ASCILITE Publications

Age-related differences in ICT access and confidence among pre-service teachers

Peter R. Albion, Romina Jamieson-Proctor, Glenn Finger — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The Australian Government's Digital Education Revolution is directed at school education but, because teacher preparation is a significant factor in its success, there are implications for teacher education in Australian higher education. A national project, Teaching Teachers for the Future, has been funded to support change in teacher preparation programs based on the construct of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), which describes teachers' complex combination of knowledge of content, pedagogy, and technology. Knowledge of information and communication technology is a necessary, but not sufficient, foundation for TPACK. This paper presents data about ICT access and confidence reported by teacher education students in a regional university. Key findings included that teacher candidates had access to and confidence for using common forms of ICT but more limited access to and confidence for using less common forms, and that there were few significant differences in ICT access and confidence according to age.

An Investigation into the Learning Styles and Self- Regulated Learning Strategies for Computer Science Students

Ali Alharbi, David Paul, Frans Henskens, Michael Hannaford — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Student-centred educational paradigms place a high level of responsibility on learners to control and self-regulate their personal learning processes. In these new educational paradigms, it is essential to understand students' preferences and the self-regulated learning strategies they use in order to enhance the learning process. This paper examines the different learning styles and self- regulated learning strategies used by students in a core computer science course. An Index of Learning Styles and a Self-Regulated Learning Strategies Questionnaire were administered to second year students studying programming languages concepts and paradigms. Results show that aspects of students' preferred learning styles had a significant impact on academic performance in the midterm examination. Further, consideration of the self-regulated learning strategies used by students provides evidence that metacognitive strategies were the least popular strategies among students. This suggests that students are not aware of important self-regulated learning strategies and may benefit from educational interventions focusing on these strategies. These results have implications for future teaching of the course, and are being used to guide the development of an online collaborative learning objects repository that aims to improve self-directed student learning.

The potential role of collaborative learning in enhancing e-learning systems

Salem Alkhalaf, Jeremy Nguyen, Anne Nguyen, Steve Drew — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Despite the considerable potential for e-learning to help bring about improved learning outcomes, particularly for female students and students who need to rely on distance learning, feedback from current users of e-learning systems in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) suggests a relatively low level of satisfaction. This study adopts a mixed-methods approach to investigate the underlying reasons for this situation. The results indicate that students are not unhappy with the information technology infrastructure or with other technical aspects. However, many students report a low level of interaction between them and their fellow students. When such interactions do occur, an overwhelming majority of students indicate that they find such interactions. Together, these findings suggest that greater student interaction, which could be fostered through the use of collaborative learning, is likely to be both popular with students and beneficial to their learning outcomes.

The creative graduate

Belinda Allen, Kathryn Coleman — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Changing demands for graduate capabilities lead to changing directions for undergraduate assessment. 'Creativity' is a widely promoted graduate capability that relates to many others, such as independent learning and innovative problem-solving. Assessment practices need to become more focused on the evaluation of generic capabilities, additional to assessment of discipline- specific knowledge. This has implications for the content, design and modes of assessment. Assessment as learning promotes an approach in which the learning activity and assessment task are one and the same, and authentic assessment design incorporating group work, problem-based, online and portfolio assessment enable the development of generic capabilities to be embedded in the discipline. The paper explores creativity as a graduate capability, the creative potential of digital media, and how changing directions in assessment practice could support the assessment of creativity, with a focus on using eportfolios in assessment.

Affective Encounters and Spatial Engagements

Reem Al-Mahmood — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

How do students engage in e-learning environments? What are the affective encounters and spatial engagements of students in these environments? These questions are considered by viewing affectivity and spatial engagements in terms of hybridity of the subject-object (human- material) embrace to consider not only people but also the vitality of objects and their materiality. Two poststructuralist transdisciplinary practice-focused frameworks are used: 1) the material semiotic lens of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (Latour, 2005; Law, 2008a, 2008b) which accents material agency, and 2) Non-Representational Theory (Thrift 2008) which draws on Deleuzean notions (Deleuze & Guattari 1988) to consider affectivity as "charged" (Navaro-Yashin, 2009) intensities. This paper draws on student data from a larger ethnographic study of four fully online postgraduate subjects at an Australian university to trace participant e-learning experiences. By exploring the salience of student affective encounters and spatial engagements through three contrasting vignettes, I open up questions to address 'pedagogies of desire' (Zembylas, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c) to explore how subjectivities and desires are (per)formed in a 'more than human way' and how places of (e-)learning are "affectively charged" (Leander, Phillips & Taylor, 2010, p. 336, original emphasis). These insights can open up new ways to (re)think e-learning design and pedagogy, in theory and in practice.

ICT-assisted multi-campus teaching

Alan Anderson, Elizabeth Date-Huxtable — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Given the range of ICT-assisted delivery options available today, the uninitiated might assume that teaching across multiple campuses no longer presents any significant challenges. Further, it could be argued that terms such as multi-campus and distance teaching have less relevance now that ICT enables flexible learning beyond the time and spatial confines of the physical campus. In fact, research literature indicates that multi-campus teaching continues to present some unique pedagogical, technical, learning support and administrative challenges. Based on a search of Australian University Web sites, this paper examines principles, practices and challenges for ICT- assisted teaching and learning at multi-campus institutions, at the same time noting a lack of comprehensive online resources that address ICT-assisted multi-campus teaching as a distinct category of flexible learning.

The iLessonPlan

Alages Andre — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Learning technologies increasingly play a key role in enhancing teaching, learning and assessment. However, it is common practice for English Language trainee teachers to use hard and or soft copies of sample lesson plans presented in a table or list format in the classroom and for feedback. This is the conventional approach used to plan lessons. This approach compounds the complex and complicated process involved in planning ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) lessons. Also the approach does not take advantage of new learning theories and new learning technologies. This paper reports the findings of an ongoing project where a lesson planning tool was designed and developed to replace the conventional approach. This tool, the iLessonPlan, is a prototype interactive online lesson planning tool. In this paper, the design of the iLessonPlan is described, a prototype version is demonstrated and feedback on the use of the tool is presented.

Collaboration, community, identity

Martin Andrew, Josie Arnold — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper presents a narrative enquiry of the use of learning technologies and communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) in creating and delivering the online Master of Arts (Writing) at Swinburne University of Technology. We consider the research question of how we have come to understand and practice elements of a social constructivist pedagogy involving engaged, learner- centred peer and community support both as a creative team and as e-moderators. We consider, too, that our pedagogy is informed by poststructural understandings of learner identities as invested and unfixed (Weedon, 1997). This study utilizes the self as data by drawing on narratives of course developers and lecturers collaborating to create unique materials. While our methodology utilises elements of autoethonography (Chang, 2008), it also involves analyzing themes and narrative configurations in stories (Polkinghorne, 1995), specifically those of tutors and students. Our narrative exemplifies and proposes strategies for writing e-curriculum for web 2.0; for scaffolding e-learning, and for creating and maintaining communities of invested, engaged learners. Simultaneously we add nuances to the scholarly conversation about e-learning communities, e-curriculum development and subjective academic narrative methodology.

Changing student learning preferences

Trish Andrews, Belinda Tynan — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Learner preferences appear to be changing and there is some evidence that students are seeking a different kind of learning experience than currently commonly available. This paper provides a brief discussion of changing student learning preferences and suggests that these are being driven by the accessibility and characteristics of available and emerging technologies, rather than by technological determinism. The paper also suggests that, in many ways, the majority of higher education institutions are ill-prepared for these changes and that a gap is emerging between student expectations and student experience. It is proposed that students are looking for more connected and mobile learning opportunities and that 'loose networks' are playing an increasingly important role in supporting learning. The paper discusses the implications these changes have for institutions and suggests that while universities face challenges they also have choices.

iWant does not equal iWill

Jeffrey Brand, Shelley Kinash, Trishita Mathew, Ron Kordyban — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This research tested the efficacy of a blended learning iteration with iPad tablet computers, an e- textbook and Blackboard's Mobile Learn application connected with a learning management system (LMS). Mobile learning was embedded into the pedagogical design of an undergraduate subject run in two semesters with 135 students. Using design-based research (DBR), an empirical investigation examined four variables including: iPad use; mobile technology use; attitude, including the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) scale; and academic performance. Quantitative analysis with PASW Statistics included descriptive, scaling, correlations, partial correlations and ANCOVAs. Results suggested that students were positive about mobile learning, but were unconvinced that it made a difference to their learning. Performance variables demonstrated that age and self-managed learning attitudes were important covariates with academic success, and mobile learning per se was important but not independent from curriculum design and student engagement.

Engaging in online postgraduate education as means of professional learning

Tania Broadley — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

With enrolments in higher education becoming a competitive market, through the removal of caps in 2012, the equitable access to postgraduate education is raised. Postgraduate education, provided through higher education institutions, is an important aspect of career development for professionals. Professionals working outside of the metropolitan area are increasingly seeking postgraduate education opportunities that will be delivered online, at a distance. In this research study, data collected from the teaching profession, has culminated in a model that will ultimately improve access to professional learning. This research paper aims to highlight the important role that higher education providers play in the delivery of postgraduate education to professionals working in regional and remote areas of Australia. Although this paper focuses on the realm of education, the model of connectedness, where synchronous and asynchronous technologies are used, can be adapted and applied to any profession that requires equitable access to professional learning.

Contextual Course Design with Omnispective Analysis and Reasoning

Srinivas Chemboli, Clive Boughton — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

In this paper, we present a novel approach to contextualize course design by the application of the Omnispective Analysis and Reasoning (OAR) framework to map the goals and intent of a course to its design and delivery. Effective design and delivery of courses requires alignment between planned learning activities and learning outcomes. However, it is generally not trivial to translate learning outcomes into course design, particularly so when using a Learning Management System (LMS). This is further compounded by the differences between the language of teaching theory and that used by the LMS. Thus, there is a need to effectively capture the rationale for design decisions in a course and map them to desired outcomes. We illustrate the application of the OAR framework with a process for translating a learning objective into course design using the Moodle LMS.

mLearning

Thomas Cochrane — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper explores the state of play of mlearning in education. Mlearning bridges pedagogically designed learning contexts, enables learner generated contexts, and content, while providing personalization and ubiquitous social connectedness. The researcher makes a case for the impact of mlearning to act as a catalyst for transforming pedagogy informed by the implementation of over 30 mlearning projects, and reflects upon example implementations of mlearning within a variety of contexts.

Scholarship, leadership and technology

Linda Creanor — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This case study describes how one university is addressing the challenge of embedding evidence- based practice in learning, teaching and technology by building on the concept of distributive leadership. Following its launch in 2008, the Caledonian Scholars and Associates initiative has firmly established itself as a key aspect of continuing professional development for learning and teaching within the institution, with technology playing a central role. The paper outlines how the initiative has benefitted from the experiences and findings of national and international developments and adapted them to the local context by supporting, encouraging and acknowledging evidence-based practice across the curriculum. It provides an overview of evaluation findings and concludes by outlining future plans to ensure sustainability.

Institutional support for and barriers to the use of 3D immersive virtual worlds in higher education

Barney Dalgarno, Mark J.W. Lee, Lauren Carlson, Sue Gregory, Belinda Tynan — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Anecdotal evidence suggests that despite recognising the potential benefits of 3D immersive virtual worlds for learning and teaching, many academic staff have chosen not to adopt them, due in large part to the complex array of technical and policy hurdles that must be negotiated in order to make use of such resources within higher education institutions. This paper presents selected results from the questionnaire phase of an Australia and New Zealand-wide scoping study of the use of 3D immersive virtual worlds in higher education. The particular focus in the paper is on findings from the questionnaire about support provided within institutions, technical and other barriers encountered by those considering adoption, and whether and how these were overcome.

Leveraging technology for engaging learning design

Ashwini K. Datt, Trudi J. Aspden — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Web 2.0 tools alone do not teach or result in effective or meaningful learning. A review of literature on evolving learning designs based on the tenets of Pedagogy 2.0 (Lee & McLoughlin, 2010) highlights four contributing elements of design for socio-constructivist learning environments: authenticity, motivation, scaffolding and skills development. This paper details an innovative learning design for the integration of technology to provide flexible access and encourage engagement while facilitating the development of knowledge management skills in an undergraduate course. A combination of technologies and strategies were used to encourage students to sufficiently engage in the assessment tasks. These were: course website for information provision, WebQuest for scaffolded instructions, wiki for collaboration and social bookmarking for sharing and reviewing references. The evaluation of the learning design was generally positive with students reporting increased 'tech savvyness'. However, a significant challenge was facilitation of equitable and synergistic group work which is central to socio- constructivist learning designs. Future iterations of the design will focus on this aspect in addition to encouraging student engagement with the Web 2.0 tools that were underutilized this time.

Learning new technology tools in pre-service teacher education

Shanti Divaharan — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The purpose of this qualitative study is to propose a model of instructional approach for pre-service teacher education in the area of learning a new technology tool. Through the instructional approach, it is hoped that pre-service teachers will become confident in integrating the technology tool which they have learnt, to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom. The study involved 30 Post-Graduate Diploma in Education (Physical Education) pre-service teachers and 59 Post-Graduate Diploma in Education (Secondary) pre-service teachers who were attending a core Information and Communication Technology (ICT) course in the year 2010. An instructional approach was designed for the implementation of video sports games for the 30 Physical Education (PE) pre-service teachers and for the implementation of Interactive White Board (IWB) for the 59 Post-Graduate Diploma in Education (Secondary) (PGDE Sec) pre-service teachers. During the course, the pre-service teachers were introduced to Video Sports Games and Interactive White Boards through an instructional approach that comprised of self-paced team exploration of the tools, peer sharing and critique, team exploration of various lesson plans culminating in lesson ideas/plans designed as a team. Based on data collected through observations, reflections and artifacts submitted by the teams, this study proposes a refined instructional approach to be adopted at the pre-service teacher education level for effective learning of the technology tool. The findings revealed that immersion time with the tool, team learning, peer sharing and critique were significant components which enhanced the pre-service teachers' learning experience. The study explores the significant role of the tutor and pre-service teachers and proposes an enhancement of the current instructional approach.

