Day two of the ascilite 2008 conference offers a variety of interesting presentations commencing with a keynote presentation from Dr Michelle Selinger.
Please note that morning tea, afternoon tea and lunch are included in the registration fee.
Stephen Marshall
University Teaching Development Centre
Victoria University of Wellington
Changing technology, changing laws, the ease of copying, and the growing access to a vast array of online materials have all changed how copyright affects academic work and consequently the content and complexity of institutional copyright policies. Traditionally oriented policies and systems that have not been updated to address the full range of issues present a risk and a barrier to ongoing development and use of e-learning. This paper suggests a range of issues that institutions should be addressing and presents evidence that many institutions lack modern and effective policies in this area.
Keywords: copyright, policy
Paul Lam, Shun Leung Lam, John Lam and Carmel McNaught
Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research (CLEAR), The Chinese University of Hong Kong
The number of academic eBooks in university libraries is increasing. Reading digital materials such as newspapers is valued in Hong Kong; however, students' perceptions of the value of reading academic eMaterials are not well known. In this study we investigated 12 students' use of academic eBooks on mobile readers in two ways. Six students had brief introduction to eBooks and they reported their first impressions of the technology. The other six students had a 12-week eBook reading period that was closely monitored by the research team. The experiences from the two groups of students generally affirmed that the technology has potential to enhance teaching and learning in a university setting. However, the experiences (especially of the long-term users) highlight a number of challenges that need to be addressed.
Keywords: eBooks, mobile technology, student perceptions, evaluation
David Hirst
Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Centre, La Trobe University
Claire Brooks
Borchardt Library, La Trobe University
This discussion of the implementation of an open source collaborative environment (MUSE) in a traditional institution during a period of upheaval not only explores the details of the evaluation of the first year of operation, but also the tensions around ownership, control and power. The paper reports on the implementation and seeks to address some of these questions: Can open source initiatives make a difference to the fundamental pedagogy of educational institutions? Can a modest change in IT solutions enable users to create their own learning and research spaces effectively? What factors would we do differently? In what ways does supplementing an existing large integrated system with another involve innovation in educational technology?
Keywords: collaboration environments, e-Research, open source, Sakai.
Katrina Strampel
Faculty of Education and Arts, Edith Cowan University
Ron Oliver
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning), Edith Cowan University
In today's university classrooms, "the time of restricting students products and learning opportunities to ink on paper are past" (Siegle, 2007). Blogs are only one of many computermediated technologies starting to dominate blended and wholly online courses. Most people assume that using these technologies, because it is what the students want, will translate into increased learning opportunities. As the literature continuously asserts, however, learning, and especially reflection, does not just happen (Boud, Keogh, & Walker, 1985). It seems imperative, therefore, that extra measures are taken when any technology is being implemented in a university classroom to ensure high levels of reflection and cognitive processing are being fostered. Studies must be conducted to understand how blogs can be used to help students engage in reflection, at all levels: Stimulated Reflection, Descriptive Reflection, Dialogic Reflection and, the highest, Critical Reflection. This study explored the use of blogs in a tertiary setting to learn how the tool was used, and could be better used, to foster reflection and higher-order thinking. This paper focuses on how blogs were used as one element of a learning activity in an Accounting unit in an Australian university to promote reflection. We provide an analysis of the learning environment set by the instructor, including the learning task, learning resources, and learning supports, student perceptions of the value of the task, and an examination of students' blogs. Finally, we discuss the outcomes of the blogs in terms of levels of reflection being accomplished.
Keywords: blogs, reflection, cognition, tertiary education
Helena S. Y. Song and Yuen May Chan
Faculty of Creative Multimedia, Multimedia University
The explosion of technological growth with Web 2.0 applications and more recently, Web 3.0, has open up new and exciting learning possibilities. There is a growing body of literature on weblogs or blogs as an effective learning tool in higher education. While evidence has shown that educational blogging is not a new phenomenon, the use of blogs in teaching and learning in higher education particularly in Malaysia is still at its infancy. Hence, this study is a preliminary attempt to gather data and information on educational blogging that is significant to the Asian culture, particularly multicultural Malaysia and its potential to be a transformational technology for teaching and learning. The findings shows that while the acceptance of the use of blogs as learning tool among Malaysian students were encouraging, there are some challenges to be considered when using the blog as a learning tool.
