Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Monash University'

This folio presents three studies (a dissertation and two electives) which use qualitative case study methodologies to investigate technology adoption from three perspectives. Central to all three studies is the study context of Monash University. The Dissertation explores adoption of web-based learning and teaching approaches from the perspective of teaching academics as they incorporate these to facilitate their students’ learning. The study investigates teaching academics’ reasons for adopting these new technologies, the factors that influenced their adoption decisions, and the challenges they were confronted with, including the contributing factors that impacted on their adoption decisions. The study shows that while contextual factors such as power and politics of the school, department, faculty and the institution impact on adoption, supportive organisational infrastructures and policy frameworks are necessary to encourage adoption, including wider adoption. In turn, on going staff development, adoption of new work practices and being adaptive to changing work environments are key demands made on teaching academics as a result of adopting web-based teaching approaches. Elective 1, a smaller study, leads on from the dissertation and examines the impact of technology adoption on the evolving role of educational designers. The study identifies the educational designers’ role change in assisting teaching academics to move from more conventional forms of teaching to more technology based learner-centred collaborative models. An important aspect of the study is the managers’ perspectives of this role in a university that has adopted a strong flexible learning and technology policy. The findings show that educational designers now work as project managers in larger teams consisting of a wider range of professionals, their expanded role in introducing technology into learning designs, providing staff development in the area, and giving technical help including advice on copyright and intellectual property issues. Elective 2 explores student readiness to adopt these technologies for learning. The study is designed to achieve an understanding of three broad categories of learners from a first year design unit: (1) South East Asian and East Asian students, (2) all other international students, and (3) local Australian students are studied to examine their readiness for modes of learning that are flexible; their approaches to study in a creative discipline area; and their openness to using technology. Findings of the study are discussed under the key themes – dependence on the teacher and classroom environment, flexible learning and working alone, structure, communication and work patterns. The study concludes by discussing the possible cultural attributes that have an impact on the learning. The three studies found that the institution, its people, structures and processes must all adapt, evolve and grow in order to provide effective, engaging, student-centred web-based learning environments. Students in turn must be enabled to manage their study, make use of the technologies and maximise their learning experience. The findings revealed the stage of technology use reached at Monash University at the time of the study through the voices of the teaching academics, educational designers and students.

Technology enhanced learning has become one of the dominant modes of teaching and learning in higher education today. Indeed, it seems that no higher education institution can survive without embracing the new educational technologies that have come to define teaching and learning in the knowledge era. E-learning as such, has become one of the dominant forms of delivering teaching and learning content. Rooted in established pedagogical foundations, e-learning adopts the constructivist approach to teaching and learning which attributes the construction of knowledge to learner experiences. Thus learners construct their own understanding and knowledge through interaction with others. As universities adopt the e-learning approach, libraries are also forced to find ways to deliver their content in ways and in platforms where the new generation of students interact. The focus of this research is to find out how Monash University Library has risen to the challenge of integrating its vast resources and services through the medium of e-learning, especially pertaining to the delivery of Information Research and Learning Skills (IRLS). The research aims to find out what the challenges, strengths and limitations are in this mode of information and content delivery. But the most pertinent question the study seeks to answer is “What is the effectiveness of e-learning in the provision of IRLS”. The results of the study culminate in a few suggestions by the researcher which could be employed to better assess the effectiveness of e-learning in IRLS.
Mini Dissertation (MIT)--University of Pretoria, 2015.
Information Science
MIT
Unrestricted

Der Vortrag wurde auf dem 5. Workshop DissOnline: Abschlussworkshop des DFG-Projektes "Aufbau einer Koordinierungsstelle für elektronische Hochschulschriften" am 25. Februar 2005 gehalten. Der Datentransfer elektronischer Hochschulschriften an die Deutsche Bibliothek (DDB) sowie den Südwestdeutschen Bibliotheksverbund (SWB) ist erläutert. Die Technologie zur Erfassung, Aufbereitung und Datenübermittlung ist für das Meldeinterface DDB und SWB äquivalent. Dabei erfolgt die automatische Vergabe von Persistent Identifiern (URN) für jedes Dokument. Die per Onlineformular vom Autor eingetragenen Metadaten werden zur Abholung und Speicherung auf dem Server der Deutschen Bibliothek in das Format XMetaDiss transformiert und über die OAI Schnittstelle zum Download bereitgestellt. Für die in MONARCH achivierten Dissertationen und Habilitationen ist die Langzeitverfügbarkeit und der persistente Zugriff auf den Volltext gesichert.

