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2023: ASCILITE 2023 Conference Companion Materials

Reviewed abstracts for Pecha Kucha (PK), posters, workshops, and panel sessions for the ASCILITE 2023 Conference held 3-6th December in Christchurch, New Zealand. 

T. Cochrane, V. Narayan, C. Brown, K. MacCallum, E. Bone, C. Deneen, R. Vanderburg, & B. Hurren (Eds.), People, partnerships and pedagogies. Proceedings ASCILITE 2023. Christchurch

Te Pae Conference Center, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Published: 28 November 2023

ASCILITE Conference - Pecha Kuchas

  • Up-skilling learners through story-telling: Introducing the Learning Wave

    Andrew Komoder, Lynnae Venaruzzo, Carmen Young

    The nature of work is changing as technology, economic, education, health, environmental, and geopolitical trends impact the skills required of the workforce. Generative AI, for example, is significantly impacting the labour-market as new jobs are created and existing jobs are re-shaped or no longer available (Li, 2022). In response to these trends, businesses are re-imagining their workforce strategies and investing in learning and developing their talent (Future of Jobs Report, 2023). Responding to the needs of industry and the skills gap, Western Sydney University (WSU) is pioneering a digital pedagogical model called The Learning Wave. Inspired by Karl Maton’s Semantic Wave, The Learning Wave is a practical tool for designing digital educational experiences where learners are guided through real-world problems to construct knowledge, build industry relevant skills and reflect on their learning (Maton, 2019). Through the explicitly designed educational experience, learners use their knowledge and skills to solve real-world problems facing industry. The Learning Wave is used to create educational experiences through activities focused on mastery (competence), meaning (competence and relatedness), community (relatedness) and autonomy (Ryan & Deci, 2000). To develop these experiences, The Learning Wave contains four smaller waves of engagement and motivation, knowledge, activity, and narrative: The Engagement and Motivation wave uses reward and feedback loops aligned with key educational moments. Inspired by the Octalysis Framework for Gamification and Behavioural Design (Chou, 2021), real-world relevant learning activities are designed to be intrinsically motivating and create positive learning experiences. The Engagement and Motivation wave aligns rewards and game mechanics to the self-regulated-learning phases of forethought, performance and self-reflection (Zimmerman, 2002). The Knowledge Wave focusses on the design, construction, and delivery of the knowledge-based content using Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction (Gagné et al., 1992)) and uses missions for learners to solve as they apply their knowledge and skills in the Activity The Activity wave extends from the Engagement and Motivation wave, and the Knowledge Wave and focuses on experiential learning experiences that people learn from (Floor, 2023). A goal of the Activity Wave is to create a positive impact on the learning experience and provide learners with memorable experiences they enjoy. The Narrative wave uses storytelling and narrative driven approaches to present an engaging story comprising elements of tension, interesting characters situated in real-world settings to provide relevance and relatability to the course, and topics that evoke emotional responses. Narrative approaches to learning tell more than just the story – stories use different parts of the brain (Renken, 2020) and can be effective in solidifying abstract concepts and assist learners in shaping their ideas and views about what they are learning. (Yang et al., 2022). These sub-waves are designed in alignment with the learning outcomes of the course to provide learners with agency to manage their motivation, cognition, emotion and behaviour – fundamental to self-regulated learning (Zimmerman, 2002) as they develop their skills in their industry-relevant field. As a novel pedagogical model, The Learning Wave is designed for learners to amplify impact and stay relevant in their field.

    Read article: Up-skilling learners through story-telling: Introducing the Learning Wave

  • Pedagogically driven digital education for diverse people and deeper partnerships

