From Cell Chemistry to Cognition

While in Vancouver last week for ICCSE 2014, I met with Andrew Coward. Andrew is an Associate Professor at the Research School of Computer Science at the ANU in Canberra, but lives in Vancouver. Andrew researchers the way the human brain works, by adapting theories from electronic systems. This is not about building a human brain, but using insights from computing to understand how real brains work. His latest book, Towards a Theoretical Neuroscience: from Cell Chemistry to Cognition was published by Springer in 2013.

This is of interest to me as next week I start a course on  educational design, which begins with the neuroscience of learning, using the textbook "Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective" by Dale H. Schunk.

Teaching Innovation at UBC

While in Vancouver for ICCSE 2014 I dropped in on Philippe Kruchten at UBC Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is involved with the "New Venture Design" course (APSC 486), where engineering and business students learn to produce a business plan for a product. The students are encouraged to enter a innovation competition or program as part of the course. An example of such a competition is Innovation ACT. Unfortunately I am not aware of any of Canberra's universities incorporating the competition in any of their courses or programs.

Flexible Education Strategies for at Canadian Universities

After attending a  Flexible Learning Strategy Workshop at University of British Colombia (UBC) in Vancouver last week, I went across town to see what was happening at Simon Fraser University (SFU). There is a SFU have a Task Force on Flexible Education. This goes beyond just flipping the classroom with some on-line videos and considers how to redesign campuses and programs of study to make them more flexible.

I met with David Porter  from BCcampus, which works to get collaboration between BC's post-secondary institutions.  David is the co-author of the course "Ventures in Learning Technology" at the University of British Colombia and will be visiting NSW and Tasmania in early November for open education meetings of OERu. The OERu is providing low cost open educaitonal materials. One which got my attention was the e-Learning Maturity Model (eMM) course.

The SFU Task Force on Flexible Education Terms of Reference are:

1. Produce an inventory of institutionally-supported learning technologies and service units at SFU that support credit and non-credit programs,
2. Perform an environmental scan of trends and directions in flexible learning being used at other post-secondary institutions,
3. Engage in a broad consultation with the university community on the objectives for and issues concerning the development of flexible learning environments,
4. Identify effective and leading-edge practices by referring to the academic literature and efforts undertaken at other institutions,
5. Rely on the investigative work carried out in 1. though 4. to establish thematic working groups consisting of members of the university community with appropriate expertise that would explore various aspects of flexible learning and develop recommendations on an institutional strategy for flexible education at SFU, and
6. Develop an implementation plan for putting the recommendations into effect, including
   
   a) a resource model which supports the growth and sustainment of flexible education at SFU,
   b) a compilation of examples of effective practice that could be adopted and/or refashioned by SFU to create its flexible learning environments, and
   c) a support model which facilitates faculty engagement in the use of new technologies and pedagogies. 

The BC Campus Open Textbook Project currently has 62 free open access textbooks available for use.

Meanwhile in Australia, UNE has decided to discontinue its disaggregated approach to charging for on-line courses, where students could undertake a course for  $495, plus $35 an hour for group tutoring and $150 an hour for individual tutoring ("UNE shuts down its loss-making MOOCs", Tim Dodd, The Financial Review, 25 August 2014).

Hardware-Software Visualization to Learn Programming

Greetings from the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) in Vancouver.  Ahmad Zamzuri from Computing and Creative Industry Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris
Tanjong Malim is speaking on  "Hardware-Software Visualization to Learn Programming". This is intended to turn out more programmers with practical skills for industry.

Motivating Blended Learning for Computer Engineering Educators

Greetings from the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) in Vancouver.  Panagiotis Angelopoulos from Computer Technology Institute and Press “Diophantus” (CTIP) is speaking on "A Highly Motivated Blended Learning Model Oriented to Computer Engineering Educators". This uses Moodle, Bigbluebutton webinar software and free open source educational content. This seems to be orientated to supplementing face-to-face seminars with real time (synchronous) on-line events. This may be more feasible as Greece has only one time zone, but would be more difficult for Australia or Canada, which have multiple time zones, or internationally.

Blended Mutlicultural Learning

Greetings from the second day of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) in Vancouver.  Yuko Kato from Jin-ai University on "Intercultural Training in a Blended Learning Environment in Japanese Higher Education". Japan's mono-cultural society makes it difficult for students to learn about cultural diversity and this paper looks at the use of e-learning to address this using a Moodle based course.

This is similar to the issue I discussed yesterday in "Chinese and Australian Students Learning to Work Together Online". Perhaps Australian and Japanese students can share online classes via Moodle.

Teaching Wicked Problem Solving

Greetings from the opening of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) in Vancouver. Mark Allison  from Florida International University "Polya’s Approach to Foster Problem Solving Skill Development in Software Engineers". This goes beyond teaching a systematic approach to problem solving, as used in engineering, as exactly what the problem is and what will be an acceptable solution is rarely clear.

George Pólya  was the author of How to Solve It  outlining a four principle approach to problem solving: Understand, Devise, Carry out, and Review/extend.

One step  I suggest all professionals should learn is to assess if they can do the task requested. They should be prepared to reformulate a problem it is not within the state of the art, there are not sufficient resources, or it would be illegal or unethical, or it is simply a stupid idea. 

An example of reformulating a problem was the requirement for a high speed, heavily armoured amphibious fighting vehicles for the US Marines. The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) program was cancelled when it was realised a vehicle can't be heavy, fast and float. The problem should be reformulated to get troops on shore quickly and safely. The replacement Amphibious Combat Vehicle Program will use a vessel to carry armoured vehicles on water, so the vessel can be optimised for speed on water and the vehicle for armour protection on land. Similarly the DARPA project for a flying jeep is now one for a small pilot-less cargo aircraft.

Spongebob and Playdough Computer Interface for Children

One of the more fascinating presentations from 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) was  "Effectiveness of Interactive Teaching Materials on Special Education and Assistive Technology" by Lin  Chien-yu and Chen Shu-hua from National University of Tainan. They showed adapting low cost electronics for interactive interfaces. One interface allowed pieces of playdough and foam plastic (sponge) to be used as buttons for a game.

Social Media for the Beijing Capital Museum

Greetings from the second day of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) in Vancouver. Binyue Cui from Beijing Jiaotong University is speaking on "Investigation about Popularity of Cloud Services on Social Culture Education Resource". This is a project to provide educational materials to the general public for Beijing Capital Museum.

M-Learning in India

Greetings from the second day of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) in Vancouver. Manpreet Singh Bhullar from  Khalsa College Patiala is speaking on "New Method of Learning :M-Learning(Mobile Learning)". He emphasised that Internet access and power supply is limited in rural India and so mobile phones provide a better option for students. The course content can be physically loaded to the phone, so it does not have to be transmitted. On a visit to India I came up against the Internet and power limitations.

