The rapid pivot to the online environment, necessitated by COVID-19, has resulted in some universities adopting online meeting platforms, such as Zoom, for exam invigilation. This study aims to ...evaluate the effectiveness and reflect
on the student experience of exams invigilated with an online meeting platform. In 2020, twenty-four subjects with 1728 students with high stakes, final exams trialled online invigilation. In practise scenarios, online meeting settings
were optimised for invigilation to ensure supportive yet rigorous exam conditions. The average exam mark for students who sat a paper-based invigilated examination in 2019 across the twenty-four subjects was 72% compared to 70% for the
exams invigilated with online meetings in 2020. There was no significant difference in the distribution of exam marks and subject grades and there were no significant technical issues that impacted the exams. A student-centred approach
ensured that exam supervisors could answer student concerns before and during the examinations. This study demonstrates that the use of online meeting platforms, not specifically designed for exam proctoring, can be a cost-effective and
valid tool. With the higher education sector again weighing up alternatives to traditional invigilated exams into the future there is an opportunity to rethink technology-mediated assessment of student learning. Author abstract
Thousands of people become lost in the wilderness each year and search and rescue personnel are called in to search for and to locate people who are lost. Time is critical as the lost person's chance ...of survival decreases over time. One method of improving search outcomes is efficient and accurate planning of search areas. Search and rescue planning techniques have been developed over time through extensive training, experience and knowledge. To expedite the search area planning process, an agent-based model (ABM) was used to highlight probabilistic and evidence-based areas typically considered by search area planners. This model takes spatial data calculated to a timecost raster and incorporates lost person characteristics to determine location-specific probability data that can be used in decisionmaking.
Search and rescue personnel and volunteers spend thousands of hours attempting to rescue and ultimately save the lives of lost people. One of the most effective ways to increase the speed of locating ...a lost person is by predicting the highest probable areas they may be located in and determining search areas around them. This study examined the demographics and behaviour of people lost in the Australian wilderness from the perspective of search and rescue authorities and lost people themselves in order to assess similarities between types of lost people. The aggregated behaviour characteristics can then be used to improve search and rescue outcomes by predicting lost person behaviour specific to the Australian wilderness. This study found that different demographic groupings can be expected to behave differently when lost in the wilderness. By using the probable characteristics and behaviours of a lost person, search areas can be better targeted, assisting in locating a lost person faster and improving the outcomes of the search. The results from this study provide insights into behavioural trends and characteristics that can assist in the planning of search areas for search and rescue incidents in the Australian wilderness.
Search and rescue personnel and volunteers spend thousands of hours attempting to rescue and ultimately save the lives of lost people. One of the most effective ways to increase the speed of locating ...a lost person is by predicting the highest probable areas they may be located in and determining search areas around them. This study examined the demographics and behaviour of people lost in the Australian wilderness from the perspective of search and rescue authorities and lost people themselves in order to assess similarities between types of lost people. The aggregated behaviour characteristics can then be used to improve search and rescue outcomes by predicting lost person behaviour specific to the Australian wilderness. This study found that different demographic groupings can be expected to behave differently when lost in the wilderness. By using the probable characteristics and behaviours of a lost person, search areas can be better targeted, assisting in locating a lost person faster and improving the outcomes of the search. The results from this study provide insights into behavioural trends and characteristics that can assist in the planning of search areas for search and rescue incidents in the Australian wilderness.
Thousands of people become lost in the wilderness each year and search and rescue personnel are called in to search for and to locate people who are lost. Time is critical as the lost person's chance ...of survival decreases over time. One method of improving search outcomes is efficient and accurate planning of search areas. Search and rescue planning techniques have been developed over time through extensive training, experience and knowledge. To expedite the search area planning process, an agent-based model (ABM) was used to highlight probabilistic and evidence-based areas typically considered by search area planners. This model takes spatial data calculated to a timecost raster and incorporates lost person characteristics to determine location-specific probability data that can be used in decisionmaking.
The Travelling Stock Route and Reserve (TSR) network is an historical grazing reserve network under threat, where public alarm has continued over the potential sale of reserves. Present debate on the ...future of the TSRs is often hindered by a lack of data, as knowledge of the historical extent of TSRs is deficient. This paper documents the original extent of the New South Wales TSR network and changes during 1884-2017, and discusses the key drivers of reserve loss since the late nineteenth century. Research using archived literature showed that, in 1884, the New South Wales TSR network comprised 4,414,690 ha. Comparisons of TSR acreage from that time with present estimates revealed that the reserve network has declined by 54% since its inception. Most reductions in TSR area during 1884-2017 have occurred in the Eastern (83%) and Central (82%) regions of the state, where competing land demands are greatest. Technological changes in transport, environmental pressures and economic changes in the grazing industry were identified as key drivers of TSR loss. These findings support concerns over the efficacy of the TSR reserve network, where the extent and impacts of past government decisions to sell off TSRs has been grossly under-estimated.
