Vol. 16 No. 1 (2019)
Published:
1 January 2019
Articles
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No lines: Observations from a pilot project to re-imagine, design and implement a flexible student-centred approach to study mode selection
Upon enrolling in a university course, students typically commit to a predetermined study mode: on-campus, online, or a hybrid/blended study mode. The education provider typically predetermines which study mode/s are available for each
Upon enrolling in a university course, students typically commit to a predetermined study mode: on-campus, online, or a hybrid/blended study mode. The education provider typically predetermines which study mode/s are available for each course. In this paper, the authors address the challenges of designing and trialling a new “StudyFlex” student-centred study mode at La Trobe University. By re-imagining the concept of flexibility in study mode selection, StudyFlex does away with bright line distinctions between online, blended and on-campus offerings and empowers students to self-select and adjust their preferred study mode pathway within their subject and throughout their course. This paper exposes and acts as a primer for discussing the many challenges of designing, developing, and implementing such student-centred study mode innovations. Specifically, it outlines and expands upon the StudyFlex trial conducted across several subjects, its genesis and justification, with its central tenet of designing subjects which allow students freedom to move between on-campus and online modes of learning within a single offering. Discussion extends to similar trial findings, including the recent pilot by Southern Cross University of a “converged delivery” model which attempted to merge on-campus and online study modes into a single converged mode. Attention then turns to curriculum development and design challenges inherent in the StudyFlex proof of concept. Particular emphasis is placed upon the imperative and significant challenge of ensuring equivalence of learning experience, in terms of learning value and quality, irrespective of the bespoke study mode pathway chosen by students in the StudyFlex trial subjects. The discussion culminates in identifying and highlighting the need for further research to address the challenges posed by innovations like the StudyFlex pilot and its predecessors such as the Southern Cross University converged delivery pilot. These extend to administrative challenges posed for universities seeking to accommodate student-centred study mode flexibility and potential and current practical regulatory constraints affecting such innovations. Fundamental questions emerge concerning the gap between the vision of allowing students to complete self-determination insofar as selection of study mode and the pragmatic realities of the various constraints facing higher education providers in seeking to push the boundaries of curriculum development and design to realise that vision. At a local level, and as the model becomes more widely adopted, La Trobe University teachers will need to be well supported to ensure their practices adapt to a new teaching model, while the model itself will need ongoing concerted design attention to ensure that students experience quality learning regardless of their study mode choices.
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Negotiating pedagogical challenges in the shift from face-to-face to fully online learning: A case study of collaborative design solutions by learning designers and subject matter experts
With the increasing number of students enrolled in fully online programs and subjects across different Australian universities, online education has become a popular higher education alternative. The University of Melbourne has responded
With the increasing number of students enrolled in fully online programs and subjects across different Australian universities, online education has become a popular higher education alternative. The University of Melbourne has responded to this challenge by establishing the Melbourne School of Professional and Continuing Education (MSPACE), where the learning designers (LDs), project managers, educational technologists, graphic designers and video producers work collaboratively with subject matter experts (SMEs) from across the university to create high-quality fully online graduate subjects. The case study presented in this article examines how MSPACE used this team-based approach to design and develop Psychodynamic Psychiatry, a six-week elective in the Master of Psychiatry. This paper examines a number of pedagogical challenges that arise when converting a pre-existing face-to-face subject to a fully online subject, as well as some relatively unique aspects in the design and development process utilised by MSPACE. While the approach provided by MSPACE currently focuses on supporting SMEs by providing access to third-space professionals, it is hoped that this will act as a conduit through which the SMEs are enculturated into the ways of design thinking for effective online teaching and learning practice.
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Plan, prepare and connect: How investing in understanding and tracking the evolving needs of online students informs the development of targeted programs for transition and success
Growth in online higher education offerings has been significant in recent years, with many Australian Universities launching programs to extend into new markets and meet the student demand for greater flexibility in delivery modes
Growth in online higher education offerings has been significant in recent years, with many Australian Universities launching programs to extend into new markets and meet the student demand for greater flexibility in delivery modes. Further, it is well understood that good support is an essential component to student success, satisfaction and retention. Despite this, orientation, including non-academic support, is often overlooked in online education systems. Therefore, the current study aimed to develop an orientation program to increase student preparedness and facilitate ongoing support, in addition to developing evidence-based best-practice strategies to support academic’s when developing new online courses.
