Despite clear claims that higher education institutions prepare graduates for a world that is increasingly globalised, diverse and interconnected, how best to develop intercultural competence in places of learning is less clear. Drawing focus to a purpose-built intercultural programme, this paper explores the development of intercultural…

Providing foreign language students with opportunities to engage in meaningful and purposeful communication and culturally authentic interaction with peers and native speakers is critical to successful second language acquisition and the development of intercultural competence . This paper describes research that investigated how selected native…

Effective employment of information and communication technology (ICT) in foreign language teaching and learning has become imperative as a means to support second language development when traditional face-to-face instruction and interaction is not possible. Using a design-based research approach and a theoretical framework that integrates…

The role of gamification in Australian higher educational learning has gained increasing currency in recent years, with many proponents promoting its usefulness for improving the university student experience by increasing progression and lowering attrition, particularly among first year students (Charles, Charles, McNeill, Bustard, & Black,…

"To learn about X, observe what happens to the system when X is removed." What happens to the higher education student experience when, during a pandemic, so many of the avenues for building a sense of belonging are radically and fundamentally disrupted? How should we respond as individuals, a collective and a sector, to redress this?…

Learning anatomy and physiology at university can be challenging, as students need to understand both the language of the discipline and complex topics, such as system integration. Yet learning strategies are rarely taught at university, making it difficult for students to adopt new strategies, if their approach to learning has not been effective…

There has been increasing attention given to the notion that international education consists of non-linear and multi-directional transmissive exchanges between existing institutional academic conditions and international students. Despite the role of international students' agency being paramount, there is a dearth of research on the…

This paper describes the design and outcomes of an educational intervention undertaken to improve the quality of delivery of a fourth-year engineering elective course--Industrial Wastewater and Solid Waste Management at the University of Queensland. The objective was to increase the level of active participation of students in planned…

Scientific expertise and outcomes often give rise to controversy. An educational response that equips students to take part in socioscientific discussions is the teaching of Socially Acute Questions (SAQs). Students engaging with SAQs need to engage with socio scientific reasoning, which involves reasoning with evidence from a variety of fields…

Through the lens of the Community of Inquiry education experience (Vaughan & Garrison, 2006), this practice report provides guidance and examples for online instructors to engage students within discussion boards in the digital realm. Five elements will be discussed: embedding multi-media, affiliative humour and storytelling, Socratic…

This study aimed to identify factors influencing student engagement in online and blended courses at one Australian regional university. It applied a data science approach to learning and teaching data gathered from the learning management system used at this university. Data were collected and analysed from 23 subjects, spanning over 5500 student…

To combat high failure and student drop-out rates, universities have developed strategies to monitor online student engagement through measurable activities. In this study, we explore if and how these monitoring activities accurately measure online engagement. We interviewed nine highly engaged online third-year students throughout a semester to…

The dynamics of how students respond to each other during online discussions in a blended learning environment remains under-explored in the literature. How this technology shapes interaction when used in conjunction with traditional teaching methods and the practices of learners in these multi-site situations is a significant educational issue.…

This research explores the perceptions of facilitators in asynchronous online discussion to improve practice and student engagement in Higher Education. Traditional didactic delivery of learning content may fail the expectations of student and academic stakeholders. The pressure to teach within constrained resources presents challenges, but also…

This paper reflects on a team translation project on Aboriginal culture designed to enhance university students' intercultural communication competence and understanding through engaging in an interactive team translation project funded by the Australia-China Council. A selected group of Chinese speaking translation students participated in the…