Questionnaire!!!

How much do you think the following factors affect shaping curriculum? Please rate from 1 (No Effect) to 4 (Major Effect). If you think the factor is not applicable please mark 5 as Not Applicable.

No.	Not Applicable
	Major Effect						5
	Moderate Effect				4
	Minor Effect			3
	No Effect		2
	Factors	1
1	Accreditation bodies (e. g. ACS / EA / AQF)
2	Strong leadership accepted by academic staff
3	Institutional Support (e.g. providing resources & facilities)
4	Student's requirement in communication skills
5	Flexibility in delivery of subjects
6	Project-based subjects
7	Overload
8	Student's requirement in analytical skills
9	International benchmarking  (compete university with best US universities)
10	Economical needs
11	Availability of staff positions (e.g. Surplus or shortage of staff / Relying on sessional staff)
12	Organisational structure
13	Emerging Technology
14	National benchmarking  (compete students with other Australian institutes)
15	The current output (e.g.  the discrepancies between the current output and what is desired by employers )
16	Student's requirement in social skills
17	Student's ability in Maths
18	Internal benchmarking (e. g. failure rate between disciplines)
19	Industry advisory committee
20	Internal drive to pursue professional development
21	Student's ability in English
22	Student attrition/retention
23	Interdisciplinary content
24	Student background (e.g. socio-economic, ethnic, etc)
25	Students Satisfaction (e.g. student subject evaluation)
26	Institutional culture (weather that culture welcomes change)
27	International professional & accreditation bodies (e. g. ACM or ABET)
28	Political issues
29	Assessment
30	The structure of prerequisites
31	Curriculum review Committee (e.g. teaching & learning committee)
32	Key individuals
33	Global issues (e.g. growing population)
34	Course Co-ordinator
35	Teaching issues (e.g. innovative teaching technique/ Online teaching)
36	Student demands
37	Research & Development Committee
38	Industry agendas (What particular context they want taught)
39	National needs
40	Student's requirement in critical-thinking skills
41	Outdated subjects
42	Gender bias
43	Low-enrolment subjects
44	Societal trends
What other factors do you reckon affect shaping curriculum? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

External

1) International

q14, q27, q33

2) National

q1, q9, q10, q28, q39

3) Societal

q13, q38, q44

Internal

1) Institution/ University

q2, q3, q11, q12, q19, q20, q26, q31, q32, q34, q35, q37

2) Students

q4, q8, q16, q17, q18, q21, q22, q24, q25, q36, q40, q42

3) Content

q5, q6, q7, q15, q23, q29, q30, q41, q43

My writing will be improved!

After I talked to Jill (writing circle) asking her to guide me how I an improve my writing, she introduced me to talk to Erika, plus she offered me to work on my paper...
I talked to Erika and she had some interesting strategies:

• Read the text, but forget about the content and concentrate on structure. 
• Extract some useful words, phrases, structures and ...
• Ask for individual help for a short time 
• Ask for help by email 
• Read about writing

So, I need to insert the habit of reading carefully in my schedule. Let say 2 hours per week. Monday and Wednesday, early in the morning.
Its better start keeping in touch with those nice people in learning development...

Questionnaire (Second draft)

External

1) International

• "International benchmarking" (compete university with best US universities)
• International "professional & accreditation bodies" (e. g. ACM or ABET)
• Global issues (e.g. growing population)

2) National

• "National benchmarking" (compete students with other Australian institutes)
• National needs
• Political issues
• Accreditation bodies (e. g. ACS / EA / AQF)
• Economical needs

3) Societal

• Industry agendas (What particular context they want taught)
• Societal trends
• Emerging Technology

Internal

1) Institution

• "Strong leadership accepted by academic staff"
• "Industry advisory committee"
• Availability of staff positions (e.g. Surplus/ shortage of staff / Relying on sessional staff)
• "Key individuals"
• Organisational structure
• Course Co-ordinator
• Curriculum review Committee (e.g. teaching & learning committee)
• Research & Development Committee
• Internal drive to pursue professional development
• "Institutional Support" (e.g. providing resources & facilities)
• "Institutional culture" (weather that culture welcomes change)
• Teaching issues (e.g. innovative teaching technique/ Online teaching)

2) Students

• Students Satisfaction (eg. student subject evaluation)
• "Internal benchmarking" (e. g. failure rate between disciplines)
• Student's ability in Maths
• Student's ability in English
• "Student demands"
• Student's requirement in critical-thinking skills
• Student's requirement in analytical skills
• Student's requirement in social skills
• Student's requirement in communication skills
• Student attrition/retention
• Student background (e.g. socio-economic, ethnic..)
• Gender bias

3) Content

• "Flexibility in delivery" of subjects
• "Low-enrolment subjects"
• "Project-based subjects"
• The "structure of prerequisites"
• Outdated subjects
• The current output (e.g. "the discrepancies between the current output and what is desired by employers")
• Interdisciplinary content
• Assessment
• Overload

Instrument revision!

Thursday Early in the morning: 7:03 am. I hope today I can finalise my questions. So far I extracted different factors, but I don't like to finish it unless I look at the other resources.

Happy Monday!

Its Monday and Im at work after a busy weekend spending time with family: Parkrun and a trip to Medowie to buy a bike for Majid on Saturday, then buying a bike for muself (80$), Santa fun run and Christmas party at Hippocrates on Sunday. Now is Monday and Im going to start a very productive weak. 

I work and I prove that I can make it.

I will finalise my questionnaire and I need to find out about Ethics!

My awful Friday!

I started my Friday when I came early in the morning to the office by seeing this from Allyson:

Dear homa, I will have to give you a mark of incomplete I do not have a journal for you, you haven’t used any methods literature on text coding  in the assignment and I cannot see how you physically coded the text.  Have you sent me your journal?  I haven’t got it can you send it again?

It wasn't a shock, but it hurts...

Couldn't back to work after that. I backed home very early...