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9:00am |
Registration, Coffee & Tea in the Exhibition Area – Meet up for first time participants at the ALT stand |
10:30am |
Welcome from the Conference Co-Chairs |
10:40am |
Welcome from the host institution |
10:50am |
Live Streamed
Keynote: Steve Wheeler [100] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 10:50am – 11:45am Steve Wheeler is Associate Professor of Learning Technologies at Plymouth University, in South West England. Originally trained as a psychologist, he has spent his entire career working in media, technology and learning, predominantly in nurse education (NHS 1981-1995) and teacher education (1976-1981 and 1995-present). He is now in the Plymouth Institute of Education, at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Steve is a global educator, teaching online, and on a number of undergraduate and post-graduate teacher education programmes in the UK and overseas. He researches into technology supported learning and distance education, with particular emphasis on the pedagogy underlying the use of social...more |
12:00pm |
Engaging learners in computer-based summative exams: Reflections on a participant-informed assessment design [901] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm This paper discusses our approach to participant-informed assessment design through the case of a high stakes examination for the assessment of a master’s level module in research methods. Computer-based assessment was introduced in this module as an alternative to paper-based assessment primarily to permit the return of marks to a large cohort of over 150 students within a short period of time. Critically, in a departure from approaches commonly reported in the literature, this examination comprises short answer questions as well as multiple-choice questions to permit the assessment of a fuller range of cognitive processes including the higher order processes...more Animate to communicate: learning from students and co-creation of learning [863] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm In this presentation, undergraduate students and lecturers consider their experiences of using animations in the learning process, and a participatory approach to the development of learning technologies. Animations are a valuable component of learning and teaching (Lam and McNaught, 2006) and offer dynamic and innovative modes of representation through engagement with technology (Ainsworth, 2008). The challenge of teaching complex ideas becomes effective with innovative approaches including visual communication of concepts and data. The 2015 NMC Horizons Report acknowledged the increasing emphasis of advance, flexible, learning environments as a trend in global wide higher education over the next 5 years (NMC,...more [Cancelled] Using CMALT as a vehicle for team-building and professional development [990] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Last year (October 2014) the University of Sheffield established a new post, Faculty Learning Technologist for Social Sciences, a role which covers Learning Technologies in 13 diverse departments. Many of these departments have a specialist member of staff fulfilling a role related to ‘learning technologies’, although the nature of the role and the job title varies. As with all Learning Technologists, ‘the work is dynamic and varied; therefore professional development is crucial to keep up with the new technologies and trends.’ (Hopkins, 2013) After consultation with all members of the group, who come from a wide range of backgrounds, it...more Shaping and Sharing Digitally Connected Learning: Situated Affordances of Australian Farmers and Teachers as Change Agents [816] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Learners as agents of change are both an aphorism and an aspiration. Certainly the long-term success and sustainability of specific educational technologies depend in large part on learners being enabled to engage in change, both in their own behaviours and understandings and in contributing to shifts in their communities. From this perspective, affordance theory (Gibson 1979) remains influential in highlighting the complex interplay between particular technologies and learners’ engagements with those technologies (while noting the critique of affordance theory derived from actor-network theory [Wright & Parchoma 2011]). At the same time, learners’ capacities to envisage and enact change are framed...more Why Institutions Adopt MOOCs: Breaking Down Traditional Boundaries or Reproducing Privilege? [999] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm This paper explores the growth of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) set against a backdrop of hype and hope. Despite predictions that MOOCs will break down traditional boundaries, their legitimacy is primarily derived from association with high status, élite universities (Selwyn, Bulfin & Pangrazio, 2015). The reality is that MOOCs have yet to deliver on the promise of radically opening up access to Higher Education, especially in developing countries. Indeed, many sceptics regard MOOCs as simply a clever marketing ploy by some of the world’s top universities. Barlow (2014) goes further by arguing the MOOC is just another neo-colonialist tool...more Open learning at the workplace: scaffolding user’s digital competences [1001] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm The EAGLE project aims to bring an holistic solution for Public Administration employees at all levels in rural local government across the EU, for integrating learning into the work practice. Gaeta et al. (2015) remark that relationships, networks and feedback become the main source for learning experiences beside of working practice itself. EAGLE solution will provide an informal open learning space where employees can create and interact with resources and people that will include learning content, learning communities, collaborating experts and peers with similar problems or interests. For that, it will provide community building technologies and tools for searching, creating...more Capturing the Community Learning Gateway [962] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Led by members of Tinder Foundation’s Research & Innovation and Digital teams the session will focus on ‘EduMakers: transforming adult and community learning through technology’ a recent 6 month research and development project funded by Innovate UK. The project aimed to disrupt the Adult and Community Learning (ACL) sector by radically increasing the adoption of digital technologies within teaching and learning. It tested the feasibility and co-design of an open collaborative content-creation, sharing and learning platform, linked to a learner management system for learners, tutors and managers. Recording learning progression of individuals undertaking informal learning has been, to date, a...more [Cancelled] Crystal balls versus evidence-informed decision making: A participatory realist approach to the ex-ante evaluation of future learning technology policy and investment decisions in HE [906] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm With tighter budgets and smaller teams, it is imperative for institutions that invest in both in-house learning technology development and off-the-shelf products, to not just ask ‘has this made a difference (for a particular cohort, or in time or money saved)?’ but to try and understand exactly why it has made a difference or not. A robust evidence base, that provides insights into why, for whom and within which contexts that particular interventions work, will help drive evidence informed policy making and investment decisions in the future. This presentation advocates the adoption of a realist approach (Pawson, 2013) to the...more Matching students’ choices of apps with their learning intentions: a participatory action research [853] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm University staff are now encouraged to integrate use of “off the shelf” apps with their teaching for a range of purposes including digital literacy and employability. Yet university students have a variety of capabilities to adopt these apps to mediate their learning practices (e.g. Buckingham, 2011; Madden et al, 2013). This might indicate a ‘digital disconnect’ (Selwyn, 2007), which means how students actually make use of digital technology in the ‘real-world’ might be different from how technologies could and should be used. Against this background our project aims to understand how undergraduates actually match their choices of apps with their...more Using Facebook groups for virtual Peer Assisted Learning: building communities and enhancing the student experience [867] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Over several years we tried to provide face to face Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) sessions where students could work together informally with their classmates in the presence of senior student facilitators. Although the demand for PAL was present, our attempts to bring students together voluntarily in the same place at the same time were disappointing, and four years ago we decided to try a fresh approach. We set up and semi-moderated Facebook groups for two Level 1 courses: Mathematics and Computing Science. Now in their fourth year, these succeed in providing a non-threatening space for virtual academic dialogue (PAL) between...more To BYOD or not to BYOD: Factors affecting tutor acceptance of faculty and student mobile devices in their classroom practice [856] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Much has been made of the educational opportunities ‘ubiquitous’ mobile devices present to tutors in Higher Education (for example see Cochrane et al. 2014). Yet, if the unique and exciting affordances of mobile devices are to be integrated into the autonomous classroom practices of HE tutors, then a tutor must first accept said innovation. This qualitative study employed mature acceptance and diffusion research to draw out the complex multivariate factors affecting local tutor acceptance of mobile devices. A focus group was used initially to explore general mobile device acceptance factors and ascertain how relevant categories listed in the acceptance and...more Crime Scenes: cultivating colleagueship and enabling connectivist learning [877] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm A cross-Faculty collaboration has brought together five academics from a variety of disciplines at De Montfort University (DMU), resulting in a novel project that inspires year 8-12 students to learn collaboratively and apply their mathematics, physics and other classroom learning in a practical context. The exercise centres around the collision of a real motor vehicle on campus at DMU and a realistic injured manikin. Along the way students have to question a witness, measure skid marks to calculate speed and collate additional forensic evidence to enable them to identify the cause of the crash. An animated film finally shows the...more Collaborative tools to enhance engagement in a blended learning M.Sc. [818] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm The Holy Grail for educators is to develop motivated and engaged learners. This can lead to better student outcomes and more satisfied students and teachers. But how can engagement be defined? How can you assess student engagement in an online or blended programme when you are physically separated from your students? And more specifically, how can you support it? This paper/session outlines the experiences of those involved in the development and delivery of a blended learning M.Sc. in Community Systems Health Research, developed by partners in Ireland and Malawi and delivered to students in Malawi – the warm heart of...more Sharing stories around the microphone: digital storytelling as a collaborative learning experience [1013] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Abstract Digital storytelling (DST) is a tried and tested classroom method for reflective practice and constructivist learning (Ohler 2007; Freidus & Hlubinka 2002). Over twenty years after the classic digital storytelling method was pioneered by the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) (Lambert 2006), innovations using this technique have been analysed in educational settings across the globe (Hartley & McWilliam 2009; Lundby 2008). Replications of the CDS method are plentiful and remain valuable: In addition, however, developing the method to encourage collaborative experiences that engender connectivist learning allows the opportunity to shape learning experiences. This paper evaluates how group learning can...more ALT North West England Tue, Sep 8 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm This session is led by the members of the ALT North-West England Group. Come along to find out more about what the group is up to, how to join if you are interested in getting involved and what’s coming up in the next year. Everybody welcome. To find out more about the ALT North-West England Group visit the homepage for the ALT Scotland Group http://go.alt.ac.uk/MembersNorthWestmore |
1:00pm |
Lunch & Exhibition – Find out about ALT and the #altc game at the ALT stand |
2:00pm |
Do we need instructional designers? [837] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Systematising and standardising in education offers many benefits. At the qualification level, it allows comparison of qualifications, and mechanisms for students to move from one part of the educational spectrum to another through recognition of their learning experiences in a national or credit-rating framework. The IMS learning design framework1, describing learning, prides itself on being method and mode agnostic, allowing educational awards and learning experiences to be transferable2. However it assumes that learning content is made available as part of the learning process, but does not provide a standard for content despite the benefits of consistency, quality, recognition and transferability....more Peer-to-peer learning using student-generated MCQs with Peerwise [993] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm PeerWise is a free online service that allows students to write, share, answer and review multiple-choice questions (MCQs). It has been used informally and successfully with 4th year students for the past 3 years. During the 2013-14 academic year, over 600 questions were created by nearly 80% of students without any incentive to participate. In this case, PeerWise was set up purely as a tool to help them prepare for their end of year exams. A statistical model incorporating Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 marks as well as participation with PeerWise revealed an adjusted effect equivalent to an...more Pixellation: The Key for Collaborative Online Education [1002] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm This work introduces the notion of Pixellation in the context of Online Education. By pixellation we mean the delivery of notions in the most concise and self-contained format possible: a pixel of knowledge. We demonstrate, based on the reported experience, that a collaboratively built online library consisting of Pixellised lessons, increases faculty willingness to engage in an eLearning project while giving students a material suitable for the way they consume online knowledge. In particular, we show, based on students’ analytics and surveys, that the key to provide resident students with the right learning content is Pixellation. We first start by...more Learning As A Perspective Of Reflective Practice In Computer Science [805] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Reflection has been one of the focal points for professional development across multidisciplinary educational dimensions according to Cornford (2002) and Loughran (2002). Reflective practice is noted to be a vital goal amongst educators, though there is the argument that there exists “lack of clarity and agreement on what this means in practice and how best it is achieved” (Gadsby and Cronin, 2012). Reflection on course delivery is significant in any teaching practice for the tutor to reflect on how to improve the teaching methods and to acquire full understanding of how to enhance students’ learning experiences. According to Brookfield’s argument...more Can students act as ‘change agents’ in reshaping the learning landscape? [815] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm There is growing evidence that engaging students more fully in their university experience creates an environment conducive to learning in partnership. Students have been conceptualised and located as ‘producers’ (Neary and Winn, 2009), as ‘collaborators’ (Taylor and Wilding, 2009) and as ‘co-creators’ (Bovill, Bulley and Morss, 2011), empowering them to take ownership of their learning experience and to act as active agents of change across the landscape of higher education (see, eg Dunne and Zandstra, 2011; Healey, 2014; Healey, Flint and Harrington, 2014; Kay, Dunne and Hutchison, 2010). This paper examines the learner experience on a research-based module on a...more Augmented laboratories: Near-Peer Constructed TEL Labs. [822] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Research Question: Can an augmented reality smartphone based application assist students in developing scientific laboratory skills and enhance their conceptual understanding in a problem based learning environment? The practical laboratory session has been, and continues to be, central to science education (Hofstein & Lunetta, 2004) Undergraduate students in traditional laboratories follow a pre-determined method to achieve a pre-determined outcome and typically communicate these findings in a standard laboratory report (Dunne & Ryan, 2012). The depth of undergraduate learning here is questionable as students gain limited exposure