About
Edwards has a research agenda spanning 8 years. She has a long standing research interest in information literacy and information searching, and this has led to significant contributions in this field, including the development of the Reflective Model for Internet Searching (2002 with Bruce), plus the ROSS Environment (Reflective Online Searching Skills)) to encourage searching skill development. This tool is now used in various faculties of QUT, and negotiations are underway to introduce this in universities in the USA . Another output of the research is an ongoing project (Edwards as a co-Chief Investigator) to develop a collaborative online problem solving environment. Edwards specialises in applying her research findings in practice.
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Current Research
Edwards has achieved over $335,000 in research funding to date, with 4 completed projects and one ongoing project. Edwards is currently undertaking investigations into collaborative problem solving in an online environment:
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Professional Milestones
Edward's book, "Panning for Gold: Information Literacy and the Net Lenses Model was published in June 2006. The book is based on Sylvia's PhD thesis. It can be purchased from the publisher.
Edwards' research has won a Best Paper Award from the Informing Science and Information Technology Education Joint Conference , Flagstaff, Arizona, for the paper (with Partridge): Establishing the IT Student's Perspective to e-Learning: Preliminary Findings from a Queensland University of Technology Case Study. Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology , 2, pp.297-312. Edwards has also won ten teaching awards over the past seven years, which reflects her h3 focus on learning in many environments.
Edwards' Awards include:
- QUT Outstanding Academic Achievement Award 1999
- QUT Vice-Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award (Individual) 2004
- QUT Teaching Fellowship (one of 5 Fellows appointed in 2002 inaugural round)
- QUT Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in Teaching 2002
- Online Learning and Teaching Innovators Award 2005
- OLT Compassionate Pioneers Award (by Student nomination) 2004
- FIT Outstanding Performance Award 2000
- FIT Teaching Scholarship Award 2004, and again in 2005
- CAAUT (Carrick Award for Australian University Teaching) Teaching Excellence Award - Physical Sciences and Related Studies 2006
Publications
Many of Edwards' publications are available from the QUT ePrints database . For a full listing of her publications please refer to the publications section of her online professional portfolio.
Professional Portfolio
Edwards' online resources can be accessed via her faculty homepage.
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