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2011: ASCILITE 2011 Conference Proceedings: Changing Demands, Changing Directions.

 

The proceedings of the 2011 ASCILITE Conference

G. Williams, P. Statham, N. Brown & B. Cleland (Eds.), Changing Demands, Changing Directions. Proceedings ASCILITE Hobart 2011

Wrest Point, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

December 4-7, 2011

ASCILITE2011 Conference Website - https://ascilite.org/conferences/hobart11/index.htm

Published: 8 December 2011

ASCILITE Conference - Concise Papers

  • Changing minds and transforming professional development...virtually

    Hazel Owen

    Imagine a professional learning and development (PLD) approach designed to dovetail with what educators are doing in their classrooms and online - PLD that is accessible 24/7. Rather than asking educators to add another focus to their busy lives, this approach would support their teaching in a way that could rapidly enhance their students' engagement and achievement. The Virtual PLD (VPLD) programme was trialled and evaluated in 2010 with 10 teachers from the tertiary, secondary and primary sectors, and is being piloted in 2011 with 20 teachers and principals. The findings from the 2010 in-depth evaluation have fed forward into the pilot, which in turn is providing opportunities to test the robustness of the existing model with a larger number and variety of participants. This paper will provide a description of the VPLD model, as well as an overview of some of the findings from the 2010 trial.

    Read article: Changing minds and transforming professional development...virtually

  • Engaging students in learning through online discussion: A phenomenographic study

    Martin L. Parisio

    This article draws on the findings of phenomenographic research into university teachers' conceptions of learning through online discussion. It was revealed that university teachers consider online discussion in their pedagogy to - a. provide time and access; b. engage learners; c. foster a community of learners; and d. enable higher-order cognition and learning. Widening participation in higher education reinforces the challenge for teachers to encourage learner engagement. This article explores the adoption of online discussion as a strategy to engage learners. It contributes to our understanding of how teachers' think about learning technologies, in particular, asynchronous online discussion and its affordances for learning. There are implications for university teachers, educational designers, academic developers, e-learning professionals and all those involved with the enhancement of student engagement, learning experiences and outcomes.

    Read article: Engaging students in learning through online discussion: A phenomenographic study

  • Reform, Quality Agendas and Professional Development: Reflections on Engaging Academics in Technology and Change

    Catherine Pocknee, Julie Mulvany, Mark Schier

    Major policy reforms within Australian Higher Education coupled with important advances in e- learning technologies have created a highly stressful environment for teaching academics. Faculty learning and teaching leaders responsible for the delivery of professional development face demanding new challenges. The authors outline the relative success of strategies they have trialed, including those using new technologies, to assist staff with their learning and teaching practice. Although the use of new technologies to assist staff has resulted in some success, problems associated with the initiatives are identified. The assumption that the uncritical use of new technologies will necessarily provide the solution to the current dilemmas faced by teaching academics is questioned. The paper concludes with a discussion of new ways of thinking about professional development where a strong focus is placed on the prudent use of new technologies and where staff are given greater responsibility for their learning and teaching development.

    Read article: Reform, Quality Agendas and Professional Development: Reflections on Engaging Academics in Technology and Change

  • The Personal Learning Space : Technology enabling engaging pedagogy

    Alison Poot, Lilian Austin

    The Personal Learning Space, conceptually positioned between the Institutional and Personal Learning Environments, can be thought of as an 'eportfolio PLUS'. It is institutionally provided but personally controlled, providing a unique balance between direction and independence that encourages student engagement. Action research demonstrates that the scaffolding and templates, sharing and collaboration, formative and summative feedback, reflective structure, and privacy and security all enable engaging pedagogy in a manner previously not available to tertiary educators. This paper includes two examples from practice at La Trobe University that illustrate the opportunities the PLS is providing for both teachers and students.

    Read article: The Personal Learning Space : Technology enabling engaging pedagogy

  • That's what friends are for: Creating an online community of, and for, first year students to increase retention

    Jenna Price

    Research has demonstrated that involvement in learning communities is important for student engagement and retention (Bailey and Alfonso 2005). This paper describes the use of Facebook to create an online community for first year students in a Journalism course that had recently increased in size and in terms of student diversity. A Facebook group was set up one month before the beginning of semester. New students were invited to join the group, which was supported by the subject coordinator and student peer mentors. Students participated throughout the semester and showed very high levels of peer interaction and engagement. The paper describes the outcomes for students, including a substantial improvement in student retention.

    Read article: That's what friends are for: Creating an online community of, and for, first year students to increase retention

  • Collaborative Community Mentoring Program (C²MP) : Addressing the changing demands of a professional community of learners through engaging digital networks

    Shirley Reushle

    The notion of mentoring is ancient. The original mentor was described by Homer as the "wise and trusted counsellor" who Odysseus left in charge of his household during his travels. In modern times, the concept of mentoring has found application in virtually every forum of learning. Greater use of communication technologies has provided significant opportunities for relationships to form and grow in digital environments and with the ease of linking dispersed individuals and groups using these technologies, opportunities for interaction and collaboration are extensive. This paper investigates the concept of collaborative mentoring in digital environments and explores strategies and technological tools for supporting and developing shared meaning and conducting rational discourse. The ascilite pilot Collaborative Community Mentoring Program (C²MP) is provided as an example. An early attempt at building a model for collaborative mentoring in digital environments is explored using an adaptation of a three-element Community of Practice framework, progress of the pilot mentoring program is reported and a process for evaluating the pilot is outlined.

