University Of Tasmania Research Articles

The Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis as Construct Validity in Education Research: A Analysis with Biblioshiny

This research aims at bibliometric analysis on the topic of confirmatory factor analysis in the field of education. Researchers used the RStudio and Vosviewer applications to map bibliometrics results. From the results of the analysis that has been carried out, it is concluded that overview of the bibliometric analysis of 203 research documents, published between 1987 and 2023, from various sources in the Scopus database. Publication growth shows an increase of 7.61% every year. In contrast, it saw a peak in growth in 2018, with 24 publications, reflecting significant research interest and focus. The University of Tasmania from Australia dominates with 13 articles. Nurse Education Today was the highest contributing journal, contributing 7 articles, highlighting the important role of nursing in this research. This analysis illustrates the diversity of contributions of researchers from various institutions in Thailand in the exploration of CFA in education. The highest document citation is "(Marsh et al., 2014)" regarding exploratory structural equation models. There are five clusters that discuss CFA in the education sector. There are keywords multivariate analysis, exploratory factor analysis, surveys and questionnaires, reliability, and construct validity as the latest keywords that can be used as recommendations for further research in the field of CFA in education.

Team and Transformative Teaching in the Criminology Classroom

Since 2021 the level 300 unit at the University of Tasmania, “Working With Offenders”, has been offered as a winter-school intensive. This unit is predominantly undertaken by students studying in the Bachelor of Arts specialising in criminology, but also includes students studying law, psychology, social work, meaning there is a very diverse student cohort. This unit is designed to introduce students to the issues and processes associated with working with adults in prisons or under the supervision of community corrections. The unit explores issues pertaining directly to how best to work with a wide variety of people with offending histories. In this article we present an Australian case study and discuss the ways in which this unit offers an example of team teaching between an academic and a community corrections practitioner, utilising transformative teaching practices to engage students in applied, active learning, and assesses them through authentic assignments.

Introduction to the Special Issue

This special issue of Linguistics and the Human Sciences includes four peer-reviewed articles which have been selected from those presented at the 1st International Systemic Functional Linguistics Interest Group Conference (SFLIG 2021) and successfully contributed to the Open Access Proceedings published by the University of Tasmania.

Towards a home-grown rural health workforce: Evidence from Tasmania, Australia.

To examine the association between place of origin and principal place of practice (PPP) of domestic Tasmanian health graduates who received end-to-end training with the University of Tasmania (UTAS). The 2022 PPP for all UTAS domestic Tasmanian graduates from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, psychology, medical radiation science and paramedicine between 2011 and 2020 was identified using the online Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) registration database. The graduate's place of origin (home address at the time of course application), together with their 2022 PPP, was described using the Modified Monash Model (MM) classification system of remoteness. Data were analysed using STATA. Over the 10-year period, 4079 domestic Tasmanians graduated from health courses at UTAS, of which 3850 (94.4%) were matched to an Australian PPP. In all, 78.3% of graduates were working in Tasmania, while the remainder (21.7%) were employed interstate. Of those with a Tasmanian PPP, 81.4% were working in a regional setting (MM2), while 77.6% of interstate employed graduates recorded a metropolitan (MM1) PPP. Rural place of origin (MM3-7) was associated with rural employment (MM3-7) in both Tasmania (OR, 37.08; 95% CI 29.01-47.39, p < 0.001), and on the Australian mainland (OR, 21.4; 95% CI 17.4-26.3, p < 0.001). Most domestic Tasmanian origin UTAS health graduates contribute to the state's health workforce after qualifying. Further research is needed to explore PPP over time and to understand why some graduates are motivated to seek employment on the Australian mainland and in particular, metropolitan cities.

Generating evidence to inform responsive and effective actions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescent health and well-being: a mix method protocol for evidence integration ‘the Roadmap Project’

BackgroundAustralia does not have a national strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescent health and as a result, policy and programming actions are fragmented and may not be responsive...

