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2006: ASCILITE 2006 Conference Proceedings

The proceedings of the 2006 ASCILITE Conference.

L. Markauskaite, P. Goodyear, & P. Reimann (Eds.)  Who’s Learning? Whose Technology?                                                            University of Sydney, Australia

December 3-6, 2006.

Published: 30 November 2006

ASCILITE Conference - Full Papers

  • The use of a visual learning design representation to document and communicate teaching ideas

    Shirley Agostinho

    A learning design is a representation of teaching and learning practice documented in some notational form so that it can serve as a model or template adaptable by a teacher to suit his/her context. This paper presents a work-in-progress of a research study that is examining how a learning design representation developed in an Australian federally funded project known as the Learning Designs project (www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au) is being used. Eleven participants were interviewed to investigate how they are using the learning design representation and how such a representation could be improved. Preliminary findings indicate that the visual characteristic of this learning design representation is one of its main strengths. The visual element enables a learning design to be summarised so it can serve as a “talking point” during the design process, it can be used as a communication device to share pedagogical strategies, and it can also serve as a personal reflection tool. In-depth analysis of the interviews is currently being conducted. The results will inform the refinement of the learning design representation and make a contribution towards the development of a notation system as there is currently no consistent notation system for learning designs in education.

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  • Whose technology enables learning through discussions? The ‘shoutboard’: A new design for asynchronous discussions

    Rozz Albon, Lina Pelliccione

    The literature confirms that learning occurs through discussions. However, the question of ‘how’ discussions are conducted in an online environment continues to challenge educators. Technology has recapitulated a discussion approach to aid learning by building tools to enable discussions between multiple users. There appears to be a short supply of research which considers whether these current technologies used in the common Learning Management Systems (LMS) and computer conferencing (CC) enhance or limit learning. The cognitive processing required of learners when they engage in the common threaded messages on many of the LMS platforms, is laboured and cognitively demanding. The structure and content appears to be driven by the need for e-management and e-administration, relegating learning to a secondary position. This paper discusses the psychological reading process and how, if used to drive the technology, the reading and processing of content within discussions may be accessed more easily and expanded to include debate and compare and contrast focussed discussions, thus minimizing the cognitive work required for reading posted discussions. The level of interactivity and sociability is also examined. The rationale, development, trial and evaluation of the ‘shoutboard’ are reported.

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  • Dissemination of innovations: A case study

    Shirley Alexander

    This paper examines three questions related to the dissemination of innovations in higher education, drawing on a review of the literature on the nature of innovations and on a case study of an innovative online project that has been widely disseminated. The first question seeks to review the question of what constitutes an innovation in teaching and learning in higher education. The second and third questions seek to understand the process of dissemination of such innovations in teaching and learning, and to shed some light on what developers of innovations might do to maximize the take up of innovations. The project in the case study has been clearly demonstrated to have been widely disseminated beyond both the origin of the project and in new marketplaces. The project was publicised using a multi-faceted distribution mechanism involving presentations at institutions and conferences, publishing of articles, and production of templates which facilitate adoption of the project. The project also facilitated participation by others, enabling them to see first hand the potential benefits of engaging with it. The outcome of these activities has been a wider adoption or scaling up of the project than is usual. This appears to have been the result of academics’ perception of the value to students of their participation in such a learning activity, the ease of adaption of the project to different contexts, and the enthusiasm of adopters for promoting high quality learning experiences.

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  • A blended approach to collaborative learning: Can it make large group teaching more student-centred?

    Belinda Allen, Alan Crosky, Iain McAlpine, Mark Hoffman, Paul Munroe

    Current educational thinking promotes a student-centred approach to teaching as more engaging and challenging for students, leading to improved learning outcomes. But what is ‘student-centred’ learning, and how can it be achieved in a higher education setting with very large classes and content-rich courses? In a materials engineering course for 300 first-year engineers, an online group project was introduced to add authenticity and collaborative activity into the course, and to improve student engagement. We explore the design, development and implementation of the project, and see if the intended outcomes were achieved.