to key elements of scientific laboratory work such as experimental design, problem solving,...more How are storyboards created by students and tutors for the development of Reusable Learning Objects? [833] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm The development of reusable learning objects (RLOs) is reported in literature though student involvement in this process appears less common. This research investigated how students and tutors create a storyboard for the development of an RLO for junior nursing students to learn resuscitation knowledge and whether there are any differences that could be exploited to improve learning. This research took a participatory design approach with the main focus (phase 1) involving video analysis of a group of students (n=7) and separately a group of tutors (n=6) participating in an RLO storyboard creation workshop. The student and tutor RLOs were developed...more Four ways to collaborate: Learning and teaching case studies from a faculty of humanities, languages and social science [994] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Being able to collaborate with others and work in a team are important skills for 21st century graduates (Kivunja, 2014). Collaboration can happen on different levels (Hastie, 2013), and the groups involved can be small and local or large and dispersed across different locations. Learning technologies are an important enabler of collaboration in the digital age. This paper presents four case studies of collaborative learning and teaching in a faculty of humanities, languages and social science at a UK university and discusses how learning technologies can be used to connect students with each other and with outside partners in a...more Badging the Open [940] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm With the innovation changes in higher education in the now broad provision of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) there has been an emergence of learners wishing to gain access to free learning in the form of whole courses. Whilst learning in specific subject areas is most commonly sought, understanding the techniques of studying is ever more crucial especially for those who have been away from education for some time. Badged Open Courses (BOCs) are the latest evolution of a suite of free courses available from The Open University (OU) (Law & Law, 2014). Badged Open Courses are different from MOOCs...more Opening Educational Practices in the Scottish context [941] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Enabling open educational practices (OEP) via cross-sector partnerships is the focus of a three year Scotland based OEP project which is building on the experiences of several previous collaborative Scottish projects (Macintyre, 2013, Cannell & Macintyre, 2013). Open Educational Resources (OER) have the potential to transform and widen participation in higher and further education (Welsh Government, 2014, D’Antoni, 2013) however this transformation is still embryonic. Evidence so far suggests most MOOCs are studied by those with HE qualifications (Edinburgh University, 2013), with many who could benefit unaware of OER or their potential. This project endorses the Open Scotland Declaration (http://declaration.openscot.net/)...more Learning technology from the middle out: Breaking down functional tensions and resistances between stakeholders to lead institutional change [913] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm This paper will explore the tensions and forces that are impacting on the role learning technology teams choose (or are required) to play in changing institutional culture and pedagogical practice. In a post-digital world, it is critical that learning technologists engage with the affordances and resistances that emerge from successive and continuous waves of organisational and technological change (Bryant et al., 2014). At the technological level, the agility of society and learners to adapt and innovate their learning with and through technology often far outstrips the ability of the educational institution to keep up (Davidson and Goldberg, 2009). Organisationally, learning...more All on board : working with inter-institutional, multidisciplinary module teams on a blended PhD programme [914] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Recent reports have highlighted the importance of innovation in programme delivery – requiring interdisciplinary approaches and encouraging greater inter-institutional collaboration (Hennessy 2013; Mc Aleese 2013). However, this isn’t always easy and persuading institutions, staff and students to work together on new teaching and learning approaches can be challenging. This session describes the transition from traditional lecture-based teaching to a blended programme and the lessons learned in dissolving institutional, disciplinary and technological boundaries. The programme in question is a structured PhD programme in Population Health and Health Services Research (PHHSR) funded by the Health Research Board. The programme is taught across...more Moodle My Feedback assessment reports for staff and students [950] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm UCL is running a project to look at how students view the assessment feedback they receive electronically within Moodle. A holistic Feedback reporting tool is currently in development, with a pilot planned for September 2015, and a rollout to the rest of the institution planned for 2016. This presentation will outline the history to the project and how student and staff perspectives have fed in to the development of this tool. It will also outline how the tool will improve the support of students within the Personal Tutoring system, by enabling both students and their personal tutors to easily view...more YACRS, A New open-source classroom response system [980] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm For several years voting systems have been used as a way to increase student involvement during lectures, and to support teaching techniques such as the flip classroom, made popular by Eric Mazur (Mazur 1996). Typically these voting systems have used system specific handsets for the student input, with the responses appearing on the computer lecturers using for the presentation. At the University of Glasgow although there has been a considerable investment in these voting systems, uptake has been limited due to the logistics of distributing the handsets to students, and ensuring that the handsets have batteries replaced when necessary. For...more Peer to peer learning – showcasing social media research [820] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm In 2014, as a pre-cursor to the European Conference on Social Media hosted by the University of Brighton, we created an event to bring people together to share ideas about social media research and learning. The event produced learning interactions between school students (year 9), apprentices in digital media and university students (Levels 5 and 6) another event is scheduled for 2015. This paper explores conceptual issues around peer-to-peer learning, informal learning and the marketing outreach of social media. Data collection was achieved by analysis of the social media conferences data streams, interaction and feedback from staff, conference delegates, students...more TwitterFlipping the Classroom: Social Media for Independent Learning [1006] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Encouraging independent learning in higher education students and school pupils, is a longed-for but elusive aim. A recent report by the Higher Education Academy focused on issues of fostering independent learning in students arriving from overseas to study (Higher_Education_Academy, 2014) and at the schools level a similar report was issued by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (Meyer et al., 2008). Nurturing an attitude of motivation for independent learning is key for sixth-form pupils aspiring to enter university, as they write personal statements as part of the application process. This particular requirement was one of the sparks which led...more Harnessing the power of predictive analytics and the powerful consequences of doing it badly [842] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm One application of learning analytics with particular appeal for tertiary institutions is the provision of ‘early-warning systems’ to identify students at risk of failing. This type of predictive analytics is believed to help improve progression and retention rates through the early identification of at-risk students and the subsequent provision of timely and appropriate support. Examples include the Purdue Signals project (Campbell, DeBlois and Oblinger, 2007; Arnold and Pistilli, 2012), an LMS mining project (Macfadyen and Dawson, 2010) and a project which used virtual appliances to monitor student progress (Romero-Zaldivar et al., 2012). This presentation explores potential parallels between predictive analytics...more Nailing jelly to the wall: defining and describing eportfolio [904] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm The considerable increase in academic articles, conferences and academic practice, testifies that eportfolio use is becoming ever more prevalent, more sophisticated and core to the learning experience of so many diverse users. In it’s 2014 survey UCISA reported portfolio use in 78% of UK HEIs. As the portfolio community grows it becomes increasingly important that case studies, implementation reports, best practice guides and eportfolio research refer to this innovation with a clarity of language that is widely shared and understood, a point not missed by either Jisc in its eportfolio implementation toolkit (2011) or the wide-ranging work of the US...more Polls, postings and pinboards: driving learner engagement in open online courses [964] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm By their very nature most open online courses seek to provide access to educational resources for as many participants as possible. But as experience and research evidence has shown, massive sign-ups do not guarantee massive participation. Across all online learning platforms, even those that put social learning at the centre of the user experience, there is consistent evidence for considerable challenges in encouraging learners to stick with and engage more actively with open courses. [1] In this presentation we will give examples of how social media, crowdsourcing activities and other open digital resources can be utilised to encourage more active...more Transforming Technologies: students as partners and change agents in curriculum design [996] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm This presentation explores both curriculum design and students’ critique and reflective practice upon that. “Transforming Technologies: teaching and learning in the digital age” is a new university postgraduate award (Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Warwick) designed for anyone involved in teaching and learning who would like to use technology more effectively. The award is part of the department’s Gateway to Postgraduate study; an access route for those returning to learning who may wish to build up experience and credit towards Masters level study. So although the award has practical application, its position as a level 7 HE programme means...more Thinking about the Future: Reflections on the All Ireland Horizon Report [1012] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm This paper critically reflects on the methodology and recent findings of Ireland’s first Horizon Report on future trends facing Higher Education. The Horizon Report is a well-known ‘futures’ publication produced by the New Media Consortium (NMC) for many regions and countries. It adopts a novel online Delphi method using a standard template of questions, which are adapted for country specific conditions, where a panel of local experts work together to rank the relative importance of different trends and future technologies. In this respect, the paper reports the wisdom of a very specific crowd who were identified for their specialist knowledge...more Summer of Student Innovation – a min showcase of student led projects delivering real solutions [943] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm The Jisc-funded ‘Digital Student’ project (2013-15) is researching students’ expectations and experiences of the digital environment in HE, FE and skills. The project has collected together more than 50 examples of how institutions are working to meet students’ digital needs. These cover a broad spectrum of approaches, from new induction processes to student-led festivals, and from inclusive assessment to partnership IT developments and extra-curricular awards. Examples are grouped according to seven challenges that the study originally identified, and there are downloadable resources focusing on progressive steps within each challenge. As well as showcasing some innovative practices they demonstrate the very...more Summer of Student Innovation – a min showcase of student led projects delivering real solutions [936] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Most students will have ideas of how they would improve learning, research or student life in their university, college or as a work based learner. The initial challenge of the Summer of Student Innovation was to capture these ideas via a competition platform Elevator (see below) and use them to inform the future development of educational technology tools and apps that better meet the needs of students. Jisc is still pursuing this goal and has supported the development of several student ideas into products and is providing an incubator for small start-up products. The unexpected outcome was that several of...more |
3:05pm |
Are we ready to learn from learning analytics? [864] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm Many online systems collect data on learner interactions as a matter of routine. Interrogating and developing models from this data is a growing field of practice known as learning analytics (Ferguson, 2012). Along with other researchers, (e.g. Elias, 2011) we believe that this kind of data can contribute to our understanding of learning in two important ways: firstly, as a source of feedback on the effectiveness of learning design decisions; secondly, and more broadly, as a source of objective data for evidence-based practice in learning technology research (Gunn & Steel, 2012). We are aware, however, that many teachers currently have...more Something old, something new, something borrowed - Facilitating inter-professional best practice in child protection through asynchronous online discussions [903] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm The construction of knowledge through asynchronous online discussions, hereafter referred to as forums, is becoming increasingly recognised (Ryan and Young, 2014; Loncar et al., 2014). This paper applies this concept to inter-professional child protection (CP) education as available evidence indicates that we have not always found optimal ways in which to facilitate learning in this emotionally charged field (Watkin et al., 2009). Furthermore, deficits in CP inter-professional working have been consistently and reliably evidenced in research (Appleton and Stanley, 2009) and through the tragic narratives explored within Serious Case Reviews (Brandon et al., 2005). This paper examines learning from an...more Semiotics and Learners’ Stories: Students’ Changing E-Course Retentions and Legacies [860] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm The quest for more effective ways to help online learners complete their online courses and degree programs has generated incorporation of many new technologies and social media in higher education (Sharples, Addison, Ferguson, 2013, p.17). While increased interactivities and social applications have improved retentions, attrition rates stubbornly remain high (Ross, Kena, Rathbun, Kewal, 2012, p.184), particularly among high risk groups. This research addresses how to improve retention by making cueing immediately available to learners entering online courses using semiotic tools. The acknowledgement of the learners’ cultural and prior knowledge can be introduced upon course entry with strategic addition of familiar...more The peer influence as a non-formal element of the learning process of the engineering students [1018] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm Many universities seek the perfect combination of theory and practice for engineer careers, because the demands for professionals are increasing, most educational institutions consider the need to provide new skills to their students, through their academic offer. The skills required for the near future jobs. Within these new abilities, excels adaptive and new thinking, involving changes in the paradigms of knowledge storage and acquisition. Therefore it is important not retain large amount of information, but the ability to continuously learn and modify cognitive schemas as new knowledge emerges, because ” … our ability to learn what we’ll need tomorrow is...more Social Engaged Action Learning (SEAL) [1023] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm Abstract In 2014 the innovation network of the Fontys University of Applied Science plotted the Social Engaged Action Learning (SEAL) model in a number of experiments. Seal is a form of action learning in which students from the start are challenged to participate actively and engaged in education. This is done by using actual work related problems and issues from actual partners in the field for students to solve by developing professional products, or students choose their own issue to solve. SEAL has three phases to engage in with groups of up to 5 students but at their own pace....more Are learning technologies fit for