Postgraduate Coursework Research Articles

Pushing Through Bologna Reforms: The Hungarian Case

Levels of Study There were 1,908 postgraduate research students in the study. Progress rates for postgraduate research students need to be treated with caution, so these 1,908 postgraduate research students, 0.6 percent of the study, were removed from this analysis by level of study. The 16,839 Australian postgraduate coursework (i.e., not postgraduate research) students passed 94.7 percent of courses attempted, the 246,127 Australian undergraduates 89.3 percent. The 22,592 international postgraduate coursework students passed 92.9 percent of courses attempted, the 50,979 international undergraduates 87 percent. Overall, the 39,431 postgraduate coursework students passed 93.7 percent of courses attempted, the 297,106 undergraduates 88.9 percent. Simply, postgraduates did better than undergraduates. The makeup by level of study of the Australian and international cohorts differs: 6 percent of Australian students are postgraduate coursework students, 31 percent of international students are postgraduate coursework students. The international cohort, relatively heavy with postgraduate coursework students, might be expected to outperform the Australian cohort. It is perhaps because of the makeup by levels of study that the research found no difference overall.

The Masters of Sustainable Practice: A Review of a Program for Working Professionals

AbstractThis study sought to distil recommendations and curriculum design principles that could underpin the re-imagination of the RMIT University coursework Masters of Sustainable Practice (MSP). The aim of the study was to redesign the program to better meet the expectations of contemporary working professionals. Four data sources were used to develop 12 program recommendations: postgraduate sustainability education literature, postgraduate coursework literature, publicly available information for contemporary coursework Masters sustainability programs both in Australia and overseas, and interview data from current and graduate students from the RMIT University Masters of Sustainable Practice. The study proposes a novel curriculum (re)design model comprised of six curriculum design principles that the authors argue are essential for the development of curricula for contemporary working professionals. Sustainable practice coursework Masters programs need to: offer choice, flexibility and authentic work-based assessment opportunities; provide significant guidance to achieve individual aspirations and to customise the program for each student; recognise learning through current workplace roles and through continuing professional development opportunities; use integrative assessments to achieve the Australian Qualification Framework knowledge and skills application requirements; incorporate short credit-bearing courses, in particular for the development of employability skills; and support students to transition to professional practice.

Magazine studies: Pedagogy and practice in a nascent field

This essay considers the status of magazine studies as a cohesive and coherent discipline. We ponder why magazine studies, if considered at all, is usually conflated or elided with periodical studies and question whether this should be the case. We suggest that in addition to practical, methodological and disciplinary challenges (such as access to comprehensive searchable digital archives), and unlike periodical studies, magazine studies has been neglected because of associations with everyday culture and the feminine. We argue that magazine studies offers many rewards for scholars working in writing, literary and media studies and we offer up a case study of two of our postgraduate coursework units of study as examples of pedagogy and practice in a nascent field.

First Year in Higher Education (FYHE) and the Coursework Post-Graduate Student

Research surrounding the First Year in Higher Education has identified and defined the need to support the transition of students during their first year in a tertiary institution. This support not only assists in acculturating students to the Higher Education environment, but also aims to ensure that students develop the foundational skills required for academic success; which enables higher progression and retention rates. However, most of the efforts to date have focused on undergraduate students. The authors assert that postgraduate coursework students require similar support structures. Data collected over a three year study compares the self-reported information literacy skills of postgraduate students within a Faculty of Business to undergraduate students in the same faculty. The data is situated within a broader review of the literature and some recommendations for academic librarians and academic skills advisers are offered.

Inquiry-based learning in higher education: principal forms, educational objectives, and disciplinary variations

Learning through inquiry is a widely advocated pedagogical approach. However, there is currently little systematic knowledge about the practice of inquiry-based learning (IBL) in higher education. This study examined descriptions of learning tasks that were put forward as examples of IBL by 224 university teachers from various disciplines in three Australian universities. Data analysis uncovered the principal forms of IBL, the features of each form, their characteristic educational objectives, and possible disciplinary variations. The findings show that underlying the diversity of language and tasks regarded as IBL there is a limited number of distinct task forms and a broad conception of inquiry that is shared by university teachers. The findings also indicate that IBL is practiced in a wide range of disciplines, in both undergraduate and postgraduate coursework programs, in smaller and larger classes, and in universities which are more and less research intensive.

