Projects

Current projects

Academic archetypes: What is the experience of being an academic at USQ?

Collaborators: Prof Helen Partridge (University of Southern Queensland and Deakin University); Clare Schonfeld (University of Southern Queensland); Emma Power
Status: Data analysis phase

The Education Portfolio at the University of Southern Queensland provides a range of services and programs that support academic staff at the university in the design and delivery of courses. The project seeks to develop an empirically derived understanding of the experience of being an academic at USQ, and to distil these empirically derived insights into ‘archetypes’ based on the concept of user experience personas. This outputs of this project will inform the development of professional learning opportunities that meet the needs and wants of academics at USQ with regard to their needs and wants with regard to their professional development for teaching and learning. This study will be among the first to articulate ‘archetypes’ for academics that are designed to inform programs, products and services that provide support and professional learning opportunities for academic staff. Its qualitative approach and holistic perspective are novel and significant.

Public library staff and professional development: An exploratory study

Collaborators: Prof Helen Partridge (Deakin University); Dr Michael Stephens (San Jose State University)
Status: Publishing

This is a collaborative project involving researchers from San Jose State University, the University of Southern Queensland, and Deakin University, in partnership with the Australian Library and Information Association. The aim of this project is to explore the professional development experiences and needs of public library staff across Australia. The outcomes of this project will – for the first time – establish national-level data to provide an evidence base about professional development in the public library sector in Australia. This empirical evidence base will provide a foundation from which a professional development framework for public library staff can be developed. Data collection for this project involved a questionnaire that had almost 500 responses, in addition to a narrative inquiry interview study. Three publications are planned and currently in draft.

Understanding the Australian STEM club landscape

Collaborators: Assoc Prof Ange Fitzgerald (University of Southern Queensland); Tania Leach (University of Southern Queensland); Dr Neil Martin (University of Southern Queensland)
Status: Data collection commencing 2020

In the Australian context, as well as internationally, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) clubs are gaining momentum as a means for engaging students in STEM­related activities. Despite this growth, there have been only limited attempts to examine what quality STEM club provision looks like, critical success factors for STEM clubs, and what is needed to support sustainable practice. To ensure the success and sustainability of the STEM club movement, and indeed of individual STEM clubs, STEM club practice should be informed by an evidence­based understanding of what success looks like and how it can be achieved. In 2018­19, the project team undertook a project funded by Inspiring Australia Queensland to develop a STEM club toolkit and evaluation framework. As part of this project, a survey of STEM clubs in Queensland was undertaken to develop an understanding of the STEM club landscape in Queensland. We are now seeking to extend this work to encompass STEM clubs across the country. This project will use a national questionnaire and an interview study to address the questions:

  • What types of organisations run STEM clubs?
  • Who are the facilitators of STEM clubs in Australia?
  • Who participates in Australian STEM clubs?
  • What content areas do Australian STEM clubs focus on?
  • What barriers impact on STEM club practice?
  • What is needed to support sustainable STEM club practice?
  • How are STEM clubs evaluated?
  • How are STEM clubs funded and what other resources are available to them?

The interviews will focus on the experience of facilitating STEM club and will result in the development of illustrative case studies.

Mothers’ information experience in social media and impact on decision making about health and wellness

Lead: Dr Kate Davis
Status: Undertaking literature review

This project explores mothers’ experience of information related to health topics in social media spaces and its impact on their decision making. In order to effectively use social media to engage with mothers, public health providers need to understand how mothers experience information in social media and how they apply it in decision making. This project will develop empirical insight into mothers’ information experience in social media and its impact on decision making about health topics. It will then apply this insight to make recommendations for how public health providers can engage mothers in social media spaces. The project has two interconnected research questions:

  1. How do mothers experience information related to health topics in social media?
  2. How does this impact on their decision making related to child health?

In addition to addressing these research questions, the project will develop a methodology for studying information experience in a way that can be operationalised within relatively short time frames while still maintaining research quality.