    Peter Linford, Kwong Nui Sim

    The digital era has ushered in a new set of skills/competencies that both teachers and students need to acquire in order to thrive in their academic/professional pursuits. Digital literacy has become a crucial aspect of education, particularly in higher education where teachers and students are expected to engage with digital resources/tools on a regular basis. This shift has irrevocably changed the face of education and digital literacy has evolved to be more than just the ability to use digital tools — it now encompasses the critical skills/competencies that require teachers and students to navigate, analyse, and create information within the digital space. Adopting the hexagonal socio-technical systems theory (University of Leeds, 2023), a pilot digitalised sailing theory course was launched for adult learners at both beginner and intermediate levels from 2022. Within a broadly interpretive approach (Erickson, 1998), the analysis of the feedback involved the refinement of the major and common ideas (Mayring, 2000) held by the learners in their voluntary evaluation at the end of their course(s). The preliminary analysis highlighted two themes: pedagogically driven digital education accommodates diverse learners’ needs and deeper partnerships are established for teacher and learners as well as among learners through a digitalised course. Majority of the learners expressed the benefits of coming into the practical sessions by “feeling you know something already” as they were able to complete the digitalised sailing theory course at their own pace (i.e., less overwhelming), with repetitions (i.e., consolidating individual learning) and evaluate their understanding via the quizzes that provide instant feedback (i.e., self-check). It is worth noting that the average score of the quizzes was 94% and 98% at both levels respectively. Hence, the learners’ confidence/comfort levels were increased during the practical sessions and with that, it enhanced the positive learning experiences during the practical sessions. Most importantly, both teacher and learners found that the digitalised sailing theory course has helped to develop a deeper partnership between teacher-learners and among learners. This is particularly when the learners had already ‘met’ the teacher in the short videos and thus could ask targeted questions during the practical sessions. Very often, the questions turned into meaningful conversations between teacher-learners and among learners, addressing individual learning progress. As concluded by Deshmukh, et. al., (2022), such conversational discussions give the teacher opportunities to “provide challenge or support as needed” for the learners in a responsive manner. In short, the positive learners’ feedback ensures that similar initiatives could be adopted in today’s higher education when the curricula are developed digitally to support diverse students for deeper partnerships between teachers-students and among students, while serving as a mechanism to develop students as digitally literate citizens. After all, digital education is a spinoff opportunity arising from the global pandemic that could improve learning for all, including advances in people-orientated pedagogies and partnerships. But as the digital threads continue to weave their way through education, a critical question arises: Are we ready for digital education, especially when the level of digital literacy varies among teachers and students?

    Read article: Pedagogically driven digital education for diverse people and deeper partnerships

  • A shared reflection process : Harnessing identity, sustainability and innovation for learning design

    Rachael Lowe

    In the COVID era, our University co-design team (established in 2019), faced the challenge of transitioning to digital education. For us learning designers in the team, the rapid move to online teaching and embracing an online work model wasn't just about new tech tools or platforms. It was about identity, consistency, and navigating the turbulent waters of the co-design ecosystem. In 2020, our co-design team had fewer than 20 members, six of whom were learning designers. Here's the twist: five out of those six were new and we all had diverse skills and varied experience levels. Together, we attempted to navigate collaborating as part of a co-design team (Zamenopoulos & Alexiou, 2018, p. 10). This included academic experts, educational developers, media specialists and the wider teaching team (Vallis et al., 2022). While there were plenty of external narratives about what our learning design role should be, we needed to define it on our own terms, to help foster a sustainable learning design approach (Shalavin & Huber, 2021) within our co-design projects. We found ourselves in this unique 'third space' - not entirely academic but not just administrative (Ergün & Avc, 2018). So, what did we do? Our LD team meetings morphed to more purposeful reflection sessions (Lopez-Real, 1970 and Chang et al., 2020). These bi-weekly discussions enabled transparency of the shared co-design challenges we were experiencing and our nebulous identity. By late 2020, we translated our reflections into action: a mission statement and 12 LD principles. And most importantly a clear outline of roles and responsibilities which offered clarity on tasks, boundaries, and needs not just for us but our wider co-design team. Whilst the roles and responsibilities of an LD directly affected our wider co-design team, they chose not to be directly involved in their formulation, despite their overall support of our endeavour. A key takeaway? Teams as diverse as ours need a shared space. It's essential for understanding each other's perspectives, sharing insights, and working cohesively. Our reflection sessions matured into this essential space. Three years on, our approach has been applied to over 100 subjects. Our reflection sessions? They've evolved into a 'Community of Practice', a testament to our commitment to innovation and collaboration. The co-design team has since doubled in size and the identity and roles we carved out for our learning designers have guided us through this growth phase. We have maintained a cohesive approach and the documents we worked on our now organic to our practice. At the upcoming Pecha Kucha session, we'll: Discuss challenges we encountered and how shared reflection helped. Outline our reflection journey, from organic discussions to defining our mission and principles. Share experiences from navigating team growth while maintaining our identity. Showcase the tools and frameworks we've built along the way. Our journey has been about much more than just adapting to change. It's been about understanding our role, finding our voice, and carving out our unique space in the co-design landscape

