Paul A Whitelaw
Southern Cross University, The Hotel School, Department Member
- William Angliss Institute, Higher Education and Quality, Faculty Memberadd
- Higher Education, University, Assessment in Higher Education, Individual and Group Assessments, Team Assessment, Education, and 25 moreE-learning, Educational Technology, Social Sciences, Philosophy, Business, Psychology, Economics, Market Research, Tourism Studies, Corporate Social Responsibility, Learning and Teaching, Research Methods and Methodology, Quantitative Research, Longitudinal Research, Resilience (Sustainability), Communication, Political Science, Environmental Sustainability, Architecture, Marketing, Higher Education Policy, Learning And Teaching In Higher Education, Teaching and Learning, Philosophy of information, and Student Engagementedit
Educators in tourism and hospitality management are under increasing pressure from various stakeholders to ensure graduates have the skills to ensure the competitiveness of Australia's visitor economy. This paper argues that online... more
Educators in tourism and hospitality management are under increasing pressure from various stakeholders to ensure graduates have the skills to ensure the competitiveness of Australia's visitor economy. This paper argues that online simulations are an effective tool for developing many of the graduate capabilities required in the workplace and reports on a national project to assist educators to embed these simulations into the curriculum. The project included the development of an online toolkit consisting of case studies, a good practice guide, discussion papers and a student learning barometer.
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A key area of concern in higher education is academic integrity, which involves the adherence by students to standards of honesty, originality, and attribution. The literature indicates that plagiarism is widespread in Australian higher... more
A key area of concern in higher education is academic integrity, which involves the adherence by students to standards of honesty, originality, and attribution. The literature indicates that plagiarism is widespread in Australian higher education institutions and that plagiarism, collusion and cheating are increasing. To maintain institutional credibility it is necessary to advance academic rigour and integrity as well as deal with breaches of academic integrity, especially by reducing instances of plagiarism. The current project is one of four academic integrity priority projects commissioned by the OLT in 2012. The aim of this project was to develop a national academic integrity resource for those with policy responsibilities and who are also at the front-line of teaching in the classroom, namely, unit/course coordinators. In accord with the funded proposal, the project outcomes and outputs: Include pedagogical resources, which support the development of academic integrity in students, for educators in a wide variety of academic fields of study, across undergraduate and postgraduate study, and across different types of institutions, Support unit/course coordinators to drive curriculum renewal in a manner that reinforces the scaffolded development of academic skills and academic integrity, and their own professional development, and Include resources and materials to help busy unit/course coordinators contribute to the scholarship of academic integrity.
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Leadership development has attracted considerable interest of both researchers and practitioners. Much of the interest is due to the rapidly changing, complex and ambiguous world that calls for 21st century skills and capabilities to grow... more
Leadership development has attracted considerable interest of both researchers and practitioners. Much of the interest is due to the rapidly changing, complex and ambiguous world that calls for 21st century skills and capabilities to grow sustained business performance through effective leadership. However, while a positive link between effective leadership and performance has been examined in previous research, effectiveness of current leadership development initiatives in tourism and hospitality graduate education has yet to be clearly established. This conceptual paper presents the core leadership development program elements and a conceptual framework, which can guide not only the design and development but also the evaluation of graduate leadership programs in tourism and hospitality. The paper concludes with several implications for further research and practice.
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The threshold learning outcome (TLO) standards for tourism, hospitality and events were developed over a 20-month period by a five-person project team. The team worked closely with an oversight committee, the project evaluator and a broad... more
The threshold learning outcome (TLO) standards for tourism, hospitality and events were developed over a 20-month period by a five-person project team. The team worked closely with an oversight committee, the project evaluator and a broad stakeholder community of about 900 colleagues including academics, students, graduates, industry practitioners, industry representative bodies and government departments and agencies. The work involved identifying how tourism, hospitality and events have several common aspects that position the three fields as one that is sufficiently different from other domains as to warrant their own standards. The work also identified that while the similarities among the three fields warrant them having one set of domains, they are also intrinsically different from each other, thus justifying their own definitions, explanations of the domains and assessment exemplars.
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Page 1. Investigating the efficacy of culturally specific academic literacy and academic honesty resources for Chinese students 1 Final Project Report INVESTIGATING THE EFFICACY OF CULTURALLY SPECIFIC ACADEMIC LITERACY AND ACADEMIC... more
Page 1. Investigating the efficacy of culturally specific academic literacy and academic honesty resources for Chinese students 1 Final Project Report INVESTIGATING THE EFFICACY OF CULTURALLY SPECIFIC ACADEMIC LITERACY AND ACADEMIC HONESTY ...
