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2013: ASCILITE 2013 Conference Proceedings. Electric Dreams

 

 

 

The proceedings of the 2013 ASCILITE Conference

Electric Dreams

H, Carter, M. Gosper, & J. Hedberg (Eds.) Electric Dreams. Proceedings ASCILITE 2013 Sydney.

Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

December 1-4, 2013. 

ASCILITE2013 Conference Website https://ascilite.org/conferences/sydney13/

Published: 30 November 2013

ASCILITE Conference - Concise Papers

  • The Village Pharm: Flipping the classroom to enhance the learning of pharmaceutics and associated professional skills

    Jennifer Schneider, Siva Krishnan, Irene Munro, Adam Birchnell

    A growing body of knowledge in Pharmacy has made it increasingly difficult to keep abreast of current knowledge and developments in disease prevention and treatment. It has been suggested that in the face of this ever-changing knowledge environment, it is essential to help students develop professional capabilities in classroom (Blouin et al., 2009). Here we present an experiment called the village pharm - a model that used the flipped classroom concept. Our aim was to teach students professional skills in context, mirroring key skills including communication, empathy, cultural and ethical awareness expected of health professionals. Using auto-ethnography, we present our design, reflection and analysis of how learning unfolded in a flipped classroom and the lessons we have learnt to make improvements for the future. We believe this will be useful for academics wishing to use flipped classroom and technology to help students develop key professional skills inherent to their discipline.

    Read article: The Village Pharm: Flipping the classroom to enhance the learning of pharmaceutics and associated professional skills

  • Where to from here? : Reflections, rethinking & reimagining higher education assessment in the New Media Age

    Simon D. Smith, Michael Griffith , Wai-Leng Wong, Paul McDonald

    The New Media Age has ushered in new opportunities, challenges and demands in the delivery of higher education. Access to information and people anywhere/anytime is transforming traditional education models and changing teaching and learning approaches. In this paper, we reflect on current assessment practices in higher education and consider the impact the New Media Age is likely to have on the future of assessment. Examining education technology trends, we present a model that predicts the expansion of assessment along two dimensions: an involvement continuum and an accessibility continuum. The former consists of a scale intrapersonal to interpersonal while the latter consists of a scale fixed to flexible. Higher education assessment has traditionally provided for a relatively fixed spatiotemporal accessibility and intrapersonal involvement context. In this paper we suggest that the new media phenomenon will extend assessment provision further into flexible spatial and temporal accessibility, and deeper into interpersonal involvement. Keywords: Future Assessment, New Media Age.

    Read article: Where to from here? : Reflections, rethinking & reimagining higher education assessment in the New Media Age

  • Cross-institutional development of an online open course for educators: Confronting current challenges and imagining future possibilities

    Keith Smyth, Panos Vlachopoulos, David Walker, Anne Wheeler

    The Global Dimensions in Higher Education module is a fully online open course for educators, jointly developed by three UK universities through a process of consultation and inquiry involving colleagues within the global education sector. The purpose of the module is two-fold. Firstly, to engage academics within and beyond the partner institutions in a critical exploration of transnational and global issues within higher education. Secondly, to provide the project partners with an opportunity to understand and address the challenges of jointly developing and delivering an online course that is to be offered both openly as well as integrated within credit-bearing and continued professional development provision for academics in the partner institutions. This short paper describes progress to date in developing the Global Dimensions in Higher Education module, our current activity focused on validating and implementing the module, and lessons learned to be considered for the collaborative development of open online courses.

    Read article: Cross-institutional development of an online open course for educators: Confronting current challenges and imagining future possibilities

  • Mobile devices for learning in Malaysia: Then and now

    Helena S. Y. Song, Angela Murphy, Helen Farley

    Since 2010, there has been a visible increase in the amount of research focused on mobile learning in higher education in Malaysia. To determine if this increase corresponds to an increase in the use of mobile devices to support student learning, data from two surveys conducted in 2008 and 2013 were compared to determine the changes in rates of ownership and use of mobile devices among students. In 2008, although all students owned feature phones very few had access to other mobile devices and rarely used them to support their learning. In 2013, the picture had changed significantly, with some 80 per cent of students owning smart phones and all had access to mobile devices of some sort. Additionally, students were using these devices to support their learning in a number of ways. The paper concludes with indications and implications for future research.