    Read article: A shared reflection process : Harnessing identity, sustainability and innovation for learning design

  • Excel – a new way to join the dots

    Louise Luff, Janine Coupe, Ben Lay, Kaiying Ji

    Professional judgment is an essential and expected graduate skill. The ability to make considered judgments based on sound critical thinking must be developed progressively by students throughout their lifelong learning journey. To support Business School students critical thinking development, an innovative series of interactive and scaffolded tutorial tools were created in Excel. Based on real world business scenarios, students develop the necessary skills to justify and make robust professional judgments. Used as supportive tutorial activities with formative feedback opportunities, students learnt how to perform the necessary steps and argue related justifications. To go deeper, students further question the unresolved and unreasonable, determine the impacts of what if scenarios and make confident decisions that influence professional judgments. This innovative interactive approach provides students with several autonomy and self-efficacy experiences and brings students confidently into the realm of doing (Schwartz et al., 2012). It is adaptive to professional judgment based units of study across all disciplines. For adaptation in more technical and practice based domains, the Excel tutorial worksheet contained background information for the business world scenario. At each sub decision point, data validation and conditional formatting tools have been adopted to allow students to explore drop down possible choices. These are subsequently linked to possible justifications, further information required questions, what if diagrams, and descriptors of how these influence critical justifications. To highlight connection to logical thinking, a “Green to go” colour change code is used which allows students to confirm their understanding or seek further support. Working with students in tutorial time and using the MS Excel text colour function, teaching staff model critical thinking and professional business world expectations. The file’s interactive decision making process, supportive explanatory notes and tips are unveiled so the professional judgment is made in partnership between students and staff. This tool can also be used to develop critical thinking for extended written response decisions. This adaption is designed as a step by step supportive essay planner and response template. Within the Excel worksheet, the essay question is broken down into separate sectional row tasks (introduction, discussion of theories, related application, conclusion). Each sectional row contains an in tutorial discussion box (completed in the expansive social tutorial time), your own response box and, using the Excel data validation tool, a drop down marking rubric. Students are encouraged to complete a full essay response and, via the share function, forward their Excel response to the teaching team who provide formative feedback. The approach’s visual and supported critical thinking path assists students to form their own opinions from many perspectives, make judgments and, most importantly, by enhancing student engagement, experience, and self-efficacy, aids deeper student learning (Cahill & Bloch-Schulman, 2012, Turner & Baskerville, 2013). The presentation will showcase the initiative’s interactive and highly effective model of critical thinking and decision making.

    Read article: Excel – a new way to join the dots

  • Adopting self-directed learning principles in clinical education with Pebblepad

    Aslihan Mccarthy

    Self-directed learning (SDL), alternatively known as self-regulated learning (SRL), is an umbrella term that can be broadly defined as the learner’s ability to make plans according to their individual needs and use learning resources and methods to master a knowledge or necessary skills (Van der Walt, 2016; Russell et al. 2022). It is a systematic control of motivation and tightly linked to self-awareness, agency, and the sense of being in control of the learning process (Russell et al. 2022). Despite ever increasing reference to SDL in health professions education, it is not well-studied in clinical settings (Lui & Sullivan 2021, Murad et al. 2010, Yeo and Jang 2023). In 2021-2022 we adopted some of the main principles of the SDL approach, namely goal setting, self-monitoring, self-reflection, self-evaluation, to clinical education in Bachelor of Oral Health and Doctor of Dentistry programs at the University of Melbourne by utilising a digital e-portfolio platform, Pebblepad. In this presentation, we will walk you through the iterative design process of digital clinical assessment forms. This process allowed us to refine our materials and strategies in consultation with our students, teaching and learning staff and clinical supervisors as we go. We supported our students to a) identify gaps in application of their clinical knowledge via learning analytics dashboards, b) generate goals for improvement through structured reflection and c) assess their practice through self-evaluation rubrics. We are still improving our concept to foster SDL in our programs. We take this opportunity to reflect on what went well as opposed to areas for improvement, and demonstrate the power of using different digital tools in clinical education settings. We believe “thinking outside the box” can help students become self-directed learners through collaboration, continuous improvement, and flexibility.

