ASCILITE Publications

Re-imagining the university

Reem Al-Mahmood — 2013-11-30

This paper invites a re-imagining and re-envisioning of 'the university' in its being and becoming (Barnett, 2011a, 2011b, 2013).The paper explores 'feasible utopias' (and dystopias) for the university and moves to provoke and promote 'radical' paradigms that are more inclusive of everything. The ideal of the 'ecological university' (Barnett, 2011a) is used to unfold three 'radical' paradigms that embrace object-oriented ontologies (through Actor-Network Theory), affectivity (through Non-Representational Theory) and (im)mobilities (through the new mobilities paradigm). The paradigms are intertwined and illustrated through a selection of e-learning vignettes drawn from a larger Australian university ethnographic study of four fully online postgraduate subjects to show how the various sociomaterial affective networks enact different experiences and perceptions of 'the university'. This is an invitation to dream - that we might imagine enriched accounts of the world that embrace vibrant matter(s) for 'feasible' university utopias.

Identifying e-learning principles for Maritime Education through the e-initiatives project

Christopher Allan — 2013-11-30

The Australian Maritime College (AMC) has a major objective to innovate and build better practice in e-learning by developing high quality learning for anyone, anytime, anywhere. One strategy that the AMC has undertaken to achieve this is to fund a number of e-initiatives (learning and teaching projects being undertaken using digital technologies) each year between 2012 and 2016. To gain maximum long-term benefit from this project it is essential to develop an evidence based approach, studying each initiative's effectiveness and derive learning and teaching (L&T) principles for using technology within the maritime context. This paper describes a project to explore, implement and document e-learning principles relevant to the maritime education context. The project uses an educational design-based approach. At conclusion of the project it is expected that a number of learning designs and guiding principles for maritime education will be developed.

Using simple technologies to improve student engagement and success in an online applied-science course

Christopher Anderson — 2013-11-30

The first year course, Soil Properties and Processes is a core course of two of Massey University's applied science degrees. The course is offered both internally and via distance education. The course has a reputation for difficulty, and end of year pass rates for the distance offering are generally below 50%. In 2013 a new student engagement strategy was adopted to increase this pass rate. The strategy was built upon engaging students at the start of the course with a pre- course screening quiz, and then maintaining ongoing engagement using multimedia resources accessed through the university's Learning Management System (Moodle). This strategy represented a paradigm shift for a lecturer more comfortable with email and phone correspondence, but has been well received by students. The strategy has consistently engaged students throughout the first semester of 2013, and highlights how a focused, low-technology approach can improve student experience.

The Digital Book in Higher Education

Edilson Arenas — 2013-11-30

This paper deals with the evolution of the book in the context of higher education. Digital books, or ebooks, need not be restricted to duplication of the printed page on a tablet device. As higher education embraces online learning, the tablet-based offerings from educational publishers will increasingly incorporate a variety of cloud-based learning activities and resources. These next- generation ebooks and etextbooks will look more like mobile apps than books. They will need to exchange data with a growing list of educational systems for student management, lesson planning, record keeping, learning analytics, assignment scheduling, massive open online course (MOOC) platforms, and so on. The Actionable Data Book project is a research and development effort undertaken this year to determine how to implement the added functionality required of educational ebooks in a way that will allow them to plug-and-play with other systems.

Learning Analytics in Higher Education

Amara Atif — 2013-11-30

Higher education institutions recently have been drawing on methods from learning analytics to make decisions about learners' academic progress, predictions about future performance and to recognise potential issues. As the use of learning analytics in higher education is a relatively new area of practice and research, the intent of this paper is to provide an overview of learning analytics including a summary of some exemplar tools. Finally we conclude the paper with a discussion on challenges and ethical issues.

Imagining the Enculturation of Online Education

Kim Balnaves — 2013-11-30

Participation in popular sub-cultures developed through new technologies involves learning rules and protocols for participation that are cross-cultural and cross-lingual. New multimedia games create and incorporate international rituals or protocols for a group of consumers. The development of communication technology has seen increasing numbers of these multi-media games emerging. These multi-media games involve full immersion into a created world. This paper discusses the ways in which learning is seen as active not passive absorption of information. As Combs (2002) states with the internationalisation and decline of a common religion and culture students need to communicate in ritualistic and symbolic acts with one another. In order to participate in the popular cultures children must learn social skills and develop a common culture, building their social and communicative competencies. According to Tobin (2003) university programmes have potential to piggyback on the phenomena providing a 'common culture' for students to learn in.

Five stages of online course design

Karin Barac — 2013-11-30

The burgeoning online delivery of higher education requires support and resourcing to be successfully implemented. In this paper, we report on the initial design and development of a professional learning module intended to guide academics when building quality online courses through a five-stage framework. The framework and resulting training module were developed in response to the growing demand on academics to convert their face-to-face courses to online offerings. This accelerating trend to move online often exceeds the capacity of allocated university course development resources (based locally or centrally as development units or specialised roles). It is for this reason a streamlined approach is needed to provide alternative support to academics that alleviates the pressure on these specialised support roles. The module developed also provides an example of how professional learning can be tailored to meet strategic university policies while delivering on quality products that align with everyday academic processes.

Mobile realities and dreams

Mark Bassett — 2013-11-30

The use of mobile technologies and social media for teaching and learning signals the potential for ontological shifts in learning and teaching, redefining the roles of both students and lecturers. Understanding tertiary student perspectives on how they use wireless mobile devices for learning is crucial if their lecturers are to make informed evaluative decisions about how they use those same devices in their teaching. Lecturers require professional development in using mobile technologies in teaching, and institutions face challenges with infrastructure. This paper outlines a research proposal for exploring tertiary student use of wireless mobile devices for learning and the relationship of that to lecturer and institutional readiness in a blended learning environment. Cochrane's (2012) six critical success factors for transforming pedagogy with mobile Web 2.0 and Puentedura's (2012) SAMR model of technology adoption will be used as evaluative frameworks.

Retrofitting teaching spaces

Trevor Billany — 2013-11-30

Using Appreciative Inquiry an evaluation of newly retrofitted and upgraded centrally timetabled teaching spaces took place following the first semester of use. Survey instrument items and interview prompts were derived from a metasynthesis of relevant reviews, each informed by current 'learning spaces' literature. Teaching staff (N=28) completed an online questionnaire and/or attended interviews (N=4). Their experiences and opinions with regard to the technology; the fitness for teaching purposes; the room layout, decor and furniture; and the support offered is discussed. Implications and future directions are indicated.

Moving on from WebQuests

Chris Campbell — 2013-11-30

This paper introduces a new teaching strategy called a DiscoveryMission, which builds on from and is a newer version of a WebQuest, which is a web-based learning experience for students. First year pre-service education students were introduced to the DiscoveryMission and completed one as part of an educational technology course. This paper describes a DiscoveryMission and presents initial findings of the data collected. Results include students being engaged and enjoying completing a DiscoveryMission and that they would use them in their teaching in the future.

Integrating Learning Design, Interactivity, and Technology

Daniel Churchill — 2013-11-30

Student engagement has long been recognized as a serious challenge to learning and teaching in higher education. While increasing and innovative use of interactive digital technologies has been a hallmark of recent changes to higher education practice, the integration of traditional and innovative digital techniques in learning and teaching design and practice remains a crucial issue for university educators. There has been a tendency for new technologies to be added to existing curriculum design and learning and teaching practice in an ad hoc, isolated manner, rather than as part of an overarching learning design which incorporates both new technologies and traditional techniques and understanding of pedagogic principles and practice. Through the integration of the RASE (Resources/Activity/Support /Evaluation) pedagogic student-centred learning model, interactivity and applications of technology, this paper seeks to help teachers design more effective courses to enable students to acquire greater autonomy, and to cultivate dispositions to understand.

Reflecting on using a theory seeded methodology for designing and building effective 3D Multi-User Virtual Environments for vocational education

Todd Cochrane — 2013-11-30

A design-based theory seeded methodology was used in a pilot study that undertook to develop a 3D multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) for temporary traffic management education. This methodology is a synthesis of educational design-based research and software development practices. However, learning affordances in 3D MUVEs have yet to be considered. Simulation and social communication are treated as essential features that indicate affordances of 3D MUVEs. In the next iteration of the design, social communication activities, and simulation are to be explicitly used in the development of a 3D MUVE to use for training ship's bridge personnel how to communicate on the bridge in emergency situations.

Dynamic digital posters

Roger Cook — 2013-11-30

Academic and professional staff at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have been faced with the challenge of how to create engaging student experiences in collaborative learning spaces. In 2013 a new Bachelor of Science course was implemented focusing on inquiry-based, collaborative and active learning. Student groups in two of the first year units carried out a poster assessment task. This paper provides a preliminary evaluation of the assessment approach used, whereby students created dynamic digital posters to capitalise on the affordances of the learning space.

Enhancing learning analytics by understanding the needs of teachers

Linda Corrin — 2013-11-30

The field of learning analytics has great potential to inform and enhance teaching and learning practices in higher education. However, while many studies are being conducted to examine new learning analytics tools or ways that learning analytics can be used to address specific problems such as student retention, few studies have explored the fundamental needs of teaching staff in addressing educational problems or making improvements to their teaching. This paper presents the initial findings from research being conducted with staff associated with teaching and learning at the University of Melbourne to identify the needs and potential uses of learning analytics to improve educational outcomes. The role learning analytics will play in informing teaching practice in higher education is considered, as well as implications for future research in the field.

Prospects for iPad apps and learning design in medical education

Bronwen Dalziel — 2013-11-30

Educators are expected to keep up to date with the variety of new technologies that are available for teaching and learning. However, not all technologies will automatically increase a student's higher order thinking skills without the teacher carefully planning how the technology will fit into the educational context. It is through 'designing for learning' that a teacher conceptualises how emerging educational theories and practices can encourage students to take deep approaches to their learning. Tablet devices are increasingly being used in education, but using stand alone educational apps, which usually focus on a specific educational need, poses a potential limitation to good learning design based on scaffolding of multiple activities. This paper explores a theoretical model of how a learning design system (such as the Learning Activity Management System - LAMS) can be used to create app-based learning designs, specifically in a medical context.

Implementing Learning Design

James Dalziel — 2013-11-30

This paper offers reflections on developments in the field of Learning Design from 2003-2013. It considers evolving conceptual issues, technology developments and communities of practice, and concludes with reflections on the future. Areas considered include: the conceptual challenge of aligning the pedagogical metamodel of Learning Design with principles for effective teaching and learning; the impact of the wider educational landscape on Learning Design, particularly developments in Curriculum Design; whether learning really can be "designed"; technology developments and challenges, and sharing among different kinds of Learning Design communities. The paper draws on past and current research in Learning Design, particularly the recent Larnaca Declaration on Learning Design.

Flexibility and function

Stuart Dinmore — 2013-11-30

This paper discusses the evolution of pedagogies used in technology enhanced learning spaces and their intersection with the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). It also argues that as the next generation of computer integrated classrooms are built we must not forget to design for inclusion. UDL provides a framework for developing course content that can be effective for all students including those from various equity students in a technology rich environment. This paper discusses these factors and outlines some elements of a pilot project at the University of South Australia as it completes construction of a new seven-storey learning centre - the Jeffrey Smart building. The paper in part explores the linkages between the flipped classroom model and UDL and argues for the principles of universal design as a solution to the current pressures within higher education to teach effectively in technology rich environments and the need to be inclusive.

