ASCILITE NEWS
Reminder: Call for EOIs – AJET Lead Editor
ASCILITE’s peer reviewed journal, the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET), invites applications for the role of AJET Lead Editor(s) from individuals and small groups.
The Lead Editors are responsible for setting and maintaining the editorial direction of AJET, and leading and overseeing the work of the Associate Editors and Copy Editors. The Lead Editors also: fulfill the role of journal manager and manage and coordinate the production of AJET editions; compile reports for the AJET Management Committee and Editorial Boards and an annual report for the ASCILITE AGM. The Lead Editors meet with the AJET Management Committee (online) to negotiate the timeline and resources required for the journal’s activities. Lead Editors are expected to attend the ASCILITE annual conference to lead an ASCILITE workshop/symposium on publishing in AJET.
The current AJET Lead Editors will complete their term at the 2020 ASCILITE conference. ASCILITE is committed to active succession planning for this important role and has now begun a search for a new lead editor team. The current Lead Editors will provide support to the successful applicants to ensure a smooth transition into the role. Please note that the role of Lead Editor is a voluntary one and is not a paid position.
For further details, visit the AJET website here.
The due date for EOIs is COB Tuesday 15 July 2020.
ASCILITE2020 Virtual Conference reminders
ASCILITE’s first virtual conference will be hosted virtually by the University of New England on 30 Nov – 1 Dec 2020 and this is a reminder that the Call for Reviewers and Call for Papers both close on 6 July 2020.
- Call for Reviewers: Reviewers are needed to review conference submissions and your support will be very much appreciated. If you are able to participate in the review process, please register your interest by completing the online form.
- Call for Papers: Full details of the call for full papers, concise papers and extended abstracts are now available on the conference website here.
New TELall blog posts
Are you an educator? If so, we need your help: Challenges for educators due to COVID-19
In this blog post, Petrea Redmond (USQ) and Chris Campbell (Griffith) ask educators to share their experiences in how COVID-19 has changed the education sector. While this health crisis has presented unique challenges it has also presented some exciting opportunities. Petrea and Chris share two research projects which are investigating the impact of COVID-19 and invite you to share your own experiences through two surveys.
Moving towards adoption of online music pedagogy
In this post, Dr Carol Johnson (Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and Senior Lecturer in Music, Online Learning & Educational Technologies, University of Melbourne) discusses the current crisis in Australian higher education caused by the coronavirus. The challenge of teaching beyond classroom walls is even more acute for performing arts faculties, like music performance, whose staff may be ill-equipped for agile online learning implementation. A key challenge exposing music’s limitation for shifting to online learning is its traditionally-focused face-to-face teacher-apprenticeship teaching models.
Carol is presenting an ASCILITE Live! webinar on 16 June related to the blog post above. For details see the next news item below.
ASCILITE Live! Webinar – Creating presence in online learning for practice-based classes
Date and Time: 11am – 12pm AEST 16 June 2020. You’ll find session start times for different time zones here.
Abstract: The sudden shift to all disciplines moving to online learning due to COVID-19 has surfaced many questions for those teaching practice-based classes, such as music performance, visual arts, physics and so forth.
Community of Inquiry model (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000) presents teaching presence, social presence and cognitive presence in a concentric approach for meaningful online learning. Attainable online student learning objectives, authentic student assessment, and the development of community become key considerations for how presences can be developed for practice-based online classes.
Recommendations through research-informed approaches will be used to identify ways to transform face-to-face, practise-based activities into their meaningful, and approachable, online counterparts.
Presenter: Carol Johnson, PhD, is the Senior Lecturer in Music (Online Learning & Educational Technology) at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music where she researches evidence-based approaches in teaching and learning music online. Carol is the 2019 recipient of the ASCILITE Emerging Scholar Award.
Registration: You can register for this webinar here. Pre-registration allows us to email you a quick reminder prior to the session.
As of 14 June, this webinar had 69 registrations, so do register before registrations close.
ASCILITE and SoLAR sign Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
The Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR) and ASCILITE have signed an MoU to establish a mutually beneficial relationship and conduct joint projects and events; promote shared knowledge, resources and services, and engage each other’s memberships in joint initiatives.
Both societies share a common commitment to harness technology to advance learning and improve access to it and this MoU is expected to further foster that commitment.
SoLAR is an inter-disciplinary network of leading international researchers who are exploring the role and impact of analytics on teaching, learning, training and development. SoLAR has been active in organizing the International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge (LAK) and the Learning Analytics Summer Institute (LASI), launching multiple initiatives to support collaborative and open research around learning analytics, promoting the publication and dissemination of learning analytics research, and advising and consulting with state, provincial, and national governments.
The changing nature of academic support roles thanks to COVID-19
As part of the ASCILITE Community Mentoring Program, Amanda Bellaby and I would like to invite you to help us determine the changing nature of academic support roles during this unprecedented time. As such, we invite you to participate in a single question survey designed to understand how Blended Learning Designers, Instructional Designers, Educational Developers, and those with related job titles are responding to and contributing solutions towards the present COVID-19 crisis.
If you could please share your thoughts and insights, that would be greatly appreciated. Before doing so, please read the Participation Information Sheet. Your participation is completely voluntary and all reporting will be anonymous.
To access the survey, please go here. Please note, although there is only one question, please make your response as fulsome as you can. Even so, this should not take you more than five minutes to complete.
Please also pass this invitation on to others who may not have received the ASCILITE bulletin and who you feel could contribute.
Thank you for your time and for your participation. Should you have any questions or concerns, you are most welcome to contact us.
Kind Regards,
Professor Michael Sankey
Director, Learning Transformations
Learning Futures | Griffith University
Amanda Bellaby
Learning Designer, Digital Learning Portfolio
Learning and Teaching Unit | QUT<
OTHER NEWS
MicroHE Conference
MicroHE was built on the conviction that micro-credentialing in Higher Education can be the key to the successful transformation of universities’ service offering, attracting more learners and providing them with high quality micro-credentials that are portable, modular and stackable.
Registration for the MicroHE Final Conference on 23 June is free but please note that numbers for this special registration are limited, so do register soon. The event is embedded in the EDEN 2020 Annual Virtual Conference which is also virtual this year.
MicroHEs registration is a satellite event of the European Distance & eLearning Network (EDEN) conference which is also being held at this time.
To register for the EDEN conference or for the free MicroHE conference, visit the website here.
Call for participants: Study of the selection and implementation of online exams at Higher Education institutions
The University of Sydney Business School is leading a study into how institutions have or are considering sourcing and deploying online exam platforms and tools.
As such, we would like to invite you to an interview to discuss your experiences with online delivery of assessments and exams.You would be asked participate in a semi structured interview of approximately 30 minutes duration.
We are looking for insights (at a faculty or institutional level) from people involved in the decision making and implementation phases of online exams. We will share the higher level insights on this list, as well as at future ALT conferences. The overall research objective is to define the requirements and affordances of a technology enabled exam solution. This will be done with a view to pilot and evaluate the efficacy of moving whole or part of the exam process to an online environment as an alternative assessment modality to the traditional pen and paper-based exam.
If you would like to take part in the study, you can do this by emailing Jacqueline Ruello and she will co-ordinate a time to have a chat.
Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Peter Bryant PhD
Associate Dean (Education) & Associate Professor
The University of Sydney Business School