Tentatively exploring the learning potentialities of postgraduate distance learners’ interactions with other people in their life contexts

Despite much discussion about the various modes of interaction that are possible within distance education, little attention has been paid to the interactions that occur between distance learners and other people in their life contexts about the academic content of their studies. This paper presents some preliminary findings from a study exploring this topic through the eyes of distance learners enrolled in Australian postgraduate coursework programs. It includes a categorisation of these interactions and the forms of learning they produce as well as a discussion of the potential implications for distance education theory and design.

Institutional factors and the postgraduate student experience

Purpose – Few studies have evaluated the satisfaction of mature‐aged postgraduate students. The purpose of this paper is to determine postgraduate coursework students' service expectations in regard to academic course quality, university services and industry links.Design/methodology/approach – A case study of 51 taught postgraduate students enrolled in the School of Public Health nested postgraduate courses was conducted. Students completed an online self‐complete survey (response rate of 58 per cent). Descriptive statistics and univariate analysis (chi‐square) were used to explore associations between variables.Findings – Postgraduate taught students come from a variety of career backgrounds. They place a great deal of importance on their educational experience, especially in regard to academic factors: reputable degree; skilled engaging teachers; access to online resources; ready contact with academics; and supportive enrolment processes.Practical implications – A greater awareness of student expectati...

Developing the Parameters of Scholarship in Postgraduate Coursework Studies

Scholarship parameters, in relation to postgraduate coursework studies, are developed against the expectations of the Boyer classifications of scholarship (Boyer, 1990) with particular emphasis on the role of minor thesis development. An example is presented in which postgraduate coursework students are required to undertake a three semester minor thesis sequence in which students engage in self directed, individual analysis and thesis preparation based on the findings of an investigative project, under the guidance of an academic supervisor. It is argued that the approach is a viable example of combined pedagogical and research oriented scholarship that addresses Boyer’s tetradic framework of scholarship and provides an effective environment for developing both discipline focussed scholarship and practical experience in research activity.

Fisheries, wildlife, and conservation biology education in Australia: current challenges and future directions

Fisheries Science, Wildlife Management and Conservation Biology are crucial to the Australian economy and society. Australian doctoral education in these fields assumes that students commence with well-developed relevant skills, or acquire them autodidactically or from their supervisors. We believe that such reliance on autodidactic approaches and supervisor direction are no longer adequate, and argue for compulsory coursework within doctoral programs. Currently, most specialised education in quantitative methods, advanced genetic techniques (including population genetics) or human dimensions is provided in short courses or workshops, if at all. Short courses provide advanced technical knowledge (e.g., an advanced stock assessment workshop for fisheries scientists or population viability analysis workshops for conservation biologists), but they are voluntary. Multiple university and multiple discipline consortia could provide the compulsory postgraduate coursework needed for structured development of quantitative skills in Australian PhDs. Online education should be part of the solution, but it is not a panacea because some material should be taught in person for effective learning. Solutions can build on modified approaches used overseas and in other disciplines in Australia.

The research masters experience: The impact of efficacy and outcome expectations on enrolment and completion

Students need support to complete research masters degrees. Many of the studies aimed at enhancing the student experience to date have tended to focus on structural aspects of the degree, the academic needs of the students or the qualities of the supervisor. Few studies focus on the support needed to complete research masters degrees and even fewer consider the affective needs of the students.Semi-structured focus group interviews, analysis of the participants' academic transcripts – including thesis examination reports – and a content analysis of postgraduate coursework comprised the dataset for this qualitative pilot study. Using Bandura's theory of self efficacy (1977), the subjective experience of mature age teacher practitioners undertaking a Masters of Education degree was explored. Teachers' efficacy and outcome expectations were found to be influential in regard to enrolment in and completion of a masters degree.This initial foray into the emotional world of the student uncovers aspects that help us to understand more deeply the nature of the research masters students' journey through gaining a degree. As a result, this may help students to understand their journey and help university supervisors to support students through to successful completion of a masters degree.

