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2022: ASCILITE 2022 Conference Companion Materials

Reviewed abstracts for Pecha Kucha (PK), posters, workshops, and panel sessions for the ASCILITE 2022 Conference held 4-7th December in Sydney, Australia. 

S. Wilson, N. Arthars,D.Wardak, P. Yeoman, E. Kalman,&D.Y.T.Liu(Eds.), Reconnecting relationships through technology. Proceedings of the 39th International Conference on Innovation, Practice and Research in the Use of Educational Technologies in Tertiary Education, ASCILITE 2022 in Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Published: 17 November 2022

ASCILITE Conference - Posters

  • Beyond The Tertiary Institutional Classroom: How I use mobile technology for field data gathering

    David Sinfield

    Originally focused on the scientific study and documenting of sea wave patterns and the phenomena of beach cusps off the coast of New Zealand, this poster presentation will focus on how I use digital mobile technology in the field and how it is documented. The focus of this paper lies with pedagogy going beyond the tertiary institutional classroom. As an educator and artist using mobile digital technology within the environment, this paper will explore the connection between research, field data gathering, mobile technology and how these ideas can be transferred back into the digital graphic design classroom. In doing so it will also show examples of the findings and how they are translated into digital artworks in the form of motion graphics and poetic artworks such as the poem film. Taken from the inspiration of the findings it will further explore what is real and what is virtual and how inspiration is taken from nature and explored in the digital environment. In the creative processing of this research, I employ the methodology of heuristic inquiry. This is referred to by Moustakas as, “internal search through which one discovers the nature and meaning of experience and develops methods and procedures for further investigation and analysis” (Moustakas, 1990). It will further investigate the poetic and artistic patterns created from these natural events seen through a poetic moving image piece. These creative visualizations and scientific study of water wave energy patterns and the formation of beach cusps has shaped an artistic observation of these energy patterns created from their movements. It will show examples of the creations of the artistic works and explore the digital environment of the poem film and how this is explored within pedagogy.

    Read article: Beyond The Tertiary Institutional Classroom: How I use mobile technology for field data gathering

  • Improving optometry students’ interpersonal skills by using telehealth technology and reconnecting with the older adult community

    Bao Nguyen, Jonathan Ng, Marianne Piano, Anthea Cochrane, Daryl Guest

    Background: Interpersonal skills are crucial for successful clinician-patient interactions for optometrists, and an integral part of optometry competency standards (Kiely & Slater, 2015) and health professionals’ code of conduct (AHPRA, 2022). Optometry students largely develop these skills through “in-person” interactions. One pedagogical strategy to develop students’ interpersonal skills is to procure “multisource” feedback from different sources (Chandler et al., 2010, Donnon et al., 2014, Holmboe & Iobst, 2020, Stevens et al., 2018), particularly the “patient voice” (Baines et al., 2018, Bokken et al., 2010, Clever et al., 2011, Haq et al., 2006, Tattersall 2002). Patients from the community can be effectively involved in evaluating optometry students’ interpersonal skills in-person (Schmid et al., 2020). Given increased demands for telehealth and e-learning, this study aimed to assess the feasibility and utility of involving older adult volunteer patients in online interaction, evaluation and feedback provision to improve optometry students’ “online” interpersonal skills. Methods: Using Zoom, 40 student optometrists participated in a structured interaction with a de-identified patient (aged 50+), which was observed by an unidentifiable teaching clinician. Patients, teachers and students provided qualitative written feedback in response to two questions: “What two things did the student do well?” and “What two things could the student improve?”, and completed a modified version of the Doctors’ Interpersonal Skills Questionnaire (DISQ) to quantitatively evaluate interpersonal skills. A subset of students (n=19) completed two sessions. The overall DISQ scores were compared using a repeated-measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA). At program conclusion, all participants were invited to complete an anonymous survey about their perceived usefulness and experience of the online activity. Results: Patients gave higher overall ratings of students’ interpersonal skills than teachers (RM-ANOVA main effect of feedback source: F(1,38)=7.40, p=0.01). For the subset of students that completed two sessions, DISQ ratings from patients, teachers and students were higher for the second compared to the first session (RM-ANOVA main effect of session: F(1,54)=7.76, p=0.01). Students agreed that patient and teacher feedback was useful (97% and 93% of responses, respectively), and that they used the feedback to improve their clinical competence (100% and 93% of responses, respectively). Patients and teachers agreed that providing feedback made them feel they were helping the student learn (100% of respondents), and found it easy to give constructive comment about how the student interacted (90% of patients, 100% of teachers). However, about one-third (35%) and more than half of the students (57%) reported feeling anxious knowing that the patient and teacher, respectively, would provide feedback, while a small proportion of patients (3%) – but not teachers – felt anxious about providing feedback to students. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that involving older volunteers from the community in an online interaction is feasible and useful in improving optometry student’s interpersonal skills. This is despite eliciting some feelings of anxiousness in students, and to a lesser degree, in patients. Using telehealth technology to reconnect with the community provides an alternative avenue by which students can improve their interpersonal skills for better patient satisfaction and quality of care.

