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Determining the writing skill level of students commencing tertiary education is a key element in predicting their likely study success and in providing appropriate writing development opportunities. Writing tests constructed around written instructions often assume high levels of reading and comprehension skills, which in some instances impose difficulties for students who have varying levels of comprehension and writing skills as shaped by their cultural and ethnic, learning journey experiences and previous formal English language instruction. Many universities have now established Post-Entry Language Assessment (PELA) tools as a means to determining student language skills at the commencement of their studies. Discussed here is a Visual PELA (VP) intended to stimulate student writing of a small passage of text for the purpose noted above. The visual nature of this instrument is intended to provide an alternative approach for visual learners, or those for whom written instructions pose difficulties, to demonstrate their literacy skills. This paper describes the development and initial testing of a VP with a view to it becoming an additional tool for determining writing skills levels for commencing students. A trial of this VP took place with a cohort of mostly international students having English as an Additional Language/Dialect (EAL/D) undertaking higher degree by research studies in an Australian university. The VP used here was founded on the idea of using images to stimulate the writing of a short passage of text where students can find their own context and ideas to write in an imaginative way and thus demonstrate their writing skill on entry to their tertiary studies.

This paper discusses an approach to teaching and learning in multi-disciplinary university settings using case study based scenarios presented using films as a key teaching methodology. The production of four films (The Video store, Perception Airlines, Tranquil Whispers, and Middleton) over an eight year period was an iterative process through which the use of film-based case study scenarios was refined as a teaching tool to integrate student learning across multiple disciplines in a business school. Each of the four films was designed to enhance first year university students understanding of theories and practices used in a range of discipline areas that underpin the operations of a commercial business undertaking. The final film mainly discussed here depicts a central case study scenario, entitled Middleton featuring a cast of teaching and academic staff from the Curtin Business School (CBS) in Perth, Western Australia and Curtin Sarawak, Malaysia(Curtin University of Technology). It was produced as a core teaching approach for exploring themes as part of the delivery of several first year units within the CBS, delivered over twelve campuses in Western Australia and South East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka). Students in their first year of a commerce degree study compulsory business units that are disparate in their content and delivery. This diversity can cause some students to have difficulty with defining meaningful cohesiveness between units in their first year of study. Middleton sought to integrate the first year subjects into a film depicting a central case study of an international business operation.

This paper documents the approach taken by an Australian University to enhance student study skills, development of academic language, and writing skills. The Curtin Business School (CBS) has the only fully faculty-based student learning support centre at Curtin University in Western Australia. Called the CBS Communication Skills Centre (CSC) it has seven academic staff charged with enhancing learning outcomes, intercultural communication and study proficiency for a diverse student cohort having a large proportion of international students. Described here is the CSC approach to using a suite of targeted services and collaborative practices in multiple academic disciplines to assist transnational learning. Challenges faced by international students using learning support services, and by staff designing and delivering those services in an Australian University form part of this discussion.

Introducing creative elements into the syllabus and pedagogy of an Entrepreneurship class in a business school can be a risky endeavour for an educator and students alike. Populating the class with students from traditionally risk-averse cultures provides opportunities for everyone involved. Identifying the core behavioural issues for students in this learning experience brought creativity and entrepreneurship together in the academic environment. Emergent was a joint learning workshop using Skype, involving a book author, a multilingual multicultural class in South Korea and a culturally homogenous class in Indonesia. Along the way, the walls of the classroom were removed and the covers from the book disappeared. At the end of the journey, a new paradigm had emerged, driven and defined by the students that want to be the Entrepreneurs of their own worlds. This is the story of one creative entrepreneurship class of multinational students in South Korea.