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2017: ASCILITE 2017 Conference Proceedings: Me, Us, IT!

The proceedings of the 2017 ASCILITE Conference: Me, Us, IT!

H. Partridge, K. Davis, & J. Thomas. (Eds.), Me, Us, IT! Proceedings ASCILITE 2017: Queensland

 

The University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

December 4-6, 2017

ASCILITE2017 Conference Website https://2017conference.ascilite.org/

Published: 30 November 2017

ASCILITE Conference - Concise Papers

  • A learning analytics pilot in Moodle and its impact on developing organisational capacity in a university

    Jean-Christophe Froissard, Danny Liu, Deborah Richards, Amara Atif

    Moodle is used as a learning management system around the world. However, integrated learning analytics solutions for Moodle that provide actionable information and allow teachers to efficiently use it to connect with their students are lacking. The enhanced Moodle Engagement Analytics Plugin (MEAP), presented at ASCILITE2015, enabled teachers to identify and contact students at-risk of not completing their units. Here, we discuss a pilot using MEAP in 36 units at Macquarie University, a metropolitan Australian university. We use existing models for developing organisational capacity in learning analytics and to embed learning analytics into the practice of teaching and learning to discuss a range of issues arising from the pilot. We outline the interaction and interdependency of five stages during the pilot: technology infrastructure, analytics tools and applications; policies, processes, practices and workflows; values and skills; culture and behaviour; and leadership. We conclude that one of the most significant stages is to develop a culture and behaviour around learning analytics.

    Read article: A learning analytics pilot in Moodle and its impact on developing organisational capacity in a university

  • ‘One size does not fit all’: Towards cultural adaptivity in learning management systems

    Joy Galaige, Geraldine Torrisi-Steele

    Online learning is immensely popular and attracts learners from diverse cultural backgrounds. Given learning is situated in culture, the diversity of online students presents a great challenge to course designers, but remains largely unaddressed. To complicate matters, Learning Management Systems (LMS), though efficient and easy to use for course design, promote a one-size-fits-all’ approach. The PhD study referred to in this paper seeks to make inroads to cultural sensitivity in LMS. A beginning point for the project is to explore Instructional designers’ perspectives on culturally sensitive online learning design features. We report on the early findings from this first step and aim to incite rich discussion around culture, instructional design and online learning.

    Read article: ‘One size does not fit all’: Towards cultural adaptivity in learning management systems

  • Face-to-face and virtual mathematics enrichment for rural schools:: Intersection of teachers, students, technology and pedagogy

    Linda Galligan, Ron Addie, Linda Stern, Taryn Axelsen

    In this paper the authors report on the University of Southern Queensland’s (USQ) Mathematics Rural and Regional Communities (MRRC) project. This project is an extension to the Mathematics Enrichment Program (MEP), which has been running since 2007. Since the MEP’s inception, more than 500 students, 29 schools, 15 pre-service teachers (who are involved to gain practical teaching experience) and many volunteer university lecturers and other mathematics and education professionals have been involved. The MRRC project builds on USQ’s MEP to offer content in an online or virtual format. Through an interactive virtual environment, the MRRC project connects regional high schools to USQ’s two campuses to build the capacity of the teachers and students involved. The authors describe the overall aim and structure of the MRRC program, preliminary evaluations of the program, analysis of the virtual space and future plans for the program.

    Read article: Face-to-face and virtual mathematics enrichment for rural schools:: Intersection of teachers, students, technology and pedagogy

  • Explaining learning achievement in student experience of blended learning: What can a sociomaterial perspective contribute?

    Feifei Han, Robert Ellis

    Drawing on theories of student approaches to learning and sociomaterial perspectives on learning, we investigated how a combination of sociocognitive and sociomaterial variables explain variation in 365 students’ learning achievement in a first year human biology blended learning course in an Australian research intensive university. We used a close-ended questionnaire to measure students’ approaches to learning through inquiry, approaches to using online learning technologies, and their use of on-campus physical learning spaces. We obtained use of online learning tools in terms of frequency and duration through analytics provided by a proprietary learning management system. Students’ learning achievement was evaluated using six assessment tasks in the course. Correlation analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between approaches, use of online learning tools, use of oncampus physical learning spaces, and achievement. Based on the correlation results, we regressed learning achievement on approaches, use of online learning tools and physical learning spaces. The results showed that by introducing sociomaterial variables into the regression model, a significant proportion of learning achievement was explained over and above the explanations offered by sociocognitive factors alone, highlighting the important role of both sociocognitive and sociomaterial factors in blended learning.

