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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

  • Thoughts on blogging as an ethnographic tool

    Mary-Helen Ward

    The personal development that takes place within the institutional framework of the PhD has in the last decade attracted the attention of researchers and bureaucrats in Australia. The institutional framework that supports the degree, the experiences of individual students at set points in their process, the experiences of supervisors and the development of pedagogies of research have all been subject to investigation. However, the development of web logging software (blogging) has now made it possible to undertake a longitudinal study of a group of candidates. My project aims to create a community of PhD candidates who are prepared to both maintain weblogs (blogs) themselves and to read and comment on the blogs maintained by the other members of the group. Through these blogs I hope to ‘open a window’ onto an experience that has been characterised as mysterious and even inherently distressing. Issues have been raised concerning both studies and education conducted in online mediums: whether the internet is a culture or a cultural artefact, how it is understood and viewed by its users, and whether the degree of performativity inherent in self-presentation on the internet might be fatal to authenticity. These discussions are pivotal to the development of my PhD.

    Read article: Thoughts on blogging as an ethnographic tool

  • Use of visualisation software to support understanding of chemical equilibrium: The importance of appropriate teaching strategies

    Anula Weerawardhana, Brian Ferry, Christine Brown

    This paper describes the results of a study in which a group of science pre-service teachers used computer-based visualisation software resources to develop teaching strategies and lessons that would support the development of students’ conceptual understanding of chemical equilibrium. They used SMV: CHEM, VisChem and chemistry software packaged with textbooks. The goal was to assist science/chemistry teachers to design lessons that would overcome known difficulties in developing students’ understanding. Four teaching strategies of one teaching team are described in detail to illustrate the multifaceted nature of the way in which the software resources were used in lessons. Such a process of software deconstruction and resource integration in lesson plans has implications for all teachers of chemistry.

    Read article: Use of visualisation software to support understanding of chemical equilibrium: The importance of appropriate teaching strategies

  • Student evaluations of elearning technologies in undergraduate psychology: A blended model for the future

    Fiona A. White, Martin Daly, Karen M. Scott

    Undergraduate Psychology moved teaching materials from the school intranet to the University Learning Management System (WebCT) during 2005. This change took place to avail students of interactive, reflective and adaptive new elearning technologies. This blended learning approach allowed academics to both provide lecture materials online as well as add to the student experience. Specifically, this has been achieved through the complete redevelopment of learning materials for first year, the incorporation of online discussions – with a dedicated online tutor for second year, and online formative assessment for both first and second year units of study. 2,456 student evaluations of the functionality and educational components of the online units of study were analysed for first and second semesters in 2005. The results of this analysis will i) help determine the elearning materials which students desire and need, ii) influence the way we develop online components of units of study in the future, and iii) determine time and staffing commitments for the development of online resources.

    Read article: Student evaluations of elearning technologies in undergraduate psychology: A blended model for the future

  • Moving from face-to-face to online classrooms: The reflective university teacher

    Faye Wiesenberg, Elizabeth Stacey

    This study explores the similarities, differences and possible interaction between two small groups of Canadian and Australian university teachers’ face-to-face and online teaching approaches and philosophies. The paper compares their perspectives on teaching face-to- face and online at two comparable Canadian and Australian universities, both of which offer instruction in these two modes. Teaching philosophy data were gathered with the ‘Teaching Perspectives Inventory’ developed by Pratt and Collins at the University of British Columbia, which assessed participants’ teaching approaches and philosophies in terms of their beliefs, intentions and actions in both modalities. The study upon which this paper is based builds upon a well established research partnership of the two authors who have previously explored emerging philosophies of learner centred teaching in distributed classrooms in Canada and Australia.

    Read article: Moving from face-to-face to online classrooms: The reflective university teacher

  • The Lectopia service and students with disabilities

    Jocasta Williams

    The Lectopia lecture capture and publication system was introduced to The University of Western Australia in 1999. Since this time the project team has regularly received feedback from students with disabilities or medical conditions, as well as from the University’s Diversity Projects Office, regarding the positive impact Lectopia has had on their learning activities. Throughout the project’s history the feedback received from these two groups, predominantly provided informally, has helped to shape the system’s development. In 2006 the team undertook to conduct a thorough analysis of why and how students with disabilities or medical conditions are using Lectopia, the perceived benefits derived and the problems encountered. It is anticipated that results from this analysis will further assist the project team to refine the system to ensure it continues to meet the needs of the University’s diverse student population.