purpose [881] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm Early in 2015 the authors participated in a debate about the fitness for purpose of the most common learning technologies currently in use in higher and further education. The debate covered broad issues such as the fitness of education, technological determinism and cyber security. Following the debate the authors continued engaging with a wide range of people in the sector arguing both for and against the use of bespoke learning technologies. The main arguments proposed for the continued use of learning technologies centred around three underlying assumptions: That the key purpose of institutional e-learning technology is to deal with educating...more The ways we share our innovative thinking and practice - stories from the frontline [873] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm This discussion-based workshop invites participants to compare experiences of sharing innovative practice, and some of the ways we go about sharing. In both respects we will discuss how we manage this. This critical discussion will elicit the different strategies we have, or do not have, for sharing and will address the hypothesis “the rich possibilities of social media create exciting but unrealistic demands on innovators, scholars and developers in higher education”, informing a reflective paper for the proceedings. The workshop will straddle many of the conference themes, indicating how sharing can be a demanding, unstructured commitment and obligation. The concept...more Creating a pre-planned social media teaching experience [872] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm Armed with either tablet, smartphone or laptop … this session explores the experiences from the previous two years of the Cisco Networking team at the X. Based on the notion of social learning theory (Crompton 2013), the teaching team extended the distance learning experience beyond the confines of the organisational VLE into commonplace domains of experience. With circa 900 participants active each day in a community that taps into 400 students, where best fit estimates, show that there is a maximum 30% participation. Presents a view into how extended communities (Bandura, 1963) and legitimate peripheral participation occurs within an extended...more A “MOOC Approach” to Future Learning [882] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm Massive Open On-line Courses (MOOCS)- Massive Opportunity or Massive Waste of Time? The University of Leicester has a successful Distance Education heritage, which it has continued to build-upon with the introduction of four strategically chosen connectivist MOOCs developed in partnership with UK MOOC provider FutureLearn. The MOOCs were chosen to test four key MOOC themes: The Topical MOOC–England in the Time of King Richard III, The Popular MOOC – Forensic Science and Criminal Justice, The Skills MOOC – Real Word Calculus: How Maths Drives Formula One and Launches Angry Birds and The Taster MOOC – Behind the Scenes at the...more Design pattern game: how to build a successful MOOC [885] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm The design patterns paradigm (Alexander 1979) was originally developed as a form of design language within architecture and offered a set of design solutions drawn from expert practice that could be then deployed by anyone to solve novel design challenges. Given the range of studies that have demonstrated the value for educators in engaging in design orientated approaches, the aim of the project here has been to explore, define and articulate the successful design principles that underpin the development of Massive Open Online Courses, and to put them forward for the design of new MOOCS. This is particularly important as...more Open Education SIG Tue, Sep 8 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm This session is led by the members of the Open Education Special Interest Group. Come along to find out more about what the group is up to, how to join if you are interested in getting involved and what’s coming up in the next year. Everybody welcome. To find out more about the Special Interest Group see #altoe on Twitter or visit the homepage fpr the Open Education Special Interest Group http://go.alt.ac.uk/OESIGmore |
4:05pm |
Exhibition and networking break – Meet up at the ALT stand for first time presenters |
4:45pm |
Augmented Reality (AR) meets Action Research: a workshop (re) conceptualising a year one gaming/computing curricula [859] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm AR is where embedded animations, video clips, 3D graphics ‘come to life’ when a SMART device is help up to an image, which ‘triggers’ the media. There has been significant interest in this technology, especially with the potential of AR Head Mounted Displays (HMDs), leading to investment by corporations such as Microsoft and HoloLens; however there is a gap in the literature around the evaluation of the pedagogical potential when embedding this technology into Higher Education classroom contexts. In line with QAA benchmarks (QAA 2013) our University is moving towards developing graduate attributes, and early connections with ‘softer skills’ are...more Developing an institutional Community of Practice for Flipped Classroom Pedagogies [835] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm In recent years, the idea of the “Flipped Classroom” has sparked considerable discourse.gaining prominence following the work of Bergmann and Sams, who adopted this approach as a way to “use class time for more student-centered and inquiry-based activities” facilitated by educators (Bergmann and Sams, 2008). Since then, flipped classroom practices have been identified as important developments in pedagogy by sector-scanning reports (Sharples, et.al. 2014, NMC 2014). This has been reflected at our institution, with lecturers across the faculties developing experience in the practice and faculty management expressing a desire to expand its use, in response to reported pedagogical and student...more Student Led On Demand In Situ Media Resources [847] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm The veterinary medicine curriculum is considered to be particularly demanding in terms of both intensity and workload. [1] It is a discipline that requires many important practical skills and competences to be mastered in tandem with the underpinning knowledge and understanding. [1] Work with our students, aligned with the literature, has identified video resources as an extremely popular and valuable addition to their study resources and we have been developing increased numbers of these resources in recent years. [2] In parallel, most of our students now attend practical classes armed with mobile devices with which to record findings and cases...more Linking learning - lifewide and lifelong [899] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm Students expectations of university and a university’s expectations of students collide around the extremities of the delivered curriculum and the myriad opportunities students pursue in creating a new ‘life identity’. Common ground can be found in the difficulties everyone shares in forming a collective understanding of the relationship between the Digital-Social Age, higher education, and the need to establish and develop a professional identity. Somewhere lost in the middle of all this is a coherent approach to critically making sense of the rich experience of being at university and our capabilities to self-regulate this. Social media are the domain of...more Wikipedia as a worldly learning environment [930] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm This presentation considers the potential of Wikipedia in today’s higher education drawing on three local initiatives, their evaluation, and a discussion of the qualities of Wikipedia. Higher education is increasingly concerned with preparing students to adapt to uncertainty in principled ways. New curricula (Ryan and Tilbury, 2013; UCL, 2015) cast students as researchers, partners and creators while new kinds of work require them to be collaborative and public, and are intended to have worldly relevance beyond the institution. Technologies are sought which organise and amplify this work, connecting people in institutions and out in the world while also meeting responsibilities...more Enhancing Prostate Cancer Care through Collaboration, Conversation and Open Online Learning [973] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm In October 2014, academics from the Radiotherapy & Oncology team at the host institution, successfully delivered a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) called ‘Enhancing Prostate Cancer Care’. We worked in collaboration with two external stakeholders that we have developed strong working relationships with over several years; one who provided the platform for delivery (e-portfolio provider) and the other who provided expertise relating to the topic and helped to promote the course (a leading national charity). The presentation will provide an overview of this project, including insight into its design, key enablers, challenges, results from our formal evaluation and lessons learnt....more What next after a software Training Needs Analysis [958] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm At Regent’s University London (RUL) a Software Training Needs Analysis was established in 2012/13 and has run annually, to help grab the attention of Universitystaff and get them involved in the development of a new software trainingcurriculum in regards to using Learning Technology in the classroom. In addition to staff meetings, the Software Training Needs Analysis enabled university staff to have a platform to say what software training they would like and how they would prefer to receive it. This follows on frommy previous presentation on ‘Equipping staff to ride the digital wave –Establishing a University-wide Training Needs Analysis’ at...more Students as partners in innovative development [961] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm Abstract The success of innovative developments in teaching and learning require changes in behaviour not only from the lecturer/teacher but also the students. This is particularly true where such change is designed to stimulate active learning, deeper learning and/or independent learning. During the many years that I have led Professional Development for teachers at my college, one of the commonest reasons for teaching staff abandoning an innovation in their practice (including those well-supported by research evidence) has been the resistance or inadequate engagement of their students (Åkerlind. 1999; Clark, 2005; McLean, 1997).[JW1] This has led to us designing a more...more Harmonious Developments in Learning Technologies; how to align IT and LT cultures. [1009] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm The term ‘Innovation Prevention Department’ (IPD) has been used by Clay (2008) and Wheeler (2012) to describe institutional departments that actively block innovation in an organisation, and according to Wheeler “Innovation will not come from the organisation as it is no longer innovation” Both Clay and Wheeler highlight the perception that there are areas in an institution that may actively prevent teaching and learning innovation to take place. Whilst the term IPD is still occasionally overheard at Educational Technology conferences, and there is no evidence, beyond that of anecdote, to prove their existence there is a serious underlying issue –...more How do commercial companies collaborate in ALT Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm Participants from commercial learning providers in ALT can struggle to balance the needs and sensitivities of a commercial organisation with the desire to engage with the wider learning community. How do we go about honest and authentic conversation with potential competitors? Eoin McDonnell, Head of Learning Technology at Floream, will facilitate a simple informal discussion to look for an answer. Delegates from commercial entities at this years ALT-C are invited to contribute ideas, questions, suggestions and advice. We intend to touch on topics like contributing to open source initiatives, sharing problems with and suggesting solutions to peers. The session is...more [Cancelled] Mighty Oaks from Little Acorns Grow [803] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been prominent in the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) zeitgeist for several years now, and their teaching and learning methods have attracted fans and detractors in equal numbers. Intrigued by this ‘love them or hate them’ polarisation, I enrolled onto my first MOOC one year ago: my intention to examine the process both as student and learning technologist. It was here that I encountered one of the simplest and most effective online learning models I have experienced. The course in question was structured around six weekly sessions, with each session made up of 12-15 bite...more Collaborative arts based learning using Canvas [829] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm Digital technologies have a central and continuing role to play in the future of learning, competing models of education are prompting institutions to evaluate how they facilitate taught content and adapt to new technologies (NMC, 2015). Technology has the ability to disrupt and empower, to captivate and deviate, as do the learners themselves. This session will focus on the use of Canvas LMS, new to Falmouth University, to facilitate performance based distance learning. Harnessing the power of the crowd is central to student experience, particularly in relation to online environments where the physical convening of students is not possible. Computer...more TEL me more: building a community of practice [846] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm How do you connect academic staff from across an institution to help promote and share technology enhanced learning (TEL) practices? What would this network look like? This presentation showcases the approaches used at the University of Derby (UoD) to ‘harness the power of the crowd’ (Surowiecki, 2004) in order to build a TEL community of practice (Wenger, 1998), the direction of which is shaped and steered by the community itself. It is aimed at those people who want to develop support networks and enable staff learners to become agents of change, sharing current and emerging TEL practices at their institution...more Researching Reflective Learning on a MOOC [883] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm In September 2014, UCL institute of Education ran, in collaboration with UoLIP and Coursera, a MOOC entitled “What future for education?”. As one of our first experiences of designing a course to ‘harness the power of the crowd’ in support of learning, we created a research project to investigate the learner experience on the MOOC. The MOOC was designed as a taster course for the MA in Education, and one of its objectives was to use the same pedagogical approach to that programme. However, this pedagogical approach was grounded in a conceptualisation of online learning as involving students as active...more Exploring the Educational Potential of the Internet of Things [988] Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to data connections between physical devices. Data from sensors in some of these devices is transmitted to others where it is processed and acted upon without direct human intervention. For example, motion sensors in a room could detect the level, type and location of activity within a room and adjust lighting and heating accordingly. Similarly, the use of Near-Field Communication (NFC) devices and ‘beacons’ can be used to monitor attendance, present resources or run software on a smartphone or tablet once it is in range. This could therefore create tailored technology-enhanced locations within a...more ALT Scotland Tue, Sep 8 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm This session is led by the members of the ALT Scotland Group. Come along to find out more about what the group is up to, how to join if you are interested in getting involved and what’s coming up in the next year. Everybody welcome. To find out more about the ALT Scotland Group visit the homepage for the ALT Scotland Group http://go.alt.ac.uk/MembersScotlandmore |
6:45pm |
Drinks Reception (Palace Hotel) |
7:30pm |
Gala Dinner (Palace Hotel) |
9:00am |
Registration, Coffee & Tea in the Exhibition Area – Meet up for first time participants at the ALT stand |
9:30am |
Live Streamed
Keynote: Jonathan Worth [101] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 9:30am – 10:30am Jonathan Worth is Senior Research Associate at Newcastle University Open Lab. He has worked out of New York and London as a professional photographer since 1998. His work features in a wide range of international editorial publications and is on permanent collection at the UK’s National Portrait Gallery. His work developing new business models for photographers was described in the European Parliament as “Breaking new ground for photographers” and in recognition he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Commerce. In 2009 Jonathan authored and delivered the world’s first open undergraduate photography class at Coventry University which...more |
10:35am |
Live Streamed
Invited Speaker: Ellie Russell [125] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Ellie Russell is the Student Engagement & Partnership Manager for The Student Engagement Partnership, which supports, develops and promotes student engagement knowledge and practice in the higher education sector in England. TSEP is housed by NUS and funded by HEFCE, Guild HE and AoC. Ellie joined NUS in 2011 after graduating from the University of Leeds with a degree in Politics and Parliamentary Studies. During her studies Ellie completed placements in MP’s offices in Westminster and the Canadian Parliament and was a trustee of Leeds University Union from 2007- 2011. Prior to starting university, she held the elected position of...more Live Streamed