Evaluating Creative Engineering

Greetings from the second day of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) in Vancouver. Jongwan Kim from Daegu University described "An assessment method to evaluate team project based engineering design". Team work is an essential part of engineering education, but assessing this work is difficult and assessing the creative part of group projects doubly so. Also relevant is "Performance of student software development teams: the influence of personality and identifying as team members"by Lynette Johns-Boast.

Adult Education with Cyberart at Brasilia

Greetings from the second day of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) in Vancouver. It is a very quiet Sunday on the UBC campus. Lucio Teles from University of Brasilia livened things up by showing a video made by students as part of his "Re-engineering adult education through students’ production of cyberart to support curriculum learning" presentaion. Brasilia, like Canberra, is a planned city.

Virtual Blended Learning

Greetings from the opening of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) in Vancouver, where Carsten Lecon, University of Applied Sciences is speaking on "Virtual Blended Learning: Virtual 3D Worlds and their Integration in Teaching Scenarios".

Virtual Blended Learning is the use of Blended
Learning scenarios within virtual 3D worlds. We show the advanced possibilities compared with traditional e-learning, integrating 3D worlds into University lectures. One main issue is the overall tracking of a learner ́s activity.

One interesting aspect is the use of the Tin Can API (Experience API or xAPI) to record what the student has done.

Managing Student Programming Exercises

Greetings from the opening of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) in Vancouver, where Jean Luca Bez from Universidade Regional Integrada is talking on "URI Online Judge Academic: A Tool for Algorithms and Programming Classes". This tool has the Stanford University Moss Plagiarism Detector built in and looks very useful for teaching programming.

The URI Online Judge Academic is an online tool
that assists professors in programming classes and motivates students to practice more and to go beyond the theoretical base learned in class and, as a result, helps them sharpen their logical, algorithmically and programming skills. The Academic module enables professors to manage disciplines and lists of exercises on specific programming topics in a visual and organized online environment that presents several benefits compared to the traditional method of handwritten lists. The purpose of this article is to introduce the features and the benefits available in version 3.0 of the tool.

Skills Frameworks to Reform Higher Education

Greetings from the opening of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) in Vancouver, where Venky Shankararaman from Singapore Management University is speaking on "Skills Frameworks: A Tool for Reform in Information Technology Higher Education".

Information Technology (IT) has revolutionized
the ways in which various sectors of the industry operate. It has enabled organizations to develop new and creative approaches to design, develop and provide products and services. Consequently, companies increasingly rely on IT solutions and Information Systems (IS) to deliver product and services. This I turn has created a need for availability of skilled IT and IS personnel for effective operational continuity within organizations. There seems to be high demand for both IT/IS skills globally. Universities and other form of tertiary institutions play a key role in developing skilled IT personnel. They deploy various approaches to designing and developing IT/IS educational
programs. Some programs could have been developed without much consideration given to the nature of demand for skills and real needs from the IT sector. It is critical to align skills development strategies and educational programs to ensure realistic and relevant needs for IT skills are met. There seems to be a need for standardization of perceptions and expectations of IT/IS roles to facilitate reform for more effective alignment of education of IT/IS with industry needs.

This is very relevant for Australia as it discusses the Sikes Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) as used in Australia. I use SFIA skills definitions in designing courses. I use SFIA partly because the courses are included in programs accreted using the framework, but also because it makes the courses more relevant to real world jobs (and it makes courses easier to design). The course "ICT Sustainability" is designed to align with SIFA Level 5 sustainability competencies, although I designed the course first, sent it to SFIA and they created the skills (discussed at ICCSE 2012).

My paper on how I did this, from ICCSE 2012: http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/green_computing_professional/

Engineering and Ethics

Greetings from the opening of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) in Vancouver, where Professor Li Ma (马莉) from Dalian University of Technology is speaking on "Enlarging Intersections between Engineering and Ethics: Thoughts on Engineering Ethics Education.

Ethical dimension inherently exists in engineering, separating ethics from engineering is the root-cause of many engineering accidents and conflictions. A qualified engineer must have ethical consciousness and abilities in ethical decision–making and behavior. Engineering ethics education has been proved to be a feasible way to achieve this goal, and it is of high necessities and urgencies according to Chinese current situation.
However, domestic engineering ethics education development is much slower than the western developed countries. Based on the background of “National Excellent Engineer Training Scheme”, this article reviews the development history and status quo of engineering ethics education, puts forward some major reform elements and the related countermeasures for Chinese engineering ethics education.

Some of these issues are discussed in "Professionalism in the Information and Communication Technology Industry.(Weckert and Lucas, ANU Press, 2013).

Safe Drinking Water by Phone

Greetings from the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) in Vancouver, where Professor Sushanta Mitra from University of Alberta is speaking on "Biosensors: Convergence with ICT platform". He is discussing how to use a low cost sensor to check water for contamination and advise consumers by phone. An interesting part of this is not only are engineers looking at how to build the system, but how to fund its use on developing nations.

professor Sushanta Mitra,

professor Sushanta Mitra,

professor Sushanta Mitra,

professor Sushanta Mitra,

International Developments in Computer Education

Greetings from the opening of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) in Vancouver. It is a cool calm sunny Saturday morning on the beautiful UBC campus. The first keynote is Professor Saman Halgamuge from University of Melbourne on 'Near Unsupervised Learning in the era of Big Data: When does “Knowing a Little” can be useful?'. This is referring to machine learning and also the use of biological material interfaced to machines.

I will be introducing on of the note speakers at 11am, then presenting my own paper in the afternoon and on the panel "Curricula and Delivery of Engineering and IT Degrees in the Changing Internationalization Landscape of Higher Education" . The conference program and the papers are available online. Some items which caught my attention were:

13:20 - 13:40, SaA3.2, Enlarging Intersections between Engineering and Ethics: Thoughts on Engineering Ethics Education, pp. 63-68. , Li Ma, Dalian Univ. of Technology, Mingfeng Jiang , Dalian Univ. of Technology

13:40 - 14:00, SaA3.3, Motivational Factors for On-line Distance Learning - An Empirical Investigation, pp. 69-74. , Dr. Mona Alkhattabi, Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud University

4:00 - 14:20, SaA3.4, Tutoring Model to Guide Students in Programming Courses to Create Complete and Correct Solutions, pp. 75-80. , L. H. Gonzalez-Guerra, Tecnologico de Monterrey, A. J. Leal-Flores, Tecnologico de Monterrey

