Day four of the ascilite 2008 conference offers a variety of interesting presentations commencing with a keynote presentation from Associate Professor Gary Poole.
Please note that morning tea, afternoon tea and lunch are included in the registration fee.
Lina Pelliccione and Kathryn Dixon
School of Education
Curtin University of Technology
The purpose of education is to allow each individual to come into full possession of his or her personal power (Dewey, 1938, p. 10).
Over the past decade, Universities in Australia have experienced a shift towards outcomes-based education. Since 2000 in particular there has been an increased emphasis on core, generic skill development as this relates to course outcomes in individual programs. This paper investigates the implementation of ePortfolios as a means of assessing student achievement and development in the Bachelor of Education Program at a Western Australian University. The complex process of embedding and developing the ePortfolios is discussed, including the stages throughout the four year degree where they are assessed. The key factor of student ownership is examined as one of the most powerful elements of building such an assessment protocol. This paper describes the outcomes of a content analysis which has been conducted upon two of the major course outcomes as represented in the ePortfolio student sample. The students also participated in an open-ended questionnaire which asked them to reflect upon their experiences with the development of their ePortfolio in terms of intended and unintended outcomes as well as their attitudes towards the process used, how the ePortfolios related to overall learning outcomes of the program and their perceptions of future ePortfolio use.
Keywords: ePortfolios, assessment, empowerment, outcomes-based education
Kevin Burden
Centre for Educational Studies, The University of Hull, UK,
Simon Atkinson
College of Education, Massey University, NZ
This paper investigates the responses and impact upon a group of adult learners (educators) to a novel framework for the use of digital artefacts in tertiary education settings (the Digital Artefacts for Learner Engagement Framework: DiAL-e). The framework was developed as part of a UK project, sponsored through the Joint Information Services Committee (JISC), to encourage academics and other educators to adopt digital artefacts (in this case video) as part of their teaching, learning and research strategies. Eighty academics were involved in a series of focus groups to pilot the framework during 2006-2007, and the data from these workshops (recorded in video format) is analysed using Mezirow's transformative learning theory as a lens to gauge the extent to which they have experienced perspective transformations. The study categorises a number of different responses and proposes a tentative model for professional development in tertiary education settings based on the centrality of critical reflection and discourse.
Keywords: 'disorientating dilemma', transformative, learning designs, meaning structures, video
David Jones
Australian National University
Jocene Vallack and Nathaniel Fitzgerald-Hood
Central Queensland University
The complex task of effectively using educational technology within universities is becoming more difficult as the shifting educational technology landscape brings into question many current institutional structures, practices and policies. This paper introduces the Ps Framework, a descriptive theory intended to reduce the complexity associated with making decisions within this changing landscape. The Ps Framework helps map out the changing landscape within a particular organisation, identify the diverse perspectives that may exist, and consequently aid decision makers to better understand the large amounts of complex and uncertain information involved in such decisions. The value of the Ps Framework is illustrated by using it to make sense of the landscape faced by the PLEs@CQUni project. This project aims to investigate, encourage and enable the use of social media, in the form of personal learning environments (PLEs), to supplement and enhance existing applications of educational technology at CQUniversity.
Keywords: PsFramework, taxonomy, e-learning, PLEs
Arianne Jennifer Rourke, Joanna Mendelssohn and Kathryn Coleman
College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales
Belinda Allen
Learning and Teaching, University of New South Wales
The role of student peer review in teaching and learning in higher education has been discussed extensively in the literature (Topping, 1998; Carlson & Berry, 2003; de Raadt, Toleman, & Watson, 2005; Bernstein, Burnett, Goodburn & Savory 2006). It is seen to be particularly useful in online courses as a mechanism for providing students with the tools to conduct criteria-based critical reviews on the work of their peers (Mulder & Pearce, 2007; Cho & Schunna, 2007). This system can work well for both the online learner and instructor particularly when students are provided with specified assessment criteria, grade ranking system and set deadlines. However when factors relating to the management of such activities come into play, such as the misreading of requirements and criteria, the subjectivity of dealing with some material and the need for flexibility in the due dates, peer review as an assessment system can literally fall apart. This paper discusses these issues via two case studies, which showcase two approaches to using peer review to teach coursework Masters students how to write a research paper in arts administration. The first case study uses the anonymous and random online calibrated peer review (CPRTM) (http://cpr.molsci.ucla.edu) system developed by UCLA, while the second attempts to simulate the same system UNSW. This paper presents the triumphs and pitfalls of both systems within the theoretical framework of the higher education literature on teaching and learning and online peer review.