Engaging training simulations for socially demanding roles

Andrew E. Fluck, Adam Fox — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Students in higher education preparing for socially demanding roles often encounter role play as a technique for mastering their future professions. Lawyers have 'moots' or scripted court sessions. Medical doctors attempt to diagnose the injuries or diseases simulated by actors. Some pre-service teachers undertake micro-teaching simulations with peers pretending to be pupils (not necessarily compliant ones). However, this is an inefficient use of learning time for the peers, and work is proceeding to develop virtual worlds in which such training can be conducted with simulated pupils. This paper describes the development of one such learning environment, and discusses the challenges to be met as this class of learning interactions becomes useful in teacher training.

Exploring the Use of Audio-Visual Feedback within 3D Virtual Environments to Provide Complex Sensory Cues for Scenario-Based Learning

Michael Garrett, Mark McMahon — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The continuous quest for ever increasing fidelity in 3D virtual worlds is running parallel to the emergence and adoption of low-cost technologies to implement such environments. In education and training, complex simulations can now be implemented on standard desktop technologies. However, such tools lack the means to represent multisensory data beyond audio-visual feedback. This paper reports on a study that involved the design, development and implementation of a 3D learning environment for underground mine evacuation. The requirements of the environment are discussed in terms of the sensory information that needs to be conveyed and techniques are described to achieve this using multiple modes of representation, appropriate levels of abstraction and synesthesia to make up for the lack of tactile and olfactory sensory cues. The study found that audio-visual cues that used such techniques were effective in communicating complex sensory information for novice miners.

Student perspectives of eportfolios

Philippa Gerbic, Lyn Lewis, Norasieh Md Amin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Universities are currently under pressure to provide evidence of graduate attributes and at the same time to improve learner engagement. Eportfolios and their associated pedagogies have the potential to support students' learning and development and to provide evidence of their progress against standards or attributes. Research reports about eportfolio introductions provide guidance on this new technology however student voices are underrepresented and most studies occur over a single course. This paper reports early data from a three-year longitudinal study of students in a Bachelor of Education. Survey results across four semesters, which included first-time users in each semester, indicated (1) increasing recognition of the eportfolio for learning in the areas of evaluation, reflection on the learning process, and keeping track of learning experiences and (2) decreasing concerns about using the technology and technology as a barrier. There were also a steady increase of enthusiasm and positive feelings and a decrease in feelings of uncertainty, confusion, anxiety and negativity.

The role of asynchronous discussion forums in the development of collaborative critical thinking

Nazanin Ghodrati, Paul Gruba — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Blended learning approaches often make use of asynchronous discussion forums (ADFs) to enhance face-to-face learning, collaboration and co-construction. One aspect of research for such online tools focuses on the development of critical thinking. But what, specifically, is the role of such technology in such efforts? Over a semester, we collected data through classroom observations, semi-structured interviews and online postings. In our cyclical thematic analyses, we identified virtual presence, timing, display presentation, and skill development as influential factors regarding the development of collaborative critical thinking. Students, nonetheless, were often very frustrated with the tool. Improvements to the actual use of the tool, combined with greater guidance, may yield stronger results.

A community approach to the development of widgets to support personalised learning for disabled students

Voula Gkatzidou, Elaine Pearson — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The rapid pace of change of the knowledge intensive era, supported by the emergence of Web2.0 and the consequential growth of personalised applications, has fuelled debate on the notion of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). The concept of personalisation, adaptability and accessibility is particularly pertinent in terms of creating a learning environment that meets the individual needs of disabled learners that cannot be met by standard approaches and could affect the student's ability to access learning at all. This has led us to explore the potential of the personalised development of learning applications to provide the choice of tools, applications or services to support the learning experience of disabled students. This paper examines a community approach to the design, development and evaluation of open source widgets, through a project funded as part of the JISC Distributed Learning Environments initiative: Widgets for Inclusive Distributed Environments (WIDE).

How are Australian higher education institutions contributing to change through innovative teaching and learning in virtual worlds?

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Over the past decade, teaching and learning in virtual worlds has been at the forefront of many higher education institutions around the world. The DEHub Virtual Worlds Working Group (VWWG) consisting of Australian and New Zealand higher education academics was formed in 2009. These educators are investigating the role that virtual worlds play in the future of education and actively changing the direction of their own teaching practice and curricula. 47 academics reporting on 28 Australian higher education institutions present an overview of how they have changed directions through the effective use of virtual worlds for diverse teaching and learning activities such as business scenarios and virtual excursions, role-play simulations, experimentation and language development. The case studies offer insights into the ways in which institutions are continuing to change directions in their teaching to meet changing demands for innovative teaching, learning and research in virtual worlds. This paper highlights the ways in which the authors are using virtual worlds to create opportunities for rich, immersive and authentic activities that would be difficult or not possible to achieve through more traditional approaches.

Changing directions through VirtualPREX

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Many pre-service teachers currently undertake their professional experience with insufficient knowledge and confidence to handle unexpected teaching situations. VirtualPREX explores the experiences of 72 pre-service teachers who undertook a teaching role-play in a virtual world. The researchers discuss this opportunity for pre-service teachers to utilise new methods and avenues in a virtual world to both supplement their learning and undertake preparation for practical experience. Participation by pre-service teachers in role-play enables them to test and develop a better range of professional skills and acquire confidence in, and more realistic awareness of, their skills before being placed in real-life classrooms. Presented in this paper are the findings from a pilot of this study and pre-service teacher reactions to the role-play activity including whether they felt that it was helpful in preparing them for their upcoming professional experience placement.

Sustaining elearning innovations

Cathy Gunn — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The challenges of turning funded projects from elearning innovations into sustainable products and services have featured in the higher education literature for more than forty years. Various guidelines and strategies designed to facilitate the process have been developed and tested. Key challenges are identified and critical success factors proposed. Yet the problem persists in more or less original form, suggesting that most of the advice has been lacking in some respect. This paper examines the current raft of ideas and proposed solutions to the problem of sustaining elearning innovations. Preliminary findings from sixteen case studies are presented to see how experience aligns with the guidelines. While the evidence from these cases is not universal, it is does support comment on the usefulness of existing guidelines and a proposal for an alternative approach to sustainable innovation based on this research.

Appropriating Online Social Networking (OSN) Activities for Higher Education

Suraya Hamid, Jenny Waycott, Shanton Chang, Sherah Kurnia — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Online social networking (OSN) activities are becoming more prevalent in higher education. The phenomenon can be observed in many higher learning institutions around the world. There are many ways of appropriating OSN for teaching and learning. OSN enables lecturers and students to publish and share knowledge quickly and easily. However there are also several challenges which include the limited skills in using social technologies among lecturers and students. This paper discusses the findings from two case studies conducted using an exploratory approach employing semi-structured interviews to gather lecturers' perspectives on their appropriation and use of OSN. The findings demonstrate a range of approaches used as well as the benefits and challenges faced by the lecturers in appropriating social technologies for teaching and learning. The finding can be used as a guide for other lecturers and educational designers to improve the use of OSN activities in higher education.

Bridging the Gap between OER Initiative Objectives and OER User Needs in Higher Education

Amal Hanna, Denise Wood — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The Open educational resources (OER) movement is a new phenomenon in the field of education. Increasing use of Web 2.0 technologies along with growing competition between educational institutions have accelerated interest in the potential of such 'open' educational resources. Some educational institutions have made their learning resources available online for learners for the purpose of encouraging knowledge sharing and improving effectiveness of teaching and learning. Furthermore, some community organisations are also hosting and supporting OERs. However, at least some reports from educational institutions indicate that the motivation behind this move to OERs might be driven more by a desire to enhance their reputation and attract new students to their programs, rather than the promotion of OERs. This paper presents the findings of a content analysis of a sample of OER websites undertaken to identify whether 'Net Gen' learner needs are adequately addressed by current OER initiatives. The findings suggest that although many educational institutions state that their OERs allow learners to share knowledge and extend critical thinking and interactivity, the OER community organisation sites reviewed appear to be offering learners greater opportunities for online interaction, critical thinking, and reflective learning practices than the formal educational institutions reviewed. The findings of the content analysis also suggest that OER initiatives do not necessarily meet learners/users' needs. The findings from this analysis are discussed and the implications for future uptake of OERs as a strategy for supporting widening access to education in response to the changing needs of learners are explored.

Should we teach an old game new tricks?

Mat Hardy, Sally Totman — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The Middle East Politics Simulation (MEPS) is a simulation of diplomacy and political tension in the Middle East. This online role-play exercise is aimed at providing students with an improved level of understanding of the political dimensions of the region. Having been run since 1993, the MEPS has not had any major updates to its platform in all those years. However, as such a mature online entity there is the question of whether the MEPS will continue to engage students as their expectations of what constitutes an online role-playing environment became steadily raised by their familiarity with more graphically immersive platforms. The reliance on social media tools for students and political figures to use as conduits for communication is also unrepresented in the MEPS and the subject of some student dissatisfaction in previous years. This research assesses student attitudes towards the MEPS with an eye to balancing the demands of technology, functionality, equity of experience, security and, most importantly, learning outcomes.

Is reflective writing an enigma?

Bronwyn Hegarty — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Documenting reflective practice would be easier if practitioners were in agreement about the meaning of reflection for practice. Even though evidence exists to support the links between reflection, professional learning and reflective practice, agreement about how to effectively facilitate the reflective process for deeper levels of reflection is not yet established. The reflective writing of postgraduate teacher education students was scaffolded using a Three-Step Reflective Framework. Written reflections were prepared for an electronic design portfolio and assessed by the subject lecturer. All participants demonstrated three levels of reflection in their writing, namely, Descriptive, Explanatory and Supported. There was a degree of critical reflection although this was not directly scaffolded by the framework. All participants found the Reflective Framework useful for assisting them to write reflectively, and the majority intended to carry on using it to assist in constructing a professional portfolio.

Using design principles to improve pedagogical practice and promote student engagement

Jan Herrington, Thomas C. Reeves — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Design principles are fundamental to the conduct of educational design research (or design-based research) studies, a research approach that is becoming more widely used in educational technology research and pedagogy. In this paper, we argue that design principles can be used to guide the design and development of learning environments in higher education that are based on sound practical and theoretical principles, and that can promote student engagement through innovative learning tasks. We review the use of design principles in educational research, and describe how these principles can be used to design and refine educational innovation and technology-based learning initiatives. The paper describes four phases of design-based research, together with examples of how existing principles can be analysed and used by teachers to inform the creation and dissemination of innovative solutions to educational problems.

Leading an evidence-based, multi-stakeholder approach to evaluating the implementation of a new online learning environment

Dale Holt, Stuart Palmer, Mary Dracup — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

An Australian institutional case study is presented on the evaluation approach being adopted for the implementation of a new online learning environment. Well conceived and inclusive evaluation is seen as essential for the quality management of online learning environments. The focus is on identifying and reconciling the informational needs of various stakeholder groups in the institution, and developing a plan of action covering the key period of implementation. The significant judgements required to carry out evaluation in a multi-campus environment cannot be under-estimated. This is particularly the case given the more recent move to devolving resources and responsibility for the successful implementation of the environment to faculties in the institution concerned. It calls for a more sophisticated conception and set of practices around distributed leadership, as aided by institutions' teaching and learning centres. A set of strategic recommendations are offered to help with the evaluation task.

Adoption of web and mobility technologies in a multicultural population of hospitality and leisure students

Claudette John, Ian Jenkins — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The aim of the research is to gather empirical evidence on the current use of Web 2.0 and mobile technology in the population of first semester international students. The evolution of usage over time is analyzed. A quantitative analysis, comparing the results at an institute of higher education in Switzerland with those of three Australian universities was performed. The results from the research demonstrate that on average, 2010 students use computers more than their Australian counterparts in 2006. Significantly fewer students in 2010 did not use Web 2.0 technologies and mobile devices compared to 2006, which is important for learning styles and delivery of blended learning practices. The results of the first stage of this research support the notion that this cohort of students uses Web 2.0 and mobile technologies to communicate and consume content.

Learning style and digital activity

Genevieve Marie Johnson, Tania Broadley — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

In order to understand student engagement in higher education through the use of digital technologies, it is necessary to appreciate the broader use of differing technologies. Forty-eight first-year university students completed an online survey that queried patterns of digital activity across home, school and community contexts and that included rating scale items that measured learning style (i.e., active-reflective, sensing-intuitive, visual-verbal, sequential-global). Results suggest that students vary widely in digital activities and that such variation is related to differences in learning style. For example, active learners were more likely than reflective learners to engage in digital activities in the community and users of some specific application, as opposed to non-users, were more likely to be verbal than visual learners. Implications for instructional applications of digital technology in higher education are presented.

Wins and hurdles

Jacqui Kelly, Kuki Singh, Judy Schrape — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Strategically aligning staff development to facilitate exploration and innovation in the application of learning technologies is a complex balancing act that integrates the influences of technological change, shifting institutional priorities and conditions, and uneven uptake among staff. In this paper we focus on (one aspect of) a multi pronged staff development strategy in a university context. As an evidence base, we draw on staff participation and evaluation data for an 18 month period to explore some of the factors that have contributed to how the professional development (PD) program has evolved in response to local conditions while deploying good practice guidelines. Quantitative and qualitative data from staff surveys are analysed to determine the impact and effectiveness of the program and to explore the factors that have influenced the evolution of the program.