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Draft: A report by Victoria University, Melbourne for the Cooperative Research Centre for Bushfires and Natural Hazards
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A key area of concern in higher education is academic integrity, which involves the adherence by students to standards of honesty, originality, and attribution. The literature indicates that plagiarism is widespread in Australian higher... more
A key area of concern in higher education is academic integrity, which involves the adherence by students to standards of honesty, originality, and attribution. The literature indicates that plagiarism is widespread in Australian higher education institutions and that plagiarism, collusion and cheating are increasing. To maintain institutional credibility it is necessary to advance academic rigour and integrity as well as deal with breaches of academic integrity, especially by reducing instances of plagiarism. The current project is one of four academic integrity priority projects commissioned by the OLT in 2012. The aim of this project was to develop a national academic integrity resource for those with policy responsibilities and who are also at the front-line of teaching in the classroom, namely, unit/course coordinators. In accord with the funded proposal, the project outcomes and outputs: Include pedagogical resources, which support the development of academic integrity in stud...
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Educators in tourism and hospitality management are under increasing pressure from various stakeholders to ensure graduates have the skills to ensure the competitiveness of Australia's visitor economy. This paper argues that online... more
Educators in tourism and hospitality management are under increasing pressure from various stakeholders to ensure graduates have the skills to ensure the competitiveness of Australia's visitor economy. This paper argues that online simulations are an effective tool for developing many of the graduate capabilities required in the workplace and reports on a national project to assist educators to embed these simulations into the curriculum. The project included the development of an online toolkit consisting of case studies, a good practice guide, discussion papers and a student learning barometer.
Research Interests: Hospitality and Tourism
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ABSTRACT
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In a previous paper (CAUTHE, TReBBI, 1997), the authors reported on a series of investigations into the reasons why students chose to study Hospitality at Victoria University of Technology. That study identified the existence of a... more
In a previous paper (CAUTHE, TReBBI, 1997), the authors reported on a series of investigations into the reasons why students chose to study Hospitality at Victoria University of Technology. That study identified the existence of a multi-dimensional educational product and provided some measures of different students’ attitudes towards those dimensions. Despite the interest generated by the results, flaws in the methodology and shortcomings in the utility of the outcomes were highlighted.
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Many tourism destinations are currently pursuing green growth strategies but the development of appropriate policies is a complex task and, consequently, decision support technologies can be used to advantage here. The design and use of... more
Many tourism destinations are currently pursuing green growth strategies but the development of appropriate policies is a complex task and, consequently, decision support technologies can be used to advantage here. The design and use of one such decision support system (DSS) is described in this paper. Key features of the system are that its design is underpinned both by a need to effectively manage the inherent complexity of the analysis domain and to allow iterative development with minimum impact on previous versions (i.e. to minimize ongoing maintenance costs). A key to realizing both these objectives is the use of a highly-abstracted conceptual information model and this is the major focus of this paper.
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This article examines the relationship between reported levels of happiness, satisfaction, and risk perceptions during holiday experiences. Empirical examinations of this relationship have received limited attention by researchers, yet... more
This article examines the relationship between reported levels of happiness, satisfaction, and risk perceptions during holiday experiences. Empirical examinations of this relationship have received limited attention by researchers, yet examining this topic has theoretical and practical value. Specifically, the purpose of our study was to examine perceptions of risk to holiday activities and hazards, levels of hedonic satisfaction and positive emotions, and sense of engagement and meaning in life as three core elements of happiness for international tourists visiting Vanuatu. The research method consisted of a 100-item self-completed questionnaire; the questionnaire items were based on consumer behavior, psychology, hazard, and risk perception literatures. Results show that our international tourist respondents report high levels of happiness and hedonic satisfaction, perceive the majority of holiday activities as safe, and regard the majority of hazards as posing no threat to their ...
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As part of a wider study attempting to clarify the liberal and vocational blend within tourism and hospitality degree curricula, this paper reports on interim findings of an analysis of tourism and hospitality programs at Australian... more
As part of a wider study attempting to clarify the liberal and vocational blend within tourism and hospitality degree curricula, this paper reports on interim findings of an analysis of tourism and hospitality programs at Australian universities. While issues have been identified such as complex degree structures, cumbersome university websites and inconsistency of terminology used, some preliminary observations have emerged. There appears to be a move towards business-oriented units (with these often being generic ...
