Offer coursework students space at the university?

Last Tuesday I attended the Sydney Educational Technology (SydEduTech) Group at the Fishburners Sydney Co-working Space. This is a non-profit cooperative which provides low cost office space to new start-up businesses. It occurred to me that for $3,600 per year the Fishburner member gets a similar amount of desk space to a university PHD student. Perhaps universities could expand their postgraduate office areas, re-brand it "innovation space" and offer it "free" to postgraduate coursework students. Full time students enrolled in "innovation" courses would get their own dedicated desk (the innovation courses would consist of something like "Innovation ACT", plus some assessment and supervision). Part time students would get a set number of hot desk hours per month, per course.

ANU Graduate Information Literacy Program

As a postgraduate student at ANU I receive regular emailed notices on additional training offered to further my education. A recent one was on the "Internet and Research, Issues in Literature Review Writing and Search Strategies and Subject Databases".

Also offered is an nonlinear Graduate Information Literacy Skills Audit.

Research students are also offered the free Graduate Information Literacy Program. This is a series of workshops, where the student does eight training modules for the equivalent of a one semester course. Unfortunately the course cannot be credited to a university award. This course would be far more useful if it was a recognized course and available to all postgraduate students.

e-Learning Course on Green ICT Strategies: Part 20 - Standardized Course Description

With the course notes revised and published (see Part 19) it is now time to get ready for the students starting the next week. The ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science created a bespoke database to hold all course descriptions, called CECS Student DB. This has places to put the usual administrative details of who the tutor is, details of the course, such as title and short description. It then goes into detail about the Study Schedule, the Learning Outcomes , the Assessment and the relationship between assessment and outcomes.

Even though I had to prepare much of this previously I found it useful to have to put these details in an explicit structured way. It was a bit annoying to chop up my carefully worded description into the categories required by the database. I felt offended that my carefully worded course description was being put into a generic format. But then I realized that, as a student, I like such structure.

Here is what I have so far (exported from the database):

The Australian National University

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Research School of Computer Science

COMP7310 ICT Sustainability

Study Period:	1st semester 2011, 1st semester 2012,
Unit value	6 units
Course Co-ordinator	Name: Tom Worthington Email: tomw@cs.anu.edu.au Phone: 55694 Room: CSIT (108) N212

Assumed knowledge and required skills:
Prerequisite:
Corequisite(s):
Incompatiblity:
Textbooks:	eBook supplied with course: Worthington, T. (2011) ICT Sustainability: assessment and strategies for a low carbon future / Tom Worthington Tomw Communications, Belconnen, A.C.T. Retrieved from: http://www.tomw.net.au/ict_sustainability/

Websites:

Course details on Studyat More information Course details on Wattle, the University's Learning Management System

Course description:

ICT is both part of the problem and part of the solution to climate change. A study sponsored by the Australian Computer Society has shown that computers and telecommunications equipment in Australia generated 7.94Mt of carbon dioxide in 2005, 1.52% of national emissions. This course investigates the contribution of ICT to carbon emissions and how technology can reduce those emissions. This subject is drawn from practices being developed in the public and private sectors internationally. Implementation methodologies and assessment tools currently being field-tested are introduced. Qualification schemes and accreditation are yet to be established and it is possible those completing this subject may be involved in that development. This course was developed in conjunction with the Australian Computer Society. The Learning Outcomes have been designed for Level 5 competencies of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) common reference model. More information is on the course webpage: http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/.

Learning outcomes:

At the conclusion of this course, the student will be able to: 1. Evaluate the sustainability of IT services, devices and day-to-day operations of an organisation, including the carbon footprint and e-waste. 2. Prepare a sustainability strategy for IT in an organisation,covering both energy and materials use.

Australian Computer Society Graduate Attributes Matrix

2.1 Communications: Written communication, Interpersonal skills 2.2 Ethics/Professional: Social issues, Global issues, Organizational issues, Technology, Responsiblity:personal and community 2.3 Project Management//QA: Concepts and models, Project management techniques

Australia Engineering Competency Standards(for software engineers only)

PE2.1 Ability to undertake problem identification and formulation and solution PE2.2 Understanding of social and cultural and global and environmental responsibilities and the need to ... PE2.6 Understanding of the business environment

Course content:

The course consists of two parts, corresponding to the learning objectives, with one topic per week: Sustainability Assessment The Politics, Science and Business of Sustainability The Global ICT Footprint Energy Saving - Data Centres and Client Equipment Materials Use Compliance Audit Methods and Tools Sustainability Strategy Enabling ICT Business Process Improvement Improving Data Centre Energy Efficiency Enterprise Architecture Procurement Energy Star Program and Quality Management

Rationale:

Computers and telecommunications equipment contributed 1.52% to greenhouse gas emissions in 2005. The course is on how to assess the carbon footprint of the ICT operations of an organization and also the materials used in the design, manufacture and reuse and recycling of ICT equipment. Then students learn how to develop a strategy to reduce the environmental impact of ICT operations, and through ICT of other operations.

