ASCILITE NEWS

New Issue of AJET Released

The latest issue of AJET has just been released! Check out new research on multitasking, online professional development for faculty, Vlogging, online quality evaluation, and much more. The editorial for this issue explores how to write an impactful abstract for educational technology research. A very useful read for those considering submitting their research to AJET in the future.

You can access this new issue here

ASCILITE LD-SIG October Webinar: ‘Bridging the Divide: Insights from Corporate Learning Design for Higher Education’

Date: Friday 18th October
Time: 12pm – 1pm AEDT.
Register hereAs learning designers, we often find ourselves navigating the unique challenges and opportunities within our respective sectors, whether in universities or corporate environments. While these contexts may seem worlds apart, there are valuable lessons to be learned from one another. This webinar will bring together a panel of corporate learning designers to explore the evolving landscape of learning design across industries and identify key strategies that can benefit university-based practitioners.

Our discussion will focus on how corporate approaches to instructional design, scalability, learner engagement, and technology integration can be applied in higher education settings. We’ll also examine how academic rigor, deep theoretical foundations, and a commitment to lifelong learning in universities can offer valuable insights for corporate designers. Through this exchange, we aim to uncover new ways of thinking about learning design that bridge the gap between the academic and corporate worlds.

Join us to explore fresh perspectives, share ideas, and spark innovative approaches to creating meaningful and impactful learning experiences—regardless of the sector you work in. This session is ideal for learning designers looking to expand their toolkit and engage in cross-industry collaboration.

Panellists:

• Amanda Ashby, Senior Learning & Leadership Manager, Aurecon
• Jina Hardy, Chief Learning Officer,  LX Design Agency & President QLD/NT Divisional Council, AITD
• Kristen Hammond, Senior Director, Academic Services, Australia, Risepoint

TELedvisors-SIG: Brisbane, SEQ and Northern NSW TELedvisors Meetup

Attention! TELedvisor colleagues in Brisbane, South-East Queensland and Northern NSW

Date: Thursday, 14 November 2024
Time: 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM (a light lunch and afternoon tea provided)
Location: Room 413/A (Level 2), P Block, The Cube, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point Campus
RSVP: Friday, 8 November 2024

We are having a meet-up over lunch, followed by a hands-on workshop on the topic of Enhancing assessment by leveraging AI.

This event will enable you to expand your professional network and make connections with other TELedvisors. After lunch, you will form cross-institutional teams to undertake the challenge of redesigning assessment to incorporate the use of AI. Then the tables are turned and you will use AI to complete an assessment task from another group. After a debrief of your learnings and experiences, we shall wrap up the afternoon by further networking opportunities.

Register today

Webinar: Update on New Zealand TELAS

Date: Tuesday 19 November
Time: 11am (AEDT) / 1pm (NZ)
 Register here

As part of the TELAS initiative, we have been investigating TELAS and how it can be used in organisational contexts with a particular focus on New Zealand. We would now like to report back in an interactive 1 hour webinar on where we are at with this initiative. We look forward to meeting with you on the 19^th November. Please feel free to bring along examples of practice if you have any available.

Call for proposals for a special issue of AJET in 2025

The editors of the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET) welcome expressions of interest from individuals or teams interested in guest editing a special issue of the journal in 2025.

Expressions of interest of up to 500 words should include the following information:

1. Names and affiliations of guest editor(s), including experience and brief biographical details
2. Proposed special issue theme, including possible topics
3. The relevance of the theme to the scope and coverage of the journal
4. The significance of the theme in advancing the field of educational technology in tertiary education

The expressions of interest will be reviewed by the AJET Lead Editors. Full proposals will then be requested from shortlisted EOIs.

Please email your expression of interest to the editors  by 21st October 2023.

Australian Learning Analytics Summer Institute 2024 – Call for proposals

This event is supported by ASCILITE and the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR).

We are very happy to announce the Australian Learning Analytics Summer Institute 2024 (ALASI24) conference which will be held at Deakin University on the 28th & 29th November 2024. Come and join us for two days of sharing, learning, networking, and fun while we immersive ourselves in all things Learning Analytics! The purpose of ALASI24 is to bring together educators, practitioners, and researchers to learn collaboratively through discovery, sharing, and discussion of learning analytics practice. Whether you are new to the field, have been working on LA projects/research, or have been around from the very beginning of LA, the goal of ALASI24 is for us all to take stock of what we have learnt from the field to date, and answer key questions facing LA right now.
The call for proposals for interactive sessions and poster/demos will close on Monday 21^st October 2024 at 11:59pm (AEDT) (this has been extended by a day from the originally advertised date!).

