Fae Martin

Cane Railway Scheduling via Constraint Logic Programming: Labelling Order and Constraints in a Real-Life Application

In Australia, cane transport is the largest unit cost in the manufacturing of raw sugar, making up around 35% of the total manufacturing costs. Producing efficient schedules for the cane railways can result in significant cost savings. This paper presents a study using Constraint Logic Programming (CLP) to solve the cane transport scheduling problem. Tailored heuristic labelling order and constraints strategies are proposed and encouraging results of application to several test problems and one real-life case are presented. The preliminary results demonstrate that CLP can be used as an effective tool for solving the cane transport scheduling problem, with a potential decrease in development costs of the scheduling system. It can also be used as an efficient tool for rescheduling tasks which the existing cane transport scheduling system cannot perform well.

Successful Cross-Campus Management of First Year Engineering Courses

Central Queensland University (CQU) is a young multi-campus regional university based in Rockhampton, Central Queensland, Australia. The engineering undergraduate program consists of a combination of project-based learning, cooperative education and professional practice. The first year of the engineering undergraduate program at CQU can be studied at any one of three campuses; Rockhampton, Gladstone or Mackay. Gladstone and Mackay campuses are separated by one hour and three hours travel by road respectively from the Rockhampton campus. During their first year of study, students have the opportunity to reside in their home city or region enabling a smoother transition from secondary to tertiary education. A significant component of the first year program is delivered using the project based learning (PBL) paradigm, utilising a range of delivery modes including face-to-face workshops, synchronous video-conferencing of lectures, print-based materials, and Web-based learning management. In this paper, the authors examine the challenges associated with providing equitable learning opportunities for students studying first year PBL courses across the three campuses, and methods used to assess this. The advantages and disadvantages of modern electronic communication are considered, both from the point of view of staff and students. The additional complexity introduced when delivering a PBL course across remote campuses is also discussed

Strategies to Remove Barriers and Increase Motivation to Use the Tablet PC in Formative Assessment

Background: The Tablet PC has been employed to provide feedback through formative assessment to students in preparatory mathematics courses at Central Queensland University for close to a decade. A study conducted in 2011 on formative assessment and feedback given via the Tablet PC within these courses conveyed extremely positive outcomes (Adams, Dekkers and Elliott, 2012). Approximately 90% of the 140 students surveyed found the feedback beneficial to their learning and that assessment was returned, on average, within two to four days . These findings would indicate that these methods should be adopted into mainstream higher education courses (Adams, Dekkers and Elliott, 2012). Purpose: This paper investigates how engineering academics can be encouraged to integrate the use of the Tablet PC to improve student understanding of course content through formative assessment feedback. In particular it looks at the barriers and motivators for using the Tablet PC. Design/Method: Building on the research and experiences of staff involved in the use of the Tablet PC to provide feedback on formative assessment in preparatory mathematics courses, strategies are to be developed to implement and improve these practices in undergraduate engineering courses. Using a grounded theory methodology, the research team have a two stage process. Stage one which is reported on in this paper uses the observations of the team to identify the barriers and motivators. Results: Based on the results obtained from studies conducted on the utilisation of Tablet PCs in preparatory mathematics courses, incorporation of the technology into engineering undergraduate courses would appear to benefit students. Stage one identifies the motivators and barriers and how these impact the uptake of the Tablet PC within the engineering school of Central Queensland University. Conclusions: The Tablet PC is both an innovative and adaptive form of technology which is able to support the teaching and learning process. Through the recognition of the observed positives and negatives of Tablet PC application in other courses strategies will be implemented that remove the recognised barriers and provide benefits thus encouraging engineering academics to use the Tablet PC to provide feedback on formative assessment.