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2016: ASCILITE 2016 Conference Proceedings: Show Me The Learning

The proceedings of the 2016 ASCILITE Conference: Show Me The Learning

S. Barker, S. Dawson, A. Pardo, & C. Colvin (Eds.), Show Me The Learning. Proceedings ASCILITE 2016 Adelaide

 

The University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

November 28-30, 2016

ASCILITE2016 Conference Website https://2016conference.ascilite.org/

Published: 25 November 2016

ASCILITE Conference - Full Papers

  • Deakin Hallmarks: Principles for employability credentials

    Trina Jorre de St Jorre, Liz Johnson, Beverley Oliver

    Graduates need to be able to articulate and evidence their capabilities in order to secure or create opportunities for meaningful work (Oliver, 2013). Therefore, students should be made aware of the capabilities required in the workplace and encouraged to actively integrate learning experience from their coursework with learning and achievements from other aspects of their lives. However, getting students to engage with graduate capabilities and think ahead about employment is a challenge. Deakin Hallmarks are an extra-curricular work-integrated assessment strategy designed to give students the opportunity to differentiate themselves to employers by recognising outstanding achievement through digital credentials. Here we report on the design principles and processes developed to ensure that they warrant meaningful achievement in the workplace; and encourage students to become aware of the capabilities they will require specific to their intended career.

    Read article: Deakin Hallmarks: Principles for employability credentials

  • All roads lead to Rome: Tracking students' affect as they overcome misconceptions

    Gregor Kennedy, Jason Lodge

    Helping students to overcome misconceptions is a complex problem in digital learning environments in which students need to monitor their own progress and self-regulate their own learning. This is particularly so in flexible, discovery-based environments that have been criticised for the lack of support and structure provided to students. Emerging evidence suggests that discovery-based environments might be ineffective due to students becoming confused, frustrated or bored. In the study reported here, we examined the affective experience of students as they worked to overcome a common misconception in a discovery-based environment. While the results suggest that students experience a range of emotions, they all successfully overcame their initial misconception. Implications for the investigation of student affect in discovery-based environments and the design of these environments are also discussed.

    Read article: All roads lead to Rome: Tracking students' affect as they overcome misconceptions

  • Engineering professional identity practices: Investigating the use of web search in collaborative decision making

    Maryam Khosronejad, Peter Reimann, Lina Markauskaite

    Collaborative learning and problem solving are important aspects of engineering professional practice that need to be addressed in preparing competent engineering graduates and forming their professional identities. Taking the learning as becoming a professional perspective, we illustrate the diversity of engineering practices in a collaborative decision-making episode, where students' participation in the activity is mediated by their use of web search. We present how our development of the implied identity approach could help to understand how technology mediates collaborative sense making in relation to professional practices and identities. We illustrate this by providing examples of ways in which students use web information to justify their decision making.

    Read article: Engineering professional identity practices: Investigating the use of web search in collaborative decision making

  • Incorporating student-facing learning analytics into pedagogical practice

    Kirsty Kitto, Mandy Lupton, Kate Davis, Zak Waters

    Despite a narrative that sees Learning Analytics (LA) as a field that enhances student learning, few student-facing solutions have been developed. A lack of tools enables a sophisticated student focus, and it is difficult for educators to imagine how data can be used in authentic practice. This is unfortunate, as LA has the potential to be a powerful tool for encouraging metacognition and reflection. We propose a series of learning design patterns that will help people to incorporate LA into their teaching protocols: do-analyse-change-reflect, active learning squared, and group contribution. We discuss these learning design patterns with reference to a case study provided by the Connected Learning Analytics (CLA) toolkit, demonstrating that student-facing learning analytics is not just a future possibility, but an area that is ripe for further development.

    Read article: Incorporating student-facing learning analytics into pedagogical practice

  • Professional identity and teachers' learning technology adoption: A review of adopter-related antecedents

    Qian Liu, Susan Geertshuis

    This paper reviews adopter-related antecedents of learning technology adoption by higher education teachers. We, drawing on findings from Management and Psychology, Computing, and Education, suggest an adopter-centered perspective on teachers' learning technology adoption and identify work-related, technology-related, and teaching-related antecedents, which reflect aspects of teachers' professional identity. We further argue that teachers' professional identity shapes their perception of innovation characteristics, which in turn affects learning technology adoption. The paper concludes by highlighting that future research and practice should explore aspects of professional identity in order to more fully explain learning technology adoption, and should facilitate the adoption process through addressing the reconstruction of professional identity.