    Read article: Adopting self-directed learning principles in clinical education with Pebblepad

  • Findings from a survey looking at attitudes towards AI and its use in teaching, learning and research

    Edward Palmer, Daniel Lee, Matthew Arnold, Dimitra Lekkas, Katrina Plastow, Florian Ploeckl, Amit Srivastav, Peter Strelan

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) is having an advancing dramatic impact on Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) in Higher Education. (Popenici & Kerr, 2017) observed an emergence of the use of AI in HE (Higher Education) and pinpointed challenges for institutions and students including issues of academic integrity, privacy and “the possibility of a dystopian future” (p. 11). Potential benefits of AI in HE includes creating learning communities through chatbots (Studente & Ellis, 2020), automated grading, individualized learning strategies and improved plagiarism detection (Owoc et al., 2019). It is unclear how often, and in what manner, students are engaging with AI during their learning and in creating submissions for assessments tasks and if this engagement is creating unrealistic outcomes. It is also unclear how educators are engaging with AI during their teaching and curriculum/assessment design and how this may be impacting the learning outcomes of their cohorts. This research study was conducted to investigate the perceived immediate and long-term implications of engaging with AI of both staff and students on learning and teaching within the University of Adelaide. The design of the research study is underpinned by a blended approach combining Situational Ethics and Planned Behavior Theory to understand the ethical considerations and behavioral activities and future intentions of staff and students regarding the use of AI. Situational Ethics provides a framework for examining the contextual nature of ethical decision-making regarding AI (Boddington, 2017; Memarian & Doleck, 2023). Planned Behavior Theory provides understanding of individuals' motivation and rationalization to engage with AI (Wang et al., 2022). By employing a mixed qualitative and quantitative design, collecting data via online surveys, the study's findings shed light on the ethical challenges and attitudes associated with AI implementation in higher education and provided insights into the factors that influence staff and students’ individual intentions to engage with AI technologies in Learning and Teaching. Participants from all faculties across a wide diversity of student cohorts and staff responded to the surveys. Initial findings reveal educators are suspecting a greater student use of AI than the data demonstrates. The most frequent use of AI by students is for checking grammar and this is more prominent in the international student cohort. Students trust their human educators more than AI for course content and feedback on assessments. Educators are comfortable using AI but feel also they need greater support and training. The majority of students (70%, n=126) are not concerned about the implications of using Generative AI in higher education, regarding issues related to privacy, bias, ethics, or discrimination. However, demonstrating an active concern in this field, the most common use of AI by university staff is to test its capabilities to complete assignments. These and other findings from the study can provide guidance to staff and students by describing current practices and making recommendations regarding assessment, curriculum design, and Learning and Teaching (L&T) activities.

    Read article: Findings from a survey looking at attitudes towards AI and its use in teaching, learning and research