Keywords: collaborative learning, editing, e-learning, art, online communities, peer review
Margaret Hamilton
School of Computer Science and IT, RMIT University
Joan Richardson
School of Business IT, RMIT University
In 2002, RMIT University trialled Turnitin (Barrie 1996) a text matching software package to assist in the identification of plagiarism. Turnitin enables access to databases of text stored digitally and provides a means of comparing student submissions. Subsequent to the initial use of Turnitin by staff, a pilot was conducted during which student groups had access to the software to check their submission drafts. Now student assessments whether online or on-campus can be run through the detection software. In this paper, we discuss the process and practices of using plagiarism detection software at RMIT and briefly examine some information gathered from students, both online and on-campus, informal comments regarding their participation in the student upload pilot. From these comments some suggested improvements to the implementation process are discussed. Some directions for future research into student use of Turnitin are also suggested.
In recent years, the Schools of Computer Science and Information Technology (CS&IT) and Business and Information Technology (BIT) have spear-headed trials of the use of plagiarism detection software, as well as implementing processes, procedures and workshops for explaining and dealing with academic integrity. This has possibly occurred because most of their student submissions are electronic and therefore amenable to use of copy detection software, or because the staff are well aware of and interested in the technologies involved. Dealing with the numerous cases of plagiarism found by the software has posed difficult questions for both Schools and the University, and is the main issue addressed in this paper.
Teresa De Fazio
Research Fellow
Open Universities Australia
In the past three decades, the move towards mass higher education in universities has resulted in an increase in "non-traditional" students (defined as part-time, adult, without a strong academic background). Concurrently, there has been an information and technology revolution which has had a profound impact on approaches to teaching and learning in higher education. This study was located at the intersection of these two forces. It focused on distance non-traditional and traditional students who received online academic learning support (ALS). The research was informed by the understanding that ALS faces new challenges in an online environment. This paper reports on an action research study that investigated experiences of non-traditional and traditional students as they focussed on the development of written discourse competencies and their teachers in an online distance learning course. These students looked to the curriculum and conversations with lecturers to facilitate understanding and their acquisition of the required literacies, however, this was unrealistic given the heavy teaching loads of their lecturers who also had little expertise in this area. By contrast, contextualised academic support interventions provided an effective response. As a result of the research, a model that suggests how ALS might be embedded within the delivery of online programs was produced.
Keywords: non-traditional students; distance e-learning; academic support; dialogue; academic literacies
John Hannon
Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Centre, La Trobe University
The term "innovation" is mainly associated with change in practice using educational technology. This paper explores the question of why innovations in online teaching and learning in higher education break down or deliver less than they promise: why they are so resource intensive, so prone to breakdown, and why they often fail to live up to their promises? Two cases of innovation were selected from a broad doctoral research project across three Australian universities, involving 24 interviewees. One case was a bottom-up, wiki-based learning space inspired by a constructivist commitment, the other a top-down response to organisational change in a degree program. Despite literature on case studies which offer useful evidence-based approaches and models for online pedagogy, there is a lack of analytical perspectives with which to engage with breakdowns and "thwarted innovation" in online learning. The focus in this paper is online teaching, and breakdowns are scoped beyond the technologies involved and encompass any social, material or discursive entity. An actor network perspective (Callon 1986; Latour 1987; Law 2000) is used to explore the relationality between social and technological entities, or the sociotechnical assemblage which constitutes online teaching. It argues that (i) crucial factors are hidden by the normative perspective inherent in the implementation of technology systems, and (ii) recognising the connections between the social, material and discursive entities in online learning offers a strong analytic basis for innovative teaching and learning practice.
Keywords: online teaching, sociotechnical assemblage, actor network, translation, discourse
Gordon Joyes
School of Education, University of Nottingham, UK
This paper explores ways learner identity needs to and can be developed in our rapidly changing digital globalised world. It argues for a redefinition of personalisation to one where learners are able to identify with and work within a learning community. Two tools for learning are discussed in relation to this notion of development of learner identity and personalised learning. The first is the V-ResORT (Virtual Resources for Online Research Training) website www.v-resort.ac.uk. This free and highly navigable resource provides complete research narratives by Masters and Doctoral students in education studies as well as researching academics. This represents a community of research practice revealing their understandings in authentic and compelling ways unlike the reified versions found in academic texts and research papers. Research students can flexibly explore the online researcher narratives and research lecturers/supervisors can use these as triggers with which to raise issues and ground aspects of methodology and theory. Research into the use of materials reveals the ways this helps connect the learners with research communities and develops their identities as researchers. The second tool for learning is the ViP (Virtual Interactive Platform). This is pedagogically driven Web2.0 tool that makes use of and extends server based media materials combined with online discussion functionality. The pedagogic innovation is the ways it allows distributed learners to upload, share and analyse visual media through commentary and discussion linked to supporting resources. The ViP supports learners to co-construct meaning and develop an identity as a learner working within a learning community.