Vorstellung des Volltextarchivs MONARCH der Technischen Universität Chemnitz. Auf der Basis von Betriebs- und Entwicklungsprinzipien wird MONARCH aus Nutzer- und Bibliothekssicht charakterisiert. Speziell wird auf die Aspekte eines Autors/Archivierenden eingegangen, z.Bsp. workflow und Statistik. Im zweiten Teil werden Interna dargelegt, wie Integration in die Gesamt-DV-Technologie, Verwendung von Standards und Basis-Werkzeugen sowie aktuelle Weiterentwicklungen.

Die Technische Universität Chemnitz startete 1995 als eine der ersten Einrichtungen mit dem Aufbau eines Volltextarchives unter dem Namen "Multimedia Online Archiv Chemnitz" (MONARCH). Durch die enge Zusammenarbeit von Universitätsrechenzentrum und Universitätsbibliothek ist MONARCH seitdem kontinuierlich weiterentwickelt worden, so dass für die Archivierung immer bessere Voraussetzungen bestehen. Die Serviceleistungen wurden erweitert und die Verarbeitung der Daten verbessert. Die Präsentation gibt Einblick in die Verknüpfung zwischen MONARCH und Bibliothek. Während das Rechenzentrum auf edv-technische Angelegenheiten spezialisiert ist (Datenformate, Unversehrtheit der Dokumente, Verarbeitung der Daten, Automatisierung von Arbeitsgängen, z.B. Meldungen an die Deutsche Bibliothek und den Südwestdeutschen Bibliotheksverbund Baden-Württemberg...), bearbeitet die Bibliothek in der Arbeitsgruppe MONARCH die bibliothekarischen Aufgaben. So wurden z.B. FAQ's und Hilfetexte erstellt, Formulare entworfen, Layoutfragen und Urheberrechtsprobleme diskutiert usw. Die Auskunfts- und Informationstätigkeit zu Online-Hochschulschriften wird beschrieben sowie der Geschäftsgang innerhalb der Bibliothek bis zum Nachweis der elektronischen Hochschulschriften im Volltext im OPAC der Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz. In Zukunft wollen wir uns vor allem um die Verbesserung der Nutzerbetreuung und der Autorenberatung bemühen, besonders hinsichtlich der Vorbereitung und Durchführung der Archivierung sowie bei der Recherche nach archivierten Publikationen. Dabei soll die Eigenständigkeit und Verantwortung der Autoren bei der Archivierung gefördert werden. Unsere Aktivitäten erweitern wir auf eine enge Zusammenarbeit mit den Promotionsausschüssen der Fakultäten. Erfahrungswerte werden an dieser Stelle vermittelt. Abschließend wird ein Einblick in die zukünftigen Aufgaben zur Entwicklung von MONARCH gegeben.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Cincinnati, 2009.
Advisor: Jill Martin-Boone. Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed July 29, 2009). Includes abstract. Keywords: cost; rejection; kidney transplantation; cost of care. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2008.
A thesis submitted to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, MARCS Auditory Laboratories, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis reports findings from a survey comparing the use of internal and external information services by business persons in the City of Brisbane. The Business Information: an investigation of its sources and use survey was undertaken on behalf of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Library's Expert Information Service. The study made steps towards the understanding of not only where information is currently sourced, but also why business people prefer the services they currently use to source their information needs. The study has corroborated previous studies into business people's use of information resources and has achieved a better understanding of information use patterns and the potential future role of libraries and library based Fee Based Information Service (FBIS) units. Comparative case studies were undertaken to understand the Australian FBIS environment. FBIS's have developed within the Australian library environment to serve the information needs of business people. They have also developed out of a drive to provide income generation, independent of government funding, for the library that establishes the FBIS. Libraries and FBIS units have resources and expertise of potential value to business people; however, business people still lack an awareness of available information services and resources in general, and specifically in libraries or FBIS units. The main findings of this survey are that: (1) Architects and Small Business Managers are primary markets for FBIS units; (2) The main sources of information currently accessed to make business decisions are internal information services and professional associations; (3) External information service units are favoured for their ability to provide information searching and patents & standards access; (4) The Internet is currently used more than any other electronic form of information resource and an increase is expected in daily and weekly use; (5) Information overload and a lack of time to search for information are major concerns to business people; (6) The majority of respondents have never used a library based FBIS; and (7) Almost 50% of business people report that they have difficulty with not having a budget to acquire information and approximately 35% have no authority to purchase information. Overall the findings suggest that FBIS units should aim to understand the commercial paradigm, providing accurate, timely and up-to-date information for their clients in the most convenient and specific manner possible. The research findings suggest a number of implications for practice for FBIS units, as well as for libraries in Australia.