This editorial describes some of the current and emerging challenges in peer review for the academic publishing system. Peer review is a fundamental element of academic research and publishing, with ...a firm reliance on the global scholarly community to perform gatekeeping and filtering processes in pursuing high-quality and high-value scholarly publications: the “gold standard” in academic publishing. We begin with examples of several contemporary challenges the peer review system poses, including impartiality and bias, academic reward structures, fake peer reviews, and reviewer fatigue. To further understand these challenges, we then provide a brief history of the evolution of the peer review system, focusing on the traditional forms of pre-publication peer review so familiar to the communication of scholarly work. Against this backdrop, we consider the benefits of peer review that span the continuum of the academic community – from authors to reviewers to journals and research communities. But many traditional forms of peer review are being challenged by new and innovative processes, systems and platforms. Finally, we look at how others have re-envisioned the peer review process during this phase of rapid evolution in journal publishing, with a strong call for quality and integrity in writing peer reviews. We conclude by suggesting ways forward for embedding sustainability, equity, and respect within the peer review process as an active force for advancing scholarship.
In this Editorial, we take the opportunity to expand on the second Journal of University Teaching and Learning theme, Developing Teaching Practice. Building on Editorial 18(4), which articulated ...changes to higher education in the period roughly between 1980 and 2021, we believe it is pertinent to explore the changing conceptions of academic as ‘teacher’. We use Engeström’s cultural-historical activity theory as a lens to consider how higher education teachers are situated in the current context of rapid changes arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. We explore possible future purposes of higher education to consider flow-on impacts on the purpose of its teachers and how their roles might change to accommodate future expectations. We assert the need to challenge the notion of the academic as a person who is recruited into higher education largely because of their subject matter expertise and maintains strong commitment to teaching expertise that is grounded in scholarship, critical self-reflection, and agency. In our various teaching and leadership roles, and consistent with the literature, we have observed paradoxical outcomes from the nexus between risk, innovation and development, driving risk aversity and risk management, with significant (contradictory) impacts on teaching, teachers and student learning. The barriers to implementing innovative curricula include questions of do students get a standardised and ‘safe’ educational experience or are they challenged and afforded the opportunity to transform and grow? Are they allowed to fail? Related, do teachers have genuine agency, as an educator, or are they positioned as agents of a higher education system? We explore these questions and invite our readers to engage in serious reflexivity and identify strategies that help them question their attitudes, thought processes, and assumptions about teaching and student learning. We welcome papers that contribute values-based conversations seeking to continue exploring ways of dealing with and adapting to change in our teaching practices, case studies of learning through failure, change and adaptation and the development of the field.
In this Editorial, we take the opportunity to expand on the second Journal of University Teaching and Learning theme, Developing Teaching Practice. Building on Editorial 18(4), which articulated ...changes to higher education in the period roughly between 1980 and 2021, we believe it is pertinent to explore the changing conceptions of academic as ‘teacher’. We use Engeström’s cultural-historical activity theory as a lens to consider how higher education teachers are situated in the current context of rapid changes arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. We explore possible future purposes of higher education to consider flow-on impacts on the purpose of its teachers and how their roles might change to accommodate future expectations. We assert the need to challenge the notion of the academic as a person who is recruited into higher education largely because of their subject matter expertise while maintaining strong commitment to teaching expertise that is grounded in scholarship, critical self-reflection, and agency. In our various teaching and leadership roles, and consistent with the literature, we have observed paradoxical outcomes from the nexus between risk, innovation and development, driving risk aversity and risk management, with significant (contradictory) impacts on teaching, teachers and student learning. The barriers to implementing innovative curricula include questions of do students get a standardised and ‘safe’ educational experience or are they challenged and afforded the opportunity to transform and grow? Are they allowed to fail? Related, do teachers have genuine agency, as an educator, or are they positioned as agents of a higher education system? We explore these questions and invite our readers to engage in serious reflexivity and identify strategies that help them question their attitudes, thought processes, and assumptions about teaching and student learning. We welcome papers that contribute values-based conversations and explore ways of dealing with and adapting to change in our teaching practices, case studies of learning through failure, change and adaptation and the development of the field.
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