Keywords: educational blogging, learning tool, Malaysia
Andrew Litchfield and Skye Nettleton
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney
The paper presents the background, design and formative evaluation of a wiki of work-ready learning activities and teaching support resources to improve the learning of professional graduate attributes. The 'Improving graduate work-readiness' project is a University of Technology Sydney curriculum renewal project involving five Faculties. The project aims to improve graduates' professional attributes and employability skills by designing new subjects, new subject modules and integrating short well-designed contextualised work-ready learning activities into existing subjects. The authors inquired of relevant professional societies their understandings of the key professional attributes required of a graduate in the contemporary workplace. These findings informed the design of a matrix of 11 professional attributes and associated sub-attributes and aligned understandings and skills that can be learnt. The workready wiki gives access to a matrix of generic work-ready learning activities and 16 matrixes of learning activities contextualised for each professional area of study involved in the project to-date. Work-ready activities contextualised for each profession maximises student relevance and motivation to learn. Maximising the ease of integration of work-ready activities into existing subjects has guided the design of the wiki-based learning activities. From the wiki practical teaching support resources can be downloaded to enable easier integration of the work-ready learning activities. The beginning of collections of work-ready learning activities can be found at wiki.it.uts.edu.au/workready .
Keywords: work-ready professional graduate attributes online teaching resources curriculum integration
Belinda Tynan, Cherry Stewart, Rachael Adlington and Mike Littledyke
Faculty of The Professions, University of New England
Steve Swinsburg
University of Lancaster
This paper details a mini-case of (a) the implementation of a professional development program which underpins the design, development and implementation of renewing curriculum for improved distance education learning experiences; and (b) using an alternative open-source learning management system-Sakai. The methodology of Participatory Action Research (PAR) has proved important for gaining deep engagement and conceptual change of teaching and learning practices. The min-case reflects the voices of various members of the project throughout the first PAR cycle. The focus of this mini-case is on 'who leads' in relation to professional development of/with academic staff. There is some focus on how the project came about, how professional development has been pursued and how one academic has experienced the process so far. The lessons drawn from the project at this first stage will be of interest to a wide audience especially in relation to the methodology. The lessons do not intend to be generalisable beyond this context but for many they will "ring true" and add to the substantive emerging field of professional development when using technologies for enhancing student learning.
Keywords: professional development, Sakai, participatory action research
Ian Robertson
RMIT University, Melbourne
Sustainable e-learning can be defined as e-learning that has become normative in meeting the needs of the present and future. This exploratory paper proposes that activity theory is a theoretical framework that provides the potential to contribute to change management towards sustainable e-learning. Using organisational, technological and pedagogic perspectives, the paper demonstrates that activity theory provides a common language for discussion across the three activity systems. Activity theory provides an opportunity for the assumptions, values and beliefs that underpin each system to be made more explicit. With debate, discussion and critique, expansionist learning becomes possible. That is, learning beyond what would have been possible if actors from each perspective were to remain insulated. The power dynamics that occur at the interface of the organisational, technological and pedagogic activity systems are considered to conclude that any change management towards sustainable e-learning must address this issue. The role of professional development for teachers in establishing sustainable e-learning emerges as a central issue. It is concluded that professional development that does not address teacher's beliefs about what constitutes good teaching practice is likely to be unsuccessful
Simon Shurville
School of Computer and Information Science, University of South Australia
Tom Browne
Educational Enhancement, University of Exeter, UK
Marian Whitaker
Flinders Business School, Flinders University
Flexible technology-enhanced learning environments, both educationally and institutionally are key enablers for delivering efficient mass higher education. Educational technologists make significant contributions to the development and organisational embedding of such environments. Their emerging role is complex as it requires current knowledge and skills in learning and teaching, management and information technology. Given the strategic importance of the contributions that educational technologists now make to their institutions, we propose an international program of empirical research to analyse current issues and future trajectories relating to their aspirations, careers, management and organisational locations.
Keywords: educational technologists, flexible learning, management, organisational structure
Teresa De Fazio and Michael Crock
Open Universities Australia
Enabling student learning through the provision of enhanced and positive distance learning as opposed to delivery often proves problematic for online learning. In 2007 Open Universities Australia (OUA) began an innovative long-term trial of an online writing tutorial intervention to deal with varied levels of academic writing skill competence amongst its students. The trial set out to provide a supplementary writing support tuition service that would enable the development of learner knowledge and skills that then might impact on learner satisfaction. The trial also set out to ascertain any effect this intervention strategy would have on retention into subsequent units, unit completion rates and student grades. A trial of the Smarthiking.com online writing lab ran over three study periods in 2007 and is reported upon in this paper.
