Research
'Mentor involvement in the first year of university - the James Cook Experience', paper presented by Helen Treston and Peter Hanley at the Third Pacific Rim Conference on the First Year in Higher Education, Auckland, NZ, 1998.
'Orientation - the best of both worlds' paper presented by Alan Calder at the 2nd National FYE Conference in Perth in December 1998. This paper was later published in the April 1999 edition of the Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association (JANZSSA).
'Kickstart Report', a short report and evaluation of the student facilitated Kick Start orientation program offered at the Cairns campus of JCU in 1999 by Robin Lewington.
'Executive summary of evaluation of the student mentor program JCU Cairns, Semester 1, 1999', report by Helen Treston.
'Shifting paradigms in mentoring programs in higher education', paper presented by Helen Treston at the 2nd Regional Conference on Tutoring and Mentoring, Perth, Western Australia, 30 September-2 October 1999.
'Mentoring: making a positive difference for individuals and institutions, unpublished paper by Helen Treston.
'Peer Mentoring: Making a Difference at James Cook University, Cairns-It's Moments like these you need Mentors' was published in 1999 in Innovations in Education and Training International 36.3 pp 236-243.
'Online Learning Support: An Action Research Project', paper presented by Alan Calder described the process whereby online learning support, peer support, orientation strategies and the establishment of a Learning Centre at the Cairns campus have proved useful strategies in addressing problems of the first year experience. This paper was presented at the 4th Pacific Rim First Year Experience Conference at QUT, 5-7 July 2000. A poster presentation on the same topic was presented at the AUSWEB Conference in Cairns, 13-15 June 2000.
Online Learning Support (Powerpoint)' is the powerpoint presentation delivered at the above 4th Pacific Rim First Year Experience Conference.
JCU Student Mentor Program and Retention is a document which was presented to the JCU Student Retention Working Group in December 2000 to illustrate the role the Student Mentor Program plays in student retention.
Executive Summary - Student Mentor Program 2000 is the executive summary of an evaluation of the Student Mentor Program conducted by Evelyn Lewiston.
Kickstart 2000 is a short report written by Peter Hanley and Helen Treston on the Kickstart courses offered in Cairns and Townsville in 2000.
Orientation Study Skills Sessions, Semester 1, 2001 is a brief summary of an evaluation conducted at the Cairns campus and distributed to all presenters of these sessions.
Summary of Interviews with Stakeholders is a summary of individual meetings with fifteen key personnel on the Cairns campus in November 2001 to help Learning Advisers evaluate how the roles of the Learning Centre and Student Mentor Program are perceived.
2001: Providing Space for a Learning Centre is a paper by Alan Calder on the Learning Centre at the Cairns campus. Using a 'mosaic' of evaluation techniques, this study examines how the allocation of space for a Learning Centre has allowed learning communities to evolve amongst students, mentors and Learning Advisers. The physical, organisational and virtual dimensions of this space have facilitated a model of learning support that has changed the way in which Learning Advisers meet the academic needs of students. This paper was presented at the ANZSSA conference held in Christchurch in December 2001. It was subsequently published in the April 2002 edition of the Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association (JANZSSA).
'Helping Students Improve Their Writing Skills'. This paper, by June Bode, aims initially to identify briefly some of the problems that academics face in helping students write. Secondly, it will highlight some of the issues discussed in an inter university project on student literacy (and later in the paper, look at the application of these ideas and techniques in the school of Education at James Cook University [JCU]). Lastly, it will present a number of suggestions about how lecturers can provide meaningful and constructive feedback on student writing. This paper is published in the online journal, 'Tertiary Teaching: Flexible Teaching and Learning Across the Disciplines'.
' The Student Mentor Program - an Action-Research Project Over Five Years'. Student mentoring has been an important feature on the Cairns campus at James Cook University since the early days of the campus in 1991. A student mentor scheme catering for all students was introduced on the Townsville campus in 1997. In this paper, Peter Hanley describes how action-research methodology has been employed in the development of the student mentor scheme over the past five years. This paper is published in the online journal, 'Tertiary Teaching: Flexible Teaching and Learning Across the Disciplines'.