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Successful team-based development of an online course with an external partner: An analysis of the perspectives of academics
Course and subject development teams are increasingly seen in the tertiary online teaching environment and they face a unique set of challenges. The purpose of this study was to synthesise and share learnings of 12 academics involved in
Course and subject development teams are increasingly seen in the tertiary online teaching environment and they face a unique set of challenges. The purpose of this study was to synthesise and share learnings of 12 academics involved in the development of subjects with an external partner for a new multidisciplinary online health science course at an Australian university, in order to improve ongoing development within the course and inform new course development. In this case study, thematic analysis of focus group discussions and qualitative survey data identified five key themes related to the development process: time management, setting expectations, communication, the development team, and ownership. Barriers to productive subject development included unrealistic timelines, unclear lines of communication, unmet or unrealistic expectations and lack of recognition of team members’ expertise, and lack of support for genuine collaboration. Team-based development of an online course has the potential to be a rewarding experience for academics. In order for the benefits to be realised, approaches to development underpinned by a community-centred framework, observing core values such as collaboration, shared sense of purpose and expectations, would address a number of the issues identified in this study.
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Towards best practice in course design: A case study of flexibility and collaboration between users and developers in supporting process with technology
This paper reports on the development of an evidenced-based method guiding the review, design and development of higher education courses (programs), supported by a bespoke, purpose-specific software platform. It describes the outcome of a
This paper reports on the development of an evidenced-based method guiding the review, design and development of higher education courses (programs), supported by a bespoke, purpose-specific software platform. It describes the outcome of a five-year process of development for both the method and for the supporting technology, where feedback was obtained from stakeholders across the institution, evaluated and enacted. The paper describes the best practice approaches embedded within the method, as well as the underlying theory bases and the procedures that contributed to the evolution of the current product. The lessons learned by the project team can inform others in similar higher education contexts thereby avoiding the pitfalls described.
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Beyond lecture capture: Creating digital video content for online learning – a case study
Use of multimedia for teaching and learning, particularly digital video, has become ubiquitous in higher education. This is driven in part by the growth in blended pedagogies and an increase in students learning solely or partly online. It
Use of multimedia for teaching and learning, particularly digital video, has become ubiquitous in higher education. This is driven in part by the growth in blended pedagogies and an increase in students learning solely or partly online. It is also influenced by relatively inexpensive media production equipment, faster internet speeds, student access to mobile devices and a rise in media production skill sets. Where students are studying solely online, this content becomes essential as it replaces the traditional lecture in the design of the course (“course” refers to individual course, subject or unit of study). Digital video can be an extremely effective way to reach students with course content. One of the main benefits is the flexibility it affords. Students can view the course material when and where they like, on multiple devices. They can rewind, slow down or speed it up – they can revisit particular videos prior to assessments. There have been two primary drivers of the development process of this content. Firstly, a focus on high quality, and secondly, a focus on accessibility. Videos have the potential to be more inclusive as they are accessible to students with a range of disabilities. We have included subtitles with all videos as a minimum requirement. What follows is a case study on the creation and distribution of a large volume (around 6000 items) of digital content designed to support teaching and learning in a newly created suite of completely online undergraduate degrees. This case study will outline the various challenges which are presented by creating and supporting this volume of material and is informed by the results of a survey of students, detailing their usage patterns and habits.
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Developing multimedia collaboratively: Practical approaches for large-scale online curriculum development
Transformations in contemporary higher education have led to an explosion in the number of degrees delivered online, a significant characteristic of which is the incorporation of multimedia to support learning. Despite the proliferation of
Transformations in contemporary higher education have led to an explosion in the number of degrees delivered online, a significant characteristic of which is the incorporation of multimedia to support learning. Despite the proliferation of multimedia and growing literature about the affordances of various technologies, there are relatively few examples of how judgements are made regarding choosing and actioning multimedia development decisions for educational developers. The case study presented here is framed within an institution-wide project for the development of fully online degrees that utilised a collaborative approach to curriculum and multimedia development. This example focuses on the establishment and operation of a collaborative approach to curriculum development in which multidisciplinary development teams invested considerable resources in researching improvements to their multimedia practices and processes. This article reflects on the collaborative team approach to multimedia design and development by examining the team’s experiences and practices through the lens of existing multimedia research, in order to understand the convergence between multimedia theory and the practicalities of developing multimedia within the constraints of large-scale online curriculum development. Through these reflections, four lessons learned will be explicated which will inform those engaged in employing similar approaches in other contexts. These lessons learned identify the benefits and potential issues associated with: the approach used by the collaborative development team to support the production of multimedia, the practices and process used by the collaborative development team to facilitate the creation of concise multimedia presentations, the impacts of establishing teaching presence through videos created by the course writer and online course facilitator, and the presentation styles used by course writers and the tools they used during multimedia production.