  • Nurses’ and midwives’ perceptions and preferences for lifelong learning

    Dominique Parrish, Joanne Joyce-McCoach

    Lifelong learning is essential for personal and professional growth and enables individuals to gain new knowledge and skills that keep them in touch with the advancements in their work and open new career prospects (McGreal & Olcott, 2022). In the healthcare sector, lifelong learning is integral to workforce development. Workforce development is critical to ensure that nurses and midwives maintain knowledge of best practice for improved care outcomes and sustain appropriate levels of skill competence. Recently, the Australia government has implemented a range of initiatives to support the development of short courses and micro-credentials designed to deliver lifelong learning that will upskill the labour market and meet the needs of the healthcare workforce (Varadarajan et al., 2023). An Australian survey of 3,756 workers was undertaken by Deloitte (2020) to explore workforce attitudes toward lifelong learning. This study found that the majority of Health care and social assistance workers were relatively interested in further study (63%). The study also established that the majority of study-interested workers want flexible, bite-sized intensive learning that is linked to their jobs and industry (Deloitte, 2020). However, while lifelong learning is a requirement of nurses’ and midwives’ registration, little is reported on the motivational drivers, enablers and barriers associated with lifelong learning (Oliver, 2019). This Pecha Kucha reports on a study undertaken to better understand the motivational drivers of nurses’ and midwives’ engaging in lifelong learning and the enablers and barriers they face undertaking lifelong learning. An online survey of nurses and midwives was implemented, to glean their perspectives on motivational drivers, enablers and barriers for lifelong learning. Convenience sampling was used to identify participants who were registered nurses and midwives in Australia, Mauritius or Singapore. Participants were recruited by email invitation distributed through professional networks as well as education and industry providers in Australia, Mauritius and Singapore. The findings of this study confirmed that the motivational drivers for lifelong learning across the respondents were personal interest/development (62%), continuing professional development (62%) and career progression (51%). Participants noted their preference for undertaking lifelong learning was via a combination of face to face and online learning (56%). Their pedagogical preferences included interactive resources (56%), written materials (56%) and discussions with other participants (54%). Key enablers to success in lifelong learning was deemed to be flexibility in assessment submission (56%) and easy to use systems (52%). The barriers identified by respondents included work/life balance (52%) workload (49%) and cost (49%). Digital technology in relation to lifelong learning can significantly promote enablers and nullify perceived barriers. Lifelong learning should be designed to maximise engagement at minimal cost to the participant. This can be achieved by providing interactive resources and digital materials that are easy to use, intuitive and can be utilised when convenient to the participant. Online discussions are ideal but these need to be asynchronous to ensure flexibility and support for learner scheduling around work/other life commitments. These findings could be used by educators and learning designers to guide and inform the development of lifelong learning.

    Read article: Nurses’ and midwives’ perceptions and preferences for lifelong learning

  • Embracing the intersection of pedagogy and technology : A digital mindfulness approach for addressing Problematic Use of the Internet among tertiary students.

    Kavya Raj

    Problematic Use of the Internet (PUI) is characterised by excessive and poorly controlled internet use, and encompasses a multitude of online behaviours including gambling, gaming, social networking, and pornography (Fineberg et al., 2018). PUI is disproportionately prevalent among tertiary students compared to other adults (Fineberg et al., 2018; Ioannidis et al., 2018), and is associated with poorer academic performance and severe symptoms of mental illness (Kitazawa et al., 2018; Tokunaga, 2017). This profile of high prevalence and significant life impairment highlights a pressing need to develop scalable support strategies for PUI in tertiary populations. Particularly, as higher education increasingly integrates technology into pedagogical practices, understanding and mitigating the issues stemming from technology misuse are of paramount importance. The current study responded to this multifaceted issue by investigating the efficacy of a 30-day digitally delivered mindfulness intervention for reducing PUI severity and mental illness symptoms among Australian tertiary students. Mindfulness meditation cultivates present-focused awareness, attention, and non-judgmental acceptance (Kabat-Zinn, 1994; Schumer et al., 2018), and has demonstrated efficacy in treating comparable mental health conditions (Garland & Howard, 2018). Digital mindfulness interventions are a promising approach due to their scalability, accessibility, and potential for reaching large student populations (Kuss & Lopez-Fernandez, 2016). By utilising online platforms and mobile applications, these interventions can effectively engage students and provide them with the necessary tools to develop healthier internet-use habits (Laurillard et al., 2013; Sarker et al., 2019). Twenty-six students with PUI (80.70% female; 25.62 Mage, ± 5.94) participated in weekly online group education sessions and daily app-based meditation. The weekly group sessions were designed to explicitly address common barriers to regular mindfulness practice through the use of a contemporary behaviour change framework, the Behaviour Change Wheel (Michie et al., 2011, 2014). Commonly reported barriers among students include lack of knowledge and skills, low motivation, time constraints, and financial costs (Lyzwinski et al., 2018; Schwind et al., 2017). As the therapeutic potential of digital mindfulness programs is highly dependent upon regular and consistent practice, interventions that address these barriers through application of appropriate and theory-informed behaviour change frameworks are especially valuable and maximise the likelihood of high student engagement and retention (Michie et al., 2011). Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed significant reductions in PUI severity (F(2, 50) = 14.57, p < 0.001, ?² = 0.37), depression (F(2, 50) = 21.92, p < .001, partial ?² = .47), anxiety (F(2, 50) = 16.68, p < .001, partial ?² = .40), and stress (F(2, 50) = 41.23, p < .001, partial ?² = .62) post-intervention and at one-month follow-up, indicating that improvements to internet use behaviours and wellbeing were sustained post-intervention. These findings underscore the potential of digitally delivered mindfulness interventions in promoting mental health and addressing PUI in higher education. By harnessing technology, universities can effectively engage students and provide scalable support. Whether in urban or rural settings, traditional or online learning platforms, these results have far-reaching implications for the integration of digital interventions within higher education settings to foster healthier internet-use habits and enhance student well-being.