Getting the full picture

Joanne Doyle — 2013-11-30

The process of storyboarding has long been used in the cinematic industry for scoping out, through sketches and illustrations, the sequence of narrative activities for film production. More recently, storyboarding has been used for user experience design, multimedia prototyping and mobile app development. This paper describes how researchers in a project team used storyboarding as part of a User-Centred Software Engineering (UCSE) approach to determine stakeholders' needs when designing an internet-independent version of Moodle. Storyboarding proved to be an effective way to capture a wide range of functionality requirements and align project outcome perspectives for the 'ideal product'. Most importantly, the storyboarding process enabled early detection of knowledge gaps and skillsets so that strategies could be devised to bridge the gaps. This paper will outline the storyboarding process, the gaps unearthed and the strategies employed to overcome identified skills and knowledge shortages.

Flipped classroom in first year management accounting unit

Xinni Du — 2013-11-30

A flipped classroom is one form of blended learning. The blended delivery model adopted in this case study uses online content delivery mechanisms for both curriculum and evaluation. This approach allows students to better utilise face-to-face class time to have in-depth discussions with teaching staff on application of knowledge. This cast study describes the experience of both students and staff in relation to this major redesign as well as provides some reflective commentary in relation to the pilot. The pilot described in this paper relates to a first year management accounting unit. This paper will describe the process of unit redesign and implementation, including planning tools developed for teaching staff and students. The case study also reveals that student readiness and self-management skills perhaps are one of the most important elements that result in a successful student blended learning experience.

A Good Story

Dawn Duncan — 2013-11-30

This paper outlines a model for the incorporation of storytelling techniques in to the design of online courses. There is considerable research in to the power of digital storytelling to transform, engage and educate, yet few of the courses on the Unitec LMS incorporate storytelling techniques into their design. This model is being developed to provide a stepping-stone for lecturers to move from traditional models of content delivery to digital storytelling.

A new era

Richard Evans — 2013-11-30

As we race towards a new era, rapid change of conventional models has become the norm. Just as technology has etched itself to the core of society, the sheer quantity of student devices connecting to university networks presents a sector wide challenge coinciding almost perfectly with many universities creating technology rich learning spaces. New fears include future proofing. It is not just a matter of technology becoming outdated. In seeking to accommodate the teaching styles and experience of staff across diverse faculties, is this technology simply too vanilla to meet their needs as they become increasingly skilled and inspired by technology's potential? Through the early findings of a study into staff use of technology within Queensland University of Technology's next generation collaborative learning spaces, this paper explores whether the answers lie in a model presented by students equipping themselves with the tools they need to learn in the 21st century.

Improving retention in first-year mathematics using learning analytics

Yasmin Erika Faridhan — 2013-11-30

Despite the importance of mathematical skills in quantitative disciplines, high failure rates in first- year university mathematics subjects have been observed in many parts of the world. Mathematics support provisions are established in many tertiary institutions in order to assist at- risk students to master and pass mathematics subjects. However, while a significant amount of data is being collected on students (e.g. entry scores, backgrounds), their behaviour (e.g. access of support services, engagement with online resources) and their performance (e.g. in assignments, tests), not much analysis is currently done with this data to predict a student's chances of success, and to better guide the services of mathematics support centres and target intervention procedures. This paper reviews relevant literature and describes a proposed research project to improve retention in first-year mathematics using a learning analytics approach.

Revisiting the definition of Mobile Learning

Helen Farley — 2013-11-30

Mobile learning is increasingly seen as a boon to universities and educators as a means of enabling learning anywhere, anytime and at the convenience of the learner. Even though the field of mobile learning is in its infancy, there is no common understanding of what mobile learning is. Previous attempts at defining mobile learner have either been overly inclusive or exclusive, and have focused on characteristics of the mediating technology, the learner, or the nature of the learning activity. Inspired by Wittgenstein's theory of family resemblances, this paper explores the attempt to create a new definition of mobile learning that will be dynamic, drawing from a collection of characteristics that may change over time rather than just supplying a single, unchanging definition. The revised definition will be used to support the development of a Mobile Learning Evaluation Framework by clarifying the attributes and features to be included in a robust and flexible definition of mobile learning. The outcome may be of value to researchers in the mobile learning field and educators considering incorporating mobile learning initiatives into current pedagogical strategies.

Use of Echo360 generated materials and its impact on class attendance

Jiangang Fei — 2013-11-30

Echo360 lecture capture system has become widely used in Australian universities. However, there are concerns about how Echo360 generated materials are used by students and the effects of its use on student learning. The paper draws on data from an inter-disciplinary project that aimed to investigate the role of Echo360 lecture capture system on learning and teaching at the University of Tasmania. Initial findings showed that the majority of respondents used Echo360 generated materials to help them better understand face-to-face lectures, review notes, prepare for assignments and examinations, rather than using the materials as an alternative to attending lectures. Contrary to some published findings, this study found that the availability of Echo360 generated materials did not necessary result in low class attendance. Over 86 per cent of respondents still considered face-to-face lectures to be of high value and attendance was necessary to promote their learning.

Communicating with peers online

Dianne Forbes — 2013-11-30

This study looks at how students experience asynchronous online discussion (AOD) within initial teacher education. In particular, the study investigates what students expect of their peers when communicating online for the purpose of learning. Ascertained via an online focus group and interviews with students, findings indicate student preferences for academic netiquette. Student expectations can inform pedagogy for AOD if used as a basis for negotiation of guidelines for online communication.

Use of Anatomage tables in a large first year core unit

Georgina Fyfe — 2013-11-30

Anatomage tables were incorporated into a large core unit in health sciences at Curtin University to replace cadaver material. Students worked in groups of eight around the table, as one of several stations in weekly workshops facilitated by tutors. Tutors and students completed a survey asking about their use of technology and their experiences with the Anatomage tables. Tutors also contributed to focus groups (n=16), and student interaction around the table was recorded on camera. Student survey response was 18% (n= 326) and for tutors, 69% (n=22). Preliminary analysis suggests that most students found the Anatomage tables good for ideas of scale and relationships of organ structures, and liked being able to rotate the images, but were less impressed with graphics quality and the limitations to group interaction. Tutors felt well-prepared for using the tables but were frustrated by technical issues, and few thought the tables were a good investment.

Second Life calling

Belma Gaukrodger — 2013-11-30

Language learners are motivated to learn when they understand a given context and are able to relate to the authenticity of the situation. Many of these activities are traditionally achieved through role-playing. In Second Life (SL), people from different corners of the globe can participate in live, synchronous communication in a shared virtual space through their virtual representations or 'avatars'. One advantage of SL for such role-play is that the focus is on the avatar, not directly on the language learner. This paper reports the results from a pilot study conducted at a New Zealand polytechnic on the perceptions of learners of English using the multi- user virtual environment of Second Life to complement their learning.

Machinima for immersive and authentic learning in higher education

Brent Gregory — 2013-11-30

The use of virtual worlds have been well documented as a space for immersive participation by students when learning authentic tasks that can be difficult, if not impossible, to undertake in the real world. They have also been used in order to grasp important concepts through machinima (inworld video). A pilot project, "computers@armidale", explores the use of machinima to explain important concepts in a first year accountancy degree. Often, these concepts are difficult to grasp without taking students through authentic learning tasks. This paper describes the learning concept, the creation of the machinima and how it is used with first year accountancy students through a think out loud protocol.

Transmedia in English Literature Classes

Michael Griffith — 2013-11-30

This paper is the beginning of a research project which will explore the function and impact of Transmedia (TM) in Higher Education (specifically English Literature studies). There are several underlying assumptions that are being tested about the range of benefits to students of using this technology. These include: that TM deepens student understanding of the nature of creative expression (including literature); that TM deepens student engagement with the traditional literature they have been studying; that TM releases students' creative expression; that TM provides students with insights into the extraordinary creative power of digital technologies; that TM deepens students' sense of community (both within and beyond class).

Reviewing the past to imagine the future of elearning

Cathy Gunn — 2013-11-30

The conference theme 'learning from the past' invites reflection on educational technology research and development in 30 years since Ascilite began; a period of rapid technology adoption and educational change. Common tools have morphed from static, costly devices requiring qualified programmers to low cost mobile ones that virtually every student in the western world uses daily. The social media 'revolution' is democratizing knowledge creation and sharing. People connect for education, professional and social reasons in ways that were inconceivable in the 1980s. This paper summarizes milestones, and asks how well universities use past experience to understand the present and plan for the future. The wisdom of hindsight is unquestionable, while capacity to predict the future is less certain. Some game changing technologies have come out of left field to knock expectations off the radar. The paper concludes by asking if past experience can really help us prepare for a largely unpredictable future.

Applying Web-conferencing in a Beginners' Chinese Class

Sijia Guo — 2013-11-30

The development of new technologies and the falling cost of high-speed Internet access have made it easier for institutes and language teachers to opt for different ways to communicate with students at a distance. The emergence of videoconferencing applications, which integrate text, chat, audio/ video and graphic facilities, offers great opportunities for language learning to through the multimodal environment. This paper reports on initial data elicited from a pilot study of using web-conferencing in the teaching of a first year Chinese class in order to promote learners' collaborative learning. Firstly, a comparison of three conferencing tools was conducted to determine the pedagogical value of the web-conferencing tool-Blackboard Collaborate. Secondly, the evaluation of 10 campus-based Chinese learners who conducted three one-hour online sessions via the multimodal environment reveals the users' choice of modes and their learning preference.

Academics adopting mobile devices

Boris Handal — 2013-11-30

This exploratory research characterised the degree of adoption of mobile learning (ML) devices among academic staff at an Australian university. It also sought to evaluate the impact of academics' perceptions about possibilities and constraints in the adoption of these technologies. A zone of free movement (ZFM) scale was developed and validated to quantify the magnitude and direction of those perceptions. Results showed that academic staff are characteristically at the third of the Russell's (1995) six developmental stages of technological adoption. Lack of time to integrate ML into courses, limited availability of mobile devices, little familiarity with the tools, as well as the perception that students cannot use them as a word- processor, act as inhibitors to the adoption of the technology. In turn, the perception that mobile tools enhance student-lecturer communication outside class was found to be a positive predictor of adoption.

Building bridges for non-engineers

Merle Hearns — 2013-11-30

For the past decade, educators have participated in virtual world teaching. Manukau Institute of Technology entered the virtual world of Second Life in 2009. Since then foundation or bridging students have repeatedly demonstrated skill development and knowledge acquisition through the utilization of virtual world resources. A change in the way the foundation curriculum is delivered has taken place over the last two and a half years with a switch to project-based delivery. A Virtual World Club was started to support students in their project work. Over the past year, the club has attracted attention from students and lecturers that has led to a more widespread adoption of the use of virtual worlds. Plans are underway to bring MIT students into alternative worlds, and recent technical advances will be an integral part of the direction MIT will take in future years.

"The slides are part of the cake"

Craig Hight — 2013-11-30

This paper reports on the findings from a two-year funded research project exploring software literacy - how it is understood, developed and applied in tertiary teaching-learning contexts and how this understanding serves new learning. MS PowerPoint was selected as an initial focus as it is widely available and commonly used. Two disciplines (Media Studies and Engineering) were case studied and data collection obtained through student interviews and an online survey. Findings revealed that students tend to draw from informal learning strategies when learning to use PowerPoint, they have the functional skills and understanding of the software, and were able to identify some of its key affordances and constraints. However, they were only able to critique these at a superficial level, suggesting a need for formal recognition of software literacy as a means to empower students to engage with software and its use at a more critical level.

