Skip to main content
ASCILITE Publications logo
Search

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 - Concise Papers

  • Normalising practice – moving a technological implementation from project phase to operational phase

    Priscilla Trahar, John Bourke

    It is widely acknowledged that successful implementation of new technologies relies on a project-based institutional approach with a dedicated and motivated project team to champion the technology and support professional development. One challenge that arises following project-style implementations is how to transition support structures and project drivers to 'normalisation' phase where technologies are seen as 'business-as-usual'. Griffith University’s PebblePad implementation project team deliberately planned an end-of-project to business-as- usual transition. This planning involved; embedding PebblePad in the institution’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE); setting up ongoing scalable support structures; and ensuing there were suitable institutional partnerships to sustain the diffusion of the institutional adoption. Griffith’s implementation project was led by the central learning & teaching unit (Learning Futures) and relied heavily on buy-in and support from many institutional stakeholders. Therefore it was essential that stakeholder teams were empowered to maintain the existing users and continue to look for opportunities for targeted and meaningful implementation. Similarly, Learning Futures had to find staffing capacity to continue to support PebblePad as a technology within the VLE. This ongoing work involves maintaining vendor relationships, providing ongoing professional development and continuing to be a centralised point for managing internal and external communications between stakeholders.

    Read article: Normalising practice – moving a technological implementation from project phase to operational phase

  • Supporting student writing with an intelligent tutoring system for assignment checking

    Peter Vitartas, Sarah Midford, Anastasia Kanjere

    In this paper we present the results of a prototype system designed as a draft assignment checker that students can use prior to the submission of their assignments. The tool was designed to provide descriptive timely feedback to students on their digitally submitted text- based assignments. This process allows students to submit draft versions of their assignments, obtain feedback and improve them before they make a final submission for marking. Students are able to access the results and descriptive feedback generated for the assignments they have uploaded and the software allows customisation of the evaluation measures based on the type of assignment and expectations of the academic staff. Findings from a survey of student feedback on the system are presented. Overall students found the system useful, but the tool needed to be incorporated into the assignment preparation process more closely to be effective.

    Read article: Supporting student writing with an intelligent tutoring system for assignment checking

  • A user-centred approach to understanding the support needs of university teachers using a Learning Management System: A Pilot study

    Silvia Vogel, Kirsten Schliephake, George Kotsanas

    Providing effective, timely and relevant Learning Management System (LMS) support to teaching staff working within the higher education context is challenging, yet essential in order to meet learning and teaching goals. Crucial to the success of an effective support model, is understanding the needs of teaching staff, together with their enablers and barriers to using technologies. This paper reports on the work-in-progress of a user-centred project initiated by a large university faculty located in Victoria, Australia. The aims of the project are to: 1) gain insights into the way teaching staff use and understand the LMS in their learning and teaching context; 2) use these insights to assist in developing a service support model which improves the experience of teachers using the LMS. The project adopts design thinking and thematic analysis methodologies. This paper reports on the first aim of the project.

    Read article: A user-centred approach to understanding the support needs of university teachers using a Learning Management System: A Pilot study

  • An affordance based design framework for technology- enabled learning spaces

    Tsering Wangyal, Hong Poh Liang

    Educational institutions today are transforming their traditional learning spaces into technology-enabled learning spaces to facilitate innovation in pedagogy and enhance the teaching and learning experiences of its users. This transformation is driven by the changing needs of the 21st century educators and learners, and changes in pedagogical practices to meet these learning needs. The advent of digital technologies into the classroom has altered the traditional notions of teaching and learning. It has redefined the idea, design and implementation of learning activities and experiences. Learning spaces play an important role in the educational enterprise because it is the locus where educators and learners; pedagogy, content and technology; environment and experience converge. The various affordances integrated into its design play a critical role in defining the opportunities and constraints that it imposes on educators and learners using the space. However, due to the existence of diverse needs, contexts and use cases, the conceptualisation, design and implementation of such spaces vary from institution to institution. This paper discusses how the PECTS affordance framework was used to conceptualise the design of a technology-enabled learning space and how Education Design Research (EDR) was used as a developmental framework for the iterative design cycles.

