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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

  • Using a Glossary Random Entry Tool on Moodle online learning sites to improve students' engagement: A pilot study

    Ying Jin, Michelle Thunders, Rachel Page

    Making online learning material visually stimulating to students is vital for student learning. Engaging with interactive material that captures the students' attention and develops their interest can be particularly challenging for core 100-level papers. This paper reports an initiative to design a highly visual 'key-concepts' component for the Moodle online learning environment to stimulate students' interest and improve engagement. Key concepts were generated from the 100-level paper - Applied Sciences for Health Professionals - and then presented through a Glossary Random Entry function. The design of each key concept is short, highly visual and easy to understand. We report initial usage statistics of the component compared to other items on the learning site and conclude that the introduction of a highly visual 'key-concepts' does stimulate student interest and engagement with the online learning site.

    Read article: Using a Glossary Random Entry Tool on Moodle online learning sites to improve students' engagement: A pilot study

  • Moving from 'e' to 'd': What does a digital university look like?

    Bill Johnston, Sheila MacNeill

    This paper is based on a series of blog posts entitled "A Conversation around what it means to be a Digital University" (MacNeill, Johnston, 2012), which set out the authors ideas about the nature of higher education, eLearning, social media etc. in terms of strategic development within universities. Through the development of a conceptual development framework, we suggest that the exploration of the overarching term "digital university" offers the potential to act as a catalyst for fundamental change throughout an institution from administration to teaching and learning. The aims of the paper are to explore the concept of the Digital University and share an analytical model of strategic change. The authors are currently working with Napier University, Edinburgh as they develop their new digital strategy.

    Read article: Moving from 'e' to 'd': What does a digital university look like?

  • The IRAC framework: Locating the performance zone for learning analytics

    David Jones, Colin Beer, Damien Clark

    It is an unusual Australian University that is not currently expending time and resources in an attempt to harness learning analytics. This rush, like prior management fads, is likely to face significant challenges when it comes to adoption, let alone the more difficult challenge of translating possible insights from learning analytics into action that improves learning and teaching. This paper draws on a range of prior research to develop four questions - the IRAC framework - that can be used to improve the analysis and design of learning analytics tools and interventions. Use of the IRAC framework is illustrated through the analysis of three learning analytics tools currently under development. This analysis highlights how learning analytics projects tend to focus on limited understandings of only some aspects of the IRAC framework and suggests that this will limit its potential impact.

    Read article: The IRAC framework: Locating the performance zone for learning analytics

  • A Pilot Trial of Social Media in a Technical Area

    Therese Keane, Philip A. Branch, Jason But, Antonio L. Cricenti, Dragi Klimovski

    This paper reports on a project undertaken to trial social networking with Telecommunications students and staff from Swinburne University of Technology. Web 2:0 technologies including social networking sites can encourage informal conversation, dialogue, collaborative content generation, and knowledge sharing, giving students access to a wide range of ideas. A Ning was used with the intention of engaging students and staff in informal discussions relating to the Telecommunications industry in general, rather than course material directly. Although staff contributed enthusiastically and a large number of students enrolled, student participation was low. Follow-up surveys and informal discussions revealed reasons for the low student participation included the risk of appearing foolish in front of peers and teachers, and an intention to use the Ning in a passive manner by seeing what others are doing without necessarily contributing themselves. We conclude that social media in education may be useful but needs some incentive for it to be adopted by students.

    Read article: A Pilot Trial of Social Media in a Technical Area

  • Evaluation of a MOOC pilot: Impacts on pedagogical and technical design and dementia education research

    Jo-Anne Kelder, Carolyn King, Tony Carew, Jeremy O'Reilly, Andrew Robinson, James Vickers

    This paper presents the evaluation of the pilot of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) called Understanding Dementia. The business case identified potential benefits of: ability to deliver high quality expert knowledge about dementia on an international scale; a dataset for dementia research of international perspectives on dementia care; enhanced reputation of the University and providing a pathway to traditional course for non-traditional students. The development team used a design-based research approach guided by the evaluation-research framework for e-learning and the concept of an 'e-learning life cycle' in (Phillips et al. 2012). The paper describes the evaluation-research design and results for the pilot phase. It shows how data analysis from the pilot informed the pedagogical and technical aspects of the learning design for the first full release and the value of a planned, evaluation research approach informing design from pilot to maturity.

    Read article: Evaluation of a MOOC pilot: Impacts on pedagogical and technical design and dementia education research

  • Orienting students to online learning: Going like a dream or still a nightmare?

    Oriel Kelly

    Effectively orienting students to online learning appears to be a vital factor in both their initial engagement and ultimate success in eLearning courses. This paper outlines the approach taken at a private tertiary institution and discusses six months of student feedback about their resulting preparedness for online study and their understanding of the role of the online learning community in supporting the success of their learning journey.

    Read article: Orienting students to online learning: Going like a dream or still a nightmare?

  • An opportunity to support beginning teachers in the transition from higher education into practice

    Nick Kelly

    This paper describes an approach for higher education institutions to support beginning teachers across the transition from pre-service into the profession. It presents the need for support with evidence of high attrition rates and of the problems faced by teachers when commencing practice. It suggests an approach that uses mobile technology to facilitate communities of practice during higher education that can then support the teachers in their early years of service.