14:20 - 14:40, SaA3.5, Skills Frameworks: A Tool for Reform in Information Technology Higher Education, pp. 81-86. , Mehdi Asgrahani, CPIT - New Zealand, Venky Shankararaman, Singapore Management University

14:40 - 15:00, SaA3.6, URI Online Judge Academic: A Tool for Algorithms and Programming Classes, pp. 87-90. , Jean Luca Bez, Universidade Regional Integrada, Neilor A. Tonin , Universidade Regional Integrada, Paulo R. Rodegheri, Universidade Regional Integrada

14:40 - 15:00, SaB1.1, An Automatic Classification System for the Stock Comments, pp. 93-96. , Shuyi Hong, Xiamen University, Xue Han, Xiamen University, Lirong Tian, Xiamen University, Linkai Luo , Xiamen University

14:40 - 15:00, SaB3.1, Cognitive Psychology Oriented Education with Virtual Learning and Continuous Evaluation, pp. 153-158. , S.A.R.Thilanka, Sri Lanka Inst. of Info. Technology, M.Pranavan, Sri Lanka Inst. of Info. Technology, H.M.T.N.Dayarathna, Sri Lanka Inst. of Info. Technology, P.R.Wijewantha, Sri Lanka Inst. of Info. Technology

15:00 - 15:20, SaB3.2, Virtual Blended Learning - Virtual 3D Worlds and their Integration in Teaching Scenarios, pp. 159-164. , Carsten Lecon, University of Applied Siences Aalen, Markus Herkersdorf, TriCAT

15:40 - 16:00, SaB3.4, Chinese and Australian Students Learning to Work Together Online - Proposal to Expand the New Colombo Plan to the Online Environment, pp. 170-174. , Tom Worthington , Australian National University

16:00 - 16:20, SaB3.5, Delivering Software Engineering Education Through LEGO Robotics, pp. 175-180. , Ira Weissberger , University of Virginia's College at Wise, Abrar Qureshi , University of Virginia's College at Wise, Ali Qureshi , Central High School

8:50 - 9:10, SuA3.2, Applying PBL Approach to Improve the Teaching Effect of IS Project Management Unit, pp. 251-254. , Wang Na , Shanghai Ocean University
Re-engineering Adult Education through Students' Production of Cyberart to Support Curriculum Learning, pp. 255-258. , Lucio Teles, University of Brasilia

9:30 - 9:50, SuA3.4, Research on Close Collaboration between Scientific Research Projects and Experimental Teaching, pp. 259-262. , Shou Qingyun , Tongji University, Lin Yi , Tongji University, Zang Jianbin , Tongji Universit
9:50 - 10:10, SuA3.5, An Assessment Method to Evaluate Team Project Based Engineering Design, pp. 263-266. , Jongwan Kim, Daegu University

10:10 - 10:30, SuA3.6, A New Method of Learning: M-Learning (Mobile Learning), pp. 267-270. , Manpreet Singh Bhullar, Khalsa College Patial

11:45 - 12:05, SuB1.5, Investigation about Popularity of Cloud Services on Social Culture Education Resource, pp. 291-294. , Wei Zhou, Beijing Jiaotong University, Binyue Cui, Hebei Univ. of Economics & Business, Qingguo Shi, Beijing Jiaotong University

11:25 - 11:45, SuB2.4, Using an E-Talk Pen to Promote Phonological Awareness on Communication Training, pp. 308-312. , Chien-Yu Lin , National Univ. of Tainan, Hua-Chen Chai , Da Chen Elementary

11:05 - 11:25, SuB3.3, Examining the Relationship between Epistemic Activity and Academic Achievement - Using of Scripts and Co-evaluation Strategies in a VLE, pp. 332-336. , Felipe Tirado, National Autonomous Univ. of Mexico, Guillermo Santos, National Autonomous Univ. of Mexico

11:25 - 11:45, SuB3.4, Effectiveness of Interactive Teaching Materials on Special Education and Assistive Technology, pp. 337-341. , Chien-Yu Lin , National Univ. of Tainan, Shu-hua Chen , Guei-nan Elementary School

13:40 - 14:00, SuC3.3, Intercultural Training in a Blended Learning Environment in Japanese Higher Education, pp. 402-405. , Yuko Kato, Jin-ai University, Izumi Suwa, University of Fukui, Yoshitomo Itakura , University of Fukui, Toshiyuki Hamada , University of Fukui, Jousuke Kuroiwa , University of Fukui, Tomohiro Odaka, University of Fukui

15:20 - 15:40, SuD2.3, The Correlation between Personality Type and Individual Performance on an ICT Project, pp. 441-446. , Natasha N. Vito Ferreira, University of Johannesburg, Josef J. Langerman , University of Johannesburg

14:40 - 15:00, SuD3.1, Collaborative Learning: Implication of Online Forum in English Academic Writing for Engineering Students, pp. 459-464. , Dr Voyce Li, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

15:20 - 15:40, SuD3.3, The Design of E-Learning Service Model Based on SIP Protocol, pp. 469-472. , Yiming Chen, Xiamen University, Yuliang Tang, Xiamen Universit

15:40 - 16:00, SuD3.4, A Highly Motivated Blended Learning Model Oriented to Computer Engineering Educators, pp. 473-477. , Panagiotis Angelopoulos , Computer Tech. Inst. & Press, Michael Paraskevas, Computer Tech. Inst. & Press Technological Educational Inst. of Western Greece, Isidoros Perikos, Computer Tech. Inst. & Press, Thomas Zarouchas, Computer Tech. Inst. & Press

SaP5.4, The Program of Educational Technology Ability Building for Vocational Education Teachers, pp. 762-765. , Zhang Liqin , Jiangxi Sci. & Technique Normal University, Wan chunhui, Jiangxi Water Resources Institute
A Review of "Perceptions of the Computer-Assisted Writing Program among EFL College Learners", pp. 766-769. , ZHANG Xiao-ping , Sichuan Normal University

SaP7.8, Educational Reform of Computer Application Foundation Course, pp. 834-837. , Yueping Wu , Shanghai Second Polytechnic University, Shiming Zhang, Shanghai Second Polytechnic University

English Language Teaching for Engineering Students in Chinese Higher Education in a Cross Road, Where to Go?, pp. 851-856. , Ji LI, Zhengzhou Normal Universiity, Yu LI, Henan Univ. of Economics & Law

Constructing the Practical Teaching System of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education for Engineering College Students, pp. 885-890. , Zhanguo Zhang, Beihua Universit
Reform and Practice of University Computer Basic Course Teaching Based on Autonomous Learning, pp. 919-922. , He Junmei, Southwest University, Liu Boqin, Southwest Universit

Practice of Entrepreneurship Education in Developing Professional Competences for Computing Students, pp. 959-962. , JIN YE-ying , China Jiliang University, HUANG Jun, China Jiliang University

SaP11.4, Research and Implemention of Solar Photovoltaic Power Generation Monitoring System Based on TinyOS, pp. 1022-1025. , Ye Jihua , Jiangxi Normal University, WANG Wen , Jiangxi Normal University

Posted by Tom Worthington at 4:52 PM

Future of University Education Being Discussed in Vancouver This Week

Greetings from the University of British Colombia (UBC) where I am attending a Flexible Learning Strategy Workshop. I got off the aircraft from Sydney two hours ago, so this posting may not make much sense. I am here to speak on "Chinese and Australian Students Learning to Work Together Online" at  the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) which starts tomorrow. I am also speaking to UBC and Simon Fraser University (SFU) people about their e-learning plans next week, but I noticed this seminar was on for staff, but open to anyone, so I signed up.

