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2008: ASCILITE 2008 Conference Proceedings

 

 

 

The proceedings of the 2008 ASCILITE Conference.

R. J. Atkinson, & C. McBeath (Eds.) (2008),

Hello! Where are you in the landscape of educational technology? 

Proceedings ASCILITE 2008. Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.

Published: 25 November 2008

ASCILITE Conference - Concise Papers

  • Where are audio recordings of lectures in the new educational technology landscape?

    Wendy McKenzie

    The increasing availability of audio recordings of lectures is having an impact on the role of the traditional lecture in universities. The reasons why students use lecture recordings have been well documented, however, less is known about the impact of listening to recorded lectures on the quality of the learning experience. Undergraduate psychology students were asked to rate how well attending lectures and listening to audio recordings of lectures met a range of learning objectives. The results show that, compared to attending lectures, listening to recorded lectures was at least as effective in meeting the learning objectives, and even rated significantly higher than attendance in relation to acquiring information and clarifying what needs to be learned. Notwithstanding the limitations of the study, the results are encouraging in terms of the usefulness of lecture recordings in meeting the lecture needs of today’s students, that is, if information transmission is the primary goal.

    Read article: Where are audio recordings of lectures in the new educational technology landscape?

  • Bringing ‘second life’ to a tough undergraduate course: Cognitive apprenticeship through machinimas

    Nona Muldoon, David Jones Jones, Jennifer Kofoed, Colin Beer

    This paper discusses a novel use of Second Life to produce a series of ‘machinimas’ to support a cognitive apprenticeship model of learning in accounting education. In this paper, the notion of ‘second life’ has dual meaning: first, it is about curriculum renewal; and second, it pertains to the widely talked about social software. The paper describes both meanings of 'second life' in this context, shows how when combined they have resulted in a significant increase in the quality of student learning outcomes and argues that technology only becomes transformational when it is used to enable alignment across all curriculum elements.

    Read article: Bringing ‘second life’ to a tough undergraduate course: Cognitive apprenticeship through machinimas

  • iPods in early childhood: Mobile technologies and story telling

    Ian Olney, Jan Herrington, Irina Verenikina

    Mobile technologies are making inroads in many aspects of education. The potential of many of these devices is being explored in a range of educational environments but early childhood educators are not commonly early adopters of these new technologies. This paper examines the process and impact of iPods on these students’ creation of original digital stories to support their understanding of how young children learn. The pedagogical approach is described in detail together with observations on the process, lessons learned, and extensions of the activity into other discipline areas.

    Read article: iPods in early childhood: Mobile technologies and story telling

  • Podcasting: Is it a technology for informal peer learning?

    Tom Petrovic, Gregor Kennedy, Rosemary Chang, Jenny Waycott

    We describe a semester long pilot project in which a podcasting system was created to support informal peer learning in a problem based medical curriculum with so called Net Generation students. Students could create short podcasts that communicated their understanding, difficulties or opinions to their peers about the weekly clinical problem under investigation. Student activity was logged throughout and a focus group was held at the end of semester. About one quarter of the student cohort used the podcasting system but very few students created podcasts. Students were interested in listening as consumers of content and a small group visited the site weekly to check for updates. However, student engagement with the podcasting system required incentives. It seems that in the absence of quality content, the technology itself does not provide enough incentive to drive participation.

    Read article: Podcasting: Is it a technology for informal peer learning?

  • Developing standards for best practices in prospective and new student introduction to e-learning

    Gloria Pickar, Stephen Marshall

    As online courses and programs continue to grow at exponential rates and provide global reach, e-learning student completion, retention and persistence are areas of great concern to faculty and administrators. In response to this need the IMS Global Learning Consortium, an international e-learning technology standards and best practices organisation, is developing an evidence-based methodology to improve e-learning student persistence by identifying and defining best practices around three phases of the new student's introduction to the e-learning experience: expectations, preparation, and induction. These practices are under active development and this paper provides a progress report of work to date and an invitation to contribute to the development of this IMS standard.