    Read article: Improving optometry students’ interpersonal skills by using telehealth technology and reconnecting with the older adult community

  • How are you travelling? Facing retention head-on

    Carmen Schultz, Stephen Grono, Mike Franklin

    Learner engagement and cultivating a sense of belonging is the primary challenge of providing distance, hybrid, and online modes of higher education (Parkes et al., 2015). In response to this need, we designed and embedded the ‘How are You Travelling?’ (HYT) block into 285 teaching sites over 6 years enabling student engagement. It provides a short side-by-side sequence of expressive emoji – from happy to tearful – in a high-visibility area of the course page within the LMS platform. When learners open the course, alongside the course content, they are greeted with a simple query: ‘How are you travelling?’. The block is part of a holistic approach to engagement (Boulton et al., 2019), allowing for integration with broader university support services as appropriate to student needs. For students who are anxious or intimidated by directly contacting teachers via email, or publicly posting to discussion forums, the HYT block provides an approachable space for instigating open dialogue, increasing a sense of engagement (Hammill et al., 2020; Muzammil et al., 2020), and breaking cycles of distance, isolation and disconnect, with the overall goal to improve learner retention (Muljana & Luo, 2019). In the HYT block, learners select an emoji indicating positive or negative affect and are taken to a form to optionally respond further. The HYT block draws on innovative uses of available functionality within the platform, without the need for custom plugins, including automatic alerts for teachers. The simplicity in design allows learners to reach out when in need or share when they are going well.

    Read article: How are you travelling? Facing retention head-on

  • Future campus connection: By design or by default

    Fleur Connor-Douglas, Leanne Reynolds

    Now more than ever, tertiary educators should be able to answer the question, ‘why are we teaching on campus?’ Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we, as a group of education design staff in the central learning and teaching unit at Massey University, started questioning the notion of campus as the default space for learning. In doing so, we discovered opportunities to: better support students’ diverse needs and life loads; operationalise transition pedagogies; and harness the specific learning experiences only a campus can provide, while embracing the affordances of modern technology to enhance learning. As our unit is well placed to surface these possibilities and advocate for change, the notion of intentional campus connection is a key theme in various projects with which we engage. Collaborative project work focused on intentional design allows for the learner and the learning task to be put at the centre of the experience. Why are campus attendance decisions made? What knowledge, skills, or values are students expected to experience or demonstrate during these campus sessions? Only when we ask exactly what teachers require students to demonstrate and/or experience can we then determine the space that best accommodates the learner and the task. In some cases, existing research on learning spaces can guide us – for example, self?paced (asynchronous) online learning is a flexible and effective way for students to engage with new core knowledge (Mullen, 2020; Ng, 2015; Petronzi & Petronzi, 2020; Reidsema et al., 2017) – and in others, we can often be guided by ethical considerations. We have observed two responses when the topic of selecting learning spaces is raised in projects. The first, most common, is the decision is made based on traditions and teacher-centered practices that have, in some contexts, a questionable role in contemporary learning environments, especially for mature, distance cohorts. These campus decisions often occur by default, when teaching teams work independently from educational design teams. The second response involves a design decision led by a need for students to engage in or evidence learning on campus as it cannot (easily) be achieved any other way. For example, they may need to access special facilities or resources (e.g., gain confidence and evidence readiness in a simulation lab before work-integrated-learning experiences), or participate in an occasion that cannot be replicated online (e.g., get the opportunity to find a project sponsor at a business networking event). Our collaboration with teaching teams is often the catalyst for robust discussions that, when successful, lead to campus connections that reflect modern, learner-centered, intentional approaches to learning design. Through examples of programme and course level design changes, this poster will explore the phased approaches, systemic and cultural challenges that authentic blended design surfaces, and the future opportunities that our work has uncovered on the path to encouraging intentional connections to campus.