Invited Speaker: Liam Sammon [126] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Liam is Director of Education & Commercial Services at OCR, a leading awarding organisation in the UK and part of Cambridge Assessment, a non-teaching department of the University of Cambridge. Liam is responsible for all the support to the 7,000 education centres and 1.5 million candidates taking OCR qualifications every year. He leads on education technology for OCR, currently leading on two eLearning projects, Cambridge GCSE Computing Online and TiME. Cambridge GCSE Computing Online is believed to be the first GCSE curriculum based MOOC and was developed in partnership with Raspberry Pi and Cambridge University Press. Since its launch in...more Using Google Glass to enhance Learning and Teaching [799] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Using Google Glass to enhance Learning and Teaching In late 2014, the College of Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow invested in a pilot of Google Glass Explorer Editions as a possible means of enhancing learning and teaching in the institution. Through this forward-thinking, innovative approach, academic staff were able to experiment with wearable technology both within and outside the face-to-face classroom environment. After an initial series of testing by the Learning innovation Officer and school-based e-learning support, pairs of Glass were distributed to technology ‘evangelist’ academics from several different social science disciplines to test and evaluate for themselves....more Barriers to Learners as Agents of Change: How do "Digital Natives" get in the way of Technological Innovation in Teaching and Learning? [800] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Ethnographic research in two different university classroom experiments in the US reveals the barriers to pedagogical innovation and new learning practices erected by assumptions about student and academic staff preparedness around technology. We use the Visitors and Residents framework (White and LeCornu 2011; Connaway, White, and Lanclos 2011) to critique the approaches to technology in education, and to work with the session participants to brainstorm ways forward that might allow for learners (students and academic staff) to become effective agents of change. In the autumn of 2014, a kinesiology class of 20 students were handed iPad minis to use during...more UCL's Extended Learning Landscape [821] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Developing an extended learning landscape Summary UCL was not directly ‘MOOCing’, instead we developed our own public-facing online learning environment called UCLeXtend. Built to support anything that’s not credit bearing (i.e. part of a taught programme of study) UCLeXtend aims to cater for nearly any other organisational e-learning requirement. Our rationale was loosely based on supporting CPD and short courses but we wanted to build a facility where potentially anyone can register for access to an online learning environment for anything resembling a course. This opened many new opportunities for internal engagement with stakeholders and further development of our offering...more Developing geological field skills using serious games created in Unity™ [960] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Game-based learning has come to the fore in recent years for its potential to engage students by allowing them to be active participants in the learning process (Jong et al, 2008). Our aim is to create a freely available game that allows students to learn through exploration of a goal-oriented, contextual and interactive experience (Quinn, 2005). For geology students, good fieldwork skills are vital. The ‘Virtual Training Environment’ (VTE) project is a collaboration between the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds and Leeds College of Art, to develop a blended learning game in which students develop and practice...more The Chamber of Fear: A Role Playing Approach to the Recruitment and Selection of Learning Technologists [824] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Learning technologists have long been at the heart of emergent pedagogical approaches using technology, working in close partnership with students and staff. Organisations, therefore, need to recruit individuals who are able to offer a diverse set of skills and qualities to facilitate such activities and broker partnerships with programme teams to enhance learning. The recruitment of learning technologists at the presenters’ UK-based University has traditionally consisted of a panel interview with senior managers and HR representatives, together with a short presentation to a team of learning technologists. Recognising that the role of the learning technologist tends to be a complex...more A participatory approach to course design and development. [830] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Blended and online learning offerings are becoming increasingly prevalent in the UK Higher Education sector. Universities UK defines itself as “the definitive voice for universities in the UK” and its Chief Executive, Nicola Dandridge, says “the last decade has already seen very rapid development of flexible forms of higher education provision, including part-time, distance learning, work-based learning, blended learning, e-learning and the use of virtual learning environments” (Universities UK, 2011). The fact that course delivery has evolved in these ways affects university learners, lecturers, learning technologists, and leaders. Ideally, learners benefit from flexibility and boosted outcomes and lecturers benefit from...more #altc game: Adventure Trail: Mobile treasure hunts using Actionbound Wed, Sep 9 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am As part of the #altc game we’ve set up a short adventure trail around the local area, using the simple yet powerful Actionbound app. Come along and join up with a couple of other adventurers, and set off to complete our challenges in the quickest time (or most imaginative way) to win a prize! One person in each group will need an iPhone or Android phone (if you don’t have one, come along anyway and we’ll pair you up with someone who does), and the trail will take you around 30 minutes to complete. A little walking is involved, but...more Opening-up Education: Promoting Active Learning with Students and Staff [948] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am It is well-established that active learning benefits students’ learning (Freeman et al, 2014), however changing pedagogy can be challenging for academic staff. The “Clickers Project” described here, although originally envisaged primarily as an automated mechanism for monitoring student attendance and engagement, additionally made it easy for academic staff to increase in-class interactivity, giving students opportunities for self-assessment and feedback. Over 500 first year students were provided with their own electronic voting system (EVS) “clicker”, which was used in-class to respond to questions and their responses were archived for analysis and monitoring attendance. The clicker used by the project, and the...more Crowdsourcing learning: investigating the theory of connectivist learning and whether Google Classroom promotes this learning theory [992] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am The learning theories of behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism regularly inform pedagogy and pedagogical practices (Barnett et al 2013). However, these theories do not address how technology affects learning or how learning occurs within groups (Siemens, 2005). To bridge this gap George Siemens (2005) and Stephen Downes have proposed a contested (Duke et al, 2013) learning theory termed connectivism as one that addresses learning in the digital age in which technology enhances and supports learning by permitting the formation, connection and expansion of networks that foster learning. The implications of this theory disrupt traditional views of the teacher’s role as an...more How should we measure and show online learning activity? [878] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am The proliferation of Web-based objects designed for learning, makes finding and evaluating online resources a considerable hurdle for learners to overcome (Eisenberg, 2008). While established Learning Analytics methods use Web interaction data as proxies for learner engagement (Siemens et al., 2011), the adequacy of these metrics for revealing how learning is being accomplished and making it visible in a meaningful manner is uncertain (Duval, 2011). Data visualisation ‘dashboards’ can provide useful feedback mechanisms for learners and educators which can aid their evaluation of learning resources (Verbert et al., 2014), which may lead to improved discovery of content that is better...more Who’s the expert? Transforming knowledge and understanding through community collection. [972] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am “Since we cannot experience everything, other people’s experiences, and hence other people, become the surrogate for knowledge.” (Stephenson 1998) Crowdsourcing initiatives have become increasing popular across a range of academic disciplines in recent years. Much has been made of the potential for such projects, in particular those classed as ‘citizen science’, to enable public participation in research (EOF 2012). Often this involves mobilizing large numbers of people to undertake tasks which computers cannot yet do effectively (such as pattern recognition or reading handwriting) on a scale which research institutions will not fund by employing professionals. However, it has also been...more What do we do with e-learning in FE & Skills when the regulatory walls are brought down [884] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Over the last year FE and Adult Skills has been given its best opportunity yet to review opportunities to develop technology in ways that delivers purposeful pedagogy. The FELTAG Report sought to identify all structural barriers to progress and, by addressing each one, the Dept. of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) subsequently placed a clear expectation on everyone in the sector, learners included to adapt their behaviour to make best use of technology in teaching, learning, assessment and student life generally on the grounds of their now being no regulatory or bureaucratic impediment. This session is aimed at everyone interested...more |
11:35am |
Coffee and tea in the Exhibition Area (Day 2) |
12:00pm |
Live Streamed
Blended Learning Essentials: a new open course for Vocational Education and Training Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm This session introduces the new Blended Learning Essentials course. The course will run on the Futurelearn platform in November, but you can sign up now. Led by Diana Laurillard and Neil Morris with Rachel Challen the session provides insight into the development of the course which was commissioned by the Ufi Trust.more Building an aesthetic VLE for creative visual learners [825] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm This research will present a best practice model for integrating the VLE in creative arts disciplines to augment blended learning through a participatory approach. It is acknowledged that having a VLE alone is not sufficient; its effective implementation is what contributes to a good learning experience. This can only be possible through the conscious and active human intervention, good learning design or pedagogical input, and the sensitive handling of the process by trained professionals (Salmon, 2005; JISC, 2011). The study is based on a comprehensive VLE content analysis conducted across two faculties within the creative arts (Schools of Art, Design...more The Cube and The Poppy: Participatory approaches for designing technology-enhanced learning spaces [832] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm This abstract presents an on-going research that aims to identify how students and lecturers perceive technology-enhanced learning spaces. Findings from Participatory Design workshops will be presented wherein students and lecturers redesigned a large learning space (The Cube) and a small learning space (The Poppy). Aiming to introduce technology as a paramount feature, these prototypes where designed with the aim of provoking reflections and discussions about the role of technology and the role of lecturers and learners. This research was sustained by a Participatory Design (PD) approach. This approach offers a set of practices and research methods that aim to include...more OER...The clue is in the name....or is it? [875] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm There are many definitions of Open Educational Resources (OER) but for this work I have used the following from UNESCO (2011): “teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.” Amongst the many claims of the OER movement there is one aspect in particular which supporters use to illustrate its openness and that is the ability to foster social inclusion. For example, the Open University claims that its OER...more TEL strategies for transient technologies [855] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm ‘In turbulent times success, and sometimes survival, depend upon the ability to distinguish between what is changing and what is staying the same‘ (Goodyear & Retalis, 2010, p.1). Moore’s Law (1965) states that computer processing power will double every year. Technology is influencing other spheres in similar ways, for instance in gene sequencing, ‘It took us 15 years to sequence HIV […] now we can sequence Sars in 31 days’ (Kurzweil in Sutherland, 2005). Exponential growth implies an accelerating rate of change and we now appear to be entering a period of unprecedented technological transformation. ‘The Velocity of Innovation has...more Justifying lecture capture: the importance of student experiences in understanding the value of learning technologies [857] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm This paper presents findings from a six-month research project exploring the role of lecture captures (automated audio and slide recordings) as supporting resources for university students’ study practices. Existing research in this field indicates that recordings are useful for revision or hold particular benefits to groups of students (disabled students, students with English as a second language), with institutional surveys and student satisfaction championing further deployment (Newton et al., 2014). However, many studies focus on quantitative measures of changes in attainment, attendance level or value perceptions, with limitations that fail to account for the social context of learning that involves...more Here Comes Everybody: digital capabilities across roles and boundaries [908] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm In Here Comes Everybody (Shirky 2009), Clay Shirky foresaw a near future in which large areas of social life would be organised informally. He described an epochal ‘transfer of … capabilities from various professional classes to the general public‘, including in the sphere of education. Six years on, FE and HE institutions remain recognisable and their core activities – teaching, learning, research, the public communication of ideas – are if anything more professionalised than ever (Whitchurch 2012, Cunningham 2014, Locke 2014). The sectors have been profoundly changed, however, by the penetration of digital networks and media into their core activities,...more The power of open cross-institutional collaboration for connected professional development in higher education [801] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm In a time where resources are tight, time is precious and expertise is distributed, online collaboration offers an attractive approach to professional development. (European Commission, 2013). This paper discusses the enablers: a shared vision, commitment and trust, which are prerequisites for using the open and connected experiences and practices enabled by the social web to allow the design of innovative and sustainable approaches to professional development. Social media provides opportunities for versatile collaborations with like-minded individuals and groups, both within and between institutions. Both educators and students can engage in participatory pedagogy (Depietro, 2013; McLoughlin & Lee, 2007) as co-learners...more Design-based research as a methodological approach to support participatory engagement of learners in the development of learning technologies [982] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Following the origination of the design experiment as a mechanism to introduce learning interventions into the messy conditions of the classroom (Brown, 1992; Collins, 1992), design-based research (DBR) faced criticism from opposing paradigmatic camps before its acknowledgement as a promising methodology in which “formative evaluation plays a significant role” (Dede, Ketelhut, Whitehouse, Breit & McCloskey, 2009, p.16). This session presents a case study of a researcher-practitioner investigation at a north of England HEI into the influence of asynchronous video on the learner experience of assessment and feedback. Employing a design-based methodological approach informed by both cognitive and social theories of...more Students as partners in innovative development of teaching and learning [987] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm The success of innovative developments in teaching and learning require changes in behaviour not only from the lecturer/teacher but also the students. This is particularly true where such change is designed to stimulate active learning, deeper learning and/or independent learning. During the many years that I have led Professional Development for teachers at my college, one of the commonest reasons for teaching staff abandoning an innovation in their practice (including those well-supported by research evidence) has been the resistance or inadequate engagement of their students (Åkerlind. 