    Read article: Mobile devices for learning in Malaysia: Then and now

  • Metamorphosis and Adaptive Digital Publishing

    Rob Stone, Roderick Haggith, Tim Klapdor, Tyswan Slater

    This paper aims to explore the conceptual work being undertaken at Charles Sturt University to develop The Adaptive Digital Publishing Engine (TADPOLE). The aim of the project is to envision a distinct way of creating, structuring and publishing educational resources for delivery to a wide variety of platforms and media. The development of TADPOLE will allow us explore a 21st century approach to publishing that embraces digital affordances and uses metamorphosis, rather than translation or transcription, to convert content from one format to another.

    Read article: Metamorphosis and Adaptive Digital Publishing

  • Challenges and opportunities for growth of e-Learning enrolments: An international business perspective

    Mark Tayar

    This study investigates e-Learning as a mode of university internationalisation. Drawing from business and higher education literature, trends on cross-border digital service delivery are analysed. Through a content analysis of recent strategic or corporate plans of Australian and United Kingdom universities, predictions are made about how these strategic priorities might create future challenges and opportunities for university educators and administrators. Internationalisation plans from Australian universities are also used to better understand whether e-Learning is prioritised as a current or future mode of internationalisation. Strategic and technological responses are discussed to help overcome challenges such as the trade-off between teaching quality and profitability which will become more significant as online cohorts expand.

    Read article: Challenges and opportunities for growth of e-Learning enrolments: An international business perspective

  • Creating socially inclusive online learning environments in higher education

    Lisa Kay Thomas, James Herbert

    The expansion of higher education across the broader Australian population has led to a more diverse student population than ever before. While research in the Australian context has focussed on support for some traditionally underrepresented students in a face-to-face learning context, how to enhance participation and success of these groups in online education has remained relatively unexplored. This paper presents the rationale and approach of a study investigating the challenges of students from traditionally underrepresented groups in online higher education (i.e. low SES, first in family, indigenous, disability, mature age, primary caregivers, remote and regional students, international, English as a second language), and approaches that can enhance the learning experience for these students. As a work in progress the research will draw on student and staff perspectives to develop and disseminate principles and practices for effective, socially inclusive online teaching.

    Read article: Creating socially inclusive online learning environments in higher education

  • The language of science: An online animated tool for learning the vocabulary used in the health sciences

    Michelle Thunders, Yin Jing, Rachel Page

    Students often struggle with science content because of their lack of science vocabulary comprehension. Science vocabulary is often derived from Greek and Latin words, languages not familiar to the majority of our students. Knowing common suffixes, prefixes and root words can facilitate student understanding of new complex concepts. Development of a visual, interactive and quick online tool to aid students dissect and decode parts of words and help them to understand the entire word will benefit students otherwise disadvantaged, for example, students where English is not their first language and students who come to us with little or no previous science education as often the case for students undertaking the Bachelor Health Science (BHlthSci) degree. This could also help with first-year student retention as it may help students to not see science words as daunting and confusing and give them confidence in their learning.

    Read article: The language of science: An online animated tool for learning the vocabulary used in the health sciences

  • Joining the dots: Using structured e-portfolio assignments to enhance reflection

    Panos Vlachopoulos, Anne Wheeler

    Although there has been an increased interest in the use of electronic portfolios in higher education over the last five years, relatively little is known about the potential of such tools to support the development of higher order abilities for students, such as reflection, in a structured way that is suitable for assessment. This paper reports the findings from a small-scale research which sets out to compare the outcomes of reflective assignments in two cohorts of participants in a Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Practice in Higher Education in the UK. Participants in the programme were asked to submit reflective accounts using an e-portfolio system as part of their formal assessment. One cohort completed the assessment using some generic guidelines of how to reflect and construct an e-portfolio page without a given template or structure, whereas another cohort was given a specific template with clear assessment criteria to gauge the assembly of their reflections. The authors, who are also tutors in the programme, analysed the submitted reflections following open coding procedures. The analysis found a tendency for the reflection in the first cohort to be merely descriptive without progressing to speculating objectively about answers to relevant analytical questions about the process involved in the ability under scrutiny. In contrast the assignments of cohort two were found to be more insightful in terms of assimilating random bits of materials, thoughts and self-questions into complete reflective accounts. These findings bring some evidence to support and indeed promote a more structured approach to reflective practice, which can be further enhanced through a carefully created e-portfolio template and associated assessment criteria. Keywords: reflective practice, e-portfolios, assessment criteria, templates

