The synergistic and dynamic relationship between learning design and learning analytics

The synergistic relationship between learning design and learning analytics has the potential for improving learning and teaching in near real-time. The potential for integrating the newly available and dynamic information from ongoing analysis into learning design requires new perspectives on learning and teaching data processing and analysis as well as advanced theories, methods, and tools for supporting dynamic learning design processes. Three perspectives of learning analytics design provide summative, real-time, and predictive insights. In a case study with 3,550 users, the navigation sequence and network graph analysis demonstrate the potential of learning analytics design. The study aims to demonstrate how the analysis of navigation patterns and network graph analysis could inform the learning design of self-guided digital learning experiences. Even with open-ended freedom, only 608 sequences were evidenced by learners out of a potential number of hundreds of millions of sequences. Advancements of learning analytics design have the potential for mapping the cognitive, social and even physical states of the learner and optimise their learning environment on the fly

By design : negotiating flexible learning in the built environment discipline

The term ‘flexible education’ is now firmly entrenched within Australian higher education discourse, yet the term is a contested one imbued with a multiplicity of meanings. This paper describes a process designed to elucidate how the idea of flexible education can be translated into teaching models that are informed by the specific demands of disciplinary contexts. The process uses a flexible learning ‘matching’ tool to articulate the understandings and preferences of students and academics of the Built Environment to bridge the gap between student expectations of flexibility and their teacher’s willingness and ability to provide that flexibility within the limits of the pedagogical context and teaching resources. The findings suggest an informed starting point for educators in the Built Environment and other creative disciplines from which to traverse the complexities inherent in negotiating flexibility in an increasingly digital world

Thematic Working Group 5: Formative assessment supported by technology.

The future of assessment faces major challenges including the use of IT to facilitate formative assessment that is important for improving learners’ development, motivation and engagement in learning. In many countries, in recent years, a renewed focus on assessments to support learning has been pushing against the burgeoning of testing for accountability, which in some countries, renders effective formative assessment practices almost impossible. Moreover, a systematic review by Harlen and Deakin Crick (2002) revealed that a strong focus on summative assessment for accountability can reduce motivation and disengage many learners. At the same time use of IT‐enabled assessments has been increasing rapidly, as they offer promise of cheaper ways of delivering and marking assessments as well as access to vast amounts of assessment data from which a wide range of judgements might be made about students, teachers, schools and education systems (Gibson & Webb, 2015). These opportunities also extend to assessment of complex collaborative work (Webb & Gibson, 2015). Current opportunities for using IT, including for harnessing the data that is being collected automatically, for formative assessment are underexplored and less well understood than those for summative assessments. Opportunities for learning with IT and perhaps with less teacher input are increasing but this depends on students developing as autonomous or independent learners. Research in formative assessment including effective feedback has emphasised the value of peer assessment practices for developing self‐assessment capabilities and hence independent learners (Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & William, 2003). At previous EDUsummITs the possibilities and challenges for IT‐enabled assessments to support simultaneously both formative and summative purposes were analysed (Webb, Gibson, & Forkosh‐Baruch, 2013). While these challenges remain, at EDUsummIT 2017 we focused on the opportunities and challenges of IT supporting formative assessment because effective formative assessment is known to be extremely important for learning.RETHINKING LEARNING IN A DIGITAL AGE, EDUsummIT 2017 Summary Reports 18-20 september, Bulgari