In speech, vowels and consonants are two the basic sounds that combined result in lexically meaningful items in all languages. In tone languages, changes in pitch, tone differences also make meaningful lexical distinctions in spoken words. Young infants appear to have no trouble perceiving speech sounds and their production of sounds peculiar to their particular language environment proceeds relatively smoothly and rapidly compared with adults’ acquisition of foreign languages. One way of looking at how infants come to acquire speech sounds of their first language is by examining the speech input they receive. The term infant-directed speech (IDS) has been coined to describe the special way adults and even older children speak to infants. IDS is different to adult-directed speech in various acoustic/phonetic modifications, such as exaggerated prosody, increased pitch and vowel hyperarticulation (Burnham, Kitamura, and Vollmer-Conna, 2002; Kuhl et al., 1997). The exaggerated prosody and increased pitch appear to be related to the expression of affect and gaining infants’ attention (Burnham, Kitamura, and Vollmer-Conna, 2002), whereas vowel hyperarticulation appears to be related to infants’ speech development for a number of reasons. Firstly, investigating how adults speak to foreigners, Uther, Knoll, and Burnham (2007) found that vowels are also hyperarticulated in foreigner-directed speech as in IDS, while other acoustic modifications such as exaggerated prosody and increased pitch, related to affective and attentional factors, are not present in foreigner directed speech. Secondly, Liu, Kuhl, and Tsao (2003) found a positive correlation between vowel hyperarticulation and infants’ native speech perception; mothers who hyperarticulated their vowels more had infants who were better able to discriminate native consonant contrasts.\ While vowel hyperarticulation in IDS to 6-month-olds has been investigated in both tone languages such as Mandarin (Liu et al., 2003), and non-tone languages such as Russian, Swedish, American English (Kuhl et al., 1997) and Australian English (Burnham et al, 2002), no parallel studies have been conducted on the possibility of tone hyperarticulation in tone language IDS. If vowel hyperarticulation is related to infants’ language development then tones in tone hyperarticulated. The possibility of tone as well as vowel hyperarticulation in IDS of the tone language Cantonese, and the development of hyperarticulation across the first 12 months of infancy were investigated here using a longitudinal sequential cohort design. Two groups of native Cantonese mothers were recorded speaking to their infants, the first group at 3, 6, and 9 months, and the second at 6, 9, and 12 months. The study had four main aims (1) to investigate whether tone hyperarticulation occurs in IDS in a tone language Cantonese (2) to investigate whether vowel hyperarticulation occurs in IDS in Cantonese (IDS in this languages had not yet been investigated) and if 1 and 2 are the cases (3) to compare tone and vowel hyperarticulation, and (4) to chart the development of tone and vowel hyperarticulation across the infant’s first 12 months. Contrary to previous findings of vowel hyperarticulation in English Russian, Swedish, and Mandarin IDS to 6-month-olds (Burnham et al., 2002; Kuhl et al., 1997); vowel hyperarticulation was not found for Cantonese IDS. More detailed acoustic analysis examining different dimensions of the vowel space suggest that after the infant is 3 months old, mothers’ vowels begin to be hypoarticulated in IDS compared to ADS on dimensions of back versus front, and high versus low. This pattern of results is consistent with vowel perception studies which suggest that infants have already tuned into the native vowel categories by 4 to 6 months (Polka and Werker, 1994). Tone hyperarticulation, on the other hand, was indeed present at 3 months and increased to peak at 6 to 9 months before declining at 12 months. This pattern of tone hyperarticulation across the first year of infancy is consistent with infant language development – in which attenuation of perception of non-native tones had been found between 6 to 9 months (Mattock and Burnham, 2006). Moreover, detailed phonetic analysis revealed that while the level tones are more hyperarticulated than the contour tones, tones with similar onsets and offsets (i.e., the two rising tones) are actually hypoarticulated in IDS at 9 and 12 months, a time when infants have already tuned into native tones. Finally, results from a preliminary native speech discrimination study using the same infants provide some initial indication that mothers who hyperarticulate tones more also had infants who are better able to discriminate native Cantonese consonants. Together these results suggest that in Cantonese IDS vowels are underspecified whereas tones are consistently over-specified particularly at 6 months when infants are tuning into native tones. Moreover, during this initial period of tone acquisition, only level tones are over specified while tones with similar onsets and offsets are underspecified. It seems likely that for Cantonese language environment infants, during the early stages of language acquisition, pitch information specified by level tones is sufficient for initial acquisition of information about the Cantonese tone space and that information about vowels is not so essential at this time. These studies show that there is indeed tone hyperarticulation in IDS in tone languages, and that in order to make sense of the vowel hyperarticulation data in tone languages, it is important to investigate both vowels and tones in tone languages with complex tone systems such as Cantonese, instead of simply applying Anglocentric notions of vowel hypoarticulation.