Beyond access: (re)designing archival guides for changing landscapes

In 2013, the authors of this article and their colleague Gavan McCarthy published Stories in Stone: an annotated history and guide to the collections of Ernest Westlake (1855–1922). The guide provided contextual information and digital access to the entire paper archives relating to the three large stone collections formed by Westlake during his lifetime: French and English geological specimens housed in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History from 1924, and a collection of Tasmanian Aboriginal stone tools stored in the Pitt Rivers Museum since 1923. The Tasmanian collections, formed by Westlake from 1908 to 1910, are highly significant to the Palawa (or Pakana or Tasmanian Aboriginal) community because they include objects made by ancestors, and words spoken by ancestors to Westlake and recorded in his field notebooks. Stories in Stone was created to improve access to Westlake’s Tasmanian collections for the Palawa community with whom author Rebe Taylor had worked closely since 1999. Nonetheless, the structural and technical design of Stories in Stone was not Palawa-led. It was driven by Australian and international archiving standards; by stipulations set out by the collecting institutions; and by the stories of collecting and subsequent scholarship on the collections. In 2023, Stories in Stone is offline, and the authors are planning a relaunch. This time they aim to reach beyond their original aim of providing archival access to the Palawa community, and work with Palawa community to co-design how that access is delivered. This consultative work will be done at the University of Tasmania, where Palawa advisors and other Indigenous scholars have been integral to developing international Indigenous data sovereignty principals. This article precedes those formal discussions and thus offers a timely reflection on the original aims and design of Stories in Stone as well as an extensive analysis of broader changes in the management and dissemination of First Nations collections and culture. Such changes include: international human rights frameworks; movements supporting data and archival sovereignty; co-designed archival technologies; and increased focus on archives as process not merely product. These developments will lay the foundations for the next version of Stories in Stone, which aims to go beyond access, scholarship, and standards by helping to facilitate First Nations’ aspirations for dignity, sovereignty, and self-determination.

The 24th International Seaweed Symposium - ‘Seaweeds in a changing world’

The 24th edition of the International Seaweed Symposium (ISS), an academic-industry event that dates back to 1952, was held for the first time in Oceania. The local organizing committee chaired by Professor Catriona Hurd, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, and Professor Michael A. Borowitzka, Murdoch University, Western Australia worked tirelessly to curate a program that balanced scientific rigor with engaging discussions, providing ample opportunities for networking and collaboration. “Seaweeds in a changing world” was the theme of this symposium, participants from 48 countries from all over the world attended this symposium from 19-24 February 2023. More than 576 on-site and 207 virtual participants registered for the Symposium who contributed to the success of this event. The International Seaweed Association (ISA) ensures the continued development of seaweed and its benefits and serves as a bridge between research academia and industry. The ISA is ready to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of the ISS and is also proud to announce that the 25th International Seaweed Symposium (ISS) will be held in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 4-9 May, 2025 with the Local support of Ocean Networks Canada, Cascadia Seaweed, and the Pacific Seaweed Industry Association (https://iss25.com).

ECR Spotlight – Harriet Goodrich

ECR Spotlight is a series of interviews with early-career authors from a selection of papers published in Journal of Experimental Biology and aims to promote not only the diversity of early-career researchers (ECRs) working in experimental biology but also the huge variety of animals and physiological systems that are essential for the ‘comparative’ approach. Harriet Goodrich is an author on ‘ Specific dynamic action as the energy cost of digestion or growth?’, published in JEB. Harriet is a lecturer in aquaculture production and aquatic animal physiology at the University of Tasmania, Australia, investigating how integrative, comparative and eco-physiology can be used as a tool to address global challenges in aquaculture production, fisheries management and conservation.

Online, Experiential Sustainability Education Can Improve Students’ Self-Reported Environmental Attitudes, Behaviours and Wellbeing

Educating for sustainability is a critical step in moving towards a more sustainable future for humanity. As higher education moves into the online space, education for sustainability can reach larger and more diverse audiences; the University of Tasmania’s Diploma of Sustainable Living is one such example. However, while sustainability education has the potential to impact student attitudes and behaviours about sustainability, these impacts are rarely evaluated. Here, we present the outcome of a study evaluating the impacts of taking a fully online unit, Backyard Biodiversity (KPZ006), part of the Diploma of Sustainable Living. In this study, we analyse 265 paired, before-after surveys to examine changes in student biodiversity knowledge, attitudes (including connectedness to nature), pro-environmental behaviours, and wellbeing. We found statistically significant increases in students’ subjective knowledge and agency around biodiversity management and sustainability attitudes, including the perceived importance of biodiversity and nature connectedness. Students also reported more pro-environmental behaviours after taking the unit and many believed that taking the unit improved their wellbeing. We attribute these impacts to the unit design, which emphasised nature-based experiential learning designed to facilitate wellbeing benefits. While this study is specific to our online unit and the students who completed the survey, the results suggest that sustainability education—even fully online units—if carefully designed can create real-world impacts for sustainability and student wellbeing.