Understanding the reasons academics use - and don't use - endorsed and unendorsed learning technologies

Gregor Kennedy, Deb Jones, Dianne Chambers, Jon Peacock — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Educational researchers have a longstanding interest in the reasons why academic staff use technologies in their teaching. The investigation presented in this paper considered drivers and barriers to the use of technology in a higher education context where it is increasingly possible for academics to not only rely on endorsed, university-based systems and tools, but also on unendorsed tools available 'outside' the university. The findings from this study showed that most staff were using a relatively standard, endorsed technology tool-set and, in most cases, there was limited use of external or emerging technologies and tools in learning and teaching. Five clear profiles of academic staff were established that represented diverse motivations for using or not using technologies in teaching. The implications of the results of this study are discussed in terms of staff training, support and professional development.

Using game-based inquiry learning to meet the changing directions of science education

Shannon Kennedy-Clark, Vilma Galstaun, Kate Anderson — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper presents the results of a study designed to develop pre-service teachers' skills and pedagogical understanding of how game-based learning can be used in a classroom. The study used a technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) conceptual model. 18 pre-service science teachers participated in the study that used Death in Rome, a point and click inquiry-based game to learn how to teach scientific inquiry. In the workshop the participants were required to complete several activities using game-based learning that included the evaluation of a range of online games and virtual worlds. Participants were required to complete pre-and post-tests. The results of the pre-and post-tests indicate that there was a significant shift in pre-service teachers' attitudes towards game-based learning as a result of the workshop. Overall, this study showed a positive change in attitudes towards game-based learning in science education.

Preserving our Past with Toys of the Future

Muqeem Khan, Penny de Byl — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper presents the initial outcomes of a key scoping study undertaken to explore the role of augmented reality and motion detecting technologies in the context of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) for museums related environments. Initial prototypes are in the form of an interactive infrared camera based application for children to engage with an Aboriginal puppet. This scoping study is unique, as it tries to combine two extremes: the curation of historical intangible artifacts and their preservation through digital intervention. Heritage related intangible content is always restricted because of its non-physical nature and can never be fully embed in an environment like museums and related exhibitions. This paper explores alternative opportunities for knowledge transfer of ICH content that manifest with playfulness in order to elicit a deeper understanding of such intangible cultural artifacts. This study is complementary to multiple disciplines including heritage preservation, museum technologies and emerging interaction design.

Modeling pre-service teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) perceptions

Joyce Hwee Ling Koh, Chai Ching Sing — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The TPACK framework comprises seven constructs that describe teachers' technology integration expertise. These TPACK constructs address a theoretical void in the area of educational technology and have been widely adopted by colleges of education for the planning of teacher technology integration courses. This study first describes Singapore pre-service teachers' TPACK perceptions with respect to these seven constructs. Using a stepwise regression model, this study then analyzes the relative impact of age, gender, and TPACK constructs on the TPACK perceptions of pre-service teachers. It was found that TPACK constructs had significant impact on pre-service teachers' TPACK perceptions whereas the demographic variables of age and gender were not signficant. Among the TPACK constructs, only technological pedagogical knowledge and technological content knowledge were found to be significant predictors of TPACK. The implications of these findings on the design of pre-service teacher ICT courses are discussed.

Using collaborative peer feedback and supervision to support doctoral research at a distance

Kwok-Wing Lai — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper documents a collaborative peer-support and supervision model with peers and supervisors provide critical feedback to doctoral thesis proposals within an online learning community in a New Zealand university. A content analysis was conducted on 26 online presentations from 10 EdD proposals to investigate the nature and types of feedback provided by a group of 10 students and 10 supervisors engaged in this collaborative learning and supervision process. Six students were also interviewed. Findings from this study show that the online feedback process was helpful in supporting revisions of thesis proposals, and was a valuable component of this new approach to thesis supervision.

Classroom communication on mobile phones

Shun Leung Lam, Kevin Wong, Joseph Mohan, Dongyan Xu, Paul Lam — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Thanks to the advancement in technology, web-based classroom response system is available in leveraging mobile phones to perform function in similar to that of traditional 'clickers. Mobile phones can be used to enrich communication in classroom. Teachers do not need to hand over the clicker devices to students anymore. Individual students can respond to teachers' questions right on their mobile devices. The paper reports two pilot cases in which teachers at two universities in Hong Kong adopted the web-based classroom response system. The primary objective of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of such practice in real classroom situation. However, the results have not been all promising. The success of web-based classroom response system was dependent on the possession of high-end mobile devices and skills to manoeuver these devices.

Negotiating the twin goals of student learning and teacher learning in a professional learning team

Judy Lai Har Lee, Seng-Chee Tan — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Student learning often forms the key focus of teachers. In professional learning teams (PLTs), teachers engage in collaboration and inquiry with the aim of improving their students' learning. However, teachers who take on the role of facilitating their fellow teachers' learning in PLTs need to simultaneously manage the goals of student learning as well as of teacher learning. This paper discusses issues that teachers face in negotiating the twin goals of student learning and teacher learning in the process of meeting the challenges of technology integration. It argues for a reconceptualisation of professional learning that hinges upon the design of learning tasks offered to teachers in a PLT to help them address issues related to student learning without losing focus of their own professional learning.

Working from the evidence of prior art and experience in curriculum database development

Tim Lever, Richard Gluga, Judy Kay — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

There are many potential benefits from systematic documentation of university degree curricula, including facilitation of curriculum review, accreditation reporting and better information for students, lecturers and administrators. The importance of such documentation and its growing complexity has motivated many attempts to create software systems to manage it more effectively. However, there has been little reported on the process of creating such systems and experience of using them. This paper describes the 10 year evolution of the CUSP curriculum database at the University of Sydney's Faculty of Engineering & TT, from a 200 unit, engineering- specific repository, to a multi-faculty platform for 169 degree pathways and over 2000 units of study. The paper contributes to the understanding of challenges of large scale curriculum modeling and curriculum information management and shares lessons learnt in building systems to support these processes and the people involved.

Riding the seismic waves

Julie Mackey, Des Breeze, Philippa Buckley, Nicki Dabner, Fiona Gilmore — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Blended learning plays an important role in many tertiary institutions but little has been written about the implementation of blended learning in times of adversity, natural disaster or crisis. This paper describes how, in the wake of the 22 February Canterbury earthquake, five teacher educators responded to crisis-driven changing demands and changing directions. Our narratives describe how blended learning provided students in initial teacher education programmes with some certainty and continuity during a time of civil emergency. The professional learning generated from our experiences provides valuable insights for designing and preparing for blended learning in times of crisis, as well as developing resilient blended learning programmes for the future.

Evaluating E-portfolios for university learning

Margot McNeill, Andrew Cram — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

E-portfolios provide a web-based space where students can demonstrate their development of expertise in a wide range of skills and knowledge, whether in discipline knowledge or graduate capabilities. However, it is yet to be demonstrated how readily these tools can be integrated within the university curriculum. This paper reports on the results of a pilot implementation of the Mahara e-portfolio tool in an Australian university, involving different curriculum contexts across two semesters. Students in the participating units were surveyed on their perspectives about the usability of the e-portfolio tool, the support provided and its effectiveness for their learning. The results suggest that, like all successful curriculum innovations, e-portfolios need to be integrated into the learning and teaching process and students need to understand the benefits as part of successfully engaging with the tools. Amongst the implications is the question of whether the currently available e-portfolio tools are sufficiently sophisticated to integrate seamlessly with existing LMS platforms to meet the changing demands of higher education.

The surprising truth about how metaphor motivates e- learners

Lynette Nagel, Seugnet Blignaut, Johannes Cronjé — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Motivation and engagement is hard to maintain in e-learning. Metaphor entertains and motivates participants in virtual environments. After teaching and researching several courses designed around metaphors, we examined its effect on intrinsic motivation in a course based on a virtual soccer tournament. Using a qualitative methodology to investigate students' use of metaphor in communications, the Cognitive Evaluation Theory (Deci, Koestner, & Ryan, 2001) served as framework to analyse the relationship between the metaphor and intrinsic motivation. We found that there was more copious use of metaphor in the online social discussions, and that it was used for targets of immediate importance and emotional value. Scarce metaphors in reflective journals mapped onto the learning experience. Social constructivist course design required engagement from students that supposed motivation. Unmotivated students were passive, and disrupted the activities of others. Disengaged students can erode motivation of others who become helpless, lose autonomy and feel incompetent.

Learner-generated content as a pedagogical change agent

Vickel Narayan — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

While the affordance of Web 2.0 tools in enhancing learning and teaching is well documented, effective use of these tools still eludes most practitioners. New technologies are simply used to recreate the hierarchical structure present within the four walls of the classroom and that signifies power and control online. The apparent ease at which technology is able to situate itself with the old and contemporary pedagogical practices is perhaps its biggest weakness and hinders effective use in learning and teaching.

The paper reports on the findings from six projects where learner generated content was made explicit in course outcome. These projects where carried out between year 2010 and 2011 (some projects are still on-going) in the faculty of Technology and Built Environment (TBE) and Te Puna Ako at Unitec New Zealand and involved students and staff from various courses ranging from levels 2 to 7. An overview of the six projects and the Web 2.0 tools used in the courses is given and the implications of making learner generated content an explicit course outcome is discussed.

Equipping Lecturers for the iRevolution

James Oldfield, Thomas Cochrane — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

In this paper we explore several critical factors influencing educational technology adoption including teaching staff buy-in and the critical nature of lecturer professional development within educational technology adoption projects (Kukulska-Hulme & Pettit, 2007, 2008; Learning and Skills Network, 2009; Moser, 2007). The paper outlines and critiques the methods used to achieve this staff buy-in as the second phase of a larger longitudinal eLearning and mLearning participatory action research project (Cochrane, 2010). The overall project makes use of social constructivism as the underlying pedagogical theory driving and informing the changes taking place. A community of practice (COP) model (Wenger, 1998; Wenger, White, & Smith, 2009) has been developed as a means of guiding and supporting lecturers as they develop their eLearning skills together. Artifacts created through this process (boundary objects) were then used to bring the lurkers into the core group from legitimate peripheral participation into full participation within the project's supporting COP.

Academic analytics in a medical curriculum

Martin Olmos, Linda Corrin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The developing field of academic analytics seeks to turn data from educational systems into actionable intelligence for the improvement of teaching and learning. This paper reports on the implementation of analytics in a new medical school with an integrated curriculum and clinical focus. Analytics addressed two challenges in the curriculum: providing evidence of appropriate curriculum coverage and assessing student engagement and equity while on clinical placement. The paper describes the tools and approaches used, and it outlines the lessons learnt. These lessons include the risk of a simplistic use of visualisations, their potential to generate important questions, the value of a flexible approach to tool selection, the need for relevant skills, and the importance of keeping the audience central. Although there is much further potential for the school to realise, academic analytics have already been a critical enabler of educational excellence.

Working collaboratively in a group assignment using a Mediawiki for an architecture and construction management undergraduate unit

Linda Osman-Schlegel, Gail Fluker, Sin Tie Cheng — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper describes an architecture and construction management unit which implements Mediawiki in teaching and learning. The main objective of using the Mediawiki is to engage students to work collaboratively online in a group assignment. It also aims to further develop student information technology skills and thus enhance their learning experience. One of the learning objectives of the unit is to develop the ability to communicate the results of student research in construction technology using appropriate digital media from which Mediawiki was chosen. This paper outlines the challenges and issues faced in the implementation of Mediawiki as a collaborative tool in a group assignment of an architecture and construction management unit. It also discusses how academic staff and students were supported through the process of learning to use the Mediawiki. Finally, potential future directions of using Mediawiki in teaching and learning are explored based on students' comments and feedback.

An institutional study of the influence of 'onlineness' on student evaluation of teaching in a dual mode Australian university

Stuart Palmer — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Student evaluation of teaching (SET) is now commonplace in many universities internationally. The most common criticism of SET practices is that they are influenced by a number of non- teaching-related factors. More recently, there has been dramatic growth in online education internationally, but only limited research on the use of SET to evaluate online teaching. This paper presents a large-scale and detailed investigation, using the institutional SET data from an Australian university with a significant offering of wholly online units, and whose institutional SET instrument contains items relating to student perceptions of online technologies in teaching and learning. The relationship between educational technology and SET is not neutral. The mean ratings for the 'online' aspects of SET are influenced by factors in the wider teaching and learning environment, and the overall perception of teaching quality is influenced by whether a unit is offered in wholly online mode or not.

Tutor Accessibility Support Kit (TASK)

George Papadopoulos, Elaine Pearson, Steve Green — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Higher Education institutions around the world have seen a significant increase in the number of students with disabilities and it is evident that the needs of these students should be addressed. The use of accessible e-learning can be an enabling experience for disabled students, however, the development of inclusive e- resources in Higher Education is convoluted and poses significant challenges to educators, as developers of their own online materials, and to staff developers, who are responsible for the provision of on-going and valuable support to academics. This paper describes the results of an evaluation that explored the potential of TASK (Tutor Accessibility Support Kit) as a training and support tool for academics with little or no previous knowledge in developing accessible online learning materials, either as part of a Continuing Professional Development course or as an online standalone tool.

