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The March 2003 edition of ultiBASE is now online at http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Journal/journal.htm. This edition features four papers; three of which were presented at the 6th Pacific Rim First Year in Higher Education Conference, held at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand in July 2002. Information about the related first year research can be found at http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/APFYP/.

Please remember that ultiBASE is a peer-reviewed journal and is always interested in receiving papers on any topic of interest related to teaching and learning in the post-secondary education sector.

Abstracts

Reframing the First Year Experience: The critical role of 'recognition work' in achieving curricular justice by Henk Eijkman, Division of Communication and Education, University of Canberra.
http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Articles/march03/eijkman1.htm

ABSTRACT:
For many non-mainstream students, the First Year Experience (FYE) constitutes an induction into an esoteric community of practice. It represents a fundamental challenge to their social identity, and as such is often fraught with debilitating frustrations and failure. This paper, centred on an in-service diploma course for police officers as a case study, explores the nature of this challenge, and formulates a response that promotes structural equity in educational outcomes. It argues for the reframing the FYE around 'recognition work'- the making visible by students and educators, of who they are and what they are doing vis-a-vis academic discourses. This reconceptualisation allows us to foreground issues of Discourse dissonance and construct equitable designs for learning. This case study illustrates the need for a critical reframing and its broader relevance to educational praxis in mainstream as well as professional education courses in higher education.

Assuring Quality in the Casualisation of Teaching, Learning and Assessment: Towards Best Practice for the First Year Experience by Sally Kift, Assistant Dean, Teaching and Learning, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology
http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Articles/march03/kift1.htm

ABSTRACT:
Increasingly, the task of mediating the complexity and diversity of the first year experience has fallen to casual or sessional academic staff who are, themselves, often embarking on their own first year experience (of teaching) or, at best, in the early stages of their own transition to the new role of tertiary educator. As the rate of casualisation in the tertiary sector grows exponentially in response to the endemic diminution in public funding, the imperative of assuring the quality of the casual teaching and learning environment has become critical. The response has been to resource management initiatives and teaching strategies that focus on innovative and effective ways to train, support and nurture this integral staff cohort in recognition of the pivotal role they play in delivering increasingly complex and resource intensive programs. This paper will examine some of the issues that have arisen and identify some models of good practice that have been developed in a law faculty case study.

The 'deficit-discourse' shift: university teachers and their role in helping first year students persevere and succeed in the new university culture - Jill Lawrence, Faculty of Arts/Student Services, University of Southern Queensland.
http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Articles/march03/lawrence1.htm

ABSTRACT:
This paper argues that the contemporary Australian university constitutes a new and unfamiliar culture for the increasing numbers and diversity of students accessing it. Traditional university responses to this increasing participation, however, often conceptualise diversity in terms of scholastic deficits or a lack of academic literacy. Inherent is the assumption that there is one mainstream discourse and that languages and literacies other than those of the dominant mainstream represent a deficit or a deficiency on the part of students who do not possess them. An alternative approach, utilising Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) re-conceptualises the contemporary university as a dynamic culture, subject to ongoing and rapid change and encompassing a multiplicity of diverse cultures and sub-cultures. The students' transition to it is then re-positioned as one of gaining familiarity with, engaging and mastering the new culture's multiple discourses. This paper will argue that academics share a responsibility in this process, collaborating with students to help them access and negotiate, and ultimately, to succeed, by mastering and demonstrating the new university discourses.

Student perceptions of the use of online learning technology in their courses by John Kenny, Professional Development Team, Learning Technology Services, RMIT University,
Melbourne, Australia.
http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Articles/march03/kenny2.htm

ABSTRACT:
As a key part of the implementation of the RMIT Teaching and Learning Strategy (1998-2000), the RMIT Distributed Learning System (DLS) was launched in 1999. Since then, the use of the DLS has grown rapidly. Student feedback data is needed to constantly improve the system to ensure the student learning experience is positive and to inform staff development programs and course designers.

This study reports on the first successful attempt to obtain a feedback from a substantial number of the student users of the DLS. 620 students responded to the questionnaire about their perceptions of the effect on their learning of using the DLS. The data was gathered using an online questionnaire accessible from the studentsDLS login page. This investigation will form part of a longitudinal study of student feedback concerning the effects of online technology on student learning patterns at RMIT.

Mark Laidler
(mark.laidler@rmit.edu.au)