University of Queensland lecturer Mindy Thorpe could be forgiven for experiencing a sense of deja vu when she begins teaching at the University's Ipswich campus opening in February 1999.
Ms Thorpe moved to Ipswich to start a nursing career and lived and worked in the area for a number of years in the 1980s including at the Ipswich Hospital and the former Challinor Centre.
Now the Challinor Centre site is undergoing major redevelopment to become the University's third general campus following its handover by the State Government earlier this year.
And Ms Thorpe, after further study and a career change, is one of the team developing new teaching materials for the innovative courses at the new campus.
One of her main tasks is converting degree units into a more flexible mode using computers and the Internet. "We are making lecture materials more interactive. There is more face-to-face and one-on-one interaction between students and lecturers compared to traditional teaching methods," she said.
UQ Ipswich will be a state-of-the-art flexible delivery centre using the latest technology, where students can pace themselves and choose different ways of learning. Small groups will interact, using learning methods including face-to-face teaching, the Internet, interactive videos and telephone tutorials.
UQ Ipswich will be linked to other parts of the University by a broad-band microwave network, enabling staff and students to share knowledge through new technologies.
Ms Thorpe lived in Ipswich, Walloon and Redbank Plains for a decade while she worked as a nurse and residential care officer in the area. After gaining her undergraduate degree in business, she embarked on a career as an official for several trade unions. In 1991, she made a complete break from the world of industrial relations and bought the Stuart Street Cafe in Mullumbimby in northern New South Wales.
"This gave me a chance to really look at my views from another perspective, from the owner of capital, manager and boss position rather than protector of workers," Ms Thorpe said.
She began working as a tutor and lecturer in industrial relations at Southern Cross University in Lismore, sold her cafe in 1994 and continued her studies. She now lives in Redcliffe and has almost completed a PhD with the University of Queensland's Government Department.
Ms Thorpe has also been involved in a number of community efforts including co-ordinator for Clean Up Australia since its inception in 1991, and representative for community groups to local, state and federal government.
Social and Behavioural Sciences Executive Dean Professor Linda Rosenman said the three-year undergraduate course was concerned with how people lived and worked together, focusing on people, social and cultural changes in local, national and international communities.
She said it offered two career concentrations unique to Ipswich - applied communication and development studies.
"Applied communication explores the significance and role of communication within community organisations, firms and agencies while in development studies, students will be looking at working with communities at local and international levels to create positive, sustainable futures," Professor Rosenman said.
Ms Thorpe is one of four staff members recently appointed to administer and teach the new degree. Other staff are lecturer Dr Ingrid Burkett and associate lecturers Susan Hopkins and Giorel Curran.
For more information, contact Ms Thorpe (telephone 07 3365 7487).
