ASCILITE NEWS

ASCILITE2020 Virtual Conference – Call for Reviewers

The ASCILITE 2020 Conference will be hosted virtually by the University of New England on 30 Nov – 1 Dec 2020. Reviewers are needed to review conference submissions and your support will be very much appreciated. If you are able to participate in the review process, please register your interest by completing the online form. We will be closing the call around the end of July so please let us know if you can help.

What do you need to do?

Register your interest here.
Commit to complete an online review of all assigned submissions by the due date around the end of August 2020
Adhere to review criteria as determined by the Program Committee
Advise immediately of any conflict of interest with papers allocated to their review
If you have any queries, please email the conference organisers.

The Call for Papers is also open and full details on the submission process, themes and templates are now available on the conference website here.

Reminder: Submissions for Special Issue of AJET on learning analytics due 1 July 2020

The field of learning analytics has evolved over the past decade to provide new ways to view, understand and enhance learning activities and environments in tertiary education. However, a core challenge that continues to face the learning analytics community is how the impact of these innovations can be demonstrated.

This special issue provides an opportunity to explore the pathways to impact of learning analytics-based interventions and implementations in the tertiary education environment. Submissions are due by the 1 July 2020 via the AJET online manuscript submission system. Please direct questions about manuscript submissions to Linda Corrin at: lcorrin@swin.edu.au.

More information about the call for submissions can be found at: https://ajet.org.au/index.php/AJET/SpecialIssueCall.

New TELall blog posts

Reconceptualising the Graphic Design Studio: Immersive user-generated mobile devices for thinking outside the box

By David Sinfield (Auckland University of Technology)

In this blog, David explores ways of reconceptualising learning environments beyond static classrooms to virtualise the educational graphic design studio. The driver for this is a desire to enable student-centred constructivist pedagogies that can be described as Dewey for the digital age. Outlined in this paper is an ecology of resources designed to stimulate rhizomatic learning environments that are focused upon networking small groups of guided student teams rather than a centralised teacher-centred environment. While ideologically driven, this re-conception also provides a flexible and scalable approach to utilising limited physical teaching and learning space.

Online Learning and Teaching: Thinking beyond the technology to student engagement

By Associate Professor Petrea Redmond and Dr Alice Brown (School of Education, University of Southern Queensland)

COVID-19 has made a significant global impact on all sectors of education. These are unprecedented times when teaching, learning, and living is very dynamic and looks very different from before. There are many terms used to describe the current teaching and learning experience that we find ourselves in, including homeschooling, remote learning, emergency remote teaching, E-learning, hybrid learning, blended learning, and online learning. Whatever it is called in your context, it is likely to change education and the way that we teach not just within the present crisis but also in the future.

Transforming Assessment SIG webinar: e-Assessment Awards – Selected finalists showcase

Date and time: 3 June @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm AEST

A joint initiative with Transforming Assessment and the e-Assessment Association (UK) – present a panel style webinar session featuring short presentations by three selected finalists from the Summative Assessment and Innovation categories of the International e-Assessment Awards 2020.

To register (free) please go here.

ASCILITE Live! Webinar: Creating presence in online learning for practice based classes

Date and time: 16 June @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm AEST. For session start times in other time zones, please go here.

Synopsis: The sudden shift to all disciplines moving to online learning due to COVID-19 has surfaced many questions for those teaching practice-based classes, such as music performance, visual arts, physics and so forth.

Community of Inquiry model (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000) presents teaching presence, social presence and cognitive presence in a concentric approach for meaningful online learning. Attainable online student learning objectives, authentic student assessment, and the development of community become key considerations for how presences can be developed for practice-based online classes.

Recommendations through research-informed approaches will be used to identify ways to transform face-to-face, practise-based activities into their meaningful, and approachable, online counterparts.

Presenter: Carol Johnson, PhD, is the Senior Lecturer in Music (Online Learning & Educational Technology) at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music where she researches evidence-based approaches in teaching and learning music online. Carol is the 2019 recipient of the ASCILITE Emerging Scholar Award.

Registration: To register for this session, please go here.

ASCILITE Executive Committee Retirements

Allan Christie, an ASCILITE Life Member and past Executive Committee member retired on 17 April 2020. Allan is listed as having joined ASCILITE on 1 July 1997 and was a leading figure in the society right up to the time of his retirement. In 2003, he was awarded a Fellowship and Life Membership in ASCILITE for his services to the society over an extended period. He was co-opted to the ASCILITE Executive from 2012 to late 2015 because of his specialised expertise and then served as the ASCILITE Treasurer from late 2015 to 2018. Allan then returned to being a co-opted member on the Executive in order to focus on the development of the TELAS (Technology Enhanced Learning Accreditation Standards) which he continued to do right up to his retirement.

Allan was the founder of an Adelaide based eLearning company, NetSpot in 1998 and a few years later he was instrumental in building ASCILITE’s early online presence through his company. Netspot was acquired by Blackboard Incorporated in March 2012 and ASCILITE continues to make widespread use of Blackboard’s complimentary Collaborate account. Allan holds a Masters (Research) degree in the area of the evaluation of educational technologies in teaching and learning and as a senior academic at the University of South Australia he was awarded an Excellence in Teaching Award in 1993 for his work in this area.

The ASCILITE community will miss Allan’s dedication to the society and it wishes him all the best in his well-deserved retirement.

