ASCILITE NEWS
Next Webinar: "Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) e-Examinations"
15 May 2014, 5pm – 6pm AEST
For your local time zone please click this link.
Synopsis
Literature has shown that assessment is a key driver of student learning (Brown, Bull & Pendlebury, 1997; Brown & Knight, 1994 and Ramsden, 1992). According to Fluck (2010), "student learning is unlikely to change in response to information & communication technology (ICT) without a transformation of assessment practices". Numerous studies on e-Assessment at tertiary level have been carried out globally, including Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) e-Exams in the recent years. This one-hour webinar will provide you some insights of how two faculty members, Dr Mathew Hillier (University of Queensland) and Dr Seow Teck Keong (National University of Singapore) have carried out BYOD e-Exams in their own campus. Strategies and learning points on how to carry out e-Exams for small and large classes will be shared at the session.
Besides strategies for carrying out e-Exams, Dr Hillier will also provide an update on the project currently running at University of Queensland in developing a scalable approach to e-Exams that utilised BYOD in a secure and extensible manner, funded by the Office for Learning & Teaching (OLT). The in-class exam trial phase has just concluded and some preliminary results will be presented. The project aims to increase the options for assessing students undertaking examinations via computerised approaches which are designed to extend what is pedagogically possible over and above that of simple MCQ quiz or paper-based formats.
Dr Seow will be sharing his experience on the design, planning and implementation of a pilot BYOL e-Exam for a large class of about 700 students at the National University of Singapore, conducted in the second half of 2013. Some preliminary findings from a still-to-be-completed study on the perspectives of the students and faculty from that pilot BYOL e-Exam will also be presented.
References Brown, G., J. Bull, and M. Pendlebury (1997). What is assessment? In Assessing Student Learning in Higher Education. London: Routledge. Brown, S., & Knight, P. (1994). Assessing Learners in Higher Education. London: Kogan Page Ltd. Ramsden, P. (1992). Learning to Teach in Higher Education. New York, NY: Routledge. Fluck, A. (2010). eExams – high stakes summative assessment for the digital age. In Thomas, S., & Colbeck, D (Eds.), Cultures of Learning. Proceedings Teaching Matters 2010 Conference. (pp.24-33). Tasmania: University of Tasmania.
Presenters
Dr Mathew Hillier: Dr Hillier is currently a Lecturer in Higher Education (e-Learning) at University of Queensland who specialises in e-assessment and e-Exams.
He is the co-host of the Transforming Assessment& monthly webinar series on e-Assessment and is the project leader of two Office for Learning & Teaching (OLT) grants, one on e-Assessment professional development and the other on e-Exams.
Dr Seow Teck Keong: Dr Teck Keong is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore. He has been coordinating and teaching an introductory biology course with enrollments of 650 to 800 students per semester for more than 10 years.
His interest in the utilisation of technology and its impact on learning in the context of large classes motivated him to introduce the bring-your-own-laptop e-examination for the final examination of the course in the previous semester of August 2013.
How to Register
To register for webinars, simply email the ascilite Secretariat with "webinar registration" in the subject line followed by your full name and institution and whether or not you are a current member. Once registered, attendees receive an email with login details on the morning of the webinar. Ascilite webinars continue to be open to members and non-members so attendees are welcome to share webinar invitations with colleagues.
OTHER NEWS
New Issue of JOLT Published (including Special Section on MOOCs)
Following the success of the MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching's special issue on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that was published last year, the current issue (Vol. 10, No. 1) of JOLT contains a special section comprising five additional articles on the topic, along with an opening piece/foreword by open education pioneer and luminary Sir John Daniel.
The current issue and all back issues of JOLT are available on the journal's website.
Reframed Benchmarks from ACODE
Very recently ACODE (the Australasian Council on Online, Distance and e-Learning) refreshed their suite of benchmarks and reframed them away from e-Learning to focus squarely and fairly on technology enhanced learning, understanding that the boundaries around e-Learning are increasingly being blurred.