Ideas:

The course is designed to align with the Skills Framework for the Information Age with SIFA Level 5 competencies: "ensure, advise: Broad direction, supervisory, objective setting responsibility. Influences organisation. Challenging and unpredictable work. Self sufficient in business skills". Two skills have been selected, corresponding to the two learning outcomes: Sustainability assessment The evaluation of the sustainability of operational or planned IT services, devices and day-to-day operations such as travel. The establishment of a model or scheme to track changes in consumption over time and to generate feedback to enable improvements in energy or resource efficiency. The identification of areas requiring attention, and the initiation of actions to change or control the procurement of energy or other resources, so as to improve sustainability. From: Skill SUAS, Category: Business change, Subcategory: Business change management, SFIA (2009). Sustainability strategy The preparation of a sustainability strategy for IT, taking into account any established corporate strategy, to be used as a basis for policies and planning, and covering both consumption and sources of supply of energy and materials. Evaluation and inclusion, as appropriate, of political, legislative, economic, social and technological factors. Identification of major external standards, practices or schemes to be adopted. Consultation with identified relevant parties, either internal or external. Obtaining agreement to the strategy and the commitment to act upon it. From: Skill SUST, Category: Strategy & architecture, Subcategory: Business/IT strategy and planning, SFIA (2009).

Topics:

Sustainability Assessment The Politics, Science and Business of Sustainability The Global ICT Footprint Energy Saving - Data Centres and Client Equipment Materials Use Compliance Audit Methods and Tools Sustainability Strategy Enabling ICT Business Process Improvement Improving Data Centre Energy Efficiency Enterprise Architecture Procurement Energy Star Program and Quality Management

Technical skills:

Estimation of energy use, carbon footprint and materials use of the ICT operations of an organisation.

Workload To complete the subject you will need to spend 8-10 hours each week reading, communicating with colleagues and tutors, and preparing assignments. Study Schedule Week beginning Theme / Topic / Module Face to face activities (Lecture, tutorial, seminar, field trip etc) Other activities (Readings, quizzes, etc) Assessment milestones Week One Politics, Science and Business of Sustainability No face to face activities for course. Read the course notes and readings each week. Answer weekly questions and discuss in on-line forum. Answers and forum discussion are assessed for 2% of marks each week. Week Two The Global ICT Footprint Week Three Energy Saving - Data Centres and Client Equipment Week Four Materials Use Week Five Compliance Audit Week Six Methods and Tools Assignment one due at end of week six for 38%. Week Seven Enabling ICT Week Eight Business process improvement Week Nine Improving Data Centre Energy Efficiency Week Ten Enterprise Architecture Week Eleven Procurement Week Twelve Energy Star Program and Quality Management Assignment two due at end of week twelve for 38%. Week Thirteen

Attendance

No attendance is required. All materials and assessment are on-line.

Indicative assessment

Contributions to the 12 weekly discussion forums, 24% Mid-semester assignment, 38% End of semester assignment, 38%

Assessment overview

This table shows details of each assessment (listed above).

Assessment item	Description and detail of the asignment	Specific requirements	Due date
Contributions to the 12 weekly discussion forums, 24%	Following tasks are required of you every week: 1. Read the course notes for this week and the additional readings. 2. Submit answers to each of the discussion questions in the Discussion Forum for that week, by the end of Wednesday. Submit your answers before reading the answers from other students. Read the answers from other students and submit at least one reply to a posting your fellow students in the Discussion Forum, for each of that week’s questions, by the end of Saturday.	The questions each week are on topics to be covered in the two assignments. You will receive a mark and suggestions to help improve your work each week. For the first two weeks of the course you are required to use formal Harvard (author-date) style for referencing. This is so the tutor can check you know how to reference for the assignments. After two weeks you can use simple hypertext links. You can obtain assistance with referencing and writing from the ANU Academic Skills and Learning Centre.	Answers by the end of Wednesday and discussion by the end of Saturday, each week.
Mid-semester assignment, 38%	Evaluate the sustainability of IT services, devices and day-to-day operations of an organisation, including the carbon footprint and e-waste: Write a report on the carbon footprint and materials use of the ICT operations of your organisation (or an organisation you are familiar with).	Maximum 2,000 words.	End of week 6.
End of semester assignment, 38%	Prepare a sustainability strategy for IT in an organisation, covering both energy and materials use: Write a report identify ways to reduce the carbon footprint and materials use of your organisation (or an organisation you are familiar with) through ICT. This could be by changes to polices for procurement of ICT, changes to the ICT operations (such as turning up the thermostat in the computer room), or revising business processes. Describe the current way of functioning and the problems associated with it. Propose a "to be" process that is based on established standards, or proposed developments. How will you tailor the processes to suit your organisation? What are the challenges the organisation will face? How will you measure the success of the proposals? The target audience of the report is the organisation's ICT management committee.	Maximum 2,000 words.	End of week 12.