    Read article: Future campus connection: By design or by default

  • Building institutional cultures of creative risk taking in educational design

    Josephine Hook, Aster Cosmos, Matt Bangerter, Matt Chen, Ingrid D’Souza, Jamie Fulcher, Veronica Halupka, Craig Horton, Barbara Macfarlan, Rosie Mackay, Kristofer Nagy, Kirsten Schliephake, Jacqueline Trebilco, Thao Vu, Michael Henderson

    Creative risk taking is at the heart of innovation, and therefore a valuable skill in educational design (Henderson, et al., 2022; Glover, 1977). Equally important is the skill of being able to learn from when those risks result in unexpected or undesirable outcomes (Manalo & Kapur, 2018; Trilling & Fadel, 2009; Vedder-Weiss, et al., 2018). However, in our observations creative risk taking and productive failure in educational design are rarely discussed let alone celebrated within higher education institutions. This silence is mirrored in the research literature. Despite a growing body of research around creative risk taking and productive failure in teaching (for example see: Creely, et al., 2021; Henriksen et al., 2021), there continues to be a need for empirical studies of educational designer experiences and practices. This poster reports on six narrative-based case studies of creative risk taking and productive failure. They have been drawn from the experiences of 12 educational designers working centrally and across nine faculties in a large metropolitan Australian university. The cases were developed through an iterative storying approach, within an adaptation of autoethnographic narrative inquiry. This approach was designed to elicit and synthesize complex, personal and, sometimes, emotionally charged case studies. The data and analysis were further enhanced through a secondary process of analytic focus groups which interpreted and made meaning of the narratives. Thematic analysis of the narrative stories and transcripts of the focus groups led to co-constructed propositions about the barriers, inhibitors, and opportunities for creative risk taking and productive failure in educational design work. This study confirms that creative risk taking and productive failure are common and valuable practices of educational design. The study also confirms that there is a broad aversion to openly acknowledging the risks and failures. This was partly due to a drive for narratives of success by institutions and education in general, combined with the often precarious positions of the designers themselves who work in a “third space” beside and between educators and students and who therefore have to establish and sustain the trust of those who they work with. Through the analysis of the cases it became apparent that the barriers to an enthusiastic culture of creative risk need to be addressed by both educational designers as well as institutional leaders. The poster will describe the problem, extant literature, and methodology. The poster will also outline the six cases (key characteristics and insights). However, the focus of the poster will be on our key findings: seven broad strategies for educational designers and institutional leaders to promote changes in practice. These seven strategies are thematically organized under three themes: Shape expectations Normalize failure Question the validity of success criteria Redefine the process Position failure as part of a process Revise the language surrounding the work of educational design Support the people involved Recognize the emotional labour of failure and vulnerability in engaging with it Involve others and resist internalising failure Purposefully build trusting and candid relationships over time The poster will elaborate on each of the seven strategies for both educational designers and institutional leaders.

    Read article: Building institutional cultures of creative risk taking in educational design

  • Investigating University Science Teachers’, Students’ and Learning Designers’ Perspectives of Mobile Learning

