ALT-C 2012 Abstracts

This is a PDF of the abstracts for all the sessions at the 2012 ALT conference. It is designed to be used alongside the online version of the conference programme. It was made public on 7 September 2012

"Skilful methods can achieve what power cannot": flexible delivery of Sanskrit at the Australian National University as a model for small-enrolment languages

Sanskrit is better known for its antiquity and profundity than for its ability to attract undergraduates, so Sanskrit classes in Western universities have always been small. Yet as universities find themselves squeezed for funding, few can afford to offer courses that routinely attract low numbers, and many have already closed their doors to would-be Sanskrit students. At the Australian National University, however, enrolments are increasing because of our use of educational technologies to provide flexible delivery of Sanskrit teaching. With texts, audio resources and video-recorded lectures available online, and face-to-face tutorials presented through video-conferencing, Australian students can now benefit from high quality, accredited undergraduate courses in Sanskrit regardless of where they live. Two years after introducing flexible delivery, Sanskrit en-rolments have doubled, students are thriving, and accountants are being held at bay. The future also looks bright, with a promise of substantial growth in enrolments nationally and even internationally. Surprisingly, the greatest obstacles to the introduction of flexible delivery have not been technological, but administrative. Through examining the experiences of lecturer and students, this paper discusses the pros and cons of flexible delivery of a small enrolment language for the university sector

An Evidence-Based Faculty Development Program For Online Teaching In Higher Education

A critical component in the successful implementation of online education hinges on providing faculty development opportunities that promote the utilization of pedagogical best practices in online teaching. While such training programs are on the rise, institutions are no closer to a universal consensus on how to design and evaluate such efforts. Historically, the success of faculty development programs has been measured via post-completion satisfaction surveys, attendance counts, and faculty perceptions of the usefulness of the content immediately following a training event. However, such metrics rarely provide an accurate measurement of the true efficacy of training, which in the context of online faculty development, points to the adoption of pedagogical best practices in online teaching. There is a clear call in the literature for institutions and faculty developers to adopt evidence-based models in faculty training to identify the strategies that work best. To that end, the purpose of this study was to document how a higher education institution implemented an evidence-based faculty development program for online teaching. The researcher mounted the investigation on a case study framework and centered the lens on the training developers who lent first-hand accounts of their experiences when implementing an evidence-based model. This study explored how the evidence-based program was designed, the factors that led to its implementation, the reported enablers and barriers to its deployment, the role of instructional designers in the program, and the institutional conditions perceived by participants to support the implementation. Data was collected through document analysis and through one-on-one interviews with trainers and middle-managers. The study revealed that traditional methods used to measure training programs (satisfaction surveys, participation counts) were insufficient in providing verification of learning, and that training developers viewed deeper, and more sophisticated methods of program evaluation as desirable. However, training developers also reported concern in regards to the scalability of evidence-based models in higher education and they perceived certain institutional conditions as enablers and barriers. The study also explored the role of the instructional designers as supporters of the learning experience. The researcher suggested several key areas for future investigations to continue to build upon the growing body of knowledge as it relates to supporting faculty teaching online

Technology Solutions for Developmental Math: An Overview of Current and Emerging Practices

Reviews current practices in and strategies for incorporating innovative technology into the teaching of remedial math at the college level. Outlines challenges, emerging trends, and ways to combine technology with new concepts of instructional strategy

Graduate Level Distance Learning: Enhanced Student Experience, Significant Scalability Challenges: A Multiyear Case Study

This article describes our experiences and lessons learned providing degree-based distance (online) education to graduate students (studying business, law, and policy related to government contracts or public procurement). Temporal note: our pilot, and the five years of experience described in this case study, predate the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic emergency distance teaching transition. Among other things, we discuss our experiences with regard to fundamentally rethinking our pedagogical approach, flipping the classroom, chunking, and scaffolded learning. We extol the benefits of working with, and being open to, advice from experienced instructional designers. We conclude that embracing distance education, at least in a hybrid form, offers exciting opportunities for more effective teaching and student learning. If thoughtfully and responsibly managed, the student learning experience in distance education not only compares favorably with, but may surpass, that found in the classic, amphitheater, quasi-Socratic or lecture-centric law course. Conversely, preparing to deliver and delivering quality distance education is time consuming, labor intensive, and, potentially, expensive and difficult. To reap the benefits and achieve the promise of distance education, law schools must embrace paradigm-shifting cultural change, a significant barrier for many faculty and institutions