Der Vortrag wurde im Rahmen der Informationsveranstaltung „Elektronisches Publizieren an der TU Chemnitz – 10 Jahre MONARCH“ gehalten. Mit dem sprunghaften Anstieg wissenschaftlicher Publikation steigt die Informationsflut ständig weiter an. Im Zeitalter des Internet werden Veröffentlichungen in kürzester Zeit bereitgestellt und damit weltweit verfügbar. Andererseits führt die monopolistische Preispolitik von Großverlagen dazu, dass die wissenschaftlichen Informationen nicht mehr allen Interessierten zur Verfügung gestellt werden können. In den letzten Jahren ist speziell im STM-Bereich (Science, Technology, Medicine) eine enorme Steigerung der Zeitschriftenpreise zu verzeichnen. Aufgrund des sinkenden Erwerbungsetats der Bibliotheken ist die wissenschaftliche Informationsversorgung nicht mehr ausreichend gewährleistet. Konventionelle Lösungsansätze erweisen sich nicht als Ausweg aus der Informationskrise. Als alternatives Publikationsmodell wird Open Access betrachtet. Die wissenschaftlichen Informationen stehen kostenfrei und dauerhaft zur Verfügung. Gegründet wurde die Open Access Initiative 2001. Sie wird national u.a. unterstützt vom Wissenschaftsrat, der Kultusministerkonferenz und der Hochschulrektorenkonferenz. Zwei Jahre später wurde die "Berliner Erklärung über offenen Zugang zu wissenschaftlichem Wissen" verabschiedet und von führenden Wissenschaftsorganisationen des Landes (WR, HRK, DFG, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Max Planck Gesellschaft u.v.a.) unterzeichnet. Open Access-Dokumente können in Open Access-Zeitschriften oder z.Bsp. auf Dokumentenservern der Hochschulen veröffentlicht werden. Der Publikationsserver der TU Chemnitz, MONARCH wurde von der Deutschen Initiative für Netzwerkinformation zertifiziert. Der gemeinsam von Universitätsbibliothek und Universitätsrechenzentrum betreute Dienst entspricht nationalen und internationalen Standards. Im Vortrag wird abschließend auf praktische Beispiele nationaler Aktivitäten hingewiesen und es werden Möglichkeiten zur Umsetzung des Open Access Gedankens an der Technischen Universität Chemnitz angesprochen
The lecture was held in the context of the information meeting "Electronic publishing at the Chemnitz University of Technology - 10 years MONARCH". With the precipitous rise of scientific publication the flood of information continues to rise constantly. In the age of the Internet publications are made available in shortest time and are accessible world-wide. On the other hand the monopolyistic price strategy of large publishing houses leads to the fact that the scientific information can be made available no more all interested ones. In the last years particularly an enormous increase of the magazine prices is to be registered within the STM range (Science, Technology, Medicine). Due to the sinking acquisition budget of the libraries the scientific information supply is no longer ensured sufficiently. Conventional solutions do not prove as a way out of the information crisis. As alternative publication model Open Access is regarded. The scientific information is available free of charge and durably. The Open Access Initiative was created 2001. It supported national among others of the scientific organisations Wissenschaftsrat, Kultusministerkonferenz and Hochschulrektorenkonferenz. Two years later the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities" was adopted and by prominent science organizations of the country (WR, HRK, DFG, Fraunhofer Society, Max Planck Society u.v.a.) signed. Open Access-documents can be published in Open Access-journals or e.g. on document repositories of the universities. The publication server MONARCH was certificated by the German Initiative for Network Information. MONARCH is conformed to national and international standards. In the lecture finally referred to practical examples of national activities and it will suggested possibilities for the conversion of the Open Access thought at the Chemnitz University of Technology

