Evaluating In-house Work Integrated Learning Experiences Using the Business Model Canvas

CONTEXT The school of Professional Practice and Leadership at UTS set up Optik Consultancy to provide students unable to access internships, with engineering projects set up by industry partners in a simulated workplace. In 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, 120 students (85 international and 35 domestic) completed Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in this manner. This was the 5th iteration of the project with the number of students increasing each year. This model has the potential to be extended to other groups such as refugees needing existing qualifications validated, or engineers returning to the workplace after an extended absence. To do this successfully, it is necessary to ensure the program meets participants’ requirements. This requires recognition of the complexity of the program and the development of a framework to ensure all elements that make a successful program are in place. PURPOSE OR GOAL This paper analyses the Optik Consultancy through the lens of the ‘Business Model Canvas’ (Osterwalder & Pigneur (2010). As illustrated by Kline et al (2017), this framework can be adapted to design a template to meet the specific needs of educational projects. We aim to analyse the main activities and processes of the Optik Consultancy and redesign the Business Model Canvas for WIL engineering projects to identify the elements necessary for designing a similar project in other settings. APPROACH Firstly, we will investigate the Optik Consultancy through the lens of the ‘Business Model Canvas. This will enable us to identify key areas relevant to a simulated internship program in order to form an engineering WIL canvas. This canvas will explain what we do, how we do it and why. We will then apply our new canvas to the Optik Consultancy to see how far it conforms to our template. Finally, we will conceptualise a new canvas that can be replicated as a template for setting up similar programs in other disciplines. ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES By analysing the Optik Consultancy through the lens of an adapted Business Model Canvas, we will assess the key areas of our program from a different viewpoint. This will include justification of the program, the stakeholders involved, their needs and level of involvement, and the resources needed to make the program a success. Once this template has been established, we will have a conceptual tool that can be used to set up and analyse other WIL programs. CONCLUSIONS With some adaptations, the business model canvas can be applied to evaluate engineering WIL programs and provide a template to extend and review similar activities. To ensure that the model is applied accurately, further research will be necessary to evaluate the extent each area of the framework has been achieved

Fostering a capacity for relational agency in undergraduate engineering and IT

CONTEXT Relational agency is the capacity for professional practitioners working in complex, inter-professional environments to align actions with others, interpret and solve complex problems - a core skill required in engineering practice. As part of a review and redesign of groupwork activities in large cohort, group project based, professional practice subjects at the University of Technology Sydney, we investigated using relational agency as a lens through which to evaluate and update our groupwork activities. Initial research investigated the capacity for relational agency in students and proposed a framework that described the development of this capacity from “novice” to “professional”. This paper extends and reports on this work. PURPOSE OR GOAL Our goal was to verify our proposed framework by applying this to data collected from two students and two tutor focus groups. The aim is to gain further insight to inform the design of activities and assessments that develop the capacity for relational agency in students. APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS Focus groups were held with tutors from one second-year and two first-year subjects (the same subjects as in the pilot study). Tutors' perspectives on the development of relational agency were compared to previous findings. Additional focus groups were also held with students. The proposed framework was used to characterise the relational agency displayed by students and an inductive qualitative analysis done to identify any additional themes that emerged from this sample. The results from the student focus groups were triangulated using self and peer review data from the students and their group members. ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES Relational agency is a useful tool for understanding the skills that engineers need in professional practice. Our framework has value in characterising the development of this capacity and may be most useful in planning curriculum and learning over multiple subjects, rather than the development of group activities and assessments at the individual subject level. The focus group data confirmed the enablers and inhibitors for relational agency. We argue that these are valuable independent of the context of the framework. CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARY Initial research identified the capacity for relational agency as a valid lens for reviewing group work activities. However, we conclude that it is more useful at a subject level to focus on the enabling and inhibiting factors identified in this study, rather than on the broader scope of capacity for relational agency. Future work may look at a “whole of degree” application of the development of the capacity for relational agency as part of the learning trajectory for achieving graduate outcomes