Learning analytics and study behaviour

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The analysis of student access to learning management systems and web-based lecture capture systems is a growing area of interest for teachers in higher education wishing to improve the student learning experience. The data trails left by students as they engage in these environments can be accessed and analysed for meaning. This paper describes a study conducted as part of a wider multi-university study into student study behaviour. It offers a detailed snapshot of four students whose access to Lectopia recordings were tracked and analysed, and who were subsequently interviewed to confirm or disconfirm assumptions made about their study methods from the analysis. The data revealed that a surface analysis using learning analytics was largely insufficient to determine student study characteristics, but qualitative data provided rich information to supplement the analysis. Suggestions are made for further research into how this emerging methodology can be further developed and strengthened.

Pedagogy and Learning Spaces in IT

Gabriella Pretto — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

In order to plan for the future, we need to understand the past and present better. There is a dearth of data on Information Technology (IT) teaching practice. This is an explorative study that documents and appraises current IT teaching practices, with a particular emphasis on the extent to which the layout of computer laboratories impact on teacher pedagogy. Recent discussion on learning spaces has focussed more on collaborative spaces or student hubs, without really addressing the needs of regular IT users - teachers and students. This paper will discuss the various challenges for IT teachers, and make suggestions for future improvements. This investigation is part of a larger study into the pedagogy of IT teachers, and how it is articulated through classroom practice. It is a qualitative enquiry that adopts a case study methodology triangulated by classroom observation, videotapes, teacher interviews and student questionnaires.

Leading change

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of South Australia (UniSA) have embarked on Federally-funded project to collaborate in the design, development and delivery of a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in engineering. The collaboration investigates new ways to bring together the strengths and discipline expertise of each institution to the students of both universities, utilising blended teaching and learning approaches. The collaboration brings much change - at the organisational level in the blending of programs, at the staff level in their approaches to teaching and at the students' level in their approaches and engagement with cross- institutional blended learning. This paper focuses on how change management principles were used to guide a systematic approach to engaging students into the learning culture associated with the Engineering Hubs and Spokes Project's theme - 'Advanced Collaboration for Excellence'.

Keywords: cross-institutional, engineering, blended, change, learning approaches, engagement

From face-to-face teaching to online teaching

Petrea Redmond — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper will share the experiences of two instructors as they moved from teaching in a face-to-face environment to blended teaching and then to online teaching. It will describe the four-year journey and shed light on the issues, perspectives and practices as the instructors reflected on the changes to their pedagogical practice and the resulting online student engagement. Data included three 1-hour interviews and an analysis of online discussion postings. The instructors reflected on their values, beliefs and assumptions about teaching and learning. As higher education has embraced online education as a way to reduce costs, increase flexibility, and enhance access to students it is important to gain an understanding of the perceptions of instructors moving into online teaching. This study found a change in the beliefs and teaching presence of the instructors from their initial resistance to online teaching to an approach which is mindful of the student experience and promotes a dialogical approach to online learning.

Equity in a digital world

Alison Reedy — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper reports on an action research project investigating whether the integration of computer-based homework with face-to-face delivery can enhance learning opportunities for 36 Indigenous adult learners enrolled in Certificate III in Spoken and Written English at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education in the Northern Territory. The impetus for the project was concern over learners' slow rate of progress through the course in the two years prior to the project. Four action research cycles were conducted during the 2008 academic year to investigate student levels of participation in, and responses to, computer-based homework. The findings show that the use of computer technology enhances opportunities for homework participation; however, these opportunities are mitigated by factors linked to three thematic areas: access to computer technology; lifestyle factors; and attitudes towards learning and homework.

Keywords: Indigenous, action research, English language, literacy, technology, engagement, equity

Mix and match

Carol Russell, John Paul Posada — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper describes how and why various technologies - mobile devices and web services combined with tools available in online learning management systems - are being used to support individual, team and situated learning in one university's engineering programs. The tools include mobile devices for peer marking, online peer review and marking tools, online tools to support team formation and collaboration and online tools for individual learning. Games and simulations are also being introduced. All of these are helping to develop the curricula in ways that enhance graduate attributes such as design problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork and communication skills, and in some cases they are also saving staff time. By mapping and analysing in technology use in relation to different theoretical perspectives on learning, we are able to suggest what might be the next steps in an integrated action research approach to developing the use of learning technologies.

Using Microblogging to facilitate Community of Inquiry

Sukunesan Sinnappan, Samar Zutshi — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The usage of Twitter as part of tertiary learning is growing and is increasingly a common scene. However, most institutions use Twitter for social information exchange rather than deep pedagogical use. Here we experiment with Twitter based on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) approach using two undergraduate cohorts from Australia and America. Both cohorts were asked to exchange messages and discuss on a given topic for three weeks via Twitter. Our findings show that all three types of presence from the CoI model, viz. cognitive, social and teaching, can be facilitated by the use of Twitter in teaching. This demonstration of the use of microblogging for pedagogical use is a significant contribution to the higher education literature since previous studies' findings are largely limited to aspects of social presence.

Determining higher education student attitudes towards engaging with online academic writing skills programs

Lou Siragusa — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The Learning Centre at Curtin University has recently released its academic writing skills programs in an online format which in 2010 had attracted over 3000 hits from students. In order to determine the effectiveness of these online programs and to predict when students are likely to engage with them, a questionnaire containing quantitative and qualitative items was added at the end of these online programs. The Theory of Planned Behaviour was used as a framework in order to determine students' attitudes and planned use of such online academic writing skills programs. The collected data revealed that, while students felt anxious with starting such programs, the instructional design process employed in the development of these resources made them intuitive, interesting and useful to the vast majority of participants. Circumstances in which students are likely to engage with such online programs in the future were also identified.

Engaging the online learner

Maria Spies — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The topic of high attrition rates in distance courses is well documented (Holder, 2007; Patterson & McFadden, 2009) and a lack of personal interaction and support are cited as contributing factors for student drop out (Carr, 2000; Street, 2010). New technologies provide opportunities to personalise the experience for students studying at a distance (Lee, Tan & Goh, 2004) and there is a growing body of research on the use and effectiveness of audio and video podcasts in higher education (Bolliger, Supanakorn & Boggs, 2010; Taylor & Clark, 2010). This study explores the effectiveness of audio podcasting as a tool to engage students studying by flexible delivery at a dual sector tertiary institution in Australia. Surveyed students reported that educators used the audio podcasts to announce weekly requirements, explain complex concepts, provide guidance about assessment and to add information related to the unit content. The study suggests that the use of audio podcasts may be effective as a way of personalising the learning experience for students studying off campus. Students reported that they felt more connected to the educator through listening to the podcasts and appreciated the variation in technology as a way of keeping their attention. The low cost and technical simplicity of recording and listening to audio podcasts suggests that it may be an accessible and cost effective method of engaging students studying at a distance.

Facilitating the ability of graduates to articulate their employability skills through the use of a 3D virtual learning environment

Frederick Stokes-Thompson, Denise Wood, Sheila Scutter — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

'Readiness' for employment is having the appropriate knowledge and practical skills for a particular job, as well as possession of the 'right' attributes for that job. A recent report on the recruiting preferences of Australian graduate employers (AAGE, 2011) revealed that the three most desired attributes in graduates are communication, team work and problem solving. This paper reports on the first stage of a three stage study exploring the potential of a 3D virtual learning environment (3DVLE) to aid graduates identify and articulate these 'employability skills' (Precision Consulting 2007). Using a qualitative approach, the purpose this stage was to seek primary stakeholder (students and university staff) feedback and input into the early design of three proposed learning scenarios in a 3DVLE. Student acceptance of the 3DVLE was positive, staff acceptance less so. Both students and staff provided valuable input into improving the look and use of the proposed scenarios.

Distributed leadership for integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in schools

Seng-Chee Tan, Ong Kian-Keong Aloysius — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This study investigated the distributed leadership practices and system differentiation strategy in technology integration among three Singapore schools. These schools have achieved different levels of technology-related outcomes and are embarking on ICT integration of different scale and complexity. Luhmann's (1995) system theory was adopted to characterise the leadership distribution and differentiation strategies among the schools. Our findings showed that one school adopted a top-down leadership approach while the other two schools demonstrated leadership distribution. These two schools differed in their organisational differentiation strategy: one adopted segmentation differentiation while the other demonstrated functional differentiation. These variations in leadership practices seemed to be associated with the scale and complexity of ICT integration in the schools. We offered a preliminary explanation for the plausible relationship that exists between the level of complexity of ICT integration and the type of system differentiation.

A Multivariate Survey Analysis

Abdellatif Tchantchane, Pauline Carolyne Fortes — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Teaching and learning in higher education has been influenced by the rapid rate of innovation in technology. We have experimented with the integration of technology in our foundation Statistics subject and measured students' performance relative to those taught statistics by the traditional teaching of the same subject: a total of 144 students of 30 different nationalities taught by the new methodology were surveyed at the end of the subject before the final examination.

Englishmen in New York

Sarah Thorneycroft — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

While the internet, culture and technology have been reshaping publishing and information media for years, academic publishing and scholarship still functions within a model that is effectively several hundred years old. It is time to start asking the hard questions about what it means to publish as an academic, how we engage with published research and how higher degree students engage with research publication.

While it is true that most journals now exist in an online format, the vast majority of these simply echo a print format in electronic form - the scholarly paper as a document has remained unquestioned, and persists despite often low levels of true readership. Yet, outside of academia, the definition of publishing is no longer limited to a 'container' of content. Text can exist in a contextual network and be framed by fluid, constantly changing content around it. Identified in this paper are issues in traditional publishing and some of the possibilities and considerations in breaking open the 'container' model to move into an open and dynamic online space. Central to this is the enabling of thesis and dissertation publication in alternative formats via the oScholar project.

Please note that this paper makes use of QR codes - a QR-enabled mobile device is recommended but not required when reading this paper.

A 2010 Snapshot of Educational Technology use by Teaching Staff of Charles Sturt University

Philip Uys, Barney Dalgarno, Lauren Carlson, Andrea Crampton, Jacquie Tinkler — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper presents a snapshot of Charles Sturt University teaching staff attitudes towards and usage of technologies for teaching and learning, drawing on an institution wide online questionnaire completed in 2010 by 246 teaching staff. One of the most interesting findings from this study is the high usage figures for many teaching technologies, including technologies which most would assume would still be used only by early adopters. The study also highlights technologies with relatively low current usage but very high desired usage, including plagiarism checking software for student use, and online assignment marking and return. The study also indicates that teaching staff have genuine educational reasons for choosing to use technologies in their teaching. The findings of this study make it further very clear that assumptions about staff or students' technology preferences, usage or proficiency based on age would be highly misguided. A key finding from this study is that teaching staff at Charles Sturt University are highly diverse in their attitudes towards and usage of technology and consequently, university initiatives need to cater effectively for different stages of technology adoption.

Equity

Julie Willems — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Educational equity is premised on the right of individuals to a higher education irrespective of their age, geographical location, gender, race, physical ability, or socio-economic background in order to improve their income generation and hence quality of life (Santiago et al., 2008). In the digital age, distance-, flexible-, mobile-, virtual- and e-learning are all being promoted as means by which disadvantaged learners from around the globe can access, participate in, and achieve the outcome of post-secondary qualifications. They are also promoted as the means by which staff can participate in commensurate employment irrespective of their personal circumstances. This paper examines equity as a key benchmark for both students and staff in an era of changing demands and changing directions in higher education. While grounded in the literature, the paper incorporates ethnographic (student voice) and autoethnographic (staff voice) exemplars to highlight ways that disadvantage is experienced in technologically-mediated education.

Facebook in higher education promotes social but not academic engagement

Lisa Wise, Jason Skues, Benedict Williams — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Although there is evidence that academically successful students are engaged with their studies, it has proved difficult to define student engagement clearly. Student engagement is commonly construed as having two dimensions, social and academic. The rapid adoption of social media and digital technologies has ensured increasing interest in using them for improving student engagement. This paper examines Facebook usage among a first year psychology student cohort and reports that although the majority of students (94%) had Facebook accounts and spent an average of one hour per day on Facebook, usage was found to be predominantly social. Personality factors influenced usage patterns, with more conscientious students tending to use Facebook less than less conscientious students. This paper argues that, rather than promoting social engagement in a way that might increase academic engagement, it appears that Facebook is more likely to operate as a distracting influence.

EBooks as teaching strategy

Kevin Wong, Ching Liong, Zhi-Xiu Lin, Michael Lower, Paul Lam — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Besides serving as tools for leisure-reading and self-learning, eBooks can be effective in the facilitation of teaching and learning. Teachers can proactively make use of eBooks to facilitate teaching and learning. The Mobile Learning Project at The Chinese University of Hong Kong was exploring the use of eBooks from teachers' perspective. This paper was about two cases in which teachers created the eBooks themselves rather than using commercially prepared materials. In one case, the eBooks became reference materials for students to freely refer to when they were in need of more information. In the second case the eBooks created were tightly integrated with curriculum such they were required weekly readings that matched the weekly topics of the course. Much care had also been paid to make the eBooks viewable on the majority of students' handheld devices. Surveys and download statistics of the eBooks were used for evaluation. The findings pointed us to both promises and challenges.

Global English Corner

Carolyn Woodley, Lisa Curran — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper reports on a pilot project undertaken by Victoria University (VU) with three partner universities in China (Sichuan University, Henan University and Liaoning University). The Global English Corner project uses online technologies to both encourage interactions between students in China and Melbourne and enhance the English language proficiency of international students for whom English is not a first language. The Global English Corner project also explores how technologies might achieve a greater comparability of the student experience on- and offshore in supporting the language development of international students. The Global English Corner pilot uses the online conferencing tool Elluminate together with a WordPress blog to conduct and support English conversations between business students in China and two student peers in Melbourne, Australia.

