Analysing responses of Year-12 students to a hands-on IT workshop: Implications for increasing participation in tertiary IT education in regional Australia

Wei Li; William Guo; Wei Li; William Guo

doi:10.3934/steme.2023004

STEM Education

2023, Volume 3, Issue 1: 43-56. doi: 10.3934/steme.2023004

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Case study

Analysing responses of Year-12 students to a hands-on IT workshop: Implications for increasing participation in tertiary IT education in regional Australia

Wei Li ,
William Guo ^,

School of Engineering and Technology, Central Queensland University, Bruce Highway, North Rockhampton, QLD 4702, Australia; w.li@cqu.edu.au (W.L.)

Academic Editor: Suhua Wang

Received: 18 March 2023 Revised: 28 March 2023 Accepted: 28 March 2023 Published: 30 March 2023

Two hand-on workshops on social media apps were conducted for the Year-12 students from two schools, one from a regional city and the other from a remote community, in a computer laboratory on the Rockhampton campus at Central Queensland University before the COVID-19 pandemic. The school in the regional city offered a specialist Digital Technologies Curriculum (DTC) to students in Years 11 & 12 whereas the remote school did not offer a similar DTC to students in Years 11 & 12. Statistical analyses of the students' responses to two casual questions during the workshop indicated that firstly the hands-on activities improved all students' general IT knowledge, and secondly the Year-12 students from the regional city were more determined to undertake tertiary IT education than the students from the remote school. Therefore, it is recommended that a mandatory specialist DTC for students in Years 11 & 12 in ALL schools should be included in the national curriculum in the future. Implications of these findings on improving the participation rate of post-secondary education in Australian regional communities are also discussed in this article. In particular, regional universities can play a unique role in producing "IT allrounders" to meet the needs of the regional communities through collaborations with governments, secondary schools, regional industries and businesses.
Citation: Wei Li, William Guo. Analysing responses of Year-12 students to a hands-on IT workshop: Implications for increasing participation in tertiary IT education in regional Australia[J]. STEM Education, 2023, 3(1): 43-56. doi: 10.3934/steme.2023004

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Abstract

Two hand-on workshops on social media apps were conducted for the Year-12 students from two schools, one from a regional city and the other from a remote community, in a computer laboratory on the Rockhampton campus at Central Queensland University before the COVID-19 pandemic. The school in the regional city offered a specialist Digital Technologies Curriculum (DTC) to students in Years 11 & 12 whereas the remote school did not offer a similar DTC to students in Years 11 & 12. Statistical analyses of the students' responses to two casual questions during the workshop indicated that firstly the hands-on activities improved all students' general IT knowledge, and secondly the Year-12 students from the regional city were more determined to undertake tertiary IT education than the students from the remote school. Therefore, it is recommended that a mandatory specialist DTC for students in Years 11 & 12 in ALL schools should be included in the national curriculum in the future. Implications of these findings on improving the participation rate of post-secondary education in Australian regional communities are also discussed in this article. In particular, regional universities can play a unique role in producing "IT allrounders" to meet the needs of the regional communities through collaborations with governments, secondary schools, regional industries and businesses.

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Author's biography Dr. Wei Li is a senior lecturer in computer science with Central Queensland University, Australia. He is specialized in distributed and parallel computing, big data, and software engineering. He is a member of Australian Computer Society; Dr. William Guo is a professor in mathematics education with Central Queensland University, Australia. He is specialized in teaching applied mathematics for both engineering and education students. His research interests include mathematics education, applied computing, data analysis and numerical modeling. He is a member of IEEE and Australian Mathematical Society

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