In shifting the focus of the new Benchmarks to the use of technology enhanced learning, ACODE have also recognised that many of the hallmarks of what were seen in the first major wave of online learning have taken a district shift, particularly with the advent of MOOCS and their various derivatives, open source software’s, open educational resources, app-based online interaction and the rise in cloud-based hosting of major institutional system. Similarly, no longer does an institution rely solely on an LMS, but now have developed complex mash-ups of internally and externally hosted environments to feed increasing usiness demands around flexibility and availability.
Inter-Institutional Benchmarking Summit, Sydney
In recognition of the importance of this new suite of Benchmarks ACODE is facilitating Benchmarking Summit at Macquarie University in Sydney between 1 – 3 June. This is shaping up to be an unprecedented event within our higher education sector, with over 20 institutions now committed to participating and using at least two of the benchmarks, with some institutions doing all eight (thrill seekers).
Visit the ACODE website to see what they are doing and to find-out more about the Summit.
Upcoming Seminars at Victoria University
Below are details of two upcoming seminars offered by the Victoria University in their Learning & Teaching Seminar Series. You may RSVP for either seminar here.
‘Learning to Fly: Capstones Across Disciplines’
Presented by Assoc Prof Nicolette Lee, Associate Director, Tertiary Scholarship, Victoria University, and National Senior Teaching Fellow.
WHEN: Wednesday 14 May 2014, 12:00-1:00pm.
WHERE: G372, Footscray Park campus, Victoria University, Melbourne.
‘First Year to Final Year: Careers, Coherence and Capstones’
Presented by Professor Sally Kift, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), James Cook University, and President of the Australian Learning and Teaching Fellows (ALTF).
WHEN: Thursday 29 May 2014, 11:30am-12:45pm.
WHERE: C203, Footscray Park campus, Victoria University, Melbourne.
Call for Papers: International Conference on Service Learning
The 2nd Summit on University Social Responsibility cum International Conference on Service-Learning (USR-SL 2014) will be held between 19 – 21 November 2014 at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has committed itself to be a socially responsible university. As part of that commitment, Service-learning has been made a core credit-bearing component of its undergraduate programs since 2012. In collaboration with several other universities with a similar committment, HK Polytechnic is now organizing this 2nd summit and conference.
On 19 November, senior university managers will be invited to speak on the broad issues of social responsibility. The SL conference on 20 – 21 November is focused on the research and practice of service-learning.
Service-Learning is now recognized as a highly effective pedagogical tool. The integration of community service into the academic curriculum in higher education is embraced wholeheartedly in many countries, and is gathering momentum in many other places all over the world. The Conference aims to further promote the scholarly development of the relevant theories, models, and tools of service-learning. Through this opportunity academic practitioners, faculty members, administrators, and students gather together to share and learn effective practices, to discover opportunities and resources, to be inspired and challenged, and to network and foster partnerships.
Call for Papers Topics
We invite scholars and students (both undergraduate and graduate students) who are interested in a scholarly and evidence-based approach to service-learning to submit papers to the SL conference that include but are not limited to the following topics:
- The role of service-learning in university education
- Credit-bearing service-learning
- Service-learning as extra-curricular activity
- Direct services for the community
- Civic engagement
- Campus-Community Partnerships
- Interdisciplinary service-learning
- Assessment of learning outcomes in service-learning
- Application of professional and discipline concepts in service-learning contexts
Further details on the Call for Paper may be found here and the submission deadline is 15 July 2014.
7th International Conference on Teaching & Learning in Higher Education (TLHE), Singapore
The Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL) of the National University of Singapore (NUS) is hosting the 7th International Conference on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (TLHE) from 9 to 11 December 2014. The theme for this year’s conference is Innovation in educational approaches: theory, practice and research. This conference will be the platform for a 1-day of pre-conference workshops (9 December 2014) followed by 2 days of presentations (10 – 11 December 2014), that will include keynote lectures, paper presentations on various sub-themes and poster sessions.