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A range of factors shapes the curricula of Australian tourism, hospitality and event (TH&E) management programs. Unfortunately too little time is given to understanding these factors. This paper draws on a variety of secondary data... more
A range of factors shapes the curricula of Australian tourism, hospitality and event (TH&E) management programs. Unfortunately too little time is given to understanding these factors. This paper draws on a variety of secondary data sources, literature and political discourses to identify major political, philosophic and managerial influences on the curriculum space. The analysis aims to identify and explore the range of factors operating at an international scale which will impact on the development of Australian TH&E management education; ...
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The aims of this paper are firstly to identify and critically examine the range of issues currently facing Australian tourism and hospitality education curriculum planners and secondly to conceptualise the curriculum space as a first step... more
The aims of this paper are firstly to identify and critically examine the range of issues currently facing Australian tourism and hospitality education curriculum planners and secondly to conceptualise the curriculum space as a first step in identifying opportunities and choices available to curriculum planners. The paper is conceptual in nature and makes two key contributions: Firstly the paper draws together a broad range of influences faced by curriculum planners and designers in considering the future of tourism and hospitality ...
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In the mass media, including industry publications, small hospitality operators are frequently exhorted to improve service quality, and are advised that service quality is merely a function of working harder, being more cheerful, doing... more
In the mass media, including industry publications, small hospitality operators are frequently exhorted to improve service quality, and are advised that service quality is merely a function of working harder, being more cheerful, doing your job better and treating the customer like royalty. Implicit in such comments is that such improvements will automatically lead to improved profitability. However, an international literature review revealed a number of potentially conflicting perspectives with regard to this relationship and several instances where such positions are not readily accepted in the academic literature. Firstly, improvements in service quality may not lead directly to increases in profitability. Whilst the term service quality is often interchanged with the term customer satisfaction, the two are not the same, nor is the latter a direct consequence of the former. To this extent, increasing operating expenditure to improve service quality, which might not lead to incre...
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Draft: A report by Victoria University, Melbourne for the Cooperative Research Centre for Bushfires and Natural Hazards
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This study reports on the pilot of a destination simulation game in a first year subject of a tourism and hospitality undergraduate degree. Firstly alignment of the learning outcomes of the subject with the pilot will be assessed then... more
This study reports on the pilot of a destination simulation game in a first year subject of a tourism and hospitality undergraduate degree. Firstly alignment of the learning outcomes of the subject with the pilot will be assessed then observations relating to the implementation of the pilot are detailed. Finally challenges and implications for expanding the project into higher levels are identified.
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Many students act as if academic honesty is an arcane nicety that does not apply in the world outside academia. At the same time, academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, is recognised as a chronic problem. This paper reports on a... more
Many students act as if academic honesty is an arcane nicety that does not apply in the world outside academia. At the same time, academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, is recognised as a chronic problem. This paper reports on a project that was undertaken to combat these problems. The project adopted a positive rather than punitive approach and used multimedia resources, examples from popular culture and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) (Petty & Cacioppo 2000) to foster student engagement with academic honesty within a classroom setting and the adoption of its practices with assessable tasks. As academic honesty, or rather its negation through dishonesty, continues to occur, an innovative approach was required. The ELM is a model of how individuals process information, but it has not been used often as a framework for introducing new teaching and learning resources within educational institutions. The evaluation of the resulting resources by academic staff and students su...
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This paper examines differences in academics perceptions of how journals should be evaluated in terms of their prestige, contribution to theory, contribution to practice and contribution to teaching. Comparisons are made between... more
This paper examines differences in academics perceptions of how journals should be evaluated in terms of their prestige, contribution to theory, contribution to practice and contribution to teaching. Comparisons are made between individual and institutional weightings, regional variations and whether an individual works at an institution offering a PhD/DBA. Some differences were identified, suggesting that that evaluative criteria used to rank journal may be influenced by employment situations.
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This poster reports on an Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) project to assist business educators to embed simulations into the curriculum. The purpose of this project was to gather and disseminate good practice... more
This poster reports on an Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) project to assist business educators to embed simulations into the curriculum. The purpose of this project was to gather and disseminate good practice in the design of pedagogy and assessment in simulation-based units in business. Data collection included interviews with educators and decision makers, student focus groups and surveys. The project included the development of an online toolkit consisting of case studies, a good practice guide and a simulation learning barometer. A ‘framework for simulation-based pedagogy’ is presented as a key outcome of the project.