UBC, like other universities, is under pressure to deliver more vocationally orientated programs which match the best in the world, while containing costs. Also full service universities have to compete with institutions offering specialised education.  These issues are very familiar from discussions in Australia. UBC is  addressing these issues under the term Flexible Learning.

UBC is formulating its Flexible Learning Strategy in consultation with the university community. Other universities have tended to either ignore the issues, or leap into signing up with some product or consortium. Some of the issues revolve around what the broad mission of a university is and how flexible learning can help this.

UBC has three goals for Flexible Learning:

1.     enhance educational outcomes,
2.     enable greater access to UBC learning,
3.     improve  effectiveness with new learning models.

UBC had priorities for the Flexible Learning Initiative:

1. Transformation of undergraduate courses to blended mode,
2. Targeted growth in professional programs: Applied Master’s & certification,
3. Flexible continuum between credit and non-credit sources,
4. MOOCs

However, there does not appear to be a specific "strategy" as such, instead there are a collection of projects to address the priorities.  This is a similar approach to ANU, which does not have one single approach to education. I did notice that UBC has a draft policy "Use of Learning Materials in UBC Credit Courses", which encourages the use of Creative Commons licenses.


UBC is not new to flexible learning. One of their flexible learning projects which is of interest to me is "Engineering for Sustainable Development" and their UBC's online courses includes "Climate Literacy: Navigating Climate Change Conversations" (through Coursera).

It appears that although UBC already offers courses through Coursera, they UBC is considering joining the edX Consortium.  ANU is already a member and has run two free open online courses (I am supervising a post-graduate student who has surveyed the students on their experience). However, it should be noted that membership of such a consortium is not an education strategy in itself (just as installing learning management software is not). The real questions are what you are going to do with the technology, why you are going to do it, how it will help the students (the community and of course the university) and how thousands of staff (and students) are going to learn new skills to implement the strategy.

I took part in the group discussion, the details of which I agreed not to reveal, however the themes were familiar from Australian universities. On a less serious note, transport metaphors seemed to feature in the discussion. One person commented that being asked to envision flexible learning was like asking a bus driver about the future of transport: they may think of a flying bus, but it would still be a bus. Another commented that they felt like they were tied to the bow of a ship and were wondering where it was being steered and by whom.

I will be talking about what I found in Canada, at the ACS e-learning SIG Meeting at the Australian National University in Canberra, 3 September (all welcome).

Teaching Innovation in Canberra

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where the Innovation ACT 2014 Launch is taking place. For the last few years, the ACT Government has sponsored this competition to encourage Canberra's Higher Education students to learn how to turn their ideas into businesses. The completion was devised by ANU's Engineering and Computer Science College. Previously I have talked at the event and been a participant and later a mentor. This year I am designing a university course which will award credit for students undertaking this competition, or similar ones. Some argue that innovation cannot be taught in a formal course, it has to be experienced. However, I think it should be feasible to teach the theory in academic classes and then have the students innovate in practice (much as happens in architecture and design schools at university). If all goes well the new course will be available from second semester 2015. There are numerous innovation startup books , but I hope to avoid making the students read any of them. Universities interesting in running the course can contact me for details.

Innovation ACT has a format similar other "start-up" competitions. Teams attend presentations and workshops to learn how to prepare a pitch and business plan and then compete in various stages, winning prizes. The Innovation ACT competition broke with tradition by having only two short speeches at the launch. Most of the time was taken up with a short pitch competition. The first two were "InGiv" and "Butterfly Effect", proposing companies to assist social enterprise (that is non-profit organisations). There seems to be a lot of innovations with start-up companies offering services to non-profit organisations. The third Tradesmin was for small trades companies (an example of re-intermediation). Bio-Mine was offering authenticated electronic documents (I could not see how this was different to the Digitary certificates issued by ANU). BeeHub was to offer FAQs for university students. "Swap" was a barter system and "Hidden Talent" an online art gallery. The Winners were: 1. Bio-Mine; 2. Tradesmin; 3. InGive and BeeHub.

ps: There are also some free  online courses (MOOC), on innovation, such as:

1. "Entrepreneurship 101: Who is your customer?" (MIT, edX), 
2. "Social Entrepreneurship" (University of Pennsylvania, Coursera)
3. "Innovation and Enterprise" (Loughborough University, Futurelearn).
4. "Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The 1st Step in Entrepreneurship" (University of Maryland,
   Coursera)
   "Entrepreneurship and Family Business" (RMIT, Open2Study)
   "Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies" (CaseWestern Reserve University, Coursera)

Nexus Notes Website Selling Lecture Notes

The website "Nexus Notes" is selling notes prepared by students about their university lectures. This is reported to have come in for criticism from New Zealand universities (Unis frown on note-sharing website as bright students cash in, Nicholas Jones, New Zealand Herald, Aug 12, 2014). But if the notes don't breech copyright and don't reveal the results of assessment questions, I can't see there is a problem.

I budget the amount of reading and other work I ask my students to do, to fit within the time allocated for the course. Also I provide them with notes (of about eight to ten pages a week) summarising the material. In addition I don't require they attend lectures. However, the assessment is designed to test their knowledge of the subject matter and if they have not done the readings and exercises, they are unlikely to be able to do the assessed work.

One problem is that some students are undertaking full time work and full time study at the same time. University courses are designed on the assumption that a full time student will spend around 40 hours per week on study. If the student also has a full time job, they will be unable to do the required study as well.

International students are limited by their student visa to working 40 hours per fortnight. The maximum weekly hours of work in Australia are 38. This would make for a working week, study and paid employment of 78 hours. Some Australian shift workers may work for 12 hours per day, seven days a week (84 hours a week). But these workers then receive the equivalent days off to reduce the total hours worked. The student's 78 hour week for 12 weeks of a semester would not meet Australian working conditions.