Mestrado em Biomedicina Farmacêutica
O presente relatório descreve em detalhe as tarefas e atividades desenvolvidas no contexto de um estágio curricular durante o segundo ano do Mestrado em Biomedicina Farmacêutica, da Universidade de Aveiro. Este estágio teve lugar na Unidade de Farmacologia Clínica do Professor Joaquim Ferreira, do Instituto de Medicina Molecular, de 14 de setembro de 2015 a 27 de junho de 2016. Esta experiência permitiu-me pôr em prática aquilo que aprendi no mestrado durante dez meses. Tive a oportunidade de trabalhar em três áreas diferentes da biomedicina farmacêutica: farmacovigilância, coordenação de ensaios clínicos e gestão de dados. Durante o estágio, surgiram múltiplas dificuldades e obstáculos. Contudo, consegui ultrapassá-los, melhorando as minhas capacidades profissionais, tais como organização, responsabilidade, comunicação, espírito critico, entre outras qualidades fundamentais para ser um bom profissional. Em conclusão, este estágio curricular permitiu o meu crescimento, não só como profissional, mas também como pessoa. Considero que tenha sido um desafio concretizado com sucesso e estou consciente que me abriu muitas janelas para a minha carreira futura.
This report describes in detail the tasks and activities developed in the context of a curricular internship during the second year of the Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Medicine of the University of Aveiro. This internship took place in the Professor Joaquim Ferreira’s Clinical Pharmacology Unit (CPU) of the Instituto de Medicina Molecular, from September 14th, 2015 to June 27, 2016. This experience allowed me to put in practice what I learned from my master’s degree during ten months. I had the opportunity to work in three different areas of pharmaceutical medicine: pharmacovigilance, clinical trial coordination and data management. During the internship, several difficulties and obstacles showed up. However, I managed to surpass them, improving my professional skills, such as organization, responsibility, communication, critical thinking, among other fundamental qualities to be a good professional. In conclusion, this curricular internship allowed me to grow up, not only as a professional but also as a person. I think it was a successful challenge and I’m aware that it has opened many windows to future career.

