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2019: ASCILITE 2019 Conference Proceedings: Personalised Learning. Diverse Goals. One Heart

The 2019 ASCILITE annual conference was hosted by Singapore University of Social Sciences, 2nd to 5th December.

Editors: Y. W. Chew, K. M. Chan, and A. Alphonso

Published: 2 December 2019

Full Issue

ASCILITE Conference - Full Papers

  • Exploring knowledge reuse in design for digital learning: tweaks, H5P, constructive templates and CASA

    David Jones

    Higher education is being challenged to improve the quality of learning and teaching while at the same time dealing with challenges such as reduced funding and increasing complexity. Design for learning has been proposed as one way to address this challenge, but a question remains around how to sustainably harness all the diverse knowledge required for effective design for digital learning. This paper proposes some initial design principles embodied in the idea of Context-Appropriate Scaffolding Assemblages (CASA) as one potential answer. These principles arose out of prior theory and work, contemporary digital learning practices and the early cycles of an Action Design Research process that developed two digital ensemble artefacts for 7 courses (units, subjects) and in less than a year been used in over 60 sites. Experience with this approach suggests it can successfully increase the level of design knowledge embedded in digital learning experiences, identify and address shortcomings with current practice, and have a positive impact on the quality of the learning environment.

    Read article: Exploring knowledge reuse in design for digital learning: tweaks, H5P, constructive templates and CASA

  • Barriers, enablers, and motivations for staff adoption of learning analytics: Insights for professional learning opportunities from an Australian university

    Hazel Jones

    Understanding the capabilities and motivations of academics towards adopting and using Learning Analytics (LA) to support their development of technology-enhanced learning is an important first step in designing an effective and flexible adoption plan. Situated in a regional university, this paper reports on the initial data-gathering stage of an on-going study aimed at designing and trialing an adoption plan to support individual staff to engage deeply with LA to inform and enhance their teaching practice and their students’ experiences. This paper analyses a staff survey (N=74) and transcripts from 28 semi-structured interviews conducted over 22 months with eight academics. Survey respondents reported low levels of knowledge about, and use of, LA, as well as a lack of confidence in accessing, interpreting, and acting on, data. Inductive and deductive thematic analyses of interview transcripts support these findings. Analysis further identified three main themes of indicators of successful LA adoption: effective learning design and enhanced teaching practice; improved student experience; and academic recognition. Based on these results, this paper proposes elements that can be included in a suite of professional learning opportunities that will enable academic developers and institutions to support individual staff to successfully adopt of LA.

    Read article: Barriers, enablers, and motivations for staff adoption of learning analytics: Insights for professional learning opportunities from an Australian university

  • Game-Based versus Gamified Learning Platform in Helping University Students Learn Programming

    Oka Kurniawan, Norman Tiong Seng Lee, Nachamma Sockalingam, Kin Leong Pey

    Novice learners of programming may benefit from some prior knowledge in programming before taking their first introductory programming course. In this study, we describe a workshop aiming to do so, that is offered to undergraduate students before their first programming course. Two online platforms are used in this study, a game-based platform (CodeCombat) and a gamified online tutorial (CodeAvengers). We compare the effects on learning of the two platforms on their academic performance, and investigate students’ preferences and subsequent usage of these platforms. Results show that the workshop participants prefer the gamified platform over the game-based platform for learning, and use during their programming course for revision and more practice. We found no significant difference in learning outcomes amongst those who participated in the workshop and those who did not. We discuss the findings and implications of this study in the paper.

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  • Do learning technologies contribute to reduce student drop- out? - A systematic review

    Berit Lassesen, Maria Hvid Stenalt, Dorte Sidelmann Rossen, Anna Bager-Elsborg

    As technology is increasingly being used for teaching and learning in higher education, it is important to examine what tangible educational gains are being achieved. Reducing drop-out rates have been proposed as one possible beneficial effect of the use of learning technologies. It is unclear, however, whether the available evidence supports such claims. The aim of this study was to explore whether learning technologies applied in higher education contexts can contribute to reduce student drop-out rates, and under which circumstances do learning technologies influence drop-out? Method: Two independent searches were conducted in relevant databases; evaluated full-texts, quality rated the included studies, and synthesized the findings. Results: A total of 18 peer-reviewed studies were included. Based on the quality assessment, 10 studies were eligible to extended data synthesis. The assertion that learning technologies in higher education contribute to reduce student drop-out is only partly supported. Positive findings were in particular found in relation to pedagogical issues, e.g., individualized personal support. This is in line with previous research, indicating that it is not the technology itself, but how the technology is used pedagogically that matter to students.

