2020: ASCILITE 2020 Conference Proceedings: ASCILITE's First Virtual Conference

Despite promises of student agency in digital education, student agency is mostly assumed and less researched. This paper provides a way to understand the role of agency in digital interactions, and it explores how students’ agency

Despite promises of student agency in digital education, student agency is mostly assumed and less researched. This paper provides a way to understand the role of agency in digital interactions, and it explores how students’ agency experiences link to student participation and academic performance. In the study, data were collected from nine Danish university students. Students’ agency experiences were identified and interpreted using the Adapted Participation Gestalt Framework. Student participation was collected using data from a digital system used for the educational interactions. Students’ academic performance was measured using students’ self- reported grades. The study makes two key contributions: it identifies the participation gestalt of the interaction in question and maps developments in students’ experiences of agency constituting the gestalt; and second, it suggests that students’ agency in interactions is associated with grades and participation patterns. Finally, the paper discusses how the findings inform future research.

Different methods of assessment are used to measure learning outcomes in different academic disciplines. Many learning designers, despite being predisposed to certain assessment methods as they draw on their own specific academic

Different methods of assessment are used to measure learning outcomes in different academic disciplines. Many learning designers, despite being predisposed to certain assessment methods as they draw on their own specific academic background, work with a broad range of academic disciplines. This can result in difficulties advising academics from a discipline with which they are less familiar on best-practice teaching, learning, and assessment. This paper offers a tool for learning designers and subject matter experts to use when working together to design assessments in various academic courses, based on the characteristics of subject matter within the relevant disciplines. Specifically, we map a set of disciplines and a set of assessment methods on two axes: Pure vs. Applied and Hard vs. Soft (PAHS). For the set of disciplines, we can justify our choice of map locations based on attributes required by relevant accreditation organisations. The scattering of the assessment methods on the map is based on a proposed taxonomy of assessment design and common practice as observed by the authors. Learning designers are encouraged to refer to this paper as a guide when designing assessments for courses outside their knowledge domain.

Agent-based modelling provides a mechanism by which complex social phenomena can simulated in order to identify how particular features arise from causes such as demographics, human preferences and their interaction with policy settings

Agent-based modelling provides a mechanism by which complex social phenomena can simulated in order to identify how particular features arise from causes such as demographics, human preferences and their interaction with policy settings. The NetLogo environment has been used to implement a simulation of the New Zealand higher education system, using historical data to calibrate model settings to mirror those of the real-world system. This simulation is used to explore how the introduction of an alternative qualification and education paradigm might disrupt established patterns of education and employment.

Professional development (PD) is essential to support teachers to transition to online teaching, yet there are few evidence-based guidelines to assist those designing PD to determine both its content and structure. This paper provides an

Professional development (PD) is essential to support teachers to transition to online teaching, yet there are few evidence-based guidelines to assist those designing PD to determine both its content and structure. This paper provides an example of the design of an evidence-based PD resource that drew on Kilgour et al.’s (2019) threshold concepts, Northcote et al.’s (2019) pedagogical guidelines for PD and various institutional inputs as a form of evidence. By combining these sets of evidence, the resource was designed to support teachers to develop skills for online teaching that was both evidence-based, and tailored to the educational context and needs of staff. The paper adds to the literature by providing those developing PD with an example of how institutional inputs can be combined with scholarly research to develop an evidence-based PD program that was readily adaptable to support staff teaching online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper reports on a professional learning exercise designed to help academic staff gain pedagogical and technological confidence to successfully integrate peer-review practices and a feedback tool into their teaching practice. The

This paper reports on a professional learning exercise designed to help academic staff gain pedagogical and technological confidence to successfully integrate peer-review practices and a feedback tool into their teaching practice. The study focuses on an immersive professional learning experience in higher education, embedded as a formative assessment task within a unit in the university’s Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education (GCTE), a nationally recognised qualification. Taking a descriptive case-study approach, we report on academic participants’ professional learning experience as they undertook the unit, specifically the potentials of FeedbackFruits from a learner perspective, and how participants gained pedagogical and technological confidence through engagement in the task. The findings highlight how professional learning can be embedded for successful outcomes and the importance of providing professional learning in a safe environment allowing participants to consider both pedagogical practices and relevant learning technologies in context so that technology adoption occurs purposefully and with confidence.

Universities are increasingly requiring the use of text-matching software (e.g., Turnitin, Urkund) for assessment. Even so, teaching staff may be resistant to using new technology for a variety of reasons. This study aimed to determine

Universities are increasingly requiring the use of text-matching software (e.g., Turnitin, Urkund) for assessment. Even so, teaching staff may be resistant to using new technology for a variety of reasons. This study aimed to determine specific strategies and recommendations for improving uptake and correct usage of text-matching software at universities by gathering the experiences of training staff who have combatted resistance to new technologies. Two focus groups with 22 participants across five universities used a modified version of the Delphi method to come to consensus on their top five recommended strategies, which included: offering “out of the box” materials, using evidence, fostering champions, providing training and support to teaching staff, ensuring consistent messaging, building relationships, and offering student-facing support. These strategies may help university trainers improve the adoption of text-matching software, though more research is needed to determine the relative effectiveness of different strategies. developing digital fluency

Common factors, which are related to study success include students’ sociodemographic factors, cognitive capacity, or prior academic performance, and individual attributes as well as course related factors such as active learning and

Common factors, which are related to study success include students’ sociodemographic factors, cognitive capacity, or prior academic performance, and individual attributes as well as course related factors such as active learning and attention or environmental factors related to supportive academic and social embeddedness. The aim of this research is to gain a deeper understanding of not only if learning analytics can support study success, but which aspects of a learner’s learning journey can benefit from the utilisation of learning analytics. We, therefore, examined different learning analytics indicators to show which aspect of the learning journey they were successfully supporting. Key indicators may include GPA, learning history, and clickstream data. Depending on the type of higher education institution, and the mode of education (face-to-face and/or distance), the chosen indicators may be different due to them having different importance in predicting the learning out-comes and study success.