Connecting and Reflecting with Ning

Janette Hughes — 2013-11-30

This paper chronicles one instructor's experiences using a social networking site (Ning) to teach two graduate courses in education. It explores the decisions made in setting up the Ning and the affordances of teaching using a blended model of synchronous and asynchronous learning in UOIT's online graduate program. The focus is specifically on the benefits and challenges of using a Ning network and Ning's pedagogical potential for collaborative knowledge construction, the creation of a community of practice, which fosters social presence and multimodal communication.

Designing contemporary music courses for the 21st century musician

Lisa Jacka — 2013-11-30

The landscape has already changed for the music industry in the way that music is created, performed and distributed. Higher education courses in music, including contemporary music, are abundant but in many cases are not preparing students for the 21^st century music industry. Innovative technology is pushing the boundaries of what live performance in music actually entails. Technology such as virtual worlds is opening up avenues for greater control by the musician in relation to design of performance spaces and ability to attract global audiences. The potential for the exploration of virtual worlds by musicians to promote appropriate career development skills is discussed. Technical, organisational and motivational issues are also raised. Problems and possibilities associated with the initial running of performances in a virtual world reveal the capacity of higher education to implement live music performance in virtual worlds as part of their music courses.

'It's not the university experience we were expecting'

Amanda Jefferies — 2013-11-30

This paper reports from a 2012 small-scale study with campus-based undergraduate students at an Australian research-focussed university. The students' ownership of learning technologies was examined alongside their appreciation and experience of online learning opportunities. It came to light that a number of the students having opted for a campus- based experience were less willing to embrace fully the wider blend in learning that the learning environment provided. These digitally competent and literate students held a somewhat stereotyped expectation of university teaching as being a didactic process within a classroom with some blend of online learning activities. The students typically owned a range of personal technologies and they were avid users of one particular social network - Facebook. This preference for a single social network above all others has been found to be true in both prior UK studies (Ofcom, 2012) and US experiences (Dahlstrom, 2012). The students generally considered themselves as consumers of technology to support their learning rather than as engaging with university LMS to transform their learning approach. Suggestions for improving the scaffolding of learning are made.

Using a Glossary Random Entry Tool on Moodle online learning sites to improve students' engagement

Ying Jin — 2013-11-30

Making online learning material visually stimulating to students is vital for student learning. Engaging with interactive material that captures the students' attention and develops their interest can be particularly challenging for core 100-level papers. This paper reports an initiative to design a highly visual 'key-concepts' component for the Moodle online learning environment to stimulate students' interest and improve engagement. Key concepts were generated from the 100-level paper - Applied Sciences for Health Professionals - and then presented through a Glossary Random Entry function. The design of each key concept is short, highly visual and easy to understand. We report initial usage statistics of the component compared to other items on the learning site and conclude that the introduction of a highly visual 'key-concepts' does stimulate student interest and engagement with the online learning site.

Moving from 'e' to 'd'

Bill Johnston — 2013-11-30

This paper is based on a series of blog posts entitled "A Conversation around what it means to be a Digital University" (MacNeill, Johnston, 2012), which set out the authors ideas about the nature of higher education, eLearning, social media etc. in terms of strategic development within universities. Through the development of a conceptual development framework, we suggest that the exploration of the overarching term "digital university" offers the potential to act as a catalyst for fundamental change throughout an institution from administration to teaching and learning. The aims of the paper are to explore the concept of the Digital University and share an analytical model of strategic change. The authors are currently working with Napier University, Edinburgh as they develop their new digital strategy.

The IRAC framework

David Jones — 2013-11-30

It is an unusual Australian University that is not currently expending time and resources in an attempt to harness learning analytics. This rush, like prior management fads, is likely to face significant challenges when it comes to adoption, let alone the more difficult challenge of translating possible insights from learning analytics into action that improves learning and teaching. This paper draws on a range of prior research to develop four questions - the IRAC framework - that can be used to improve the analysis and design of learning analytics tools and interventions. Use of the IRAC framework is illustrated through the analysis of three learning analytics tools currently under development. This analysis highlights how learning analytics projects tend to focus on limited understandings of only some aspects of the IRAC framework and suggests that this will limit its potential impact.

A Pilot Trial of Social Media in a Technical Area

Therese Keane — 2013-11-30

This paper reports on a project undertaken to trial social networking with Telecommunications students and staff from Swinburne University of Technology. Web 2:0 technologies including social networking sites can encourage informal conversation, dialogue, collaborative content generation, and knowledge sharing, giving students access to a wide range of ideas. A Ning was used with the intention of engaging students and staff in informal discussions relating to the Telecommunications industry in general, rather than course material directly. Although staff contributed enthusiastically and a large number of students enrolled, student participation was low. Follow-up surveys and informal discussions revealed reasons for the low student participation included the risk of appearing foolish in front of peers and teachers, and an intention to use the Ning in a passive manner by seeing what others are doing without necessarily contributing themselves. We conclude that social media in education may be useful but needs some incentive for it to be adopted by students.

Evaluation of a MOOC pilot

Jo-Anne Kelder — 2013-11-30

This paper presents the evaluation of the pilot of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) called Understanding Dementia. The business case identified potential benefits of: ability to deliver high quality expert knowledge about dementia on an international scale; a dataset for dementia research of international perspectives on dementia care; enhanced reputation of the University and providing a pathway to traditional course for non-traditional students. The development team used a design-based research approach guided by the evaluation-research framework for e-learning and the concept of an 'e-learning life cycle' in (Phillips et al. 2012). The paper describes the evaluation-research design and results for the pilot phase. It shows how data analysis from the pilot informed the pedagogical and technical aspects of the learning design for the first full release and the value of a planned, evaluation research approach informing design from pilot to maturity.

Orienting students to online learning

Oriel Kelly — 2013-11-30

Effectively orienting students to online learning appears to be a vital factor in both their initial engagement and ultimate success in eLearning courses. This paper outlines the approach taken at a private tertiary institution and discusses six months of student feedback about their resulting preparedness for online study and their understanding of the role of the online learning community in supporting the success of their learning journey.

An opportunity to support beginning teachers in the transition from higher education into practice

Nick Kelly — 2013-11-30

This paper describes an approach for higher education institutions to support beginning teachers across the transition from pre-service into the profession. It presents the need for support with evidence of high attrition rates and of the problems faced by teachers when commencing practice. It suggests an approach that uses mobile technology to facilitate communities of practice during higher education that can then support the teachers in their early years of service.

Using a collaborative investigation and design strategy to support digital resource development in an online unit of study

Shannon Kennedy-Clark — 2013-11-30

This paper presents the research design and preliminary findings from a study on supporting online students in a collaborative design project. The Collaborative Investigation, Design, Evaluation and Revision (CIDER) approach was used to scaffold the learning activities. CIDER is a learn-technology-by-design approach for collaborative resource design and development. This phase of the study was conducted in a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education unit at an Australian university. Participants, working in small groups, collaboratively developed electronic teaching resources, including a digital story and a website. Data sources for this study include student artefacts, evaluation data, survey data and peer-review feedback from two unit cohorts. The results indicate that geographical proximity was not the key factor in the group's success; rather, a shared disciplinary area was a better indicator of the students' ability to develop an online resource. Moreover, the results indicate that formative evaluation via a peer review process offered a practical way of determining the quality or potential quality of a web-based learning resource before it is published.

Emerging teachers' conceptions about their current use of ICT in vocational education

Shahadat Hossain Khan — 2013-11-30

This article presents emerging results from an ongoing phenomenographic study that examines teachers' conceptions of ICT-enhanced teaching and learning in vocational education. Twenty three teachers from three Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutions participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews about the role of ICT in their teaching and profession. The emerging findings reveal that vocational education teachers consider ICT use for teaching vocational courses in five different ways. Specifically, they saw the use of ICT for teaching: 1) as a response to external expectations; 2) as a means to access information and resources; 3) as a delivery tool; 4) as media to support active learning; and 5) as an environment for preparing students for their chosen profession. While some of these findings are in line with those of similar phenomenographic studies in higher and tertiary education, conceptions a) and e) tend to be more distinct in vocational education settings.

"Hearing the thoughts of others"

Elaine Khoo — 2013-11-30

This paper reports on a qualitative case study exploring the affordances of student-generated podcasts. Findings from online focus groups with students indicated that podcasting was useful for building technological skills and confidence, supporting multimodal ways of learning that value relational connections, student perspectives and collaborative reflection. Students valued technical support when podcasting for the first time. In terms of the conference theme, we imagine a future where teachers integrate digital literacies and pedagogies by experimenting with practice, involving students actively, and employing learning networks for sustainable support.

Mobile Learning at Charles Sturt University

Tim Klapdor — 2013-11-30

The mLearn Project at Charles Sturt University (CSU) started in 2011 as an initiative to explore mobile learning and its application and potential for the institution. This paper provides a meta-perspective of one particular aspect of the project, a series of university-wide device trials, and describes what took place, the initial findings, discussions related to mobile and the key recommendations from the project. The project has provided a way for the university to explore new technology within its specific and unique learning and teaching contexts. It has provided real world experiences from which to learn and through exploration a better understanding of our present has been reached. This paper is an attempt to share the examples and experiences and provide a basis to imagine our future direction.

Factors to consider when designing writing groups for off-campus doctoral candidates

Olga Kozar — 2013-11-30

In this paper, we outline factors to consider when organizing writing groups for off-campus doctoral candidates, identifying possible design options and the broader considerations that should inform which options are taken. We begin by reviewing issues typically faced by doctoral candidates pursuing their degrees at a distance, such as social isolation and limited access to resources and communities of practice. We then draw on prior studies on doctoral education to discuss ways of meeting the logistical, sustainability and pedagogical demands to be considered by institutions seeking to improve the experience of their off-campus doctoral candidates. We argue that writing groups conducted via CMC tools have the potential to address a number of the issues identified and conclude by outlining a framework capable of informing relevant stakeholders in designing writing groups for off-campus doctoral candidates.

Issues Integrating Remote Laboratories into Virtual Worlds

Tania Machet — 2013-11-30

Laboratory work in education has long been recognised as providing real benefits to students. Increasingly, remotely accessible laboratories are being used for laboratory work in the sciences and engineering, providing students with remote access to real equipment while delivering additional benefits to institutions. There is an increasing focus on how these labs may improve laboratory learning outcomes. One potential enhancement, resulting from their mediated interface, is the ability to add contextual information to a laboratory activity. Virtual worlds have been identified as a rich environment for providing contextual information. However, the reported examples of real equipment laboratories integrated into a virtual world are specific to the laboratory. This paper describes a more generic approach to interfacing a virtual world, Open Wonderland, to laboratories which use the MIT iLabs platform. The paper reports on the issues involved in the interface and the strengths and limitations of this system.

An online professional network to support teachers' information and communication technology development

Damian Maher — 2013-11-30

This paper reports on an evaluation undertaken of the potential impact of a Network for Educators: the Pathways for Learning, Anywhere, Anytime (PLANE) website. The evaluation was undertaken in New South Wales, Australia with teachers in Government, Catholic and Independent schools in both rural and suburban areas. The benefits and challenges associated with supporting teachers' information and communication technologies (ICT) skills via a professional learning network platform are highlighted. Results of the study indicate that a well-designed online platform could potentially provide a space for teachers to learn to integrate ICT in their teaching with and from each other within a learning community.