    Read article: Explaining learning achievement in student experience of blended learning: What can a sociomaterial perspective contribute?

  • The effect of digital game-based language learning mobile application on the development of complexity, accuracy, and fluency in foreign language monologic oral production among Chinese learners of English as a foreign language

    Feifei Han, Zehua Wang

    The study reported the effect of a digital game-based language learning (DGBLL) mobile application “Speaking English Fluently – An Automated Scoring Artificial Intelligent Tutoring System on Spoken English” on the complexity, accuracy, and fluency in foreign language (FL) monologic oral production among 31 second year Chinese university learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The participants’ monologic oral production was measured in the first (week 1) and last week (week 21) of a semester using the same narrative picture description task. The oral production was audio-recorded and transcribed. Both the transcripts and audio-files were analyzed on the complexity, accuracy, and fluency dimensions. The complexity was measured using the number of Mean (M) words per T-unit, the accuracy dimension was measured using the number of repairs and errors per 100 words; and the fluency dimension was measured via speech rate (i.e., number of words per minute), and M length of pauses. Students were required to download the mobile application and followed the monological practice section twice a week for 30 minutes each time. Using paired sample t-tests, we found that even though the participants’ repair rate and speech rate remained unchanged, they produced more complex monologic speech, had significantly fewer errors, and reduced average length of pauses after 20 weeks treatment using the mobile application, demonstrating a positive effect of the DGBLL mobile application on FL learners’ monologic oral production.

    Read article: The effect of digital game-based language learning mobile application on the development of complexity, accuracy, and fluency in foreign language monologic oral production among Chinese learners of English as a foreign language

  • Transforming exams: how IT works for BYOD e-Exams

    Mathew Hillier, Andrew Fluck

    This paper focuses on the 'IT' side of a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) based e-Exam system developed as part of an Australian government funded project. In short, students in the exam room boot their own laptops using a specially crafted USB stick that contains a standardised operating system and application suite. By giving teachers and students access to contemporary software tools we are providing the opportunity to greatly expand the pedagogical landscape of the exam room encouraging more authentic assessment practices. The roles for the 'Us' (organisations) and 'Me' individuals within the process of running an e-exam are also outlined in order to provide a richer description on the approach.

    Read article: Transforming exams: how IT works for BYOD e-Exams

  • Social media in enabling education

    Susan Hopkins

    This paper argues that students from rural and low socio-economic status (LSES) backgrounds, who undertake enabling education, benefit from the social, cultural and network capital which digital, narrative and connective platforms may provide in pre-tertiary teaching and learning. In particular, this paper discusses the trial of the use of the social networking site Facebook as a learning management system within an enabling tertiary preparation program designed to raise the aspirations and widen the participation of economically and geographically disadvantaged young people. It also discusses the role of new media in an approach to Tertiary Preparation which recognises that to succeed in their university study, non-traditional students need to develop not only academic skills and confidence, but the skills and confidence to survive and thrive in the broader digital society.

    Read article: Social media in enabling education

  • The synergistic and dynamic relationship between learning design and learning analytics

    Dirk Ifenthaler, David Gibson, Eva Dobozy

    The synergistic relationship between learning design and learning analytics has the potential for improving learning and teaching in near real-time. The potential for integrating the newly available and dynamic information from ongoing analysis into learning design requires new perspectives on learning and teaching data processing and analysis as well as advanced theories, methods, and tools for supporting dynamic learning design processes. Three perspectives of learning analytics design provide summative, real-time, and predictive insights. In a case study with 3,550 users, the navigation sequence and network graph analysis demonstrate the potential of learning analytics design. The study aims to demonstrate how the analysis of navigation patterns and network graph analysis could inform the learning design of self-guided digital learning experiences. Even with open-ended freedom, only 608 sequences were evidenced by learners out of a potential number of hundreds of millions of sequences. Advancements of learning analytics design have the potential for mapping the cognitive, social and even physical states of the learner and optimise their learning environment on the fly.