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  • Spatial imaginings: Learning and identity in online environments

    Reem Al-Mahmood

    “I have been thinking about space for a long time” are Doreen Massey’s (2005, p.3) words that have captured my imagination to explore online learning spaces and places as experienced and used by learners. This paper opens up a space to explore the intersections of spatiality, identity and online learning, drawing on concepts from geography and actor-network-theory (ANT) originating in science and technology studies, using a relational socio-material perspective. I argue for ‘spatial imaginings’ that are more generative if space/place is conceptualised relationally. Through three vignette snapshots as part of a larger ethnographic study within an Australian university, I explore issues of learner identities and their learning practices in relation to pedagogical, physical and online spaces/places. These socio-material explorations can enrich our understanding to challenge existing views of space, time and place as bounded, fixed and stable. The emergent conceptual insights can inform the work of educational designers, online educators and educational theorists to better understand online learners and their diversity and the socio-material complexities and hybridities of pedagogical, physical and online learning spaces/places.

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  • E-learning: Do our students want it and do we care?

    Leonie Arthur, Bronwyn Beecher, Roslyn Elliott, Linda Newman

    Early childhood courses at the University of Western Sydney are at a watershed. Program restructuring has embraced the challenges of the changing contexts of Australian early childhood education and the dynamic multicultural, multilingual, multi-aged communities of Western Sydney. These conditions have resulted in the reconceptualisation of the content and delivery of initial and continuing education for early childhood professionals at UWS. This paper will present research conducted by the early childhood staff team as they document and analyse the introduction of new courses using a blended learning approach.

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  • Audience response systems in practice: Improving Hong Kong students’ understanding of decision support systems

    David A. Banks, Ann Monday

    There will almost always be a number of students who are reluctant to actively contribute in face-to-face learning situations because they are shy or are culturally concerned about potential loss of face. Audience Response Systems (ARS) are part of a technology that, principally through its feature of anonymity, offers the opportunity for all students to safely contribute in face-to-face learning situations via individual keypads. Greater feedback from a group of learners poses benefits for both learner and teacher. For the teacher it can help identify areas where student understanding may be weak or incorrect and thus allow appropriate feedback to be applied. For the learner it allows them to see how fellow students are coping and to gauge their own relative performance. This paper reports on the use of an ARS with a group of students in Hong Kong studying a second year undergraduate decision support course. The ARS was used to provide process support for a revision session that explored decision support systems (DSS) and decision making and also to gather some details about the students as a population of learners.

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  • Collaboration for inter-cultural e-learning: A Sino-UK case study

    Sheena Banks

    This paper presents work in progress in a Sino-UK project to develop inter-cultural e-learning through a collaborative team process that is itself inter-cultural. The Universities of Lancaster and Sheffield are working with Beijing Normal University, Beijing Jiaotong University, South China Normal University and Zhejiang Normal University to develop joint understandings of e-learning through the design, production and implementation of an online course. This will be a short, fully virtual course run on Moodle starting in October 2006 that will offer Higher Education teachers in the UK and China a professional development opportunity to understand more about inter-cultural e-learning. In the project the Sino-UK team are working collaboratively in ways that enable pedagogies and practices about e-learning from both China and the UK to be incorporated into the learning design of the online course. This has required us to share pedagogic beliefs, experiences of e-learning and e-tutoring in order to achieve effective decision-making around design and joint course production that draws on the collective expertise and experience of both the UK and Chinese teams. We have found that inter-cultural collaboration requires an understanding of policy, institutional, subject and role cultures as well as pedagogic beliefs. Inter-cultural collaboration has the potential to lead to new e-learning practice, but we are also experiencing considerable impact on our existing practice and challenges to our ‘taken-for granted’ assumptions about e-learning, professional development enhancement and institutional and national impact.