    Read article: Developing standards for best practices in prospective and new student introduction to e-learning

  • A model for evidencing the benefits of technology-enhanced learning in higher education in the UK

    Megan Quentin-Baxter, Jacqui Kelly, Stephen Probert, Cary MacMahon, Gill Ferrell

    A model for describing and collecting evidence with which to evaluate technology- enhanced learning was developed as part of the Tangible Benefits of e-Learning project which took place in the UK in 2007. This small study sampled innovative technological approaches to support learning in business, health and the humanities in the tertiary sector, and documented the results as case studies. The model, underpinned by theories of the potential of technology to bring about organisational change, is discussed in the context of the results observed. The model illustrates how technology-enhanced pedagogic innovation relies primarily on qualitative evidence, while evidence of the benefits of process- automation can be quantified. The model may help institutions to choose the most appropriate type of evaluation strategy when technology-enhanced learning innovations are being tested.

    Read article: A model for evidencing the benefits of technology-enhanced learning in higher education in the UK

  • An evaluation of selected pedagogical attributes of online discussion boards

    Chinmoy Sahu

    Technology has for long been used as a pedagogical aid in learning. While technology has numerous ways of providing pedagogical assistance, the current paper attempts to focus on online discussion boards as a pedagogical tool in an elearning environment. The paper highlights some of the pedagogical attributes of online asynchronous discussion boards that do not exist in a traditional classroom learning environment. Based on ideas emphasised in literature, the paper lists learner centricity, asynchronous interaction, communication effectiveness and assessment facilitation as the major pedagogical attributes of online discussion boards. Even as technological innovations continue to evolve alternative pedagogical tools, discussion boards continue to play a significant role in the learning facilitation process. The paper also discusses the strategy of applying data mining techniques to aid assessment of discussion board transcripts. Text mining as an extension of data mining algorithm could be used effectively to assess discussion board transcripts with the goal of eliminating subjectivity in the assessment of discussion board contributions.

    Read article: An evaluation of selected pedagogical attributes of online discussion boards

  • Leading from within: Distributing leadership to enhance eLearning at Australian Catholic University

    Annette Schneider, Andrelyn C. Applebee, Joseph Perry

    Research on academic leaders of Australian and international higher education institutions has shown how “the broader societal change forces that have unfolded over the past quarter century have generated a set of higher education specific pressures on universities to change, which, in turn, are testing the extent to which these institutions and their leaders are ‘change capable’” (Scott, Coates and Anderson, 2008, p. xiii). Australian Catholic University (ACU) which has six campuses across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory, is responding to these change forces in accord with its mission to provide quality teaching, research and service. ACU has focussed on the development of policy, procedures and strategic initiatives related to eLearning. This paper reports on embedding of an initial Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) project designed “to develop distributed leadership capacity in the pedagogical and evaluative dimensions of online teaching and learning” in which six academic staff members were funded for a new role as Online Advisers (OAs). The paper highlights the leadership learning which has occurred for the OAs, identifies ongoing challenges in terms of distributing leadership in a sustainable way for the enhancement of online teaching and learning (OTL) and offers eight insights and challenges into how such projects can be implemented by like institutions.

    Read article: Leading from within: Distributing leadership to enhance eLearning at Australian Catholic University

  • Medical student use of an online formative assessment resource

    Karen M. Scott, Joanna E. MacLean, Tracey Marshall, Peter Van Asperen

    With the rising use of elearning in higher education, an ever-increasing amount of research has been conducted into its educational value. However, such research has been found to focus on academic staff perspectives and course design, rather than student perceptions. When developing elearning resources, staff need to understand not only their academic value, but also how students use and experience elearning. This paper reports on a recent research project that evaluated medical student use and experience of an elearning formative assessment resource that was redesigned to enhance interactivity and feedback. The aim of redevelopment was to help students assimilate and build on their knowledge of paediatric asthma management and begin to apply this knowledge in a clinical context. This study investigated how students used the resource, their evaluation of its effectiveness, including the role of learning for professional competence versus preparation for assessment, and their recommendations for improvement. This research will inform the redevelopment of the resource and the design of future elearning resources.

