The pace of technological change accompanied by an evolution in social, work-based and study beha... more The pace of technological change accompanied by an evolution in social, work-based and study behaviours and norms poses particular challenges for universities as they strive to develop high quality and sustainable technology-rich learning environments. Maintaining currency with the latest advances is resource intensive, hence the costs incurred in upgrading existing and introducing new technologies need to be carefully weighed up against the potential benefits to students. This calls for a multidimensional approach to planning, with the student voice being an important dimension. Three Australian universities have recently completed a project to gain a better understanding of students\u27 experiences and expectations of technologies in everyday life and for study purposes. The LMS and 25 other technologies ranging from established university offerings (email, learning management systems) to freely available social networking technologies (YouTube, Facebook) were surveyed. More than ...
Two core undergraduate units' offered to the same cohort of students' in Early Childhoo... more Two core undergraduate units' offered to the same cohort of students' in Early Childhood in a web-supported format in 1998 and 1999 were formally evaluated. Both units' had web sites which included course management, curriculum content including weekly lecture materials, weekly tutorial applications and reflections exercises and additional resource materials, as well as communication facilities which included a bulletin board and e-mail. The first unit, ECH 213 was offered in 1998 and modified in presentation in 1999. In its' first year, it did not offerface-to-face tutorials; instead online forums were established with tutors' to generate discussions, arguments' and responses to various tasks' such as case studies. The second unit, ECH 317 offered basically the same format, but maintained optionalface-to-face tutorial meetings for the internally enrolled students', as did ECH 213 in 1999. In both units', parity between external and inter...
Managing and understanding student’s motivations and experiences of learning will be increasingly... more Managing and understanding student’s motivations and experiences of learning will be increasingly important as demand for higher education continues to grow and online delivery continues to evolve and expand into open access, on-campus and distance modes of study. It is in the interests of institutions offering two or more modes of study to understand the reasons why students make different choices. This research investigates the importance of six factors (personal, logistics, teaching and learning, learning support, environment, and advice and marketing) influencing 744 students choice of three different modes of study. Findings indicate that there are significant differences in the importance of factors amongst students enrolled in different study modes, although when averaged across all cohorts ‘teaching and learning’ and ‘logistics’ factors were the most influential. It is suggested that providing a high level of transparency in the information provided to students is vital for ...
Students enter university with great diversity in the knowledge and skills underpinning their cho... more Students enter university with great diversity in the knowledge and skills underpinning their chosen field of study. Some come as complete novices, others have some experience and expertise in the knowledge domain. This can pose challenges for teachers and students in individual course units that aim to go beyond the establishment of foundational knowledge and skills, to the development of more complex knowledge, problem solving or critical analysis skills. For students with little expertise in the domain, the acquisition of such a broad range of knowledge and skills can be very demanding, and if the demands are too great, teaching and learning difficulties can ensue. This paper will discuss how theories of expertise and intellectual skill development can advance our understanding of the difficulties faced by students as they move from a novice to an expert in their field of study. A particular focus of the discussion will be a three-phased approach to the acquisition of intellectua...
This paper reports on a large longitudinal survey of students and their use of technologies in tw... more This paper reports on a large longitudinal survey of students and their use of technologies in two Australian universities. The SEET survey is unique in Australia because it includes not just current use, but students’ expectations about their future use of technology. The survey was originally run in 2010 and then repeated, with slight modifications to reflect changes in technologies, in 2013. This paper compares the results from 2013 with the 2010 results. Whilst some changes reflect the wider access to freely available open resources and new technologies such as Smartphones and iPads, other results are remarkably consistent with the 2010 results. Overall students are increasingly satisfied with their use of technologies and despite the increase in uptake of freely available technologies, it is evident that the LMS and its inbuilt tools and functions remain a key platform for learning and teaching at universities.
Despite the expansion of online and blended learning, as well as open education, little research ... more Despite the expansion of online and blended learning, as well as open education, little research has been undertaken on what motivates students to enrol inparticular study modes at university level. This project addresses this gap in higher education research by exploring the reasons why humanities students choose to study through specific modes.The research was conducted between October 2013 and March 2014 administering three waves of data collection to over 700 students who were enrolled in humanities units being offered simultaneously through three different modes: on-campus, distance, and open and online. The findings suggest that students choose different enrolment modes based on factors such as personal, learning support, environment,advise and marketing, teaching and learning as well as logistics. However, the importance students ascribe to particular factors changes during their educational experience. This study found significant differences in the importance of factors bet...
This study is part of a funded research project that examines possible factors that may influence... more This study is part of a funded research project that examines possible factors that may influence students' advanced level of knowledge construction. This study examines if group size of the online discussion is related to the frequency of advanced level of knowledge construction occurrences. Group size of an online discussion refers to the number of people who contributed in the discussion. Advanced levels of knowledge construction refer to levels II, III, IV, or V of Gunawardena, Lowe, and Anderson's (1997) interaction analysis model. ...