As a working student myself, the alternative I prefer is more terms per year, so I can do fewer courses at once. Australian universities have traditional had two semesters per year with long breaks. This would suit students who can find full time work in the breaks (this is allowed for international students). However, this would not suit students who have regular work. An alternative would be four terms per year, with minimal breaks. A student could then undertake just two courses at a time (20 hours a week) , allowing time for paid work. (Open Universities Australia uses this four term format. Some universities have special summer terms to add extra courses to their two semester format, but these are not seen as the norm.

Best of ICCSE 2014 Vancouver

The program for the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2014) to be held in Vancouver, 22-24 August, have been released. I will be speaking on "Chinese and Australian Students Learning to Work Together Online", at 15:40 and then on the panel "Curricula and Delivery of Engineering and IT Degrees in the Changing Internationalization Landscape of Higher Education" at 16:35 on 23 August . Some other items which caught my attention were:

13:20 - 13:40, SaA3.2, Enlarging Intersections between Engineering and Ethics: Thoughts on Engineering Ethics Education, pp. 63-68. , Li Ma, Dalian Univ. of Technology, Mingfeng Jiang , Dalian Univ. of Technology

13:40 - 14:00, SaA3.3, Motivational Factors for On-line Distance Learning - An Empirical Investigation, pp. 69-74. , Dr. Mona Alkhattabi, Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud University

4:00 - 14:20, SaA3.4, Tutoring Model to Guide Students in Programming Courses to Create Complete and Correct Solutions, pp. 75-80. , L. H. Gonzalez-Guerra, Tecnologico de Monterrey, A. J. Leal-Flores, Tecnologico de Monterrey

14:20 - 14:40, SaA3.5, Skills Frameworks: A Tool for Reform in Information Technology Higher Education, pp. 81-86. , Mehdi Asgrahani, CPIT - New Zealand, Venky Shankararaman, Singapore Management University

14:40 - 15:00, SaA3.6, URI Online Judge Academic: A Tool for Algorithms and Programming Classes, pp. 87-90. , Jean Luca Bez, Universidade Regional Integrada, Neilor A. Tonin , Universidade Regional Integrada, Paulo R. Rodegheri, Universidade Regional Integrada

14:40 - 15:00, SaB1.1, An Automatic Classification System for the Stock Comments, pp. 93-96. , Shuyi Hong, Xiamen University, Xue Han, Xiamen University, Lirong Tian, Xiamen University, Linkai Luo , Xiamen University

14:40 - 15:00, SaB3.1, Cognitive Psychology Oriented Education with Virtual Learning and Continuous Evaluation, pp. 153-158. , S.A.R.Thilanka, Sri Lanka Inst. of Info. Technology, M.Pranavan, Sri Lanka Inst. of Info. Technology, H.M.T.N.Dayarathna, Sri Lanka Inst. of Info. Technology, P.R.Wijewantha, Sri Lanka Inst. of Info. Technology

15:00 - 15:20, SaB3.2, Virtual Blended Learning - Virtual 3D Worlds and their Integration in Teaching Scenarios, pp. 159-164. , Carsten Lecon, University of Applied Siences Aalen, Markus Herkersdorf, TriCAT

15:40 - 16:00, SaB3.4, Chinese and Australian Students Learning to Work Together Online - Proposal to Expand the New Colombo Plan to the Online Environment, pp. 170-174. , Tom Worthington , Australian National University

16:00 - 16:20, SaB3.5, Delivering Software Engineering Education Through LEGO Robotics, pp. 175-180. , Ira Weissberger , University of Virginia's College at Wise, Abrar Qureshi , University of Virginia's College at Wise, Ali Qureshi , Central High School

8:50 - 9:10, SuA3.2, Applying PBL Approach to Improve the Teaching Effect of IS Project Management Unit, pp. 251-254. , Wang Na , Shanghai Ocean University
Re-engineering Adult Education through Students' Production of Cyberart to Support Curriculum Learning, pp. 255-258. , Lucio Teles, University of Brasilia

9:30 - 9:50, SuA3.4, Research on Close Collaboration between Scientific Research Projects and Experimental Teaching, pp. 259-262. , Shou Qingyun , Tongji University, Lin Yi , Tongji University, Zang Jianbin , Tongji Universit
9:50 - 10:10, SuA3.5, An Assessment Method to Evaluate Team Project Based Engineering Design, pp. 263-266. , Jongwan Kim, Daegu University

10:10 - 10:30, SuA3.6, A New Method of Learning: M-Learning (Mobile Learning), pp. 267-270. , Manpreet Singh Bhullar, Khalsa College Patial

11:45 - 12:05, SuB1.5, Investigation about Popularity of Cloud Services on Social Culture Education Resource, pp. 291-294. , Wei Zhou, Beijing Jiaotong University, Binyue Cui, Hebei Univ. of Economics & Business, Qingguo Shi, Beijing Jiaotong University

11:25 - 11:45, SuB2.4, Using an E-Talk Pen to Promote Phonological Awareness on Communication Training, pp. 308-312. , Chien-Yu Lin , National Univ. of Tainan, Hua-Chen Chai , Da Chen Elementary

11:05 - 11:25, SuB3.3, Examining the Relationship between Epistemic Activity and Academic Achievement - Using of Scripts and Co-evaluation Strategies in a VLE, pp. 332-336. , Felipe Tirado, National Autonomous Univ. of Mexico, Guillermo Santos, National Autonomous Univ. of Mexico

11:25 - 11:45, SuB3.4, Effectiveness of Interactive Teaching Materials on Special Education and Assistive Technology, pp. 337-341. , Chien-Yu Lin , National Univ. of Tainan, Shu-hua Chen , Guei-nan Elementary School

13:40 - 14:00, SuC3.3, Intercultural Training in a Blended Learning Environment in Japanese Higher Education, pp. 402-405. , Yuko Kato, Jin-ai University, Izumi Suwa, University of Fukui, Yoshitomo Itakura , University of Fukui, Toshiyuki Hamada , University of Fukui, Jousuke Kuroiwa , University of Fukui, Tomohiro Odaka, University of Fukui

15:20 - 15:40, SuD2.3, The Correlation between Personality Type and Individual Performance on an ICT Project, pp. 441-446. , Natasha N. Vito Ferreira, University of Johannesburg, Josef J. Langerman , University of Johannesburg

14:40 - 15:00, SuD3.1, Collaborative Learning: Implication of Online Forum in English Academic Writing for Engineering Students, pp. 459-464. , Dr Voyce Li, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

15:20 - 15:40, SuD3.3, The Design of E-Learning Service Model Based on SIP Protocol, pp. 469-472. , Yiming Chen, Xiamen University, Yuliang Tang, Xiamen Universit