    Read article: Joining the dots: Using structured e-portfolio assignments to enhance reflection

  • Embedding Professional Skills in the ICT Curriculum

    Brian R. von Konsky, Asheley Jones, Charlynn Miller

    This paper reports on a preliminary investigation into the technology and techniques for designing and managing higher education programs in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The approach outlined is based on the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) and is informed by data arising from the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Computer Professional education Program (CPeP). It is intended that this work will inform subsequent research to improve dialogue between Industry Advisory Boards, Professional Societies, and their academic partners as they design, implement, and accredit higher education programs in ICT. It is further intended that this will contribute to the development of ICT curriculum that is aligned with industry expectations and prepares ICT graduates for professional practice. Future directions for improving SFIA based curriculum design and facilitating better stakeholder communication and collaboration are discussed.

    Read article: Embedding Professional Skills in the ICT Curriculum

  • Wiki-based interventions: A curriculum design for collaborative learning

    Zainee Waemusa, Andrew Gibbons

    This paper reports on the first phase of a wiki-based project in higher education in Thailand. The wiki innovation was focused on promoting collaborative learning. Previous literature on wikis shows that merely using a wiki, without teachers' support and without critical consideration of the approach to teaching and learning, does not impact significantly on the nature of student collaboration and hence on learning. This paper discusses the nature and value of the design based research for the development of interventions implemented in the wiki project to promote collaborative learning. These interventions focused on shifting thinking, learning and knowing in designing activities which responded to practical problems of wiki use. Discussion is provided on the benefits of design based research, and in particular the interplay between teacher and learner that impacted on the design for students' collaborative learning.

    Read article: Wiki-based interventions: A curriculum design for collaborative learning

  • Application of Cytoscape to the Analysis of Diagrams of Mechanisms Underlying Patient Problems

    Shaoyu Wang, Laura Surmon, Vicki Langendyk, Iman Hegazi, Tony Succar, Glenn Mason, Wendy Hu

    In problem based learning (PBL) tutorials in a medical context, students solve authentic patient problems with the educational aim to develop their reasoning capacity. A key activity to facilitate development of their reasoning capacity in a tutorial is the construction of diagrams of mechanisms that explain patient problems. These diagrams are networks of discrete elements (such as headache) of patient problems. Analysis of these diagrams may yield insights into students' reasoning styles. To achieve this aim, we employed an application called Cytoscape, which is capable of visualising and analysing networks, to study these diagrams. In this preliminary study, we showed that Cytoscape can be used to analyze these diagrams of mechanisms produced in PBL tutorials. We found that students tend to reason in a hierarchical manner. Parameters are also defined that can be used to identify incorrect and missing links in their reasoning processes.

    Read article: Application of Cytoscape to the Analysis of Diagrams of Mechanisms Underlying Patient Problems

  • Implementing Timely Interventions to Improve Students' Learning Experience*

    Sue Whale, Fredy-Roberto Valenzuela, Josie Fisher

    This paper describes the development of an approach aimed at increasing student engagement and outcomes in online business studies. Personalised real-time interventions were used by lecturers to encourage online participation and enhance students' overall experience through engaging them in the online learning environment. This 'high touch' approach was developed using analytics from the learning management system (LMS) to determine key points for interaction and a series of interventions were implemented at these points during the teaching period. These interactions were evaluated through student reactions and surveys to assess students' perceptions of their value in enhancing learning, and the impact on retention and student success.

    Read article: Implementing Timely Interventions to Improve Students' Learning Experience*

Showing 118–130 of 130 articles