Curriculum, technology & transformation for an unknown future. Proceedings ascilite Sydney, 2010
This paper reports the findings from a survey of unit convenors in an Australian university, whic... more This paper reports the findings from a survey of unit convenors in an Australian university, which explored how technologies were used to support assessment. The results suggest that while uptake of technologies for assessment may slowly be rising, the uses are frequently limited to assessing students‟ ability to understand or apply concepts or procedures. The potential of technologies to support assessment of the all-important higher order learning outcomes such as evaluation, creation and metacognition is still largely left ...
Proceedings of the 28th Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education Conference (ASCILITE 2011), 2011
The poster will present findings from the first year of a two-year nationally funded Australian L... more The poster will present findings from the first year of a two-year nationally funded Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) project, Building distributed leadership in designing and implementing a quality management framework for Online Learning Environments undertaken by Deakin University, Macquarie University, University of South Australia, University of Southern Queensland and RMIT University. The project is running over 2011-2012. This project aims to design and implement a framework that uses a distributed ...
Description This paper reports on findings from a nationally funded project which aims to design ... more Description This paper reports on findings from a nationally funded project which aims to design and implement a quality management framework for online learning environments (OLEs). Evaluation is a key component of any quality management system and it is this aspect of the framework that is the focus of this paper. In developing the framework initial focus groups were conducted at the five participating institutions. These revealed that, although regarded as important, there did not appear to be a shared understanding of the ...
ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE) Conference. Singapore, Dec, 2007
Web-based lecture technologies (WBLT) have been introduced by some Australian Universities in rec... more Web-based lecture technologies (WBLT) have been introduced by some Australian Universities in recognition that many students need flexible learning choices during their studies. This paper reports on some of the findings of a research project," the impact of WBLT on current and future practice in learning and teaching". The research was conducted across four Australian universities, with data obtained from surveys and in-depth interviews with both staff and students who had used WBLT. While student perceptions about WBLT ...
This paper reports on a project involving software selection in the context of a curriculum redes... more This paper reports on a project involving software selection in the context of a curriculum redesign of a university level Japanese language program. The project aimed to improve learning outcomes, increase flexibility in student access, and increase flexibility in approaches to teaching and learning, through the use of a variety of software packages and digital resources. In doing so, an imperative was to ensure the solutions adopted were manageable within the existing organisational arrangements of the Department and the University. The selection process has led to the development of three instruments which form the CICTO Framework for
The pace of technological change accompanied by an evolution in social, work-based and study beha... more The pace of technological change accompanied by an evolution in social, work-based and study behaviours and norms poses particular challenges for universities as they strive to develop high quality and sustainable technology-rich learning environments. Maintaining currency with the latest advances is resource intensive, hence the costs incurred in upgrading existing and introducing new technologies need to be carefully weighed up against the potential benefits to students. This calls for a multidimensional approach to planning, with the student voice being an important dimension. Three Australian universities have recently completed a project to gain a better understanding of students\u27 experiences and expectations of technologies in everyday life and for study purposes. The LMS and 25 other technologies ranging from established university offerings (email, learning management systems) to freely available social networking technologies (YouTube, Facebook) were surveyed. More than ...
Two core undergraduate units' offered to the same cohort of students' in Early Childhoo... more Two core undergraduate units' offered to the same cohort of students' in Early Childhood in a web-supported format in 1998 and 1999 were formally evaluated. Both units' had web sites which included course management, curriculum content including weekly lecture materials, weekly tutorial applications and reflections exercises and additional resource materials, as well as communication facilities which included a bulletin board and e-mail. The first unit, ECH 213 was offered in 1998 and modified in presentation in 1999. In its' first year, it did not offerface-to-face tutorials; instead online forums were established with tutors' to generate discussions, arguments' and responses to various tasks' such as case studies. The second unit, ECH 317 offered basically the same format, but maintained optionalface-to-face tutorial meetings for the internally enrolled students', as did ECH 213 in 1999. In both units', parity between external and inter...
Managing and understanding student’s motivations and experiences of learning will be increasingly... more Managing and understanding student’s motivations and experiences of learning will be increasingly important as demand for higher education continues to grow and online delivery continues to evolve and expand into open access, on-campus and distance modes of study. It is in the interests of institutions offering two or more modes of study to understand the reasons why students make different choices. This research investigates the importance of six factors (personal, logistics, teaching and learning, learning support, environment, and advice and marketing) influencing 744 students choice of three different modes of study. Findings indicate that there are significant differences in the importance of factors amongst students enrolled in different study modes, although when averaged across all cohorts ‘teaching and learning’ and ‘logistics’ factors were the most influential. It is suggested that providing a high level of transparency in the information provided to students is vital for ...
