ASCILITE NEWS

Reminder: ASCILITE Committee Election

To all the members that have already voted – Thank you!

If you have not voted please check your inbox for the email with subject line: ASCILITE 2024 Executive Committee Voting sent to you from SurveyMonkey. Please note that the voting link embedded in each email is unique to each recipient.

We hope that all current members can take a few minutes to participate in the poll, so please locate your email and cast your vote by 4 October.

Voting closes midnight 4 October 2024.

2024 ASCILITE Awards: Open for Nominations: FINAL CALL

Nominations close 4 October 2024 

Each year, ASCILITE members are invited to apply or nominate for the ASCILITE awards and to consider nominations that they believe meet the criteria set for each award. The award categories available to members in 2023 are as follows:

• Innovation Award 
  • Celebrates work undertaken by an individual or team of people in support of the exemplary and research informed use of technologies for teaching and learning in tertiary education. Innovation is defined as a new idea, device or process. It is something original that “breaks into” teaching and learning in the tertiary sector.
    • The most outstanding Innovation Award: “The Allan Christie ASCILITE Innovation Award” (judged from Innovation Award nominations). Allan Christie was involved with ASCILITE since its conception in 1985. He was recognised with a Life Member award in 2003 (only the fourth person to receive this honour at the time). Allan continued to serve the Society for over 36 years and was on the ASCILITE Executive for 27 years when he retired from the Executive in December 2019. Allan was well known in higher education and sadly passed away suddenly last year. He is missed greatly in the ASCILITE circles.
• Anthology Educational Designer of the Year Award, in memory of Allan Christie
  • In recognition of Allan Christie’s lifelong contribution to the sector, this award is professional staff member who has made significant contributions to learning and teaching. The award is sponsored by Anthology, to the value of $1,000
• Emerging Scholar Award 
  • Has made a noteworthy contribution in the exemplary use of ore research into technologies for learning and teaching in tertiary education
• Community Fellow Award 
  • Recognise the outstanding contributions of individual ASCILITE members in the exemplary building of connections in the wider community and into the ASCILITE community.
• ASCILITE/CAULLT Award for Outstanding Leadership in Digital Learning in Higher Education
  • Recognises evidence of an individual’s innovative and effective leadership in the broad use of digital technologies to enhance teaching, learning, and overall performance in higher education.
• ASCILITE Research Grants (NOTE: NEW FUNDING from 2025)
  • Three ASCILITE research grants valued at $5,000 each – totalling $15,000, will be offered as follows – one Early Career Researcher, one General Academic and one Professional Staff Member. All investigators must be members of ASCILITE. These ASCILITE Research Grants will be offered for an 18-month period.
• Student Bursary Award 
  • Available to full-time PhD/EdD or equivalent students
• Life Member Award 
  • A prestigious award that recognizes the significant service and/or sustained contribution of an ASCILITE member to the Society

For further information on each award, refer to the specific award criteria and nomination form on the ASCILITE website.

ASCILITE Live! Webinar (in collaboration with Turnitin): Promoting authentic learning experiences: redesigning assessments to minimise student misconduct

Date: Wednesday 9 October 2024
Time: 4.00 – 5.30pm AEDT
Register here

Join us as we bring together education leaders, researchers, and assessment experts to explore how to transform assessment with authentic learning experiences that boost student outcomes and mitigate academic misconduct.

Presenters:

• Dr Dianne Stratton-Maher, Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Southern Queensland
• Dr Joon Nak Choi, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Management, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• Dr Benito Cao, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Adelaide

Key Takeaways:

• Explore authentic assessment design with methodologies such as project-based assessments, case studies and simulations that can reduce students’ incentive to cheat.
• Harness formative feedback and self-assessment including continuous assessment methods, peer review and reflective exercises to foster student engagement, metacognitive skills and ownership of learning.
• Adopt assessment security measures and misconduct deterrents such as randomised question banks, timed assessments and proctoring technologies that preserve integrity in the assessment process.

TA-SIG webinar: How to ensure robust assessment in the light of Generative AI developments

Date: Wednesday 2 October 2024
Time: 5:00 – 6:00pm AEST
More information and registration here

Have you been wondering how robust your assessments are against AI? This session will report on large scale research carried out by The Open University, funded by NCFE, between March and July 2024. The research looked to identify the most and least robust assessment types to be answered by Generative AI (GAI), enable some comparison across subject disciplines and levels, and to assess the effectiveness of a short training programme to upskill educators in recognising scripts containing AI-generated material. A mixed-methods approach involving quantitative and qualitative data considered the results of marking from 944 answers (representing 59 questions from 17 different assessment types, 17 disciplines and 4 FHEQ levels).

The research team will share the results including the performance of GAI across a range of different assessments and the impact of training on markers. They will suggest how assessment can be made more robust in light of GAI developments and recommend how higher education institutions might adopt AI-informed approaches to learning, teaching and assessment.

Questions and interaction are welcome.

Presented by: Liz Hardie and Kieran McCartney (Open University, UK)

ASCILITE Spring into Excellence Research School: FINAL CALL

You are invited to join us at the 2024 ASCILITE research school. Applications close 4 October.

The next School is planned for 28-30 October and will be hosted by UTS in Sydney.

Aims of the Research School
The aim of the ASCILITE Spring into Excellence Research School is to:

1. Provide support and guidance to participants in developing and progressing Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) research initiatives including but not limited to:
   – Formulating a relevant and effective TEL research project.
   – Collecting appropriate TEL research data.
   – Identifying what data is most appropriate for TEL research.
2. Assist participants to identify and plan a contemporary TEL research project.
3. Enable opportunities for participants to link with like-minded collaborators from other universities and potentially to establish viable cross-institutional research collaborations.
4. Guide participants in developing a grant application or research plan for a TEL research project. This would include both projects that have already been conceptualised as well as new projects that have not yet been conceived.

You can access the expression of interest form here and/or get more information about the Research School here.

OEP-SIG was shortlisted for two OE Global Awards for Excellence

We are pleased to announce the OEPSIG was nominated and shortlisted for two OE Global Awards for Excellence!

The SIG was nominated in the Open Collaboration category.

This year 112 applications were received from 28 countries, making this an exceptional effort by all involved – and especially for our community whose generosity of time, sharing, and spirit of collaboration formed the basis for the nominations.

Read more about the OEP SIG here

OTHER NEWS

2024 Open Education Conference

The 2024 Open Education Conference will be held as a hybrid event on October 8-10 in USA (Providence, RI) and online.

The theme “It’s About Time” highlights this critical moment in education as we strive for a more open future. Don’t miss out on the latest research, best practices, and innovations from across the open education field.

Register for an in-person or virtual ticket. To support equitable access to the conference, students receive a heavily discounted rate and scholarships are available to all by Application.

Why should you attend?

• Keynotes by James Glapa-Grossklag, Joy Shoemate, Richard Baraniuk, and a student panel
• 200+ sessions
• Social activities and networking (in person and online!)
• Post-conference access to all recordings

We hope to see you at #OpenEd24. It’s About Time!

AECT Virtual & International Convention 2024

Date: Virtual Conference October 1–3, 2024; Virtual participation for the program in Kansas City Oct 19-23, 2024 (Central US Time);
More information and registration here

The Association for Educational Communications & Technology (AECT) represents and engages a wide variety of educational professionals, including instructional designers, PK-12 teachers, higher education faculty, education administrators, and industry training leaders, who seek to provide leadership and advise policymakers on enriching and sustaining teaching and learning. The annual AECT International Convention is the premier international forum for the exchange and dissemination of scholarship and practice on the design of instruction and systematic approaches to learning.