Further details can be found here

TELall Blog: Partnering with online program managers: Learning design and the re/location of academic quality

In our newest blog post, Stephen Abblitt from Keypath Australia describes learning design and partnership with online program managers. Stephen looks at the chapter authored in a current book investigating academic quality within the partnerships. The blog concludes with an invitation to participate in further research in this area.

Read more here.

We are still accepting blog posts for 2024 and looking forward to 2025. If you are interested in publishing in our TELall blog contact Dr Sandy Barker

The Third Space Symposium is an event in two parts- a free, online asynchronous event over two weeks (Friday 15th – Sat 30th November) called the Slowposium and then a 1 day in-person event at the University of Melbourne on Sunday 1st December (the day before the ASCILITE conference kicks off in the same location).

Both events will include a rich program addressing all aspects of working in the tertiary education third space. The in-person symposium will focus specifically on our corner of the third space dealing with the work of learning designers, educational technologists, academic developers and the like. Registration for this event includes morning/afternoon tea and lunch and costs $56.

This is easily the biggest event that we have put on and we think it will be amazing. Really hope to see you there.

Find out more and register here

OTHER NEWS

CRADLE Seminar Series: Nostalgic stories in academic imaginaries of the digital

Date: Wednesday 30 October 2024
Time: 2.00pm – 3.30pm (AEDT)
Where: This session will be held at Deakin Downtown, Level 12, Tower 2, 727 Collins Street, Docklands and online.
Cost: This is a free event

In this presentation you will hear from CRADLE Fellowship holder Dr Ros Black. In her Fellowship project Ros investigated how collective imaginaries shape the recent and future development of online teaching and the role of senior academics. CRADLE are delighted that Ros will share her research outcomes and insights with us.

While digital tools and technologies have become integral to current teaching practices in higher education, their development and implementation is also imbued with stories of the future. Especially with the advent of artificial intelligence, the digital is either associated with the promise of more creative, responsive and accessible pedagogies and the better development of graduates’ future-oriented skills and employability, or else with concerns about what dystopian outcomes might emerge from a future university dominated by technology. Despite this, when as part of a recent CRADLE Fellowship research project we asked senior academics in Australia and the United Kingdom about how they envisage the future of the digital in higher education, a strong story emerged of nostalgia and of lost real or imagined academic pasts. Drawing on selected data from that project, this presentation reflects on what nostalgic stories of the academy may be shaping our orientation to the digital and what these stories may mean, both for the senior academics who narrate them and for the sector as a whole.

Register Now.

2024 CRADLE International Symposium. How could generative AI change work-integrated learning?

When: Wednesday 9 October 2024
Time: 2.30pm (AEDT)
Where: This session will be held at Deakin Downtown, Level 12, Tower 2, 727 Collins Street, Docklands and online.
Cost: This is a free event

This year’s CRADLE International Symposium ‘How could generative AI change work-integrated learning?’ seeks to unpack current and timely research questions surrounding artificial intelligence and its role and impact with higher education and work. As a pivotal highlight of the Symposium program we are pleased to invite you to attend an exciting interactive public panel event.

AI is starting to fundamentally change the nature of both work and learning. What about learning through work? Many questions present themselves in a climate of simultaneous opportunities, dilemmas, and hazards: How will generative AI shift relationships between students, university educators and workplaces? How can approaches to workplace learning be reconsidered in light of generative AI? What might be the roles of generative AI in workplace assessment and feedback practices?

Facilitated by CRADLE’s Prof Margaret Bearman, please join them for this panel discussion featuring an international cast of eminent higher education researchers, who will reflect on the emergent intersections between generative AI, higher education, and workplace learning, and offer potential directions for work-integrated learning in research and practice.

They look forward to engaging with you at this compelling and topical panel presentation at Deakin Downtown, or online. Register here.

FLANZ APODE week

The Asia-Pacific Online Distance Education (APODE) week will be held from 12 to 14 November 2024 and has the theme ‘Sustainable education practices’. FLANZ partners with EDEN Digital Learning Europe who will be holding the European Open and Digital Learning Week (EODLW) at the same time.

Join for three different free sessions:

1. Panel conversation ‘Gen AI past its hype and its impact on education in Aotearoa New Zealand’ (12 November 1pm NZDT)
2. Workshop ‘Working together for change: Digital education meets the climate and nature emergencies’ (13 November 9am NZDT)
3. Presentation ‘Empowering STEM educators in Fiji: Integrating OERs and technology in the classroom’ (14 November 1pm NZDT)

Learn more about each session on the FLANZ website.