Kickstart Report 2003. This comprehensive report was submitted by the Learning Advisers to the Faculty of Arts Education and Social Sciences at the completion of the Kickstart Transition Programs in Cairns and Townsville. A video accompanies this report and includes interviews with staff and students involved in a range of JCU Transition Programs. Contact Alan.Calder@jcu.edu.au to request a copy of this video.
Freshstart Report 2003. This comprehensive report was submitted by the Learning Advisers to the Faculty of Law Business and Creative Arts at the completion of the first offering of the Freshstart Transition Programs in Cairns and Townsville. As a result, Freshstart will become integrated into the Faculty's Induction program from 2004. A video accompanies this report and includes interviews with staff and students involved in a range of JCU Transition Programs. Contact Alan.Calder@jcu.edu.au to request a copy of this video.
Summary of Interviews with Stakeholders is a summary of individual meetings with fifteen key personnel on the Cairns campus in November 2003 to help Learning Advisers evaluate how the roles of the Learning Centre and Student Mentor Program are perceived.
Summary of Mentor Program Review. These notes summarise the outcomes of a review where senior academic staff in Cairns were invited to provide feedback on the Student Mentor Program in November 2003.
'Faculty Specific Transition Programs – replacing the traditional O’Week'. This paper was presented by Alan Calder at the Language & Academic Skills in Higher Education National Conference, Flinders University in November 2003.
'Peer interaction in the transition process'. This paper was presented by Alan Calder at the Australia & New Zealand Student Services Association Inc. Conference in Melbourne in December 2003. The paper was subsequently published in the April 2004 edition of the Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association (JANZSSA).
NRGize Mentoring Workshop Report. Helen Treston was one of two university presenters at the NRGize Mentoring Workshop facilitated by the Dusseldorp Skills Forum in Brisbane from 4-6 February, 2004. The workshop was an opportunity for 100 coordinators from new programs to gain tools and knowledge from twelve acknowledged successful mentoring program practitioners. This report summarizes some of the key elements of the workshop and identifies some policy implications for JCU's Student Mentor Program.
'Repositioning academic literacy: charting the emergence of a community of practice'. This paper was written by Elizabeth Hirst, Robyn Henderson, Margaret Allan, June Bode and Mehtap Kocatepe and was published in Australian Journal of Language and Literacy Vol 27, no1, 2004, 66-80. The paper reflects on the experiences of the authors in planning and teaching a short-course in academic literacy for students enrolled in the first year of an education degree.
'Collaborate! Create! Critique! Investigating the dynamics of an integrated learning space'. This paper was written by Dana Anders, Alice Logan and Alan Calder and was presented at the Association of Tertiary Learning Advisers of Aeotearoa/ New Zealand (ATLAANZ) Conference, University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ in December 2005. An investigation of the way students use the Cairns JCU Library building shows complex interpersonal interactions, an abundance of independent peer learning communities and student movement to specific learning spaces according to academic and social needs.
'If you can't beat 'em, podcast 'em!'. This 'nuts and bolts' paper was presented by Alan Calder at the 9th Pacific Rim First Year in Higher Education Conference at Griffith University, 12-14 July 2006. The paper describes how short 5-minute audio 'snapshots' were integrated into a series of orientation discipline specific writing workshops, and how some lecturers continue to use this learning tool as part of their online subject resources. Students reported that the audio files gave them a sense of direction and helped consolidate, prioritise and clarify information delivered in other modes.
'Learning From Our Students'. This paper was written by Bhama Daly and Alan Calder and was presented at the 8th Biennial Association for Academic Language and Learning Conference: How do we communicate? La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria in November 2007. The paper provides an overview of an ongoing study at James Cook University into how we can learn from "talking with students about what and how they learn" (Chanock & Vardi, 2005) and then share this knowledge with our colleagues. Students were asked about the strategies that lecturers can use to improve learning; and the AALL community was also asked to contribute student feedback on this issue.