15:40 - 16:00, SuD3.4, A Highly Motivated Blended Learning Model Oriented to Computer Engineering Educators, pp. 473-477. , Panagiotis Angelopoulos , Computer Tech. Inst. & Press, Michael Paraskevas, Computer Tech. Inst. & Press Technological Educational Inst. of Western Greece, Isidoros Perikos, Computer Tech. Inst. & Press, Thomas Zarouchas, Computer Tech. Inst. & Press

SaP5.4, The Program of Educational Technology Ability Building for Vocational Education Teachers, pp. 762-765. , Zhang Liqin , Jiangxi Sci. & Technique Normal University, Wan chunhui, Jiangxi Water Resources Institute
A Review of "Perceptions of the Computer-Assisted Writing Program among EFL College Learners", pp. 766-769. , ZHANG Xiao-ping , Sichuan Normal University

SaP7.8, Educational Reform of Computer Application Foundation Course, pp. 834-837. , Yueping Wu , Shanghai Second Polytechnic University, Shiming Zhang, Shanghai Second Polytechnic University

English Language Teaching for Engineering Students in Chinese Higher Education in a Cross Road, Where to Go?, pp. 851-856. , Ji LI, Zhengzhou Normal Universiity, Yu LI, Henan Univ. of Economics & Law

Constructing the Practical Teaching System of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education for Engineering College Students, pp. 885-890. , Zhanguo Zhang, Beihua Universit
Reform and Practice of University Computer Basic Course Teaching Based on Autonomous Learning, pp. 919-922. , He Junmei, Southwest University, Liu Boqin, Southwest Universit

Practice of Entrepreneurship Education in Developing Professional Competences for Computing Students, pp. 959-962. , JIN YE-ying , China Jiliang University, HUANG Jun, China Jiliang University

SaP11.4, Research and Implemention of Solar Photovoltaic Power Generation Monitoring System Based on TinyOS, pp. 1022-1025. , Ye Jihua , Jiangxi Normal University, WANG Wen , Jiangxi Normal University

Researching the New Colombo Plan

Professor David Lowe, Director of the Alfred Deakin Research Institute, will speak on "International students as foreign relations: a research agenda in the context of Colombo Plans old and new", at the Australian National University in Canberra, 28 August, 2014. Also may be of interest is my proposal to extend the New Colombo Plan On-line.

When she launched the New Colombo Plan in December 2013, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she hoped that Australian tertiary students would come to see a period of study at an Asian university as ‘a rite of passage’ associated with their transition to adulthood.

This lecture suggests that much is being asked of the New Colombo Plan, including the constant invitation to recall the successes of the original Colombo Plan; but I also suggest that now is the right time to be setting both research and policy directions in relation to the subject of international students as a dimension of foreign relations. Much has changed for connections between Asia and Australia since the original Colombo Plan gave way to other aid programs and revised thinking on international students in the 1980s. But one of the most enduring sources of narrative about connections, and one that taps directly into memories of the original Colombo Plan, is that of shared learning and life experiences – the personal reflections that featured in AusAID, and now feature in DFAT, stories about student experiences. At a time of when international students are being considered elsewhere as an under-appreciated dimension of foreign relations, Australians should logically be extending their thinking in how best to ‘listen’ to student reflections and communicate with overseas alumni.

Sustaining Communities of Practice

Professor Rowena Murray, Director of Research at University of the West of Scotland will present two seminars at the Australian National University in Canberra, 4 September 2014: "Introduction to writing techniques - for supervisors and their students" (9am) and "Sustaining communities of practice around writing" (12:30pm).

Crowd Funding Research at ANU

The Australian National University is hosting a free Seminar on "Crowd Funding Your Research" in Canberra,  9:30 AM, 26 August 2014.

Event Details

Got a great idea for a project? Thought about crowd funding but don't know where to start?

NECTAR, the Early Career Academic initiative at ANU, has brought together two experts to share their insights and experiences of using crowd funding to support research projects.

• 
  Dr Melanie Thomson, Lecturer in Molecular Medicine at Deakin University Geelong, has successfully crowdfunded 2 research projects: Mighty Maggots in 2013 and Hips 4 Hipsters  in 2014.
   
• Mr Prashan Paramanathan is Founder and CEO of the not-for-profit crowd funding platform chuffed.org, a platform focused on non-profit and social enterprise projects.

Mel and Prashan will speak to us about the good and bad of crowd funding, marketing strategies to maximise your chance of success, intellectual property, building relationships with your community, and pitfalls to avoid.

Register on Eventbrite: "Crowd Funding Your Research".

Early Career Academic Staff are also invited to attend an afternoon workshop session, where Mel and Prashan will help individuals develop their project ideas. Register for this session by emailing nectar@anu.edu.au.

For more information please contact Dr Julie Preston, NECTAR Coordinator:
Email: nectar@anu.edu.au
Website: http://nectar.anu.edu.au
Twitter: @NECTARatANU

Rolls-Royce Education on a Mini Budget: Using Customised e-Learning Packages

I have been invited to speak in the "The Shape of ICT Education" stream of the ACS Canberra Conference, 23 September 2014 (discounted registration until 22 August). My topic is "Premium Education on a Budget: Online Continuing Professional Development".

The Future of Higher Education in Australia

In his National Press Club Address, Professor Ian Young, Australian National University vice-chancellor, called for higher quality education more diverse for Australian university students (Imagining an Australia built on the brilliance of our people, Ian Young, 30 July 2014). One way I suggest we can do this is to combine pre-packaged online courses with personal tuition. The analogy I first tried to explain this was a "Christmas Pudding" (big flexible lump of customised education [the pudding] with inflexible e-learning components embedded [the shillings in the pudding]). But no one much liked that analogy, so I now propose the Rolls-Royce model of e-Learning.

Rolls-Royce Education on a Mini Budget

The marketers of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Mini would like you to think these are two very different British made cars: the Rolls-Royce a hand made luxury vehicle and the Mini a small performance car. However, both are produced by German company Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW). BMW sources designs and components for both cars from its German engineering and production lines, then ships them to the UK for assembly. Both cars have a large range of options for the customer, with an emphasis on hand finishing of the interiors in England for the Rolls-Royce. The Rolls-Royce Ghost is built on the BMW 7 Series F01 Platform. The Mini is built on the BMW 2 Series UKL Platform. These "platforms" are the mechanical underpinnings of the car, on which different body designs can be built.