MOOCs

Mauricio Marrone — 2013-11-30

This paper outlines a preliminary scoping exercise that surveyed how good practice principles around cultural inclusion are currently incorporated into online learning, and more specifically, into Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs. Combining good practices principles for learning and teaching across cultures and elements of Universal Instructional Design, this small-scale survey of courses provided on four MOOC platforms - Coursera, Udacity, Open2Study and edX - looks at determining what can be considered good culturally inclusive practice. The aim of the project is to establish minimum standards and examples of good practice that can form the benchmarks for all online units.

The introduction of an online portfolio system in a medical school

Glenn Mason — 2013-11-30

In this paper we discuss innovations in the personal and professional development (PPD) curriculum that were introduced at a medical school in a major metropolitan university in Sydney, Australia. The review of the PPD curriculum involved the development of new content as well as the exploration of technologies that could be used to underpin the various collaborative, self-directed and reflective learning activities of the new course. An online portfolio system (PebblePad) was selected as the technological platform to deliver the new curriculum. Student feedback relating to the new technology has been critical and activity theory (AT) is used to broaden our understanding of the wider cultural forces - what we call the 'negative discourse of PPD' - that can potentially shape attitudes to technology and learning in the PPD component of a medical degree.

Engaging online students through the gamification of learning materials

Naomi McGrath — 2013-11-30

The benefits of gamification in learning and instructional design to help engage and improve student learning online are investigated in this paper. The use of scenario-based learning and alternate reality gaming (ARG) are identified as key representations for improving user engagement, productivity and help shift away from classroom based learning activities towards fully self-paced and collaborative online activities. The paper outlines the reasoning behind, and the advantages of, using scenario-based and alternate reality gaming as an instructional tool in tertiary online education.

The current use of ICT by novice female teachers in Saudi primary schools and their perceived training needs

Ensaf Al Mulhim — 2013-11-30

The overall focus of this study is ICT in primary schools in Saudi Arabia, in particular the use made of ICT by novice female primary school teachers. This represents the first phase of a study that aims to discover whether a tailored training program might help teachers to widen and improve their use of ICT, and thus to improve their students' results. A questionnaire and semi- structured interviews were used in this phase to collect data. The findings revealed that the participants do suffer from a great gap in their knowledge and in even the basic technical and pedagogical skills of using technology in teaching. It was also found that their current use of technology is very low. The reasons behind this could include lack of access to technology, lack of training, and lack of time. The paper also presents some features of the participants' desired training program.

Understanding the use of smart mobile technologies for learning in higher education

Angela Murphey — 2013-11-30

This paper presents a preliminary exploration of the types of smart mobile technologies higher education students have access to and use to support their learning by comparing cohorts from two Australian universities with quite different profiles, the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and the University of South Australia (UniSA). These results are briefly compared to those obtained in earlier studies in a broad attempt to identify trends in the use of mobile technologies to support learning over time. The results indicate that levels of smart phone ownership are rising rapidly with a corresponding drop in levels of feature phone ownership. Tablet computers such as iPads have emerged since the earlier studies were completed with high levels of adoption by students. Significantly, students are using these smart mobile devices to support their learning.

Enablers and Barriers to Academic's Acceptance of Technology

Maimuna Musarrat — 2013-11-30

With the advances in technology the higher education sector is rapidly evolving. While some researchers are predicting the University of the Future to be more virtual, many academics at the coal face are still struggling to embrace emerging technologies. This paper reports the first stage of a project aimed at identifying the enablers and barriers for adopting new technology among Australian Higher Education academics. In this pilot study, academics who have integrated Tablet PCs in their teaching were surveyed. For a richer understanding of the enablers and barriers of technology uptake, focus groups will follow. The next stages of this research will be a wider survey open to all academics across universities. The ultimate goal of this project is to generate recommendations for universities in better managing the technological change.

Virtual Worlds for learning

Christine Newman — 2013-11-30

When Second Life first came to the attention of the mainstream media in 2007, educators recognised the potential of virtual worlds for teaching and learning. They seemed to be the ideal environments to facilitate authentic learning, alleviate the tyranny of distance for students not on campus, and provide an inexpensive and safe environment to teach skills that were too dangerous or expensive to teach in the real world. In spite of all this fanfare, virtual worlds have failed to gain significant traction in higher education. This paper outlines a preliminary investigation into the reasons why virtual worlds have not been adopted for learning and teaching. The reflections of the six authors on this topic were subjected to a thematic analysis with themes arranged under four broad topics. This information informed the development of a survey to be distributed more widely to further explore this phenomenon.

Distributed Digital Essay

Fiona Nicolson — 2013-11-30

A key challenge faced by higher education is the evolution of assessment tasks to better suit the participatory and collaborative way in which our students use the web. This paper provides a model for a distributed digital essay that incorporates academic rigour with the peer discourse that has become the norm for digitally literate scholars active in social media. Our model is derived from a community of inquiry approach and prioritises students' engagement with the academic literature in their discipline. The model empowers the students to extend their learning community beyond the boundaries of their particular student cohort into a professional network. Students produce a digital artefact in which they expound their evidence-based knowledge and also demonstrate how they have used social media to test and consolidate their understanding. We provide an example that demonstrates how the distributed digital essay task was integrated into an online, postgraduate unit with an inquiry-based approach to learning.

Dreams, hiccups and realities

Maria Northcote — 2013-11-30

Negotiating curriculum design with students for students involves incorporating both the students' needs and the lecturers' requirements into the course structure, learning activities, resources and assessment tasks. In 2012, two lecturers and a group of first year undergraduate students worked together to design an online module within an on-campus course for a second year teacher education degree. During the semester when the online module was conducted, data were gathered from the lecturers and students in the course. Findings from analyses of these data are presented in this paper in terms of: 1) the lecturers' and students' initial dreams and plans when the online module was co-designed; 2) the hiccups and problems encountered during the online module; 3) the realities of the successful aspects of the online module; and 4) the lessons learned for future emergent and negotiated curriculum design practices in higher education contexts.

Pipe dreams or digital dreams

Teresa O'Brien — 2013-11-30

Regional Australia provides fertile ground for the integration of online technologies to support the vocational education and training (VET) sector. This paper examines teachers' beliefs about teaching with technology in a regional VET institute. VET teachers must demonstrate teaching expertise (pedagogical knowledge) and industry expertise (content knowledge) for diverse learners and contexts; however, the emergence of new digital technologies illustrates an increasing need for teachers to embrace 'technology' knowledge commensurate with industry practice. Recent surveys have revealed that teachers' use of online digital technology within the VET sector is not effectively incorporated nor has it been embraced in pedagogically defensible ways. This paper adopts a mixed methods approach to understand how the epistemic beliefs of VET teachers influence their teaching and how the TPACK is applied in practice. Finally, this paper illuminates the need for professional development programmes to focus on developing teacher knowledge across all TPACK domains.

Augmenting learning reality

James Oldfield — 2013-11-30

In the three short years since the release of the iPad, it has become the object of substantial investment in a number of areas of education. This investment is driving the need for significant research into mobile device related teaching and pedagogy. The focus of this paper is on the first iteration of a design-based research study, which is informed by theories of authentic learning, cognitive tools and mobile learning. This paper is an introductory exploration into the use of iPads, and the apps and services they run, as cognitive tools in an authentic tertiary learning environment. This paper highlights a range of iPad apps and Web 2.0 services used in the study, and methods for their potential use to augment the learning experience in a business education context.

Imagining the future of assessment

Beverley Oliver — 2013-11-30

MOOCs are beginning to affect the business models of higher education providers by hastening the 'unbundling' of some of the central functions of higher education, particularly formal credit for learning and providing pathways to further study. This paper reports on Deakin University's work in this sphere in a newly launched MOOC, Humanitarian Responses to 21st Century Disasters. In this course, assessment has been 'flipped', so that instead of being examined, students are invited to demonstrate their achievements against learning outcomes and achieve peer credit badges that can be shared on LinkedIn and Facebook. If they choose, up to 100 students can also pay $495 for formal assessment. Those whose learning evidence is assessed as meeting all the requirements will be granted the equivalent of one subject credit when applying for entry to particular degree courses. This developing model may extend the benefits of higher education.

The Greek flip

Martin Olmos — 2013-11-30

The flipped classroom has generated much enthusiasm as the future of education. Past research has shown personal support from a tutor as highly effective, but uneconomical. Might flipped formats be a solution to this economic problem? This paper reports on a flipped design for teaching ancient Greek in a theological college. Students learnt the basic content through online videos and activities, and then attended a two-week intensive to interact with faculty and peers. Students were very satisfied with the online resource and agreed that it had helped them prepare to learn Greek, although they were keen to keep the personal interaction with peers and teachers. They used it heavily for an extended period of time. The proportion of students failing or achieving a simple pass decreased, although more data is required to confirm the impact on marks. Overall, the adoption of a flipped format has been validated.

Gamification of Tertiary Courses

Varina Paisley — 2013-11-30

'Gamification' is the implementation of game elements into non-game settings. In education, the purpose of gamification is to increase student engagement and motivation through the introduction of game elements such as leaderboards, badges and levels. Currently there is limited research into gamification in education and much of the research has focused on young children and 'play' or the implementation of gaming into classes, often technology based classes. This study explores the effectiveness of gamification in tertiary management education which may have implications for a wide range of tertiary education fields and identifies areas for further research.

Designing learning spaces in higher education for autonomy

Martin Parisio — 2013-11-30

Learner autonomy underpins many of the educational outcomes at university such as flexibility, adaptability, self-initiative and self-direction. Indeed, learner autonomy is a key to life-long learning. This paper reports on research investigating the ways designers of innovative learning spaces incorporate customisable, (re)configurable and flexible features that support and encourage learner autonomy. The research aims to elicit high-level design principles that may prove useful in design for learning more generally - including design for learning in virtual and hybrid (physical and virtual) spaces. The research involved seventeen learning spaces across eight universities, observations and interviews with educational stakeholders, and architects and interior designers of those spaces. Preliminary findings suggest designers aim to empower students by providing configurable spaces fitted out with modular furniture and ubiquitous technology - emphasising choice. The paper ends by reviewing the application of these design ideas to broader problems and opportunities in 'design for learning' research and practice.

The Reading Game

Robert Parker — 2013-11-30

The Reading Game is a question and answer game designed to engage learners in the content of their coursework. The class of student participants creates a collective learning space where every action serves to introduce, build, or clarify concepts from the curriculum. The quality of the multiple-choice questions and the contents of the quizzes are determined by the participants who receive points for their efforts in both asking and answering questions. Participants can comment on and rate questions deemed outstanding by their peers, which directly impacts the contents of review quizzes. Participants progress to the next level of the game using their accumulated points onto asking open questions to the teachers and their cohort. Writing good questions is the winning strategy of the game. The key claim in the Reading Game is that creating questions is one of the fundamental cognitive elements that guide our conscious reasoning.