    Read article: Embracing the intersection of pedagogy and technology : A digital mindfulness approach for addressing Problematic Use of the Internet among tertiary students.

  • Embracing partnerships – human and AI – in digital course on career readiness

    Rachel Spronken-Smith, Yvonne Gaut, Russell Butson, Matt Fernandes, Patrick Mazzocco, Alba Suarez Garcia, Jodie Evans

    Research on PhD graduates from universities in New Zealand and the United States has revealed a lack of career preparedness during doctoral study (Spronken-Smith, et al. 2023). The research found that PhD graduates had very limited knowledge of their skills sets and attributes, as well as a lack of awareness of career pathways beyond academia. This is a major concern as only 40-50% of PhD graduates typically can enter academia following graduation, with the remainder entering a range of careers, especially in the western world. Consequently, the first author set about generating a digital course on career readiness and career preparedness for doctoral candidates as well as postdoctoral fellows (those in either teaching or research roles). The development of the course is a team effort involving academic developers, careers advisers, a digital developer, graduate research candidates and artificial intelligence (AI). We hope to launch the course in 2024. The course comprises elements of social constructivism and reflective practice and weaves in cultural aspects throughout. Two main platforms are used to deliver the self-paced online course: Microsoft Teams Classroom and an EdX platform. Central to the course is a koru diagram which maps out a pathway for career readiness, starting with self-discovery, followed by discovery of career options, then considering practical strategies for career readiness, and finally developing an action plan. The learners enter the course through the Microsoft Teams environment, where we encourage introductions and connections with classmates. Learners can then progress at their own pace through 12 main modules, with touchpoints occurring on a few occasions where they are asked to share ideas with the class. Reflective practice is embedded throughout, with learners keeping a journal and creating items for their digital portfolio – the assessment item for the course. In two places we have built in AI, using ChatGPT as a tutor to give feedback on learner’s articulation of their skills sets, and again towards the end of the course, where learners can input their skills, values and job preferences and ChatGPT suggests some possible career options. Developing the course is a great example of the benefit of taking a partnership approach in course design and implementation. It was the research of Rachel Spronken-Smith, an academic developer, who inspired the course, but to make it happen she needed support. Most importantly, she needed the expert input from Yvonne Gaut, a careers adviser, and Russell Butson, an educational technology academic. Between them they were able to design the course and draw on appropriate technology. However, they also needed a digital developer (Matt Fernandes) who could infuse appropriate design elements throughout the course, as well as videographers to capture media clips (Alba Suarez Garcia and Jodie Evans). They also enlisted two graduate research candidates (Patrick Mazzocco and Jodie Evans, the former of whom was also a past careers adviser), to test the course design and provide feedback on each module – an essential aspect to ensure relevance and engagement. By the time of this Pecha Kucha presentation we hope the course is ready to launch!

    Read article: Embracing partnerships – human and AI – in digital course on career readiness

  • Co-Creating the Future : A Learning Design Team's Journey Fostering Institutional Change

