Monica Behrend

• Adjunct Lecturer at University of South Australia

Various models of writing groups for doctoral candidates are effective in developing research writing skills. While most groups focus on writing and providing feedback, less is written about groups that focus on empowering the research-writer through social interaction. This paper explores the impact of an ongoing fortnightly writing group as a reg...

This article provides a description and analysis of the way in which research degree students and their supervisors at one Australian university (the University of South Australia) use a popular online plagiarism-detection system, iThenticate. The study identifies how these two groups use iThenticate by analysing usage data together with data from...

A significant shift towards consolidating residential neighbourhoods has dramatically influenced the Australian national urban tree canopy benchmark. Recurrent tree planting, in densely settled residential suburbs, is an insufficient, emerging environmental and long-term energy conservation strategy. A global and Australian original research review...

Background The Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) is widely used in online teaching and learning, especially in STEM education. However, educational research on using Moodle is scattered throughout the literature. Therefore, this review aims to summarise this research to assist three sets of stakeholders—educators, researchers, and software de...

Background Computer-aided learning management systems (LMSs) are widely used in higher education and are viewed as beneficial when transitioning from conventional face-to-face teaching to fully online courses. While LMSs have unique tools for transferring and assessing knowledge, their ability to engage and assess learners needs further investigati...

Contribution: An evaluation of the effectiveness of systems engineering (SE) courses in developing students' systems thinking (ST) capacity in both the cognitive and affective domains. A combined cognitive ST performance and affective engagement with ST assessment is proposed as an approach to assess students' ST in both domains. The results can su...

An aspect that has been exhaustively researched in the internationalization of the higher education discipline is the international students’ process of adjustment or fitting in when studying in foreign countries. The focus of those researches was commonly on how they adjust to learning in the universities, as well as how the academic staff adjusts...

The seemingly paradisical environments of Pacific Island countries with their coconut palms, coral reefs and white sand beaches are threatened with destruction. Why? Rapid population growth straining limited natural resources, industrial development and mining activities creating problems of non-biodegrad able waste disposal, depletion of rare and...

Online learning affords new challenges in providing learning support for all students. One group of students potentially disadvantaged through this innovation is second language learners, and in particular transnational students, i.e. offshore students for whom English is a foreign language (EFL). This paper presents results from participatory acti...