Overview of a university course on acoustics and noise

The Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia is a four year degree program. In their fourth and final year, students can choose from a range of technical elective courses, one of those being in acoustics. The acoustics course entitled "Fundamentals of Noise" can also be taken as a postgraduate coursework subject as part of a Masters by Coursework degree. The course covers fundamental topics in acoustics, noise, noise measurement, and noise control. This paper outlines the topics covered in the course, the range of assessment activities conducted by the students, and the use of invited industry guest speakers, all of which aim to maximize student knowledge, interest, and performance in the course.

Comprehensibility of patient consent forms for radiation therapy of cervical cancer

ObjectiveThe construct of Health Literacy (HL) deals with patients' capacity to understand their health-related instructions, consent forms, and other documents. A significant challenge of providing healthcare to patients with low HL is the complex nature of the disease process, and of requisite treatments. In radiation oncology specifically, the delivery of ionizing radiation is difficult enough to describe; describing radiation toxicity in terms of the underlying physics and biology is daunting. A multimodal analysis of a small sample of patient consent forms was undertaken in order to address this issue more closely, and identify the extent to which such literature contributes to the challenges faced by patients with low HL. MethodsMembers of national cooperative group panels dealing with gynecologic cancer were asked to submit copies of consent forms provided to patients with stage II cervical cancer. Four such forms were submitted and reviewed by a single person with expertise in linguistics using standard tools. ResultsThree of the four consents scored within the lower portion of the “adequate“ range. One consent was not suitable. Consent readability ranged from grades 12.18 to 16.13; this means that they required at least a high school education to interpret, and in two cases required post-graduate coursework. ConclusionThere is significant room for improvement in consent form design and structure. When considering cultural and socioeconomic appropriateness of patient consent forms, input of staff with expertise in linguistics should be sought.

Curriculum Design of and Rationale in Managing Agroecosystems ― A Core Subject in the Sustainable-Agriculture Postgraduate Coursework Programme in Australia

Curriculum Design of and Rationale in <i>Managing Agroecosystems </i>― A Core Subject in the Sustainable-Agriculture Postgraduate Coursework Programme in Australia

Media skills for daily life: Designing a journalism programme for graduates of all disciplines

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; This article in the journalism education field reports on the construction of a new subject as part of a postgraduate coursework degree. The subject, or unit will offer both Journalism students and other students an introductory experience of creating media, using common ‘new media’ tools, with exercises that will model the learning of communication principles through practice. It has been named ‘Fundamental Media Skills for the Workplace’. The conceptualisation and teaching of it will be characteristic of the Journalism academic discipline that uses the ‘inside perspective’—understanding mass media by observing from within. Proposers for the unit within the Journalism discipline have sought to extend the common teaching approach, based on training to produce start-ready recruits for media jobs, backed by a study of contexts, e.g. journalistic ethics, or media audiences. In this proposal, students would then examine the process to elicit additional knowledge about their learning. The article draws on literature of journalism and its pedagogy, and on communication generally. It also documents a ‘community of practice’ exercise conducted among practitioners as teachers for the subject, developing exercises and models of media work. A preliminary conclusion from that exercise is that it has taken a step towards enhancing skills-based learning for media work.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