Keywords: Identity, personalisation, tools for learning, WeB2.0, research
Reem Al-Mahmood
Melbourne Graduate School of Education
University of Melbourne AUSTRALIA
"Hello! Is anyone out there?" might be the echo of many an online lecturer, but perhaps a louder echo might be in the question "Hello! Where are you in the educational landscape?" For our locations and spatialities are inevitably entangled with who we are and who we might become. We are always emplaced (Malpas, 1999), and so in the changing pedagogical spaces of academe, I argue that spatialities are inextricably linked with identity performances and teaching practices − these configure and are configured by each other. In the postmodern university, online spaces are changing traditional academic life. As Lefebvre puts it "to change life is to change space; to change space is to change life" (Merrifield, 2000: 173). This paper explores transformations in online teaching in terms of identity, spatiality and online teaching practices in the everyday experiences of online lecturers using the socio-material lens of Actor-Network-Theory. Drawing from a larger qualitative ethnographic study within an Australian university, the experiences of 4 online lecturers are discussed in terms of (re)configurations of their identities, teaching practices and spaces/places (physical and online), as well as their evolving online teaching metaphors; relating to the conference themes of: "What are the changing relationships between people, the virtual and the physical, and objects in the educational technology landscape?"; and "What does it mean to be an online scholar in the educational technology landscape – who, what, when, where, how and why?" (ASCILITE, 2008). It is concluded that these conceptual and empirical insights can enrich our understanding of online teaching transformations in terms of identity and spatiality in shifting pedagogical landscapes – to, from and beyond the traditional places of the academy.
Keywords: online university teaching, space/place, spatiality, teaching identity, actor-network-theory (ANT), online teaching metaphors, socio-materiality
Stephen Sheely
Centre for Advancement of Teaching and Learning, University of Western Australia
The concept of Digital Natives was first introduced in 2001 and since then has taken a firm hold in both the educational literature and the public consciousness. However the evidence supporting this concept has never been particularly strong. This paper will use the tools of sociology of knowledge particularly those promoted by French sociologist Bruno Latour to attempt to explain how a construct like Digital Natives can become treated as a fact in both disciplinary and public discourse despite the lack of compelling evidence.
Hazel Owen
Centre for Teaching and Learning Innovation
Unitec NZ
The sheer inevitability and momentum of global adoption of all forms of technology has engendered a range of responses from wholehearted welcome and exploitation, to denial and anger. Consequently, the education landscape has been shifting, although not in the colossal, earth-rending manner that was initially envisaged. Information, Communication Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching (ICTELT) has progressively continued to evolve and mature, embedded in an increasing foundation of research. One key benefit identified in this process is the inclusiveness and fluidity that can be built into ICTELT experiences, especially when they occur within a collaborative community. This paper explores an example of how ICT was used to adapt part of an existing 'problematic' curriculum in a way that helped address central issues, encouraged collective learning and enabled learners. In the Foundations programme at Dubai Men's College (DMC) students find the conventions of academic writing, and the requirement to improve their proficiency, challenging, especially as they are also struggling with the transition from secondary to tertiary education, and their own changing identities. The framework of existing Communities of Learning (CoL) was employed to introduce a blended, scaffolded approach that aimed to assist students with academic writing, as well as assisting their transition to more self-directed, confident learning. The design and implementation of the interventions is described, and a brief overview of the results of the associated research study is given, along with recommendations for educators wishing to adopt a similar approach.
Keywords: ICTELT, blended learning, communities of learning, academic writing, Gulf region, foundation programmes
Diane Robbie
Swinburne Professional Learning. Swinburne University of Technology
Lynette Zeeng
Faculty of Design, Swinburne University of Technology
This paper describes a case study approach used to identify changes in the millennial student's educational, institutional, social and economic environment and the impacts these had on teaching practice. Reviewing and reflecting on existing teaching practice, decisions were made in the way teaching photography to first year design students could be delivered in a student-centred blended learning environment. A trial was implemented, employing a new approach to teaching, taking into account all aspects of digital technology and the students' propensity for social interaction and engagement with Web 2.0 technologies. We created a platform for delivering the successful elements of an existing curriculum that included the important components of critical and analytical reviews of images. This case study embraced the realms of digital age, at the same time, maintaining student motivation and peer learning in a blended pedagogy. The creation of a virtual learning classroom environment allowed students to manage and construct knowledge that empowered their learning. Reflecting on teaching practice facilitated a paradigm shift resulting in an innovative delivery that has more than met teacher and student expectations. The students have responded to the new methodology with enthusiasm. Their increased participation, contribution to peer learning and high satisfaction, is evidenced through student and teacher feedback surveys. This has encouraged exploration of innovative teaching practices, transferability of this approach to other disciplines and extended possibilities within teaching scholarship. Information technologies (IT) are continually evolving and need to be considered when making changes to teaching practice to improve student learning.