    Read article: An opportunity to support beginning teachers in the transition from higher education into practice

  • Using a collaborative investigation and design strategy to support digital resource development in an online unit of study

    Shannon Kennedy-Clark, Penny Wheeler, Vilma Galstaun

    This paper presents the research design and preliminary findings from a study on supporting online students in a collaborative design project. The Collaborative Investigation, Design, Evaluation and Revision (CIDER) approach was used to scaffold the learning activities. CIDER is a learn-technology-by-design approach for collaborative resource design and development. This phase of the study was conducted in a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education unit at an Australian university. Participants, working in small groups, collaboratively developed electronic teaching resources, including a digital story and a website. Data sources for this study include student artefacts, evaluation data, survey data and peer-review feedback from two unit cohorts. The results indicate that geographical proximity was not the key factor in the group's success; rather, a shared disciplinary area was a better indicator of the students' ability to develop an online resource. Moreover, the results indicate that formative evaluation via a peer review process offered a practical way of determining the quality or potential quality of a web-based learning resource before it is published.

    Read article: Using a collaborative investigation and design strategy to support digital resource development in an online unit of study

  • Emerging teachers' conceptions about their current use of ICT in vocational education

    Shahadat Hossain Khan, Lina Markauskaite

    This article presents emerging results from an ongoing phenomenographic study that examines teachers' conceptions of ICT-enhanced teaching and learning in vocational education. Twenty three teachers from three Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutions participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews about the role of ICT in their teaching and profession. The emerging findings reveal that vocational education teachers consider ICT use for teaching vocational courses in five different ways. Specifically, they saw the use of ICT for teaching: 1) as a response to external expectations; 2) as a means to access information and resources; 3) as a delivery tool; 4) as media to support active learning; and 5) as an environment for preparing students for their chosen profession. While some of these findings are in line with those of similar phenomenographic studies in higher and tertiary education, conceptions a) and e) tend to be more distinct in vocational education settings.

    Read article: Emerging teachers' conceptions about their current use of ICT in vocational education

  • "Hearing the thoughts of others": Student voices and affordances of podcasting for learning

    Elaine Khoo, Dianne Forbes, E. Marcia Johnson

    This paper reports on a qualitative case study exploring the affordances of student-generated podcasts. Findings from online focus groups with students indicated that podcasting was useful for building technological skills and confidence, supporting multimodal ways of learning that value relational connections, student perspectives and collaborative reflection. Students valued technical support when podcasting for the first time. In terms of the conference theme, we imagine a future where teachers integrate digital literacies and pedagogies by experimenting with practice, involving students actively, and employing learning networks for sustainable support.

    Read article: "Hearing the thoughts of others": Student voices and affordances of podcasting for learning

  • Mobile Learning at Charles Sturt University: Lessons learned from university-wide iPad trials in 2012

    Tim Klapdor, Philip Uys

    The mLearn Project at Charles Sturt University (CSU) started in 2011 as an initiative to explore mobile learning and its application and potential for the institution. This paper provides a meta-perspective of one particular aspect of the project, a series of university-wide device trials, and describes what took place, the initial findings, discussions related to mobile and the key recommendations from the project. The project has provided a way for the university to explore new technology within its specific and unique learning and teaching contexts. It has provided real world experiences from which to learn and through exploration a better understanding of our present has been reached. This paper is an attempt to share the examples and experiences and provide a basis to imagine our future direction.

    Read article: Mobile Learning at Charles Sturt University: Lessons learned from university-wide iPad trials in 2012

  • Factors to consider when designing writing groups for off-campus doctoral candidates

    Olga Kozar, Juliet F. Lum

    In this paper, we outline factors to consider when organizing writing groups for off-campus doctoral candidates, identifying possible design options and the broader considerations that should inform which options are taken. We begin by reviewing issues typically faced by doctoral candidates pursuing their degrees at a distance, such as social isolation and limited access to resources and communities of practice. We then draw on prior studies on doctoral education to discuss ways of meeting the logistical, sustainability and pedagogical demands to be considered by institutions seeking to improve the experience of their off-campus doctoral candidates. We argue that writing groups conducted via CMC tools have the potential to address a number of the issues identified and conclude by outlining a framework capable of informing relevant stakeholders in designing writing groups for off-campus doctoral candidates.

    Read article: Factors to consider when designing writing groups for off-campus doctoral candidates

  • Issues Integrating Remote Laboratories into Virtual Worlds

    Tania Machet, David Lowe

    Laboratory work in education has long been recognised as providing real benefits to students. Increasingly, remotely accessible laboratories are being used for laboratory work in the sciences and engineering, providing students with remote access to real equipment while delivering additional benefits to institutions. There is an increasing focus on how these labs may improve laboratory learning outcomes. One potential enhancement, resulting from their mediated interface, is the ability to add contextual information to a laboratory activity. Virtual worlds have been identified as a rich environment for providing contextual information. However, the reported examples of real equipment laboratories integrated into a virtual world are specific to the laboratory. This paper describes a more generic approach to interfacing a virtual world, Open Wonderland, to laboratories which use the MIT iLabs platform. The paper reports on the issues involved in the interface and the strengths and limitations of this system.

    Read article: Issues Integrating Remote Laboratories into Virtual Worlds

Showing 79–91 of 130 articles