    Read article: Professional identity and teachers' learning technology adoption: A review of adopter-related antecedents

  • Cross-institutional collaboration to support student engagement: SRES version 2

    Jenny McDonald, Danny Liu, Adon Moskal, Richard Zeng, Marion Blumenstein, Cathy Gunn, Steve Leichtweis, Abelardo Pardo

    Descriptions of cross-institutional, educational technology development initiatives that emphasise what actually works in real-world classrooms are rare. In this paper, we describe a multiinstitution collaboration that grew from grassroots classroom needs and proved resilient in the face of institutional change. We explain how the initiative came about, how it survived unanticipated change, and how it led to the development of a new open source learning analytics tool for student engagement. We provide some reflections on the first pilot study of the tool and describe future plans. The authors welcome new collaborators and invite interested readers to evaluate and extend the tool for themselves.

    Read article: Cross-institutional collaboration to support student engagement: SRES version 2

  • Building cognitive bridges in mathematics : Exploring the role of screencasting in scaffolding flexible learning and engagement

    Catherine McLoughlin, Birgit Loch

    Conceptual learning in mathematics can be made more accessible with mathscasts, which are dynamic, digitally recorded playbacks of worked examples and mathematical problem-solving on a computer screen, accompanied by audio narration. Mathscasts aim to enable students to develop deeper understanding of key foundational concepts in order to equip them to undertake degrees in Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Previous research has indicated the success of maths screencasts to provide explanations of complex concepts and reinforcement of concepts previously learnt. The project presented here extends current research by demonstrating the value of visual, interactive screencasts for learning of mathematics, and investigates students' perceptions. A survey of students' use of screencasts identifies learners' usage patterns, the significance of offering mathematics support via mathscasts in flexible mode, and students' integration of mathscasts into their study strategies. The results show positive implications for the integration of multimodal learning resources in STEM environments.

    Read article: Building cognitive bridges in mathematics : Exploring the role of screencasting in scaffolding flexible learning and engagement

  • Evaluation of a learning outcomes taxonomy to support autonomous classification of instructional activities

    Mark McMahon, Michael Garrett

    With an increased focus on assuring the quality of student achievement in higher education, there is a commensurate need for tools to assist academics in understanding the nature of assessment and how it can provide evidence of student learning outcomes. This paper describes research conducted the Instructional Activity Matrix; a taxonomy that was developed as the basis of a learning support tool, Maestro, that automatically analyses outcomes and assessment statements to show the cognitive level and nature of knowledge inherent in them. Findings indicate that the matrix is a valid tool for defining the nature of learning outcomes and had value in clarifying the nature of assessment and outcomes. However, issues identified with the inherent ambiguity of some instructional statements and their contextually-laden language provided insights into how Maestro will need to be refined to provide appropriate support for teachers, with a range of experience across multiple disciplines.

    Read article: Evaluation of a learning outcomes taxonomy to support autonomous classification of instructional activities

  • Challenges implementing social constructivist learning approaches: The case of Pictation

    Adon Moskal, Swee-Kin Loke, Noelyn Hung

    Most medical professionals need to make meaning of clinical images collaboratively with colleagues. To develop this ability in our Health Sciences students, we designed a social constructivist learning activity where students jointly annotate clinical images via an in-house web application, Pictation. We conducted a case study with 85 third-year students using Pictation alongside lectures and tutorials. The learning activity was evaluated via a survey questionnaire, interviews, and observations. Three challenges in implementing a social constructivist learning activity were identified: student's inadequate prior knowledge; embarrassment in exposing inadequate understanding to peers; and need for certainty. These challenges pose particular dilemmas for teachers wanting to implement social constructivist learning because such learning approaches inherently imply that students: have incomplete prior knowledge; are willing to expose incomplete understanding to peers; and are comfortable with uncertainty. Our findings and recommendations can serve to guide teachers and academic developers in implementing social constructivist learning in realistic contexts.