Engineering Car Platforms

Motor vehicles are very expensive to develop, so car companies, or consortia of companies, design automobile platforms. which have a common underbody, suspension, steering and engine components. Platforms are designed to be flexible, allowing for compact to large cars, with two or four wheel drive and a range of engines and bodies. The platforms are designed for international assembly and prototype cars (called "mules") are rigorously tested in desert to Arctic conditions. Car comapnies then produce a range of size and models of cars based on the one platform, from compact city cars to large four wheel SUVs, from economy to luxury.

Education Platforms

BMW does not hand make the mechanical components for a Rolls-Royce, nor custom design them for the Mini, not because this would cost more, but as it would result in a lower quality, less reliable product. Modern production techniques produce cars which are superior to hand crafted ones, as well as being cheaper. BMW emphasise the English hand crafted interiors of the Rolls-Royce, but underneath there is German engineering for the production like. This same approach, I suggest, could be applied to education.

The ideal education is usually thought of as the Oxbridge model, developed in the city of Oxford, England (not far from where BMW Minis are assembled). Under this model, a don sits in their wood-panelled stone college rooms, patiently teaching a handful of students. Each student gets individual attention from an expert in one specialisation. This ideal suffers from similar problems to hand made cars: quality and efficiency.

While a university don can be an expert in a discipline, they can't be an expert in everything the student needs to learn, nor in how to teach it. An alternative approach is to have course materials designed by multidisciplinary teams, then carefully tested and refined, and then delivered by tutors (much as cars are designed by large teams of engineers and then assembled by factory workers). This approach was used by early university extension courses, specialised Distance Education universities and later evolved into e-learning delivery and later Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

This factory approach to education might seem at odds to the Oxbridge, but dons write books, which others use to teach. Oxford University was a pioneer of university extension courses one hundred years ago and continues that tradition through its Department for Continuing Education, with web based online courses.

The traditional approach to distance education courses and their later online equivalents has been to emulate a traditional university semester long format. Individual teachers are not able to change the content of the courses and students must choose from a limited range of courses. will be able to change a course will is then greatly restricted. This is much like a customer choosing from a limited range of models of car to buy. An alternative used in vocational education is to assemble courses from much smaller modules. The academic can choose the educational modules for their student, much as a car designer will choose from a range of pre-designed components.

Some educational platforms are:

• Bologna Process and Qualifications Framework of the European Higher Education Area: The "Bologna Process" is a European standardised approach to higher education, followed in Australia. This has three levels of degrees:
  1. Bachelors: 3 to 4 years,
  2. Masters: 1 to 2 years,
  3. Doctorate: 3 to 4 years.
• Australian Qualifications Framework: The AQF includes the three Bologna levels, but below them has:
  1. Certificate: 6 months
  2. Diploma: 1 year
  But these Australian diplomas and certificates may not be recognised internationally.
• International Professional Practice Partnership Certification: Under the IP3, national computer societies recognise each others member qualifications. IP3 requires qualifications equivalent to the Bachelors level and references the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). The Australian Computer Society and Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) are IP3 accredited. As well as initial qualifications, the certification requires ongoing professional development, typically 20 or  30 hours per year.
• Open Universities Australia: OUA offer degree courses in IT from Australian Universities. This introduces an element of standardisation and limited cross university compatibility. Students can include courses from different institutions. The ACS Virtual College course are available through OUA.

E- learning the production line applied to education

Units of competency

The idea of mass produced education might seem the opposite of quality education, but event the most elite of universities already use mass-produced educational materials: books. Even the most conservative Oxbridge don relies on mass-produced books and papers to help educate their students. They may tell their students which part of which books to read and what to discount, but they do not dismiss all printed work altogether.

This approach of using selected packaged educational materials with customisation could be extended to e-learning courses. This approach is already used for vocational education in Australia, where teachers in Registered Training Organisations choose from about 18,000 nationally standardised "Units of competency" listed in a database, which have been assembled in various combinations to make 1,700 "Qualifications" in 73  "Training packages". Some of the educational material for this is available in . As an example, the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment qualification (TAE40110) has 22 Units of competency (seven core), is part of the Training and Education Training Package. There is a national register of more than 50 training packages which can be used online, or in a classroom for delivering the certificate.

Not MOOCs

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been heralded as a way to deliver low cost (or free) quality online education. However, MOOCs have been derived from semester long, lecture based university courses. MOOCs generally provide 12 weeks of course material without any tailoring or tutor input. An alternative approach would have course materials in much smaller modules (between one day and one week of work).

e-Learning: Australia's Next Major Export Industry?

I will be speaking on "Teaching Students to Work Together Online" at the ACS e-Learning Special Interest Group, in Canberra, 3 September 2014. Between now and then I will be on a panel and presenting a paper at a conference for Chinese academics on how we can teach our students jointly online. Here are some thoughts on the subject:

Australian International Education Export Industry at Risk

Education is Australia’s fourth largest export industry, according to the Australian Government's International Education Advisory Council, earning $15.7B in 2011. For May 2014, the federal Department of Education estimates Australia has 405,000 international students, with 117,000 from China, 40,000 from India, 109,000 from other Asian countries, and 140,000 from other countries.

The government's Ministerial Coordinating Council for
International Education (MCCIE) expects international enrolments to increase 30% by 2020, adding 117,000 students. However, such predictions assume that students will continue to be educated largely as they are now: on-campus. Higher education is changing to a blended and on-line model, where students learn the basics on-line and then (perhaps) go into a classroom.

My rule of thumb is that about 80% of Higher Education can be done online.The typical student will only need to come to the campus for one day in five. If Australian educational institutions do not adopt this way of working, instead of increasing 30% by 2020, I suggest international enrolments could drop 80%. At the same time domestic enrolments could also drop by 80%, with most students studying at off-shore on-line universities.

To remain competitive, Australian educational institutions need to learn to teach students on-line. These students can then spend part of their time studying in their own country and part of their time in Australia.

Move the New Colombo Plan On-line

Australian Government is providing $100M over five years for the New Colombo Plan for Australian students to study in Asia and the Indian Ocean region. However, this is only being offered for students who physically travel and study in a classroom in another country.

This year the ANU commenced the bilingual (English and Hindi) online course ANU Engaging India for Australian and international students. Those students undertaking professionally accredited courses, such as computing, already learn internationally defined skills (IP3). Students also undertake the same online courses in different countries (ICT Sustainability). 

Part of professional training is to learn Ethics, Teamwork and Professional Communication. I propose the New Colombo Plan could be expanded online, with students in different countries learning professional skills in multi-lingual online groups. Assessment could be by e-Portfolio and courses run jointly by Australian and other institutions. 

In this way Australian students would learn to wok with their regional neighbours, fulfilling the aims of the New Colombo Plan. This would also provide a competitive advantage to attract overseas students who would learn in a culturally sensitive environment, designed to introduce them to an international working environment. This would be attractive compared to courses which simply try to package on-line the on-campus courses of a foreign university.