1999; Clark, 2005; McLean, 1997). This has led to us designing a more participatory approach...more Finding solutions to scaling up online learning: a collaborative approach [1004] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Most institutions are able to run an online course as a one-off, or a special project. Few, however, have managed to convert this capability into an ongoing capacity to quickly design and run courses in response to identified market needs, or to scale up provision to meet demand, helping the UK stay ahead in the global Higher Education marketplace, as highlighted by the HEFCE Online Learning Task Force report (Online Learning Task Force, 2011). Through a series of collaborative activities with the academic community, the Jisc Scaling up Online Learning project is working to understand the barriers stopping institutions from...more The international student community as agent of change in online course design [840] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm With rising student expectations concerning institutional provision and technological support for learning, there has also been a recent focus on engaging students as agents of change within UK institutional teaching and learning contexts. Initiatives in this area have taken a range of forms including listening to the student voice and feedback about implementing technologies to support learning; the creation of learner-generated course content; inviting students to be academic partners in course design. The regeneration of teaching and learning is increasingly taking heed of the student voice and, in the longer term, it will be interesting to see just how far...more We are the Champions! Students as partners at the University of Southampton [1000] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm The Student Champions Network at the University of Southampton is a coordinated approach to developing teams of students who are mentored by a senior member of staff with expertise in a specialist education theme, working in partnership with staff and students to transform our education in targeted areas, across faculties and disciplines. The Student Champion Network was established in 2014 to support a number of existing student champion teams that have been set up at the University based on the original Innovations and Digital Literacies Champions (iChamps) that has been in place since 2013. That project allowed us to explore...more Delivering a simulated games industry placement to enhance the employability of graduates [898] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm The UK videogames industry is within a period of substantial growth – a recent report has found there are now 1,902 video games companies in the UK (an annual growth rate of 22 per cent between 2011 and 2013), with around three-quarters of the workforce within the industry educated to at least first degree level (Mateos-Garcia et al., 2014, pp. 4 & 40). The HE sector has reacted to this recent expansion and now offers degree level courses aimed at providing undergraduates with skillsets necessary to obtain graduate level positions within games companies. However, the industry remains to be convinced...more ALT East Midlands Group Wed, Sep 9 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm This session is led by the members of the ALT East Midlands Group. Come along to find out more about what the group is up to, how to join if you are interested in getting involved and what’s coming up in the next year. Everybody welcome. To find out more about the ALT East Midlands Group visit the homepage for the ALT Scotland Group http://go.alt.ac.uk/MembersEastMidlandsmore |
1:00pm |
Lunch & Exhibition – Find out about ALT and the #altc game at the ALT stand |
2:00pm |
Join in the #altc Game Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm This session is led by the members of the Games and Learning Special Interest Group and will be an opportunity to explore your playful side. Everybody welcome. To find out more about the Games and Learning Group follow #GLSIG on Twitter and visit the homepage for the Games and Learning SIG at http://go.alt.ac.uk/glsigmore When stakeholders unite: Engineering students and industry feedback in developing a rich technical and socially responsible 21st Century Engineer through Technology Enhanced Learning assessment methods and techniques. [989] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Engineering Education is a discipline responsible for the training and development of graduate engineers and is a field that is particularly affected by changes from Higher Education (Froyd, Wankat & Smith, 2012). Despite vast amounts of engineering literature discussing ‘change’ within the field, engineering curricula is said to still maintain its predominant pedagogic model of dissemination to students as it did in previous decades (Daun, Salmon, Tenbergen, Weyer & Pohl, 2014). This paper draws on part of a recently completed PhD discussing innovations in Engineering Education using Technology Enhanced Learning. Limited research exists of the viewpoints of engineering students and...more Developing Creative Challenges and Applications for Adult Learners to Evolve as Change Agents [1019] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm The United States Chamber of Commerce (2012) predicts that there will be a need for at least two years of college for 90 percent of the fast-growing jobs in the U.S. Also, the U.S. Department of Labor has forecasted that there will be new job openings in education, health care, and computer sciences, which will roughly account for an estimated four million jobs over the next several years. Further, Addleson (2011) noted that management today needs to be “re-created” in order to be better prepared to empower the 21st century knowledge (management) workers. As more organizations try to create their...more Learners As Digital-content Producers Convergence of Literacies Through Stakeholder Collaboration [920] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm “Faculty and professionals from a variety of areas could collaborate to develop experiences that can be embedded in the curriculum to assist graduates in becoming sophisticated digital-content producers in their professional lives. This is most certainly a twenty-first-century challenge for higher education” (Lippincott, 2000) This presentation, will demonstrate the derived benefits from an adoption of an innovative pedagogy and highlight how it was inspired by Joan Lippincott’s statement, which in fact addresses the main conference theme of “breaking down traditional divisions between stakeholders and between their roles”, as well as the specific focus of “learners as agents of change”. Consider...more Interactivity and engagement - is it too much to ask for both? [938] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm In an environment where technology has given us the ability to ‘look it up without learning,’ there is the risk of reduced student engagement with the learning process. This is especially true where the traditional pedagogy of material being taught, then filed away by students, and brought out only for the end of year exam or a relevant coursework submission, can instil a mentality of memorising without understanding, or at least only doing so for short periods that are grade dependant. In order to reshape this way of thinking, a method of continuous engagement at both the learning and assessment...more Taming wild geese: open badging for global competences. [870] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Language learning through Online Intercultural Exchange (OIE) is increasingly accepted as a useful activity in Higher Education. The database of tasks and task sequences available in unicollaboration.eu continues to expand. The desirability of participation is accepted (Sweeney, 2012) and there is widespread agreement that telecollaboration is a viable pedagogical model. Participation in OIE (co-incidentally meaning Goose in French) offers intercultural experiences and serves the goal of virtual mobility whilst also enriching opportunities to develop transversal skills. Almost two decades of research in telecollaboration for language learning are characterised by an unusual willingness of those responsible for OIE implementation to review...more Online and open: strategic approaches to institutional practice [880] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Arguably, the open agenda for learning and teaching has been seen as the prerogative of individual enthusiasts, those engaged in funded projects, or organisations that have a specific remit to promote, implement and research open educational practice (OEP) and open educational resources (OERs). The advent of open online courses has challenged this perception and as demand from learners for OERs and OEP increases, institutions are being galvanised into considering a more strategic approach to online and open education. In the UK and elsewhere, many wealthier institutions have invested significant sums in the creation of large scale open courses which are...more A report on a pilot study of an Open Education Resource targeted at A-Level students moving into University in a bilingual context [890] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Context: Wales is a bi-lingual nation and Wales’ universities are committed to producing a wide range of materials available in both English and Welsh. As part of an all Wales initiative, one of the initial resources created jointly by UniversitiesWales was the Student Survival Guide, aimed at students moving from A-Level provision into University. This resource comprised a Short Massive Open Online Course (sMOOC) with a requirement for that resource to be available both in English and Welsh. Several small pilot groups were engaged, among both first year university and A-Level students. This presentation will briefly look at the results...more Fathoming out MOOC impacts on Faculties [897] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm In 2014-2015, the University of Southampton ran two successful maritime-themed MOOCs via FutureLearn; ‘Exploring our Oceans’ and ‘Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds: Maritime Archaeology’. The courses were developed by staff in internationally leading research centres in two Faculties at the University: Natural and Environmental Sciences, and Humanities, supported by a central services unit. Stakeholders that are not directly involved in MOOC development or delivery themselves are groups which are under-represented in the growing research body around MOOCs. Current and recent MOOC research can be broadly grouped under themes of learner engagement, learning design, learner analytics, cost and systemic impact; mainly the...more Smart Glasses for Smarter Classes: Student-led Digital Vision [834] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm The rapid growth of wearable technology, such as smart glasses, offers opportunities to deliver personalised, digital content in dynamic new ways (Martin, EJ 2014). Technology used to supplement and support activities can be either retention enhancing on the one hand or distracting and disruptive on the other, depending on how on target its relevance is (Norman, D, 2013). All technologies grow organically and ‘begin life in the excitement of creativity and the intention of doing something different’ (Laurillard D, 2002). Wearable technology, in general, is anticipated to grow substantially in the coming years and voice-activated, hands-free devices that can record...more Electronic Management of Assessment beyond technology – the role of partnership working in developing EMA [850] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm The University of Brighton’s approach to the Electronic Management of Assessment (EMA) is based on four key principles: policy, processes, pedagogy and partnerships. It is embedded into considerations of the student experience informed by an understanding of blended learning environments (Garrison & Vaughan 2008) and pedagogy (Sambell et al 2012). The Centre for Learning and Teaching (CLT) and the Learning Technology Advisors (LTAs) in Information Services have worked in partnership to take EMA forward via the Blended Learning SubCommittee. Consequently e-only Submission for all text-based assessments became policy in 2013, with eFeedback strongly encouraged. EMA processes are becoming embedded in...more The Reality of Change: the use of Augmented Reality to enhance learning [868] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Augmented Reality (AR) is having an impact on further and higher education, albeit on the peripheries (Ramirez, 2015). It has mostly been used with 2D triggers on paper, or other flat surfaces, but more recently technology has been developed with 3D object recognition creating a more immersive experience in practical teaching environments. AR benefits kinaesthetic and multi-modal learning styles as it places the learning support content in context of a practical learning environment (Radu et al., 2010). AR should be used when it can address an identified issue or requirement presented by existing learning and teaching practices. Such a requirement...more Creating an effective environment for doctoral researcher development and supervision. [907] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm The face of the UK doctorate is changing and it is no longer primarily training for a career in academia (Park 2007). Nationally, of 47% of PGRs who initially undertake a career in Science (widely defined), 30% remain in Higher Education in Early Career positions, with only 3.5% obtaining permanent research posts, and only 0.45% eventually becoming Professors (Royal Society 2010). Today’s doctoral researchers need to be prepared for the knowledge economy. The demand to hire people with the ability to work in multidisciplinary and professional teams responding to real-world problems, and who co-produce knowledge with people drawn from a...more Linking learning and industry with open badges. [809] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm This paper does not intend to outline the practical activities involved in creating and issuing badges. Rather it intends to address the conference theme of open educational practice and as a development of Glover and Latif’s work (2013), it looks to explore the use of the open badge concept in relation to learning and employability, through links with and endorsement of badges by local industries. The use of Open Badges within formal education has gained momentum since the launch of the badges ecosystem by the Mozilla Foundation in 2010. Johnson et al. (2014) discuss the use of badges within the...more Technologies for Academic Practice: a collaborative repository [1010] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Building institutional capacity to make effective use of technology to support teaching, learning and research is a key priority for the University of Warwick. Technologies for Academic Practice (‘TAP’) is a project designed to draw together knowledge and expertise about technology for teaching and learning, from across the University to support staff development in this area. This presentation will reflect on the developmental journey that led to the creation of the TAP repository and associated community of practice by the project founders. The discussion will introduce the key stages from initial scoping, carried out in tandem with the development of...more Learning within a crowd and with the crowd outside. [1017] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Clinical conversation is a key skill acquired experientially during the senior years of a medicine course and is honed with subsequent years of clinical practice. It is learned from the role modelling by experienced clinicians as they think outloud proposing diagnostic possibilities and accepting or rejecting them into probabilities toward a working formulation. Medical students in the Rural Clinical School of WA (RCSWA) learn for a year of clinical study in small groups dispersed over 2.5 million sq km. Although these students might appear isolated and potentially disadvantaged in comparison to students learning in tertiary hospitals, they generally excel and...more Exploring e-portfolios in a discipline specific context [944] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Within Higher Education, e-portfolios are used to capture Personal Development Planning (PDP) activity, progression, reflection, articulation of learning and achievement. An e-portfolio can document a student’s journey from first to final year, allowing them to organise, share and showcase examples of their work with tutors and peers. This popular view of the e-portfolio is predominant in the literature; however, the creative arts offer an additional perspective based upon the long established tradition of a physical portfolio of work for employability and professional development (Art, Design and Media Subject Centre, 2006; Strivens and Ward, 2010). Barrett (2011) considers these two perspectives...more Enhancing Lectures with Interactive Teaching Tools [891] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Traditional lectures for large groups of students can often involve a standard, tutor-led, single exchange presentation with little opportunity for interaction, discussion or pre/post-lecture work. This session will look at a project developed for a Business School course