    Read article: The synergistic and dynamic relationship between learning design and learning analytics

  • Me in a Minute: A simple strategy for developing and showcasing personal employability

    Trina Jorre de St Jorre, Liz Johnson, Gypsy O’Dea

    Graduates require evidence of employability beyond marks and grades to differentiate themselves in the highly competitive labour market. Universities cannot guarantee employment, but they can engage students in learning and recognise achievement that is relevant to employment. Here, we share preliminary insights from interviews investigating student perceptions of an extra-curricular video strategy designed to develop and showcase graduate employability. The Me in a Minute video strategy provides students with support to film a one minute video pitch aimed at potential employers. Student perceptions of the strategy suggest that in addition to providing an individualised artefact that can be used to showcase achievement, the strategy engages students in reflection that helps them to better understand and articulate evidence of their achievements relevant to employment. Furthermore, students value the learning associated with pitching, more than the video itself.

    Read article: Me in a Minute: A simple strategy for developing and showcasing personal employability

  • The power of Us:: Investigating the value of interaction and community in postgraduate studies

    Oriel Kelly, Nuhisifa Seve-Williams, Keshni Kumar, Binky Laureta

    The power of community – of Us – has long been assumed to be important in adult learning. Student interactions on discussion forums are encouraged, and it has been claimed that they foster a learning community which makes a difference to student outcomes through collaboration and joint construction of knowledge. This paper reports on interim results of a research project to establish, firstly, if there is a correlation between student participation in forums and their overall course outcomes, and secondly, shares a matrix designed to code both social and cognitive forum activity, to support an investigation into the existence of a learning community in student forum conversations – the power of Us.

    Read article: The power of Us:: Investigating the value of interaction and community in postgraduate studies

  • Knowing when to target students with timely academic learning support: Not a minefield with data mining

    Elizabeth McCarthy

    The strategic scheduling of timely engagement opportunities with academic learning support, targeting specific student cohorts requires intentional, informed and coordinated planning. Currently these timing decisions appear to be made with a limited student focus, which considers individual course units only as opposed to having an awareness of the schedule constraints imposed by the students’ full course workload. Hence, in order to respect the full student academic workload, and maximise the quantity and quality of opportunities for students to engage with learning advisors, a means to capture and work with the composition and distribution of student full workload is needed. A data mining approach is proposed in this concise paper, where public domain information accessed from the back end html language of course unit information webpages is collected and consolidated in graphical form. The resulting visualisation of the students’ academic learning activities provides a quick and convenient means for academics to make informed scheduling decisions. The case study presented describes the implementation of the data mining in the context of discipline specific academic learning advisors at the University of Southern Queensland servicing three campuses under the ‘One-University’ model.

    Read article: Knowing when to target students with timely academic learning support: Not a minefield with data mining

  • Quantext: Analysing student responses to short-answer questions

    Jenny McDonald, Adon Christian Michael Moskal

    We introduce a web-based tool for teachers to support the rapid analysis of student responses to short answer or mini-essay questions. Designed to support teaching in large-class settings, it aims to bring to practicing teachers analytic tools that can reveal insights in their student text data. We background development of the tool to date, briefly describe its architecture and features, and report on a benchtest evaluation. Finally, we introduce a pilot study to evaluate the tool in classrooms at three NZ universities and one polytechnic. We conclude with options for accessing the tool and outline plans for ongoing development.

    Read article: Quantext: Analysing student responses to short-answer questions

  • Monash Rocks: The first step in an augmented reality journey through deep time

    Barbara Macfarlan, Marian Anderson, Julie Boyce, Tom Chandler, Thomas Bochynek, Mike Yeates, Colin Maynard

    This paper describes the development of the “Monash Rocks” app - designed to bring our landscape to life through augmented reality. We describe the highs and lows of the development process, the lessons we learned along the way, and our plans for further development of the app to showcase the Monash Earth Sciences Garden and extend the space into further innovative, immersive teaching and learning experiences. The creation of Monash University’s Earth Sciences Garden (MESG), a "living" geological map of Victoria collating nearly 500 rock specimens, gave us the perfect vehicle for an Augmented Reality (AR) experience. Students and visitors to the MESG can now use the Monash Rocks App on their phones to view a 3D display that overlays the live camera feed on the device enhancing the experience of the environment, taking it to another dimension. The value in augmenting a learning environment is in its ability to pull virtual objects into real scenes (Green & Chandler, 2014, p.549), in this case expanding the physical environment through time and space on a journey back millions of years. The rock now becomes alive, telling its story and supplying information that is missing in the “real life” walk through the garden.

    Read article: Monash Rocks: The first step in an augmented reality journey through deep time

Showing 14–26 of 63 articles