Publish or Perish? Re-Imagining the University Press

Publish or Perish? Re-Imagining the University Press

A Learner Support System: Scaffolding to Enhance Digital Learning

The 21st Century student is the first to spend more time online than watching television (Prensky, 2001; Berger, 2002; Palfrey & Gasser, 2008). For decades these online technologies and mediums have been used, now they dominate life, work and education. To enrich and engage these 'switched on' students, an platform was designed to shape and direct research and writing for Postgraduate coursework students. The pedagogical stance taken by the authors is quality teaching and and authentic task design within a constructivist-scaffold elearning space, which maximised the and digital teaching environment. Educational research and constructivist online (Vygotsy 1978; Marshall & McLoughlin, 2000; McLoughlin, 2002) techniques in scaffolding support the hypothesis that a learner support (McLoughlin & Marshall, 2000, p. 1) creates a climate for that is supportive and driven by the pedagogy not the technology. Scaffolding increases cognitive growth in the online and digital teaching environment and has been found to promote self-directed learners. As Larkin (2006) suggested, instructional design that weaves together a sequence of content, materials, tasks and supports to optimise learning is an effective approach to pedagogy that educators in higher education should adopt. This supportive and motivating environment is particularly successful with International students (Henry & Li, 2005; Rourke, Mendelssohn & Coleman, 2008). This paper will report a case study where a digitally supported elearning system was used to scaffold student for writing a research paper in the Master of Art Administration (coursework) in a twelve-week session at College of Fine Arts (COFA) University of New South Wales (UNSW). This paper will also provide some critical reflections on how this area of elearning could be used across the disciplines to enhance student learning.

A feel for the game – a Bourdieuian analysis of principal leadership: a study of Queensland secondary school principals

Educational leadership discourse has for sometime been the major intellectual pillar of what was once known as the field of educational administration. An examination of the postgraduate coursework programmes available to aspiring principal leaders at every Australian university supports such a contention. While this discourse does shed light on the ubiquitous concept of leadership, it does little to explain the context in which leadership theory is supposed to contribute to the operational environment of schools. This is where Bourdieuian scholarship is particularly helpful. By shedding light on the complex social space in which principal leaders function, Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field and capital are particularly helpful thinking tools. For a variety of reasons the economic field has held philosophical dominance for much of the last 30 years. This has impacted significantly on the work space of principal leadership and needs to be understood if the familiar narratives of leadership theory are to be of contextual use. When investigating the social space of contemporary principal leadership, my recent study of two sets of Queensland‐based principals will be used. The emergence of enterprise bargaining into the workspace of these principals will be used as a means by which to demonstrate the cross‐field contagion of the economic field on to the field of schools. The paper contends that the field of educational administration must endeavour to view leadership theory critically and contextually if the complexities associated with contemporary principal leadership practice are to be understood.

A Qualitative Study of Postgraduate Students’ Learning Experiences in Malaysia

In Malaysia, postgraduate coursework and research training have expanded significantly in attracting both domestic and international students from Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The task of evaluating the student learning experience in postgraduate education can point out to researchers and university educators various mismatches that would not be immediately known otherwise. In this study, 83 MA and MEd students in two public universities in Malaysia submitted written narratives to discuss their postgraduate learning experiences. Of this total, 10% of the respondents (12 postgraduate students) also volunteered to be interviewed. The findings of this qualitative study showed that the following dimensions impacted on students’ learning experiences: knowledge, values and contacts acquired, professional and personal values acquired and specific learning problems encountered. The implications of the results of this study suggest that public universities in Malaysia can take proactive steps to celebrate learner diversity when addressing students’ difficulties in their continuous effort to further enhance support and facilities for their postgraduate students.

Unplanned Educational Obsolescence: Is the ‘Traditional’ PhD Becoming Obsolete?

Unplanned Educational Obsolescence: Is the ‘Traditional’ PhD Becoming Obsolete?

Stepping through the orientation looking glass: A staged approach for postgraduate students

&lt;span&gt;Postgraduate coursework is now delivered to a largely mature age study population, in what may be an unfamiliar mix of online and distance learning to many students. This paper reports on a novel approach to student orientation in this new environment. Orientation is conceptualised as a process of transition between the domain of everyday life and the domain of academic study over a period of time commencing prior to enrolment and continuing into formal studies. A schema addressing three dimensions (interpersonal, technical and reflective) was constructed and operationalised as a staged orientation plan (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;GettingOnTrack&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;). Students are able to move through the three stages participating in activities which align with their needs before, during and after enrolment. This builds on critical concerns reported in earlier literature, highlighting the need for an extended time line and authentic learning tasks in a risk free environment.&lt;/span&gt;