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  • Collaborative learning: Some possibilities and limitations for students and teachers

    Matt Bower, Debbie Richards

    Collaborative learning has become recognised as a means of encouraging deep learning and a key technique in problem and experienced based learning. For Computing students collaboration is not only a learning strategy but a learning outcome. While this is not a new idea, there appears to be reluctance on the part of teachers and students to create and take those opportunities. This paper seeks to revisit the possibilities that exist for collaboration ranging from team based work to peer review in the hope of motivating a change in culture and practice. We include discussion of these strategies together with highlights from student surveys regarding student dispositions towards collaborative learning. We note that the perceived overheads and logistical difficulties, to students and teachers, will often discourage the use of collaborative tasks, but that the educational outcomes achievable through collaborative learning exceed those possible when students work in isolation. Particular attention is given to technological approaches for facilitating collaborative learning. While the discussions that follow relate to computer science education specifically, it is intended that many of the approaches and associated issues will apply to other learning domains.

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  • An Agile method for developing learning objects

    Tom Boyle, John Cook, Richard Windle, Heather Wharrad, Dawn Leeder, Rob Alton

    There is considerable international interest in learning objects. The emphasis on technical issues such as standardisation of metadata schemes and software packaging has diverted attention from the central issues of how to develop pedagogically effective learning objects. This paper presents the development methodology of the UK Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) for Reusable Learning Objects. This is an ‘Agile’ approach that balances the requirement for flexibility to fit a pressurised work environment with the need to facilitate the development of high quality resources. The approach is grounded in front line practice, including the development of EASA award winning learning objects. The paper outlines this method from problem identification, through design, to learning object production. It complements the earlier work on design principles and heuristics to provide a comprehensive and flexible framework for learning object development.

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  • Recorded lectures: Looking to the future

    Kathy Buxton, Kerryn Jackson, Melissa deZwart, Len Webster, David Lindsay

    Monash University's Faculty of Law has been providing undergraduate students with audio tapes of lectures for many years. Traditionally students would borrow the audio tape and listen to it within the Library. In 1999 the University Library began investing in digital recording technology enabling selected lectures to be made available to students via streaming servers. By Semester 1 2006, 64 undergraduate law classes were being taped, with some classes registering over 7000 hits for the semester. Student expectations of and reliance on these online lectures has steadily grown, with teachers facing increasing pressure to tape their lectures. This pressure is now expanding to demands for more flexible methods of access to the lectures. This paper looks at the development of recorded lectures at Monash University, with a particular emphasis on the experience of the Faculty of Law. Teacher concerns regarding the provision of recorded lectures and the potential implications for other teachers and units in the faculty of a Semester 2 trial of podcast lectures is discussed.

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  • Teaching with technology: Using online chat to promote effective in-class discussions

    Leanne Cameron

    Much has been written about the role discussions can play in creating an effective learning environment. However, the difficulties in conducting an in-class discussion in which all students have the opportunity to take part in a meaningful way are well recognised. It may be difficult for a student to feel his/her contribution is integral to the discussion if they are one of 20; shy students are rarely heard from, and controversial content may not attract adequate student contributions. Is it possible for the tutor moderating the discussion to determine those students who are finding the concepts under discussion difficult to understand? Does the opinion of the tutor influence the nature of students’ responses? In-class discussions have been used in tutorials in School of Education courses at Macquarie University to study the set course readings but the course tutors were not convinced of their effectiveness. As firm believers in the value of discussion, the tutors had to find another way to enable everyone to have a voice. This paper reports on the in-class online chat assessment task currently being offered. These discussions successfully encouraged all students to become involved and the students’ understanding and engagement with course material improved dramatically.

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  • Everyone’s learning with podcasting: A Charles Sturt University experience

    Anthony Chan, Mark J. W. Lee, Catherine McLoughlin

    The authors have been involved in a year long project in which a group of second year undergraduate students is placed in charge of producing a series of educational podcasts targeted towards other students undertaking a number of information technology subjects. The exercise has proved to be a valuable learning experience for all those involved: the listeners, the producers and the educators. This paper describes the authors’ ongoing efforts and discusses the impact of the activities on each of the groups involved. It concludes with suggestions for other educators interested undertaking similar efforts, which may contribute to best practice as the field of educational podcasting continues to develop and evolve.

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Showing 1–13 of 121 articles