ASCILITE NEWS
New TELall Blog Post: Here we go again – The Christchurch Earthquake versus the COVID-19 disruption to university teaching
In our latest TELall blog post, Erik Brogt (University of Canterbury) recounts the destructive earthquake that hit Christchurch, New Zealand on 22 February 2011. This was the second day of the first semester at the University of Canterbury, and Erik was in a video conference on campus with colleagues at the time.
Fast forward nine years, and a distinct sense of déjà vu hit with the full COVID-19 lockdown in late March, just a week-and-a-half before the University’s three-week term break. Once again, teaching and learning shifted fully online. So, how do these two responses to an emergency compare? There were many similarities, but also a lot of differences.
Open Educational Practice Special Interest Group (OEP-SIG) online meeting
Date and time: 27 October @ 3:00pm – 4:00pm AEDT
The Australasian Open Educational Practice Special Interest Group (OEPSIG) is a practitioner-facilitated community designed to bring open educators (primarily those in higher education) together to explore issues of common interest, collaborate on shared projects, undertake research, and to advocate for the place of OEP in national L&T discussions, strategy, and policy. This is really a ‘grass roots’ community, and engagement with OEP varies greatly across the membership – don’t feel as though you need to be an ‘expert’ to join (in fact most of us are quite the opposite).
Our next session will be held on 27 October, so please join us. Further details will be available on the SIG website here.
Reminder: Using Simulations as a Learning Alternative (Business Education SIG) webinar
Mark your calendars for 3 November @ 10:30 – 11:30 am AEDT (Australia) for this value packed webinar For session start times in other time zones, go here.
Abstract: The ASCILITE Business Education SIG is delighted to invite you to their webinar in which Ms Audrea Warner (University of Auckland) and Dr Sandy Barker (University of South Australia) will share insights from their rich experience of using simulations to enhance student learning. Simulations have been used in Business Schools across Australia and New Zealand for over twenty years. This webinar will explore the benefits offered to students that other learning methods, for example traditional lectures or case discussions, do not offer. Students play a role within the simulation, rather than merely reading and analysing concepts and ideas. Students are able to synthesise and integrate what they read and then make decisions with consequences based on facts or data from the simulations, to consolidate and co-create a deeper understanding. The webinar will also focus on the student reactions to using the simulations, explore what the presenters have learnt as academics from using simulations into their courses.
Presenters:: Audrea Warner is a Professional Teaching Fellow in the Graduate School of Management, University of Auckland. She has over 17 years of teaching experience in Organisational Behaviour, Human Resource Management and Marketing. Audrea feels a strong sense of responsibility to engage, enlighten, and empower her students both now and for the future. She wants her students to learn from the past, be proactive in the present and work for a better tomorrow. This year Audrea has been working with both national and international academics to present at webinars, write academic blogs and collaborate on research papers on the impact of COVID 19 and the innovative ways academics and organisations have adapted to the emerging academic landscape to support students embrace new learning approaches. She is co-leading ASCILITE’s Business Education SIG.
Sandy Barker is a Lecturer and Digital Learning Leader in Management at UniSA Business. As the Digital Learning Leader she takes responsibility for working with academic colleagues to ensure a high standard of digital resources for all students. As a lecturer Sandy is involved in teaching and curriculum development for undergraduate students in both Australia and Hong Kong as well as coordinating coursework practicums/placements for final year undergraduates. Sandy has a PhD (Business), Graduate Diploma in Education Studies (Digital Learning), Graduate Certificate in Education (University Teaching), and a Bachelor of Applied Science (Chemistry). Sandy is interested in experiential learning research with a focus on work placements, graduate qualities/enterprise skills, learning analytics, business simulations and role play. All courses that she teaches have an experiential component to ensure students are ready for the professional world as soon as they graduate. She is a current member of the ASCILITE Executive, was the Convenor for the 2016 ASCILITE conference and was on the organising committee of the 2003 ASCILITE conference held in Adelaide.
Registration: Pre-registration is not required and the webinar is open to ASCILITE members and non-members at no cost.
Session Login: Please join us on Blackboard Collaborate using this link: https://au.bbcollab.com/guest/f0e9db10ad6445c4a11a3b5e3fe74112
ASCILITE 2020 Virtual Conference
Registration is Open Registration is open for the ASCILITE virtual conference (30 Nov – 2 Dec 2020). The registration fee for ASCILITE members is $25 for virtual attendance only and $175 for non-members. The non-member rate includes one year ASCILITE membership valued at $150. Don’t miss this great Technology Enhanced Learning event. (Note that the request for a membership number in the registration form is optional). Find-out more here.
Final Reminder to vote in the 2020 ASCILITE Executive Committee Election poll
If you have not already voted, this is a reminder to vote before the closing date of 21 October. Voting only takes a few minutes. Because we are unable to re-send the unique voting links embedded in your email invitation, please check your inbox for an email with the subject line “Invitation to vote in the 2020 ASCILITE Executive Committee Election poll” dated 30 September. You will find full details on the poll and how to vote in the email.
