ASCILITE NEWS

ASCILITE Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2 December – Save the date

The ASCILITE 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place during the annual conference.

Date: Monday 2 December 2024
Time: 12:30-1:30pm
Venue: Kathleen Fitzpatrick Lecture Theatre B101, Arts West, UniMelb.

We encourage all current members to attend the meeting. Further details will be circulated in the coming weeks.

OEP-SIG launches Open Education Down UndOER: Australasian Case Studies 

Open Education Down UndOER: Australasian Case Studies is a curated, peer-reviewed, openly-licensed anthology comprising scholarly contributions from esteemed professionals including librarians, researchers, learning and teaching teams, and engaged open education practitioners across Australia. Future editions will seek to extend this coverage to Aotearoa New Zealand, and the broader Asia-Pacific region.

This OER is intended for use in learning and teaching communities in higher education. The book aims to benefit and inspire faculty academics, information professionals, research communities, and financial delegates responsible for institutional textbook procurement. The audience will also include third space professionals such as librarians, curriculum developers and learning designers in supporting open educational practices in their institutions.

Read more and download the OER here.

LD-SIG Webinar:  Leveraging GenAI to Design Learning Activities for Student Engagement and Success

Date: Friday 15 November 2024
Time: 12:00-1:00pm AEDT
Join here

Join us for an engaging webinar where you’ll discover how to leverage GenAI to transform your learning design process and boost student engagement and success. This interactive session introduces practical, innovative strategies for designing scaffolding learning activities through three foundational frameworks: constructive alignment, backward design, and the ABC curriculum design method. Using carefully design prompts, participants will generate learning activities that align with learning outcomes and support students in successfully completing a summative assessment.
By the end of the webinar, you’ll be able to:

• Explain constructive alignment, backward design, and ABC learning activity types.
• Design learning activities that scaffold students to complete a summative assessment and achieve ILOs with the assistance of GenAI.
• Evaluate an AI generated learning activity.

Perfect for educators, especially learning designers who are eager to integrate GenAI into learning design! Bring along a unit outline for a personalised experience (we’ll also provide a unit outline in the webinar if you want to use ours).

Presenters: Dr Nhung Nguyen, Dr Anuradha Khara, and Mark Trischuk (University of Tasmania)

New issue of AJET has been released

The latest issue of AJET is now available. This issue includes an exciting collection of new research on topics like artificial intelligence, online assessment, mixed-reality simulations, and digital storytelling. Also in this issue Co-Lead Editor, Henk Huijser, demonstrates the value of collaboration by leading an editorial that brings together international experts to explore the tension between collaboration and competition in educational technology research.

Check it out here.

AJET Webinar: How (not) to get published in AJET

Date: Tuesday 26 November 2024
Time: 12:00 PM Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney

In this webinar, the AJET Lead Editors will discuss what to do (and what not to do) to give you the best chance of getting published in AJET. They will also provide some tips on how to write a good abstract and how to create a good set of keywords.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87802004916

Expressions of Interest invited in ASCILITE’s 2025-6 Women in Academic Leadership (WiAL) Program

Applications (Expressions of Interest) in the 2025-6 Women in Academic Leadership (WiAL) Program are now being accepted and are due by 9 December 2024. The Women in Academic Leadership Initiative aims to provide mentoring opportunities for academics at levels C and D (or equivalent), with mentors from Levels D and E. The initiative will bring together its members via a community approach to support each other to progress in academia. Applicants must be current members of ASCILITE and maintain their membership for the duration of the two-year initiative.

Both potential mentors and mentees are required to submit an EOI to express interest in the program and will be matched with a mentor or mentee in by the end of the year. The ASCILITE Women in Academic Leadership (WiAL) Program has been operating since 2021.  The benefits of participation in the initiative include Tips and advice on academic promotion from members; Seminars for mentoring on relevant topics suggested by the cohort; Expansion of skills, knowledge and experience such as communication, leadership, storytelling, visibility and strategic planning; and Opportunity for networking and to create contacts outside of the individual’s own workplace.

You will find full details of the program on the ASCILITE website here along with the application forms.

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.

The 3rd Space Symposium – Registrations close 15 November

The Third Space Symposium kicks off this week (Friday 15th Nov) with two weeks of sharing and discussion of a wide array of topics relating to working in the domain between academic and professional practice in higher education – the third space.

Third Space practitioners include people working in learning design, educational technologies, academic development, study skills development, libraries, research support and more. They bring specialist expertise to help educators in an ever busy tertiary education sector.