    Le Quan Ly

    Mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets have become valuable teaching and learning tools in science education due to their accessibility and affordability. The adoption of mobile devices to support mobile learning (m-learning) has proliferated at all levels of education. Science education researchers have explored discipline-specific m-learning practices, often with a focus on approaches supporting inquiry-based learning (Liu et al., 2020) but much of this research has occurred in school contexts (Burden & Kearney, 2016). Therefore, the author conducted a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) (Liberati et al., 2009) guidelines to investigate research trends and gaps in m-learning in university science education. Twenty-four high-quality papers published between 2011- 2021 were selected for examination using stringent criteria. The SLR focused on the research foci, methods, outcomes, study contexts and featured pedagogical approaches from these 24 studies. The SLR findings indicated that most studies adopted quantitative research methods and reported positive learning outcomes. There was an emphasis on formal settings, as well as collaborative and inquiry-based learning (IBL) pedagogical approaches. The SLR identified the following future m-learning research directions in university science education contexts: increase the number of qualitative studies; consider the views of both students and teachers; explore the adoption of m-learning approaches in more informal spaces; conduct deeper examinations of IBL and field-based pedagogies; and explore the use of networked (or connectivist) science learning approaches through social media. The SLR findings have subsequently been used to guide a current doctoral project that investigates how mobile technologies are being used in university science education. The following research questions guide this project: 1: How are university science teachers using distinctive pedagogical features of mobile learning? How do learning designers (LDs) support these approaches? How do students experience these pedagogies? 2: To what extent are these digital practices perceived as pedagogically innovative by teachers, students and LDs? Burden et al.’s (2019) innovative digital pedagogical principles, which were derived from Law et al. (2005) innovation dimensions with ICT, are used in this study. Three distinct mobile pedagogical features from the iPAC theoretical framework (Kearney et al., 2020), collaboration, authenticity and personalisation, are also adopted as a socio-cultural lens for this study. The first phase of this study is a global-scale survey for university science teachers. The second phase obtains data from Australian universities: 4 case teachers (class observations, interviews and a questionnaire); selected students from their classes (4 focus groups, a questionnaire and 8 student journals) and 4 LD interviews. Collected data are analysed in statistical software such as SPSS and NVIVO to draw meaningful interpretations. The SLR findings, and further details on the work-in-progress doctoral-level study will be shared in this poster.

    Read article: Investigating University Science Teachers’, Students’ and Learning Designers’ Perspectives of Mobile Learning

  • Reconnecting lifelong learners through short courses and microcredentials designed with industry partners

    Rachel Fitzgerald, Henk Huijser, Anastasiya Umarova, Chie Adachi

    This poster shares insights about how we can reconnect, reskill, and upskill lifelong learners and employees through short courses for specific purpose in higher education. These insights emerged from a larger research project undertaken over the last year at three well-known Australian universities, where the authors are based. The wider research considers perceptions of partnerships with higher education, industry / employer understanding of microcredentials and how short courses will impact on learners of tomorrow from the perspective of brokers of higher education. The original research proposal was explored with ASCILITE attendees last year (Fitzgerald & Huijser, 2021) and this poster is an opportunity to share initial findings that complement the conference theme of reconnection. In this research, we interviewed several university brokers of higher education. Brokers, in this instance, are the intermediaries that market and develop short courses with commercial and non-commercial partners, for example, to deliver executive education, commercial professional development and partnered programs. Their unique perspective of employer requirements for upskilling and reskilling and their understanding of the role higher education can play in the future of lifelong learning, can inform future university policy and practice. Although Caballero (2022) rightly suggests that the broader adoption of microcredentials depends on developing “greater employer awareness and experience”, we share the general confusion that emerges in understanding the concept of a microcredentials and the differences between microcredentials and short courses (Fitzgerald & Huijser, in press). Our outcomes demonstrate how important it is for brokers to be more knowledgeable of the differences between short courses and microcredentials, as they are already delivering and developing versions of what they and their industry partners consider to be microcredentials. Yet, the courses that are on offer do not fit with the recent national microcredentials framework or common definitions (DESE, 2021; Oliver, 2019). We unpack how assumptions are being made about how short courses sit “a little bit in the award world and a little bit in the non-award world”. Additionally, we share the difficulties brokers have with the concept of creating ‘stackability’ for short courses, especially without a formal framework, and explore how important stackability is viewed by both brokers and industry, especially when formally recognized qualifications are not seen as a strong pull for these courses Finally, we acknowledge the importance of brand, alumni and quality to industry for professional short courses and discuss how strong partnerships are fueling innovation, particularly around reskilling and upskilling programs for employees. We recognize the importance of personalized content, and how one size does not fit all and how brokers are addressing this by embedding models of partnered co-design for programs while trying to meet what employers consider the gap between what universities produce, in terms of career-ready or work-ready graduates and what is needed in the workplace.

