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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 - Full Papers

  • Pedagogy and Learning Spaces in IT

    Gabriella Pretto

    In order to plan for the future, we need to understand the past and present better. There is a dearth of data on Information Technology (IT) teaching practice. This is an explorative study that documents and appraises current IT teaching practices, with a particular emphasis on the extent to which the layout of computer laboratories impact on teacher pedagogy. Recent discussion on learning spaces has focussed more on collaborative spaces or student hubs, without really addressing the needs of regular IT users - teachers and students. This paper will discuss the various challenges for IT teachers, and make suggestions for future improvements. This investigation is part of a larger study into the pedagogy of IT teachers, and how it is articulated through classroom practice. It is a qualitative enquiry that adopts a case study methodology triangulated by classroom observation, videotapes, teacher interviews and student questionnaires.

    Read article: Pedagogy and Learning Spaces in IT

  • Leading change: Applying change management approaches to engage students in blended learning

    Diana Quinn, Yousef Amer, Anne Lonie, Kim Blackmore, Lauren Kane, Malcolm Pettigrove

    The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of South Australia (UniSA) have embarked on Federally-funded project to collaborate in the design, development and delivery of a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in engineering. The collaboration investigates new ways to bring together the strengths and discipline expertise of each institution to the students of both universities, utilising blended teaching and learning approaches. The collaboration brings much change - at the organisational level in the blending of programs, at the staff level in their approaches to teaching and at the students' level in their approaches and engagement with cross- institutional blended learning. This paper focuses on how change management principles were used to guide a systematic approach to engaging students into the learning culture associated with the Engineering Hubs and Spokes Project's theme - 'Advanced Collaboration for Excellence'. Keywords: cross-institutional, engineering, blended, change, learning approaches, engagement

    Read article: Leading change: Applying change management approaches to engage students in blended learning

  • From face-to-face teaching to online teaching: Pedagogical transitions

    Petrea Redmond

    This paper will share the experiences of two instructors as they moved from teaching in a face-to-face environment to blended teaching and then to online teaching. It will describe the four-year journey and shed light on the issues, perspectives and practices as the instructors reflected on the changes to their pedagogical practice and the resulting online student engagement. Data included three 1-hour interviews and an analysis of online discussion postings. The instructors reflected on their values, beliefs and assumptions about teaching and learning. As higher education has embraced online education as a way to reduce costs, increase flexibility, and enhance access to students it is important to gain an understanding of the perceptions of instructors moving into online teaching. This study found a change in the beliefs and teaching presence of the instructors from their initial resistance to online teaching to an approach which is mindful of the student experience and promotes a dialogical approach to online learning.

    Read article: From face-to-face teaching to online teaching: Pedagogical transitions

  • Equity in a digital world: Engaging Indigenous learners

    Alison Reedy

    This paper reports on an action research project investigating whether the integration of computer-based homework with face-to-face delivery can enhance learning opportunities for 36 Indigenous adult learners enrolled in Certificate III in Spoken and Written English at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education in the Northern Territory. The impetus for the project was concern over learners' slow rate of progress through the course in the two years prior to the project. Four action research cycles were conducted during the 2008 academic year to investigate student levels of participation in, and responses to, computer-based homework. The findings show that the use of computer technology enhances opportunities for homework participation; however, these opportunities are mitigated by factors linked to three thematic areas: access to computer technology; lifestyle factors; and attitudes towards learning and homework. Keywords: Indigenous, action research, English language, literacy, technology, engagement, equity

    Read article: Equity in a digital world: Engaging Indigenous learners

  • Mix and match : m/e-learning and engineering curriculum

    Carol Russell, John Paul Posada

    This paper describes how and why various technologies - mobile devices and web services combined with tools available in online learning management systems - are being used to support individual, team and situated learning in one university's engineering programs. The tools include mobile devices for peer marking, online peer review and marking tools, online tools to support team formation and collaboration and online tools for individual learning. Games and simulations are also being introduced. All of these are helping to develop the curricula in ways that enhance graduate attributes such as design problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork and communication skills, and in some cases they are also saving staff time. By mapping and analysing in technology use in relation to different theoretical perspectives on learning, we are able to suggest what might be the next steps in an integrated action research approach to developing the use of learning technologies.