The Third Space Slowposium is a (mostly) asynchronous event, designed to allow participants to drop in and out in their own time and select from more than 50 topics to learn from practitioners and discuss the present and future. Register for free here.

This will be followed by a one day, in-person only event on Sunday December 1, the day before the ASCILITE conference, at the University of Melbourne.

This day will feature more than 20 presentations and discussions and includes lunch and morning/afternoon tea. Registration for this is $56.

The Third Space Symposium is being organised by the TELedvisors Network SIG (with assistance from the LD SIG) and we thank ASCILITE and ATEM for their support.

Registration absolutely must close on Friday 15th November for catering purposes. Don’t miss out.

2024 Contextualising Horizon Report released

ASCILITE is pleased to announce the release of the 2024 Contextualising Horizon Report. Contextualising Horizon aims to identify the educational and technologies and practices likely to impact the Australasian tertiary sector.

This year’s report highlights the social, technological, economic, environmental, and political trends impacting the sector in 2024 and this year’s top 5 educational technology and practice trends:

1. Academic Integrity/Assurance of Learning: Academic Integrity/Assurance of Learning: Strategies for ensuring ethical use of technology in educational settings for both staff and students.
2. Diversification of Topics in AI: The spectrum of topics emerging in relation to AI, including acknowledging AI’s persistence; generative AI literacy; ethics, privacy, and policy lags; and AI’s revitalization of educational technologies
3. Enhanced Oral Assessments and Vivas: Practices and models to efficiently scale, harvest data, and assess oral assessments.
4. Technology-Enhanced Work-Integrated Learning: Applying both educational and industry-specific technologies to facilitate WIL.
5. Changing Nature of Flexible/Hybrid Delivery: Building capacity and literacy of staff around the evolving learning continuum.

Download the report from here.

Contextualising Horizon is an initiative of ASCILITE and would not be possible without the contributions of the ASCILITE community and its affiliates. It really is a community effort. The Contextualising Horizon Research team extends its appreciation to the individuals who have joined us for the conference sessions, workshops, and who contribute their time and effort to creating the Contextualising Horizon Report.

Applications to host the ASCILITE 2026 or 2027 Conference

We are seeking expressions of interest from potential conference organising committees to host the 2026 and 2027 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, pecha kucha and workshops. The conference also provides memorable opportunities for social interaction and networking.

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

1. Justification for the conference location and a brief explanation as to why the venue chosen would attract delegates.
2. Identification of strategies for marketing and attracting 450-500 delegates to the conference.
3. Liaison and collaboration with the ASCILITE treasurer throughout the organisation of the conference particularly in relation to the budget.
4. Ongoing communication and collaboration with the ASCILITE executive.
5. The inclusion of an ASCILITE executive member on the conference organising committee.

If you would like to discuss hosting the conference with a member of the executive please reach out to Sandra Barker and/or Hazel Jones.

A copy of the hosting proposal guidelines are available here.

OTHER NEWS

SoLAR Webinar “Addressing the Digital Divide to Support Learning Analytics Adoption in the Global South”

You are invited to the next SoLAR Webinar “Addressing the Digital Divide to Support Learning Analytics Adoption in the Global South” with Prof. Rafael Ferreira Mello, UFRPE & CESAR.

Time and date: November 12, 3pm CET (9am New York, 2pm London, 10pm Tokyo)
Register here

In recent years, Learning Analytics (LA) has emerged as a powerful tool for enhancing educational practices, improving student outcomes, and informing policy decisions. However, the persistent digital divide often restricts the adoption of LA technologies, particularly in regions of the Global South. This talk explores the critical barriers that limit the widespread implementation of LA, including issues related to infrastructure, access to technology, and digital literacy. Focusing on practical solutions, we will discuss how addressing these challenges can foster more equitable access to data-driven insights and improve educational outcomes in under-resourced contexts. Drawing on case studies from the Brazilian Ministry of Education, this presentation will offer strategies for overcoming these barriers and reaching students in low-resource environments.

ALASI24 – Registrations now open (Early bird closes 18^th Nov)

You are invited to join the Australian Learning Analytics Summer Institute 2024 (ALASI24) at Deakin University on the 28^th and 29^th November 2024. The draft program has just been released and contains a great range of interactive sessions and poster presentations. 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.

Early bird registrations close on 18^th November 2024.

Further details can be found here

ALT Winter Summit 2024: Ready to develop your Future Leadership skills?

ALT would like to invite you to join their Winter Summit on Tuesday 10 December 2024 from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM GMT. Whether you are early in your career, about to step into a new leadership role, or already making waves as a senior leader, the day will be packed with insights to help you develop your skills as a Future Leader.

Find out more here.