in Accounting and Finance. The project centred on converting a number of traditional lecture slides into interactive teaching tools that could be used both inside and outside the lecture. They allow greater student engagement and understanding and give the tutor an indication of student understanding of the subject matter. The students on the course were made up from a variety of nationalities....more Quizit - crowdsourcing personalised formative assessments [921] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Formative assessments are at the heart of current drive towards more personalised learning approaches enabling continuous self-assessment and reflection (Vasilyeva et al., 2008). However, researchers have identified a need to enhance participation rates of learners to engage with formative assessments (Costal et al., 2010; Lin & Lai, 2013). At the same time there is a clear drive from “Assessment of Learning” to a more “Assessment for Learning” approach. Formative assessments, where used, are predominantly created by academic members of staff and can be easily perceived as “Assessment of Learning”. This perception, aided with the formative nature of the exercise, most...more Essay writing on a massive scale: delivering feedback to and through the crowd. [925] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Essay writing on a massive scale: delivering feedback to and through the crowd. In 2014, a team of academic specialists in teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) undertook the design and delivery of a five-week massive open online course (MOOC) on writing on the FutureLearn platform. The result was ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Writing for University Study,’ which aimed to introduce international students to the basics of academic writing and help them write an academic essay of their own. It was felt to be an ideal opportunity to reach students around the world who otherwise would find it difficult to...more Situated blending: the value of blended learning in developing 21st Century graduate attributes for Public Good Professionals in South Africa [1021] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Walker and McLean (2010) developed the Public Good Professional framework that conceptualises professionalism as a range of identities where students undergo a process of capability expansion that can be further encouraged in a blended learning environment. Using the Discussion Forum tool in a social work undergraduate course designed to incorporate the elements of authentic learning, the authors considered how the Public Good Professional framework can be updated to include 21st Century graduate attributes (Herrington, Reeves & Oliver, 2010). The specific attributes of collaboration, cooperation and reflection will be plotted against the Public Good Professional framework and against proposed graduate attributes...more CMALT: recent trends in learning technology specialisms and CPD opportunities Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm Certified Membership of the Association for Learning Technology (CMALT) is a peer-based professional accreditation scheme developed by the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) to enable people whose work involves learning technology to have their experience and capabilities certified by peers and to demonstrate that they are taking a committed and serious approach to their professional development. Over the past years CMALT has developed into a community of almost 300 like-minded individuals from across educational and commercial sectors who are committed to their professional and personal development. CMALT candidates hold a range of different roles and the scheme is sufficiently flexible...more White Rose Group - Cancelled Wed, Sep 9 2015, 2:00pm – 3:00pm This meeting will not be running.more |
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Engaging learners in active dialogue around their digital expectations and experiences [919] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm Colleges and universities have recognised that they need to improve their approaches to engaging students in an ongoing dialogue around their expectations and experiences of technology and the digital environment. In further education and skills, the Further Education Technology Action Group (FELTAG, 2014), has highlighted the opportunities for more active engagement of learners. FELTAG’s research and conversations consistently refer to the under-exploitation of learners’ skills, devices and technical knowledge when it came to the use of learning technology. More effort needs to be made to engage and empower learners’ use of digital technology – and the use of their own...more Learners’ expectations of technology use in further education [889] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm Learner expectations of technology provision seem to be rising in line with changes in technology in society more generally (AoC/ALT 2014; Jisc 2014), although this is moderated by prior educational experiences – what White and Wild (2014) referred to as ‘expectation limits’ arising from experiences in school. However, this discussion of learner expectations and how they are formed and moderated is primarily informed by studies of students in higher education. A comprehensive review of the literature found very little comparable research conducted in the further education (FE) and skills sector (Pavlakou & Sharpe, 2014). There is need for primary research...more Engaging students in developing a learning analytics app [952] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm Learning analytics provides insights into how students are participating and achieving in their course at university or college. Staff are already being provided with data and insights about how students are performing individually or in comparison to current and past cohorts. Some institutions also share this with student but what do students want? How do institutions present learning analytics to encourage and motivate students? What data would students like to be able gather and how could this be used to provide effective learning analytics? Our effective learning analytics project will provide a solution for institutions around the use of analytics...more A positive and participatory approach to developing digital capabilities [879] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm The workshop is drawn from a one year strategic project to investigate and develop the digital literacies of academic staff at University of Huddersfield. The particular focus has been to achieve high levels of confidence and skill for those academics who might be classified as the ‘late adopters’, those who are not usually the innovators or early adopters of technology (Rogers 1983). We have scoped the range of ways that this issue is dealt across the sector and in the published and grey literature. Our findings indicate the range of mechanisms including Academic champions Student champions Institutional Frameworks Centralised Staff...more A herd of freely associating, autonomous cats: how a Facebook group helped turn a bunch of cMOOC participants into a learning community [968] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm This session explores the concept of ‘community’ in open online learning experiences, drawing on the presenters’ experiences as participants in #rhizo14, a connectivist MOOC more formally entitled Rhizomatic Learning: The Community is the Curriculum. Although an ‘official’ course site existed on the P2PU (Peer2PeerUniversity) platform, it was little used. Instead, interaction around the course grew organically within social media spaces: a Facebook group, Twitter hashtag, and a Google+ group. While many participants interacted through a combination of some (or all) of these spaces, and others lurked and watched, it was the Facebook group that played a vital part in the...more Comparing engagement with Blackboard and Facebook to predict students’ performance. [977] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm Social media is increasingly being used in Higher Education in attempts to increase student engagement and improve performance. Facebook is one of the most prominent applications and is available across most devices. A number of studies have investigated whether Facebook groups have fostered improved engagement and better performance outcomes. For example, Irwin et al (2012) concluded that students are receptive to incorporating Facebook into their academic lives and perceive benefits through enhanced communication. Wise et al (2011) argued that Facebook has only a limited role, if any, to play in promoting student engagement; and Junco (2011) concluded that Facebook use...more Connecting students, staff and employers together for shaping the future of learning [922] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm The workshop will be led by a Panel of team members from three recent Jisc-funded projects, all of which are focused on connecting students, staff and employers to shape future learning in HE and FE. The workshop will be in three parts: 1 Key activities and outcomes from three Jisc-funded projects [plenary – 20mins] The Panel will briefly describe the three Jisc-funded projects: Technology for employability: exploring the role of technology in delivering employability benefits for students. Auto Share & Learn: the development of an online Portal to support Jaguar Land Rover and its supply network companies to improve collaboration...more MOOC SIG Wed, Sep 9 2015, 3:05pm – 4:05pm This session is led by the members of the MOOC Special Interest Group. Come along to find out more about what the group is up to, how to join if you are interested in getting involved and what’s coming up in the next year. Everybody welcome. To find out more about the Special Interest Group follow @altmoocsig on Twitter or visit the homepage for the MOOC Special Interest Group http://go.alt.ac.uk/MOOCSIGmore |
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Live Streamed
Annual General Meeting (or exhibition and networking break) Wed, Sep 9 2015, 4:05pm – 4:45pm 22nd Annual General Meeting of the Association for Learning Technology The agenda for the AGM and related information, including arrangements for proxy voting, has now been published on the AGM page. As a member of ALT or the representative of a member organisation, you play an essential part in the governance of the Association and we hope that all members attending this year’s annual conference will participate in the AGM. If you would like to attend only the AGM, please contact us, and we can arrange an AGM pass. The business of the ALT AGM on 9/9/2015 is set out...more |
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FELTAG SIG and open FE forum Wed, Sep 9 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm This session is led by the members of the FELTAG Special Interest Group. Come along to find out more about what the group is up to, how to join if you are interested in getting involved and what’s coming up in the next year. Everybody welcome. To find out more about the Special Interest Group visit the homepage for the FELTAG Special Interest Group http://go.alt.ac.uk/FELTAGSIGmore Professional development with a cup of tea [827] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm Lifelong learning and continuing professional development (CPD) are part of the normal workload of any healthcare professional. Over the last twenty or so years this need for continuous training has become more formalised and has resulted in the development of mandatory CPD. In 2010 the General Pharmaceutical Council, the pharmacy professional body, instituted mandatory CPD for pharmacists and dispensing technicians. However within community pharmacies there is a need for training at every level. In 2013 Rowlands Pharmacy (UK), a large community pharmacy chain and Robert Gordon University, were awarded a Knowledge Transfer Partnership to develop an online training system for...more The Innovation Game: How students are informing our digital journey. [858] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm In spring 2014 we launched the Student Innovators as part of promoting digital technology within our college; students across all levels and backgrounds volunteered to join the team. The students were enthusiastic and in the next academic year we rolled it out to more departments across the college, simultaneously increasing the role and its responsibilities. The pilot Innovator Project helped us to understand students’ needs and how technology is used in different departments. We’d like to share our learning process with you, both our mistakes and successes, as we know students valued being part of this team. Our academic colleagues...more Barriers and new participatory approaches for adopting e-portfolios in delivering employability benefits for students in FE and HE [955] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm A recent Jisc-funded study (Jisc, 2015) into the use of technology in delivering employability benefits for students has identified that e-portfolios have yet to achieve their full potential in UK higher and further education as learner-owned learning spaces. Examples of use of e-portfolios UK and overseas illustrate how effectively they can be used not just to plan and record a student’s learning (life) journey and it’s outcomes, but as a tool to support students’ critical and reflective thinking and practice and showcasing their learning and skills as well as how they have applied these e.g. for creative problem solving in...more A digital first approach to curriculum design and delivery [985] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm Everyone from the “British Government (1) to Starbucks is restructuring for the digital age”(2); a digital first approach is fast-becoming this ubiquitous phrase, from marketing to journalism to government. Business strategies are being reformulated and planned to lead with a digital strategy, not just as a desire but as a first principle, as a progressive way to engage with audiences and users. Perhaps educators could benefit from being digital first, to better engage with learners, researchers and those in enterprise? This session explores how we as educators might adopt the language of digital strategists to better facilitate change amongst our...more Shaping the Future of Learning using the Student Voice: We’re listening but are we hearing clearly? [861] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm Consultation with and ongoing feedback from students has been a key driver in the development of a sophisticated technological infrastructure supporting learning, teaching and assessment at Manchester Metropolitan University. The core is a VLE (Moodle) tightly integrated with other institution systems including student records (SRS), timetabling (Scientia), MMUtube (media server), Library (Talis Aspire) and coursework receipting, wrapping the institution around the individual learner. The president of MMU Students’ Union has described the MMU Moodle infrastructure as a “complete game changer for students”. A bi-annual internal student survey (ISS) enables students to feedback their experience on each unit within their programme...more “Have They Got IT?" Differentiating Technology for your Blended Learners [869] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm The Indices of Deprivation are published by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to demonstrate comparable levels of deprivation across England at a small area level called Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs). This document details the top 10% LSOA areas of deprivation in the UK, identifying Manchester as having the third highest percentage of deprived areas in the UK. Further to this, ten specific areas of north Manchester, the catchment area for the course in question, are listed as being ‘most deprived’. These areas being, Harpurhey, Newton Heath, Blackley, Gorton North, Gorton South, Lightbowne, Ardwick, Charlestown, Beswick and...more Can e-portfolios fulfil institutional requirements whilst still promoting connection, collaboration and constructivist learning around cultural competence? [887] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm The use of electronic portfolios has increased significantly in recent years within higher education, especially within vocational subject areas. Whilst their ability to perform multiple roles within a learning model has long been advocated, a philosophical tension between their use as an institutionally derived tool for assessment and their use to support socially constructivist learning has been recognised (Barrett, 2004) This tension is driving a potential divergence in development between tools for robust assessment and others for personalised learning. However, we argue that this reductionist approach could detract from the learning experience. We recently introduced an eportfolio (PebblePad) into a...more Stop making sense: Learning, community, digital citizenship and the massive in a post-MOOC world [957] Wed, Sep 9 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm This paper will present the preliminary findings from a critically reflective evaluation of ‘ConstitutionUK’, an online crowdsourcing project with over a thousand participants that represents phase two of an ambitious, multi-year civic engagement project from the university’s Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) to crowdsource a written constitution for the United Kingdom. We will outline the assumptions that informed the initial pedagogic and instructional design processes, the challenges of implementation, the role and potential of the ‘massive’, the multiplicity of project outcomes and the difficulty in assessing and evaluating the educational value of the community’s experience. It can be argued that...more ALT Central Executive Meeting [closed] M25 Group Wed, Sep 9 2015, 4:45pm – 5:45pm This session is led by the members of the M25 Group. Come along to find out more about what the group is up to, how to join if you are interested in getting involved and what’s coming up in the next year. Everybody welcome. To find out more about the ALT Scotland Group visit the homepage for the M25 Group http://go.alt.ac.uk/MembersM25more |
