Vol. 16 No. 4 (2019)
Published:
1 August 2019
Articles
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Yet another acronym - Technology-enhanced Academic Language Support (TALS)
Since the earliest adoption of educational technologies, teachers and researchers have been exploring its efficacy on language learning and development. The speed with which these technologies are now infiltrating academic student support
Since the earliest adoption of educational technologies, teachers and researchers have been exploring its efficacy on language learning and development. The speed with which these technologies are now infiltrating academic student support will continue to increase, and so the need for good guidance in this space will likewise increase. Currently in academic language and learning support, however, the digital space while prevalent and expanding is both poorly defined and the literature widely dispersed. It is argued here that a single term of reference, such as TALS, could provide a centralised meeting point where research and experiences from the field can be more readily and conveniently shared.
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An important, but neglected aspect of learning assistance in higher education: Exploring the digital learning capacity of academic language and learning practitioners
Digital literacy has become increasingly significant in tertiary environments, as institutions move towards preparing students for 21st century workplaces and careers that emphasise digital literacy. As such, Academic Language and Learning
Digital literacy has become increasingly significant in tertiary environments, as institutions move towards preparing students for 21st century workplaces and careers that emphasise digital literacy. As such, Academic Language and Learning (ALL) practitioners within these institutions are under pressure to possess familiarity and skills in the digital education space. Despite this need, there is a shortage of evidence that identifies the competencies or gaps in the current knowledge that ALL advisors have in Australian tertiary institutions; there is also a lack of awareness about how to address the gaps in knowledge for technology-enhanced learning and academic support. In light of this lacuna, in late 2018, the Association for Academic Learning and Language (AALL), the professional body for Academic Language and Learning practitioners, established a working group to investigate the knowledge and gaps in digital literacy in the ALL profession. The authors of this paper are all members of this working group and aim to explore the state of digital learning in their field. The long-term aim of the working party is to develop research-led resources and strategies to assist in the professionalisation and upskilling of ALL staff in technology-enhanced academic language development and support. This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a mixed-method participatory action research study of ALL practitioners’ preferences, competencies and confidence in the digital learning space. It is hoped that this study will provide members within the AALL professional body, as well as tertiary educators generally, with strategies required to identify, develop and maintain effective digital literacies across the higher education sector.
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The Academic Writing Skills Programme: A model for technology-enhanced, blended delivery of an academic writing programme
Recognising the varied challenges presented by an increasingly diverse student body at our UK university (a research-intensive institution with a high proportion of international and widening participation students), an online and blended
Recognising the varied challenges presented by an increasingly diverse student body at our UK university (a research-intensive institution with a high proportion of international and widening participation students), an online and blended writing programme was developed. The Academic Writing Skills Programme (AWSP) is a fully online, compulsory writing diagnostic, consisting of a range of multiple-choice questions on grammar and a short essay. Run centrally by a department of multidisciplinary academic writing advisers, the programme was taken from a small, discipline-specific writing programme and transformed into an institution-wide, fully-funded technology-enhanced academic language course. This paper details and evaluates the process through which this development was achieved; it discusses the challenges encountered, explores the pedagogical justification and background of our approach, provides student assessment and feedback on the impact and efficacy of the programme, and offers guidance for practitioners in academic language support.
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Fostering and evaluating learner engagement with academic literacy support: Making the most of Moodle
This paper reports on the evaluation of an ambitious attempt to embed academic literacy support within a core content course for first-year students at the University of the South Pacific. The course is offered in both blended and online
This paper reports on the evaluation of an ambitious attempt to embed academic literacy support within a core content course for first-year students at the University of the South Pacific. The course is offered in both blended and online modes, catering for on-campus and off-campus students, respectively, using Moodle as the virtual learning environment (VLE). We begin by explaining how we have made the most of Moodle as a learning platform, enabling us to supplement the core content resources with additional components that support students’ academic literacy development, rather than sacrificing content to create this space. Since the additional material is embedded into the main learning design of the course, students acquire academic literacy within the disciplinary context of their academic programme, rather than through standalone ‘study skills’ provision that is devoid of content. We then devote the majority of the paper to discussing the evaluation of this course design, again explaining how we have made the most of Moodle to do so. We have used learning analytics data from Moodle tracking and completion reports to calculate engagement scores for each student, focusing on a composite of their access to resources, their compliance with sequencing and timing, their investment in activities, and their overall achievement. We have then examined the extent to which the different elements of engagement appear to impact achievement in assignments, demonstrating that the students who achieved the highest grades were those who accessed more materials, kept up with the intended schedule, and invested more than they needed to in activities, despite no immediate rewards for doing so.
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How recorded audio-visual feedback can improve academic language support
Providing effective, high quality feedback that students engage with remains an important issue in higher education today, particularly in the context of academic language support where feedback helps socialise students to academic writing
Providing effective, high quality feedback that students engage with remains an important issue in higher education today, particularly in the context of academic language support where feedback helps socialise students to academic writing practices. Technology-enhanced feedback, such as audio and video feedback, is becoming more widely used, and as such, it is important to evaluate whether these methods help students engage with the feedback more successfully than conventional methods. While previous research has explored students’ perceptions of audio-visual feedback, this paper seeks to fill a gap in the literature by examining the impact of the audio-visual mode on undergraduate students’ engagement with feedback compared to written-only feedback. Evidence from an analysis of feedback comments (n = 1040) and corresponding revisions as well as interviews (n = 3) is used to draw conclusions about the value of providing audio-visual feedback to help students revise their writing more successfully. In line with multimedia learning theory (Mayer 2009), it is argued that the multimodal format, conversational tone, verbal explanations and personalised feel of audio-visual feedback allows for a more successful engagement with the feedback, particularly for students with a lower level of English language proficiency.
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Using “just in time” online feedback to improve first year undergraduate nursing students’ essay writing performance
Undergraduate nursing students often find essay writing challenging, and feel underprepared, yet the impact of using online feedback to support essay writing has been underexplored. First-year nursing students from a regional university
Undergraduate nursing students often find essay writing challenging, and feel underprepared, yet the impact of using online feedback to support essay writing has been underexplored. First-year nursing students from a regional university were involved in a project that encouraged them to access an online tutoring service, as part of their development of an essay task. Significant differences were found in students’ final essay marks for those who accessed the online writing support. Students who accessed online writing support were also more likely to be deep, rather than surface learners. The findings indicate that the provision of prompt or ‘just in time’ feedback, using an online feedback mechanism, can greatly enhance students’ essay writing performance.