What’s been happening at GP? (Emma Nelms)

Our long-awaited level 7 bathrooms were finished. They look fantastic (sorry no photos) and feature nice tall cubicles, no scary entry doors to the bathroom to touch or slam into the corridor and sleek green & grey tiling.

Following an EOI Helen Davies & Nicholas Morgan & Eileen Salisbury joined the web and digital engagement service as leads in Studysmart and video hosting tools. We’ve had several meetings with the teams around themes of web resources & information literacy & the beginning of lot of interesting & ongoing conversations.

Gabrielle Hayes, Emma Nelms, Peter Sondergeld & Stephanie Jacobs completed our work on the renewed Information Literacy Framework.

Jacqueline Quinn & Katarina Borcherdt became CAUL digital dexterity champions.

Marvin from OSC kindly agreed to backfill Graham for 3 days a fortnight until 28 October while Graham is acting as a representative in enterprise bargaining.

Congratulation to Michael Hawks, the GP wordsmith, who was the OA Week Quiz Champion.

Faculty of Engineering Liaison (Kate Harbison)

Some communication re DYB114 and all the help they get:

• Thank you so much. Firstly, for all the support offered to our students. Secondly, for such a thorough and complete report. It is extremely helpful to organise this unit for the following academic years.  I reiterate Anoma’s words, on behalf of the students and the teaching team, we THANK YOU ALL for your time and commitment to DYB114 Spatial Histories.
  Claudia Taborda
• Dear Emma & the Team
  WOW! That’s a lot of work.  Many thanks, from us and the students, for all the assistance provided by you & the Team. We appreciate it very much.
  Yes, sure we will contact you when we know who is going to coordinate the unit in 2023.
  Dr Anoma Kumarasuriyar| Senior Lecturer in Architecture
• Dear Claudia and Anoma
  Thank you so much for the feedback you kindly provided on our support for DYB114. I just wanted to close the loop and let you know how the support for DYB114 has gone from our perspective and share some ideas for next time this unit is delivered:
  The students needed help with:
  o   Understanding the assignment task, structuring, and writing their essays – including seeing essay examples
  o   Researching their case studies and how to reference images
  o   Annotated bibliographiesSupport provided:
  o   Created an online resource: DYB114 Essay Examples with guidance and helpful tips for structuring and writing the essays with examples from a previous DYB114 essay
  o   Added other materials to assist with searching and creating annotated bibliographies to the Blackboard pages
  o   Updated the Padlet
  o   Library Chats and Appointments
  o   Weekly drop-in sessions:
  Total number of sessions = 11
  – Online sessions = 4
  – Face to face sessions = 7 (delivered with Liaison Librarians)
  o   Timely announcements emailed to students with details of support availableWhat worked well
  

  Service/Resource	Attendance/ Views
  Drop-ins	35 students attended (some sessions had up to 12 students attend)
  Library online chats	21 chats
  Library 1:1s	39 appointments
  DYB114 Essay Examples	1031 views of the online resource
  Padlet	6 questions answered
  Studiosity	38 students accessed Studiosity 58 times

  o   Students verbally reported that the online resource was helpful
  o   Delivering the face to face drop-ins as a ‘Language & Learning Educator and Liaison Librarian Team’ was very effective and helped the students
  to have their assignment questions answered.
  Suggestions for future:

  • • Add more material to the online resource using more examples (with students’ permission)
    • Drop-ins:
      o Provide some framing for the students about what to expect from a drop-in session
      o Set up specific strategies to manage large numbers of students in drop-ins, e.g. get them to help each other and then float our expertise between groups

We noticed that many of the students we talked to had a lot of questions about the assignment task, and we’d be happy to share some insights about the assessment piece, if you are interested.

We hope this information is helpful, and we look forward to working with you again on DYB114 (and the new equivalent, ABB108). Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or if you would like to discuss any of these points further.

Kind regards
Emma, on behalf of our team: Kate, Ann-Maree, Anja & Kerensa
Dr Emma Caukill | SFHEA; PhD; M.Ed; B.A.Hons | Senior Language and Learning Educator | Faculty of Engineering

Faculty of Science Liaison

The online SERF inductions were completed and the QUT Tarago was booked for the half hour drive from Gardens Point to SERF (Samford Ecological Research Facility).

In October the Science Library Team visited this unique 51 hectare property which is mix of cleared pasture and remnant native vegetation. It is a living laboratory for research and teaching across a range of ecological, engineering, built environment and creative arts programs relating to biodiversity and conservation, urban development, and agriculture. These activities have been extended to include a writer’s retreat and is very popular with visits from community groups and Schools to complete Biology practicals.

Lorelle Allen and Marcus Yates took us on a guided informative bushwalk and we were able to view some of the research being carried out there:

• Dr David Tucker – recording of bioacoustic data for the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN)
• PhD researcher Dan Cook – Bees
• Associate Professor Caroline Huxley – screenhouses are used to grow grasses for a project researching pasture dieback caused by a species of mealybug.
• Dr Andrew Baker studying the Antechinus

The Marks family had owned the property since the 1880s and the heritage listed slab hut that was built in the early 1870s still stands. This property was generously bequeathed to QUT in 2009 by renowned Queensland entomologist Dr Elizabeth Nesta Marks AO.