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Implementing work-integrated learning in online construction management courses
Implementing online learning can pose serious pedagogical challenges particularly when programs contain work-integrated learning (WIL) components. One such component is the site visit, where student groups are led by subject matter experts
Implementing online learning can pose serious pedagogical challenges particularly when programs contain work-integrated learning (WIL) components. One such component is the site visit, where student groups are led by subject matter experts through an authentic environment. These WIL experiences help students relate the theory learnt in classrooms to practice. Construction management students particularly benefit from repeated visits to the same building site to appreciate the spatial and temporal constraints and how they change over the life of the building project. Unfortunately, logistics and occupational health and safety concerns have increasingly limited the inclusion of site visits in school and university curricula. Online construction management students are widely dispersed and therefore it is impractical to include shared physical site visits in the curriculum, although students are able to observe locally-based construction sites and report back their findings. In response, universities have collaborated with construction companies and, using significant federal funding, created an interactive learning environment that follows the construction of an eight-storey building over time. This high quality resource is a type of virtual WIL that has been primarily used in face-to-face teaching. In this case study we implement this resource in a fully online construction management course and create three comparatively low-cost environments that demonstrate the construction of residential, industrial, and multi-storey building construction sites, for implementation in another two online construction courses. As an enhancement, within these new environments are embedded images, explanatory videos and documents which students can interact with to create a virtual tour that can be embedded directly alongside the concepts being studied in their weekly learning materials. In addition, these tours are linked to specific online learning activities designed to motivate students to reflect on and refine their understandings based on the authentic context they are experiencing. To better understand the processes involved in this collaboration between school academics, staff from a central teaching innovation unit, and two construction companies, the business processes employed were modelled using a swimlane diagram. Insights into the practicalities of implementing these virtual tours are shared. The experiential learning outcomes of students using virtual WIL are comparable to traditional site visits. Initial online student feedback of small cohorts of online students has been overwhelmingly positive and encouraging for the development of more interactive virtual tours. The implementation of virtual tours and activities, blended with independent face-to-face site visits and assessment, forms an authentic, supported and constructively-aligned WIL experience for students undertaking fully online courses.
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Lessons learned from implementing remotely invigilated online exams
This paper outlines the key issues of remotely invigilated online exams (RIOEs) and presents ways to avoid and resolve the issues for educators who are considering implementing them. The purpose of this paper is to share the lessons
This paper outlines the key issues of remotely invigilated online exams (RIOEs) and presents ways to avoid and resolve the issues for educators who are considering implementing them. The purpose of this paper is to share the lessons learned during the process of implementing and evaluating RIOEs and highlight the key considerations required to conduct RIOEs more seamlessly, whilst minimising students’ cognitive load. With the continued growth, and future importance of online tertiary education, this paper provides an important contribution to the understanding of the best methods and practices by which to conduct online examinations and provides a foundation for continued research and enhancement of effective RIOEs. The paper follows an extensive Action Learning process to develop and present a case study that was conducted across nine fully online business courses in a start-up venture for the University of South Australia. Cognitive load theory underpins the case study, which enabled the researchers to gain profound understanding into the RIOE process, identify issues and offer resolutions. RIOEs require more systematic and effective design compared to traditional paper-based exams and should be supplemented by early and clear communication with students. Educators should enable and encourage students to rehearse the exam service access procedures prior to their exams and students should be provided with real-time responsive technical support for any ad hoc issues that may present during the exam. These factors play a critical role in ensuring the successful implementation of RIOEs.
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Re-envisioning the role of academic librarians for the digital learning environment: The case of UniSA Online
Academic librarians cannot escape the implications of the knowledge economy and the pervasion of technology which effects everything that we do. Similarly, we must be prepared to teach our students how to cope in this knowledge society and
Academic librarians cannot escape the implications of the knowledge economy and the pervasion of technology which effects everything that we do. Similarly, we must be prepared to teach our students how to cope in this knowledge society and how to develop the necessary information and digital literacy skills to be productive members of society in a digital environment. This article explores the first eighteen months of our experience as digital curriculum librarians in a large project at the University of South Australia (UniSA), UniSA Online. We have taken this opportunity to critically reflect on being embedded librarians within such a strategic and unique project. We examine the key cultural, pedagogical and technological challenges we have faced in delivering resources, support and services to the project team. The solutions we have adopted to overcome these challenges within an intensive course development environment are also outlined. The importance of building good relationships both within the project team, academics and with other library staff to deliver positive outcomes is discussed. We examine the pedagogical imperatives we have followed and the technological challenges we have faced to provide an active learning experience for our students in a digital learning environment. Our role as digital curriculum librarians is still evolving, however, we can observe some emerging trends within academic librarianship and comment on them, as we believe that the imperatives of the knowledge society will only become more prevalent into the future. We conclude by outlining which professional skills we need as academic librarians to evolve our roles and be successful in the digital world.