Curriculum analysis is a core component of curriculum renewal. Traditional approaches to curriculum analysis are manual, slow and subjective, but some studies have suggested that text analysis might usefully be employed for exploration of

Curriculum analysis is a core component of curriculum renewal. Traditional approaches to curriculum analysis are manual, slow and subjective, but some studies have suggested that text analysis might usefully be employed for exploration of curriculum. This concise paper outlines a pilot use case of content analytics to support curriculum review and analysis. I have co-opted Quantext – a relatively user-friendly text analysis tool designed to help educators explore student writing – for analysis of the text content of the 17 courses in our online master’s program. Quantext computed descriptive metrics and readability indices for each course and identified top keywords and ngrams per course. Compilation and comparison of these revealed frequent curricular topics and networks of thematic relationships between courses, in ways that both individual educators and curriculum committees can interpret and use for decision-making. Future Quantext features will allow even more sophisticated identification of curricular gaps and redundancies.

Established first year design principles highlight the need to provide early response systems for students who appear to be disengaging with targeted communication regarding available support services. One thousand, one hundred and s

Established first year design principles highlight the need to provide early response systems for students who appear to be disengaging with targeted communication regarding available support services. One thousand, one hundred and s students were identified in session 1 that either: did not submit a pre-census early assessment item; or had limited learning management system activity. These students were then offered timely support, including on-the-spot advice and referral to other pre-existing support structures within the University. Students were identified from 77 subjects offered to commencing students, taught across 182 offerings. Of the students identified, 607 chose to defer or withdraw from their studies while 554 students remained. This raises the question, what became of those remaining students?

Student Retention and Attrition guidelines are part of the Federal Government’s performance based funding framework. One of the recommendations from the Higher Education Standards Panel review is to consider changing students’ enrolment

Student Retention and Attrition guidelines are part of the Federal Government’s performance based funding framework. One of the recommendations from the Higher Education Standards Panel review is to consider changing students’ enrolment prior to census date when a certain level of engagement is not met. This study investigates this recommendation by trialing and testing a model to see if completely disengaged students are able to be retrospectively identified as at risk of failing all subjects. Using learning analytics alone to create a predictive model at scale proved to be very difficult. When applied to session 1 of 2019, even the strictest criteria included five false positives out of 17 identified students. There is promise, however, that a hybrid model of learning analytics with additional oversight from teaching staff could be a solution, but this needs further research.

Videos are an indispensable part of most online courses and are a key device for teachers to develop a personal link with their learners. There are a number of technical principles which can guide teachers to make videos that will best

Videos are an indispensable part of most online courses and are a key device for teachers to develop a personal link with their learners. There are a number of technical principles which can guide teachers to make videos that will best enhance learning and engagement. However, not many teachers have expertise in creating videos and it is not always clear how students perceive the educational value of such videos. In this preliminary study, the authors, who are both English as a Foreign Language teachers at university in Japan, shared clips from popular YouTube language teachers with student participants in order to find out what features of the videos were most appealing. Results show a number of principles to follow especially concerning voice speed, clarity and friendliness. But above all teachers need to show an authenticity and passion about their subject.

This paper describes an interdisciplinary approach to a creative arts honours collaboration that set aside a conventional approach to facilitate an experimental methodology to support greater creative innovation and knowledge acquisition

This paper describes an interdisciplinary approach to a creative arts honours collaboration that set aside a conventional approach to facilitate an experimental methodology to support greater creative innovation and knowledge acquisition. This paper examines an honours study which explored analogue and digital hybridity in board game design. The methodology employed a practice-led research approach with the Double Diamond design process model used to structure the study. A structured and critical reflective practice model was used to identify and analyse the thinking present within the creative project. A core innovation of this approach was the shift from a focus on a finalised project consisting of a separate creative work and critical thesis, to a study where the critical and creative work were still separate, but included a greater focus on process and prototyping as a means to engage with design principles, rather than a finalised product or artefact. Lessons from the collaboration are identified to inform interdisciplinary honours in the future.

COVID-19 has catalyzed online learning environment design across all university disciplines, including the traditionally practice-based disciplines. As we move from a rapid response triage mode of online learning towards a more sustained

COVID-19 has catalyzed online learning environment design across all university disciplines, including the traditionally practice-based disciplines. As we move from a rapid response triage mode of online learning towards a more sustained engagement with a mix of online and face-to- face learning environments (particularly for practice-based learning) we face some unique challenges. This concise paper explores an example of collaborative co-creation and co-design of a resource guide as a response to the challenges of COVID-19 for best practices for designing hybrid learning environments to facilitate distributed learning environments (face-to-face and remote students). The co-creative co-design of the resource guide highlights some of the identified key design principles behind facilitating distributed learning communities.