Keywords: student retention, completion; writing lab, learning support; Smarthinking; distance learning
Wing Sum Cheung
Learning Sciences & Technologies
National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Khe Foon Hew
Instructional Science Academic Group
National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
The use of online- and blended-learning is growing very fast in universities. Given this interest in online-/blended-learning, understanding how to promote participation among learners in asynchronous online discussions, which is considered an integral part of online- /blended-learning has become increasingly crucial. Previous research has examined how factors, such as course design, and the amount of facilitator involvement can affect learner participation. However, none of the previous studies hitherto has examined facilitators' thinking dispositions or habits of mind. Habits of mind may be defined as the characteristics of what intelligent people do and think when they face an issue or a problem, and thus may play an important role in influencing the degree of learner participation. This proposed study aims to advance the line of research that examines facilitators' influence in promoting learners' participation by analysing their habits of mind. The following habits of mind of the facilitators will be examined: (a) awareness of own thinking, (b) accurate and seeks accuracy, (c) open-minded, (d) taking a position when the situation warrants it, and (e) sensitive to others. We refer the degree of learners' participation as the quantity of message posted by the learners. A case study methodology approach will be used in this study. The primary sources of data will be the online message postings of both the facilitators.
Keywords: Problem solving, Asynchronous online discussion, Facilitator, Habits of mind, and learners' participation.
Rodney Carr and and Pauline Hagel
Faculty of Business and Law, Deakin University
This paper reports on an investigation of the relationship between students' level of online activity in units in a business faculty and their evaluations of teaching quality in these units. The analysis was conducted using student evaluation data from 2004 to 2007 together with data for student online activity for one semester. We compare on-campus and off-campus students and undergraduate and postgraduate students. The results indicate that students' evaluations of units have improved on all surveyed criteria during the five years. We also show that for some cohorts student online activity is associated with greater satisfaction with teaching. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these findings for further research and teaching practice.
Keywords: student evaluation, teaching quality, off-campus, online, ICT
Elena Verezub and Hua Wang
Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
The advent of computer and Internet technology enables hypertext, hypermedia and elearning to be involved in the vocational education and training area. Hyperlinks play a significant role in hypertexts and e-learning systems, since they are connections among different nodes of information. Besides textual links, hypermedia systems provide access to various links that include multimedia applications, such as pictures, and audio clips. Therefore, comprehending information presented in hypertext/hypermedia systems and elearning systems utilising appropriate reading strategies becomes crucial. This paper adds a new dimension to the existing body of research by investigating the influence of metacognitive strategies training and different types of hyperlinks on reading comprehension of hypertexts. A comparison of comprehension outcomes for hypertexts with text, picture and audio links is presented in order to illustrate the relationship among hypertext comprehension, types of links and learning styles. Also theoretical and practical implications of this research are presented.
Key words: hypertext comprehension; metacognitive reading strategies; hyperlinks
Matthew Butler and Peter Neave
Berwick School of Information Technology, Monash University, Victoria, Australia
Much research and development has gone into creating a viable means to interact with virtual objects. Haptic devices, such as the Phantom Omni by Sensable Technologies, provide a means of using computer graphics and force feedback to create a multimodal sensory experience. We use touch to conceptualize objects and obtain a greater understanding of them, however objects such as artworks are usually prohibited from being interacted with in this way. Some artworks, like Michelangelo's David, have been replicated in 3D. These virtual artworks can be sent all over the world and users can interact with them by means of a haptic device. This paper compares the different characteristics of existing haptic-enabled museums and further questions the worth of using haptics as a means to communicate tactile information to museum visitors. A system has been developed to allow users the ability to interact with a replica of Michelangelo's David. Response has been analysed, showing that the possible benefits of virtual museums include the opportunity for greater engagement with artworks by visitors, new means of educating, and storing existing historic artwork for future generations.
Keywords: haptics, virtual museums
James D. Oldfield
Unitec Business School, Unitec New Zealand
In the pursuit of more effective and efficient teaching methods the concept of learning objects has been
expanded and reworked. Newer more flexible learning objects called generative learning objects have
empowered lecturing staff with the ability to easily adapt and mould their content to fit their
circumstances. This paper reports on a project that takes the powerful concept of a generative learning
object (GLO), improves its flexibility through the use of XML and Flash, and applies it to accounting
instruction.
Typically generative learning objects have been developed in the area of programming where they have
been well received. This research marks the first attempt at applying a generative learning object to the
field of accounting, specifically in the area of depreciation. The Depreciation GLO combines animation
with textual instructions and automated evaluation to increase student’s interest and provide them with a
variety of learning streams to improve their performance. The automated nature of the Depreciation GLO
also provides lecturers with feedback on the student’s performance and time spent working with the
software allowing for a better understanding of their performance.
Keywords: Generative Learning Object, GLO, RLO, Learning Technology