Using an online collaboration platform to facilitate group work

The onset of COVID-19 necessitated moving three large-enrolment introductory engineering and IT subjects online after just one week of face to face teaching. All three subjects focus on facilitating students' learning through group work to solve a self-identified problem. Considering a key Subject Learning Outcome is 'to collaborate effectively in team processes', group work is integral to the aims of these subjects. Studies for both online and face-to-face group work identify the influence educators play in achieving successful learning outcomes and group satisfaction; for example, the importance of group work management (Xu, Du & Fan, 2015). While many challenges faced in online group work in education are common to face-to-face teaching (Roberts & McInnerney, 2007), it has been shown that "distance does matter" (Olson & Olson, 2000). The challenge was to facilitate the same level of cooperation between students and enable them to build teamwork skills without face-to-face interaction with teammates or educators. PURPOSE OR GOAL Moving three early-year subjects of approximately 600 students each onto an online collaboration platform over a short period provided new challenges. This paper will discuss the aspects of our transition to online group work that worked well, and those that did not, from the perspective of students and tutors. These insights into best-practice online learning will inform how teaching can shift into blended learning in 2021. METHODOLOGY Focus groups were conducted with students from one second-year and two first-year subjects. In these focus groups, students discussed their experiences of working in a group environment and how this experience can be improved. The comments from student feedback surveys and students’ comments from the SPARKplus peer assessments were also used. In addition, feedback on classes and materials were taken from tutors and compared to the students' view of the online classes. Transcripts and comments were analysed to identify recurrent themes. OUTCOMES Students had mixed feelings about the transition to online classes. Despite the use of many different strategies, issues with engagement remain. However, some strategies have emerged that motivate the students, while successful ways for groups to work together were discovered. Our research also indicates that the use of a learning platform which facilitates instant student discussion is worth further investigation for online classes. CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARY Online classes make it more challenging to engage students in group work based learning. However, careful fostering of group team spirit helps to lessen individual isolation. Some students thrive from the provision of instant feedback through an interactive learning platform. In future work, focus groups need to be conducted with students who achieved lower marks or dropped out of the subject to understand the issues they faced. More attention needs to be paid to the tutor perspective and how activities can be better adapted to student needs. KEYWORDS Transition online, group work, student engagement

Myeloid Sarcoma in the Central Nervous System: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Mijeloidni sarkomi su rijetke pojavnosti uglavnom mijeloblastične leukemije. Njihova pojava u središnjem živčanom sustavu je iznimna, pa je dotična literatura danas ograničena na studije pojedinih slučajeva. Mi opisujemo jo. jedan slučaj, dok je pregled literature poslužio kako bismo ispitali značajke i mogućnosti liječenja mijeloidnog sarkoma središnjega živčanog sustva. U žene stare 61 godinu s akutnom mijeloblastičnom leukemijom (FAB M5) i progresivnom lijevostranom hemiparezom utvrđena je desnostrano parieto-okcipitalno epiduralno oštećenje koje je sličilo meningiomu. Učinjena je djelomična resekcija koja je otkrila mijeloidni sarkom. Pregledom literature utvrdili smo 44 slučaja s dostatnim opisom dijagnoze, liječenja i praćenja do jedne godine. Kod tih bolesnika primijenjeni su različiti načini liječenja. Međutim, bolesnici su imali najbolji postotak jednogodišnjeg preživljenja kad je protokol liječenja uključivao sustavnu kemoterapiju ili zračenje.Myeloid sarcomas are rare manifestations of mainly myeloblastic leukemia. Their occurrence in the central nervous system is exceptional and current literature is limited to case studies. A case is added herewith and a review was performed to investigate clinical characteristics and treatment options of central nervous system myeloid sarcoma. A 61-year-old female with acute myeloblastic leukemia (FAB M5) and progressive left sided hemiparesis showed a right parieto-occipital epidural lesion mimicking meningioma. Partial resection was performed to reveal a myeloid sarcoma. Reviewing the literature we identified 44 cases with sufficient description of the diagnosis, treatment and follow up to one year. In these patients different treatment regimens were applied. However, when systemic chemotherapy or irradiation was included in the treatment regimen, patients showed the best 1-year survival proportion

Long-Term Follow Up in Anti-Contactin-1 Autoimmune Nodopathy

Objective: To analyze long-term clinical and biomarker features of anti-contactin-1 (CNTN1) autoimmune nodopathy (AN). Methods: Patients with anti-CNTN1 + autoimmune nodopathy detected in our laboratory from which clinical information was available were included. Clinical features and treatment response were retrospectively collected. Autoantibody, serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL), and serum CNTN1 levels (sCNTN1) were analyzed at baseline and follow up. Results: A total of 31 patients were included. Patients presented with progressive sensory motor neuropathy (76.7%) with proximal (74.2%) and distal involvement (87.1%), ataxia (71.4%), and severe disability (median INCAT at nadir of 8). A total of 11 patients (35%) showed kidney involvement. Most patients (97%) received intravenous immunoglobulin, but only 1 achieved remission with intravenous immunoglobulin. A total of 22 patients (71%) received corticosteroids, and 3 of them (14%) did not need further treatments. Rituximab was effective in 21 of 22 patients (95.5%), with most of them (72%) receiving a single course. Four patients (12.9%) relapsed after a median follow up of 25 months after effective treatment (12–48 months). Anti-CNTN1 titers correlated with clinical scales at sampling and were negative after treatment in all patients, but 1 (20/21). sNfL levels were significantly higher and sCNTN1 significantly lower in anti-CNTN1 + patients than in healthy controls (sNfL: 135.9 pg/ml vs 7.48 pg/ml, sCNTN1: 25.03 pg/ml vs 22,186 pg/ml, p &lt; 0.0001). Both sNfL and sCNTN1 returned to normal levels after successful treatment. Interpretation: Patients with anti-CNTN1 + autoimmune nodopathy have a characteristic clinical profile. Clinical and immunological relapses are infrequent after successful treatment, suggesting that continuous treatment is unnecessary. Anti-CNTN1 antibodies, sNfL, and sCNTN1 levels are useful to monitor disease status in these patients. ANN NEUROL 2025;97:529–541.</p