Electric Dreams - 2013 ascilite conference, Sydney Australia, 1-4 December

Workshops

Planning Research into Contemporary Learning Environments

Author 1 Adjunct Assoc. Prof. Rob Phillips
School of Education
Murdoch University

Keywords
Evaluation research, blended learning, learning environment, online learning, e-learning, evidence-based practice

Number of Participants
Maximum: 30

Target Audience and Participant Expertise Level
The workshop will be suitable for any teacher or developer engaged in blended and online learning initiatives in higher education, and interested in evaluation and research into their work. A broad understanding of academic research methods is desirable.

Participants MUST bring with them documentation associated with an actual or planned blended or online learning project. A significant part of the workshop will be hands-on work on developing a plan for evaluation and research into that initiative.

Objectives
Participants will:

Workshop Description
This workshop will focus on how to assemble evidence that the contemporary, technology-enhanced learning environments we develop are supporting students’ learning. It is based on the recent book “Evaluating e-learning: Guiding research and practice”.

Studies of learning environments involve a mixture of evaluation and research and we use the term ‘evaluation research’ to capture this idea. This workshop will discuss evaluation research into university learning in the context of different disciplinary and interdisciplinary research approaches, and critique these approaches.

The workshop will then highlight the designed nature of learning environments and introduce the principle that it is necessary to ensure that the learning environment functions as it was designed, before any solid evidence of its effectiveness can be established. In other words, an effective learning environment is developed through a series of cycles, from establishing needs, to designing that environment, prototyping and trialling it, and finally investigating how students learn from it.

The design of evaluation-research studies should take into account the cyclical nature of learning environment development. Different evaluation-research strategies are appropriate at each stage of the learning environment lifecycle. Using a number of case examples, participants will explore five different forms of evaluation research.

The workshop will use several ‘divide and conquer’ techniques to break down the complexity of designing an evaluation-research plan, assisted by various templates and matrices. The bulk of the workshop will be spent in applying these ideas to develop an evaluation-research plan for the participants’ own learning development projects.

Activities will include presentations, discussion, production of draft evaluation-research plans, and sharing of these drafts.

Bio
Rob PhillipsRob Phillips has worked as a researcher and academic at universities in Australia and Germany since 1982, with a background in theoretical chemistry and computer science. He has worked with educational technology since 1992, designing and project managing educational technology development projects across most discipline areas. Current research interests include evaluation research in e-learning, including academic analytics. Rob has a strong publication record, and is principal author of two internationally-published books, including “Evaluating e-learning: Guiding research and practice”. He is a life member and past-president of ascilite and is a HERDSA Fellow and ALTC Citation recipient.