Informing Website Navigation Design with Team-Based Card Sorting

In 2016, Utah State University (USU) Libraries redesigned the library website’s main menu and underlying information architecture (IA) in response to a number of known usability problems and limitations. Card sorting studies were conducted with a group of USU undergraduate students and a mixed group of faculty and graduate students to help develop a better understanding of users’ mental models of library-related research and service tasks. Participants worked in teams to sort, rank and label cards pertaining to the content and feature of the library’s website. Afterwards, participants discussed and performed usability tasks on each other’s categories. Results were used to inform the design of a new IA and menu structure, while best practices from usability studies and trends in academic library website design were used to help with menu and link labeling. The final design was validated through follow-up discussions with staff, usability tests, and category/reverse category tests.     

How minimal grade goals and self-control capacity interact in predicting test grades

The present research examined the prediction of school students' grades in an upcoming math test via their minimal grade goals (i.e., the minimum grade in an upcoming test one would be satisfied with). Due to its significance for initiating and maintaining goal-directed behavior, self-control capacity was expected to moderate the relation between students' minimal grade goals and their actual grades. Self-control capacity was defined as the dispositional capacity to override or alter one's dominant response tendencies. Prior to a scheduled math test, 172 vocational track students indicated their minimal grade goal for the test and completed a measure of self-control capacity. The test grade was assessed at a second time of measurement. As expected, minimal grade goals more strongly predicted the actual test grades the higher the students' self-control capacity. Implications can be seen in terms of optimizing the prediction and advancement of academic performance.     

A theory of action account of an across-school collaboration policy in practice

Journal of Educational Change - Educational systems worldwide promote the use of collaborative networks to foster teacher learning and improve practice in the pursuit of educational change to...     

Difficulties in semantically congruent translation of verbally and symbolically represented algebraic statements

Educational Studies in Mathematics - This paper describes the difficulties faced by a group of middle school students (13- to 15-year-olds) attempting to translate algebraic statements written in...     

Supporting (or not) the career development of culturally and linguistically diverse migrants and refugees in universities: insights from Australia

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - The present study used a mixed-methods approach to understand the challenges faced by Australian higher education institutions in...     

“Cheap” and “expensive” credit points: a case study of their causes and utility at a high course-load university

Tertiary Education and Management - Failures to standardize the work required to receive equal credit points from different courses make credit points unfit for their official purposes. Moreover,...     

In pursuit of quality: early childhood qualifications and training policy

This paper aims to critique policy discourses around the pursuit of quality in early years education. Taking England as a focal point, it problematizes the use of the term ‘quality’ and attempts to standardise its meaning; highlighting the disconnect that exists between policy and practice. The paper combines discourse analysis of a small number of key government documents with a series of interviews with early years stakeholders in order to identify issues that will have resonance and can inform a much needed continuation of debates about what quality might mean. Over the course of the research it became apparent that there was considerable disquiet amongst early years practitioners with regards the current qualifications and training landscape, particularly with regards to what many viewed as ideologically-driven policy-making, not informed by proper dialogue with the sector.     

Do executive functions contribute to writing quality in beginning writers? A longitudinal study with second graders

Reading and Writing - Writing is an important activity that involves many demanding processes. Given the complexity and goal-directed nature of writing, this activity is heavily dependent on...     

Some current issues in the administration of Australian universities

The Australian universities have entered a steady-state period in which enrolments and funding are being held with limits predetermined by government instead of being allowed to expand to levels compatible with institutional goals. A model of a university system is emerging from the recommendations of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), and the guidelines set by the Federal Government and the proposals of the State Governments. This model aims to be equitable, accountable, efficient and well co-ordinated but it allows for Federal and State government intrusion into areas of decision-making that the universities have traditionally regarded as their preserves for autonomous action.The Tertiary Education Commission, as the Federal system-authority, has concentrated on the evidence and the need for change in four major areas: the nature of the student population; funding and, consequently, staffing, and procedures for co-ordination and rationalization. The states have shown particular interest in the fourth area and have aligned themselves with the TEC as it has devised a series of proposals, for all four areas, which have ultimately been placed upon the universities in the amended, and sometimes more restrictive form of Federal government guidelines.An examination of the new model of university education that is taking shape and the universities' reaction to it suggests that the universities are faced with three alternatives. They can capitulate and subscribe fully to this model being formulated beyond their campuses or they can unilaterally resist its imposition. Their third option, however, involves both compromise and initiative and it is emerging as the most effective choice for survival in the steady state environment.In taking the third option, the universities will have to adopt a two-pronged approach. Firstly, they will need to anticipate and to adjust to external initiatives by shortterm tactics conducted by an efficient centralized administration. Secondly, and most importantly both the administrative and academic communities will have to accommodate these adjustments to a long-term plan that will determine the role and function of their university and, ultimately, of the entire university system of education amongst the economic, political and social realities of the late 20th century.