    Read article: Reconnecting lifelong learners through short courses and microcredentials designed with industry partners

  • Connecting Learners through Deakin Buddies

    Joan Sutherland, Chie Adachi, Fiona Greig

    This poster will outline the ways in which technology has been used in the development of a university wide, in-house app, Deakin Buddies, to increase online students’ sense of belonging, and will showcase early evaluations of how it has been used. Learning environments are built on complex networks that involve multiple interactions in the physical and online space. From computer networks to social networks, one of the most important ways to facilitate these interactions is to enable learners to connect with and learn from each other. A sense of belonging is the feeling of connectedness to a group or community and is promoted through social connections with peers. In higher education, belonging is linked to students’ effort, self-esteem, perseverance, and enjoyment of learning tasks (Ulmanen et al., 2016). A sense of belonging is also promoted through those social connections with both teachers and peers (Watson et al., 2010). Although university campuses have supported learners to develop these connections through formal and informal spaces, learners in the online environment have found it more challenging to make meaningful connections with peers outside of formal learning tasks (O’Shea et al., 2015). In response to this, the Deakin Buddies app was developed to enable online learners to find and connect with their peers. Unlike other social media platforms, Deakin Buddies is specifically designed to connect learners within the same study area and empower them to decide how they interact and build connections. In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic shifted all teaching and learning practices online, it heightened the need for connection, so Deakin Buddies was made available to everyone. Social presence is defined as learners being able to identify with their community, communicate in a trusting environment, and develop inter-personal relationships (Garrison, 2009). Research suggests that social presence is one factor that supports learners to create a sense of belonging where they feel connected to their peers and the university. Deakin Buddies facilitates the initial connection required to build learners’ social presence and start to develop these relationships. By connecting with other learners, they are creating relationships that can enhance their ability to bridge knowledge gaps, their interests, and their peer culture (Ito et al., 2013). Since recent studies have shown a positive correlation between learner belonging, motivation and enjoyment (Pedler et al., 2022), it is crucial that learners are able to connect at varying points in time. Deakin Buddies is open to learners throughout their studies to meet their need for connection. Analysis of data from within the app has shown there are points in time where there is a heightened need for connection, particularly at the beginning of teaching and during exam periods. This could suggest that learners would welcome opportunities for discussion and interaction with peers at these critical times in their studies and are proactively seeking connections with peers to achieve this. To evaluate this project further in light of the conceptual framework used by Community of Inquiry (Garrison, 2009) qualitative analysis of student surveys is being undertaken to determine whether the students feel that the Deakin Buddies app is providing authentic opportunities for them to build meaningful connections beyond the initial connection.

    Read article: Connecting Learners through Deakin Buddies

  • Disrupting the traditional academic development model: Technology Demonstrators