Blogging

Suriati Abas — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper documents how children embed multimodality in their journal entries using blogs. Multimodality is the combination of semiotic modes that may include spoken language(s), written language(s), static or moving images and music. Each of them generally offers opportunities for the construction of meaning. In this research, a case study approach was employed to gain an in-depth understanding of multimodality and meaning-making. The data is collected using classroom observations, textual analysis of similar journal topics posted by the participants, and informal interviews, or, online responses to the comments posted by the teacher, to the pupils in their entries which take the form of blog posts. Findings of this investigation suggest a need to redesign learning to allow everyone to cope with multimodality as a new form of literacy.

Virtual environment as a collaborative platform to enhance pupils' information literacy skills

Sivagouri Arunasalam — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The Internet has erased international boundaries allowing our young charges the potential to develop as global citizens. Research studies have given good insights on the role of information literacy on the effectiveness of learning. However, very little studies demonstrate an effective implementation of programmes in virtual learning environments. The paper highlights how Beacon Primary School, one of the futuristic schools in Singapore, has implemented its Tamil Language programmes in a virtual learning environment thus providing a collaborative platform for pupils to meet and discuss issues. P4 Tamil curriculum and lesson packages are designed to infuse Information Communications Technology (ICT) meaningfully and make virtual learning a reality. Information literacy had been weaved into the P4 Tamil language curriculum with online Web 2.0 software, wikispace, PBworkspace, as the platform for collaborative virtual learning environment. This paper presents how the virtual environment acts as a collaborative platform to enhance the pupil's information literacy skills.

Unpacking TPACK and students' approaches to learning

David Ashe, Shaista Bibi — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This conceptual paper considers how the TPACK (technological, pedagogical and content knowledge) framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) can be used to gain an understanding of technology use in teaching and learning. For technology to enhance traditional teaching and learning, TPACK itself may require a tighter definition. We consider the effects of incorporating technology on both teachers' knowledge and students' approaches to learning. The intention is to look deeper into the TPACK construct and to view it from an alternative theoretical perspective. diSessa (1988) proposed a 'knowledge in pieces' theoretical approach that enables a finer-grained scrutiny of knowledge. This theoretical perspective considers knowledge to consist of small elements or 'resources'. We propose that 'knowledge in pieces' may help provide a better, more nuanced understanding of both TPACK and how technology-driven contextual change can affect learning. We conclude by outlining some implications of this theoretical perspective for future empirical research.

The blending of blended learning

Debra Bath, John Bourke — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Along with the increasing emphasis placed on blended learning approaches in higher education, has come a need to engage and support staff in developing knowledge and skills for designing and managing blended learning curricula. This paper describes one strategy for such support: an elective course within an existing Graduate Certificate in Higher Education program. Staff have the opportunity to complete this course as part of a formal program of study or as a one-off professional development opportunity. The course specifically aims to support staff in developing an understanding of the philosophical and pedagogical underpinnings of blended learning design, as well as in gaining skills in designing curricula from a blended learning perspective using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for teaching, learning and assessment purposes. Itself designed in blended learning mode, this course attempts to embody good practice in blended learning, and here we present an initial evaluation of the course from this perspective.

Plug and play learning application integration using IMS Learning Tools Interoperability

Simon Booth, Susi Peacock, Stephen P. Vickers — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

A key barrier to providing learners with engaging learning experiences is the deployment of new, innovative technology. This requires collaborative effort between teachers, system administrators and application developers. The shared goal is to make it as easy as possible for learning applications to be used by learners; the shared challenge is achieving this in a cost effective manner. The IMS Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) specification provides new opportunities for addressing this issue and provides significant benefits to all three parties. Using LTI can provide developers and system administrators with a standard mechanism for integrating learning applications with existing systems (such as a virtual learning environment) and allow teachers greater freedom to select applications which best meet their pedagogic needs.

Uniting on-campus and distributed learners through media-rich synchronous tools

Matt Bower, Gregor E. Kennedy, Barney Dalgarno, Mark J.W. Lee — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Twenty-first century university students find it increasingly difficult to commit to regular face-to- face classes, yet real-time interaction and collaboration are often essential to achieving successful learning outcomes. This paper outlines the authors' plans for a cross-institutional project funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council aimed at identifying, characterising and evaluating technology-enhanced ways of bringing together on-campus and geographically dispersed students and engaging them in media-rich collaborative learning experiences. The project will focus on three synchronous technologies: desktop video conferencing, web conferencing and 3D virtual worlds. The paper first presents the rationale for the project, along with the main outcomes envisaged. The project's focus and methodology are then described, before concluding with a call for expressions of interest from members of the ascilite community wishing to join a network of practitioners and/or participate in case-study implementations that will be supported, monitored and evaluated as part of the project.

An investigation into the use of emerging technologies to transform teaching and learning across differently positioned higher education institutions in South Africa

Vivienne Bozalek — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper reports on a project which was initiated in 2011 and which aims to learn more about emerging technologies in higher education in South Africa and their potential impact on enhancing learning in an inequitable educational landscape. This newly developed research project includes a team of researchers across eight differently placed South African HEIs and one international NGO (see footnote 1 for researchers in the team and their institutional affiliations). The paper elaborates on emerging technologies, the South African context, provides an overview of the rationale for the project and describes the research design for the project.

A framework for evaluating online learning in an ecology of sustainable innovation

George Bradford, Ben Kehrwald, Stuart Dinmore — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

In this session, a conceptualized framework is presented to provide an organization a tool by which to self-evaluate their online learning initiative. The tool is a methodology that leverages Ellis and Goodyear's framework, as well as leverages activity theory (Cole & Engeström, 1993), and a new categorization of online learning as described by Norberg, Dziuban, and Moskal (2011). The methodology is presented in sufficient detail to permit application to most any online learning implementation. A case study will be forthcoming, as this framework will be initiated in 2012 at the University of South Australia.

Lights, camera, action

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper reports 'research in progress', which investigates the experiences of first-time distance learners with a strong phenomenological dimension. It takes place against a backdrop of challenges facing distance education in Australasia in which issues of recruitment, attrition (retention) and completion rates have come into sharp relief. This study will go beyond the current literature by producing a set of research-led deliverables that will enhance the supports and services available for first-time distance learners. The project is framed by an audit of initiatives designed to enhance the success of distance learners at two Australasian universities. The primary investigation gathered reflective video diaries from 20 first-time distance learners during Semester 2, 2011. The paper describes the methodological challenges of collecting learner stories through video and shares some of the preliminary qualitative data from this phase of the study.

Auditing education courses using the TPACK framework as a preliminary step to enhancing ICTs

Chris Campbell, Aspa Baroutsis — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The Teaching Teachers for the Future (TTF) project is a Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) project that involves all 39 Australian teacher education universities. This study uses the TPACK framework and focuses on future teachers to ensure they are afforded the best learning opportunities in an increasingly online world. Specifically, the project supports the ongoing development of information and communication technology (ICT) proficiency of graduate teachers across Australia by building the ICT capacity of teacher educators and through the development of appropriate resources. This paper focuses on the initial auditing and mapping of the electronic course profiles (unit outlines) that occurred at The University of Queensland's School of Education which in turn provided a basis for the specifics of the project. The initial findings of the mapping process indicate that generally, course coordinators under- represent the technology components in their courses.

Changing practice

Helen Carter, James Meek, Vanessa Warren — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

What are the key drivers to change in teaching practice as they relate to the use of a learning management system? Is one system inherently better than another or is it teacher experience that matters most? Are we expecting academic staff to become 'experts in educational technology' and taking the focus away from developing their discipline expertise? What role do educational designers play in facilitating change in practice? What role does the institution play in supporting change in practice? This paper is meant to provoke discussion around these questions and asks you to consider how this might relate to your own experience and circumstance.

Fostering institutional change through learning leadership

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper discusses the significance of a research project between Charles Sturt University (CSU) and Massey University (MU) which aims to build knowledge and understanding of the impact of distributive leadership approaches to transforming teaching and learning in relation to distance education. Authentic, situated approaches to change offer a powerful conduit for building "street level leadership", the sharing of knowledge, skills and information within and between schools and as a basis for whole-of-institution cultural change driven through practice. This research provides an opportunity for evaluation of authentic, situated approaches as a mechanism for institutional renewal of learning and teaching practices in relation to distance education (DE). Such a reorientation of practice affords CSU and MU a chance to increase the equity of student experience and engagement in learning through blended and flexible delivery.

Singapore student teachers' intentions and practices in integrating technology in their teaching

Doris Choy, Angela F. L. Wong, Seng Chee Tan — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The purpose of this study is to investigate the development of student teachers' intentions and practices in integrating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into teaching. Data was collected before and after the ICT course on their intentions to use ICT in future teaching, and after the two practicum school attachments to find out their practices in integrating ICT during their student teaching. The results showed that student teachers' intentions to integrate JCT were positive before and after the ICT course. There was a significant decrease in their practices to integrate ICT as an administrative tool and a student learning tool during the first practicum attachment. However, there were significant increases in their ICT practices during their second practicum attachment. The student teachers also reported positive overall attitude towards the use of ICT in teaching throughout their two-year teacher education programme.

Lecturer engagement in the use of interactive tools in learning management systems

Michael Christie, Ramon Jurado Garrote — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

In this paper the authors argue that although Higher Education researchers have been largely responsible for the creation of the Internet, university lecturers have been far less innovative and active in their use of this form of Information Communication Technology (ICT). To support our case we use our own research to show the manner and extent to which a Learning Management System (LMS) is used by a sample of teachers from an Engineering Department in Sweden. We also analyze the use of interactive LMS tools by lecturers who undertake staff development courses. The teachers in our two samples make very little use of online asynchronous discussions (OADs) either as teachers or as students. We use logic and the literature to explain this phenomenon and make some recommendations for improving the scholarly, innovative and pedagogical use of LMS in both staff development and mainstream university courses.

'Because I said so'

Valeri Chukhlomin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

At the SUNY Empire State College's Center for Distance Learning (CDL), the majority of students come from the State of New York, whereas international distance learners were historically a tiny fraction. This is currently being changed, with the ongoing rebranding of the College as New York's Open University. Seeking to enhance its curriculum to better accommodate international distance learners, CDL has engaged in the development of bridging bilingual/bicultural courses such as "International eLearning Skills for Russian Speaking Students". The course designed and taught by bilingual/bicultural professors helps students overcome linguistic, cultural, technological, and organizational barriers and adapt to the North American learning environment. In this paper, I will briefly describe the project, problems discovered and solutions found, including the use of scaffolding techniques, such as teaching- centred pedagogy.

The CAT amongst the pigeons

John Clayton, Richard Elliott — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Reflective-frameworks are designed to assist educators to critically reflect on their professional practice. In essence individuals make meaning from their professional experiences in relation to accepted best-practice. This paper will explore the use of a reflective-framework in open, flexible and networked learning. The development of a competency assessment tool ,the CAT, to help educators reflect on their current use of e-Learning applications and the pedagogy of their practice, is decribed. By working through the CAT individuals can identify areas of strength and examine areas requiring development. The result of this critical evaluation is the generation of personal learning plan (PLP) in the effective use of e-learning. How the reflective framework operates as an empowerment approach to professional development is explained in detail. This paper argues that the use of the CAT extends the repertoire of teaching skills, improves professional practice and ultimately enhances the learning environments of learners and teachers.

Nicola Building Virtual Tour

Meg Colasante — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Examining equity of learner experiences across delivery modes is a contemporary issue, particularly in comparing onshore and offshore or local and distance experiences. This paper begins the journey of reviewing equivalence of learning experience for local and distance students in a vocational course in a Property Services learning program, just as this case joins a larger multiple-case study examining equivalence. It focuses on the potential of a simulation in providing equivalent 'practical' experience of conducting a building inspection. A simulation designed to help achieve this, the Nicola Building Virtual Tour, was trialed in a small cohort in the Property Services program, and a survey harnessing learner opinion of this tool received largely positive feedback, but also provide some guidance in how to proceed.

Evaluation of alternative feedback mechanisms on student engagement with assessment feedback

Stephen Colbran — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This study examined students' perceptions of the usefulness of assessment feedback provided by ReMarksPDF and provides a summary of positive and negative aspects of different types of feedback annotations. Students randomly received one of 7 different combinations of feedback. 74.9% of students found ReMarksPDF feedback better than that they have received in the past and 73.2% of students agreed or strongly agreed that other units should adopt the ReMarksPDF system. Students found the mark tally table, assessment rubric, spider chart, spider chart (with average), colour coding and smileys to be significantly valuable feedback in that order of preference. Females gave higher ratings than males on all feedback types, except spider charts, which were equally highly rated by males. Respondents indicated that ReMarksPDF feedback was easy to read and understand and that it was beneficial to have comments appear in a side column note.

Going live

Roger Cook, Natasha Giardina — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper reports on a current initiative at Queensland University of Technology to provide timely, flexible and sustainable training and support to academic staff in blended learning and associated techno-pedagogies via a web-conferencing classroom and collaboration tool, Elluminate Live!. This technology was first introduced to QUT in 2008 as part of the university's ongoing commitment to meeting the learning needs of diverse student cohorts. The centralised Learning Design team, in collaboration with the university's department of eLearning Services, was given the task of providing training and support to academic staff in the effective use of the technology for teaching and learning, as part of the team's ongoing brief to support and enhance the provision of blended learning throughout the university. The resulting program, "Learning Design Live" (LDL) is informed by Rogers' theory of innovation and diffusion (2003) and structured according to Wilson's framework for faculty development (2007). This paper discusses the program's design and structure, considers the program's impact on academic capacity in blended learning within the institution, and reflects on future directions for the program and emerging insights into blended learning and participant engagement for both staff and students.

