Using a collaborative investigation and design strategy to support digital resource development in an online unit of study

This investigation proposes the architecture for a collaborative assembly design to shorten the life cycle in product development stages. The architecture adopts STEP-based data representation and CAD feature extraction to enable the implementation of engineering change over the Internet. The collaborative design framework and design change propagation method, which are key to the proposed architecture, are discussed and implemented. The collaborative design approach can greatly shorten a product’s life cycle and improve the productivity of an enterprise.

Digital health interventions have enormous potential to support patients and the public in achieving their health goals. Nonetheless, many digital health interventions are failing to effectively engage patients and the public. One solution that has been proposed is to directly involve patients and the public in the design process of these digital health interventions. Although there is consensus that involving patients and the public in collaborative design is valuable, design teams have little guidance on how to maximize the value of their collaborative design work. The main objective of this study was to understand how the value of patient and public involvement in digital health design can be maximized, from the perspective of design leaders and patient-public partners. Using a qualitative descriptive methodology, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 design leaders and 9 patient-public partners. Interviewees agreed that involving patients and the public was valuable, however, they questioned if current collaborative methods were optimized to ensure maximal value. Interviewees suggested that patient and public collaborative design can add value through four different mechanisms: (1) by allowing the design process to be an empowering intervention itself, (2) by ensuring that the digital health intervention will be effectively engaging for users, (3) by ensuring that the digital health intervention will be seamlessly implemented in practice, and (4) by allowing patient-public collaborations extend beyond the initial product design. Overall, interviewees emphasized that although collaborative design has historically focused on improving the digital health product itself, patients and the public have crucial insights on implementation planning as well as how collaborative design can be used as its own empowering intervention. The results of this paper provide clarity about the ways that patient and public collaborative design can be made more valuable. Digital health design teams can use these results to be more intentional about their collaborative design approaches.

This thesis deals with the broad question of how Australian universities and their teachers are meeting the changing market conditions of the 21st century. This examination occurs in the context of changing legislative and regulatory circumstances and strategic efforts to meet the broader goals of 'graduate attributes' and increased accessibility of tertiary learning. The underlying query of this thesis is how technology can assist in transcending traditional models of higher education teaching delivery. Related to this is a focus on collaborative learning, with the question of its desirability and what it might offer in terms of improved outcomes relevant to teaching and learning in higher education. These questions are primarily discussed in the context of how online environments can aid collaboration and result in both discipline specific and generic outcomes. Through a case study of Australian International Relations (IR) and Politics teachers at the undergraduate level, this thesis finds that there has been limited innovation in the online delivery of these subjects and that there is little consistency in any e-learning approaches that have been adopted. In particular, collaborative online learning is infrequently pursued. This is surprising because in a climate of increasingly market-driven higher education, collaborative online tools may offer a solution to many of the pressures teaching academics face. These findings point to a significant gap between the strategic goals expressed by universities and what is actually being delivered to undergraduates. This includes meeting ambitions in 'graduate attributes', satisfying regulatory oversight, contending with financial pressures and the societal drive to make learning more accessible to a wider audience. The thesis also examines some of the barriers teaching staff feel prevent them from utilising online collaborative methods, including perceptions of time poverty, support, skills, institutional factors and peer experience. The findings indicate that teachers of IR/Politics feel little incentive to implement online collaborations, chiefly because of time constraints,but also a prevailing sense that such innovations are not worth their investment in terms of career advancement and institutional support. Unfamiliarity with the technology involved serves to exacerbate these perceptions to the point where investing any effort in the pursuit of online approaches is seen as wasteful. A theoretical Technology-Assisted Teaching Adoption Model is proposed as a means of demonstrating the barriers to innovation uncovered by this research. Finally, this thesis explores online role play as a possible solution to some of these barriers perceived by IR and Politics teachers, as well as how such an approach could address the market factors currently shaping Australian higher education. There is strong and consistent support within the literature for role play as a collaborative learning strategy with identified pedagogical benefits. In the disciplines of IR and Politics, where much of the subject matter being studied concerns the concept of people and entities communicating and co-operating, role plays can help generate deeper and broader understanding. The thesis concludes by making recommendations as to how Australian universities can move towards fostering online innovation amongst teaching staff, both to better meet institutional goals, as well as serve their students better by producing qualities conducive to their future careers.