Prospecting CCS Project in Indonesia: A Case Study in Meratus Mountains, South Borneo

Long-term extensive carbon dioxide exposure inflicts diseases for humans and endangers the ecosystem. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a breakthrough to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. The purpose of this study is to describe the CCS principles and suitability of this work in Indonesia, especially in the Meratus Mountains. The studied region is the major area of the Meratus Geopark. Selected ultramafic rocks from the Meratus Geopark were analyzed using X-Ray Fluorescence in the University of Tasmania. CCS project should consider the minimum implication for conservation strategy of geopark. Geologically, CCS is adapted through direct sequestration and carbon mineralization. Mafic-ultramafic lithologies are the best option for mineral carbonation. Most of the basaltic rocks in Indonesia are situated near active volcanoes that are heavily risky for CCS works. Ultramafic in the range of Meratus Geopark is clearly suitable for CCS because of its large expanse, far away from active volcanoes, without significant nickel mining activity. The project would promote geohazards and climate change issues of Meratus Geopark. In-situ CSS mineral carbonation should be located avoiding the Sultan Adam Mandiangin Serpentinite Geosite to nourish the geoconservation of Meratus Geopark. A successful CCS adaptation would be good evidence for the Indonesian government implementing the Paris Agreement. Keywords: Carbon Capture and Storage, In-situ mineral carbonation, ultramafic, Meratus Geopark.

ECR Spotlight – Alexander Hansson

ECR Spotlight is a series of interviews with early-career authors from a selection of papers published in Journal of Experimental Biology and aims to promote not only the diversity of early-career researchers (ECRs) working in experimental biology during our centenary year but also the huge variety of animals and physiological systems that are essential for the ‘comparative’ approach. Alexander Hansson is an author on ‘ Sex and early-life conditions shape telomere dynamics in an ectotherm’, published in JEB. Alexander conducted the research described in this article while a PhD student in Mats Olsson's lab at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Erik Wapstra's lab at the University of Tasmania, Australia. He has a particular interest in the effects of early-life conditions on telomere dynamics and life history traits in ectotherms.

The drive and passion of Faisal Khan to improve onshore and offshore process industries' safety levels

AbstractIn 1997, a number of articles were co‐authored and published in leading process safety journals (e.g., Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, Process Safety Progress, and Process Safety and Environmental Protection) by a young and enthusiastic scientist, Faisal Khan—motivated by a drive to improve the safety practices of the time after the 1984 Bhopal Disaster—and a well‐known Professor and Scientist from the Centre for Pollution Control and Environmental Engineering at Pondicherry University, Dr. Shahid Abbas Abbasi. It began a new horizon in the process safety domain, as this young scientist continued to excel in this field and shed light with numerous inventions and by training several hundreds of next‐generation safety professionals as a Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, University of Tasmania, and Texas A&amp;M University. This article is written in honour of Dr. Faisal Khan. Capturing the fullness of Dr. Khan briefly is an arduous task; however, the authors of the current article have attempted to describe his personality, background, and contributions based on their professional interactions with him.

Exploring barriers to the effective use of computer-based simulation in pharmacy education: a mixed-methods case study.