    Read article: Collaborative Community Mentoring Program (C²MP) : Addressing the changing demands of a professional community of learners through engaging digital networks

  • Digital Teaching and Learning Ecosystem (DTLE): A Theoretical Approach for Online Learning Environments

    Jorge Reyna

    Reviewing the literature on digital 'ecosystems' applied to computer science, a gap has been identified. This analogy has never been used to describe the complex interactions between student-interface, student-teacher, student-content and student-student. These interactions are crucial to gaining an in-depth understanding of online learning environments and to promoting effective e-learning practices. The aim of this research is to develop a theoretical framework to describe these interactions by using the DTLE model based on the 'ecosystem' approach. For educators the model will help to design, describe and evaluate current online learning practices. For learners, it will help to explain how teaching and learning occurs in their studies and will assist them to seek greater value from their learning experience. Additionally, the DTLE model will provide a practical methodology to rank online units in terms of design layout, navigability and accessibility, content, interactivity, assessment, and student engagement.

    Read article: Digital Teaching and Learning Ecosystem (DTLE): A Theoretical Approach for Online Learning Environments

  • Authentic assessment in elearning: Reflective and Collaborative writing in the arts

    Arianne Jennifer Rourke, Kathryn S. Coleman

    This paper examines the notion of authentic assessment and the role elearning can play as a teaching and learning tool to provide 'real world relevance' to learning in higher education. This paper will firstly, argue that educators should consider aligning course assessment to real world relevance. Secondly, it will argue that social networking tools such as weblogs (blogs) can provide one means of achieving this goal when assessment is designed to encourage collaborative learning and reflective practice. The two teaching and learning exempla's discussed will apply the concept of the reflective practitioner to the practice of writing about the arts as an authentic assessment (Herrington, Reeves & Oliver, 2010) task that is relevant to student's future professions as art administrators. The first discusses how students' collaboratively write, edit and publish an online art journal 'Artwrite'*. The second discusses student's writing blog journals where they reflect about their art industry placements.

    Read article: Authentic assessment in elearning: Reflective and Collaborative writing in the arts

  • Blueprint For The Future: A project to ensure effective, equitable and engaging use of learning technologies

    Judyth Sachs, Maree Gosper

    The issues around engagement, equity and evidence-based decisions posed for exploration at the conference play out at all levels within universities: individual academics working with students; faculties developing programs; and institutional level mechanisms designed to support learning and teaching. This paper takes an institutional level perspective to the issues through the development of a quality enhancement framework for learning technologies at Macquarie University. Developed over three years, the framework is based on a continuous cycle of evidence-based goal setting, planning, managing and reviewing within a governance structure which is representative of key stakeholders across the university. Enhancing the student experience, providing quality learning and teaching and developing sustainable infrastructure are key outcomes. The impetus for developing the framework and the key elements which promote engagement, accessibility and evidence-based practices will be discussed.

    Read article: Blueprint For The Future: A project to ensure effective, equitable and engaging use of learning technologies

  • Adoption of Twitter in higher education: A pilot study

    Nauman Saeed, Suku Sinnappan

    Twitter has experienced a tremendous growth since its inception and is considered as an effective and simple social medium for communication. Despite its huge uptake, less is known about the usage of Twitter as a learning tool especially within higher education. This study investigates the adoption of Twitter in an e-Commerce unit in an Australian higher education institution. Building on Twitter's inherent social features, an extension to Davis's original Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is devised by including intrinsic and extrinsic motivation behaviours as predictors of Twitter usage. The empirical evaluation does not provide support to the original TAM constructs of usefulness and ease-of-use but reveals enjoyment and social norms as the strongest predictors. The study implications suggest a mind-shift in the adoption of Web 2.0 tools as compared to that of traditional Web technologies, i.e., Web 2.0 is more about enjoyment and social presence and not merely about how useful or easy-to-use a technology is.

    Read article: Adoption of Twitter in higher education: A pilot study

  • Equity in Group Work Methodologies

    Simon Smith, Eleanor Peirce, Mario Ricci

    Collaboration is a necessary graduate attribute and is regarded as an effective way to increase learning and understanding. Technologies in education have vastly extended the opportunity for collaborative approaches to learning due to anywhere/anytime accessibility. However, whether in the virtual environment or in person, barriers to collaborative group work persist. To determine potential group work barriers, this exploratory study investigates student responses within an online environment that utilises a range of collaboration tools, together facilitating a student peer-reviewed group research project in first year human biology. Pre- and post-activity surveys were conducted and revealed persistent perceptions of inequity with regard to group work participation. However, the surveys also indicated that on an individual level there was broad agreement of benefits gained throughout the collaborative process. The results indicate that a major barrier to student engagement with collaboration relates to perceived performance of others, and not with perceived self-improvements experienced via the collaborative process.

    Read article: Equity in Group Work Methodologies

  • Beyond the simple codes: QR codes in education

    Simon So

    As mobile technologies become increasingly prominent in our daily lives, mobile tagging with QR (Quick Response) codes in the business sector is prevalently in many parts of the world. However, we believe the movement of using QR codes in education is still in its infancy. Apart from our own research in this area, this paper explores the possibilities beyond the simple use of the codes and offers some suggestions on how the technology can be used to its full potential.

    Read article: Beyond the simple codes: QR codes in education

  • Why should I use this? Adopting a social network site in tertiary education

    Natalie Spence

    This paper reports an ethnographic study in which I investigated how students made sense of, and in their turn shaped, a social network site in intensive courses in film and media production. Broadly based on a sensemaking approach, the study aimed to reveal how students' expectations, strategies, 'knowledge gaps' and other perceptions of the situation and digital affordances shaped the use of a social networking space. Results showed that students brought expectations that were sometimes met and sometimes not. The paper suggests that while preserving students' freedom of choice, the institution should aim to clarify how online tools fit into the larger environment of learning and offer strategies in their use. Learning design should an ongoing process of students' and online designers' collaborative sensemaking.

    Read article: Why should I use this? Adopting a social network site in tertiary education

Showing 118–130 of 147 articles