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Drinks reception and Learning Technologist of the Year Awards 2015 (Main Theatre) |
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Evening meal and entertainment (Day 2) |
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Registration, Coffee & Tea in the Exhibition Area – Meet up for first time participants at the ALT stand |
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Live Streamed
Keynote: Laura Czerniewicz [102] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 9:30am – 10:30am Laura Czerniewicz is the Director of the Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CILT) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa. Previously the leader of UCT’s OpenUCT Initiative engaging with open scholarship from a southern perspective, she was also the founding Director of the university’s Centre for Educational Technology. She has worked in education for several decades as an educator, academic and strategist. A rated researcher, Laura’s interests include academics’ and students’ digitally-mediated practices, issues of inequality, and the changing nature of higher education.more |
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Live Streamed
Invited Speaker: Rebecca Ferguson - Scaling Up Analytics [127] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am The promise of learning analytics is that they will enable us to understand and optimize learning and the environments in which it takes place. The intention is to develop models, algorithms, and processes that can make good use of the data generated by learners and educators. As we do this, we need to move from small-scale research within our departments towards large-scale implementation across our institutions. This is a tough challenge, because educational institutions are stable systems, resistant to change. To avoid failure and maximize success, implementation of learning analytics at scale requires careful consideration of the entire ‘TEL technology...more Live Streamed
Invited Speaker: Dom Chapman [128] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Di has been Principal and Chief Executive of Brockenhurst College since September 2006, having been Deputy Principal at the College from January 2004. Brockenhurst College, situated in the heart of the New Forest, is a Beacon College, providing education and training to over 3,200 full-time 16-18 year olds, 8,000 mainly part-time adults, 1,000 apprentices and over 350 local and regional businesses. Di has taught across the ability levels and spent time as an Ofsted Inspector. She also has significant experience in business and training over a number of years. In 2011, Di was awarded the CBE in recognition of her...more Students in the feedback loop [946] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am This paper reports on the dialogical design to an academic writing course for first-year Language students run in the 2013/14 academic year with 34 students and in 2014/15 with 24 students. The design was based on the creation of feedback interactions between the instructor and individual students, which were conducted face-to-face and mediated through a cloud-based assignment mark-up tool. Dialogue was supported on three different levels, addressing accuracy in academic writing, reflection on each individual’s writing style and learning development, with the feedback exchanges also informing the pedagogic design and support on offer to students, along the lines of Laurillard’s...more The Student Dashboard: An Innovative Collaboration in Learning Analytics [912] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am The application of big data and specifically learning analytics is generating increasing interest in Higher Education. This presentation explores the successful collaboration in a UK university between academic schools, professional services and an external data analysis specialist. The Student Dashboard helps academic staff understand how their students are engaging with their studies. We will share findings from the 2013/4, 12-month pilot with first year students and explore some of the ethical and practical considerations that arise from the use of data for student retention and success. The dashboard was subsequently rolled out across the university from September 2014. The Student...more Remote control: student-generated broadcast media resources for teaching [1003] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am The British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC)’s Box of Broadcasts (BOB) service provides access to current and archived broadcast media for learning and teaching purposes. This opens up a wealth of resource for almost any discipline, yet the scale of media available can be daunting to staff and students wanting to find particular material. To remedy this problem, and to engage both staff and students with the resource, we recruited students in four disciplines (Biological Science, English, Chemistry and Management) to search for and describe media useful for their own subject areas: authoring resources on an open blog for...more Student e-Portfolio: Change Agent Catalyst? [1005] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Since the increase in student fees in 2012, student expectations of a university education have changed. The economic climate in the UK, following the 2008-2009 economic crisis is one of slow recovery (ONS, 2014), marked by a return to pre-crisis employment rates but with lower wage growth. These circumstances, coupled with a recent increase in student fees (BBC, 2014), have produced prospective students with a greater focus on their future employment. They are more willing to challenge or question the relevance of course activities, to furthering their career development and future employability. For students to invest in the processes that...more Our new institutional OER policy - what we did next … [838] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am This presentation is aimed at staff working on the development and promotion of OERs, and those interested in the development of institutional policies. The session aims to give an insight to why we needed a policy, and how we aim to use it as part of our programme of promotion, creation and sharing of OERs. At Glasgow Caledonian University we have created a new OER policy which was approved in May 2015. It was developed in a “ground up” manner by a working party led by myself and made up of staff from all schools. It was seen as an...more How Open is OK, how OK is Open? Developing an institutional position on Open Educational Practice. [845] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Since the latter part of the noughties, the debate about open education has expanded from a focus on materials and content into questions of practice and the factors that characterise a culture of openness (Ehlers, 2011). Open Educational Practice (OEP) has been seen as a multi-faceted endeavour, involving action on the part of institutional structures as well as of academics and learners (Beetham et al, 2012). Being prepared to engage with such practices (both in the sense of being equipped and of being willing) was seen as a foundational element of the collaborative culture we wished to foster at the...more Reasons to be open - embracing the digital landscape [997] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Research intensive universities are not always seen as the champions of open educational practice. That, however, may be changing. As universities embrace online course development for both distance and campus based students they are already having to evolve practice; and now, with the advent of MOOCs over the past couple of years, the ability to have open material is becoming more important. This talk will take the audience on the journey the University of Glasgow is making as it moves from a traditional face to face campus undergraduate focus to one where it embraces the emerging and evolving digital landscape...more ELMSLN: Open System Design for Open Content Production [851] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am What if the reason everyone seems so anti-LMS is that they are not structured correctly? LMS design, as one large single system, is setup to fail the OER community. MOOCs are at least a push in the right direction, but their frameworks are often closed, discouraging open development. If we had a truly open, community driven platform for the creation of educational resources, we might see more truly OER materials being created. This is the position ELMS Learning Network (ELMSLN) takes in its approach to edtech design. ELMSLN takes the major functionality of an LMS and spreads it out across...more Give them what they want – developing a flexible anonymous assignment workflow to meet diverse needs [895] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Supporting online workflows for anonymous assignment submission and feedback return is a key challenge for many higher education institutions in the UK, with the electronic management of assessment (EMA) identified as a key strategic priority by JISC (Ferrell and Grey, 2015). While there are a number of commercially available products that have been deployed by institutions to address different stages of this workflow, there remains a need for an ‘end-to- end’ solution to address all elements of the assessment and feedback lifecycle, and interoperability between systems has been identified as a key challenge for progress with EMA. This presentation describes...more Rosetta Stone – is it worth the hype? [915] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am This short presentation will start by looking at how Rosetta Stone has been made available to all staff and students via our VLE (Blackboard). At Regent’s University London, we were the first university to have a full site licence for this language resource. We have now been using Rosetta Stone for two years and have evaluated its effectiveness for our staff and students. I will describe the Learning Environment, Learning Processes and Learning Outcomes (LEPO) framework that we have used to evaluate Rosetta Stone at our institution. This has involved a mixed methods approach, analysing both quantitative and qualitative data...more Using Agile approach to deliver a new Digital Learning Environment: Lessons Learned [917] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Background and Rationale Engaged student-learning is a key principal in the Plymouth University 2013-2020 teaching, learning and student experience strategy. This is underpinned by the values and goals of the Plymouth University 2020 strategy and in particular the ‘Excellent learning in partnership with students’ Ambition; making students the centre of all learning and teaching endeavours. Between 2007-14 the University utilised Microsoft SharePoint with several bespoke developments to perform the role of a Virtual Learning Environment. This infrastructure was considered ‘Resource Heavy’, the user experience was classed as ‘Slow’, and there were limited opportunities to promote constructive pedagogies. Accordingly, there was...more Participatory approaches towards more consistent and coherent learning technology provision [926] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Like many universities, at Warwick there is a small core of people who participate in technology enhanced learning activities, both those who teach and who support teaching. There is considerable expertise within that group but it can feel like “the usual suspects” and they also feel that we need to break new ground to reach beyond the innovators and early adopters into the early majority [1]. Over the past 18 months we have made a deliberate attempt to draw in a broader range of stakeholders in our decision-making and to bring TEL into the foreground. In particular we have tried...more From pilot to embedded practice: Scaling up and embedding learner as change agent initiatives [947] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Engaging learners in meaningful ways within and beyond the formal curriculum has become increasingly important across UK FE and HE. In HE, Student Engagement (SE) is now an expectation of the new Quality Code[i] and in FE the Government response to the FELTAG recommendations[ii] promote SE and collaborative approaches to curriculum design. 30% of respondents to the 2014 UCISA Digital Capabilities Survey[iii] report that they are working with students as change agents with another 46% ‘working towards’ this. Institutions are exploring creative ways of working in partnership with students to transform their learning experience and how innovative use of technology...more Crowd Sourcing University Policy and Networking of Practice [970] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Over the last two years this University has developed strategies which draw on the ‘Wisdom of the Crowds’ (Surowiecki, 2005) and as a result has created and embedded collaborative University policy across the institution. Utilising an innovative implementation of established Cloud Technologies, we have created a number of collaborative university strategies and policies that have since been put into action through a network of Communities of Practice (CoP). The ‘University Conversation’ is a cloud-technology mediated collaboration methodology, which has so far been used to harvest the collective insight of hundreds of academics and students, with the aim of creating new...more New opportunities for web-based real-time communication [924] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am Communication is a crucial aspect in the learning process, with plenty of opportunities for improvement through technology, in particular for remote learners, but also on campus. Good communication can contribute greatly to academic and social integration, and to student needs like identification with the organisation and interpersonal relationships, which are important factors in the battle against dropouts (Tinto 1993, Rovai 2003). The increased availability of web conferencing helps address many of these issues and complements the primarily text-based interactions especially for remote learners very well. The real-time communication sector, however, is changing rapidly, and current solutions are quickly becoming technologically...more Moving from electronic management of assessment challenges to solutions: driving innovation through collaboration [969] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 10:35am – 11:35am UK universities and colleges are increasingly using digital technology across the assessment and feedback lifecycle to support all aspects from initial design of assessments to electronic submission of assignments, marking and feedback (see for example Newland et al 2013). There are strong drivers for seeking to make this move to digital, for example process improvement for reduced duplication and efficiency savings; enabling flexibility of provision and environmental considerations. Most important however is student demand for the electronic management of assessment (EMA) and the evidence that EMA can help improve the student experience through the provision of better quality feedback that...more |
11:35am |
Coffee and tea in the Exhibition Area (Day 3) |
12:00pm |
Live Streamed