"In this work, a quantitative risk assessment procedure for laboratory fume cupboards has been developed using estimates of frequency (probabilty x exposure) and severity."
Masters Degree in Applied Science, Occupational Health and Safety

The rise of the Monash University Labor Club to the most prominent radical student group in Australia by 1967 was the result of those radicalising events and ideologies that had been emerging internationally, nationally and locally during 1965-67. Events such as the escalation of the Vietnam War and the emergence of the Cultural Revolution in China were particularly influential upon the student movement in Australia during this period. Arguably the most influential ideological force upon the Monash Labor Club during this period was the idea of Marxism-Leninism, or Maoism, articulated by the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao TseTung. It is this radicalising role of Maoism upon the 1960's student movement in Melbourne that will be the core concern of this thesis. Past studies concerned with the Monash Labor Club in 1965-67 have tended to downplay the role of Maoist ideas at Monash during this period. However, this thesis will attempt to show that it was the Maoist ideas of Labor Club leaders like Albert Langer that allowed the club to rise to such prominence in 1967. Furthermore this thesis will show how the connections achieved by Langer with the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist), and certain Maoist-led Unions in Melbourne, played a significant role in the successful aims, actions and campaigns carried out by the Labor Club in 1967.

Anatomy forms the basis of clinical examination and is integral to today’s medical curriculum. Yet, increasingly evident in the literature is feedback from clinicians and surgeons about the perceived lack of anatomical knowledge among recent medical graduates. To understand the issues surrounding student learning and retention of anatomy, a mixed-methods design was utilized to explore medical students’ anatomical knowledge throughout their Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree. Students enrolled in the four-year graduate-entry MBBS course at Monash University participated in the study. Participants from the preclinical (Year A) and clinical years (Years B, C and D) sat an online assessment consisting of 60 clinically relevant anatomy multiple-choice and extended-matched questions whose objectives had been previously covered in the preclinical teaching. Altogether, 136 students participated in the study. The results revealed that knowledge of anatomy declined over time and this was significant in the final two clinical years. The drop in anatomical knowledge was not uniform. The regions of anatomy better retained were associated with frequent exposure and reinforcement in the clinical years. Participants cited an intense and time-constrained curriculum, poor integration in the clinical years and rare opportunities for revising and testing anatomy as reasons for the decline of knowledge. The results of this study highlight the need for conceptual coherence at the time of teaching; the importance of vertical integration in providing students with frequent learning opportunities in the clinical years; and, the value of formatively testing students’ knowledge of anatomy throughout the clinical years.

Cocaine use among women of child bearing age has significantly increased over the past several years. Consequently, the number of infants born prenatally exposed to cocaine has also risen. The influence of prenatal cocaine exposure on child development and the influence of maternal cocaine addiction on parenting are only beginning to be explored. However the effects of prenatal and postnatal maternal cocaine use place these dyads at risk for impaired interaction, and these infants at risk for developmental delay. The present study is a longitudinal investigation of infant development and mother-infant interaction in 25 cocaine-affected dyads over the first 9 postnatal months. The goals of this research were to provide descriptive data about infant development and mother-infant interaction in cocaine-affected dyads, and to investigate the relation between these two factors over the first 9 months of life. Infant cognitive and motor development was assessed at 4, 6, and 9 months. Mother-infant interaction measured in feeding and teaching situations, was assessed at 1, 4, 6 and 9 months. In general, the cognitive and motor development of these infants was in the normal range at each testing. Evidence was provided that maternal postnatal drug use was associated with lower cognitive scores in infants. Cognitive and motor development in the present sample was consistent over time. Mother-infant interaction in both feeding and teaching contexts was found to be below the tenth percentile established in standardization research, indicating risk and need for intervention. In addition, the quality of interaction in the present sample was lower than that in two high-risk samples of previous research. Feeding interaction quality was consistent over time, whereas interaction in the teaching situation showed significant improvement between 6 and 9 months. The relation between infant development and mother-infant interaction was found to be complex. However there was some evidence that child development had a more important influence on interaction quality than interaction quality had on child development. The implications of these results for future research and intervention are discussed
acase@tulane.edu