See paper for ICCSE 2014: Worthington, T. (2014). Chinese and Australian students learning to work together online: Proposal to Expand the New Colombo Plan to the Online Environment.

Australian Enable Technology Learning Program

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where the "Enable Technology Learning Program" is being launched. Initially ANU and University of Canberra students will undertake the program, in conjunction with Enable Development. Students work with the community to produce products and services for people with a disability. It should be kept in mind that such products and services can include web based applications. When teaching web design to students I included a component on accessible design after difficulties with the Sydney Olympics.

Study of the Chinese Internet

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where Professor Geremie R Barmé, Director, of the Australian Centre on China in the World, where is is opening "Studying the Chinese Internet" (研究中国互联网／ 研究中國互聯網).  A small group spent yesterday learning social network analysis today, using the free open source NodeXL and VOSON software. Today'ss presentations discuss the results of using such research.

Professor Barmé mentioned an article he co-authored in Wired magazine in 1998, where they coined the term: The Great Firewall of China".

Day 1 (Thursday 31 July) – Small group training in social media analysis

Instructor: Dr Robert Ackland, Guest lecturer: Prof Jonathan Zhu

Day 2 (Friday 1 August) – Research presentations
9.00 Welcome

9.15-10.30 Keynote presentation

“Charting the Landscape of Chinese Social Media: What We Know and What We Don’t Know from Existing Research”, Professor Jonathan Zhu, Web Mining Lab, City University of Hong Kong
中国社会化媒体研究的已知与未知 / 中國社會化媒體研究的已知與未知

Professor Zhu commented that while the Chinese Internet was heavily controlled domestically, the government also allows (and encourages) the companies to be publicly listed on Western stock exchanges. Also he commented that as these companies are listed on sock exchanges, their reported statistics are likely to be accurate, due to strict commercial law (as an example, Weibo has to report more accurate user numbers). However, he said these were less insightful than consultant's analysis and academic papers (which might be less accurate).

Tencent earns most revenue from e-commerce, other leading sites from advertising. China has 632M Internet users, 83% mobile, with a 47% penetration rate (but there may be less than 100M active social media users). Instant messaging is most popular, blogs second most popular (Professor Zhu is sceptical of this figure), then microblogging and BBS. He commented BBS were still a livery source of discussion in China.

Professor Zhu  commented that much of the literature about the Internet in China is based on case studies and is anecdotal, rather than being statistical (what in social science is called "qualitative"). He gave as an example "The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online" ( Guobin Yang, 2011). Also he commend that many studies have been by computer scientists and may be unknown to social researchers. Hopefully he has seen my paper. ;-)

Professor Zhu used Hasswell's 5W model of communication to categorise research on Chinese social media. The studies primary dealt with the communicator and audience, not content, media, or effects. The studies showed that media professionals, the elite and government officials are important sources of information on Chinese social media. One interesting finding was that police were early social media users.

What receives less mention are "grassroots" opinion leaders (as they are usually anonymous), e-marketeers and foreign individuals and entities.What was not mentioned was what role government entities marketing as something else play. The DARPA is studying Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC). In terms of content,

Professor Zhu said the conventional view shown in research was the contentious nature of the content and the strong censorship presence by government. But he commented most social media is used for entertainment not political comment and it is not clear how much censorship is self-censorship. He commented that some early research showed that 20% of posts were jokes, whereas only 3% were political commentary.

In terms of media, Weibo has been compared with Twitter in many academic studies.However, other platforms have not been studied, even though they are at least as popular as Weibo (but harder to get data about).

Professor Zhu pointed out that most researchers concentrate on the active users, who are probably only 12% to 20% of Chinese Internet users. He said this impacted on the ultimate question about the Internet in China: what effect does it have?

10.30-11.00 Morning tea

11.00-12.30 Paper session 1

“A Web Analysis of HIV Information Delivery in China”, Dr Robert Ackland, Australian National
University and Dr Jiaying Zhao, Australian National University
爱滋病信息的传递 :
基于网络的分析 / 愛滋病信息的傳遞 :
基於網絡的分析
“Predicting Depressed Individuals with Suicide Ideation Using Social Media Data”, Jin Han, Australian
National University
微博社交网络抑郁用户识别 / 微博社交網絡抑鬱用戶識別
“Analyzing Events in Chinese Microblogs”, Dr Lexing Xie, Australian National University
社交网络上的新闻事件分析 / 社交網絡上的新聞事件分析

12.30-1.30 Lunch

1.30-3.00 Paper session 2

“Preliminary Analysis of Muslim Networking on the Chinese Web”, Dr Wai Yip Ho, Hong Kong Institute of
Education and Dr Robert Ackland, Australian National University
中国穆斯林网络的初步分析 / 中國穆斯林網絡的初步分析
“Multiple Identity Formation via Social Media by Professional Chinese Immigrants to Australia”, Dr Jerry
Watkins, University of Canberra and Dr Chong Han, University of Western Sydney
社交媒体上的多重身份构建:以澳大利亚中国技术移民为例 /
社交媒體上的多重身份構建:以澳大利亞中國技術移民為例
“Human Flesh Searching in the Greater China Region”, Dr Lennon Chang, City University of Hong Kong
分析大中华地区人肉搜索之现象 / 分析大中華地區人肉搜索之現象

3.00-3.30 Afternoon tea

3.30-4.30 Paper session 3

“Institutional Analysis of Chinese Internet Governance: Some Tentative Thoughts”, Ryan Manuel,
Australian National University
关于互联网体制与管理若干问题的分析 / 關於互聯網體制與管理若干問題的分析

Ryan outlined some of the complexity of China's Internet regulation system. There are multiple ministries involved in Internet regulation, under the central secretariat. He argues that large Internet companies will do well out of this, as they can take much of the cost of the implementation of central censorship requirements off local government. The major Chinese Internet companies have close party connections. It would seem to me that the Chinese system for Internet regulation is an adaptation of the system used for conventional media. In addition to censorship there are state paid posters of material (as well as the "Water Party" commercial Internet PR companies).

“Internet Use in China: Citizens, Consumers, and Social Consumption in Chinese”, Dr Michael J. Jensen, University of Canberra and Wei Si, University of Canberra
因特网在中国的应用 :
公民 ,
消费者与社会消费 / 因特網 在中國的應用:公民,消費者與社會消費

Wei Si described an image based interface for a social media application, changing from something text based (which looked like Facebook to me), improved user acceptance. One thing which occurred to me was how much China's Internet user behaviour was influenced by using a mobile device first. Most Australian users will have used a PC interface for Internet use before moving to a mobile device.

4.30-5.00 Wrap up

: