ASCILITE NEWS

CMALT Australasia 2016 Community of Practice

CMALT Australasia is a professional accreditation scheme offered in partnership with the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) UK. The scheme is a form of professional accreditation (via peer reviewed portfolio) and certified membership that enables people whose work involves learning technologies to have their experience and capabilities certified by peers, and to demonstrate that they are taking a committed approach to their professional development.

In 2015 the CMALT Australasia Community of Practice supported a number of members towards the successful submission of their portfolios. These members made use of the CMALT CoP for peer feedback on their work, including valuable input from current CMALT holders.

Congratulations to asciliters Colin Simpson and Stephen Bright (apologies if we have missed any of our 2015 CMALTers) who were recently awarded their CMALT Certified Membership status after a successful review of their CMALT portfolios by ALT. We also had other members submit their portfolios to ALT and who are now awaiting the outcome of those submissions.
In 2016 ascilite is again offering mentoring opportunities and incentives to those preparing their portfolio. There will be two parts to this support:

The CMALT Australasia 2016 Community of Practice will offer mentoring, advice and support through online check-in and support sessions on preparing and submitting a portfolio. Members of the CoP will be a part of an active CMALT Australasia Google+ community.
ascilite will offer a one-off AUD$250 subsidy to successful CMALT Australasia applicants who have been participants in the CMALT Australasia CoP 2016. The subsidy is in the form of financial assistance to register for the ascilite2016 conference in Adelaide. Full details and conditions for subsidies are outlined in the CoP Guidelines (PDF).

Feel free to join the CoP even if you are not planning on submitting a portfolio in 2016. Further information on the CMALT CoP subsidies and how you can apply can be found on the ascilite website https://ascilite.org/get-involved/cmalt/.

Enquiries concerning the CoP may be directed to Mark Northover, Co-Chair CMALT Australasia and Expressions of Interest in the CoP should be emailed to the Secretariat by 30 March 2016.

eAssessment SIG News: Next Webinar

Topic: Meaningfully Embedding Program (Degree) Learning Goals in course work: Review at UNSW Business School

Date & Time: 6 April 2016, 7 – 8am UTC. (You will find other local time zones listed on the registration link below).

Presenters: Danny Carroll, University of New South Wales, Australia

Abstract: The accreditation of degree programs by professional bodies and quality agencies requires evidence of student learning and assessment outcomes against program goals. This evidence is often hidden in disconnected educational processes and so is often complex and time consuming to compile. Further this leads to disorientation on the part of students who can struggle to make sense of the connections between learning activities, assessment and desirable learning outcomes.

The session explores the experience of the University of New South Wales Business school, in seeking to satisfy the accreditation requirements of AACSB and EQUIS sought to trial the Review assessment tool. The trial of 'Review' started in four courses in 2011 and has since grown organically to being used in 160 courses per semester in three faculties. It was found that the the use of Review improved learning, teaching and assessment administration and reporting outcomes. The tool visually embeds program goals in course based assessment for the practical reference of students and staff. This session will also describe why Review can be characterised as a 'future oriented' assessment system.

You can register for the session here.

Previous Webinar Recording Available

A recording for the last eAssessment webinar held on 2 March, "Designing for Learner Engagement with Computer-based Summative Exams" is available for viewing. This webinar was presented by Richard Walker and Zoe Handley, University of York in the UK. The session looked at we can prepare university students for computer-based summative exams and provided an overview of how the institutional learning management system (Blackboard) was used to run online examinations based in campus computer labs. View the session recording and download resources here.

A full list of 13 prior webinars on the topic of e-Exams is also available here.

Call Out for Proposals to Host the 2017, 2018 or 2019 ascilite Conference

ascilite is seeking expressions of interest from potential conference organizing committees to host either the 2017, 2018 or 2019 annual conference.

ascilite conferences are a central aspect of ascilite and provide opportunities for delegates to meet with international and national peers to exchange ideas, research and practice in educational technology.

Conferences provide a forum for the presentation of refereed papers, short concise papers, symposiums, posters and workshops. The conference also provides memorable opportunities for social interaction and networking.

There are a number of expectations of conference organizing committees including:

Justification for the conference location and a brief explanation as to why the venue chosen would attract delegates.
Identification of strategies for marketing and attracting 300 – 400 delegates to the conference.
Liaison and collaboration with the ascilite Treasurer throughout the organization of the conference particularly in relation to the budget.
Ongoing communication and collaboration with the ascilite Executive.
The inclusion of an ascilite Executive member on the conference organizing committee.

The deadline for ascilite conference proposal submissions is 1 July 2016 although preliminary proposals are welcome prior to that date.

As a first step a potential conference organizing committee should obtain a copy of the ascilite Host Proforma, Host Information and the Conference Handbook and discuss these with an ascilite Executive. A copy of the information package and Handbook are available by emailing the ascilite Secretariat. Since the geographical location of the conference is an important consideration, you may wish to view past conference locations on the ascilite website here

OTHER NEWS

Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education

The Australian Conference on Science & Mathematics Education (22nd UniServe Science Conference) is supported by the Australian Council of Deans of Science TL Centre and will be held from 28 – 30 September 2016 in Brisbane, Australia just prior to ComBio 2016 conference.

The Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education (ACSME) is an opportunity for tertiary science and mathematics educators to share ideas and keep up to date. Science and mathematics for this conference encompasses biological sciences, chemistry, geosciences, health sciences, information technology, learning and cognitive sciences, mathematics and statistics, molecular and microbial sciences, physics and psychology as well as the various fields of the applied sciences.

You will find further information on the conference on the website.

The Fifth International Conference on Educational Innovation through Technology (EITT 2016)

The Society of International Chinese in Educational Technology (SICET) will organize its fifth International Conference of Educational Innovation through Technology (EITT2016) to provide a forum for researchers and teachers who study technology and education to publish research findings and exchange experiences in related topics.

The conference will be held on September 22-24, 2016 in Tainan, Taiwan. You are invited to present at EITT2016 to share your findings with your peers, the professional practitioners and researches from various disciplines around the world. The first EITT conference was successfully held in Beijing, China during August 10-12, 2012. The second EITT took place in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA during November 4-6, 2013. The third was held in Brisbane, Australia during Oct. 27-30, 2014, and the forth was held in Wuhan, China during Oct. 16-18, 2015. Founded in 2003, the SICET is a non-political, and non-profit academic organization. The mission of SICET is to establish and strengthen international academic connections, exchanges, research, and studies in educational technology for teaching and learning, and to promote the application of educational technology in education.

The conference proceedings will be published by IEEE, with best papers recommended for publication in special issues of international journals. (All articles in the EITT2014 and EITT2015 proceedings have been successfully indexed in EI (Compendex). Likewise, the organizer of this year's conference will also cooperate with Conference Publishing Services (CPS) to publish the EITT2016 proceedings. All conference proceedings will be submitted to Xplore and, upon acceptance, submitted for indexing in EI (Compendex).

Topics of interests include but not limit to the following:

Educational information strategies, policies, and assessment.
Theories and practices of educational technology integration into curriculum.
Theories and practices of open and distance education.
Intelligence, mobile, and ubiquitous learning.
Theories and practices for teacher education and development.
Innovation of Chinese and language teaching in digital learning environment.
Development and application practice of education platform.
Technology, structure, standards, and system in education informalization.

Three types of submission are invited for EITT 2016:

Refereed papers: with peer-review and 3-6 pages in length
Posters: with review and 1 pages in length
Workshop/Tutorials: workshop organizers handle the review process

Submission details may be found on the Call For Submissions page located at http://eitt2016.nutn.edu.tw.

Job Vacancy: Educational Design Specialist, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

This position is to be appointed at the substantive level of Senior Project Fellow / Project Fellow] [Appointment period: twenty-four months] in the Educational Development Centre.

The University has been awarded project funding to develop and provide systematic and structured online and blended professional development opportunities for higher education institutions across Hong Kong to develop teachers' skills of online and blended teaching. The Blended & Online Learning & Teaching (BOLT) Project aims to work in synergy and collaboratively with academic staff from five Hong Kong institutions to design a unique and an authentic learning experience that will help to develop a professional learning community between educational developers and academic teaching staff.

The appointee will be required to:

(a) design relevant resources including curriculum, content and assessment activities to facilitate and support academic staff in their continuing professional development of using learning technology for their teaching;
(b) coordinate, lead and facilitate the BOLT project team to deliver, moderate and assess the professional development opportunities offered by the project;
(c) provide consultation and expertise to the project team, faculties, departments and individual academic staff members in relation to the project within and outside the University;
(d) participate in the managing of data related to the evaluation and impact of the BOLT project;
(e) work collaboratively with other members of the project team; and
(f) contribute to all aspects of the project and associated tasks as directed by the project leader.

For the post of Senior Project Fellow, applicants should have a doctoral degree plus at least six years of postdoctoral research experience or equivalent qualifications and experience. For the post of Project Fellow, applicants should have a doctoral degree plus at least three years of postdoctoral research experience or equivalent qualifications and experience.

For both posts, applicants should also have:

(a) proven competence and experience in supporting teaching staff in their use of learning technologies (e.g. consultations, workshops and courses);
(b) expertise in the use of innovative technologies for e-learning development and knowledge of learning management system, e.g. Blackboard and Moodle); and;
(c) excellent communication, consultation and interpersonal skills with a high level of proficiency in written and spoken English.

Preference will be given to those with professional qualifications in a relevant area (e.g. FHEA and CMALT) and experience in supporting and teaching via online or blended approaches.

Applicants are invited to contact Mr Darren Harbutt at tel no. 2766 4778, fax no. 2334 1569 or email darren.harbutt@polyu.edu.hk for further information.

A highly competitive remuneration package will be offered. Applicants should state their current and expected salary in the application. The closing date for applications is 8 March 2016

Job Vacancy: Project Associate, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

The appointee will be required to:

(a) assist in the preparation and development of resources/activities for supporting online and blended professional development as outlined in the BOLT project;
(b) evaluate, collect and analyse data and prepare reports on the quality and impact of the professional development activities;
(c) coordinate and provide administrative and secretarial support to project team members;
(d) coordinate and support effectively the promotion of activities, deliverables and events related to the project;
(e) work collaboratively with other members of the project team; and
(f) contribute to all aspects of the project and associated tasks as directed by the project leader.

Applicants should have:

(a) a master's degree or a good honours degree with three or more years of relevant work experience, preferably within an education context;
(b) experience in using learning management system (e.g. Blackboard and Moodle) to support teaching and learning activities;
(c) strong organizational skills for identifying and compiling relevant resources;
(d) knowledge of and experience in conducting evaluation/educational studies;
(e) the ability to contribute as a team member to the development and implementation of projects; and
(f) excellent communication, consultation and interpersonal skills with a high level of proficiency in written and spoken English.

Preference will be given to those with experience in developing online resources, use of social media for learning and teaching, as well as supporting and teaching via online or blended approaches.

Applicants are invited to contact Mr Darren Harbutt at tel no. 2766 4778, fax no. 2334 1569 or email darren.harbutt@polyu.edu.hk for further information..

A highly competitive remuneration package will be offered. Applicants should state their current and expected salary in the application. The deadline for application is 8 March 2016.