Exploring Medical Students' Use of Technology

Linda Corrin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are increasingly important in the delivery of medical education. Whilst the primary motivation for technology integration is to increase learning and teaching effectiveness, such decisions are sometimes based on assumptions of a high level of technological literacy of students entering higher education. Recent literature has challenged these assumptions instead presenting a more diverse picture of students' experience and skill with technology (Kennedy et. al., 2007, Oliver & Goerke, 2007; Margaryan, Littlejohn & Vojt, 2011). This paper presents the results of surveys conducted with new graduate medical students designed to measure access to and confidence with technology. This data has been used by the medical school to monitor the technological profile of each cohort of students in order to implement suitable support activities and to provide an empirical foundation to inform decisions around the implementation of new educational technologies in the curriculum.

Bridging the gap

Rachel Crease, Bob Pymm, Lyn Hay — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Following a review of the provision of courses in the School of Information Studies (SIS) program at Charles Sturt University, academics in the school worked with learning and teaching services to design and implement a variety of teaching and learning activities in the online environment in order to address the challenges of distance education (DE). These challenges included high student attrition, lack of motivation, a sense of isolation and a need for greater and improved communication. A new model of teaching was developed with subject provision now fully online, utilising a range of social networking software, with the aim of creating a more engaging and sustaining learning environment to help overcome the isolation often noted by DE students. This paper outlines the outcome of the course review and reports in particular on one aspect, the development of the SIS Learning Centre in Second Life, where students and teachers meet to engage in new and innovative learning and assessment activities designed specifically to encourage greater communication and connectivity between DE students.

Embedding an ePortfolio system at a programmatic level

Stuart Dinmore, Ben Kehrwald, George Bradford — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper outlines the ePortfolio implementation process at the University of South Australia. The eP system, powered by the open-source ePortfolio Mahara, is one element of an integrated suite of technology enhanced tools for teaching and learning at the University and will be available to all students and staff from the second half of 2011. This ePortfolio system has been chosen because of its flexibility and its capacity to be the venue for many complex tasks. We have sought to conduct the implementation of the eP, for teaching and learning purposes, at a programmatic level across the institution. We recognise that for a system like this to operate optimally it needs to be integrated within a program of study at every year level and that piecemeal approaches to using ePortfolios, while of some value, do not ultimately allow the full potential of portfolio learning styles to flourish. This paper reports on the work-in-progress of our ePortfolio implementation.

Grounding the curriculum

Sean Dolan — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This article argues that with the advent of online learning and the widespread use of discussion forums, there is an opportunity for faculty to encourage students to collaboratively reflect on their own teaching experience from their own unique viewpoints and contexts. Moreover, this shift towards active participation in online discussions has become essential to the student learning experience so that the full range of views and values from an increasingly diverse and non-traditional student base are shared and reflected. In this way it is suggested that traditional notions of curriculum as being defined and controlled by tertiary institutions are being transformed by the grounded experiences of student teacher practice.

Stop lecturing me, I want to learn

Richard Evans, Anne Matthew — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Re-evaluation of pedagogical practice is driving learning design at Queensland University of Technology. One objective of the design for learning is to support approaches to increase student engagement and attendance in physical and virtual learning spaces through opportunities for active and problem-based learning. This paper provides an overview and preliminary evaluation of the pilot of one of these initiatives, the Open Web Lecture (OWL), a new web-based student response application that seamlessly integrates a virtual learning environment within a physical learning space.

Recent developments in virtual worlds and their potential impact on their use in higher education

Helen Farley — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Educators have been quick to spot the affordances of virtual worlds (VWs) for authentic learning, distance education and for creating community among students. Though the affordances for many disciplines are obvious, there have been significant barriers to the widespread adoption of virtual worlds in the higher education sector. This paper examines some of the recent developments in VWs, user interfaces and company policy that may have a significant impact on the uptake of VWs. Some of these developments include simplification of user interfaces, increased options for VW hosting and changes in pricing policy. Future developments such as the advent of Microsoft's Kinect and the availability of VW apps for both Apple and Android devices are also considered.

Teacher engagement in a Web 2.0 world

Edward Flagg, Diana Ayling — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Recent developments in web-based tools have presented new opportunities for teachers and learners to engage in new ways, not only with their specific discipline, but also with themselves, with each other, and their learning. Online Communities of Practice (CoPs) serve not only as clearinghouses for what teachers already know about a discipline, but also as places where new knowledge and skills are developed. They can be a place where professional identities can be shared and grown as knowledge and skills are grown; they can provide space for ideas to be shared, considered, developed, and then used by all members of the CoP; and they are certainly a place where we are able to confront and develop the ways in which we learn. The researchers are two academic developers currently at Unitec Institute of Technology. In the Spring of 2009, the researchers, as technology stewards, created "The Teaching and Learning Community at Unitec' (T & L Community), an online CoP (http://tlcommunityunitec.ning.com/). The T&L Community is where teachers share and develop teaching and professional resources as well as announce events such as professional development opportunities, conferences, and other gatherings. Members participate in conversations through blog posts and comments, real-time chat and themed chat sessions. This new tool for engaging teachers with each other and their profession resonated with the early members and the CoP began to grow twice as fast as the technology stewards had anticipated. This paper explores the background, context and aims of the research, presents preliminary findings, and presents the methodology for further data collection. The paper draws early conclusions and implications about using online communities of practice in a teaching and learning environment.

The role of tutors in facilitating online student engagement

Lorraine Fleckhammer, Lisa Wise — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper discusses the role of the tutor in developing an online learning community to promote student engagement for large online cohorts. Information overload on the discussion boards was addressed by separating students into streams of 150 - 200 students promoting greater student and staff engagement. A new feedback strategy was introduced to streamline the assignment-marking process and this feedback process has proved to be more socially engaging than traditional feedback via comments embedded within student assignments. The new feedback model involves commentary on assignments, which becomes a "conversation" with the student rather than a series of comments embedded within assignments. In addition, easier access to comments allows greater opportunity for moderation of marks by tutoring teams and for "feedforward" for subsequent assignments. The importance of the level of engagement and commitment to teaching of the tutoring staff has been made apparent by the serendipitous changes to the tutoring role.

Using log data to investigate the impact of (a)synchronous learning tools on LMS interaction

Steven Greenland — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper presents exploratory examination of LMS log data from ten undergraduate business courses that differ in terms of learning activity design. Data were derived from the Unit Statistics and User Activity functions on Blackboard versions 8 and 9.1, which report the number of student hits across the various LMS applications. The research identifies obstacles encountered when using log data. Findings suggest that the design of learning activities has substantial impact upon levels of student interaction with the LMS. Furthermore the greater the amount of asynchronous learning activities, versus synchronous ones, may generate increased student interaction not just with the interactive applications but with the LMS overall. This outcome is particularly relevant given the correlation between LMS interaction and student results reported in other studies. The research confirms the potential of log data to inform online teaching practice, highlights some of challenges involved and outlines avenues for future research.

Students' engagement with technologies

Maree Gosper, Janne Malfroy, Jo McKenzie, Lynnae Rankine — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The inexorable pace of technological change demands frequent modernisation of learning technologies and services to ensure they support equitable and engaging learning environments. Because of the resources involved, costs incurred need to be carefully weighed up against the potential benefits that upgrades will bring to students and their learning. In order to provide an evidence-based approach to planning, three Australian universities have recently completed a multidimensional survey to gain a better understanding of students' experiences and expectations of technologies in everyday life and for study purposes. More than 10,000 students responded. Technologies surveyed included established (email, learning management systems) and the more recent Web2.0 technologies (YouTube, Facebook). This paper presents the initial findings and implications they have for the development of technology- rich environments that are equitable, engaging and support quality outcomes.

Implementing e-learning

John Hannon, David Hirst, Matthew Riddle — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The shift to an open source learning management system (LMS) raises questions for the integration of technology and pedagogy in an institutional approach to e-learning, and for strategies to build effective student learning through staff development. Implementation at La Trobe University involved the migration of over 1300 subjects to Moodle by the start of Semester 1, 2011. This paper describes this process as a migration story in which successful implementation is a necessary but not sufficient stage to achieving an effective e-learning strategy, in this case, one that meets particular pedagogical needs by embedding pedagogical choices that match the blended learning needs of a multicampus university. The risk is that implementation defaults to technology requirements, and is enacted in a way that pre-empts and sets the conditions for academic development in e-learning. This paper examines the ambiguity of "implementation" that arises from the separate goals of LMS configuration and pedagogical needs.

He ara hou ka tu mai

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The Virtual Worlds Working Group began with the DEHub research consortium in November 2009. In December 2010, New Zealand joined the VWWG. This paper highlights the current work of the NZ based members of the group and presents the work of 23 authors at 11 institutes of higher education in New Zealand. The scope of the work covered is diverse, and a number of platforms have been used. Virtual worlds enable educators to provide realistic simulations, engaging role-plays, immersive and genuine tasks, and social interaction that encourages group collaboration, and highlights the ability that virtual worlds have to transform both teaching and learning.

Let's talk

Mareena Ilyas, Oriel Kelly — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper describes the results of a pilot undertaken to find how suitable the Wimba virtual classroom option is in providing academic learning support from a central Learning Support Centre for English as Second Language (ESL) students not based on the main campus of the institution. With the increasing number of remote campuses being established there is a need to provide equitable learning support to remote students. While learners had positive perceptions of the virtual classroom's interactions as language learning tools, the pilot study highlighted some complications to the transition to virtual support. A number of lessons were learned and will be shared.

Re-engineering for Australia's engineering skill shortage

Patrick James, Diana Quinn, Brenton Dansie — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

To address Australia's engineering skills shortage, the University of South Australia has teamed with Open Universities Australia to create an online version of an approved Associate Degree in Engineering from 2012. This initiative involves large-scale pedagogical and technical staff development. Content is being modularised. Current lectures are being recorded and summarised for delivery using our new Moodle-based Personal learning environment. Asynchronous assessments and activities are being written and tested for individual and small group learning and community building. Simulations, visualisations and interactive experiments are being created and sourced to support practical skill development. Mahara ePortfolio systems are helping to engage students in reflection and support collaborative learning and career planning. Virtual classrooms provide regular synchronous Helpdesk consultations. The re-engineering process is creating a blend of traditional and cutting-edge learning experiences which is also re-energising our current face-to-face and regional teaching as well as satisfying the needs of a new cohort of students.

Integrating bioscience and clinical learning through technology

Terry Judd, Kristine Elliot, Geoff McColl — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Successfully integrating bioscience and clinical learning is a major challenge for designers of medical curricula. A new learning system being developed at the University of Melbourne will make it easier for medical students to locate, access and utilise bioscience and clinical learning resources to support both formal and informal learning activities. Backed by a comprehensive database of curriculum, bioscience and clinical resources, students will have immediate access to the best available bioscience and clinical resources via interactive activity and search-based interfaces. Student portfolios, based around new patient record and procedural log systems will be fully integrated within the system. Implementation will be supported by an extensive program of evaluation and research, with particular emphasis to be placed on student's selection and use of digital resources and the use of electronic health records to support clinical learning.

Changing spaces

Sophie Karanicolas, Ian Green, Craig Willis, Catherine Snelling — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Many leading innovators in higher education are seeking to change the nature and purpose of face-to-face (f2f) sessions, aiming to morph the traditional university lecture into something that is more interactive and student driven. Underpinning this changing lecture dynamic is a focus on the learning that students are required to achieve in order to be best prepared for, and thus gain maximum benefit from, the f2f session. This project team has been successfully carrying out a range of effective pre-lecture engagement activities (EPLE) through the use of learning technologies, with attested improvement in student outcomes and progression rates, across two different disciplines. Both student and teacher engagement has been enhanced through the development of 'interactive online learning modules' (TOLMs) in Oral Health that are completed prior to the scheduled f2f session, and 'crash courses' (CCs) in Civil Engineering that are conducted in class within the first 10 minutes of the f2f.

Learner experiences of online learning in a blended learning situation

Benjamin Kehrwald, Peter Rawlins, Mary Simpson — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper discusses a key finding of a recent study of learners' experiences of blended learning in a case involving multiple cohorts of students in a single degree program. The theme of differing experiences across learner cohorts is discussed. The presentation includes quantitative data drawn from student surveys. The findings and discussion highlight considerations for teaching academics, academic developers and program administrators related to the implementation of blended learning.

An evidence based approach to evaluation

Chris Kilham — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The Positive Partnerships is an Australian Government initiative that is designed to provide information and professional development for Australian parents, carers and school staff working with school aged students with autism, using a combination of face to face and online delivery. This paper investigates first, how the website can present research-based interventions in a field marked by "bad science, risky medicine and the search for a cure" (Offit, 2008). Second, the paper offers suggestions for website evaluation. Maintaining a clear focus on the purpose of the site, and judiciously selecting among readily available online evaluation tools, are central to success. Triangulation, representativeness, independence and other key safeguards can also shore up the validity of website appraisals. The paper concludes by describing nine different complementary ways that the Positive Partnerships website has been evaluated, and briefly sketches a sample of the findings. Suggestions for future research are provided.

Support and promotion of mobile learning strategies

Paul Lam, Morris Kwok, Kevin Wong — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The Mobile Learning Project at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) started in 2010 as an initiative to promote mobile learning (mLearning) among teachers at the university. The paper describes the strategies employed by the project in supporting the promotion of a range of mobile learning activities at the university, and reviews factors in relation to challenges and success.