Erythropoietic protoporphyria

Erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) is an inherited disorder of the haem metabolic pathway characterised by accumulation of protoporphyrin in blood, erythrocytes and tissues, and cutaneous manifestations of photosensitivity. EPP has been reported worldwide, with prevalence between 1:75,000 and 1:200,000. It usually manifests in early infancy upon the first sun exposures. EPP is characterised by cutaneous manifestations of acute painful photosensitivity with erythema and oedema, sometimes with petechiae, together with stinging and burning sensations upon exposure to sunlight, without blisters. These episodes have a variable severity depending on the exposure duration and may result in chronic permanent lesions on exposed skin. As protoporphyrin is a lipophilic molecule that is excreted by the liver, EPP patients are at risk of cholelithiasis with obstructive episodes, and chronic liver disease that might evolve to rapid acute liver failure. In most patients, EPP results from a partial deficiency of the last enzyme of the haem biosynthetic pathway, ferrochelatase, EC 4.99.1.1/FECH (encoded by the FECH gene). EPP appears to be inherited as an autosomal dominant disease, the clinical expression of which is modulated by the presence of the hypomorphic FECH IVS3-48C allele trans, but recessive inheritance with two mutated FECH alleles has also been described. In about 2% of patients, overt disease was recently shown to be caused by gain-of-function mutations in the erythroid-specific aminolevulinic acid synthase 2 (ALAS2/ALAS, EC 2.3.1.27) gene and named X-linked dominant protoporphyria. Diagnosis is established by finding increased levels of protoporphyrin in plasma and red blood cells, and detection of a plasma fluorescence peak at 634 nm. Investigations for hepatic involvement, ferrochelatase activity level, genetic analysis (FECH mutations, presence of the hypomorphic FECH IVS3-48C allele trans and ALAS2 mutations) and family studies are advisable. Differential diagnosis includes phototoxic drug reactions, hydroa vacciniforme, solar urticaria, contact dermatitis, angio-oedema and, in some cases, other types of porphyria. Management includes avoidance of exposure to light, reduction of protoporphyrin levels and prevention of progression of possible liver disease to liver failure. As the major risk in EPP patients is liver disease, a regular follow-up of hepatic involvement is essential. Sequential hepatic and bone marrow transplantation should be considered as a suitable treatment for most severe cases of EPP with hepatic involvement. EPP is a lifelong disorder whose prognosis depends on the evolution of the hepatic disease. However, photosensitivity may have a significant impact on quality of life of EPP patients

The Pre-designed Lesson: Teaching with Transdisciplinary Pedagogical Templates (Tpts)

An ongoing challenge in higher education is the support of educators in their development of effective pedagogies. The field of educational research and practice referred to as Learning Design may be able to help educators with no or limited pedagogical training deliver highly interactive and contemporary teaching and learning offerings. The present study reported the findings from a trial of new technologically supported Learning Designs. These pre-designed lessons are referred to as Transdisciplinary Pedagogical Templates (TPTs). These templates contain prepopulated pedagogical instructions to educators and students, but are free of subject specific content allowing them to be used in discipline areas as diverse as teacher education, accounting, engineering or medicine. These TPTs have been designed to assist educators provide constructivist learning experiences, without the need for pedagogical upskilling. This research explored the practical efficacy of the de Bono LAMS template model, documenting educator and student engagement patterns and issues arising from the trial of the five de Bono LAMS sequences. The findings suggest an interest in TPTs by educators and students, but also a reluctance to engage with research, citing mainly a lack of time. The findings also point to a need to better understand students’ affective states and the role of emotional intelligence in technology enhanced learning and teaching provision

From LMS to VLE or from supermarkets to airports: Classifying elearning platforms using metaphors

This paper presents a rational model developed to make sense of various elearning platforms currently in use in Australian universities. The conceptualisation and organisation of the elearning platforms is underpinned by an educational psychology framework of social construction of meaning, data visualisation and story telling for meaning making. The model explains how various elearning platforms can be integrated to represent a three-dimensional, hierarchical construct that has the potential to aid understandings about the utility of information systems (IS) for learning and teaching. The model shows that LAMS, which has gained increasing popularity in Europe (Laurillard & Masterman, 2010), is usefully depicted as a ‘middle ground’ system, successfully bridging conventional LMSs and more advanced IS, referred here as (MU)VLEs (Multi-User Virtual Learning Environments). The model has important implications on how university lecturers, classroom teachers and students come to engage with an increasingly complex elearning environment

Teacher emotion research 2003-2011: Constructing a conceptual model for future research

In the last twenty years, a significant number of researchers have investigated the previously neglected topic of teacher emotion. This presentation reports on a review of teacher emotion literature from English-speaking journals published between 2003 and 2012. We reviewed 82 papers with the initial aim of reporting on and synthesising research aims, methodologies and findings. In systematically reviewing the papers, we discovered that few authors used specific definitions for the term emotion and that there was a lack of a clear framework for studying teacher emotion in the context of the classroom. Absence of a clear conceptual model for studying teacher emotion made clear categorisation and comparison of past work difficult. We believe that in order to work successfully with the term teacher emotion, researchers need to provide a definition of emotion, place this definition in the context of teaching and show how their research fits within this context. Few authors did this. Therefore, the aim of this research was to increase the ease and clarity with which the term teacher emotion is used in future research. This was achieved by developing an integrated model from analysis of the definitions and descriptions of emotion presented in the reviewed papers and placing this in the context of teaching. We then used this model to provide an overview of current teacher emotion research

Educated women as gatekeepers to prevent sexual exploitation of children

Online technologies have changed the lives of children and their families. They create countless benefits including for education, health, recreations and connecting people in removing physical barriers. However these new ways of social networking bring with them unique risks. Women are uniquely positioned as gatekeepers to protect children from sexual exploitation and other forms of victimisation