    Read article: Do learning technologies contribute to reduce student drop- out? - A systematic review

  • Predicting At-Risk Students for an Introductory Programming Course: A pilot study

    Norman Tiong Seng Lee, Oka Kurniawan

    Some novice learners of computer programming are at risk of doing badly in their first programming course. In this pilot study, we develop a logistic regression model to predict at- risk students in our introductory programming course. The model is developed using students’ high school grades on mathematics, features calculated from log data, and scores from a programming quiz. The model suggests that students who have lower mathematics grade, who submit their homework assignments late, and who have lower scores in the programming quiz are more likely to be at-risk. We discuss some implications of this result on our teaching and learning strategies in our course.

    Read article: Predicting At-Risk Students for an Introductory Programming Course: A pilot study

  • Practices and Challenges in a Flipped EFL Writing Classroom

    Su Ping Lee, Elena Verezub, Ida Fatimawati Adi Badiozaman

    Despite the widespread use of flipped teaching across educational disciplines, there is limited understanding on its use in the teaching and learning of English as a second language (ESL) writing in intensive English (IE) programmes for pre-university students. Such programmes face at least three constraints: the students’ low English proficiency, the shortage of time to bridge the English gap, and the necessity for academic English. This paper aims to explore practices and challenges of a flipped EFL writing classroom. In total, 38 students were given flipped writing classroom training. The participants watched video lectures on academic writing designed for the purpose of this study before the class, and then participated in interactive in-class learning activities. The study results revealed that the students performed the writing tasks significantly better in the post-test. The interviews with students showed that students favoured the greater time preparation, the immediate feedback, the increased opportunity to practise and interact, as well as the higher level of motivation and self-efficacy.

    Read article: Practices and Challenges in a Flipped EFL Writing Classroom

  • Data Analytics for Student Profiling and Academic Counselling

    Jizhi Li, Wai Ping Low, Lokesh Bheema Thiagarajan, Lu Chang Peh

    Data analytics can be used by universities student and learning data. By leveraging on data analytics and dashboards, universities and schools can become more proactive in profiling students and anticipating their needs, personalizing approaches to supporting students in academic distress and optimizing the allocation of university’s resources to efficiently and effectively counsel these students. In this paper, we outline the analytics framework that can be used on student data to derive insights, to readily observe and predict the students’ academic progression and performance, to characterise the academic risk of the student, and to identify the at-risk students at an early stage. With the early alert system in place, these students can then be counselled and rendered student support to be lifted out of the at-risk zone.

    Read article: Data Analytics for Student Profiling and Academic Counselling

  • Feeling supported: Enabling students in diverse cohorts through personalised, data-informed feedback

    Lisa-Angelique Lim, Anthea Fudge, Shane Dawson

    Students entering enabling programs as an alternative pathway to University tend to have higher rates of attrition than their peers admitted via more traditional pathways. Students in enabling programs require high levels of personalised feedback to support their transition to study. However, the size and diversity of the enabling student cohort presents formidable challenges for instructors. The field of learning analytics offers a viable solution for scaling the communication of personalised, data-informed feedback to support student learning. This study describes the use of a novel learning analytics-based feedback system called OnTask, to provide personalised feedback and support to students in an enabling course at one Australian higher education institution. An end-of-course student survey (N=41; 17% response rate) was employed to gain insights into their perceptions of personalised, data-informed feedback messages. Using importance-performance analysis (IPA), the survey results indicated that this technology-mediated form of feedback exceeded students’ expectations of learning support, as well as the enhancement of their overall course experience. The implications for using learning analytics and data-informed feedback mechanisms in teaching and learning are discussed.

    Read article: Feeling supported: Enabling students in diverse cohorts through personalised, data-informed feedback

  • E-learning: Working-adult Performances

    Kin Chew Lim, Wai Ping Low, Elaine Chapman

    This paper’s objective is to examine how the working-adult students' attitudes influence their e-learning performances. This research study involved two cohorts of students in the Principle of Project Management course at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). The research methods comprised a questionnaire survey and analysis of their learning assessments. In the first study, the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Pearson Correlation were used to determine the factors and their items that influenced the students’ e-learning attitudes. The second study involved determining the students’ familiarities with technology as used in teaching and learning. Students indicated their usage frequency for daily, weekly and monthly accesses. In the third study, the repeated measures ANOVA (ANalysis Of VAriance) and comparison of average scores were used to compare the students' performances in four different assessments. Subsequently, the results were used to compare the students’ performances in the traditional face-to-face learning and the online virtual classes. Conclusions were made on the students’ e-learning attitudes, their familiarities with technology and comparison in the learning performances between the traditional classroom learning and virtual learning. Results from this study will contribute to the e-learning strategic development in the SUSS.