Keywords: web 2.0 technologies, reflection, blended learning, critical analysis
Denise Wood and Martin Friedel
School of Communication. University of South Australia
This paper reports on a collaborative project led by the University of South Australia, which involves the design and develop a comprehensive, integrated Web-enabled peer review system that guides academic staff in the development or redevelopment of their own courses through reflective processes, and uses these same criteria to have their work evaluated. The project, which is funded by an Australia Learning and Teaching Council Grant, builds on extensive work that has been undertaken both within Australia and overseas in the development of peer review of online learning and teaching, which supports and stimulates the scholarship of online learning and teaching, and has the capacity to demonstrate quality learning and teaching through course development, evaluation, improvement and interactive learning. Evidence produced through such quality processes can be used by academic staff as evidence to support claims for recognition and reward. The project commenced as a pilot in 2003 and has evolved in response to changing technologies and recognition of the need for a more adaptable system that enables academics to play a significant role in the creation of criteria and in contributing their own exemplars using a Web 2.0 approach. A major feature of the approach is its educative dimension, which is responsive to supporting online teaching and learning at a time when new Web 2.0 and 3D virtual learning technologies are presenting new challenges for educators. This paper describes the project and argues that online learning and teaching in this changing landscape is an emerging area of scholarship which needs to be supported and encouraged.
Keywords: quality assurance, peer review, scholarship, online learning and teaching, 3D virtual learning environments, web 2.0
Martin Friedel and Denise Wood
School of Communication
University of South Australia
Despite the existence of Web accessibility guidelines since 1999, the evidence suggests a continuation of design practices that limit the accessibility of Websites for diverse audiences. This problem has been further compounded with the increasing popularity of technologies such as Flash, which have encouraged many designers to place greater emphasis on form than function. This paper examines these issues and proposes a humanistic approach to Web design; one which acknowledges the designer's responsibility to create sites that contribute to and improve the quality of life for all users. The role that design educators need to play in challenging their students to engage in design practices that will ensure the sites they develop are accessible in a changing landscape of technologies are explored in this paper, and the benefits of incorporating changes into the design curriculum that address the need for graduate designers to be aware of, and to engage in, inclusive design practices are discussed. After presenting the case for changes in the design curriculum that engage students in inclusive design practices, a case study based on the development of an undergraduate program that promotes inclusive design is presented. The strategies developed to ensure students understand the techniques required to create accessible and compliant Flash designs are discussed in some detail and in the final section of the paper, the benefits for students and the community groups with which they engage through their program of studies are discussed.
Keywords: web design, curriculum design, form and function, ethical issues, advanced web technologies, Flash design, web accessibility, universal design
Denise Wood and Lee Hopkins
University of South Australia
Futurists anticipate that within just three years, 70-80% of businesses and Internet users will have a 3D virtual presence. This should be welcome news to our current 'digital native' undergraduates who have grown up in a digital era, and who are said to prefer environments that are highly interactive, immersive, multi-modal and connected. 3D virtual learning environments not only fulfil these criteria, but also provide increased flexibility for students who are not on campus. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life (2003), which provide a social space in which students—represented by avatars—can learn, create, explore and gather information collaboratively and individually, have been readily adopted in instructional settings. Yet very few studies have documented the challenges in adapting these technologies to the teaching and learning curriculum. Do we know how prepared our 'digital natives' are for this changing landscape? This presentation will draw on the case studies in which three undergraduate media arts courses at the University of South Australia were trialled in Second Life. The challenges experienced by both teacher and students will be discussed and assumptions about the readiness of'net generation' learners to readily adapt to such technologies debated. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of the strategies required to utilise the potential of 3D virtual worlds for re-engaging students in a flexible, experiential and community-based learning environment so that they are ready to grasp the opportunities afforded by this rapidly changing landscape.
Keywords: 3D virtual learning environments, web 2.0, digital natives, generation-y, business, employability, 3D CVE, collaborative virtual environment