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2015: ASCILITE 2015 Conference Proceedings: Globally connected, digitally enabled

 

 

 

 

The proceedings of the 2015 ASCILITE Conference: Globally connected, digitally enabled

T. Reiners, B.R. von Konsky, D. Gibson, V. Chang, L. Irving, & K. Clarke (Eds.)

Globally connected, digitally enabled. Proceedings ASCILITE 2015 Perth

Curtin University, Perth, Australia

November 29 - December 2, 2015

ASCILITE2015 Conference Website https://2015conference.ascilite.org/

Published: 27 November 2015

ASCILITE Conference - Concise Papers

  • Can learning analytics provide useful insights? : An exploration on course level

    Eva Heinrich

    This concise paper reports on an analysis of access logs of a first year university course that was delivered in a blended format. This analysis is an initial step in a wider project aimed at investigating if learning analytics can provided useful insights on course level, targeting both student learning and the needs of teachers. Preliminary findings show potential in noting when students need targeted help, a lack of correlation between access logs and grades, and insights into the degree by which course completion rates are affected by the lack of student engagement.

    Read article: Can learning analytics provide useful insights? : An exploration on course level

  • A pedagogical end game for exams: A look 10 years into the future of high stakes assessment

    Mathew Hillier, Belina Gibbons

    This short paper looks ahead 10 years to a possible future for high stakes assessment in Australian higher education. The authors discuss some of the drivers pushing towards this future along with desirable operational features and pedagogical capabilities of an e-exam system for the year 2025. This paper represents a vision or road map to which a newly established, half million-dollar, Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching national project on e-exams will be contributing over the next three years.

    Read article: A pedagogical end game for exams: A look 10 years into the future of high stakes assessment

  • Are Higher Education Institutions Prepared for Learning Analytics?

    Dirk Ifenthaler

    Learning analytics may provide multiple benefits for higher education institutions and for involved stakeholders by using different data analytics strategies to produce summative, real-time and predictive insights and recommendations. However, are institutions and academic as well as administrative staff prepared for learning analytics? Considering a learning analytics benefits matrix, this study investigates the current capabilities for learning analytics at higher education institutions, explores the importance of data sources for a valid learning analytics framework, and builds an understanding on how important insights from learning analytics are perceived. Findings revealed a lack of staff and technology being available for learning analytics projects. It is concluded that more empirical research focussing on the validity of learning analytics frameworks and on expected benefits for learning and instruction is required to confirm the high hopes this promising emerging technology is suggesting.

    Read article: Are Higher Education Institutions Prepared for Learning Analytics?

  • A blended learning ecosystem: What are the motivational issues for students?

    Maggie Hartnett, Alison Kearney, Mandia Mentis

    As technologies evolve, the places and spaces for learning are rapidly changing and learners are required to take increasing responsibility for directing their own learning. By doing so, students are presented with a range of opportunities and challenges within these complex learning environments. Research suggests that an important consideration is the effect on learner motivation. This paper reports on motivational issues for students working within an online post-graduate professional teacher education programme that blends lecturer-directed and student-directed learning. In 2014, students completed a survey about their experiences of setting their own learning goals and negotiating their own curriculum with an emphasis on motivation. This was followed by a series of interviews aimed at exploring these experiences in more depth. Preliminary findings highlight anxiety about choosing course content and setting learning goals were among key concerns identified by students. Results provide insight into motivational considerations for learners in complex learning eco-systems.

    Read article: A blended learning ecosystem: What are the motivational issues for students?

  • Measuring creativity in collaborative design projects in pre-service teacher education

    Shannon Kennedy-Clark, Sean Kearney, Katrina Eddles-Hirsch, Rod De La Hoz, Vilma Galstaun, Penny Wheeler

    Pre-service teacher education in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has been the focus of numerous studies. In this paper, we further extend this body of research by examining the functions of creativity and how creative outputs are measured in pre-service teacher education, chiefly by discussing how students are assessed in terms of their creativities in design projects. The research aimed to evaluate the measures that had been put in place to ensure that the creative value of the student tasks was assessed objectively. Several strategies were used including a process-based task design, opportunities for students to revisit and refine designs, collaborative brainstorming, self-assessment, rubrics, panel marking by experts, and a design space that supported creativity. It was found that while interpretations of creativity were subjective, the students’ aim to develop creative outputs was fostered by the peer review and self-review processes adopted for the study.

    Read article: Measuring creativity in collaborative design projects in pre-service teacher education

  • How to develop an online community for pre-service and early career teachers?

    Nick Kelly, Marc Clarà, Marlene Pratt

    This paper contributes a number of design principles for developing large-scale online communities of pre-service and early career teachers (PS&ECTs). It presents the paradigms of connected learning, networked learning and communities of practice and contrasts them. It describes the potential for online communities to meet the needs of PS&ECTs and it identifies gaps that exist within certain types of existing online communities that currently support PS&ECTs. The paper proposes design principles for a new type of online community for PS&ECTs. These principles are drawn from the literature and from the preliminary outcomes of a pilot study.

    Read article: How to develop an online community for pre-service and early career teachers?