    Julie Lindsay, Vanessa Crouch, Katrina Cutcliffe

    Technology Demonstrators (TechDems) is an initiative at UniSQ for collective oversight of educational technology use in learning and teaching. It is an evolving Community of Practice (CoP) inspired by the work of Treyner-Wenger (2015) on groups of­ people who engage in a process of collective learning. Generating excitement around new ideas including technologies is not hard but sustaining interest and supporting skill development and appropriate edtech purchases that lead to shifting current practice is a challenge. TechDems addresses the challenge of changemaking by providing the means for interaction, sharing and collaboration. TechDems aligns with the theory and practice of Connectivism and Collaborativism. As such it is disruptive by not providing a ‘sit and get’ approach to academic development but encouraging ongoing participation and contribution. With regards to Connectivism Siemens (2005) states, “The pipe is more important than the content in the pipe” implying that learning and knowledge are contextual and new information is constantly being acquired through technology-infused networked participation and connected practices. Other influences include Collaborativism (Harasim, 2017) ??that builds on constructivist learning theory and the use of the internet for collaborative knowledge creation, and Learning Collaboratives (Lindsay, 2016) that foster confidence and autonomy, extended local and global communities and collaboration that leads to co-creation. Aligned with CoP ideals, Learning Collaboratives disrupt expectations around how we learn and how we affect change within learning and teaching which is not in isolation. Underlying the purpose and activity of TechDems is the recognition that it is imperative to explore and discover innovative ways to facilitate leading edge, digitally-infused teaching through what we call the four pillars: technology, pedagogy, research and evaluation. TechDems is unique in that it provides a hub for all participants and encourages distributed and socially constructed, individual and group driven, learning systems prioritising transparency, sharing, and collaboration when learning virtually and with technology. By flipping traditional models and focusing on needs that are user driven, TechDem Learning and Teaching Quality Partners work relationally with academics on a range of activities. Piloting and evaluating new educational technologies, such as Engageli, allows participants to work collaboratively whilst learning the new platform and creating socially embedded decisions with regards to how and if the tool will be adopted. Hosting internationally blended events, such as a hybrid learning workshop with German university JLU-Giessen, demonstrates how learning technologies can be used to create global learning, networks, and understandings. SIGS, such as the Student Engagement SIG, or the Student Portfolio SIG are participant led allowing members to share their passions, projects, and frustrations. In addition, TechDems promotes ‘Champions’ as leaders within the academic environment; hosts academic ‘ThinkPiece’ video vignettes of shared practice; collaborates with diverse stakeholder such as ICT, Schools, and other stakeholders; and provides a regular newsletter and dynamic website for enhanced communication and access to learning artefacts. In each of these examples from TechDem practice, the traditional linear model of professional learning is disrupted to enhance collectivism and collaborativism. As evidence of best practice TechDems are driving change through a focus on the needs of stakeholders in conjunction with institutional strategies for student success. The approach provides three key opportunities for change: connection to ‘experts’; opportunities to share practice and learning; and, increases in the use of pedagogically appropriate technologies for learning. Others can learn from and emulate the range and scope of ongoing projects and CoP activities. Feedback from participants in the program continue to indicate positive impacts on their teaching and learning, as a result the TechDems are initiating ongoing research into the effectiveness of edtech tools and associated pedagogies in learning.

    Read article: Disrupting the traditional academic development model: Technology Demonstrators

  • Orchestrating entangled relations to stretch the iron triangle: Observations from an LMS migration

    David Jones

    A key strategic issue for higher education is how to maximise the accessibility, quality, and cost efficiency of learning and teaching (Ryan et al., 2021). Higher education’s iron triangle literature (Daniel et al, 2009; Mulder, 2013; Ryan et al, 2021) argues that effectively addressing this challenge is difficult, if not impossible, due to the “iron” connections between the three qualities. These iron connections mean maximising one quality will inevitably result in reductions in the other qualities. For example, the rapid maximisation of accessibility required by the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a reduction in cost efficiency (increased staff costs) and a reduction in the perceived quality of learning experiences (Martin, 2020). These experiences illustrate higher education’s on-going difficulties in creating orchestrations that stretch the iron triangle by sustainably and at scale fulfilling diverse requirements for quality learning, (Bennett et al., 2018; Ellis & Goodyear, 2019). This exploratory case study aims to help reduce this difficulty by answering the question: What characteristics of orchestrations help to stretch the iron triangle? An LMS migration is an effective exploratory case for this research question since it is one of the most labour-intensive and complex projects undertaken by universities (Cottam, 2021). It is a project commonly undertaken with the aim of stretching the iron triangle. Using a socio-material perspective (Ellis & Goodyear, 2019; Fawns, 2022) and drawing on Dron’s (2022) definition of educational technology the poster examines three specific migration tasks: migrating lecture recordings; designing quality course sites; and, performing quality assurance checks. For each task, two different orchestrations – organized arrangements of actions, tools, methods, and processes (Dron, 2022) – are described and analysed. The institutional orchestrations developed by the central project organising the migration of an institution’s 4500+ courses, and the group orchestrations developed, due to perceived limitations of the institutional orchestrations, by a sub-group directly migrating 1700+ courses. Descriptions of the orchestrations are used to identify their effectiveness in sustainably and at scale satisfying diverse quality requirements - stretching the iron triangle. Analysis of these orchestrations identified three characteristics that are more likely to stretch the iron triangle: contextual digital augmentation; meso-level automation; and, generativity and adaptive reuse. Each of these characteristics, their presence in each orchestration, the relationships between these characteristics; linkages with existing literature and practice; and their observed impact on the iron triangle qualities is described. These descriptions are used to illustrate the very different assumptions underpinning the two sets of orchestrations. Differences in relationships evident in the orchestrations and which mirror the distinctions between ‘smooth users’ and ‘collective agency’ (Macgilchrist et al., 2020); and, industrial and convivial tools (Illich, 1973). The characteristics identified by this exploratory case study suggest that an approach that is less atomistic and industrial, and more collective and convivial may help reconnect people with educational technology more meaningfully and sustainably. Consequently this shift may also help increase higher education’s ability to maximise the accessibility, quality, and, cost efficiency of learning and teaching.

