ASCILITE NEWS

CMALT Australasia: New Community of Practice

CMALT Australasia is a certified membership scheme offered in partnership with the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) UK. The scheme is a form of professional accreditation which enables people whose work involves learning technology to have their experience and capabilities certified by peers, and to demonstrate that they are taking a committed approach to their professional development. As a certified member of ALT you can increase the impact of your professional record or CV and use “CMALT” as post-nominal letters.

The basis of the accreditation process is a portfolio which contains both evidence and reflection in relation to a number of key criteria.

In 2015 ascilite is proactively supporting CMALT Australasia by offering mentoring opportunities and incentives to those preparing their portfolio. There will be two parts to this support:

The CMALT Australasia 2015 Community of Practice will offer mentoring, advice and support through online check-in and support sessions on preparing and submitting a portfolio.
Ascilite will offer a one-off $A250 subsidy for successful CMALT Australasia applicants, who have been participants in the CMALT Australasia CoP 2015, to register for the ascilite2015 conference in Perth. This subsidy will be limited to 8 applicants and will be on a first-come first-served basis. Full details and conditions for subsidies are outlined in the CoP Guidelines (PDF).

Download the CMALT CoP 2015 Guidelines for further information on the subsidies and how you can apply.

Enquiries concerning the CoP may be directed to Mark Northover, Co-Chair CMALT Australasia. The CoP is open to all ascilite members.

Expressions of Interest should be emailed to the Secretariat by 30 March 2015.

Call-out for 2015 ascilite Live! Webinar Presenters

Do you have a project or topic that you would like to share with the ascilite community through a webinar?

ascilite has been offering its Live! webinars since 2009 as a valuable service to members and members are invited to suggest a webinar of their choice for the 2015 webinar series. Webinar presenters are fully supported by an ascilite Executive who organizes and moderates each webinar and the Secretariat who manages the webinar registration process.

Webinars are usually 60 minutes in duration. Presenters may select a particular month and date for their suggested webinar and every effort will be made to schedule the webinar accordingly once your proposal has been accepted.

In 2014 ascilite offered 5 webinars, including “Writing up a storm for ascilite2014”, “CMALT Professional Accreditation”, “Community Mentoring Program”, “Gamification: It’s Potential for Learning” and “Bring your own device to e-Examinations (BYOD)”. Video recordings and a synopsis of those webinars are available on the ascilite website.

If you believe you have a project or topic that would be of interest to ascilite members (and non-members) and that you would like to share, then please email your proposal to Alan Soong, the ascilite webinar chairperson and Mark Northover, the Co-chair for further discussion.

Community Mentoring Program: Deadline Extension

The deadline for applications in the ascilite 2015 Community Mentoring Program has been extended to 6 March. Visit the website for further information and appllication forms to register your interest as a mentor or mentee.

The ascilite CMP provides mentoring opportunities across a number of fields including technical, academic development, learning development, faculty academics and early career researchers, graphic designers, and programmers. The program seeks to involve participants in a professional mentoring relationship built between learners (mentees) and experienced practitioners (mentors).

OTHER NEWS

Transforming Assessment News

Next Webinar

Topic: Enhancing Student Learning Outcomes with Simulation-based Pedagogies (in business).

Date & Time: Wednesday, 4 March 2015, 7am – 8am (UST/GMT)

Presenter: Assoc Prof. Pierre Benckendorff (University of Queensland, Australia).

Abstract: This seminar will explore the techniques used to assess the learning outcomes of online business simulations. Online business simulations are complex learning tools designed to teach strategy, competitive analysis, finance, marketing, HRM, cross-functional alignment, and the selection of tactics to build a successful business. Simulations can develop a range of skills and capabilities that are challenging to develop using traditional teaching and learning approaches. Simulations are one of many tools in the educator's tool kit and their effectiveness depends on the use of appropriate pedagogy and assessment to support student learning. Audience interaction is encouraged to make it a lively session.

The webinar will be hosted by Professor Geoffrey Crisp (RMIT University, Australia) and Dr Mathew Hillier (Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation, The University of Queensland, Australia).

Note that the new Transforming Assessment website now requires you to create a free account to register for webinars. You will find details on how to do this below.

New Transforming Assessment Website Launched

Transforming Assessment has a new website and while it may look similar to the old one in appearance it has new and improved e-assessment examples in Moodle 2.8; an easier to use single-sign-on across the sub-sites and its own URL shortener ta.vu ('transforming assessment view').

In addition, the new website offers you a free account sign up which is now required for webinar sessions and which only needs to be done once for all future webinars. This eliminates the need to send RSVP emails. If registering with an education domain email such as 'edu' and 'ac' or an email from the authorised domains list, you will have full access to try e-assessment examples and post content in forums. A valid email address is required for validation by clicking the link emailed to you. Regardless of the email you used to register, all users with accounts can register for webinars. If you encounter any issues please email Matthew Hillier with details of the problem.

Check out the new website and register now for the next webinar!

Recording released: Digital Badges to curate, credential and carry forward digital learning evidence

This online session, presented on 4 February by David Gibson (Curtin University) and Kate Coleman (Deakin University) explored digital badging and how it can warrant learning and motivate higher education students; implementing a whole of program approach in a degree program or for extra-curricular activity; implementing a whole of institution approach to badging including policy, change leadership, and including professional bodies.

View the recording and obtain resources here.

Postdoctoral Fellowship in STEM Education

The University of Technology Sydney is about to advertise for its 2015 Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellows and we would be interested in hearing from potential applicants in the area of STEM Education.

The Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowships are available for researchers who completed their doctorate less than five years ago, and allow them to spend three years full time working on research (or four years in a research and teaching appointment). The positions can then become ongoing teaching-research appointments on the basis of satisfactory performance. In order to be competitive you should have published an academic monograph or equivalent.

If you’re interested in applying please in the first instance email alan.mckee@uts.edu.au with the following information:

one paragraph outlining an idea for your research project
a list of your research outputs to date

UTS Doctoral Scholarship

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) at the University of Technology Sydney announces a doctoral scholarship for the ARC Discovery research project Optimising teaching and learning with mobile-intensive pedagogies. The overall purpose of the project is to examine the factors that promote or inhibit quality teaching and learning with mobile technologies in secondary school maths and science.

The candidate will be part of multidisciplinary group of six researchers exploring these issues in Australia, with three researchers investigating the educational aspects, one exploring the decision making processes, one exploring multimodal aspects and one investigating mobile user experiences. The successful candidate will work on a discrete but related project and will also contribute to the research project as a whole.

The research project will be supervised by one of the Education researchers and the scholarship administered by the University of Technology Sydney. The scholarship is for three years.

As well as writing a PhD dissertation, the successful candidate is expected to participate in the project meetings, workshops and conferences, contribute an article to at least one of the joint project publications and write occasional op-ed length articles for our planned project website.

Applicants for the scholarship must also apply to be admitted to the FASS PhD program at UTS and participate in the FASS doctoral program once admitted.

For more information about the research project, please contact Professor Sandra Schuck at sandy.schuck@uts.edu.au.

The successful candidate will be awarded $25,406 per annum over 3 years.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the scholarship, an applicant must:

Have completed a Bachelor Degree with First Class Honours or Second Class Honours (Division 1), or be regarded by the University as having an equivalent level of attainment;
Enroll and be accepted for a higher degree by research in 2015
Be enrolled as a full-time student for the duration of the scholarship

Selection Criteria

Academic merit in previous undergraduate and/or postgraduate study
Quality of proposal
Research experience and/or potential in an area relevant to the ARC project
Demonstrate ability to work as part of a team
Experience in working in schools as a teacher
Desirable: statistical skills

Applications

Applicants should explain, in a short covering letter, what attracts them to this project, why their background is appropriate, their experience working in a team and include a research proposal of max 2000 words, relevant to the project. This can investigate the following research question or a related one: How do mobile intensive pedagogies interact with school student epistemologies?

Please email your application to Professor Sandy Schuck.

If the team believes that you are a suitable candidate, you will be asked to apply to be admitted to the PhD degree at UTS as per the instructions on the website.

Applications will be open from 16 February 2015 – 16 March 2015

New Publication and website: At the Coal Face

A Guide to active learning in multi-campus, multi-modal and distributed learning environments

A new guide is available that provides practical strategies for the design of active learning experiences in complex, multi-campus and distributed university learning environments, with a particular focus on campus learning spaces and video-linked classrooms.

The development of the Guide was supported by a 2013/14 Office for Learning & Teaching (OLT) Extension Grant Project.

The researchers built on learning spaces research to address specific needs of regional Australian learners. Innovative principles have been developed that break new ground in bringing together communities of active learners in physical and virtual learning spaces.

The Guide and resources from the project are available on the project website

The OLT Coal Face project team comprised Janet Buchan, Melanie Birks, John Smithson, Kristin Wicking, Helen McDonald and Matthew Riddle.

Email Dr Janet Buchan for further details.

Position Vacant: Learning Technologist, University of Western Australia

The Centre for Education Futures contributes to UWA's recognition as a global leader in education and impacts on students' learning experiences, by developing Education Futures innovations, projects and implementations and increasing the appropriate use of learning technologies.

The Learning Technologist will work with small teams and be required to communicate cutting-edge ideas and highly practical assistance for teaching, learning and assessment to Faculty partners across the University.

If you are looking to join a vibrant and collaborative team focused on exploring and implementing innovative learning practices and technologies across the University, we encourage you to apply for the vacancy.

Further information can be found at Jobs at UWA.

New ALT Articles of Interest

Open Badges supporting Intercultural Language learning in a MOOC

Mozilla’s Open Badge infrastructure is the basis for an innovative approach to supporting the recognition of the skills acquisition taking place when language students and staff engage in computer-mediated communication as part of Online Intercultural Exchange (OIE). Read more >>>

What does the Ed Tech think about all this? The Really Useful EdTechBook launches with free download.

Taking an idea about how to engage the wider learning technology community in exploring how and where we work is where the initial idea for The Really Useful #EdTechBook came from. In seven months we went from an email exchange about the concept for the book into the finished, launched, and available product. Read more >>>

Perspectives on BETT 2015

The BETT Show (formally known as the British Educational Training and Technology Show) comes around each January and entices all of us working in the education sector to play with exciting new toys and then (they hope) buy or sign up. Here three ALT Newsletter readers from further and higher education share their experiences. Read more >>>