    Sasha Stubbs, Binh Nguyen

    Establishing a new learning design team at an offshore Australian institution in Vietnam midst the COVID-19 pandemic presented unique challenges. Lingering dissatisfaction with emergency remote teaching which primarily involved moving face to face teaching to online webinars (Turnbull, Chugh, & Luck, 2021) and limited exposure to intentional blended approaches (Maheshwari 2021; Le, Allen, & Johnson, 2022; Pham, Lai, & Nguyen, 2021) within the traditional, teacher-centered educational landscape of Vietnam (Pham & Ho, 2020; Yao & Collins, 2019) made this an extremely challenging task. This pecha-kucha documents our experiences establishing a learning design team and implementing a blended learning approach within this challenging context. Facing the challenge of generating interest and changing practice, we began in 2021, with one newly recruited learning designer and three early adopter faculty by using an iterative co-design model to support a participatory, collaborative approach to enhancing the overall learning experience (Huber & Jacka 2022; Wilson, Huber, & Bryant, 2021). This approach allowed us to support faculty professional development, establish design patterns, implement new asynchronous, interactive, social tools, and build knowledge about blended and online approaches, moving faculty away from the existing teacher dependent model (Pham, Lai, & Nguyen, 2021) with LMS as repository (Pham & Ho, 2020; Washington, 2019) to designing active, purposeful learning sequences connecting asynchronous and synchronous learning. These three initial courses were used to showcase our approach to senior stakeholders and secure buy in. Within one year, as positive word of mouth spread, demand for our services grew exponentially, to over 70 blended courses. As a direct result of this popularity, meeting each school's needs required tailoring support to scale up as well as expanding our team from 1 to 8 members. However, limited local expertise created hurdles amidst exponential demand, needing extensive on-the-job training and creative resourcing (Heggart & Dickson-Deane, 2022). While early generic workshops designed to address scale generated interest, they lacked practical relevance. Developing tailored support offerings addressed the specific needs of schools and programs and facilitated meeting the increased demand. Our ongoing codesign relationships with academics were crucial for moving academics to a more student-centered blended model with students taking more ownership of learning (Davis & Fill, 2007). As a complement and key focal point, we created a multipurpose Canvas site showcasing our design principles, tools, and sample modules from exemplar courses. This self-paced resource engaged stakeholders on their own terms, sparking interest while concurrently educating new learning designers and academics. We leveraged the site for showcase sessions, consultations, and events, updating it regularly to highlight approaches and design principles identified by the team as requiring extra support and attention. Through codesign relationships, exemplars showcasing value and tailored support, the learning design team successfully created awareness and enthusiasm to drive institutional change (McInnes, Aitchison, & Sloot, 2020, Taylor & Newton, 2013) toward an active, learner-centered blended approach. In this presentation, we will share specific strategies, tools, and lessons learned that equipped our team to foster stakeholder buy-in and scale up effectively. By documenting critical experiences and insights from our journey establishing awareness amidst obstacles, we aim to inspire innovative solutions so that others may successfully implement learner-centered pedagogies at their institutions under challenging conditions.

    Read article: Co-Creating the Future : A Learning Design Team's Journey Fostering Institutional Change

  • Supporting students and educators in using generative artificial intelligence

    Kim Taylor

    The use of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) in university settings is a current topic of debate, with a range of viewpoints regarding the extent to which these tools should be used by students (Ahmad et al., 2023) and the potential applications of genAI tools in higher education (Yu & Guo, 2023). Concerns have also been raised regarding the potential student misuse of genAI tools, and the ability of these tools to score a passing grade in some university subjects (Nikolic et al., 2023). RMIT University’s position is that we must build the capability in our students to engage with AI as part of the current and future requirements of work. The RMIT units responsible for academic quality and for education innovation have created a set of statements that educators can choose from when designing assessment tasks. These statements include there being no restrictions on the use of genAI tools in the assessment task, that genAI tools can be used with limitations, or that genAI tools cannot be used. If students are permitted to use genAI tools in assessment tasks, they must appropriately acknowledge and reference the use of these tools and their outputs. In the library, we were tasked with creating citing and referencing guidelines for AI-generated content for each of the styles used at our institution, including APA 7th, IEEE, Chicago 17th and AGLC4. A challenge of this project was that there was either no specific genAI referencing advice provided by the style manual editors, or the advice was limited to a specific tool, e.g. ChatGPT in the case of APA 7th (McAdoo, 2023) and Chicago 17th (The Chicago Manual of Style Online, n.d.). We adapted the existing style advice for referencing software for the APA 7th, Harvard, Chicago 17th, and IEEE styles, the advice for referencing internet sources for Vancouver, and the advice for referencing personal correspondence for AGLC 4. We created referencing guidelines for both AI-generated text and images, as well as when genAI was used for background research. We also incorporated current Australian copyright advice into these guidelines, in which authorship can only be granted to human creators, and so the creator of the tool was used as the author rather than the tool itself. These guidelines are housed in a subject guide (RMIT, 2023) which has received more than 17,000 views between February and July 2023. We also updated our Academic Integrity Awareness (AIA) microcredential to include educative information about genAI tools. We included guidance relating to the inaccurate information and ethical concerns in some of the current tools, as well as placing these tools within the overall context of academic integrity. This microcredential is used as a component of assessment tasks in many disciplines across our institution. These resources assist students in maintaining academic integrity when using genAI tools in their learning, and when using genAI in their future careers, as they reinforce the central requirement that the work of others (including work that is AI-generated) is appropriately acknowledged. These resources will continue to be updated as genAI tools evolve and become more widely used within learning.