    Read article: Orchestrating entangled relations to stretch the iron triangle: Observations from an LMS migration

  • Changing dynamic of expectations for higher education academics

    Nhung Nguyen, Mounika Ragula, Camille Dickson-Deane, Keith Heggart

    Universities are undergoing significant change (Kaplan, 2021). Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, external pressures meant that universities were adapting their research practices, their teaching and learning practices, and their external engagement. This research is concerned with how universities’ employment practices might be altered to meet these changing needs. Drivers for this change included increasing access to technology, requirements for greater access, student variety, and a more challenging funding environment, as well as pressure from external providers (Bakhov et al., 2021). There is diversity in how universities are addressing these demands. Some universities have invested in significant training to prepare staff to teach in blended or online environments (Llerena-Izquierdo & Ayala-Carabajo, 2021). Some universities have invested in centralized (Bearman et al., 2021), or faculty level teaching and learning units (or both), with a purview to assist academics in developing a better student experience. Another option has been the outsourcing of the design work to Online Program Managers (OPMs) who undertake the learning design work. In reality, the most common practice is a combination of different approaches, which can lead to, for example, learning designers training academics, as well as developing courses at a whole of university level, but also working at a faculty or school level. This approach has only further confused the question of the role of third space professionals such as learning designers. This area, and the effect that it has had on employment practices in higher education is under-researched at the current time. This poster reports on a preliminary study of various higher education job advertisements, seeking to identify in what way employment practices are changing (if at all) to reflect the changing dynamics of higher education expectations of academic staff members. In doing so, it establishes a research agenda for future studies in this space. The experiences during the pandemic should provide lessons for future practices and research. In order to do so, it is necessary to consider the dynamic range of influences active in this space; for this reason, a systems thinking approach provides insight into this space. Current research that focused on educator’s characteristics (professional knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes) found that the education sector struggled to provide satisfactory learning during this period. Educators are only one part of the story here; the other part is the role of institutions, the resources provided by governments, and the general population's expectations of the educator regardless of the challenges being experienced (Wright & Meadows, 2012; Stroh, 2015). Considered together, these elements offer insights into to how we support, assess and re-engineer our systems towards better educational outcomes (Senge, 1990). Education is a societal need and if society is not benefitting from all of the inputs, then changes should be implemented. This poster provides a conceptual view of what these changes might look like at all levels. The role of the educator, as an embedded resource in a learning system, and what abilities are needed for the role or to support the role are also discussed.