Students enter university with great diversity in the knowledge and skills underpinning their cho... more Students enter university with great diversity in the knowledge and skills underpinning their chosen field of study. Some come as complete novices, others have some experience and expertise in the knowledge domain. This can pose challenges for teachers and students in individual course units that aim to go beyond the establishment of foundational knowledge and skills, to the development of more complex knowledge, problem solving or critical analysis skills. For students with little expertise in the domain, the acquisition of such a broad range of knowledge and skills can be very demanding, and if the demands are too great, teaching and learning difficulties can ensue. This paper will discuss how theories of expertise and intellectual skill development can advance our understanding of the difficulties faced by students as they move from a novice to an expert in their field of study. A particular focus of the discussion will be a three-phased approach to the acquisition of intellectua...
This paper reports on a large longitudinal survey of students and their use of technologies in tw... more This paper reports on a large longitudinal survey of students and their use of technologies in two Australian universities. The SEET survey is unique in Australia because it includes not just current use, but students’ expectations about their future use of technology. The survey was originally run in 2010 and then repeated, with slight modifications to reflect changes in technologies, in 2013. This paper compares the results from 2013 with the 2010 results. Whilst some changes reflect the wider access to freely available open resources and new technologies such as Smartphones and iPads, other results are remarkably consistent with the 2010 results. Overall students are increasingly satisfied with their use of technologies and despite the increase in uptake of freely available technologies, it is evident that the LMS and its inbuilt tools and functions remain a key platform for learning and teaching at universities.
Despite the expansion of online and blended learning, as well as open education, little research ... more Despite the expansion of online and blended learning, as well as open education, little research has been undertaken on what motivates students to enrol inparticular study modes at university level. This project addresses this gap in higher education research by exploring the reasons why humanities students choose to study through specific modes.The research was conducted between October 2013 and March 2014 administering three waves of data collection to over 700 students who were enrolled in humanities units being offered simultaneously through three different modes: on-campus, distance, and open and online. The findings suggest that students choose different enrolment modes based on factors such as personal, learning support, environment,advise and marketing, teaching and learning as well as logistics. However, the importance students ascribe to particular factors changes during their educational experience. This study found significant differences in the importance of factors bet...
This study is part of a funded research project that examines possible factors that may influence... more This study is part of a funded research project that examines possible factors that may influence students' advanced level of knowledge construction. This study examines if group size of the online discussion is related to the frequency of advanced level of knowledge construction occurrences. Group size of an online discussion refers to the number of people who contributed in the discussion. Advanced levels of knowledge construction refer to levels II, III, IV, or V of Gunawardena, Lowe, and Anderson's (1997) interaction analysis model. ...
Curriculum, technology & transformation for an unknown future. Proceedings ascilite Sydney, 2010
This paper reports the findings from a survey of unit convenors in an Australian university, whic... more This paper reports the findings from a survey of unit convenors in an Australian university, which explored how technologies were used to support assessment. The results suggest that while uptake of technologies for assessment may slowly be rising, the uses are frequently limited to assessing students‟ ability to understand or apply concepts or procedures. The potential of technologies to support assessment of the all-important higher order learning outcomes such as evaluation, creation and metacognition is still largely left ...
Proceedings of the 28th Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education Conference (ASCILITE 2011), 2011
The poster will present findings from the first year of a two-year nationally funded Australian L... more The poster will present findings from the first year of a two-year nationally funded Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) project, Building distributed leadership in designing and implementing a quality management framework for Online Learning Environments undertaken by Deakin University, Macquarie University, University of South Australia, University of Southern Queensland and RMIT University. The project is running over 2011-2012. This project aims to design and implement a framework that uses a distributed ...
Description This paper reports on findings from a nationally funded project which aims to design ... more Description This paper reports on findings from a nationally funded project which aims to design and implement a quality management framework for online learning environments (OLEs). Evaluation is a key component of any quality management system and it is this aspect of the framework that is the focus of this paper. In developing the framework initial focus groups were conducted at the five participating institutions. These revealed that, although regarded as important, there did not appear to be a shared understanding of the ...
ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE) Conference. Singapore, Dec, 2007
Web-based lecture technologies (WBLT) have been introduced by some Australian Universities in rec... more Web-based lecture technologies (WBLT) have been introduced by some Australian Universities in recognition that many students need flexible learning choices during their studies. This paper reports on some of the findings of a research project," the impact of WBLT on current and future practice in learning and teaching". The research was conducted across four Australian universities, with data obtained from surveys and in-depth interviews with both staff and students who had used WBLT. While student perceptions about WBLT ...
This paper reports on a project involving software selection in the context of a curriculum redes... more This paper reports on a project involving software selection in the context of a curriculum redesign of a university level Japanese language program. The project aimed to improve learning outcomes, increase flexibility in student access, and increase flexibility in approaches to teaching and learning, through the use of a variety of software packages and digital resources. In doing so, an imperative was to ensure the solutions adopted were manageable within the existing organisational arrangements of the Department and the University. The selection process has led to the development of three instruments which form the CICTO Framework for
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