  • Collaboration between Primary Students and the Use of an Online Learning Environment: The Previous Collaborative Work Experiences Factor

    Aikaterini Kokkinaki

    This paper reports findings from a research study which involved the use of an Online Learning Environment by Greek primary students in their school classroom and from home for a period of six weeks for the development of a wiki for a school project. This research study sought to answer whether and how collaboration can be supported between primary students with the use of an Online Learning Environment. Although collaboration is often reported as the outcome from the use of technology in an educational context, this paper presents research findings to show that collaboration between primary students with the use of an Online Learning Environment is associated with students' previous collaborative work experiences.

    Read article: Collaboration between Primary Students and the Use of an Online Learning Environment: The Previous Collaborative Work Experiences Factor

  • A digital what? : Creating a playspace to increase the quality of technology-enhanced teaching and learning

    Heather Lamond, Andrew John Rowatt

    This paper outlines a work in progress to create a shared learning space that will enable teaching staff to be exposed to a broad range of established and emerging digital technologies with the aim of increasing their digital literacy and self-efficacy levels so that technologies can be integrated into teaching practice. The project is a partnership between the Centre for Teaching and Learning, and the Library and will facilitate easy, supported access to technologies that individual teaching staff would not otherwise be able to experience. Premised on the importance of experiential learning to develop knowledge, skills and confidence the space will be designed for collaborative and playbased learning and development.

    Read article: A digital what? : Creating a playspace to increase the quality of technology-enhanced teaching and learning

  • The three pillars to building staff capability to create digital learning experiences

    Catherine Manning, Hero Macdonald

    Many institutions are grappling with building staff capability in the complex task of designing and creating high-quality, technology-rich digital learning experiences informed by pedagogy. This paper provides an overview of a pilot program with two interactions implemented at the University of Melbourne called the Digital Learning Design (DLD) program. Focused on building Library’s organisational capability the program was built on three pillars of staff capability; deep knowledge of learning theory, learning design principles and skills in selecting digital technologies. The DLD design drew on research in change management, effective capability building as well as best practice in developing digital technology skills. Learners experienced the learning theories taught with the program design including the concepts of the flipped classroom, authentic learning and community of practice. This paper showcases an innovative and successful approach to addressing the issue of enduring staff capability to create digital learning experiences.

    Read article: The three pillars to building staff capability to create digital learning experiences

  • Developing Self-Regulated Learning through Reflection on Learning Analytics in Online Learning Environments

    Alexander Mikroyannidis, Tracie Marie Farrell Frey

    This paper describes a conceptual framework for developing self-regulated learning through facilitated dialogue and reflection on learner activity in online learning environments. In particular, the framework focuses on the motivational and contextual aspects of self-regulated learning and how the field of learning analytics can support student metacognitive knowledge in these two areas and distribute instructional support.

    Read article: Developing Self-Regulated Learning through Reflection on Learning Analytics in Online Learning Environments

  • Personalising professional learning mobility in Higher Education

    Maxine Mitchell, Caroline Cottman

    The trends and impacts of digital technologies in the higher education sector mean that change is an ongoing, organic factor in response to the personalised nature in which society works, learns, lives, communicates, and connects. Such dynamic educational settings provide new environments for learning mobility that transcend boundaries of time, place, convention and learning community. This paper is fundamentally concerned with how educators, as adult learners, learn in a time when institutions, through their teaching staff, are attempting to address the fast pace innovations in learning and teaching. This paper describes a regional university’s approach to reconceptualising a model of professional learning that offers personalised, collaborative, and transformative learning experiences for its educators. The aim is to develop professional learning initiatives that are responsive to the educator’s learning mobility needs whilst also enriching the student learning experience and addressing institutional strategic priorities.

    Read article: Personalising professional learning mobility in Higher Education

  • Connecting fun and learning: An activity-theoretical approach to competency based game development

    Mark O'Rourke

    Games-based learning has the potential to improve engagement and skill development. This research explores the development of the White Card Game and the impact that fun has on learning outcomes. The first-person shooter style game offers a contextualised, situated experience that equips learners with skills and an understanding of the socially complex world of work. The research has approached the analysis through an Activity Theoretical framework. This approach involved: analysing the interactions between components in the games-based learning activity system while they evolved; identifying contradictions and exploring the mediation that progressed the activity outcome; and examining fun within the games-based learning context. This analysis revealed significant increases in knowledge transfer, skill development and engagement with the curriculum in comparison to conventional pedagogical approaches.

    Read article: Connecting fun and learning: An activity-theoretical approach to competency based game development

  • Learners’ confusion: Faulty prior knowledge or a metacognitive monitoring error?

    Mariya Pachman, Amael Arguel, Lori Lockyer

    Research often treats confusion as a turning point of the learners’ cognitive-affective dynamics in digital environments (e.g. D’Mello, Grasser and colleagues). The origin of confusion, however, is a topic of a debate. Could inaccurate prior knowledge serve as a source of confusion, or does confusion relate to metacognitive processes? In this paper we are attempting to address this question by employing case study analysis with fourteen participants who worked through simulated learning problems with feedback in a digital environment. Physiological and self-reported data were combined to examine problem-solving patterns. Preliminary findings highlighted the role of metacognitive monitoring in confusion development and its interrelation with inaccurate prior knowledge.

    Read article: Learners’ confusion: Faulty prior knowledge or a metacognitive monitoring error?

Showing 53–65 of 124 articles