This article reports on a case of participatory self-directed online learning within the context of a graduate-level instructional technology course. The course was about online learning environments and relied on both asynchronous and synchronous technologies. In this case, the instructor and students engaged in collaborative course design through one of the assignments where student teams and the instructor led one week’s worth of course activities and discussions. This article begins with a discussion of the literature on participatory self-directed online learning. Then, the article presents an overview of the course design, detailed discussion of the assignment that framed student participatory self-directed learning and two examples of student assignments. The framing question for organising this case was as follows: What lessons can a team of graduate students and the instructor learn about self-directed participatory online learning from a collaborative design project? The article ends with the overall lessons learned from the case and implications to future design of online activities.

In collaborative design, participants usually have different backgrounds and standpoints. Due to these differences, it is hard for participants to mutually understand intentions, and they must make a lot of effort to reach a mutual agreement on the design. Thus, the efficiency of the design processes is decreased. We propose a framework to support participants in mutual understanding by grasping and showing the differences among their intentions in a collaboration. A system based on the proposed framework has the following characteristics: it facilitates mutual understanding among participants by presuming their intentions and by communicating them in an understandable form, it visualizes the differences in concepts among the participants, and it progresses the collaboration in an interactive way.

A collaborative design project has been implemented in a junior-level materials selection and manufacturing course. The team-based design problem involved the design of playground equipment for elementary school children. Focus groups of elementary students and a review of applicable construction standards were used to set design requirements. Each team comprised undergraduate on-campus students, undergraduate distance education students and junior/senior high school technology students. Initial design choices were made by the entire group. Subsequent calculations of stress, deformations, etc. to refine the design as well as choices of materials and manufacturing processes were primarily the purview of the undergraduate students. Drafting and integration of the design segments into a complete computer model was the responsibility of the high school students. Continuous communication between the groups was required for the process to be successful. This collaboration was facilitated via online forums and site visits. An overview of the project structure is presented along with a summary of the project outcomes and recommendations for improving the process.

International audience

Ontology-based assembly design and information sharing for collaborative product development

Teacher self-efficacy is understood as a teacher’s belief in his or her ability to successfully accomplish a specific teaching task in a particular context. Studies have been undertaken to determine preservice teachers’ self-efficacy in particular curriculum areas, but none have been completed that relate to the teaching of Religious Education (RE). This article reports on the findings of research undertaken with a group of preservice teachers preparing to teach RE in Catholic secondary schools in Melbourne, Victoria. The preservice teachers (PSTs) were enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Religious Education (GCRE), which is the qualification undertaken by preservice teachers at Australian Catholic University (ACU). The course consists of four units—two in theology and two in RE. A group of preservice teachers at Australian Catholic University who were enrolled in the GCRE were asked to participate in the research about their self-efficacy to teach RE. The results of the research outlines the importance of self-efficacy to the task of teaching and to teaching of the specialist area of RE in Catholic schools. The outcomes of the research indicated that the group of preservice RE teachers had higher levels of self-efficacy to teach RE at the end of the unit than they had at the beginning. This finding, which confirmed research conducted in other curriculum areas, was that preservice teachers’ self-efficacy was enhanced by their participation in the unit.

In the built environment (BE) sector, the co-creation process of design demands understanding of requirements (as viewed by parties involved), mobilisation of tacit knowledge, negotiation, and complex exchange of information. The need to collaborate over distance has further exacerbated the complexity of the process, and, in itself, represents a significant challenge for BE professionals who are increasingly expected to undertake this process within globally distributed virtual teams. The research aims to identify key success factors and develop guidance for international collaborative design projects, via the implementation of collaborative design courses in UK and Canadian universities over three academic years. Questionnaire surveys, focus groups, observation of online meetings, personal reflections provided data for the analysis. The findings reveal the significance of the perceived risk of collaboration and a difference in preferred communication mode between architects and civil/structural engineers. These findings suggest the impact of training in the subject discipline, and that the opportunity for co-located working has helped the development of trust. The guidance is aimed at BE educators who wish to implement this activity in their courses.

