Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Ascilite day 2 afternoon


After lunch Wayne McIntosh updates on OER university The OER foundation is a non profit organisation providing support for OER. oERu made up of an international collection of educational institutes. At the moment, NZ has 6 plus 2 none teaching organisations and Australia has 6. Made links between OER and sustainable business models. So how does OER contribute to the sustainability of your institute? Discussed copyright and absurdity in present world. Updated on Creative Commons licensing. BIG vision for institutions not provide only 2 courses to OERu and provide free learning opportunities to any learner. Assessments could be offered on fees for service model. OER provides support and technology services, content provided by institution and assessment and accreditation through fee for service. OER based on personalised learning environment with content on wiki educator and an aggregator to link other cloud based tools. Provided example presented by Niki Davis this morning on a course also linked to Moodle. So where do MOOCs stand? The university of Canterbury post grad course with 121 participants from 14 countries. Retention rate was good and integration of quality. Parallel modes of delivery with full fee paying students and open also to OERu courses raising international awareness of home institute and providing cross cultural experiences for students. OER is low cost and high impact. 

After the keynote, I attend the learning analytic SIG. Carolyn Steel provides parameters for SIGs. Shane Dawson is the leader but unable to be here, so Leah MacFadyn assist to gather objectives of the group. Ethics of data and data governance comes up as something everyone is interested in progressing. Need to share practice and use SIG site to collate resources. Collate various research projects completed and in progress. Group prioritised 4 activities to work towards. 

After afternoon tea, I catch up with Stephen Marshall and Jonathan Flutey's (from Victoria University) work on turning a digital vision to reality. Shared process of building support for technology and learning. Challenges identified in 2010 with a reactive unstructured adoption of technology, misuse of LMS as DMS, technology as admin rather than pedagogy etc. vision and strategy for 2012 to 2018 on university website. Focus on learning design and provision of a seamless service across all support and teaching learning. Technology facilitated student experience in terms of physical and digital facilities for formally scheduled learning, informal learning invited by student, individual learning supported by campus facilities and social community scholarly activities which are campus and public. Jonny provided example of introducing technology in specialised teaching areas and need to set up experimental rooms. Virtual innovation incubator to allow academics to play. Building capability is organisational with a start by stocktake of digital skills required. Goal orientated capability building eg. Flip classroom defined for process, pedagogy and technology with badges attached to each goal. Mentors identified to form distributed learning network.

Then a concise paper with John Clayton and Sarah-Jane Saravani on creating digital self reflective frameworks to encourage learner autonomy in post graduate courses. Shift from knowledge acquisition to how students learning. Move from knowledge management to portfolio focus. Critical skill for learner is reflection. Students provided framework to develops critical reflective skills. Tool build to provide students with needs analysis to self identify in 4 domains. Traffic light indicators provide information for student and tutors and assist start of conversation on student responsibility and support. The learner knows and needs scaffolding to work towards own learning goals through learning project. 

Attend SIG on  innovations in tertiary education delivery summit led by Peter Guerin from the NZ Ministry of Education. Peter provided background. Last year MOE provided a paper on MOOCs which led to conference on the broader range of innovative tertiary education. Out os the conference came issues like accreditation plus current system as not supporting students to move seamlessly through. Group discussed questions. How can providers design delivery to achieve consistent results and best support learners? What sorts of issues could arise from new models? What will happen for teaching and learning? Output and outcomes?
How will new technologies cater for different kinds of learners? What are differences as learners between young people? Older students? Those with high learning needs? Those in employment or with other commitments? 

Conference dinner in the evening rounds off another busy day. 



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