ASCILITE NEWS

Learning Vault MoU signed

ASCILITE is excited to announce the signing of a MoU between ASCILITE and Learning Vault Australia.

Learning Vault develops resources and technologies that actively support education providers through micro-credential taxonomies and educational resources, digital credentialing and digital certification.

The Learning Vault digital credentials will form an important part of the TELAS certification process and we look forward to working with Learning Vault in the future.

The MoU can be found here.

ASCILITE’s MS Teams is moving

After multiple discussion with Microsoft about the imminent EOL of Teams Free (Classic) we are, unfortunately, going to have to move ASCILITE’s Team instances to a new domain (ascilite.onmicrosoft.com).

We have negotiated with Microsoft for Not for Profit status for the new domain so this should be the final move for Teams. Unfortunately Microsoft is unable to assist or provide a mechanism to migrate users, teams, channels and content to the new domain. So we will have to do the move manually (If anyone has great expertise in the mysteries of Teams and knows some secret hacks, please email the secretariat).

A major reason that we are sticking with Teams is that it is community platform for ASCILITE and it makes it much easier to communicate between the various groups.

Please expect further information about the migration in the next couple of weeks

TELAS Learning Package Accreditation is now open

The Technology Enhanced Learning Accreditation Standards (TELAS) are a set of internationally benchmarked standards designed to assess the quality of online learning, particularly in relation to the tertiary sector. TELAS provides institutions with the means to assess and evaluate the affordances of their online learning environments and thereby guide quality enhancements. While the framework is available freely here, the ASCILITE Executive is pleased to announce that calls for TELAS learning package accreditation are now open. Each learning package submitted will be peer reviewed by our certified reviewers at the introductory price of $695 per package.

For more details see https://www.telas.edu.au/the-review-process/course-accreditation-fees/

And contact admin@telas.edu.au to express your interest.

Joint SIG: Designs for our times: adapting assessment in an AI context

To address the impact of generative AI in higher education, we need everyone’s voice: academics, researchers, learning designers and technologists, academic developers and librarians, and the academic success/learning support staff across all institutions.*

This is why three of ASCILITE’S special interest groups have joined together to present a webinar on assessment designs for AI times, chaired by Transforming Assessment SIG’s Mathew Hillier, and supported by the TELedvisor and Learning Design SIGs.

Right now, HE educators are considering the opportunities and threats of generative AI and experimenting with tweaking and transforming their assessments on-the-fly. In this webinar, we will first hear from a panel of academics and researchers who are taking different approaches to this new entrant in higher education. Building on their examples and our webinar discussion, we will then bring in our expertise as teachers, technologists, assessment experts and learning designers to start to develop a map of strategies for re-framing assessment in the context of generative artificial intelligence.

Panel speakers include:
1) Thomas Cochrane, Associate Professor of Technology Enhanced Learning in Higher Education, University of Melbourne (Australia), Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education.
2) Ruth Dimes, Professional Teaching Fellow and Director Business Masters, University of Auckland (New Zealand), Business School.
3) Mitra Jayazeri, Lecturer, La Trobe University (Australia), Mathematics and Statistics.
4) Richard Hall, La Trobe University (Australia), Senior Lecturer, Computer Science.

Date:  5 April
Time: 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm AEST
Further details, local time zone conversion and free registration: http://taw.fi/5apr2023

* The big omission in this list is of course the students’ voice. Conversations between students and staff are happening across institutions now, at, for example, University of Sydney

Call for Papers and Reviewers now open for ASCILITE 2023

ASCILITE 2023 is taking place on 3 – 6 December 2023 hosted by the University of Canterbury at the iconic Te Pae Conference Center, Christchurch, NZ.

This year’s event will be designed to be fully hybrid to maximise face-to-face and online engagement and interaction.  The conference theme of “People, Partnerships and Pedagogies”  focuses on the diversity of people, creating deeper partnerships and the complexity of digital.

Full details on submission types, sub-themes and presentation formats are available on the conference website call for papers. The call for papers opens on 1 April and closes on 2 July 2023.

Call for Reviewers
The 2023 Conference Organising Committee are inviting a large number of volunteers for the important work of reviewing conference submissions. The intellectual strength of ASCILITE conferences derives in part from the rigour of our peer review process and each submission will be blind reviewed by a minimum of two reviewers. If you are interested in participating, you will need to sign up within our OJS system, further details on the conference website here.

The call for reviewers will close on 2 July 2023.

Reminder: TELAS workshop

The Technology Enhanced Learning Accreditation Standards (TELAS) are a set of internationally benchmarked standards designed to assess the quality of online learning, particularly in relation to the tertiary sector. They provide institutions with the means to assess and evaluate the affordances of their online learning environments and thereby guide quality enhancements.

The ASCILITE Executive is pleased to announce that the first TELAS Reviewer Certification Workshop of 2023 is now open for registration.

Location: The workshop will be conducted at The University of Sydney.
Date: Thursday 27th April,
Time:  9-4.30pm AEDT
Cost: $250 (members); $400 (non-members – includes 12 month ASCILITE membership fee).

The number of places available in the workshop is limited, so register early to avoid disappointment. The closing date for workshop registrations is 21 April. For further details and to register, visit the TELAS website here.

Please direct any queries and/or expressions of interest to admin@telas.edu.au.

Applications to host the ASCILITE 2024-2025 Conference

We are still seeking expressions of interest from potential conference organising committees to host the 2024 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