Higher Education Teachers' Understanding of Flexibility and Enhancement in a Learning Management System

Zofia Pawlaczek — 2013-11-30

In as much as Learning Management Systems (LMS) are environments for learning, they are also design-spaces for higher education (HE) teachers to assemble content for the coherent presentation of a course. In the age of the app, where there is software for any number of digital prosthetics, LMS have attempted design-flexibility by supporting third-party plugins to load within the LMS interface. This is not a new idea and has been mastered in audio and image editing with incredible results in terms of creativity. LMS providers have been slow to respond to digital progress, and current LMS versions seem unable to fully support third-party flexibility; despite the opportunity third-party apps provide to enable creativity and enhancement. This preliminary study has shown that HE teachers, in one institution, do not experience seamless integration of plugins, are unable to keep pace with change and are wiling to have fewer choices of tools with a greater focus on proficiency of them.

A new mindset for a new world

Annette Q. Pedersen — 2013-11-30

The Internet has changed the world and it's business models, but how can universities take advantage of the new potentials for teaching, learning and research, we've only just begun to grasp the scope of? How can the traditional University of Copenhagen change our own mindset and get ready for the future? We created a vision of the university of the future as a "live university": being accessible anytime, anywhere, and open to participation and co-creation between students, faculty and staff. This is the account of how we aim to use this vision to change our perspective, raise awareness of what technology can do for us, increase our IT-literacy and get ready for the future university - when we don't yet know, what the future holds.

Exploring Connected Learning Spaces in Teacher Education

Rachel Perry — 2013-11-30

This paper reports on outcomes from a study that explored how connected learning spaces, mediated by videoconference technology, enabled real-world engagement in pre-service teacher education. Student teachers in drama and science education participated in the study, which involved varied connections with school children and their classroom teachers. Key themes that emerged were underpinned by a consideration of authentic learning: student teachers' observations of teacher practices; enactment of multiple roles; and exposure to diverse and timely feedback. Implications for the design of discipline specific on-campus activities are considered in relation to how they inform effective integration of videoconference technology for real-world, professional engagement in teacher education.

Piloting an online mathematics and statistics tutoring service

Jim Pettigrew — 2013-11-30

In early 2013 the Mathematics Education Support Hub at the University of Western Sydney launched a tutoring service to support students' mathematical and statistical learning in an online environment. Until the end of its pilot implementation in mid 2013, the service operated at all times as a moderated question and answer forum located within the University's Learning Management System (a version of Blackboard Learn known as vUWS). It also featured a 'virtual classroom', which allowed students to interact with mathematics and statistics support staff in a web conferencing space equipped with a wide range of digital communication tools. This paper refers to the service as it was offered in discussing a range of general issues and questions associated with its pilot implementation. Particular attention is given to the issues of pedagogy in a purely online teaching and learning context and communicating asynchronously and synchronously using mathematical language and notation.

Beyond Open Access

Xiang Ren — 2013-11-30

This concise paper reviews the research and practice of open innovations in scholarly publishing, facilitated by the dynamics of open access, Web 2.0, and social media. Compared with traditional publisher-mediated system, open publishing not only provides a vast amount of openly accessible content, but also introduces a new communication system characterized by "publish then social filter". This paper aims to theorize the defining features of open publishing innovations and their impact on future digital scholarship. It also critically discusses the challenges for the uptake of open publishing in scholarly communication. It concludes by linking open publishing with a wider open knowledge communication system including open education and open science, from which future research suggestions are derived.

Looking back to look forward

Shirley Reushle — 2013-11-30

Digital communities provide opportunities to engage with local, national and international communities of learners or colleagues around a particular domain of practice. This paper briefly describes an adapted communities of practice model used to structure digital communities for a professional association's peer mentoring program. Methods and techniques for the facilitation and leadership of digital communities are explored and findings from two evaluations of the program are examined to identify successes and areas of improvement. Recommendations for future opportunities are also proposed.

Technology, identity and the creative artist

Jennifer Rowley — 2013-11-30

Most tertiary students dream about their futures at some time during their studies, and the creation of a portfolio can play an important role in the formation of future identity. In today's culture, technology is rapidly expanding and changing and our society is becoming progressively more networked, digitilised and globalised. Teaching and learning processes are affected by technological developments. and the portfolio has been modified to utilise this technology (Penny & Kinslow, 2006). The process of developing electronic portfolios promoted a technology-enriched environment for creative arts students to cultivate their learning and knowledge. This paper reports from an OLT (formerly ALTC) funded project at its mid-way point. The project is introducing ePortfolios to students through existing curriculum in the creative and performing arts at four universities in Australia. The project forms part of continuing work to research practices in technology supported teaching and learning.

Evaluating an institutional blended & mobile learning strategy

Carol Russell — 2013-11-30

The University of Western Sydney is investing in three levels of learning technology provision: institutional, academic-led and student-led. A new strategy launched in 2012 included infrastructure and software upgrades, recruitment of more staff to assist in blended curriculum design within disciplines and, from 2013, the issue of iPads to all new undergraduate students and to teaching staff. This paper describes how these initiatives are being evaluated, to gather evidence of the initial impact of the investment on the student learning experience and on the capacity of staff to provide quality teaching and curricula.

Understanding our present

Darryl Saunders — 2013-11-30

The Disputes Resolution unit in the School of Law at Charles Darwin University demonstrates how new technologies can be used in higher education to design connected, innovative and interactive learning environments that stimulate the teaching of practical mediation skills. A pedagogic approach suited to online teaching is used in which online role-play scenarios are conducted using a variation of the online fishbowl approach. With this approach internal and external students take on character roles and interact in a synchronous online environment during a two-week intensive teaching block. The students jump in and out of their roles over the course of the two weeks as they research, role-play, interview and conduct peer reviews of the interactions. New technologies combined with innovative pedagogy enable the repositioning of external students as very much internal in the learning process and a new level of connection and interaction is possible between internal and external students.

The Village Pharm

Jennifer Schneider — 2013-11-30

A growing body of knowledge in Pharmacy has made it increasingly difficult to keep abreast of current knowledge and developments in disease prevention and treatment. It has been suggested that in the face of this ever-changing knowledge environment, it is essential to help students develop professional capabilities in classroom (Blouin et al., 2009). Here we present an experiment called the village pharm - a model that used the flipped classroom concept. Our aim was to teach students professional skills in context, mirroring key skills including communication, empathy, cultural and ethical awareness expected of health professionals. Using auto-ethnography, we present our design, reflection and analysis of how learning unfolded in a flipped classroom and the lessons we have learnt to make improvements for the future. We believe this will be useful for academics wishing to use flipped classroom and technology to help students develop key professional skills inherent to their discipline.

Where to from here?

Simon D. Smith — 2013-11-30

The New Media Age has ushered in new opportunities, challenges and demands in the delivery of higher education. Access to information and people anywhere/anytime is transforming traditional education models and changing teaching and learning approaches. In this paper, we reflect on current assessment practices in higher education and consider the impact the New Media Age is likely to have on the future of assessment. Examining education technology trends, we present a model that predicts the expansion of assessment along two dimensions: an involvement continuum and an accessibility continuum. The former consists of a scale intrapersonal to interpersonal while the latter consists of a scale fixed to flexible. Higher education assessment has traditionally provided for a relatively fixed spatiotemporal accessibility and intrapersonal involvement context. In this paper we suggest that the new media phenomenon will extend assessment provision further into flexible spatial and temporal accessibility, and deeper into interpersonal involvement.

Keywords: Future Assessment, New Media Age.

Cross-institutional development of an online open course for educators

Keith Smyth — 2013-11-30

The Global Dimensions in Higher Education module is a fully online open course for educators, jointly developed by three UK universities through a process of consultation and inquiry involving colleagues within the global education sector. The purpose of the module is two-fold. Firstly, to engage academics within and beyond the partner institutions in a critical exploration of transnational and global issues within higher education. Secondly, to provide the project partners with an opportunity to understand and address the challenges of jointly developing and delivering an online course that is to be offered both openly as well as integrated within credit-bearing and continued professional development provision for academics in the partner institutions. This short paper describes progress to date in developing the Global Dimensions in Higher Education module, our current activity focused on validating and implementing the module, and lessons learned to be considered for the collaborative development of open online courses.

Mobile devices for learning in Malaysia

Helena S. Y. Song — 2013-11-30

Since 2010, there has been a visible increase in the amount of research focused on mobile learning in higher education in Malaysia. To determine if this increase corresponds to an increase in the use of mobile devices to support student learning, data from two surveys conducted in 2008 and 2013 were compared to determine the changes in rates of ownership and use of mobile devices among students. In 2008, although all students owned feature phones very few had access to other mobile devices and rarely used them to support their learning. In 2013, the picture had changed significantly, with some 80 per cent of students owning smart phones and all had access to mobile devices of some sort. Additionally, students were using these devices to support their learning in a number of ways. The paper concludes with indications and implications for future research.

Metamorphosis and Adaptive Digital Publishing

Rob Stone — 2013-11-30

This paper aims to explore the conceptual work being undertaken at Charles Sturt University to develop The Adaptive Digital Publishing Engine (TADPOLE). The aim of the project is to envision a distinct way of creating, structuring and publishing educational resources for delivery to a wide variety of platforms and media. The development of TADPOLE will allow us explore a 21st century approach to publishing that embraces digital affordances and uses metamorphosis, rather than translation or transcription, to convert content from one format to another.

Challenges and opportunities for growth of e-Learning enrolments

Mark Tayar — 2013-11-30

This study investigates e-Learning as a mode of university internationalisation. Drawing from business and higher education literature, trends on cross-border digital service delivery are analysed. Through a content analysis of recent strategic or corporate plans of Australian and United Kingdom universities, predictions are made about how these strategic priorities might create future challenges and opportunities for university educators and administrators. Internationalisation plans from Australian universities are also used to better understand whether e-Learning is prioritised as a current or future mode of internationalisation. Strategic and technological responses are discussed to help overcome challenges such as the trade-off between teaching quality and profitability which will become more significant as online cohorts expand.

Creating socially inclusive online learning environments in higher education

Lisa Kay Thomas — 2013-11-30

The expansion of higher education across the broader Australian population has led to a more diverse student population than ever before. While research in the Australian context has focussed on support for some traditionally underrepresented students in a face-to-face learning context, how to enhance participation and success of these groups in online education has remained relatively unexplored. This paper presents the rationale and approach of a study investigating the challenges of students from traditionally underrepresented groups in online higher education (i.e. low SES, first in family, indigenous, disability, mature age, primary caregivers, remote and regional students, international, English as a second language), and approaches that can enhance the learning experience for these students. As a work in progress the research will draw on student and staff perspectives to develop and disseminate principles and practices for effective, socially inclusive online teaching.

The language of science

Michelle Thunders — 2013-11-30

Students often struggle with science content because of their lack of science vocabulary comprehension. Science vocabulary is often derived from Greek and Latin words, languages not familiar to the majority of our students. Knowing common suffixes, prefixes and root words can facilitate student understanding of new complex concepts. Development of a visual, interactive and quick online tool to aid students dissect and decode parts of words and help them to understand the entire word will benefit students otherwise disadvantaged, for example, students where English is not their first language and students who come to us with little or no previous science education as often the case for students undertaking the Bachelor Health Science (BHlthSci) degree. This could also help with first-year student retention as it may help students to not see science words as daunting and confusing and give them confidence in their learning.