    Read article: Challenges implementing social constructivist learning approaches: The case of Pictation

  • Mobile learning in the Asia-Pacific region:: Exploring challenges hindering the sustainable design of mobile learning initiatives

    Angela Murphy, Hazel Jones, Helen Farley

    Higher education institutions and government departments in the Asia-Pacific region have invested significantly in technological innovation to enhance educational delivery and redress inequality in access to formal education. As a result of the fast-paced growth of mobile adoption and mobile internet access in these regions, universities are able to leverage the affordances of mobile devices to offer greater flexibility to students. Despite the emphasis on enhancing technological capacity, there remains significant challenges to the effective adoption of strategies to integrate mobile technologies in learning and teaching. This article briefly explores 12 projects undertaken at different universities across nine countries. The projects were selected from 28 chapters submitted to an edited book on supporting the implementation of sustainable mobile learning initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. The motivation and aims of each of the projects are compared and the primary challenges are explored at four levels of institutional stakeholders.

    Read article: Mobile learning in the Asia-Pacific region:: Exploring challenges hindering the sustainable design of mobile learning initiatives

  • A blended learning model and a design model combine to support academics in pedagogical redesign of the curriculum

    Linda Pannan, Katherine Legge

    Mostly, blended learning is simply interpreted as the combination of face-to-face and computermediated learning (Graham, 2006). Unfortunately, this definition not only hides the complexity and transformative possibilities of blended learning, it can also leave the academic teaching developer without the detail and certainty they need to develop learning designs that address their institution's blended delivery expectations and meet their students' learning needs. Our approach to supporting academic change to blended learning addresses these uncertainties and places emphasis on the pedagogic strategies that guide student learning activity and drive the design of integrated learning experiences across learning environments. We present two models - a four phase blended learning model and a two-layer design model, and demonstrate how the properties of each combine to afford a blended learning design approach. Early indications of its effectiveness are promising and favourable responses to the model's simplicity and use indicate they may support teaching developers across other contexts.

    Read article: A blended learning model and a design model combine to support academics in pedagogical redesign of the curriculum

  • Developing low barrier courses using open textbooks: A University of Southern Queensland case study

    Helen Partridge, Adrian Stagg, Emma Power

    Open Educational Resources (OER) have continued to gain significant global traction over the last decade, with research claiming the transformative power of these resources for broadening access and participation in Higher Education and driving new pedagogical approaches. In 2015, the University of Southern Queensland funded four open textbook grants as a pilot project that aimed to not only provide students with free and open learning materials, but also purposefully support staff as open practitioners. As part of an institutional commitment to open education, this project actively sought recommendations and strategies from the grant participants to mainstream the creation, use, and reuse of openly-licenced resources within holistic course design to support critical 21st century literacies. A community of inquiry model was used as the mechanism to support a discovery approach to the creation of open materials and qualitative participant data was gathered at key milestones during the grant through semi-structured interviews.

    Read article: Developing low barrier courses using open textbooks: A University of Southern Queensland case study

  • Multimodal feedback is not always clearer, more useful or satisfying

    Michael Phillips, Michael Henderson, Tracii Ryan

    Feedback comments on summative assessment tasks are an importnat part of students' learning experience. Recently, researchers have noted that digitally recorded comments can be beneficial for both students and educators. This paper compares the clarity, usefulness and satisfaction of digitally recorded and text-based feedback comments produced by 14 tutors in a large Master's level Education unit. A sample of 164 students completed the online survey. Initial analysis of the data reveal mixed results. When secondary variables are accounted for and outliers discounted it is revealed that digitally recorded multimodal feedback processes, in general, can be clearer, more useful and more satisfying. However, it is also clear that using technology such as video is not a silicon bullet to improving feedback. Several potential factors are identified and are discussed in terms of micro- and meso-level contextual conditions that need to be further researched.

    Read article: Multimodal feedback is not always clearer, more useful or satisfying

Showing 14–26 of 107 articles