    Read article: Mix and match : m/e-learning and engineering curriculum

  • Using Microblogging to facilitate Community of Inquiry: An Australian tertiary experience

    Sukunesan Sinnappan, Samar Zutshi

    The usage of Twitter as part of tertiary learning is growing and is increasingly a common scene. However, most institutions use Twitter for social information exchange rather than deep pedagogical use. Here we experiment with Twitter based on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) approach using two undergraduate cohorts from Australia and America. Both cohorts were asked to exchange messages and discuss on a given topic for three weeks via Twitter. Our findings show that all three types of presence from the CoI model, viz. cognitive, social and teaching, can be facilitated by the use of Twitter in teaching. This demonstration of the use of microblogging for pedagogical use is a significant contribution to the higher education literature since previous studies' findings are largely limited to aspects of social presence.

    Read article: Using Microblogging to facilitate Community of Inquiry: An Australian tertiary experience

  • Determining higher education student attitudes towards engaging with online academic writing skills programs

    Lou Siragusa

    The Learning Centre at Curtin University has recently released its academic writing skills programs in an online format which in 2010 had attracted over 3000 hits from students. In order to determine the effectiveness of these online programs and to predict when students are likely to engage with them, a questionnaire containing quantitative and qualitative items was added at the end of these online programs. The Theory of Planned Behaviour was used as a framework in order to determine students' attitudes and planned use of such online academic writing skills programs. The collected data revealed that, while students felt anxious with starting such programs, the instructional design process employed in the development of these resources made them intuitive, interesting and useful to the vast majority of participants. Circumstances in which students are likely to engage with such online programs in the future were also identified.

    Read article: Determining higher education student attitudes towards engaging with online academic writing skills programs

  • Engaging the online learner: Student reactions to the use of audio podcasts in off campus courses

    Maria Spies

    The topic of high attrition rates in distance courses is well documented (Holder, 2007; Patterson & McFadden, 2009) and a lack of personal interaction and support are cited as contributing factors for student drop out (Carr, 2000; Street, 2010). New technologies provide opportunities to personalise the experience for students studying at a distance (Lee, Tan & Goh, 2004) and there is a growing body of research on the use and effectiveness of audio and video podcasts in higher education (Bolliger, Supanakorn & Boggs, 2010; Taylor & Clark, 2010). This study explores the effectiveness of audio podcasting as a tool to engage students studying by flexible delivery at a dual sector tertiary institution in Australia. Surveyed students reported that educators used the audio podcasts to announce weekly requirements, explain complex concepts, provide guidance about assessment and to add information related to the unit content. The study suggests that the use of audio podcasts may be effective as a way of personalising the learning experience for students studying off campus. Students reported that they felt more connected to the educator through listening to the podcasts and appreciated the variation in technology as a way of keeping their attention. The low cost and technical simplicity of recording and listening to audio podcasts suggests that it may be an accessible and cost effective method of engaging students studying at a distance.

    Read article: Engaging the online learner: Student reactions to the use of audio podcasts in off campus courses

  • Facilitating the ability of graduates to articulate their employability skills through the use of a 3D virtual learning environment

    Frederick Stokes-Thompson, Denise Wood, Sheila Scutter

    'Readiness' for employment is having the appropriate knowledge and practical skills for a particular job, as well as possession of the 'right' attributes for that job. A recent report on the recruiting preferences of Australian graduate employers (AAGE, 2011) revealed that the three most desired attributes in graduates are communication, team work and problem solving. This paper reports on the first stage of a three stage study exploring the potential of a 3D virtual learning environment (3DVLE) to aid graduates identify and articulate these 'employability skills' (Precision Consulting 2007). Using a qualitative approach, the purpose this stage was to seek primary stakeholder (students and university staff) feedback and input into the early design of three proposed learning scenarios in a 3DVLE. Student acceptance of the 3DVLE was positive, staff acceptance less so. Both students and staff provided valuable input into improving the look and use of the proposed scenarios.