Relationship between learning outcomes and assessment

How well have you achieved the outcomes for this course? This table shows you how each assessment (listed above) will check the students achievements against the stated learning outcomes (listed on the overview page) for the course.

Learning Outcomes:	Contributions to the 12 weekly discussion forums, 24%	Mid-semester assignment, 38%	End of semester assignment, 38%
1 Evaluate the sustainability of IT services, devices and day-to-day operations of an organisation, including the carbon footprint and e-waste.	Weeks 1 to 6 of the course.	Yes.
2 Prepare a sustainability strategy for IT in an organisation,covering both energy and materials use.	Weeks 7 to 12 of the course.		Yes.

Course evaluation

Students experiences will be collected using ANU Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT).

Code of practice

http://policies.anu.edu.au/policies/code_of_practice_for_teaching_and_learning/policy

Plagiarism

http://policies.anu.edu.au/policies/code_of_practice_for_student_academic_integrity/policy

Leadership Training Courses

After having not been able to work out what Martineau & Hannum's book "Evaluating the Impact of Leadership Development: A Professional Guide" (2004) was about from the preface and introduction, I looked at the web site of their Center for Creative Leadership (CCL). It was still not clear what the center did as the introductory material talks about "leadership programs" in the same vague way the books does and most links start Flash animations containing minimal information.

However, I found a description of "Leadership at the Peak" which is described as being 5 days, with an average class size of 12 and an instructor/participant ratio of 1:6. This suggests CCL are offering management training courses.

This leadership course is $US11,600 for tuition ($US2,320 per day). That is about twice the cost of ANU Executive short courses. It is not clear if the course has formal assessment which is recognized by professional bodies (the ANU offers optional assessment with credit towards a Certificate, Diploma or Masters). The ANU's five day intensive courses (plus assessment) are equivalent to a 6 credit point semester long course (notionally 10 hours of student work a week for 13 weeks).

So I conclude that by "program" the book is referring to a training course, equivalent to a semester long postgraduate university course, similar to the ones I run. There evaluation techniques in the book should therefore be applicable.

Open Access for On-Line Education

Last week I commenced the course Assessment, Evaluation and Learning EDU5713, at University of Southern Queensland, via e-learning. One technique I have found useful to supplement the materials provided for the course, is to first look up terms in the Wikipedia and the search for materials in Google Scholar. Wikipedia generally provides a brief, easy to understand overview of the topic and Google Scholar provides authoritative papers (it is not a good idea to cite Wikipedia in your assignment).

As an example the Wikipedia entry for Assessment_for_Learning is very readable and the Google Scholar Entries are useful.

One way Google Scholar could be improved would be with an "Article Available" option. It is frustrating to have numerous articles listed, but then find most are behind pay-walls, so that it is not possible to read more than the abstract, without paying a fee or signing up to a service. I Suggest adding an extra option "Article Available" to allow only those articles where the text is available on-line without the need for payment or signing in.

It would also be useful to have the same open access options (for looking for articles with Creative Commons and similar licenses), as in the non-scholar advanced search, would also be useful.

While institutions, such as USQ, provide access to on-line papers via their library, it is much easier for the staff and the students, if freely available articles are selected for readings. This way the student does not need to login to the university library system to get to the article.

ps: Surprisingly on the topic of e-learning, many of the papers found are from Australian authors. This may be because the Google search engine, seeing I am in Australia is giving me local results, or that doing an Australian course I am searching on topics of particular interest to Australians. But it may be just that Australia is a leader in e-learning.

Expanding Doctoral Education

An interesting theme from day two of the ANU Educational Research Conference at the Australian National University is the rapid expansion of postgraduate studies at university. One comment which got my attention was that the Australasian Digital Theses Program had "fallen over". From reading the web site, I had the impression that it had now been subsumed in various university based repositiories, which then had their metadata harvested by the National Library of Australia.

Also of interest is the question of what demand there is for postgraduate education, what it costs and what pool of people suitable for it is available. One issue is if there is too much concentration on the prestige of PHDs, when other more flexible forms of ongoing education would be more useful.

One example of a more flexible approach is the ANU Graduate Studies Select. The Postgraduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching I am currently studying allows for going to to a Masters.