Joining the dots

Panos Vlachopoulos — 2013-11-30

Although there has been an increased interest in the use of electronic portfolios in higher education over the last five years, relatively little is known about the potential of such tools to support the development of higher order abilities for students, such as reflection, in a structured way that is suitable for assessment. This paper reports the findings from a small-scale research which sets out to compare the outcomes of reflective assignments in two cohorts of participants in a Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Practice in Higher Education in the UK. Participants in the programme were asked to submit reflective accounts using an e-portfolio system as part of their formal assessment. One cohort completed the assessment using some generic guidelines of how to reflect and construct an e-portfolio page without a given template or structure, whereas another cohort was given a specific template with clear assessment criteria to gauge the assembly of their reflections. The authors, who are also tutors in the programme, analysed the submitted reflections following open coding procedures. The analysis found a tendency for the reflection in the first cohort to be merely descriptive without progressing to speculating objectively about answers to relevant analytical questions about the process involved in the ability under scrutiny. In contrast the assignments of cohort two were found to be more insightful in terms of assimilating random bits of materials, thoughts and self-questions into complete reflective accounts. These findings bring some evidence to support and indeed promote a more structured approach to reflective practice, which can be further enhanced through a carefully created e-portfolio template and associated assessment criteria.

Keywords: reflective practice, e-portfolios, assessment criteria, templates

Embedding Professional Skills in the ICT Curriculum

Brian R. von Konsky — 2013-11-30

This paper reports on a preliminary investigation into the technology and techniques for designing and managing higher education programs in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The approach outlined is based on the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) and is informed by data arising from the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Computer Professional education Program (CPeP). It is intended that this work will inform subsequent research to improve dialogue between Industry Advisory Boards, Professional Societies, and their academic partners as they design, implement, and accredit higher education programs in ICT. It is further intended that this will contribute to the development of ICT curriculum that is aligned with industry expectations and prepares ICT graduates for professional practice. Future directions for improving SFIA based curriculum design and facilitating better stakeholder communication and collaboration are discussed.

Wiki-based interventions

Zainee Waemusa — 2013-11-30

This paper reports on the first phase of a wiki-based project in higher education in Thailand. The wiki innovation was focused on promoting collaborative learning. Previous literature on wikis shows that merely using a wiki, without teachers' support and without critical consideration of the approach to teaching and learning, does not impact significantly on the nature of student collaboration and hence on learning. This paper discusses the nature and value of the design based research for the development of interventions implemented in the wiki project to promote collaborative learning. These interventions focused on shifting thinking, learning and knowing in designing activities which responded to practical problems of wiki use. Discussion is provided on the benefits of design based research, and in particular the interplay between teacher and learner that impacted on the design for students' collaborative learning.

Application of Cytoscape to the Analysis of Diagrams of Mechanisms Underlying Patient Problems

Shaoyu Wang — 2013-11-30

In problem based learning (PBL) tutorials in a medical context, students solve authentic patient problems with the educational aim to develop their reasoning capacity. A key activity to facilitate development of their reasoning capacity in a tutorial is the construction of diagrams of mechanisms that explain patient problems. These diagrams are networks of discrete elements (such as headache) of patient problems. Analysis of these diagrams may yield insights into students' reasoning styles. To achieve this aim, we employed an application called Cytoscape, which is capable of visualising and analysing networks, to study these diagrams. In this preliminary study, we showed that Cytoscape can be used to analyze these diagrams of mechanisms produced in PBL tutorials. We found that students tend to reason in a hierarchical manner. Parameters are also defined that can be used to identify incorrect and missing links in their reasoning processes.

Implementing Timely Interventions to Improve Students' Learning Experience*

Sue Whale — 2013-11-30

This paper describes the development of an approach aimed at increasing student engagement and outcomes in online business studies. Personalised real-time interventions were used by lecturers to encourage online participation and enhance students' overall experience through engaging them in the online learning environment. This 'high touch' approach was developed using analytics from the learning management system (LMS) to determine key points for interaction and a series of interventions were implemented at these points during the teaching period. These interactions were evaluated through student reactions and surveys to assess students' perceptions of their value in enhancing learning, and the impact on retention and student success.

The design of formative blended assessments in tertiary EFL programs

Mansoor S. Almalki — 2013-11-30

Despite a rise of blended learning approaches in foreign language education programs, little research has examined how such integration of technologies in the classroom affects assessment designs. Any 'electric dreams' that technologies will improve learning remains unproven without clear assessment designs. In this paper, we undertake a qualitative study of formative blended assessments within an English language program at a major Saudi university. Data was gathered through observations, semi-structured interviews and Participatory Design (PD) sessions. Thematic analysis of the data resulted in four emergent themes: definitions, approaches, alignment and requirements. After setting out and discussing the four themes, we conclude our paper with suggestions for further research.

Creating engagement and cultivating information literacy skills via Scoop.it

Amy Antonio — 2013-11-30

The appropriation of digital content by higher education students reflects a significant change in learning paradigms. The traditional classroom model in which instructors were the sole source of information and knowledge is being replaced by a model that allows learners to collect, share and co-create knowledge. By integrating Scoop.it into the curriculum, this paper explores the potential of Scoop.it for both creating engaging learning experiences and cultivating digital information literacy skills. It will be shown that while Scoop.it facilitates engagement, it was less successful as a tool for improving students' digital information literacy skills.

Blended synchronous learning

Matt Bower — 2013-11-30

This paper presents seven blended synchronous learning designs and articulates principles for implementation as espoused by the teachers who enacted them. Blended synchronous learning approaches use media-rich synchronous technologies to enable remote and face-to-face students to co-participate in the same live classes. A wide range of technologies (video conferencing, web conferencing, virtual worlds), tasks (collaborative evaluation, group questioning, class discussion, problem solving, collaborative design) and levels of student interaction (from lightweight to tightly coupled) were present within the blended synchronous learning designs. The main issues that teachers confronted when teaching blended synchronous lessons were communication issues and issues related to cognitive overload caused by split attention. Key pedagogical principles for enactment as identified by the lead teachers included the need for extensive preparation, clear instructions, composure, flexibility, advance preparation of students and savvy utilisation of support staff. These findings represent initial results from an Office of Learning and Teaching project entitled 'Blended synchronicity: Uniting on-campus and distributed learners using media- rich real-time collaboration tools' (further details available at http://www.blendsync.org/).

Past, present, future time perspectives and maladaptive cognitive schemas

Ben Bullock — 2013-11-30

The aim of the current study was to investigate time perspectives and maladaptive cognitive schemas as predictors of students' academic engagement and unit withdrawal. Two hundred and sixteen students studying an online introductory unit in psychology completed an online questionnaire at the start of the unit. Their enrolment status was checked at the end of the unit. The strongest predictors of unit withdrawal were cognitive schemas and time perspectives associated with failure and hedonism. The strongest predictors of academic engagement were cognitive schemas and time perspectives associated with self-control and a focus on future outcomes. Based on these findings, psychological and pedagogical interventions aimed at increasing student engagement and reducing student attrition in online units of study are suggested.

Business student's attitudes to criteria based self- assessment and self-efficacy

Danny Carroll — 2013-11-30

Reducing student passivity and designing reflective skills into tasks contributes to developing student's professional judgment capabilities (Boud, 2000). This study analyses Business student attitudes and practices related to self-efficacy, self-regulation, assessment and self-assessment in two courses where students practiced criteria level self-assessment. A survey instrument was developed and an exploratory factor analysis in both sampled groups showed broad consistency in factor identification and reliability. Both cohorts' evidenced similar presentations related to self- efficacy, positive associations with socially mediated learning and a positive attitude towards developing better professional judgment. Student's confidence in their ability to understand task level requirements and instructions was greater than their confidence in their ability to accurately judge against criteria. A significant number of third year undergraduate students reported they had few opportunities to do self-assessment activities as part of their degree. This highlights the need to better integrate self-assessment practice into our Program design.

Working in Partnership

Helen Carter — 2013-11-30

This paper describes a program that reframes professional development through a partnership model underpinned by an authentic professional learning approach and incorporating elements of design-based research and communities of practice. A secondary underpinning of the program is the development of key skills by the educational design and development group in both project management and evaluation of learning and teaching projects as well as effective online learning design. The outcome sought from the partnership model is to promote sustainable curriculum change through the development of staff capabilities. Using curriculum design projects as the catalyst, the partnership program integrates faculty and centrally based approaches to design solutions to authentic teaching and learning problems. The collaborative nature of the program encourages scholarly dialogues between academic and professional support staff enabling increased output in scholarship of learning and teaching.

The Introduction of an Advanced Class in Systems Administration at Otago Polytechnic

Tom Clark — 2013-11-30

Systems administration is a common career path for tertiary computing students, but it is difficult to take classes in the topic, especially at more advanced levels. Most of the classes that are available focus on specific tools and practices, often tied to particular vendors' systems. A set of topics around which to build a systems administration curriculum has not been clearly identified. At Otago Polytechnic we have developed a class that builds the specific knowledge and skills required to produce work-ready Systems Administrators.. The staff organised the class around a simulated workplace model rather than a more traditional lecture/lab model. This model emphasises having students perform tasks that are, as nearly as possible, identical to the tasks that they will eventually perform in a workplace. While the first instance of the class was generally successful, some issues, especially with assessment, were noted.

Do 21st Century Students Dream of Electric Sheep?

Thomas Cochrane — 2013-11-30

Students sometimes appear to be 'asleep' and are often updating their Facebook status during seminars and lectures. We argue this is the equivalent of counting electric sheep. Student brainwave activity measured during traditional lectures has been shown to be similar to that while watching television and significantly lower than that exhibited during any form of activity including sleep (Mazur, 2012). Mazur found that introducing interactive activities in lectures significantly increases brain activity. In this paper we explore the potential for mlearning to enhance student interactivity and collaboration both in the classroom and in authentic situated learning contexts. We partnered with Vodafone New Zealand and Auckland Transport to provide our students with an iPad Mini, and 4G connectivity, to enable student-generated research projects. The students' brief was to design an enhanced experience of commuting via public transport in Auckland City. Thus the research investigates how mobile devices can be used enable interactive learning environments.

Motivation and satisfaction for vocational education students using a video annotation tool

Meg Colasante — 2013-11-30

This paper examines the use of a specific contemporary technology in tertiary education that of a video annotation tool, MAT, in four vocational learning cohorts. These students, enrolled in property services and audiovisual technology courses, analysed representations of workplace issues in video. These videos included industry interviews, acted examples, and student-performed role-plays. Student analysis was evidenced-and shared with peers and/or teachers-via electronic annotations anchored to key points within the video media. The findings in this paper focus on the motivation and satisfaction of these vocational students in their video annotation activities using Bekele's (2010) conceptual framework of factors attributing to success in online learning. Overall, students' perceptions of this electronic learning method tended to indicate satisfaction across a range of factors, with clues for improvements in tool and/or learning design support, and that the innovation is worthy of ongoing trial and refining from lessons learnt.

Designing Fieldwork with Mobile Devices for Students of the Urban Environment

Dora Constantinidis — 2013-11-30

Fieldwork learning frees students from the usual confines of classroom teaching and allows them to undertake relatively independent exploration and reflection. This paper reports on three case studies of attempts to enhance and support student fieldwork through the use of mobile technologies. The studies were conducted with students of the built environment who accessed either specially customised multi-media self-guided directions or pre-existing downloadable apps. The focus in the paper is the design of mobile-supported field activities. Five dimensions that need to be considered are identified: volume of content delivery; extent of data capture; directedness of the learning activity; extent of student collaboration; and strength of link to assessment.