    Read article: Changing dynamic of expectations for higher education academics

  • Students’ True Purposes and Third Millennium Realities

    Philip Uys, Mike Douse

    Across the millennia, education has been misapplied in the service of particular magical, religious, military, ideological, empire-governing, social justice, ecological, and economic development objectives. Irrespective of how noble the intention – such as rebuilding our relationships with each other, with the planet and with technology – we do our students a serious disservice if we treat them primarily as future adults. It is primarily what they “are” rather than what they may “become” that is significant – and what policymakers should consider in the first instance. Education is not exclusively (nor even predominantly) a preparation for a career, nor for citizenship, nor for life in general, any more than going to the beach or the bowling alley or the cinema is a foundation for something else. Any more than retirement is preparation for death. Education is education. Education’s forthcoming and fundamental transformation, made necessary and possible by contemporary technology, takes full account of the tangible/virtual consciousness duality and of immediate worldwide connectivity. Learners of all ages’ essential e-lived existences necessitate and make possible an immersive educational experience that involves integrating and building upon the synergistic coexistence of the online and the face-to-face. Digital technology offers incredible potential in tertiary practice to develop relationships (though global digital interactions with other learners and teachers), curiosity (through challenging learners through Artificial Intelligence), creativity (through creating virtual reality experiences for peers), and resilience (through exposing learners to a range of learning technologies and flexible learning options): it is a vehicle for inspiring and engaging learners. But EdTech is currently characterised by vast investment, widespread hype and minimal achievement. The underlying problem is one of applying third millennium technologies in second millennium settings: driving a Formula One vehicle along ancient cart tracks; while further not applying EdTech to address learners, teachers, curriculum, governance and technology in systemic and synergistic way. Assuredly, ‘tertiary education’ involves vocational training as well as liberal education: let them live in happy harmony. In particular, the colonisation of the lecture hall or laboratory by the workplace must, it is urged, be stubbornly resisted. Undoubtedly, professional criteria must be achieved – but even future doctors, engineers, lawyers and suchlike need no longer to be led by the firm hand along carefully prescribed and meticulously supervised pathways. From secondary onwards, through tertiary and lifelong, we argue that the learner should lead. Tertiary learners should not and need not be unduly directed and restricted in the manner of second millennium novices. At this level a blend of education and training integrated with a multi-disciplinary approach and encompassing the international dimension will enable learners to plan and contribute to preparing themselves for life (and, to the extent that they may choose, work) in such proportions as they determine. Our presentation explores how tertiary education may best apply technology and creativity in order to gear itself to the contemporary imperative of universally connected students taking the lead in pursuit of their own purposes and aspirations. By such means may the world’s universities and colleges now become true and convivial 21st century settings for the fulfillment of such purposes as the learners primarily themselves may determine.

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  • Are Micro-credentials the Netflix of the tertiary education industry? And how do we ensure they are ‘bingeworthy’?

    Caroline Steel, Yvette Drager

    When Netflix revealed its trailblazing subscription video streaming service, it was both a game changer and disruptor in the digital entertainment industry. Are micro-credentials set to do the same? Certainly, micro-credentials are both disrupting and paving the way to a new tertiary & professional education landscape. Like Netflix, Micro-credentials offer flexibility, can be ‘on-demand’ and can represent a range of topics or themes that can be personalised to individual choices and needs. However, in a learning context, there is much more to ensuring they are ‘bingeworthy’ for both learners and industries. By ‘bingeworthy’, we mean engaging and meaningful enough to motivate the learner to want to complete more and for industry to be convinced of their value. With the rush toward micro-credentials, there is ambiguity about what it takes to make these verifiable learning achievements high value to institutions, learners and employers. Ensuring a strong value proposition for all stakeholders and a great experience are critical in determining whether they will be ‘bingeworthy’ and worthy of investment. Our team uses a combination of Design Thinking (Liedtka & Ogilvies, 2011; Liedtka, 2018) and ‘Participatory Co-Design’ (PCD) (Kristiansen & Bloch-Poulsen, 2013), to conceptualise, design, pilot, learn and iterate micro-credentials. Design thinking offers a systematic way of problem solving and solution-finding that is people-centred and iterative and uses a variety of ethnographic research techniques as well as other sense-making tools (Liedtka, 2018). The ‘intellectual roots’ of design theory are steeped in a design process that is learning-focused and hypothesis-driven (Schon, 1982). Defining attributes include ‘problem centredness, nonlinearity, optionality and the presence of uncertainty and ambiguity’ (Liedtka, 2015, p.926). The concept ‘Participatory Co-Design’ is derived from Sociocultural Theory and represents a theoretical commitment to learning from, and designing for, local contexts’ (Gomez, Kya and Mancevice, 2018, p.403). For us, it offers a powerful pathway to productive partnerships that combine educational and industry expertise and insights to assess the current state, reimagine the future state and find solutions that work and are meaningful for all stakeholders. This is key to the stakeholder value chain and fundamental in designing the micro-credential experience. Our poster follows our process for getting started with micro-credentials and what comprises micro-credential experiences that are ‘bingeworthy’.

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