    Read article: Facilitating the ability of graduates to articulate their employability skills through the use of a 3D virtual learning environment

  • Distributed leadership for integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in schools

    Seng-Chee Tan, Ong Kian-Keong Aloysius

    This study investigated the distributed leadership practices and system differentiation strategy in technology integration among three Singapore schools. These schools have achieved different levels of technology-related outcomes and are embarking on ICT integration of different scale and complexity. Luhmann's (1995) system theory was adopted to characterise the leadership distribution and differentiation strategies among the schools. Our findings showed that one school adopted a top-down leadership approach while the other two schools demonstrated leadership distribution. These two schools differed in their organisational differentiation strategy: one adopted segmentation differentiation while the other demonstrated functional differentiation. These variations in leadership practices seemed to be associated with the scale and complexity of ICT integration in the schools. We offered a preliminary explanation for the plausible relationship that exists between the level of complexity of ICT integration and the type of system differentiation.

    Read article: Distributed leadership for integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in schools

  • A Multivariate Survey Analysis: Evaluation of Technology Integration in Teaching Statistics

    Abdellatif Tchantchane, Pauline Carolyne Fortes

    Teaching and learning in higher education has been influenced by the rapid rate of innovation in technology. We have experimented with the integration of technology in our foundation Statistics subject and measured students' performance relative to those taught statistics by the traditional teaching of the same subject: a total of 144 students of 30 different nationalities taught by the new methodology were surveyed at the end of the subject before the final examination.

    Read article: A Multivariate Survey Analysis: Evaluation of Technology Integration in Teaching Statistics

  • Englishmen in New York: Redefining academic publishing in digital spaces

    Sarah Thorneycroft

    While the internet, culture and technology have been reshaping publishing and information media for years, academic publishing and scholarship still functions within a model that is effectively several hundred years old. It is time to start asking the hard questions about what it means to publish as an academic, how we engage with published research and how higher degree students engage with research publication. While it is true that most journals now exist in an online format, the vast majority of these simply echo a print format in electronic form - the scholarly paper as a document has remained unquestioned, and persists despite often low levels of true readership. Yet, outside of academia, the definition of publishing is no longer limited to a 'container' of content. Text can exist in a contextual network and be framed by fluid, constantly changing content around it. Identified in this paper are issues in traditional publishing and some of the possibilities and considerations in breaking open the 'container' model to move into an open and dynamic online space. Central to this is the enabling of thesis and dissertation publication in alternative formats via the oScholar project. Please note that this paper makes use of QR codes - a QR-enabled mobile device is recommended but not required when reading this paper.

    Read article: Englishmen in New York: Redefining academic publishing in digital spaces

  • A 2010 Snapshot of Educational Technology use by Teaching Staff of Charles Sturt University

    Philip Uys, Barney Dalgarno, Lauren Carlson, Andrea Crampton, Jacquie Tinkler

    This paper presents a snapshot of Charles Sturt University teaching staff attitudes towards and usage of technologies for teaching and learning, drawing on an institution wide online questionnaire completed in 2010 by 246 teaching staff. One of the most interesting findings from this study is the high usage figures for many teaching technologies, including technologies which most would assume would still be used only by early adopters. The study also highlights technologies with relatively low current usage but very high desired usage, including plagiarism checking software for student use, and online assignment marking and return. The study also indicates that teaching staff have genuine educational reasons for choosing to use technologies in their teaching. The findings of this study make it further very clear that assumptions about staff or students' technology preferences, usage or proficiency based on age would be highly misguided. A key finding from this study is that teaching staff at Charles Sturt University are highly diverse in their attitudes towards and usage of technology and consequently, university initiatives need to cater effectively for different stages of technology adoption.

    Read article: A 2010 Snapshot of Educational Technology use by Teaching Staff of Charles Sturt University

Showing 53–65 of 147 articles