At the University of Tasmania (UTAS), pharmacy education traditionally relies on placements to provide students with hands-on experience. However, these placements have become increasingly limited due to logistical challenges and growing student numbers. Computer-based simulation (CBS) has the potential to offer a scalable, effective alternative to enhance learning and critical thinking. However, integrating CBS in pharmacy education faces several barriers that must be addressed for successful implementation. To gain insight into pharmacy educators' and students' views regarding the barriers, and potential solutions, to integrating CBS in pharmacy practice education. This mixed-methods case study involved semi-structured interviews with pharmacy educators and quantitative surveys with pharmacy students. The data underwent thematic coding for interview transcripts and statistical analysis for survey responses. The findings were integrated by examining convergence, complementarity, and discrepancy, revealing insights into how pharmacy students and educators perceive implementation barriers and improvement strategies for CBS. Ten interviews were conducted, and 75 survey responses were collected, with a 62.5% response rate. Key barriers to CBS integration included educators' heavy workload, scepticism about CBS's educational value, and general integration challenges. Students, however, showed high acceptance of CBS, with 70.7% agreeing that CBS could assess their knowledge, 69.3% emphasising its role in developing problem-solving skills, and 80% viewing CBS as a complement to classroom study. Proposed solutions for enhancing CBS uptake included additional institutional support by appointing dedicated simulation technicians, leveraging champions to advocate for CBS, and aligning CBS with educational objectives. A significant gap between students' readiness and educators' hesitancy to use CBS in pharmacy education was identified. While students are eager to adopt new technologies, educators expressed reservations, primarily due to workload concerns and uncertainties about the efficacy of CBS. The feedback from educators suggests that institutions may see improved uptake by employing dedicated support personnel and initiating targeted training programs. Future research should focus on exploring barriers and facilitators, using larger and more diverse samples, and gaining deeper insights into decision-makers' perspectives to enhance the integration and efficacy of CBS in pharmacy education.

IN LIEU OF FOREWORD A FABLE

The author of the fable published below is Genevieve Burley, an Australian writer and former lawyer with a masters in law from Cambridge University. She is now retraining as a sociologist at the University of Tasmania. In her spare time, she writes for the university’s student magazine and for the Medi[1]um publication An Injustice!

Developing a Model to Improve the Efficiency of Maintenance Management for Service Buildings Using BIM and Power BI: A Case Study

Developing a Model to Improve the Efficiency of Maintenance Management for Service Buildings Using BIM and Power BI: A Case Study

Workforce training through massive open online courses: can education generate collective hope for better dementia care?

AbstractThe personal care workforce is generally poorly paid, often unregulated, minimally trained and unprepared for the challenges of working with people with dementia. When it comes to accredited healthcare degrees, established programs have little space to accommodate emerging health priorities, such as dementia, in an already crowded curriculum. This creates the perfect storm of a significantly unprepared healthcare workforce as we look towards an expected 139 million cases of dementia worldwide by 2050 (www.alzint.org).Could freely available, online, evidence‐based dementia care education be a solution, offering hope, knowledge and skills to carers across the globe? In 2013, the University of Tasmania launched an Understanding Dementia Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Over 7 weeks participants increase their knowledge of dementia: its causes, symptoms and ways of responding to the needs of people living with the condition. This award‐winning MOOC has world‐leading completion rates, been rated amongst the top MOOCs of all time (Class Central), and reached over 330,000 people around the globe. As well as offering free MOOCS, there are low or no‐cost university level education options in a Diploma and Bachelor of Dementia Care. Targeted to the Australian Aged Care workforce, but open to any student, these fully online programs attract personal care workers, health professionals and family members of people living with dementia. Thousands of students have enrolled, primarily for professional and practice development reasons and to provide better care for family members or friends with dementia. These programs were created specifically for learners of all ages and from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and designed to facilitate success and progress. They are scalable and are being translated into a number of languages and cultures. With this approach, one click at a time, we offer hope through accessible education for those that need it most. In this sense, education is considered an intervention ‐ improving dementia care and awareness, decreasing stigma, and in driving a public health approach for dementia prevention.

Rural origin student representation in health courses at the University of Tasmania: 2011-2020.

To describe longitudinal trends in the admission and completion of domestic Tasmanian rural origin students in health courses at the University of Tasmania (UTAS). A retrospective audit of records for all domestic Tasmanian students admitted to, or who completed a health course offered by UTAS between 2011 and 2020 was conducted. Data extracted from student records included gender, age, Indigenous background, rural origin (based on residential address outside of Launceston or Hobart at the time of application), health discipline, year of admission and/or completion. Data were analysed in STATA. Between 2011 and 2020, 7516 domestic Tasmanian students were admitted to health courses at UTAS, of which 22.6% were rural origin (vs. a rural population of 36.7%). Students admitted were mostly female (77.0%) and studying nursing (51.1%). Rural origin students were more likely to study at the regional campus in Launceston than in Hobart, the capital city (OR, 3.79 [3.4-4.3, p < 0.00]). Over this same period, 5086 students completed a health course. There was little difference in completion rates among regional vs. rural origin students (OR, 1.04 [1.0-1.1, p < 0.00]); however, completion rates decreased with increasing remoteness. Indigenous and male students were less likely to complete than non-Indigenous (OR, 0.73 [0.7-0.8, p < 0.05]) and female students (OR, 0.97 [1.0-1.0, p < 0.05]) respectively. Tasmanian rural origin students are admitted to a range of health courses at UTAS and many complete. However, additional measures are needed to attract a greater number of local rural origin students to study health courses and to support them through to course completion.