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There is a considerable body of work that seeks to explain why and at what type of institution students pursue tertiary studies. The bulk of this work however, focuses on participation among mature aged students. This paper reports on an... more
There is a considerable body of work that seeks to explain why and at what type of institution students pursue tertiary studies. The bulk of this work however, focuses on participation among mature aged students. This paper reports on an investigation into the reasons why students chose to enrol in a hospitality degree course at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. The results of this study suggest that students see the university as a cluster of attributes that includes teaching staff, facilities and services. In addition, it was found that the choice of university was based on the reputation and availability of a specialist course rather than the overall reputation of the university.
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This working paper introduces research currently being undertaken which explores leadership excellence in the hospitality industry. Through the collection of primary data in the UK, Australia and Hong Kong, the research focuses on... more
This working paper introduces research currently being undertaken which explores leadership excellence in the hospitality industry. Through the collection of primary data in the UK, Australia and Hong Kong, the research focuses on successful leaders in terms of how they perceive leadership excellence and apply it within their different work roles. Initial findings indicate implications for both hospitality organisations and individuals seeking to become excellent leaders in the hospitality industry.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate some key characteristics of resorts in Australia with particular reference to size, location and star rating. The data referred to 291 properties which either describe themselves as resorts or... more
The purpose of this study was to investigate some key characteristics of resorts in Australia with particular reference to size, location and star rating. The data referred to 291 properties which either describe themselves as resorts or are so classified by the various Australian State and Territory motoring organisations. All properties listed in the Australian National Touriguide, Winter 1991, which
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... Chair - Paul Whitelaw First Vice Chair - Brent Richie Second Vice Chair – Elspeth Frew Secretary - Candice Harris Treasurer - Deb ... Member - David Williamson Post Graduate Student Rep - Fiona Wheeler Industry Liaison - Alana Thomson... more
... Chair - Paul Whitelaw First Vice Chair - Brent Richie Second Vice Chair – Elspeth Frew Secretary - Candice Harris Treasurer - Deb ... Member - David Williamson Post Graduate Student Rep - Fiona Wheeler Industry Liaison - Alana Thomson Past Chair - Jenny Davies CAUTHE ...
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This paper reports on the development and application of a methodology to convert large scale data such as the International Visitor Survey (IVS) and the National Visitor Survey (NVS) into a format that can be used at the local level. A... more
This paper reports on the development and application of a methodology to convert large scale data such as the International Visitor Survey (IVS) and the National Visitor Survey (NVS) into a format that can be used at the local level. A technique was developed whereby the large regional data such as Statistical Local Area (SLA) from Tourism Research Australia (TRA) (IVS and NVS) can be disaggregated to smaller local areas within the region such as an Urban Centre (UC). Whilst the mathematics are relatively straightforward, the process is somewhat complex because it requires detailed local area data (Census) from the ABS as well as the larger area data (IVS and NVS) from the TRA. This data can be enriched by incorporating other local area data such as road traffic counts, retail and accommodation statistics and other local area data that is reliable. The data can also be used to create ‘new’ tourism geographies, such as a string of townships along a highway or coastline. The most sig...
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A business game simulation designed for students at the introductory level of a Tourism and Hospitality degree is detailed. The game focuses on the balanced nature of the three primary dimensions of the sustainable tourism system: the... more
A business game simulation designed for students at the introductory level of a Tourism and Hospitality degree is detailed. The game focuses on the balanced nature of the three primary dimensions of the sustainable tourism system: the economy, the environment and the social system. Emphasis is placed on validation of the simulation model and evaluation of the game’s effectiveness as a learning aid.
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Innovative and holistic approaches to destination marketing and management are needed to ensure that protected areas are managed, marketed and governed effectively alongside adjacent lands. This paper discusses Australia's National... more
Innovative and holistic approaches to destination marketing and management are needed to ensure that protected areas are managed, marketed and governed effectively alongside adjacent lands. This paper discusses Australia's National Landscapes Program, a collaborative nationwide initiative between Parks and Tourism agencies, local and state governments and the private and non-profit sectors. A critical appraisal framework is presented for the various elements of the Program – geographical, ecological, socioeconomic , cultural and visitor information. The researchers argue that the adopted approach may be applicable for other collaborative destination management initiatives. They demonstrate the importance of adopting a geographical perspective in assessing nationwide initiatives that takes full account of spatial challenges. Dimensions such as the scale, distances and accessibility compound the implementation challenges facing initiatives such as Australia's National Landscapes Program. These challenges include ecological and socioeconomic diversity, the number and variety of constituent organisations and understanding the current visitors both domestic and international. The paper provides a potentially useful reference for jurisdictions that intend to implement large-scale collaborative destination management frameworks. It is noted that the challenges of identifying a common vision objectives and measures of success and of managing the politics of collaborations between different government levels and industry sectors are magnified for larger scale initiatives.