    Read article: An affordance based design framework for technology- enabled learning spaces

  • Open to learning

    Ruth Weeks, Adam Bridgeman

    The Open Learning Environment (OLE) is a novel feature of the new curriculum at The University of Sydney, aimed at encouraging students to personalise their learning through a suite of short modules and fully interdisciplinary units.These units are designed to present students with opportunities to broaden their education, develop graduate qualities and upskill. Comprising an open market for students, the OLE provides fully flexible, online and fee-free units incorporating auto-marked assessments and credentialing using badges and blended for- credit units to develop skills or try new disciplines and areas of interest. Launched in 2018, overall enrolments are strong but vary hugely across available units. Satisfaction and performance similarly varies considerably with both higher failure rates and higher numbers of students receiving higher grades than in other units.

    Read article: Open to learning

  • It’s Elemental: Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) as scalable and sustainable student-centered practice in context

    Hilary Wheaton, Sherman Young

    Many educational institutions are facing the challenge of how to implement Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) in a meaningful, scalable and sustainable manner. This implementation is not a transition from change project to business as usual, but a fluid and continual narrative embraced by all that must be personalized for the diverse cohort it impacts. RMITs ongoing and evolving solution involves a combination of approaches that touch on strategic initiatives that operationalize standards (Elements) for consistency of student- centered teaching, capability building and training, resource development, technology implementations and organizational structures. This solution allows meaningful collaboration between professional and academic staff that values the interplay between learning design and discipline specific teaching practice. To operationalize this TEL solution with a focus on student-centred teaching, agile approaches have been used at RMIT. These approaches assist in placing value on people and the holistic relationship and interdependencies between the context of teaching and learning activities, and the methodologies used to enable change in practice.

    Read article: It’s Elemental: Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) as scalable and sustainable student-centered practice in context

  • Data-informed advisories to support the adult learner in higher education

    Adam Wong, Yoke Wah Tang, Sylvia Chong

    Providing learners with continuous advisement and feedback is a key part of encouraging positive learning behaviours. This paper presents the development of data-informed learning advisories for the adult learner in higher education. As part of the university’s learning support, this set of data-driven advisories were designed and targeted to nudge the adult learners to improve course-taking and online learning behaviour. As many have to balance work, study and family commitments; the advisories are designed to encourage and share positive academic practices that are drawn from the data. The advisories also nudge struggling learners into awareness that their learning behaviour differs from that of more successful peers. Reminder nudges assist adult learners in their decision-making. The advisories take into account both the phrasing and mode of communications in order to clarify information, assist planning and increase engagement.

    Read article: Data-informed advisories to support the adult learner in higher education

  • What learning means to you: Exploring the intersection between educational and digital lives of university students through digital narratives

    Tingting Yu, Peter Bryant

    The inclusive nature of the student experience in higher education has been recognised by a growing number of researchers (Arambewela & Maringe, 2012). Understanding how the whole experience is affected by students’ emotions, connections and use of technologies is essential for higher education providers and professionals in a post-digital context (Verdonck, Greenaway, Kennedy-Behr, & Askew, 2019). Conducted in 2018 and 2019, the Work. Live. Play. Learn (WLPL) project series collected digital stories from 143 university students about their technology empowered holistic learning experience. These stories covered topics around how students’ educational, digital and personal lives intersected with the use of social mediaand learning technologies. Apart from providing access to more expansive and accessible learning spaces, the use of technology also revealed the challenges in the transitive state many students are facing, such as social isolation, pressure and engagement with disciplines (Barnett, 2007). While exposing some complexity in their learning experience, the students also engaged in actively seeking for ways to better their own learning experience. The findings and digital narrative method in this study can be used sustainably in getting students’ feedback and understanding modern learning to design better educational experiences for students.

    Read article: What learning means to you: Exploring the intersection between educational and digital lives of university students through digital narratives

Showing 79–86 of 86 articles