Policy Briefing Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm This briefing is led by Bobbie, McClelland with Bob Harrison. Bobbie McClelland is a Deputy Director at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. She leads on Reforming FE Provision having previously lead on standards and qualifications. Her current role includes policy lead on the area reviews of post 16 education and training including policy on intervention and her team manages the office of the FE Commissioner. She also leads on FE Workforce Strategy and the role of technology in FE. Bob Harrison has been professionally engaged in secondary/further/higher education for 40yrs. He has had extensive experience in schools and colleges as a teacher,...more Open Learning? It’s a “peach”! [796] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm A collaborative task for first year health and social care students involved working in small groups to create a shared reflection on the values base of health and social care, which was then presented as a slideshow hosted on an open online platform. Embedded within the task was an introduction to the concept of copyright and Creative Commons (as a precursor to discussions about referencing and citation). In addition, key digital skills were supported, including: collaborative learning practices – both in-class and virtual; content curation: finding, downloading, saving, editing and reusing suitable images; content creation: sharing content openly via a...more The Teaching of Phonics: A Follow–Up Study of Primary School English Language Teachers’ Perceptions of Exploring a Blended Mode Approach for INSET in Malaysia [807] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm In 2013, the Ministry of Education Malaysia introduced the Malaysia Education Blueprint which introduced eleven shifts to transform the education system (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2013). One of the shifts aims to upgrade the quality of continuing professional development (CPD) of teachers. The time has come to introduce changes to reshape CPD on a national level. The Teaching of Phonics is a capacity building course aimed at enhancing teachers’ knowledge and skills. It was introduced following the implementation of the new Malaysian Curriculum Standard Document in 2010 which is based on a modular approach. It includes a new component on...more On your marks, get set, go open! [836] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm In the design and development of digital pedagogies, consideration of the level of ‘openness’ should be an integral part of the process. Bates (2015) recently described the current ‘continuum of technology-based learning’, noting that teaching and learning that does not involve technology, social media, or open approaches, is an increasingly rare thing. Considering the diverse array of educational approaches now claiming to be open, it has been suggested that the term ‘open’ has lost its way – or at the very least, means different things to different people. Perhaps, as Audrey Watters (2014) has suggested, this loss of focus has...more Reuse of MOOCs: bringing online content back to the classroom [927] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Despite the hype, MOOCs clearly have potential social and educational benefits, as well as being good PR. However, free to use resources are costly to produce (Houston, 2015) and, to be sustainable, they need clear business models. In parallel there has been pressure for many years to use more digital/online resources in higher education, albeit often been due less to pedagogy than to ill-informed notions that electronic ‘delivery’ will save money. However, this has now largely shifted to a desire to improve student experience, especially in light of students who are increasingly ‘digital natives’. Re-use of learning resources has long...more Pushing the boundaries of virtual and actual communities of practice? [942] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm This standard presentation draws on recent research by the staff and tutor team of the BA (Hons) Theatre Studies (Online) programme at Rose Bruford College, which took place around the annual week-long Symposium where events are presented on campus and online. Following the transition to online delivery in 2012 the programme team have been absorbed by the challenges, limitations and potential values of e-learning both as a mode of pedagogy and as a potential means of developing learning communities. In attempting to shed “distance” for our distance learning students we have recognised the value of “social learning” (Ryan and Tilbury,...more A Virtual Law Clinic: Connectivist and Collaborative Learning in Action [963] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm The institution opened a face to face legal advice centre in March 2014 with the twin aims of providing law students with the experience of a legal education in a clinical context and providing the local community with access to free legal advice. The student response to this initiative has been overwhelmingly positive. At present, more than 50% of LLB students have volunteered and are undergoing the training required for clinical practice. There is clearly a huge demand from students for opportunities to gain legal work experience which could provide an invaluable advantage in the highly competitive legal employment sector....more Students as owners of learning analytics design [935] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Learning Analytics is the process of developing actionable insights through problem definition and the application of statistical models and analysis against existing and/or simulated future data. Cooper, A. (2012). This session will discuss the work of a small learning analytics project taking place at our University within the Faculty of Health and Social Care. Our work is focussed on discovering how learning analytics can expose ‘actionable insights’ to make our learners and their teachers more effective. We believe that this work is unusual in that it focusses on the teaching, learning and assessment at module scale rather than institutional approaches...more Far From The Madding Crowd: Embedding MOOC practice into on-campus teaching [956] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Two years ago, the University of Bath committed to the FutureLearn partnership with a view to delivering a number of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on their newly launched platform. Quite simply, the intention was to ride on the wave of interest generated by this innovation to increase the accessibility to higher education for learners both in the UK and in the rest of the world. The university was to offer free, open, online courses that would be clear, simple to use and accessible. In the three MOOCs that the university has offered in this time, we have engaged with...more "I watch the ripples change their size but never leave the stream": Trends and patterns in education technology prediction [808] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Can we predict the nature of predictions about the future in education technology? Has “innovation” become a set of common tropes and reference points, regurgitated semi-annually? All of us recognise the sinking feeling as we see decisions made based on professional technology predictions that appear to be based on nothing other than wishful thinking and speculation. As well as having an overt (and occasionally malign) influence on the student experience, the assumptions that underpin changes to the way learners and institutions interact are subtly reinforced by the way in which the “next big thing” is promoted. This short, data-driven presentation...more Improving the quality of recordings and webinars – faculty and student perspectives [841] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Recorded lectures and webinars have been used as standard teaching tools at BPP Business School for about two years, but until recently no formal review had been undertaken of their effectiveness. In recent years recorded lectures have become very widespread, particularly as part of MOOCs. One very large-scale study (Guo et al, 2014) set out a number of clear recommendations for recordings, including an optimum length of six minutes. We are currently running a wider project to promote digital standards and literacy, which is based around the JISC four-level framework (JISC, 2011), which establishes four levels of digital literacy from...more Team-Based Learning in Occupational Therapy: A Student-Centred Approach [848] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Context This proposal reports on how team-based learning (TBL) has been introduced within an Occupation Therapy (OT) module at the University of Northampton as a student-centred approach to encourage active learning. TBL is a form of collaborative learning based on strategically formed, permanent teams, and consists of preclass preparation, readiness assurance tests, and application activities (Michaelsen et al., 2014). This method has been employed in a variety of disciplines, including medical and healthcare education (Vasan et al., 2008; Parmelee, 2008). Research related to TBL indicates a number of areas in which student learning can be enhanced. For example, TBL offers...more Customised, user generated, research spaces and learning management systems [874] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm In responding to industry demands for an increasingly skilled workforce, Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions in New Zealand (NZ) and Peoples Republic of China (PRC) are actively collaborating to learn from each other’s experiences. The aim of this collaboration is to ensure institutional decision makers in both countries, have the right information, at the right time to make the right decisions. To gather this information, a central virtual research centre has been established and this centre has endorsed a number of local branches. The Waikato Institute of Technology, in exploring the possibilities of being a branch of this...more From pilot to embedded practice: Scaling up and embedding learner as change agent initiatives [918] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Colleges and universities are increasingly recognising the value of working in partnership with students to implement curriculum innovation. However, it is important that the student role in such a partnership is more than just that of a critical observer. The 2014 UCISA Digital Capabilities Survey (UCISA, 2014). reports that 30% of respondents are working with students as change agents with another 46% of respondents ‘working towards’ this. As the 2014 NUS Report, Radical Interventions in Teaching and Learning1, argues: ‘Students must be empowered as active and participatory agents, not as mere consumers, so that they can articulate their own conceptions...more How do we do it? Skills for effective student change agency [934] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm There is a growing literature on how staff and students are working in partnership to identify, lead and deliver change in FE and HE (Flint, 2015) . The drivers for this are numerous but can be linked broadly to notions of student engagement. The shift in funding UK higher education to students, combined with the introduction of a new quality code that requires all institutions to meet specific indicators, encourages institutions to refocus resources and develop new strategies to address these expectations. For many institutions this will require significant culture change. The UK Change Agent Network (http://www.can.jiscinvolve.org) is an example...more Dancing to the call of a different tune: technologies and success in a recent music MOOC [933] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm In 2015, our university delivered an massive open online course (MOOC) in songwriting, first as a pilot then as a full-blown course. This course was interactive, requiring the students to work and learn together in “bands” that were mediated through a range of open music technologies (SoundCloud, MyOnlineBand.com, and others). One important lesson from this experience concerned the practical ways in which technologies can mediate student interaction in this space. Another important lesson concerned us, as teachers, having to re-evaluate what constitutes “success” for a student in this space. For some students, as expected, the creation of a new piece...more Using online collaboration to support large scale multidisciplinary student work [967] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Achieve More is a challenging new addition to the curriculum at the University of Sheffield. Students across the university will get the opportunity to work in multidisciplinary teams to broaden subject knowledge and tackle global challenges, engage with academics and their research at an early stage and develop team-working and problem-solving skills. Students will participate in Achieve More during each year of their studies. Year 1 students are required to undertake a faculty based challenge. This presentation will explore the delivery of the Achieve More module namely, Faculty Health Challenge within the Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health. The Faculty...more It’s on the exam!”: Affecting Student Engagement Through Crowd-Sourced Assessment [986] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm This paper describes the practice and possibilities of peer assessment for increasing the engagement of first year students. More specifically, it reports how first year students of an online/distance BSc. in Information Technology programme in Ireland usually grapple with both their orientation to third level study and the shock of learning to program. Novice programmers must learn a strange language filled with syntactic and semantic rules (and conventions) using unfamiliar tools. For these leaners, practice is key. The initiative described here was designed to actively engage learners in the assessment of a first year distance/online module – titled “IT and...more Find out about CMALT Thu, Sep 10 2015, 12:00pm – 1:00pm CMALT (Certified Membership of ALT) is a peer-based accreditation scheme. Come along to ALT’s stand in the exhibition area to find out more, how to register and pick up a CMALT prospectus.more |
1:00pm |
Lunch & Exhibition (Day 3) |
2:00pm |
Ask the audience: the slumdog millionaire approach to designing assessment practice. [945] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 2:00pm – 2:30pm What drives the design of assessment practice? Is it based on pedagogic principles; the way you’ve always done things; strict adherence to institutional policy (by the way are we absolutely sure that’s what the policy says …) or what the systems permit? This session looks at the diversity of assessment and feedback practice and explores similarities and differences and underlying reasons for them. Learning providers are increasingly looking to enhance their practice and achieve efficiencies by applying technology to support assessment and feedback. Research (e.g. Ellis and Reynolds 2013) has shown that electronic management of assessment benefits students and meets...more An Exploration on Design and Development of Effective Digital Textbooks for Personalised Open Ubiquitous Learning in China [1011] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 2:00pm – 2:30pm With the integration of information technologies to learning and teaching, the e-books have started to be applied to open education (Piret and Jaan, 2008). In early 2013, to broaden their digital publishing market McGraw-Hill launched a new type of e-book named “Smart Book” which can adapt the presentation to different learners’ learning speed and level[1]. Further The Open University in the UK was one of the first universities worldwide to make its in-house developed interactive e-books available on iTunes U[2]. In China, the e-book has gone through three generations: e-book 1.0 – an e-copy of the printed textbook; e-book 2.0...more Building an e-learning platform in Wordpress [811] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 2:00pm – 2:30pm Manchester Medical School (MMS) is the largest Medical School in the UK, with over 2000 students on the undergraduate programme. Of these around 1500 are out on clinical placement across the North-west of England, so the delivery of high quality e-learning materials is essential to a consistent and quality assured student experience. Until recently, MMS used a content authoring tool called Riverside and exported the packages into Blackboard. Though Riverside is easy to use, it is no longer fully supported. In addition, the use of Blackboard places severe restrictions on how content is structured, viewed and who can access it....more Augmented Reality to engage and aid the learner in Higher Education [843] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 2:00pm – 2:30pm Augmented Reality to engage and aid the learner in Higher Education In this outline, the use of an augmented reality (AR) interface is discussed for use in the construction of collaborative educational applications, which can be used to enhance both the student experience and current teaching methods. Audience engagement would involve downloading the Aurasma app on their mobile device and joining the mmuAR channel. The audience would then be able to experience using AR for both fun and learning via pre prepared exercises (5 mins). Discussions further to this would centre on the concept of AR and how it can...more In Vogue and Shaping Up: Using the Stakeholder Voice to Co-develop E-Learning [900] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 2:00pm – 2:30pm The University of Nottingham’s Health E-Learning and Media (HELM) team has over 10 years expertise building and developing stand-alone, open e-learning resources (Re-usable Learning Objects or RLOs). Our e-learning resources have been accessed over 1 million times in 50+ countries. They are well embedded into the School of Health Sciences’ curricula and are ‘part of the furniture’ for our staff and students, used daily for core learning, and developed as research outputs. As internationalisation, research impact and teaching and learning excellence have risen up institutional agendas, we are re-evaluating the long-term impact of our robust participatory methodology for creating open...more [Cancelled] An organisational design frame to support teaching professionals in designing for on line learning [974] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 2:00pm – 2:30pm The use of online and blended learning in further education puts demands on teaching institutions to produce adjustments of existing designs and in some cases to develop new design. Engaging teaching staff in development of on line learning is known to be challenging in the everyday life of busy teaching institutions. Furthermore, the provision of support for teaching staff who engage in on line learning is crucial and far from a trivial matter. In this project, a user oriented methodology for learning design called the CoED method has been tried as the main method in a development project (Ryberg et...more |
2:45pm |
Live Streamed
Keynote: Phillip Long [103] Thu, Sep 10 2015, 2:45pm – 4:00pm Phil is the Associate Vice Provost for Learning Sciences and Deputy Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, Clinical Professor in Educational Psychology and in the School of Information, at the University of Texas, Austin. Dr. Long provides leadership to the university’s strategy for technology enhanced learning. Phil contributes leadership to UTx, the local implementation of the edX MOOCs, the UT learning analytics initiative & design of learning environments. Phil’s current research interests focus on active & blended learning pedagogies, remote laboratories, emerging technologies and the analytics that can be captured by instrumenting interactions in both virtual and physical...more |
3:45pm |
Closing plenary and preview of 2016 Annual Conference |