The emergence of the metaverse as a three-dimensional virtual space has significantly disrupted the paradigm of digital architecture, challenging the constraints of physical space and fostering the development of more immersive, interactive, and collaborative design approaches. However, conceptual disparities and methodological limitations persist in addressing the integration of this technology into architectural practice. This study aims to identify, categorize, and analyze academic literature on the relationship between the metaverse and digital architecture. The research employs a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method using a structured approach, including inclusion and exclusion criteria, keyword search strategies, and content analysis from reputable scholarly sources. The data reviewed comprise literature from the past five years discussing metaverse architecture, digital design innovation, virtual environments, immersive technologies, and future architectural practices. The findings reveal that the metaverse offers the potential to redefine architectural design through user experience and spatial immersion—dimensions that remain underexplored in prior studies. This study also presents a research roadmap and recommendations for developing inclusive, collaborative, and sustainable metaverse design models for the future of digital architecture.

This study employed the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework to guide the collaborative design process between preservice and practicing teachers. The teams designed technological pedagogical mathematics tools (TPMTs) for inquiry-based learning based on the syllabi for secondary mathematics. The content of the chat messages of preservice and practicing teachers was coded with different dimensions of TPACK to unpack the process of how the teams arrived at critical design decisions. The TPMTs were further evaluated by 30 practicing mathematics teachers, with respect to three criteria: (1) technology tools and curriculum goals, (2) technology tools and teaching activities, and (3) the fit between pedagogy and technology. The content analysis revealed that the collaborative design process involved three clear stages, demarcated by the different versions of the TMPTs: replacement, enhancement, and transformation. Practicing teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge played a crucial role in the design of pedagogically sound tools, and for refining the initial TPACK of preservice teachers. The subsequent evaluations supported the positive pedagogical values of the TPMTs. Overall, this study contributes to TPACK research with a case where the collaborative design process with distributed expert knowledge can be synthesised to create pedagogically sound technological tools for mathematics.

This case study presents empirical data regarding the experiences of female academic managers in an Australian regional university. In Australia regional universities are situated in rural towns or cities outside the seven state capital cities and the national capital. This study is intended as a basis for further research in relation to women working in universities and has informed the development of a survey of female middle managers in Australian universities, which will be reported in another paper. This case study focuses on female academics in front-line roles to more senior management roles in what still remains a maledominated management context. The study is also set within the context of a number of pressures on Australian universities, including increased student numbers, decreased government funding, corporatisation and managerialism. The broader restructuring of tertiary education is often accompanied by organizational restructuring at institutional level and this is the case in this study. The management lives of a number of women academics, who are front-line and more senior managers, are examined in the context of sectoral and organizational restructuring, the competitive expectations of managing in new times, and in the context of working in a university in an Australian regional area. Discussion examines human resource development practices and other experiences that have prepared the women for their current roles. Issues surrounding leadership and management styles, workplace culture, work/life balance, and work identity are examined. Conclusions are drawn about the organizational value attributed to the management activities undertaken by these women, the paradoxes a number identify in their roles, and the price several believe they have paid in undertaking managerial leadership

Chapter 4 - Why Should I Complete a Survey? Non-responses With Student Surveys

The paper is devoted to the interplay issues between ontology engineering and cognitive psychology. It describes the study targeted at new visual structuring paradigm of ontology development. Such approach is formed with regard to personal cognitive features. The research was performed within the KOMET (knowledge and content structuring via methods of collaborative ontology design) project. Two phases of research have been done within the project. First was devoted to study of correlations between the expert's personal cognitive style features and the peculiarities of expert's subject domain ontology development procedure. The second deals with research on the relationship between the expert's individual cognitive style and the collective ontology design (including the design performed in groups consisting of experts either of similar or of different cognitive styles). The results of this research project can be applied to organising the collaborative ontology design, data and content structuring and other group analytical work.