Student reflections on preference and use of lecture notes and recordings

Emily J. Cook — 2013-11-30

This study examines feedback from students about the use of Tablet PC technology in material science lectures to help us understand how students use available learning resources and to inform the creation of future materials. Students commented on their preferences for being given full notes or partial notes which were annotated during the lectures and also on how they used notes and recordings in their learning. Students presented conflicting views on which style of note-taking they preferred with a varied range of reasons for their preferences. Feedback indicated that students perceive that live lectures are important and that the distribution of complete notes and recordings were useful as revision aids and if missing a lecture was unavoidable. Suggestions were made that the technology could also be used to produce podcasts of key points and videos of demonstrations performed in lectures.

Key Attributes of Engagement in a Gamified Learning Environment

Penny de Byl — 2013-11-30

Successful computer games and effective educational environments share many similar key attributes relating to instruction, goals, feedback and interaction. Unfortunately, many educators find it difficult to implement strategies in their curriculum to compete with the engagement of computer games. The recent surge in the popularity of gamification may hold the key and provide a framework by which teachers can implement simple strategies to increase engagement in their classrooms. To contribute to this domain about the affordances of gamification in education, this paper argues that the key attributes of engagement are the same whether they are in an education or game setting. It also extends a previous study that revealed a five dimensional model of gamified curriculum factors and examines each with respect to student engagement. The conclusion is the amount of engagement in the gamified classroom is dependent on the individual student's playfulness and acceptance of innovative and dynamic pedagogies.

Applied learning in online spaces

Jillian Downing — 2013-11-30

The challenge to provide engaging, effective learning environments for university students is perhaps greater now than ever before. While the 'anytime, anywhere' online learning environment appeals, students also need a learning environment that encourages and retains their engagement. A new teacher-education program with an explicit focus on applied learning commenced at the University of Tasmania in 2011. The fully online course aims to provide an authentic, engaging environment for the students, who are primarily mature-aged, in-service teachers in TAFE colleges. This paper describes the applied learning design principles created to guide the course development and delivery, and the initial findings of a doctoral study being undertaken to examine their effectiveness. The research aims to provide a set of tested design principles to encourage and support an applied learning approach in online teacher-education courses, and more broadly in higher education.

Action-based Learning Assessment Method (ALAM) in Virtual Training Environments

Ali Fardinpour — 2013-11-30

Specialised and high priced simulators for surgical training, chemical labs, and flight training can provide real-world simulation in a safe and risk-free environment, but they are not accessible for the broader community due to costs for technology and availability of experts. Thus, training scenarios shifted to virtual worlds providing access for everyone interested in acquiring skills and knowledge at educational or professional institutions. Even in this context, we still expect a detailed formative feedback as would have been provided by a human trainer during the face to face process. Whilst the literature is focusing on goal-oriented assessment, it neglects the performed actions. In this paper, we present the Action-based Learning Assessment Method (ALAM) that analyses the action-sequences of the learners according to reference solutions by experts and automated formative feedback.

Virtual worlds in Australian and New Zealand higher education

Sue Gregory — 2013-11-30

3D virtual reality, including the current generation of multi-user virtual worlds, has had a long history of use in education and training, and it experienced a surge of renewed interest with the advent of Second Life in 2003. What followed shortly after were several years marked by considerable hype around the use of virtual worlds for teaching, learning and research in higher education. For the moment, uptake of the technology seems to have plateaued, with academics either maintaining the status quo and continuing to use virtual worlds as they have previously done or choosing to opt out altogether. This paper presents a brief review of the use of virtual worlds in the Australian and New Zealand higher education sector in the past and reports on its use in the sector at the present time, based on input from members of the Australian and New Zealand Virtual Worlds Working Group. It then adopts a forward-looking perspective amid the current climate of uncertainty, musing on future directions and offering suggestions for potential new applications in light of recent technological developments and innovations in the area.

Developing social media training resources for AusAID scholarship students

Paul Gruba — 2013-11-30

Potentially, effective social media use has a valuable role to play in addressing a number of concerns for newly arrived international students including feelings of isolation, access to information and participation in community. The aim of this paper is to report on a project to develop social media training resources for AusAID students from developing countries. The project was delivered as part of a six-week, 100-hour introductory academic preparation program. Using an action research approach, we conducted three stages of materials production, data gathering and self-reflection. In our overall analysis of the project, we identified resistance to participation, information overload and technological impediments as central barriers to full integration of social media training. We conclude with suggestions for improvement and research in the development and integration of social media training resources.

Accessible, reusable and participatory

John Hannon — 2013-11-30

How does a university get started with open educational resources (OER)? What institutional tensions and conflicts are likely to be brought into play during this process? The promise of OER for higher education offers more than unrestricted access to high quality knowledge, it implies open and transparent sharing and development of knowledge, that is, integrating the disparate parts of the university through the shared activities of open education practices (OEP). In this paper we investigate how a range of disparate participants organised to establish initial OEP processes in an Australian university in order to embed an open education agenda: setting up repositories and processes for open publishing of educational design, and negotiating agendas of marketing and openness. We attempt to identify the groundwork at the meso-level of the organisation in order to establish OEP; in other words, to identify what comes before any actual resources are produced or made available.

Arguing again for e-exams in high stakes examinations

Mathew Hillier — 2013-11-30

This paper presents the argument that e-exams are needed and long overdue for use in high stakes examinations in the tertiary sector. Evidence is drawn from the educational and higher education literature to establish that the environment is ripe for the adoption of e-exams. A set of requirements for a suitable approach to exams is established that takes into consideration the needs of students, the pedagogical concerns of academics, while being sustainable and scalable. An outline of the features such a system will need in order to meet these requirements is discussed, along with a program to implement and trial such a system at a large university.

Design and development of examples to support authentic professional learning

Elaine Huber — 2013-11-30

This paper presents the results of a second phase of an evaluation of a set of example units (online teaching spaces). These were developed using a participative design process during a University's transition to a new Learning Management System. The first phase considered how the products were consumed as learning objects, and raised questions as to whether further work on example units was worthwhile; this second phase considers the impact of the process of development itself. Using a Developmental Evaluation approach, the paper analyses the reflections of a sample of participating academics and educational design and development staff, captured in semi-structured interviews. Both groups' experiences indicate that the process of creating the example units netted significant benefits for their own professional learning and that of their colleagues, as well as for the wider change management program. The implications of these findings for institutional practices and future research are outlined.

Immersive Business Simulation Games

Andrej Jerman Blazic — 2013-11-30

Serious games have been demonstrated to provoke active learners' involvement through exploration, experimentation, competition and co-operation. As a part of serious games, business simulation games are considered as effective tools for the empowerment and mediation of business content learning. They act as serious games which contribute to learning through a simulation of real-life situations and business environments. The blending of designed simulation technology and content curricula offers participants (players, students) a risk-free opportunity to test out a range of relevant strategies to drive business results. By customizing computer-based business simulations, participants can integrate key strategic and financial priorities. This paper provides a brief review of business simulations that serve learning purposes. The first part presents a short introduction and description of business games and their evaluation properties, and the second part provides a brief evaluation and analysis of selected business simulation games.

Assessing Collaboration in a Web-based Constructivist Learning Environment

Fui Theng Leow — 2013-11-30

This paper focuses on studying the students' collaborative processes within a web-based learning environment. A constructivist web-based learning environment was designed using Jonassen's (1999) CLE model, and centered around a multimedia group project and the use of web 2.0 tools. The project was undertaken by students at INTI International University, Malaysia, and worked in a project group of 4 members. This study assesses students' perception, attitude change, language acts through the use of several data collection instruments, including questionnaires, open-ended questions, interview, and students' interaction records in web-based applications. Factor analysis was performed on quantitative data, whereas the framework of CMCL was used to investigate the qualitative data to identify the collaboration and communication through their communicative acts during project development process. Results showed that group collaboration provided peer support, increased their motivation and satisfaction, and more communication and interaction were stimulated in the learning process.

Gazing into the future of Sri Lankan Higher Education

Kulari Lokuge Dona — 2013-11-30

This paper reports on an investigation into capacity building processes in relation to e-learning resource development and delivery (RDD) in a Sri Lankan higher education institution. The capacity building was investigated in three main areas: strategic planning, institutional capacity building, and the resources acquisition processes. The project investigated the embedding of e-learning into the Sri Lanka Institute of Advanced Technological Education (SLIATE). Like many other higher education institutes SLIATE aspires to excel in providing quality teaching and learning facilities and quality learning experiences. The research project concentrated on the exploration of areas of capacity building within the academic community at SLIATE by identifying possible improvements to the management of e-learning RDD. The paper focuses on the findings in relation to the effectiveness of the capacity building process in e- learning resource development and delivery, and how this could assist SLIATE students with their learning.

Does the use of the TPACK model enhance digital pedagogies

Dorit Maor — 2013-11-30

This paper reflects on the use of the TPACK model in e-learning courses to enhance students' ability to use technology in their learning and later in their professions and to introduce the concept of digital pedagogies. To maximize students' learning, this model was disseminated in the design of the course, the learning activities and the assessment. The aim was to encourage students to become reflective learners and to create knowledge collaboratively. Different technological tools such as iPads, ePortfolio together with digital pedagogies were used to enhance the students' learning experience and obtain students' reflections and feedback on the unit. Digital pedagogies refer to teaching-learning approaches in which new technologies change the way we teach. From the thirty postgraduate students in the unit, there were different responses to digital pedagogies. Some felt it transformed their learning while others resisted and did not participate in the interactive spirit of the class.

Using the e-learning Maturity Model to Identify Good Practice in E-Learning

Stephen Marshall — 2013-11-30

E-learning is a complex endeavor which presents significant challenges as the scale and complexity of different technologies and pedagogical models grows. The e-learning Maturity Model is a quality framework aimed at helping educational institutions engage with this complexity both by understanding the state of their current organizational e-learning capability, but also by providing tools aimed at systematically improving that capability. The eMM framework includes an extensive body of information drawn from the literature but is also intended to help identify useful examples from different institutions so these can inform other organization seeking ideas for their own situation. This paper describes a number of such examples of good practice identified as part of an ongoing project applying the eMM to Australian universities, and signals the potential outcomes possible from a more complete sample in the future.

Keywords: e-learning maturity model, eMM, quality

An empirically-based, tutorial dialogue system

Jenny McDonald — 2013-11-30

This paper presents one possible approach to providing individualised and immediate feedback to students' written responses to short-answer questions. The classroom context for this study is a large first-year undergraduate health sciences course. The motivation for our approach is explained through a brief history of intelligent tutoring systems, the philosophical and educational positions which inspired their development and the practical and epistemological issues which have largely prevented their uptake in a higher education context . The design and implementation of a new empirically-based tutorial dialogue system is described along with the results of in-class evaluation of the new system with 578 student volunteers.

A window into lecturers' conversations

Negin Mirriahi — 2013-11-30

With the rapid rise in interest in open and online education and flexible learning initiatives across the higher education sector, senior administrators are establishing strategies and policies concerning technology-enabled learning. However, technology adoption and integration with pedagogical practice is complex and multi-dimensional with the socio-cultural nuances that impact acceptance often remaining undetected. Reporting on a subset of results from a larger investigation of factors influencing lecturers' technology adoption, in this paper the author reveals how the relational ties and technology-related conversations amongst lecturers stimulate the exchange of ideas. Understanding how lecturers learn about new technologies can help higher education leaders to provide the support mechanisms necessary to foster further knowledge sharing and eventual technology adoption by educators.

