Australian Papers at TALE 2019

Greetings from Yogyakarta, at the IEEE TALE 2019 engineering education conference. Papers will be published, but in the interim, I have searched though the copy we were provided looking for Australian presenters and topics.

English Vocabulary Levels of University Engineering Students in a Sino-NZ Collaboration, Kerese Manueli, Victoria University of Wellington:

'Abstract—Internationalization of China’s higher education has been widely documented. A New Zealand university entered the crowded market and found that some things have not changed. English Medium Instruction (EMI) is the buzzword but are the engineering students at a “provincial or local university” ready for it? This paper will discuss an
exploratory study on the English productive vocabulary levels of the engineering students in a Sino-New Zealand collaboration. Students’ written work were analyzed using the online vocabulary profiler (VocabProfiler). Preliminary results suggest that participants’ productive vocabulary levels were below the authors’ expectations. This was consistent with other standards described in the literature. Pedagogical implications include the review of teaching resources and more emphasis placed on the vocabulary development of students, particularly for the academic and engineering words. In addition, more research needs to be conducted to identify other challenges faced by the engineering students.'

Capstone Project Implementation Using Infrastructure as a Service: The Learning Experience, CQUniversity:

'Abstract—This research paper discusses the learning
experiences during the implementation of a postgraduate
network security capstone project using cloud services as the
technical infrastructure. Using mixed methods, interpretations are drawn from students’ voices in a medium-sized Australian university, about the convoluted challenges and issues associated with the learning redesign of an advanced unit consistent with technology trends and industry demands. Despite finding the IaaS platform challenging and difficult to use, students perceived the learning experience to be highly rewarding and current in the development of their technical skills and job readiness.'

Sentiment analysis of preschool teachers’ perceptions on ICT use for young children, Mohd Ridzwan Yaakub, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and others:

'Abstract—Sentiment analysis in gaining more attention as it is increasingly used in multiple domains, including in interpreting educational data. The article uses sentiment analysis technique to understand the early childhood educators reported beliefs (perception) on young children’s ICT use. The dataset was obtained from a comparative study of early childhood educators from two countries, Australia and Malaysia. The result shows a similar outcome where most teachers agreed upon the benefits of ICT use and conclude more positive sentiment polarity. This paper summarizes the findings using sentiment analysis
as well as comparing it to the quantitative data obtained from the survey.'

Blend and Flip for Teaching Communication Skills to Final Year International Computer Science Students, Tom Worthington:

"In addition to technical knowledge, graduates in computing and engineering disciplines are expected to have communication skills, and the ability to undertake lifelong learning. These skills are difficult to acquire using conventional lecture and tutorial based teaching. Final year international graduate computer science students at the Australian National University, College of Engineering and Computer Science, were found to have particular difficulty when asked to write about their learning. In response, lectures were replaced with online exercises, group workshops in a new purpose-built flat floor classroom, and peer-assessed progressive assessment. This approach was trialed with eighty students in 2019. Preliminary results indicate students performed at least as well as with conventional lecture-based instruction."