Past projects

Understanding the post-release technology experiences of women ex-prisoners: Do they have the access and literacies to support employment and study? (2018-2019)

Lead: Dr Kate Davis
Team: Assoc Prof Helen Farley, Dr Jenny Ostini
Funding type: Grant
Funding source: Queensland Corrective Services Research Funding Scheme
Status: Publishing

This project explored the technology experiences of women prisoners recently released from prison. It aimed to addressed the gap in the research literature around the digital literacies and access to technology of ex-prisoners after release from custody and particularly with respect to women. The project addressed the following research questions:

  1. To what extent do post-release women ex-prisoners have the digital literacies they need to find employment and reintegrate into society?
  2. What are the technology needs of post-release women ex-prisoners?
  3. What are the technology experiences of post-release women ex-prisoners?
  4. What access do post-release women ex-prisoners have to digital technologies?

The findings were based on a thematic analysis and provided rich insight into the technology needs and experience of the participatns. In addition to the thematic analysis, the findings included a set of four behavioural archetypes of women ex-prisoners, which provide a concise overview of the range of experiences that occur across the dataset. We are currently drafting publications from this project.

STEM clubs evaluation framework (2018-2019)

Lead: Assoc Prof Angela Fitzgerald
Project team: Tania Leach (University of Southern Queensland); Dr Neil Martin (University of Southern Queensland); Stephanie Piper (University of Southern Queensland)
Funding type: Competitive tender
Client: Queensland Government / Inspiring Australia
Status: Publishing

This applied research project was undertaken on behalf of the Board of the Queensland Museum (henceforth, ‘the funding agency’) as part of the Inspiring Australia program. The purpose of this project was to develop a framework for Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Technology (STEM) clubs for use across Queensland, in STEM clubs within libraries, museums, schools and private organisations. The project was extended to incorporate the development of a toolkit (http://bit.ly/stem-club-toolkit) to support STEM club practice more broadly. This project has so far resulted in four conference presentations, a conference poster, a book chapter, and a Q1 journal article, with an additional journal article currently in draft.

Review of The Next Horizon: VISION 2017 for Queensland Public Libraries (2017)

Lead: Dr Kate Davis
Collaborator: Dr Matt Finch
Funding type: Competitive tender
Client: The Library Board of Queensland trading as The State Library of Queensland

This project aimed to

  • develop and deliver a statewide consultation process to assess stakeholder awareness, acceptance and use of VISION 2017
  • identify the purpose and use of a renewed vision
  • identify opportunities for optimising the value of a strategic vision
  • draft a new vision reflecting the needs, issues and future aspirations of Queensland public libraries.

Project data collection incorporated 11 workshops across Queensland, from the Gold Coast to Cooktown; 20 interviews with 23 library service managers; and a statewide online questionnaire that received more than 200 responses. Project outputs included a project report providing a synthesis and analysis of consultation data.

Refining the blend: developing a student centred framework for multi-modal education (2014-2016)

Lead: Dr Kate Davis
Project team: Prof Helen Partridge (Queensland University of Technology); Dr Elham Sayyad Abdi (Queensland University of Technology); Linh Nguyen (Queensland University of Technology; research assistant); Katya Henry (Queensland University of Technology; research assistant); Lynn McAllister (Queensland University of Technology; research assistant); Clare Thorpe (Queensland University of Technology; research assistant)
Funding type: Grant
Funding source: QUT Science and Engineering Faculty Teaching and Learning Grant
Status: Complete

This project sought to answer the questions: What are students’ preferences, expectations, and experiences with regard to their learning experiences? How might this inform development of a student-centered framework for learning for a dual mode cohort? This qualitative study explored student preferences, expectations and experiences with regard to learning experiences in the QUT MIT (LIS).

Science and Engineering Faculty Small Infrastructure Grant Mobile Research and Teaching (RaT) Lab (2013)

Lead: Professor Helen Partridge
Project team: Kate Davis; Zaana Howard
Funding type: Grant
Funding source: QUT Science and Engineering Faculty Small Infrastructure Grant
Role: Technology selection, roll out of training and equipment, design and implementation of evaluation strategy

This grant provided funding for technology equipment that was used to further experimentation with online teaching and running synchronous online and face-to-face classes.