Mobile learning and professional development

Maxine Mitchell — 2013-11-30

Educators use social media to enrich student learning experiences in the classroom and use personal mobile devices to extend their workplace and productivity across time and space. As learning becomes more mobile, social and informal, the divide between spaces, places and digital devices is merging. Given the disruptive effect learning mobility is having on the foundations of education, knowledge, learning and academic work, this exploratory paper investigates the possible relationship between mobile learning and professional development as potential enablers (or barriers) to academic motivation and engagement in transforming their professional practice. This paper holds the central tenet of 'educators are learners', adopts an 'as-lived' experiences approach which looks at the ways people experience, in this case, mobile learning in natural settings, and is fundamentally concerned with contributing to the body of knowledge on the changing nature of the higher education teacher's academic work in the modern academy. The principal questions guiding this exploratory paper are 'What alternatives are there to current professional development methods that support educators in ways of learning about mobile learning to transform professional practice?' and 'Why are some academics naturally motivated to engage, share and actively participate in alternatives?'

Technology as a creative partner

Vickel Narayan — 2013-11-30

The value of technology in education is still discounted by many academics. In many instances where technology is considered for learning and teaching, it is done without any pedagogical reasoning or within traditional practices. This limits the role that technology could play in enhancing the learning experience and learning. While the intangible aspect of technology such as communication, collaboration, co-creation and sharing have the potential to significantly impact on student learning, the tangible affordances of technology made possible by 3D printers or Arduino cards can also play a critical role in student cognitive and creative development. Using Pedagogy 2.0 as a framework for the redesign of a first year computing course, this paper discusses the findings of how embedded use of mobile social media, Arduino and emerging 3D technologies, impacted on student and student learning within the proposed participatory design-based research (PDBR) approach. The paper reports on the implementation and findings from the first iteration of a two-iteration PDBR cycle.

The Learning Ecosystem

Leona Norris — 2013-11-30

This paper reflects our journey towards the dream of a seamlessly enhanced teaching and learning framework to support our academic excellence through VLEs. While we often seek to move forward and embrace the future of education, it is increasingly important to reflect on the importance of our present, both in terms of a stable base to build onto and as a rich source of lessons to be learnt. We therefore seek move away from repeating the mistakes of our past, taking a broader holistic perspective of the embedding of technology in education. Our model and practices draw on literature to build on analogy of a learning ecosystem, which then informs our first steps in a brave, new "recombinant" form.

Enhancement of scientific research and communication skills using assessment and ePortfolio in a third year Pathology course

Patsie Polly — 2013-11-30

While science students are often aware of their gain in scientific knowledge through their degree, the same cannot be said for their understanding of their development of generic skills. Often, such development is tacit, both for the students and the staff teaching them. ePortfolios have been used to address the important issue of professional skills building and career preparedness for undergraduate science students in several courses across two degree programs. This report focuses on a third year Pathology course, PATH3205 Molecular Basis of Inflammation and Infection, taken by students who typically focus on pathology at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia). The overall teaching, learning and assessment strategy requires the students to engage in the use of an ePortfolio as part of their reflective learning process in developing life-long and life- wide skills in research thinking and writing which underpin research-intensive activities. The Mahara ePortfolio application was made available via Moodle and linked explicitly to a series of assessment tasks associated with current research activities in pathology. The study documented the responses of students to the use of ePortfolios and related learning activities, through both the recording of acquired skills and emerging understanding of the student perceptions of themselves as professionals from a generic skills perspective. These skills are ultimately transferable into professional scientific careers. This study was designed to further inform the development of reflective practice, enhancement of generic skills and career awareness and readiness in a program-wide implementation in Medical Science and Advanced Science. Through that implementation we hope students will better understand their present and imagine their future.

Using Twitter in Higher Education

Sarah Prestridge — 2013-11-30

The use of the social networking tool Twitter was incorporated into a first year education studies course to support the Universities development of First Year students' academic culture, connectedness and resourcefulness. A hashtag was created using the course code where students were encouraged to paraphrase, question and provoke thinking during face to face and individual study time. Student tweets were analysed qualitatively using three types of interaction; learner- learner-instructor; leaner-content & learner-interface. The tweets offer insight into both the social and cognitive engagement of student during their first year of university study.

nDiVE

Torsten Reiners — 2013-11-30

One major element of supply chain management education is helping learners to grasp the complexity, the challenges, and the efficient management of the multiple dimensions in supply chains. Each decision made can 'ripple' through supply chains and have serious repercussions that may include causing millions of dollars in damage or triggering a chain of events that degrade the quality of life for people, society, or the environment. We can teach relevant theory and train learners for some situations that do not require immediate responses. However, we remain disadvantaged by the constraints of time and space; observation of a real supply chain is often unpractical, and lengthy times for transports exceeding any class duration. In this paper, we present the nDiVE project which creates a supply chain story to immerse learners, provide an authentic experience in a realistic environment, and apply traditional and advanced gamification mechanisms to engage and motivate learners.

Using online learning modules to fight against antibiotic resistance in Australia

Jorge Reyna — 2013-11-30

NPS MedicineWise and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) have launched a series of online learning modules designed to help combat antibiotic resistance in hospitals. The aim of the modules is to fill a previously unmet need for an online teaching resource on a common curriculum for hospitals and universities. The modules address specific areas where antibiotic use in hospitals needs improvement. Problem Based Learning has been used as pedagogical approach for the modules. Clinical scenarios are presented with a logical progression of tasks including clinical assessment and diagnosis, investigations, interpretation of results, and antibiotic selection. Expert advice and feedback has been incorporated at each step, helping to improve learning outcomes. Learners can access the modules at their own pace and revisit them upon completion. We report, for the first time, participants' perceptions of the antimicrobial modules as learning resource, usability issues, and possible areas of improvement.

OpenTab

Matthew Riddle — 2013-11-30

The OpenTab project investigated an open educational (OE) approach to developing course materials using tablet devices (iPads) to access Open Educational Resources (OERs). It explored the implications of applying an open approach to the development of materials for use in the faculty's new common first year core (CFYC) subjects. Conducted in parallel with a trial roll out of tablet devices in a core subject in the School of Business, the project revealed a range of issues that the project team intends to address as it continues to develop a model workflow for other subjects in the university.

Using technology to enable flipped classrooms whilst sustaining sound pedagogy

Michael Sankey — 2013-11-30

This paper initially provides an understanding of what constitutes a flipped classroom model. It then provides a series of four case studies that describe the application of some different flipped classroom approaches to university courses, largely mediated by the use of online learning technologies. It demonstrates that these flipped classrooms are informed by constructivist pedagogy and highlights the role university teachers can play in facilitating their students' engagement with learning. It also highlights that to be successful in this transition to a new mode of learning requires both a holistic institutional planning approach, one based within a coherent student learning journey model, and sustained development by a team of centralised support staff, including technology experts, librarians and learning designers. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications associated with adopting a flipped classroom approach.

Chemtunes

Mark Schier — 2013-11-30

Rote learning can be dull! Yet for students to be successful at higher levels of education, there is a large base set of knowledge or vocabulary that must be learned and recognised, despite the absence of any rhyme or reason in said knowledge. This is commonly true of many sciences and languages. Historically, such information has been learned by rote and drills - both quite effective techniques, but not very engaging. The current project investigates the production of musical parodies with lyrics attuned to the knowledge requirements of the student as a means of increasing accessibility, student interest and overall information retention. The success of this work-in-progress venture will be explored through student participation, feedback and results on related examination questions.

Turn on the book

Debborah Smith — 2013-11-30

Adoption of digital textbooks in higher education has been slower than was expected. This paper presents preliminary findings from a study conducted at a small Australian university looking into how lecturers use digital textbooks. The pilot research indicated that the slow uptake may be explained by academic perception; participants indicated a strong preference for printed books, particularly related to capacity for accessing content. This pointed to a definitional property in that they largely conceived of an eTextbook as a digital replica of a printed book. Not all lecturers were aware of enhanced digital textbooks, but generally agreed that it could be advantageous to have such content integrated into a central resource. Lecturers furthermore acknowledged the need to understand the affordances of educational technologies and their application to learning and teaching. Affordances theory is used to consider the knowledge required to effectively implement the full range of resources available in digital textbooks.

Exploring summative peer assessment during a hybrid undergraduate supply chain course using Moodle

Kenneth David Strang — 2013-11-30

The main hypothesis of this recent study was that student peer assessing could produce a fair grade in a hybrid undergraduate supply chain course. A key challenge was there were three long written assignments weighted at 90% of the course spread throughout 15 weeks (the final exam in week 16 was weighted at 10%). The secondary goal was to explore if Moodle could facilitate the online assessment of the three project management plans (PPs). A PP was approximately 25 single-spaced pages, based on a unique initiative for each of the 45 students, and it was evaluated against nine Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) standards as well as other course learning objectives. The PMBOK lectures were classroom-based, data collection was field- based for authentic experiential learning while the LMS was essential for material sharing and assignment management. Interrater reliability, correlation and pair-wise t-test estimates supported the hypotheses. Peer assessments were found to be reliable between students and consistent with the professor's evaluations. Moodle's workshop module was effective but there were two minor shortcomings: (1) reliabilities must be estimated manually, and (2) there was only one rudimentary algorithm in Moodle to calculate the student rater grade for peer assessment quality.

Caring dialogue

Jennie Swann — 2013-11-30

Online educators dream of facilitating interpersonal interactions equivalent to those in face-to-face classrooms as an important factor for promoting learning in online classes. Many current university students are comfortable with online networks as social spaces where they interact with family and friends, but they need help in making them effective as places of learning. A design research study found that the caring dimension of Lipman's (2003) community of inquiry was fundamental to supporting the critical and creative dialogues necessary for development of higher order thinking. It developed and refined an interactive website that may support online educators in realizing the dream of building relationships that more effectively support learning.

Innovation via a Thin LMS: A middleware alternative to the traditional learning management system.

Marc Wells — 2013-11-30

This case study describes how a middleware software solution, originally developed to enable course materials to be delivered to tablet devices, eventually replaced an incumbent 'monolithic' LMS at a Business School in the UK. This middleware solution is termed a 'Thin LMS' and consists primarily of software that integrates data and materials from other information systems hosted by the institution. The advantages and disadvantages of this approach are discussed and it is proposed that the Thin LMS approach offers a viable alternative to the monolithic LMS in certain institutional contexts.

Lecture Capture

Ben Williams — 2013-11-30

Technology to capture and retransmit lectures has been widely available for more than two decades. However, the widespread expectation that universities will record all lectures is not matched by systematic research and theory on lecture capture use. This paper provides a brief overview of research and reports a three-phase study of lecture video use and perceptions carried out with the staff and students of an undergraduate psychology program at a large suburban university. We found that some lecturers are concerned that mandatory lecture capture creates copyright problems and reduces their ability to provide their best teaching. There is also evidence that lecture capture decreases attendance and lowers grades for some students. However, our results indicate that for students enrolled in face-to-face units, the availability of captured lecture videos offers a valuable revision tool which is integrated into "traditional" study patterns rather than replacing them.