Dr Julie Willems joined the ASCILITE Executive Committee as a co-opted member in late 2015 and then was elected to the Executive from 2016 – 2020. During her time on the ASCILITE Executive, Julie co-founded the Digital Equity SIG along with Helen Farley (USQ). She also worked to revise ASCILITE’s Strategic Activities & Partnerships policy, worked on ASCILITE’s Conference Management Handbook and at times assisted with the Community Mentoring Program, social media and webinars. Julie holds qualifications in Nursing, the Humanities, and Education. Her research areas include educational equity; educational technologies including social media; learning and teaching in higher education; and rural health.

The ASCILITE Executive wishes Julie all the best.

OTHER NEWS

Job Vacancies: Learning Designers, Learning and Teaching Centre, Australian Catholic University

ACU is an inclusive community which welcomes students and staff of all beliefs. ACU has over 2,500 staff supporting more than 34,000 students across eight campuses – Adelaide, Ballarat, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, North Sydney, Strathfield and Rome. We’ve also partnered with Blacktown City Council to open a new ACU campus in Blacktown, Western Sydney, in 2021.

As valued members of our community, all staff members are expected to have an understanding of ACU’s mission and values and to demonstrate an active contribution to them.

The Learning and Teaching Centre (LTC) provides leadership in strategy, policy and capacity building, promoting excellence in learning and teaching at ACU. LTC now has the following two positions available:

Senior Learning Designer: Full details are available here.

Learning Designer: Full details are available here.

Full time, continuing positions
Campus Location: Brisbane, North Sydney, Strathfield, Canberra, Ballarat or Melbourne
Functional Unit:Learning and Teaching Centre
Attractive remuneration package
Closing date for applications: 9 June 2020

General enquiries can be made to James Nicholson, Manager, Educational Design on 02 9465 9067.

Job Vacancy: Head of School and Dean (Education), USQ

The University of Southern Queensland is seeking to appoint a Head of School and Dean (Education) to play a key role in providing strategic direction of the School to uniquely position it as a leader in education.

If you are looking for a challenge, or the next step in your career, and want to make a difference to education in Australia whilst also being part of a collaborative regional community, this could be the role of you.

Full details on the position are available on the USQ Careers website. Applications close 17 July 2020.

ICDE Quality Network Webinar: International reflections on lessons learned during the COVID19 pandemic about ensuring quality in online learning and assessment

Dear Colleagues,

You are invited to the first ICDE Quality Network Webinar, which will take place on 11 June 2020, 10:00 CET, which is 18:00 AEST. The link for registration is here.

The topic of this series of three webinars is “International reflections on lessons learned during the COVID19 pandemic about ensuring quality in online learning and assessment” looking specifically at quality assurance in assessment.

The Webinar is organised by the global ICDE Quality Network https://www.icde.org/knowledge-hub/icde-quality-network

Can you please share with your colleagues and networks?

Regards

Dr Philip Uys, PhD
Senior International Education Consultant
http://www.globe-online.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipuys

Peer Review Portal webinar

The Peer Review Portal is a cloud based review management system, designed to support, connect and advance institutions via intuitive data management and reporting.

You are invited to a 45 minute free zoom meeting with Dr Sara Booth on using the Peer Review Portal to benchmark assessment and academic integrity across the HE Sector.

Key learning outcomes from the online session include:

Benchmarking assessment and academic integrity across HE sector (eg. Deans Councils, peak bodies, university networks, English Language Centres, external examiners)
Formation of institutional/disciplinary teams
Role of Assessment Coordinator and Disciplinary/Program Coordinators
How to set up a project for benchmarking assessment and academic integrity
How to search and add reviewers
How to add collaborators
How to calibrate and report results

The zoom meeting is scheduled for 2pm AEST and Perth 12noon Friday, 5 June 2020.

Register your interest by emailing Dr Booth so that you can be added to the online demonstration benchmarking assessment and academic integrity.

Call for Chapters (new book): Learning to teach online: Continuing professional learning and development for tertiary teachers

Editors

Dianne Forbes, University of Waikato, New Zealand
Email: dianne.forbes@waikato.ac.nz
Richard Walker, University of York, United Kingdom
Email: richard.walker@york.ac.uk

The proposal submission deadline is 3 June 2020 with abstracts due by 29 June 2020.

Introduction

The Covid-19 pandemic has underlined the importance of online teaching within higher education and provided further encouragement to institutions to develop their fully online course provision – a trend which has been gathering pace over recent years. It has challenged universities and colleges to think about how they support their faculty in developing the competencies and strategies to teach effectively online. Learning to teach online requires careful consideration of pedagogy and design, as well as technological skills. This book considers how tertiary teachers may be supported and encouraged to develop these skills and competencies through continuous professional learning and development (CPLD) activities.

Objective

This book will explore approaches to CPLD for faculty engaged in online teaching within the higher education sector. It will draw on theory, situated practice and lived experiences in describing the methods that tertiary institutions have employed to support staff in the development and further enhancement of their online teaching practice. It will highlight challenges to staff engagement and how they may be overcome, drawing on evidence-based examples and models of CPLD from institutions around the world. The book will serve as a reference point to help inform CPLD initiatives at both individual and institutional levels. Importantly, this book moves beyond a technology-driven approach, by emphasising pedagogy and design as key issues in online teaching practice. We also aim to situate individual practice in an institutional and organisational context.

Target audience

The target audience for this book is university, college, and polytechnic staff who are engaged in CPLD activities in the development of online teaching practice. The book will benefit institutional leaders as well as individual staff who are looking for new directions in their professional and learning development. It will serve as a reference point for CPLD programmes for online teachers, and for leaders of related programmes and policies.

If you are interested in contributing to this book, please respond in the first instance with an expression of interest by 3 June 2020. We would then ask if you could send an abstract (approximately 200 words). Please send it to both dianne.forbes@waikato.ac.nz and richard.walker@york.ac.uk by 29 June 2020.