For the first time, Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst will host a meeting of the peak body in Australasia for universities engaged in open, distance, flexible and e-learning education. The quarterly forum of the Australasian Council on Open, Distance and e-Learning (ACODE) will be held at CSU on Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 November. CSU Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), Ms Shirley Oakley, will welcome about 30 participants from Australia and New Zealand to the Sustaining e-Learning Innovations symposium. “We are delighted that Charles Sturt University is to host this event because e-learning is a central aspect of the delivery of our courses to students wherever they reside,” said Ms Oakley. “Charles Sturt University has one of the most balanced and extensive educational technology portfolios in the higher education sector.” The theme of the conference is ‘Sustaining eLearning Innovations: From conception to maturity’.

A rural education expert from Canada will deliver a public lecture in the new high-technology Connected Learning Space at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst from 5pm Wednesday 9 November. Professor Linda Farr Darling, from the University of British Columbia, Canada, will deliver the lecture, Rural School Landscapes in British Columbia: Mapping the terrain for teachers and teacher educators. Associate Professor Jane Mitchell, lecturer at the School of Teacher Education at CSU in Bathurst said, “Professor Farr Darling’s talk will describe research findings about strengths and challenges faced by rural schools across British Columbia, whether recommendations from a 2003 report had been implemented, and what affect these have had. Given the geographic and demographic similarities between Canada and Australia, there may well be lessons that can be applied here”. The public lecture will be viewed simultaneously and interactively by an audience at CSU in Albury-Wodonga, Dubbo, Orange and Wagga Wagga. Read more about the new Connected Learning Space at CSU here.

The Head of Campus at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst, Mr Col Sharp, will host a long-service awards ceremony for three staff members on Friday 4 November. The Vice-Chancellor and President of CSU, Professor Ian Goulter, will present awards for 20 years service to Dr Robert Wood (lecturer, School of Computing and Mathematics) and for 30 years service to Ms Deborah Withington (Division of Learning and Teaching Services). Ms Cobi Hofman (Division of Student Services) will also be recognised for 20 years service. Mr Sharp said, “Charles Sturt University appreciates and respects the dedicated service that its staff members provide over many years, and it is important to acknowledge and celebrate these milestones when they occur”.

Thirteen Charles Sturt University (CSU) students will have the ultimate cultural experience in teaching when they arrive in Vanuatu for three weeks of teaching practice in three schools around the nation’s capital, Port Vila. The students, in their third year of the Early Childhood / Primary School and Middle School Education degrees based at CSU in Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst and Dubbo, will teach for one week in each of the schools, starting Saturday 22 October. CSU student Ms Samantha Whitehouse is keen to move out of her comfort zone and gain a more global perspective on culture. “By being open to cultural differences and different understandings of the world, I will be more sensitive to the needs of learners as individuals, which is important for a multicultural society such as Australia. I hope to gain some understanding of the local community, interact with the local people, and learn some of their customs and norms. I might even have time to smile, laugh and have some fun.”  The students are due to return to Australia on Saturday 12 November.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) senior lecturer in Human Movement Studies, Dr Deborah Clarke wishes NSW  students well in the Higher School Certificate (HSC) exams but knows that good luck has very little to do with the outcome. “It’s all about preparation and these students have spent the past year preparing for these exams in one way or another,” she says. “The ones that often do well are those who have done the extra work, using resources such as study groups, tuition in their weaker subjects and online services.” Dr Clarke has been involved in the continued development of online resource, NSW HSC Online. “This is a great preparation tool for students with practice exam papers and relevant study material for 61 HSC subjects.” Developed in collaboration with the NSW government through Education and Communities, NSW HSC Online provides access to quality education resources for all students, particularly those in rural and regional areas.

Bathurst residents are invited to a free screening of the documentary In the footsteps of the ancestors – Muslims Down Under, to mark United Nations Day in Bathurst on Monday 24 October. The screening is co-hosted by Charles Sturt University, Bathurst Regional Council and the Islamic Council of NSW, and is sponsored by the Bathurst Information and Neighbourhood Centre, and the Culturally Diverse Working Group. The documentary, directed by Ms Nada Roude, explores the ethnic, linguistic, cultural diversity and history of Muslims in Australia, and tells the stories of Muslim pioneers and their descendants, starting with the first interaction by Macassans from the Indonesian archipelago who travelled to northern Australia and traded with the Indigenous population prior to European settlement. The documentary screens at 6.30pm at the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre. A reception and refreshments will be served from 5.30pm in the Centre’s Wattle Foyer.

Final year business students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst will present business and marketing strategies to the marketing director of the Royal Australian Mint as part of end-of-session assessments this week. Mr Andrew Mashman, adjunct lecturer in marketing, communications, and project management from the University’s School of Business said students in the business strategy and the marketing strategy units in the Bachelor of Business (Management) and Bachelor of Business Studies will deliver group presentations to the Mint’s marketing director, Ms Felicity Mullens between 2pm and 4pm on Wednesday 12 October. The Mint’s market research manager, Ms Judith Steiner, will also attend. “The presentations by six teams will focus on presenting a high-level big-picture rationale about why The Mint exists, and how it can continue to exist in a world where the use of coins is dropping,” Mr Mashman said. “Bachelor of Communications (Public Relations) students from the School of Communication and Creative Industries at CSU in Bathurst will also deliver separate individual public relations presentations to CSU staff on what could be encountered in countries like Indonesia, China, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia and Burma. Many of the public relations challenges in the Asian region have to do with the operation of aid agencies, for example. The presentations help prepare our students for the continued and growing role of Australia in Asia, specifically in the communications and strategic management of stakeholders.”

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) history researcher will address a meeting of local and family historians in Coonabarabran, NSW, on Saturday 22 October as part of his nationwide quest to locate relatives of Australian miners who went to the Klondike goldfields in remote north-west Canada at the end of the 1800s. “My talk is mainly about David MacGregor, a ‘Klondike Stampeder’ known to have come from the Coonabarabran area, who is quite possibly the grumpiest Australian who went to the Klondike,” said Dr Rob McLachlan, an adjunct senior lecturer in history at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at CSU in Bathurst. “MacGregor has left us a remarkable account of his Klondike experiences in letters he wrote from Canada to family and friends,” Dr McLachlan said. “In them he displays a strong prejudice against Canadians and their country, yet he stayed on for 20 or so years. I hope the talk will reveal some present-day relatives who will come forward with more information about MacGregor. I would also like to hear of other Australians who may have gone to the Klondike.”

First-year paramedic students will come to grips with simulated injured passengers trapped in a mangled vehicle when they join with the State Emergency Service (SES) Bathurst Unit in a joint extrication exercise at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst on Thursday 6 October. Mr Brian Haskins, lecturer at the School of Biomedical Sciences at CSU in Bathurst, said, “As part of the Clinical Studies 2 course for students enrolled in the Bachelor of Clinical Practice (Paramedic) we will work with the local SES to free three simulated patients from the staged wreckage using the ‘jaws of life’ cutting equipment. There will be eight treating paramedics from first-year and possibly some intensive care paramedics from second and third-years for this exercise, with all the other students observing. Exercises like this one are vital to provide our students with ‘real working life’ experiences.” Unlike the recent trauma simulation exercises on campus, this scenario will only run once.