    Read article: The Lectopia service and students with disabilities

  • Throwing a pebble into the pond: E-portfolios and student engagement

    Hazel Willis, Phil Gravestock, Martin Jenkins

    This paper reports on initial findings and implications of the use of e-portfolios for students’ planning, reflecting and recording elements of their learning; issues surrounding student engagement are also discussed. A pilot study of the PebblePad e-portfolio software was conducted with a cross section of students: eight first year and six final year dissertation students. First year students were using the e-portfolio for their Personal Development Planning. Interviews were conducted with first year students mid semester and also at the end of their first year. Interviews were also conducted with final year students upon submission of their dissertations. Results revealed a higher level of engagement from final year than from first year students. Overall, final year students appreciated the usefulness of PebblePad and engaged well with the e-portfolio in the early stages of the dissertation process; however, engagement after the initial stages of the dissertation declined with students reverting to regular e-mail for contact in addition to their regular face-to-face meetings.

    Read article: Throwing a pebble into the pond: E-portfolios and student engagement

  • Facilitating uptake of online role play: Reusability, learning objects and learning designs

    Sandra Wills, Anne McDougall

    This study tracks the uptake of online role play in Australia from 1990 to 2006 and the affordances to its uptake. It examines reusability, as one affordance, from the perspective of two often polarized constructs: Learning Object and Learning Design. The study treats “reuse” on two levels: reuse of an existing online role play and reuse of an online role play as the model for another role play. In keeping with terminology that has come into recent use, we propose that the first level implies the online role play is used as a Learning Object and the second level implies the online role play is used as a Learning Design. Thirty six role plays were identified in Australian universities, of which 80% were reuse of a Learning Design. Only three examples of role play as Learning Object were found, indicating that so far Learning Design is the more useful concept in understanding reusability in universities. Other affordances to uptake of role play were also tracked. The contribution of Educational Developers far outweighed that of colleagues, conferences, journals and engines. The results have implications for the work practices of Educational Developers and for managers of Learning Object Repositories.

    Read article: Facilitating uptake of online role play: Reusability, learning objects and learning designs

  • Gathering online representations of practice about assessment for use as a professional development tool: A case in progress

    Gail Wilson, Rosemary Thomson, Janne Malfroy

    The Assessment Snapshots digital resource at the University of Western Sydney is a current project to produce locally contextualised resources about effective assessment practice. Assessment case studies showcased through the project offer insights into how individual teachers in the disciplines design assessment strategies which respond to the challenges of teaching and learning in the tertiary sector in the 21st century. Resources produced are designed as online professional development tools for self-access by teachers and for use in assessment workshops and curriculum renewal projects. The paper explores the rationale for using case studies as a form of representation of practice, and describes the processes taken by a team of academic developers to gather cases from individual academics, provides initial reflections on those processes, and proposes plans for using the resource and evaluating its effectiveness as a trigger for improvement in assessment practice.

    Read article: Gathering online representations of practice about assessment for use as a professional development tool: A case in progress

  • At the limits of social constructivism: Moving beyond LMS to re-integrate scholarship

    Lisa Wise, James Quealy

    After more than a decade, the early claims that elearning would transform university teaching are yet to be realised. As elearning, with learning management systems as the centrepiece, becomes entrenched in the mainstream, there is growing demand for a solid theoretical research base to inform elearning practice. We argue that the lack of a solid research base is in part due to the inherent difficulties with cross-disciplinary research where shared terminology does not always equate to shared meaning, and in part due to the dominant applied research approach emphasising a case-based approach over research aimed at addressing specific hypotheses derived from educational theory. We use the popular social constructivist theoretical framework to illustrate a lack of theoretical rigour in elearning research. We examine traditional university teaching as portrayed through a social constructivist lens and argue that academics already adopt the ‘reflective practitioner’ model in their teaching practice. We then examine the concept of adaptive self-organising learning networks in elearning. We argue that, while a social constructivist framework may be ideal for understanding the way people learn, it is at odds not only with the implicit instructional design agenda, but also with current university elearning governance and infrastructure.

