Posts By Tom Worthington

Australian Government Information Policy

The Australian Information Commissioner has invited comment on “Towards an Australian Government Information Policy” by 1 March 2011. The paper provides a very comprehensive overview of Australian and overseas policies and initiatives for information access and discussion of the issues. It is 65 pages and is provided as a very efficiently formatted 226 Kbytes webRead… Read more »

Volunteer flood mapping for Queensland

The MAPS mapping volunteers have posted an interesting report on their work mapping the Queensland floods:… RCQ created a project that involved volunteers from GISCorps and MAPS. This project produced a number of documents which outlined possible scenarios, hardware and software requirements, etc. The GISCorp volunteers also focused on mapping the capacisty of RCQ EmergencyRead… Read more »

Which students succeed at online learning

Johnelle Bryson Welsh’s dissertation “Identifying Factors That Predict Student Success in a Community College Online Distance Learning Course” (2007) while researching US colleges, provides useful insights into students of e-learning courses generally. Demographic variables (such as age and gender) do not effect course results. The online students tend to older, married, worked full-time, and OriginalRead… Read more »

Which students succeed at online learning

Johnelle Bryson Welsh’s dissertation “IDENTIFYING FACTORS THAT PREDICT STUDENT SUCCESS IN ACOMMUNITY COLLEGE ONLINE DISTANCE LEARNING COURSE” (2007) while researching US colleges, provides useful insights into students of e-learning courses generally. Demographic variables (such as age and gender) do not effect course results. The online students tend to older, married, worked full-time, and Original post

Flood affected archives and libraries

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) has complied a List of libraries in flood affected areas for the recent Queensland and Victorian floods. The Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) is compiling a similar Register of Disaster Affected Archives. The Register will be used by Blue Shield Australia with helping save cultural heritage. Organisations areRead… Read more »

Better solar cells with Buddhist singing bowls

Niraj Lal, University of Cambridge, will talk on “Making solar cells better with Buddhist singing bowls” at the Australian National University in Canberra, 3pm, 10 February 2011. The title of the talk refers to the bowl shaped nano-structures used to make the solar cells more efficient:”Making solar cells better with Buddhist singing bowls “Niraj LalRead… Read more »

Evaluating Teaching

Greetings from the ANU College of Engineering & Computer Scienc, where Lauren Kane from the Flexible Learning Unit is laading an Education Design Workshop on Evaluation.ANU has a “Policy: Student Feedback on Teaching and Learning”, “Guideline: Student Surveys on Teaching and Learning” and a system for student surveys. The standard surveys include “Student Experience ofRead… Read more »

Bike Share Station in Melbourne on Oprah

Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure has one scene where Oprah walks with the Prime Minister Julia Gillard along the Yarra River in Melbourne. The walk past a row of shiny bright blue bicycles. This is an automated bicycle rental facility (called a “station”), part of the Melbourne Bike Share next to Sandridge Bridge, at Southbank (justRead… Read more »