The emergence of educational technologies in ethics education

Amanda B. Lees — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The Values Exchange decision making software offers a unique way to deliver ethics education to health care professionals. It does not attempt to objectify ethics nor does it use traditional ethics terminology. Reflecting a changing direction, it places emphasis on a student's existing knowledge, experience and ability to reason. This ability is seen as an inherent characteristic of all students but can remain latent if ethical decision-making is only valued if undertaken by ethics 'experts'. A case study, with five participants explored the ways in which the software facilitated users to think about ethical issues. The online environment created space that facilitated decision- making. Learning about oneself and others enabled users to arrive at new ways of seeing practice based issues, and new ways of seeing themselves. The findings from this small scale study suggest that the Values Exchange encourages thoughtful reflection that has the potential to manifest itself in benefits for both patient and practitioner.

A discussion of the factors affecting the implementation of one-to-one computing learning environment in a primary school

Siew Khiaw Lim, Lee Yong Tay, Cher Ping Lim — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This ethnographic case study describes and analyses the conditions that support the seamless integration of information communication technology (ICT) into the classroom with school initiated student one-to-one computer ownership program in a primary school. The findings suggest the importance of two factors: technological infrastructures and teachers' beliefs and practices. In addition, curriculum, school leadership and professional development also play less visible but supporting functions in the process of integrating ICT into the teaching and learning process.

An instructional design model for screencasting

Birgit Loch, Catherine McLoughlin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Students entering first year university mathematics courses in Australia often show gaps in their mathematical understanding and may not have the cognitive and metacognitive skills to cope with abstract thinking. Screencasts produced as learning support for these students have definite benefits as learners have flexibility in accessing the resources at their convenience, and they can watch step by step model explanations of concepts and operations. Nevertheless, the instructional format of most mathematical screencasts focuses on expert performance of, and commentary on a particular skill, and often neglects to consider the active engagement and participation of the learner. This article provides an overview of instructional design approaches to screencasts, and of self- regulated learning models. It then introduces a preliminary instructional design model building on self-regulated learning theory for the creation of screencasts, in order to foster and enhance students' cognitive and metacognitive skills in understanding complex mathematical concepts.

A perceptual training module for pilot instrument scans

Greg McLean, Lisa Wise, Benedict Williams — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The current generation of young people have grown up with digital technologies and this has led to widespread consideration of how to use these technologies for education and training. We are interested in the potential for developing game-like training modules for deployment on personal digital devices to allow trainee pilots to practise information extraction skills for a variety of different contexts. The current study is based on an instrument scanning perceptual training module reported by Kellman and Kaiser (1994). While we expect that novices will be able to easily learn the instrument scanning tasks, it is important to ascertain whether their performance reflects an increased understanding of the flying situation, or just a correct choice learned implicitly within the context of the specific experimental tasks. If the latter, the possibility of negative transfer of gaming strategies to real world performance requires further examination.

Reinventing the 21st century educator

Catherine McLoughlin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Learning for the professions has grown beyond mere consumption of knowledge and become a knowledge creation process. The new effective teacher must think more about process than content, enabling learners to operate in the digital world rather than learn a discrete body of facts. The paper will present the teaching and learning possibilities accompanying the social, participatory and collaborative tools that have emerged in the Web 2.0 era. For beginning teachers, competence in e-learning and the capacity to employ these tools to support lifelong professional learning is essential. As technologies continue to change, there is a now a stronger emphasis on teacher learning and that is proactive, experiential and mediated by digital tools. The complexity of teachers learning and teachers' knowledge is acknowledged and theorised, and evidence is presented that digital tools and their affordances can enable and support teacher learning in a number of productive ways.

Managing Large E-learning Development Initiatives

Mark McMahon — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper reports on a research consultancy undertaken for the Flexible Learning Framework in reviewing management processes undertaken as part of Series 13 of Flexible Learning Toolboxes. Toolboxes are e-learning products that cover multiple Units of Competency in National Training Packages. In the 13^th iteration of the project a number of initiatives were implemented designed to support the development of 7 Toolboxes. The research explores the role of documentation and communication processes and their impact on the development experiences of key stakeholders such as the designers, developers and managers of the products. Findings identified a number of important factors with regard to the use of design documentation and project management processes that are important to successful development as well as some recommendations for future iterations.

Developing critical perspectives in a media saturated world

Cathi McMullen — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper describes how digital video clips are being used to support the development of critical perspectives and greater awareness of the location of marketing practice in wider moral, social and political arenas. The context is an undergraduate marketing subject, Brand Management. Adobe CAPTIVATE 5.5 facilitates the combination of video clips sourced from YouTube along with music, images and educator voice-overs into integrated online learning resources for the subject. Discussion in this paper is limited to just one topic area for the subject, ethical issues in branding. To engage students to explore contested ethical issues a multimedia resource has as its focus the Australian Government's proposed legislation to mandate plain cigarette packaging. This illustration of the use of digital video clips highlights the significant potential for development of online marketing curriculum and meaningful learning in marketing, providing greater attention is paid to the pedagogy that underpins the use of digital videos.

Engagement at the Epicentre

Antoine Monti, Susan Tull, Alan Hoskin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Following the February 22nd, 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, Learning Advisors observed what happened to an institution forced to suddenly confront significant damage and loss of physical teaching space and infrastructure on only the second day of the teaching Semester. The university's struggle to restore and deliver its teaching programme and care for the welfare of staff and students, was a laboratory for observing lecturer interventions that contributed to maintaining student engagement and good pedagogy. This is a record of our observations from a case study sample of lecturers and their courses.

Benchmark yourself

Maria Northcote, Jack Seddon, Philip Brown — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Teachers need effective online teaching and course development skills to engage higher education students in meaningful, socially contextual, challenging and engaging learning experiences. To develop these skills, academic teaching staff typically attend professional learning activities, such as workshops to investigate online learning and strategies, engage in one-to-one consultations with online learning experts, and analyse practical exemplars. Online teacher/designers are often perplexed by the transitional conundrums between the modes of on-campus and online teaching, and grapple with how to endow online learning contexts with the same qualities of good on- campus learning contexts. Many online teachers and designers of online courses are self-taught whereas others rely on institutionally-provided courses, workshops and seminars to extend their online teaching skills. This paper reports on a utilisation-focused evaluation methodology (Patton, 1997) that was adopted to develop a self-reflection rubric tool to guide academic teaching staff in the evaluation of their own online teaching and course development skills.

Multidiscipline Multi technologies

Ian Olney — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper describes the current progress of a federally funded project that is attempting to provide a multidisciplinary approach to increasing the clinical training capacity of undergraduate health students. Students from five disciplines: physiotherapy; podiatry; psychology; medicine and nursing from the one Australian multi-campus university are being encouraged to undertake a small component of their clinical placement in local hospital settings that are supported by the project and state government health networks. Using an exploratory case study approach this paper reports on the early stages of the project and highlights some of the issues in dealing with the myriad of stakeholders and how various technologies are being used to connect with students and provide supports and spaces to reflect.

Changing minds and transforming professional development...virtually

Hazel Owen — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Imagine a professional learning and development (PLD) approach designed to dovetail with what educators are doing in their classrooms and online - PLD that is accessible 24/7. Rather than asking educators to add another focus to their busy lives, this approach would support their teaching in a way that could rapidly enhance their students' engagement and achievement. The Virtual PLD (VPLD) programme was trialled and evaluated in 2010 with 10 teachers from the tertiary, secondary and primary sectors, and is being piloted in 2011 with 20 teachers and principals. The findings from the 2010 in-depth evaluation have fed forward into the pilot, which in turn is providing opportunities to test the robustness of the existing model with a larger number and variety of participants. This paper will provide a description of the VPLD model, as well as an overview of some of the findings from the 2010 trial.

Engaging students in learning through online discussion

Martin L. Parisio — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This article draws on the findings of phenomenographic research into university teachers' conceptions of learning through online discussion. It was revealed that university teachers consider online discussion in their pedagogy to - a. provide time and access; b. engage learners; c. foster a community of learners; and d. enable higher-order cognition and learning. Widening participation in higher education reinforces the challenge for teachers to encourage learner engagement. This article explores the adoption of online discussion as a strategy to engage learners. It contributes to our understanding of how teachers' think about learning technologies, in particular, asynchronous online discussion and its affordances for learning. There are implications for university teachers, educational designers, academic developers, e-learning professionals and all those involved with the enhancement of student engagement, learning experiences and outcomes.

Reform, Quality Agendas and Professional Development

Catherine Pocknee, Julie Mulvany, Mark Schier — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Major policy reforms within Australian Higher Education coupled with important advances in e- learning technologies have created a highly stressful environment for teaching academics. Faculty learning and teaching leaders responsible for the delivery of professional development face demanding new challenges. The authors outline the relative success of strategies they have trialed, including those using new technologies, to assist staff with their learning and teaching practice. Although the use of new technologies to assist staff has resulted in some success, problems associated with the initiatives are identified. The assumption that the uncritical use of new technologies will necessarily provide the solution to the current dilemmas faced by teaching academics is questioned. The paper concludes with a discussion of new ways of thinking about professional development where a strong focus is placed on the prudent use of new technologies and where staff are given greater responsibility for their learning and teaching development.

The Personal Learning Space

Alison Poot, Lilian Austin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The Personal Learning Space, conceptually positioned between the Institutional and Personal Learning Environments, can be thought of as an 'eportfolio PLUS'. It is institutionally provided but personally controlled, providing a unique balance between direction and independence that encourages student engagement. Action research demonstrates that the scaffolding and templates, sharing and collaboration, formative and summative feedback, reflective structure, and privacy and security all enable engaging pedagogy in a manner previously not available to tertiary educators. This paper includes two examples from practice at La Trobe University that illustrate the opportunities the PLS is providing for both teachers and students.

That's what friends are for

Jenna Price — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Research has demonstrated that involvement in learning communities is important for student engagement and retention (Bailey and Alfonso 2005). This paper describes the use of Facebook to create an online community for first year students in a Journalism course that had recently increased in size and in terms of student diversity. A Facebook group was set up one month before the beginning of semester. New students were invited to join the group, which was supported by the subject coordinator and student peer mentors. Students participated throughout the semester and showed very high levels of peer interaction and engagement. The paper describes the outcomes for students, including a substantial improvement in student retention.

Collaborative Community Mentoring Program (C²MP)

Shirley Reushle — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The notion of mentoring is ancient. The original mentor was described by Homer as the "wise and trusted counsellor" who Odysseus left in charge of his household during his travels. In modern times, the concept of mentoring has found application in virtually every forum of learning. Greater use of communication technologies has provided significant opportunities for relationships to form and grow in digital environments and with the ease of linking dispersed individuals and groups using these technologies, opportunities for interaction and collaboration are extensive. This paper investigates the concept of collaborative mentoring in digital environments and explores strategies and technological tools for supporting and developing shared meaning and conducting rational discourse. The ascilite pilot Collaborative Community Mentoring Program (C²MP) is provided as an example. An early attempt at building a model for collaborative mentoring in digital environments is explored using an adaptation of a three-element Community of Practice framework, progress of the pilot mentoring program is reported and a process for evaluating the pilot is outlined.

Digital Teaching and Learning Ecosystem (DTLE)

Jorge Reyna — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Reviewing the literature on digital 'ecosystems' applied to computer science, a gap has been identified. This analogy has never been used to describe the complex interactions between student-interface, student-teacher, student-content and student-student. These interactions are crucial to gaining an in-depth understanding of online learning environments and to promoting effective e-learning practices. The aim of this research is to develop a theoretical framework to describe these interactions by using the DTLE model based on the 'ecosystem' approach. For educators the model will help to design, describe and evaluate current online learning practices. For learners, it will help to explain how teaching and learning occurs in their studies and will assist them to seek greater value from their learning experience. Additionally, the DTLE model will provide a practical methodology to rank online units in terms of design layout, navigability and accessibility, content, interactivity, assessment, and student engagement.

Authentic assessment in elearning

Arianne Jennifer Rourke, Kathryn S. Coleman — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper examines the notion of authentic assessment and the role elearning can play as a teaching and learning tool to provide 'real world relevance' to learning in higher education. This paper will firstly, argue that educators should consider aligning course assessment to real world relevance. Secondly, it will argue that social networking tools such as weblogs (blogs) can provide one means of achieving this goal when assessment is designed to encourage collaborative learning and reflective practice. The two teaching and learning exempla's discussed will apply the concept of the reflective practitioner to the practice of writing about the arts as an authentic assessment (Herrington, Reeves & Oliver, 2010) task that is relevant to student's future professions as art administrators. The first discusses how students' collaboratively write, edit and publish an online art journal 'Artwrite'*. The second discusses student's writing blog journals where they reflect about their art industry placements.

Blueprint For The Future

Judyth Sachs, Maree Gosper — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The issues around engagement, equity and evidence-based decisions posed for exploration at the conference play out at all levels within universities: individual academics working with students; faculties developing programs; and institutional level mechanisms designed to support learning and teaching. This paper takes an institutional level perspective to the issues through the development of a quality enhancement framework for learning technologies at Macquarie University. Developed over three years, the framework is based on a continuous cycle of evidence-based goal setting, planning, managing and reviewing within a governance structure which is representative of key stakeholders across the university. Enhancing the student experience, providing quality learning and teaching and developing sustainable infrastructure are key outcomes. The impetus for developing the framework and the key elements which promote engagement, accessibility and evidence-based practices will be discussed.

Adoption of Twitter in higher education

Nauman Saeed, Suku Sinnappan — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Twitter has experienced a tremendous growth since its inception and is considered as an effective and simple social medium for communication. Despite its huge uptake, less is known about the usage of Twitter as a learning tool especially within higher education. This study investigates the adoption of Twitter in an e-Commerce unit in an Australian higher education institution. Building on Twitter's inherent social features, an extension to Davis's original Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is devised by including intrinsic and extrinsic motivation behaviours as predictors of Twitter usage. The empirical evaluation does not provide support to the original TAM constructs of usefulness and ease-of-use but reveals enjoyment and social norms as the strongest predictors. The study implications suggest a mind-shift in the adoption of Web 2.0 tools as compared to that of traditional Web technologies, i.e., Web 2.0 is more about enjoyment and social presence and not merely about how useful or easy-to-use a technology is.