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  • Using TEL for TEL: Building confidence of sessional staff to enhance their students' experience

    Danielle Logan, Hazel Jones, Trevor Foster, Lenka Boorer

    Sessional staff capacity building, and the role this plays in overcoming internationally recognised challenges for the provision of quality Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), continues to present a priority for the Higher Education (HE) sector. These sessional staff undertake approximately 40% of the teaching in the Griffith Business School and yet their contribution to quality learning and teaching has largely been unmeasured. This paper describes the backgrounds and experience of sessionals, their career aspirations, and their desires for professional learning and support to enhance the quality of their teaching. This is the first step in a five-stage project adopting an evidence-based approach using TEL to improve the TEL capabilities and confidence of sessional staff. The results of the survey described in this paper (N=47) show that many sessional staff are focused on careers in academia and are motivated to participate in professional learning that leads to formal qualifications. They express interest in engaging in this learning through face-to-face and online formal workshops, informal networking events with each other and faculty, and access to online support resources. The premise for this study and the model introduced, represents an adoptable and adaptable opportunity for the wider HE sector to more effectively deliver sessional staff professional development.

    Read article: Using TEL for TEL: Building confidence of sessional staff to enhance their students' experience

  • Profiling Language Learners in the Big Data Era

    Mauro Ocaña, Hassan Khosravi, Aneesha Bakharia

    The educational data revolution has empowered universities and educational institutes with rich data on their students, including information on their academic data (e.g., program completion, course enrolment, grades), learning activities (e.g., learning materials reviewed, discussion forum interactions, learning videos watched, projects conducted), learning process (i.e., time, place, path or pace of learning activities), learning experience (e.g., reflections, views, preferences) and assessment results. In this paper, we apply clustering to profile students from one of the largest Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in the field of Second Language Learning. We first analyse the profiles, revealing the diversity among students taking the same course. We then, referring to the results of our analysis, discuss how profiling as a tool can be utilised to identify at-risk students, improve course design and delivery, provide targeted teaching practices, compare and contrast different offerings to evaluate interventions, develop policy, and improve self-regulation in students. The findings have implications for the fields of personalised learning and differentiated instruction.

    Read article: Profiling Language Learners in the Big Data Era

  • Exploring Nursing Students’ Perceptions of Educational Experience and Satisfaction in a Blended Learning Course

    Li Ya Sandy Ong, Choon Lang Gwendoline Quek

    This survey study aims to investigate nursing students’ perceptions of educational experience and satisfaction in a blended course. The modified Community of Inquiry (CoI) and satisfaction questionnaires consist of 5-point Likert scale items, were administered to 224 nursing students. Nursing students were found to have good educational experience (social, cognitive and teaching presences) and satisfaction in this blended course.

    Read article: Exploring Nursing Students’ Perceptions of Educational Experience and Satisfaction in a Blended Learning Course

  • Defining Digital Literacy: A Case Study of Australian Universities

    Nona Press, Puvaneswari. P. Arumugam, Kevin Ashford-Rowe

    The contemporary appearance of the term “digital literacy” on university websites suggests institutional interests on digital literacy that focus not only on the development of technology skills but also cognitive and attitudinal aspects in student development. This paper presents an exploration of institutional conceptions of digital literacy based on document analysis of university published information online. The investigation involved universities located in Australia as embedded case studies (n=42). Evidence suggests variations in defining this term and shows that universities have diverse goals as espoused in their corresponding definitions of digital literacy, from developing technical skills of using and understanding technology, to possessing a set of capabilities for living, learning and working in an increasingly digital world. For universities who enumerated a coherent account of digital literacy, the results indicate that their practices of promoting the development of digital literacy are entrenched in their espoused intent of graduate outcomes. The paper concludes with curricular and pedagogical implications in preparing and assisting students for the challenges of 21st century living, learning and working.

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Showing 14–26 of 86 articles