For further information, visit the website. Please note that the deadline for submission of extended abstract is 1 June 2014.
EduTECH National Congress & Expo, 3 – 4 June
There's still time to register for EduTECH which will be held on 3 – 4 June 2014 at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre.
EduTECH is one of Australasia's largest annual education technology conference and exhibition. In 2014, EduTECH® will host 9 conferences, 8 masterclasses, 5000+ attendees, official event dinner for 800 guests, 200+ exhibitors and free seminars for exhibition visitors.
EduTECH brings together the entire education and training sector (primary, secondary, tertiary, higher education and workplace learning) plus libraries, plus government, plus suppliers – all under one roof. –
Visit the website for full details.
Next Transforming Assessment: Assessment Decision Making, 4 June
The next Transforming Assessment session will be held on Wednesday 4 June at 7am GMT and the topic is "Assessment Decision-Making: how does technology influence e-assessment design?"
Session details, time zone conversions and RSVP instructions are available here.
The webinar will be presented by Phillip Dawson, Monash University and Sue Bennett from the University of Wollongong, Australia.
Abstract
When designing the assessment for a course or unit, teachers make a variety of decisions. The OLT-funded 'Assessment Decisions' project team have interviewed 30 university teachers about how they make decisions about assessment. Many teachers spoke with us about technology's influence. At a micro level, features of particular technology tools sometimes influenced task design: awarding bonus marks because a column exists on the LMS, or tracking group participation because a wiki allows it. At a macro level, influences like university LMS rollouts sometimes acted as impetuses for change. This presentation will outline how technology influenced assessment design and present our online 'assessment decision-making framework' which has been developed to assist teachers in improving their assessment.
Recording Available for "Promoting & Assessing Learning Networks"
A recording is now available for 'Promoting and assessing learning networks: Transitioning students to an emergent professional' held on 7 May and presented by Shane Dawson (University of South Australia) and Maarten de Laat (Open University Netherlands).
NUS Outstanding Educator Award Public Lecture 2014
The National University of Singapore’s Outstanding Educator Award Public Lecture 2014 will be webcasted live on Monday, 12 May 2014 from 2.00pm (Singapore time) which is today 12 May at 4pm AEST. Further details are available here.
Research Study on the Student Experience, UNSW
Dr. Lorenzo Vigentini and Catherine Zhao from the Learning & Teaching Unit at UNSW (Australia) are conducting a research study aiming to create a framework to categorize and map the questions and outcomes of instruments measuring the ‘student experience’ in HE by 'crowd-sourcing' the definition of terms.
They are very keen to tap into the expertise of ascilite members for contributions and to invite members to participate in the study.
You may wish to visit the project website Also, invitation templates approved by the UNSW ethics panel can also be sent to you. If you have any further queries feel free to email Catherine Zhao.
Position Vacant: Associate Professor Learning Futures, RMIT University
This continuing position is responsible for enhancing the quality of curriculum design and delivery for RMIT programs delivered in multiple locations and through multiple channels, with particular responsibility for enhancing the use and effectiveness of technology in education.
The position is within the Office of the Dean Learning and Teaching and reports to Professor Geoffrey Crisp. The Office provides leadership in the development and implementation of strategic university initiatives in Learning and Teaching. The Office drives key initiatives aligned with priorities outlined in the University Strategic Plan, Business Plan and Academic Plan.
Applications close 18 May 2014 and further details of the position can be found here.
Latest Articles from the ALT Online Newsletter
ALT (UK), which has a partnership agreement with ascilite, has recently revamped its online newsletter. You may find some of their latest articles of interest. Links are below:
Using Mahara in language learning Teresa MacKinnon
SmartTables: the Borders College experience, Suzanne Scott
Interview with Terry Anderson, Steve Wheeler
The open course you cannot fail… The ALT Team
ALT News Digest 298
Association for Learning Technology Fortnightly News Digest 298 was issued on 2 May 2014. ALT's journal – Research in Learning Technology is open access. Articles from the past 20 years are available here.