    Read article: At the limits of social constructivism: Moving beyond LMS to re-integrate scholarship

  • Understanding complex calculations: Automated spreadsheets with built-in feedback

    Graeme Wood, Mary-Helen Ward

    The e-Learning team at the University of Sydney was approached to help develop a resource that would address some areas of learning difficulty that had been identified in two engineering units of study. Complex spreadsheets were developed, then automated with VBA code to provide the students with a formative assessment resource, based on scaffolded learning with immediate feedback. Twenty spreadsheets were eventually made available to second- and third-year students. Student evaluations have led to further development of the feedback features to make it clearer to students why some answers were correct or incorrect, and thus to improve their conceptual understanding of the principles behind the mathematical calculations.

    Read article: Understanding complex calculations: Automated spreadsheets with built-in feedback

  • Designing reusable online clinical reasoning templates: A preliminary evaluation

    Helen Wozniak, Mark Hancock, Joanne Munn, Gosia Mendrela

    As increasing resources are devoted to the production of online learning materials it is important that both the usability of such resources by educators and the educational usefulness of these resources for student learning are evaluated. Outcomes from such evaluations provide information that can be used to inform future development of online learning materials. This paper describes two clinical reasoning templates that were developed to enable easy incorporation of content materials by educators without specialist web design skills, and easy access to the materials by students with minimal software requirements. Preliminary evaluation data will be presented describing the usability of the templates by educators and students.

    Read article: Designing reusable online clinical reasoning templates: A preliminary evaluation

  • Learning through online discussions: A focus on discourse analysis and language functions

    Dai Fei Yang, Peter Goodyear

    This paper examines how an online postgraduate program made use of a discussion forum to engage students in meaningful discussions. The authors aim to capture and extract elements of its success using detailed discourse analysis, informed by systemic functional linguistic (SFL) theory. This involves examining three domains: first, the ideational experience when students construct the content of postings in which they present their social and ideational positions, philosophical beliefs and ideas; second, the interpersonal experience when students construe their social relationship with their readers/audience; third, the textual organisation of their discussion texts in relation to the language patterns and linguistic resources that emerged when their texts unfold. Through detailed discourse analysis, the paper illustrates two examples of the use of hedging and metaphor to provide an insight into the good practice shared by students, and how text functions in online discussions. We find that students, by using various linguistic resources, such as hedging and metaphors, share their experience and pre-knowledge to develop solidarity and authorial voice. In conclusion, the SFL framework presented in this paper provides a valuable tool for the description and analysis of online discourse. However, at the social interpersonal level and the ideational level we need to develop a more comprehensive model for analysing texts generated in the highly complex process in online learning and discussions.

    Read article: Learning through online discussions: A focus on discourse analysis and language functions

  • Teaching through technology-enhanced environments in higher education: Moderating for effective computer conferencing

    Maria Zenios

    The emergence of the ‘knowledge based society’ places extra pressure on university teachers to develop students’ knowledge and skills. Although focus has shifted from teaching to student centred-based learning it is still useful to investigate university teachers’ approaches to teaching through networked technologies. Previous research indicates that the success of the online activity is influenced by the person who organises and facilitates the discussion (Berge & Collins, 2000). The role of the leader or ‘moderator’ in motivating the participants, channelling the discussion and deliberately handling difficult situations is crucial. The recognition that the moderator’s work makes a great difference to the success of computer conferencing creates a pressing need to research new approaches to teaching online. Located on the socio-cultural framework, this study suggests that the moderator’s role is crucial in sustaining conferences through the structuring of the learning resources inherent in the conferences.

    Read article: Teaching through technology-enhanced environments in higher education: Moderating for effective computer conferencing

Showing 105–117 of 121 articles