    Read article: Supporting students and educators in using generative artificial intelligence

  • Reconceptualizing the curation of prescribed learning resources in an immersive block teaching model

    Clare Thorpe, Tanya St. Clair Honey, Erica Wilson

    The presentation will describe how the curation of prescribed learning resources has been reconceived as an enabler of an immersive block teaching model. Contemporary higher education curriculum relies on high quality learning resources to engage students, to encourage them to adopt deeper learning approaches (Gledhil et al., 2017) and to support students’ academic adjustment to university (Owusu-Ageyman & Mugume, 2023). Little has been written about learning resources and reading lists within the digital transformation of higher education in the post-pandemic environment. The presentation will showcase a new way to position prescribed learning resources accessed as an integral feature of constructively aligned pedagogy within an immersive teaching model. Through the lens of an institutional case study at Southern Cross University, the presentation will show how prescribed learning resources delivered via integrated reading list technology are an enabling element of an innovative, student-centred, university-wide curriculum renewal project. At a time of increasing student expectations of teaching quality, academic, educational design and library staff need to review whether reading lists of learning resources are fit for purpose (Brewerton, 2014) and consider the cognitive load placed on students by reading (Barile et al., 2022). The presentation will outline the evidence-based, policy-led approach adopted by Southern Cross University and will demonstrate how learning resources and reading lists can contribute to student success. Prescribed learning resources and reading lists are now seen as pedagogical tools within the immersive teaching model, providing a variety of media-rich learning resources aligned to unit learning outcomes. Reading list parameters ensure that a manageable volume of learning is implemented, reducing cognitive load and barriers to participation. The approach to reading lists taken by Southern Cross University to empower immersive teaching practices provides a refreshed model for the use of prescribed learning resources in unit and curriculum design, development, and delivery.

    Read article: Reconceptualizing the curation of prescribed learning resources in an immersive block teaching model

  • There has to be a better way

    Susan Tull

    With your laptop open in front of you, you’re ready to take notes on the new teaching intervention being introduced at today’s session. You’re feeling distracted by the research ideas you wanted to work on this morning, and the assessment grading you need to finish this afternoon. Today wasn’t a good time to focus on course development, but it was the only time this professional development session was being offered. At the end of the session you leave with a collection of notes, some great ideas, and the enthusiasm to implement changes that really make a difference. You go back to your grading, your research, and your teaching. Weeks later you look at your notes and wonder how you’re going to actually make those changes. There has to be a better way. As a TELedvisor, you find these one-off professional development sessions just as frustrating. Fresh teaching ideas are presented, champions share their exemplary practice, and opportunities for collaboration are provided, but often the same fully engaged academics attend each session. Overall improvement in course development across the institution doesn’t take place. You could run a day or three of focused course design sessions, if lecturers could commit to attending. You could have instructional designers develop the online or blended elements of a course, but if the teacher isn’t invested, or doesn’t understand the reasoning behind the design or the activities that have been implemented, then time-poor lecturers often teach in the way that they’ve been used to. Formal qualifications in tertiary teaching can support the development of a greater understanding, but only a few lecturers have the time or the enthusiasm to undertake these. There has to be a better way. The Academic Development team are trying something different at the University of Canterbury. We are implementing a learner centric process for professional development for teaching and course development. We have designed a flexible, blended, learner driven professional development process, in which lecturers are invited to take part. This process utilises many of the recommended practices for effective professional development (Cordingley et al.,2015; Darling-Hammond et al.,2017; Hertz et al., 2022; Richardson & Díaz Maggioli, 2018) as well as strategies we recommend for tertiary teaching, and is undertaken at a time and pace that works for the lecturer(s) of a course. Through both format and content, the process provides examples of good practice, involves lecturers in flipped learning, offers expert support, incorporates collaborative course development, and promotes reflective practice. How has this process been designed? How does it work? How is it being implemented? Is it having an impact? Commit seven minutes of your time to finding out (and bring your laptop to take notes).

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