Equity in Group Work Methodologies

Simon Smith, Eleanor Peirce, Mario Ricci — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Collaboration is a necessary graduate attribute and is regarded as an effective way to increase learning and understanding. Technologies in education have vastly extended the opportunity for collaborative approaches to learning due to anywhere/anytime accessibility. However, whether in the virtual environment or in person, barriers to collaborative group work persist. To determine potential group work barriers, this exploratory study investigates student responses within an online environment that utilises a range of collaboration tools, together facilitating a student peer-reviewed group research project in first year human biology. Pre- and post-activity surveys were conducted and revealed persistent perceptions of inequity with regard to group work participation. However, the surveys also indicated that on an individual level there was broad agreement of benefits gained throughout the collaborative process. The results indicate that a major barrier to student engagement with collaboration relates to perceived performance of others, and not with perceived self-improvements experienced via the collaborative process.

Beyond the simple codes

Simon So — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

As mobile technologies become increasingly prominent in our daily lives, mobile tagging with QR (Quick Response) codes in the business sector is prevalently in many parts of the world. However, we believe the movement of using QR codes in education is still in its infancy. Apart from our own research in this area, this paper explores the possibilities beyond the simple use of the codes and offers some suggestions on how the technology can be used to its full potential.

Why should I use this?

Natalie Spence — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper reports an ethnographic study in which I investigated how students made sense of, and in their turn shaped, a social network site in intensive courses in film and media production. Broadly based on a sensemaking approach, the study aimed to reveal how students' expectations, strategies, 'knowledge gaps' and other perceptions of the situation and digital affordances shaped the use of a social networking space. Results showed that students brought expectations that were sometimes met and sometimes not. The paper suggests that while preserving students' freedom of choice, the institution should aim to clarify how online tools fit into the larger environment of learning and offer strategies in their use. Learning design should an ongoing process of students' and online designers' collaborative sensemaking.

A portrait of evaluation studies of learning technology innovations 2005-2010

Caroline Steel, Cathy Gunn — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Much effort has gone into the development of evaluation methods for learning technology. Yet the mantra remains the same; that studies fail to produce reliable evidence to answer important questions about the impact of technology on student learning and behaviour. The authors conducted a meta- analysis of 100 evaluation studies published in two leading learning technology journals from 2005 - 2010. A set of thirteen criteria to critique the articles was derived from the principles of educational design research. This paper discusses findings concerned with the extent to which studies are a) theoretically grounded, b) show evidence of impact on student learning and behaviour and c) potentially transferable to other higher education contexts. The findings resonate with comments in a recent report on Learning with Technology (ALT 2010) that 'research typically doesn't address the problem of building an ecology of learning, or treat integration of the innovation as a research issue' (p.5). The authors are keen to discuss ways to improve the quality of evaluation studies in learning technology for the future. Some recommendations are proposed to stimulate discussion and feedback.

Working together

Sandra Stewart, Carole Hunter — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Personal learning is a complex terrain for students to navigate, and one that transcends discipline and cohort boundaries. This paper reflects on the introduction of a forum to promote, encourage and support student engagement with PebblePad, an ePortfolio / personal learning system. The forum provides students with an informal network beyond their course/subject cohorts in which they can ask questions and discuss issues as they traverse the technical and conceptual complexities in what is for many a transformational learning approach. It has developed as a partnership between students and staff, emerging from a student suggestion, establishing itself under the leadership of staff with student support, but gradually undergoing a role reversal so that students now take the lead. Now nearing the end of its second year, the forum demonstrates how staff-student partnerships can benefit a range of stakeholders in the university community - from students to academics, and particularly to the mentors themselves.

One-to-one Computing

Miriam Tanti, Leanne Cameron — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

As a direct result of the Australian Government's Digital Education Revolution Program (DER), many of the school leavers soon to enter the Higher Education sector will be accustomed to a one-to-one student laptop learning environment. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to assume that these students will expect a similar environment when they enter university. Training pre-service teachers to use the one-to-one ratio effectively in the classroom is also critical to their capability in implementing requirements expected of them in the classroom in the 21^st century. It is within this context that this research is set. The authors report on a pilot project that aims to capitalize on the one-to-one student experience by transforming the current, traditional lecture and tutorial model adopted in most tertiary institutions, with one-to-one integrated lectures and workshops. This paper describes the first phase of the research: an investigation into how prepared Australian universities are to cater for these students.

Technological pedagogical differences in the teaching of English and Mathematics in a primary school

Lee Yong Tay, Siew Khiaw Lim, Cher Ping Lim — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This case study research attempts to examine the difference in technological pedagogical approaches adopted by teachers in the teaching of English and Mathematics in a school in Singapore. The study adopts the learning from and learning with technology framework in reporting and analysing the findings. From the lesson observations, review of teachers' written reports and curriculum plans, interviews with teachers and group interviews with students. Mathematics teachers adopted predominantly the learning from technology pedagogy with occasional learning with technology approach. In contrary, English teachers facilitated students to learn from and also with technology. This case study illustrated how technological pedagogical approaches were influenced by the subject (i.e., English and Mathematics). This study also highlights the limited use of the co-constructivist approach by the teachers in the teaching of both of the subjects.

Is anybody there?

Donna Teague, Malcolm Corney — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The report card for the introductory programming unit at our university has historically been unremarkable in terms of attendance rates, student success rates and student retention in both the unit and the degree course. After a course restructure recently involving a fresh approach to introducing programming, we reported a high retention in the unit, with consistently high attendance and a very low failure rate. Following those encouraging results, we collected student attendance data for several semesters and compared attendance rates to student results. We have found that interesting workshop material which directly relates to course-relevant assessment items and therefore drives the learning, in an engaging collaborative learning environment has improved attendance to an extraordinary extent, with student failure rates plummeting to the lowest in recorded history at our university.

Online Community Engagement through Simplicity, Relevance and Connection

Susan Tull — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper reports on the first stage of a phased approach to the development of an intervention which aims to support adult literacy educators in developing e-learning for their learners. The intervention is being implemented within an online environment created using Moodle, and studied using a design based research methodology. This initial iteration of the intervention was designed to encourage the members of the extant community of adult literacy educators to develop an online community, and to engage with the online environment. Engagement was encouraged though the facilitation of communications within this physically spread community, and the provision of online access to their community resources. Simplicity, relevance and connection were the elements found to be central to participant engagement within this first phase of the intervention.

My teacher is an Android

Lyndon Walker — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This concise paper describes work-in-progress research that examines the development of an Android "app" for a topic in a first year Statistics paper. The Android platform was chosen as Android devices are the top-selling mobile devices, outselling Apple iPods/iPhones/iPads. In addition, the operating system is open-source and development can be done through the Android AppInventor programme, accelerating the development process by providing a point and click interface to bypass much of the programming. The paper briefly examines the literature relating to student engagement and the use of mobile devices in teaching, before describing the process of developing the app. It is concluded by describing future research that will be presented at the conference.

The move to Moodle

Robyn Walker, Mark Brown, Chris Moore, Helen Hughes — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper describes the results of a survey among academics in the College of Business at an Australiasian university in the aftermath of a move to Moodle. The survey aimed to gather evidence of the relationships between university lecturers and the online environment, from which future practice could be informed. The findings were largely positive. A strong majority of respondents reported some degree of integration of Moodle with their teaching, along with a long-term commitment to Moodle utilization and improvement over time. However, only a limited number of respondents agreed that Moodle had helped them improve their teaching, indicative that academics were still in a period of transition from shallow systems compliance to deep pedagogical change. Overall, the experience showed that the move to Moodle needs careful planning and communication and must be part of a wider strategy to integrate e-learning solutions throughout course design and institutional culture.

An integrated Faculty model for engaging staff with online and blended learning

Debbi Weaver, Sue Kokonis — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper reports on a faculty-wide implementation of an integrated model of professional development to enhance online teaching practice. A key aim was to draw on the thinking of key scholars, and to build on pockets of excellence already within some discipline groups, to develop a consistent level of good practice across the Faculty. The model incorporates four stages: informing staff of key research in the field, engaging staff in online practice, providing learning design teams to assist staff in implementing learning activities and the provision of ongoing support from colleagues through communities of practice. The paper describes the model and reports on progress to date.

Using insider research to study teacher engagement with video conferencing in first-year classes

Nicola Westberry — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

This paper describes the use of insider research in an ongoing project that aims to explore the complex relationships between teachers, pedagogy, and technology within large first-year courses. It outlines the design rationale for the project and describes the methods used to study the engagement of 17 academic staff with video conferencing technology over a five-month period in 2011. Three researchers have occupied the dual roles of research participants (being members of the teaching staff involved with the video conferencing) and researchers; thus, they have been 'insiders' or full participant-observers. After describing the context and methodology, the paper reflects on the use of insider research as an approach to study teacher engagement with e-learning initiatives.

Building blended delivery capability in vocational educators

Linda Weterman, Oriel Kelly — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Engaging vocational educators to take the lead in developing blended learning practices that are 'fit for purpose' within an educational and workplace context is challenging. This paper explores literature in the areas of scaffolding; zone of proximal development, mentoring and coaching. It describes the initial experience of a blended learning project team in implementing scaffolding learning principles to engage vocational educators in order to create sustained change that links clearly to teaching, learning and assessment within an outcomes environment. The paper also provides some insights into the implementation of the Blended Learning Project (BLP) through the initiation and execution stages of the student (peer) projects. Through this type of practice the novice is always becoming the expert and the expert is always somewhat a novice. The greatest gain for this project is the development of process capability which is the cornerstone to sustained development in practice and expertise.

Interactive white(board) elephants

Eugene Willems, Julie Willems — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The introduction of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in secondary schools around Australia is currently being heavily promoted for the purposes of transforming the delivery of education through innovation and technology (Gillard, 2010). In such a climate, the evaluation of case studies exploring the effectiveness of the implementation of new technologies for the purposes of teaching and learning can help guide others contemplating or embarking on this process. While much of the literature reports positive outcomes in the adoption of IWBs in the secondary classroom, this paper provides a balance by exploring a case of change mismanagement which has led to the existence of electronic white elephants. The paper also explores the potential of modified force field analysis (FFA) as a decision- making and evaluation instrument for the process of technological change within educational contexts.

i-Survive Project

Julie Willems — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

The aim of the forthcoming i-Survive project is to evaluate the use of messages, images and videos sent by participating representatives of key community stakeholders during recent Australian and New Zealand disaster and emergency situations from Internet-enabled mobile phones to Web 2.0 social networking websites to seek help or educate others. It is anticipated that the research findings will help guide and instruct the development of m-learning strategies, including applications and protocols, in order to help better plan and prepare for the use of these technologies in future disaster situations.

Mobile Technologies in the Field

Paula Williams, Wai-Leng Wong, Helen Webb, Sally Borbasi — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Universities are being swamped by waves of emergent technologies and the emergence of iPads is the latest 'state-of-the-art' mobile device to receive attention. While a number of iPad trials and initiatives have been conducted within the confines of classrooms, for example, Bond University, University of Melbourne and Adelaide University (Brand & Kinash, 2010; Jennings et al 2010; Cross, 2010); far fewer have been conducted in the field, see Duke University's use of iPad as a field research tool (Winograd, 2010). This study reports a faculty's trial to explore how far iPads could be integrated into a field setting for training of paramedic students in Wilderness Medicine. As it turned out, the remote setting for the exercise presented a number of challenges for the coordinators. Questions that needed to be considered included how "mobile" is the iPad?, How can it be used to support and enhance students' learning in the field?, How far could the iPad be extended where Internet connectivity is intermittent? The iPad trial highlighted a lack of a "common language" within the faculty as a basis to collaborate and design learning activities. It provided impetus for an ongoing series of conversations amongst the coordinators and others in the Faculty about design approaches and the need for a pedagogical framework to integrate technologies that support teaching and learning activities.

Recommendations for enhancing the quality of flexible online support for online teachers

Andrew Yardy, Elizabeth Date-Huxtable — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Flexible online support of teaching and learning at university is increasingly used in preference to face-to-face and blended formats to provide self-directed and just-in-time resources for teaching staff. Few have been evaluated to date. This paper outlines a pilot evaluation framework using the University of Newcastle's online resource, "Teaching in the Online Environment". The framework utilises web analytics (keyword search data) combined with data mining to evaluate this online staff development resource. In this paper we discuss the methodological challenges and benefits associated with our approach and make recommendations applying our findings to improve the Teaching in the Online Environment resource.

Use of Asynchronous Online Discussion for 9 year-old pupils in A Science Classroom

Lye Sze Yee — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Young pupils are generally very enthusiastic about Science and always want to share with their classmates what they know. However, there is no enough time for class room discussion for all to participate during curriculum time. The use of Web-based forum can possibly help solve this problem by extending the classroom time. They can participate and view the postings in the forum at home or at school so long there is Internet Connection. This paper describes how a primary school teacher used asynchronous online discussion in teaching of Science for 9 year-old pupils.

Augmented Reality for Learning Anatomy

Soon-ja Yeom — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +1100

Learning anatomy requires students to memorise a great deal of information and contextualize this within the range of body functions. Visualising the relationships in three dimensions of various organs and their interdependent functions is a major difficulty in this task. The system described in this paper is a development to assist students by providing an augmented reality version of the anatomical details under investigation that provides a structured learning approach to the material. This is a research project to investigate whether augmented reality (AR) with haptics is an effective tool to learn anatomy while providing equitable access to more engaging experiences.