Higher Education (HE) is responsible for developing employability in students, helping them succeed in the workforce and contributing to the cultivation of a skilled labor force, essential for economic growth and innovation. However, feedback from the Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry is indicating the need for enhanced professional skills in ICT students alongside better understanding of the application of their technical skills. A significant portion of the highly sought-after skills in ICT roles, including communication, teamwork, and other professional behaviors, appears to be lacking. Consequently, this paper investigates factors forming the gap between ICT educational systems and the industry's expectations concerning professional skills in ICT students. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), this paper focuses on reviewing a holistic picture of methods currently employed in developing professional skills in ICT students in HE systems without an explicit focus on learning technologies and tools. Findings suggested that the current design of ICT educational systems emphasises information or units over students themselves, potentially hindering the acquisition of professional skills in students. Additionally, the research found that current ICT educational systems lack consistent reflection and feedback mechanisms throughout programs, making it difficult for students to realize and bring out their potential as ICT professionals with desired skills. The paper's findings provide a better understating of the development of professional skills in HE and inform how it can change for future improvements.

We investigate repurposing existing virtual reality applications as teaching platforms. A pilot study conducted using six freely available social applications on the Oculus Quest platform investigates the practical issues involved in using these applications for distributed learning in a higher education context. Recordings and reports from collaborative sessions with each application yield insights into employing virtual reality as an environment to support teaching. First time use involves both adapting to the platform interface, but also ensuring mutual agreement on conventions, control and expressions. Several applications support limited importing and authoring of content. Addressing and locating rooms and participants is a challenge, while the opportunities associated with avatar representation and identity promise enhanced interactions between individuals beyond traditional teacher/student roles.

The aim of this study was to investigate which of three types of video resources, and which additional resources, were preferred by Information Technology (IT) students for learning and exam preparation. We offered three types of video learning resources to support the delivery of a first year undergraduate IT course. We collated quantitative data on engagement with each video resource through the Learning Management System, drew further insights from an online survey of the students and combined this with data obtained from an institutional student evaluation survey. Whilst there has been much research conducted about the use of video lectures and other online resources, there has been little research conducted specifically with IT students to determine their preferences when selecting learning resources. We report the preferences of IT undergraduate students when provided with a selection of video learning materials, how the resources were used and their perceived learning value. This study not only offers a set of considerations and recommendations for the design of learning materials for IT students, but also for digital learning in higher-education more generally. Short premium videos were watched many more times than full lectures, and 85% of students agreed that short premium videos were more beneficial and effective than longer, lower quality lecture recordings for their learning. The students’ self-assessed video attention span varied greatly, with a mean of 10 minutes. Students perceived that short premium videos helped them to retain knowledge. However, the perceived most useful resource overall was the lecture slides.

In this paper, we present a novel machine-learning approach that analyzes student assessment scores across a teaching period to predict their final exam performance. One challenge for many universities around the world is identifying the students who are at risk of failing a subject sufficiently early enough to provide proactive interventions that aim to minimize the risk of failure due to several reasons such as the volume of (big) data. We propose a data-driven strategy using machine learning, an application of artificial intelligence that has become popular for extracting knowledge from data by combining strategies and processes from statistics and computer science. By being able to predict what a student's exam performance is ahead of time, interventions can occur, and students can be provided with extra support from their teachers to aid them in achieving the best result possible. In this research, we collected data from a popular information-technology subject at an Australian university and applied a machine-learning algorithm to the data to predict a few hundred students' exam scores. We also developed a framework of learning-support activities that would be of most benefit to at-risk students to achieve maximum impact before their exam would be conducted. We discovered through our approach that we can accurately predict the bottom 20-30 percent of students at risk, enabling a large cohort of students to be helped through our intervention framework, which we believe can have a positive impact on their future results.

Whilst the use of digital interactive content can be used in physical exhibits within museums, little attention has been given to identify and develop interactive learning resources for online delivery of museum education. Previous research has demonstrated that interactivity is the key in engaging and educating museum visitors for both online museum websites and for physical exhibition. This study aims at categorizing and ranking the range of interactivity in terms of learner (user) interactions and of digital content with museum distant-learning systems, with a formal education context. The link to education presented as museum education generally uses the same structure as formal education. The research analyzed 38 digital learning units on 11 immigration-oriented museums websites through defined categorizations. The findings show that a digital learning unit can use more than one types of content or user-centered interactivity, while the passive interactivity is the dominant one. This review also shows that different types of digital content could provide various types of interactions for learners. Finally, the results could help form a toolbox for the communities to use and build online interactive learning units for museum education.

The primary aim of this study in this paper aside from presenting student preference survey data and analytics data with relation to learning videos, is to address the attention span issues with our cohort of Information Technology students specifically and propose a new model being chunked lectures for delivering online lectures within the Information Technology discipline which may manage attention span more effectively and thus may also increase comprehension and retention of knowledge.

