and scanned for use within other units of study in the veterinary curriculum. These will be developed over Nov 05 - Feb 06 ready for delivery and evaluation in 2006.

Phenomena vs Theory: Rethinking The Laboratory Experience
Janice Petherick and Peter Harrowell, School of Chemistry
Janice Petherick

While everyone agrees that undergraduate chemistry laboratory programs should teach students safe and quantitative handling of chemicals, it is often difficult to identify the additional criteria used to select the exercises that actually make up the laboratory program. At the School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, a completely new first year laboratory program is under development. Alongside teaching students handling skills, the central focus of this new program is to provide students the opportunity to experience and explore as wide a range as possible of the most striking chemical phenomena. Each exercise is organised around a series of questions, often with an applied focus, which the students are expected to address based entirely upon the outcomes of their own experiments. The underlying goal of this inquiry/discovery approach is to use the student's inherent curiosity to motivate a deeper understanding of the experiment. Knowledge is derived from investigating and characterising the given phenomena.

This poster compares traditional theory-driven experimental laboratory programs with our new inquiry/discovery based approach. It looks at the differences between (i) the rationale behind selection of experiments; (ii) the knowledge/theory expected of students; and (iii) the outcomes and reporting styles for the traditional versus the inquiry/discovery approach. six new experiments have been developed using our inquiry/discovery approach and 4 have been trialled by students.

Teaching Development Poster Tailoring the Veterinary Education and Information Network to support excellent teaching and learning
Paul Sheehy, P. Stevens, S. Graham, G. Marcus, F. Costa Faculty of Veterinary Sciences & University of Sydney Library
Paul Sheehy

The Veterinary Education and Information Network (VEIN) was launched in May 2001 as a web portal and information service for veterinary and animal scientists and as a joint initiative between the University Library, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Post Graduate Foundation in Veterinary Science and the Veterinary Science Foundation. VEIN has become an internationally recognised scholarly resource and has had approximately 1.5 million accesses since its release. Currently the VEIN website is in a static web page format, without a content management system. This has led to increasing difficulty with management, maintenance and flexibility of use. The content in VEIN will be broken up into individual objects that reside in a database and these individual blocks can be easily organised and reused in different contexts (WebCT, web sites, etc.) without duplicating effort.

It is anticipated that some of the benefits of the VEIN restructure will include; reduction of the time and effort required to maintain content, enhanced interoperability with other existing e-learning resources, increased student engagement and greater staff 'ownership' of content.

To date the database's technical specifications as well as the public and student specific interfaces have been designed and metadata fields have been finalised to allow significant searchability. It is anticipated that the new VEIN database and interfaces (both public and WebCT) will be operational for the start of Semester 1 2006.

Collaborative Teaching in the plant sciences
B. Sutton and L. Copeland, Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, R. Quinnell, R. Overall, Peter McGee and Aida Yalcin, Faculty of Science
Peter McGee

A decade of supporting students online: what lessons have we learned?
Charlotte Taylor and Mary Peat, Faculty of Science
Charlotte Taylor

The Virtual Learning Environment was established in 1999 to provide online support for the 1600 students in first year biology. The VLE uses a building analogy, with a shared first year lobby and individual rooms for each of the 4 units in semester 1 and 5 units in semester 2. Within each room there is access to lecture presentations, self assessment modules and CAL modules, a discussion forum, cyber-tutor, -admin and -tech 'personnel', a lab with experimental results posted and virtual field trips, and a seminar area. Evaluations show that students access lecture material regularly, and use other resources on an as needs basis for back up to lab classes and revision. A series of educational research projects has sought to maximise the efficacy of these resources in enhancing student learning in biology. Three of these are highlighted on the poster.

Evaluating integrated assessments: Do they improve the quality of student learning?
Rosanne Taylor, Rhondda Canfield and Paul Sheehy, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences
Rosanne Taylor

Assessment has a profound impact on student "time on task", approach to learning and quality of learning outcomes (Gibbs, 2005). SCEQ results showed veterinary students perceived the workload to be excessive and believed assessment rewarded recall. Research findings from a small TIF project in 2001 confirmed year 1 and 2 students often took surface approaches to learning and achieved less desirable learning outcomes.

The aim of this TIF project was to develop integrated assessments for year 1 and 2 students to stimulate active learning and encourage deep engagement in an authentic context. Staff developed a variety of problem solving tasks that spanned topics within and across units of study to promote integration and application. They worked collaboratively on implementation and assessment in year 1 and 2 of the BVSc course in 2002/3.

In year 2 of the BVSc 66 % students demonstrated deeper conceptions of physiology after completing the tasks. Unfortunately, students who reported surface approaches to learning at the start of the semester were least likely to change their learning approach in response to the tasks. Many cited concern in changing their approach and believed they would be rewarded for memorisation and recall.

SCEQ scores for appropriate assessment in 2002/3 improved for the BVSc, but the changes were inconsistent for years 1 (52% SA/A) and 2 (37%).

Focus group interviews identified that the creation of connections between the two different disciplinary perspectives e.g. on swallowing, contributed to deeper learning.

Curriculum wide change in assessment is necessary to persuade students to adopt a deep, meaningful orientation to learning as improving students perceptions of learning context requires system-wide change.

Reference
Gibbs and Simpson (2005) Learning & Teaching in Higher Education, 1(3).

Beehive: A Software Application for Synchronous Collaborative Learning
Aiman Turani and Rafael Calvo, Faculty of Engineering
Rafael Calvo

We present the design of a new application framework for collaborative learning. The framework guides teachers in implementing online activities based on well-known pedagogical techniques, to accomplish their educational objectives within a certain educational setting, and simplifies the development of collaboration tools needed to carry out those techniques. There are common tasks across various techniques and our framework organizes them in a layer of abstraction. The framework model has three abstraction layers: Pedagogical Techniques, Collaboration Tasks Patterns, and CSCL Tools. By using this framework, developers will place the control of designing and implementing the pedagogical techniques in the teacher's hand rather than in the software designers.

Interactive, Clinical On-line Learning and Assessment Modules for Veterinary Anaesthesia
Sanaa Zaki, Faculty of Veterinary Science
Sanaa Zaki

A project has been undertaken to develop an on-line learning resource for undergraduate students that can be integrated over 3 years of the Veterinary Anaesthesia curriculum. The aim is to develop something that will be self-sustaining, flexible and interactive. A learning resource that helps students to enhance their understanding and application of Veterinary Anaesthesia knowledge as well as develop generic attributes essential to their future role as professionals.

The resource comprises a series of case-based modules that can be easily uploaded with current clinical data from patient files, thus allowing students to engage in the decision making process about a case and then review the outcome of the patient admitted to the teaching hospital.These on-line learning modules will support face-to-face teaching and assessment, whilst reducing teaching workload. 5th year student interns, not teachers, will be responsible for entering new data to create new cases for their 3rd and 4th year colleagues. As students progress from Year 3 to 5 they will revisit the same modules, but work through different case studies, have access to reference material appropriate for their year of study, and be able to perform different assessment tasks.

The modules will be used as a reference point for tutorial preparation, for summative assessments, for WebCT discussions, or simply for self-directed revision.

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