    Read article: Medical student use of an online formative assessment resource

  • Attempting to realise the potential of blended learning: An initial teacher education case study

    Mary Simpson

    Although a lot has been written and said about blended learning, realising the potential that has been written and spoken about is challenging. This paper presents a case study of an initial teacher programme where a commitment to providing more interactivity, ensuring media richness and to personalising the learning experience for students led to a reconceptualisation of the delivery and a move to a blended learning approach. The nature of teacher education is explored and considered alongside the potential of blended learning and the question asked: Can an initial teacher education programme be redesigned in a way that realises the potential of blended learning? In attempting to answer this question design, development and implementation issues are explored and the responses to them outlined. The paper concludes with suggestions for other higher education institutions contemplating similar change and some initial thoughts about assessment and evaluation of the effectiveness of blended learning in the university based initial teacher education programme that provided the case study for this paper.

    Read article: Attempting to realise the potential of blended learning: An initial teacher education case study

  • Success factors for blended learning

    Elizabeth Stacey, Philippa Gerbic

    There is now a new landscape in educational technology where physical and virtual environments are blended to support learning in university courses. Blended learning has potential to improve learning but there are also challenges, especially in responding to the complexity of two environments and embedding it as a legitimate learning environment. Owing to the newness of the blended learning concept in higher education, little is known about what makes a successful blended learning experience and this paper provides an overview of success factors that are starting to emerge from the literature, research and our practice. It also offers some suggestions for future research.

    Read article: Success factors for blended learning

  • Creating community engagement around the concept of ePortfolios: An innovative planning process

    Caroline H. Steel, Stephen C. Ehrmann, Phillip D. Long

    ePortfolio progress has been slowed at many institutions by a technology-first attitude: a platform is chosen and then wider use of that platform is encouraged. One flaw in this strategy is that ePortfolios can be used for a variety of activities, each of which has somewhat different support needs (often including different technologies). A planning team at the University of Queensland decided to widen the engagement of the academic community by focusing attention on the activities, rather than on the software. The team's innovative planning process has many points of interest including the involvement of international expertise, the list of ePortfolio-supported activities, the workshop's tasks, and the use of Google spreadsheets to make small group breakouts work more quickly and effectively. The resulting half-day workshop has energised wider interest in ePortfolios at the university.

    Read article: Creating community engagement around the concept of ePortfolios: An innovative planning process

  • PortisHEad: Portfolios in successful HE admissions

    Shane Sutherland, Alan Paull

    The PortisHEad project developed tools to support applications to UK HE through learner- owned e-portfolios; including the ability to target unique e-portfolios to different institutions. The original demonstration tool helped address the recommendations of the Schwartz report for fairer admissions to HE. However, despite good learner feedback and a strong sectoral imperative, the tool was not implemented by UCAS, the application service. Despite the withdrawal of UCAS from the project the remaining partners developed a generic application toolkit which allows any e-portfolio user to auto-complete educational or employment-related ‘application-type’ forms using learner-owned data from their e- portfolio. The toolkit is consistent with the ‘thin e-portfolio model’ propounded by the JISC-funded e-Portfolio Reference Model project. It uses an ‘open standard’ web-service which is easily implementable by ‘form-owners’; access to data is managed by the learners and remains secure. The toolkit is easy to deploy and has already generated significant interest not only from admissions tutors but also for its utility to teachers and staff developers. This paper points to how learner-controlled technologies, and learner-owned data, can be meaningfully utilised to engage with intra- and extra-institutional systems using open standards and web services. It also illustrates that technological difficulties are less critical than organisational ones.

    Read article: PortisHEad: Portfolios in successful HE admissions

Showing 118–130 of 135 articles