Peer assessment can be considered in the framework of group decision making and hence take advantage of many of the proposed methods and evaluation processes. Despite the potential of peer assessment to greatly reduce the workload of educators, a key hurdle to its uptake is its perceived reliability, with there being the preconception that peers may not be as reliable or fair as 'experts'. In this contribution, we consider approaches to moderation with the aim of increasing the accuracy of scores given while reducing the total workload of the subject experts (or lecturers in the university context). Firstly, we propose several indices, which, in combination can be used to estimate the reliability of peer markers. Secondly, we consider the consensus of scores received by peers. We hence approach the problem of reliability from two angles, and from these considerations can identify a subset of peers whose results should be flagged for moderation. We conduct some numerical experiments to investigate the potential for these techniques in the context of peer assessment with heterogeneous marking behaviors.

In the digital technology era, mobile devices have an important rule to deploy a copy of data and information through the network. An electronic reader (eReader) allows readers to read written materials in an electronic manner that is available in many models. The objective of this study is to evaluate the usage of eReader by higher education students. We firstly identified the most frequently used eReader by surveying higher education students. The survey results showed that Apple iPad, Amazon Kindle, and Samsung Tablet are the most popular eReader devices used by higher education students. We presented these results, and then we analyzed the surveyed results in detail in order to develop an evaluation metric of the eReader in a mobile platform that clearly allows the selection of the most suitable eReader for higher education students. The main contribution of this paper is the development of a set of criteria that can be used by students in the selection of an eReader that matches their specific needs and requirements.

As higher education students access educational content using a variety of mobile devices, the question then arises: Does the content across different mobile devices vary in terms of usability? Does usability determine a user’s willingness to engage in mobile learning? Hence, it is necessary to investigate the usability of the learning applications and the mobile devices used to access these applications. This paper outlines results from a pilot study conducted at a large Australian University. The study highlights the importance of usability across different mobile devices whilst accessing educational content. This research lays the foundation for a future study that will broaden the investigation to extend from usability for mLearning to usability for mLearning.

Video games have asserted themselves as a prevalent part of society; however video games are still often seen as 'boys toys'. However, popular culture is becoming accepting that video games are played by females, with 'all female' video games teams such as the 'Frag Dolls' winning many international competitions [4). The gender issue in video games is not a new topic, with texts such as 'From Barbie to Mortal Combat' edited by Cassell and Jenkins being publishing in 1998. However, the question of 'do females actually play video games' is still apparent, and with the rapid changes in technological development in gaming (with the introduction of consoles such as the Nintendo Wii) the subject of females game playing habits is in need of constant dialogue. This paper explores the results from a survey of 33 Australian females who play video games and looks at the game playing habits and choices made when they play video games. In addition, this study will attempt to address what components of video games make females want to play. It is hoped that the results can enlighten our knowledge of why females play video games, and hopefully assert the need for video games as an important pastime for females and not just 'for the boys'.

It is now time for teachers as well as colleges to make a place for mobile learning within the classroom setting. Teachers should be encouraged to integrate mobile phones for teaching and learning within the classroom, as they can be seen as an effective learning tool for students of all ages. We believe that mobile phone bans in colleges should be reviewed and reconsidered. This paper draws on some important aspects which mobile phones can bring into the classroom; it illustrates how mobile phones can fit seamlessly in a normal classroom environment; and the advantages that they provide. A possible integration method which encourages collaboration among students and teacher will be discussed and proposed.

Today’s learners exhibits the attitude towards 24/7 access to their learning materials, and wanting these materials to be available in mobile format so it can be portable, and they will be able to access it on-the-go. This paper investigates the use of mobile learning technologies in higher education, and proposes a blended mobile learning model, which has the ability to serve the emerging learning process and delivery, and provide a well balanced learning environment that meets the current learners’ needs.

The use of mobile technologies in education impacts learner motivation, collaboration, information sharing, mobility and interactivity which provide opportunities for learners, teachers and the university. This paper investigates the use of mobile learning technologies in higher education, and proposes a blended mobile learning model, which has the ability to serve the emerging learning process and delivery, and provide a well balanced learning environment that meets the current learnersâ?? needs.

This chapter introduces the concept of virtual learning communities and discusses and further enhances the theory and definitions presented in related literature. A model comprising four criteria essential to virtual learning communities is presented and discussed in detail. Theory and case studies relating to the impact of virtual learning communities on distance education and students from diverse cultural groups are also examined. In addition, this chapter investigates the enabling technologies and facilitation that is required to build virtual learning communities. Other case studies are used to illustrate the process of building virtual learning communities. Emerging technologies such as Wikis and video lectures are also analysed to determine the effects they have on building and sustaining effective virtual learning communities.

The main goal of this research was to develop a Blended Learning Model which incorporated traditional learning technologies into e-learning. The model is aimed at assisting students to learn in an environment that contains elements of their preferred learning style whilst still being emerged in the local learning environment.

In this paper, we describe how a wiki has been used to help break the ice between cultures in an online subject. The number of International student enrollments has been on the increase in recent years and therefore the student demographics within the classroom have changed. It is the intension of this paper to show how a wiki has been implemented to promote interaction between students from different cultures.