Trace Element Composition of Pyrite from Selected Black Shale and Chert Exposures in the Central Belt of Peninsular Malaysia: Implications for Mineral Exploration

Sedimentary and hydrothermal pyrites contained in selected Malaysian black shale and cherts have been analysed using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma (LA ICP-MS) and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) at the University of Tasmania, Australia. This study shows that gold is concentrated in sedimentary and hydrothermal pyrite in the Middle Permian to Late Triassic black shales and Devonian cherts. According to LA ICP-MS analysis, gold contents in pyrite varied from 0.5 to 0.8 ppm Au in the Permo-Triassic black shale and between 0.2 and 0.8 ppm Au in the Devonian cherts. The lowest level of gold (0.3 ppm Au) was observed in the Permo-Triassic black shale that crops out at the Selinsing gold mine. In the Permo-Triassic period, the selenium contents display one peak (average range: 63.4–103.4 ppm Se) that is far from any gold deposit and one lowest point (average: 5.3 ppm Se) at the Selinsing gold deposit. In the Devonian period, the selenium content in sedimentary pyrite shows a peak (72.6–243.8 ppm Se) in the cherts. EPMA and LA ICP-MS data show consistent Se content variation in the Devonian and Permo-Triassic periods. Using selenium as a proxy for atmospheric oxygenation, the lowest level of Se content in the Permo-Triassic period is believed to decrease atmospheric oxygenation, as recorded in sedimentary pyrite found in black shale from the Selinsing gold deposit. The two peaks of selenium contents are interpreted as periods of increased atmospheric oxygenation. From an exploration perspective, the concentration of gold in sedimentary pyrites makes them sources for gold in the central sedimentary basin of Peninsular Malaysia. Therefore, the two maximum levels of Se and gold content during Permo-Triassic and Devonian times correspond to two stratigraphic levels of potential for orogenic gold mineralisation in the district. The EPMA data show significant values of Co over Ni in pyrite from the Gua Musang, Semantan, and Karak formation black shales, indicating a volcanic contribution of Co during the formation of sedimentary pyrite. Based on the current study’s findings, gold exploration should not be restricted to areas in and around the Selinsing gold mine, Buffalo Reef, Penjom mine, Tersang mine, and Bukit Koman mine but can be extended to BRSZ Units 1 and 2, Gua Musang, and Karak formations in the central belt of Peninsular Malaysia.

Marius of Salerno

Journal Article Marius of Salerno Get access Rod Thomson Rod Thomson University of Tasmania, Australia Rod.Thomson@utas.edu.au Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, gjad026, https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjad026 Published: 03 June 2023

The Health Literacy of First Year Physiotherapy and Speech Pathology Students and Their Perceived Future Roles in Supporting Their Clients' Health Literacy.

Allied health professionals are well positioned to assess and support their clients' health literacy (HL); however, they report being deficient in HL knowledge and skills. To explore allied health students' HL and their perceptions of their roles in supporting clients' HL. A mixed-methods cross-sectional study was undertaken in August 2022 amongst allied health students enrolled in graduate-entry masters programs at the University of Tasmania. Data collected included the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) (n = 30) and qualitative telephone interviews (n = 6). Allied health students' confidence in the knowledge domain of the HLQ was rated as 28.57 from a maximum possible score of 50. Similarly, the students' confidence in the skills domain of the HLQ was rated as 14.87 from a maximum possible score of 25. Four themes were generated from the qualitative interviews: (1) valuing HL, (2) an innate part of their future roles, (3) contributors to their own HL, and (4) advocacy and their decision to study allied health. This study provides a preliminary insight into the HL of allied health students and highlights the strong perception held by allied health students that supporting clients' HL is a large component of their future roles.