Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education

ASCILITE NEWS

ascilite 2014 Conference Update

Accommodation is filling fast so please consider booking your acccommodation soon if you hace a hotel preference.   You will find further information on the conference website here.  And just a reminder that Early Bird rates are open until 3 October.

For updates, stay tuned to http://2014conference.ascilite.org and follow us on Twitter @ascilite14.

Jenny, Bronwyn and the ascilite2014 Conference Team.


AJET Issue 30(3) Published

We are pleased to advise that the third issue of the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology for 2014 was published on 5 August and is now available to readers. The editorial for AJET Issue 30(3) and the articles it contains are available on the AJET website.

Please feel free to circulate this link and promote the new issue of the journal among your networks.;

As always we would like to thank our team of Associate Editors, Helen Farley, Michael Henderson, Terry Judd, Timothy Teo, Shirley Agostinho, Eva Heinrich and Lina Markauskaite, and our Layout and Copy Editors Kayleen Wood, Antonina Petrolito and Molly McKew.

We would also like to acknowledge the authors for their contributions to AJET and for the support we received from them in preparing papers for this issue.

Gregor Kennedy, Sue Bennett, Barney Dalgarno.
Lead Editors, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology


ascilite acknowledges retired AJET Associate Editors

Several Associate Editors of ascilite's journal – the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology – have recently retired and the ascilite Executive and AJET Management Committee are extremely grateful for the considerable contribution they made to the journal.

Professor Robert Fitzgerald, Associate Dean (Innovation) at the University of Canberra; Professor Lori Lockyer, Head of the School of Education at Macquarie University; and Dr Terry Judd, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Medical School at the University of Melbourne all played a valuable role in helping to build AJET’s international reputation and make it the highly respected journal that it is today.

Without the volunteer efforts of everyone involved, particularly the Lead Editors, Associate Editors and Reviewers, it would be very difficult to maintain the high standards that AJET has achieved and we are extremely grateful to Professors Fitzgerald and Lockyer and Dr Judd for all the work they undertook as part of the AJET Editorial Team.

Caroline Steel, ascilite President and member of the AJET Management Committee


OTHER NEWS

Webinar: CodeRunner: Authentic e-assessment for Computer Programming, 3 September

Transforming Assessment Webinar

The next session in the Transforming Assessment webinar series will take place on 3 September at 7:00am GMT. Sessions are conducted at no charge.

CodeRunner: Authentic e-assessment for Computer Programming will be presented by Richard Lobb, University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

This session will explore the features of CodeRunner; a Moodle question type in which student submitted program code is automatically evaluated against a range of test criteria and a grade assigned. In introductory programming courses the question might be as simple as "Write a Python function sqr(x) that returns its parameter squared" however more advanced exercises can also be handled, such as "Modify the compiler discussed in lectures to handle the following language extensions". The submission is graded by running a series of tests on the submitted code within a sandbox, comparing the output with the expected output. Students receive immediate feedback and are able to resubmit (for a small penalty). It is also possible to process the responses to questions in which the student answer is not program code at all. Instead the question type can be used to accept any text as a response which can then be assessed against a set of test criteria defined by the instructor in the form of program code.

Coderunner is used at the University of Canterbury for laboratories, assignments and mid-course tests in several courses and is to be used in a final exam for the first time this year. The talk will report on experiences with CodeRunner in several courses and will demonstrate the authoring of questions and the range of different questions that can be asked.

For further details on the session and time zone conversions and RSVP instructions please go here.

Recording available: Designing e-Assessment Activities for Online Courses

A recording of the last webinar, 'Designing e-Assessment Activities for Online Courses', held on 6 August and presented by Mary Jacob, Aberystwyth University, UK is now available for viewing. This session discussed both good and improvable practice across the types of assessment currently used in MOOCs.


ALT Newsletter: Articles of Interest

Social Media for Every Audience: Student Social Media Showcase and the European Conference on Social Media 2014. Read more

Bring Your Own Devices For Learning (BYOD4L) Read more

Moving towards learner autonomy – Stephen Downes on Personal Learning in a Networked World. Read more


Job Vacancy: Learning Designer, QUT

Queensland University of Technology eLearning Services department has an exciting opportunity for a Learning Designer. You will lead and support a range of activities that will promote effective pedagogical design and delivery of blended learning experiences. This role will suit people who are passionate about teaching, technology and student learning.

Applications for this position close 31 August 2014.

Visit the QUT Jobs website for further information.


ALT News Digest 304

Association for Learning Technology Fortnightly News Digest 304 was issued on 1 August 2014.  ALT's journal – Research in Learning Technology is open access. Articles from the past 20 years are available here.

Institutional Members