Students’ Perceptions of Learning Processes as Co-Authors of Digital Tabletop Activities

We conducted a small-scale study in order to explore students’ perceptions of the learning processes when engaged as co-authors of content for collaborative higher order thinking skills learning tasks. We specifically designed the process to allow for self-critique – where authors can observe their creations being solved and therefore understand where they may improve their design. We collected data over a three-day period from a sample of twelve thirteen year olds, working in teams, authoring content for Digital Mysteries (a higher order thinking skills collaborative learning application based on the digital tabletop). The study was structured to follow Bloom’s taxonomy, a continuum of cognitive skills that develop during a learning process. We found that 1) rather than follow this continuum, skills developed in a non-linear manner due to the abstract nature of the authoring activity, and 2) the students’ demonstrated good metacognitive insights into the authoring task, technology and collaborative learning as a whole

Students as Web 2.0 authors: Implications for assessment design and conduct

Students now have at their disposal a range of Web 2.0 authoring forms such as audio and video podcasting, blogging, social bookmarking, social networking, virtual world activities and wiki writing. Many university educators are interested in enabling students to demonstrate their learning by creating content in these forms. However, the design and conduct of assessment for such student-created content is not straightforward. Based upon a review of current literature and examples in the public domain, this paper identifies key challenges for academic assessment that arise from students' use of Web 2.0 authoring forms. We describe and analyse selected cases where academics have set assessable student Web 2.0 activities in a range of fields of study, noting especially the inter-relationship of learning objectives, assessment tasks and marking criteria. We make recommendations for practice, research and understanding to strengthen educational quality and academic integrity in the use of Web 2.0 authoring forms for assessable student learning

Web 2.0 authorship: Issues of referencing and citation for academic integrity

Web 2.0 authoring forms such as wikis and blogs, social bookmarking, and audio and video podcasting pose a challenge to academic authorship traditions. This paper reviews the provisions made in major academic referencing and citation style guides for acknowledging content and ideas that may be published using these new web authoring forms. It offers an overview of features of web 2.0 authoring forms and explores concepts of authoring that can help academics to understand the challenges of working with these forms. It provides examples of referencing and citation in scholarly and scientific communication, and concludes that the conceptual basis of referencing and citation as expressed in current systems and standards needs reform in order to bring academic integrity to the use of these new forms of authorship

Implications for academic integrity of using web 2.0 for teaching, learning and assessment in higher education

Student web 2.0 authoring in higher education involves a number of challenges and opportunities for assessment and academic integrity. In this article we describe an Australian project that is investigating how lecturers are using web 2.0 activities in university assessment tasks. In the first stage of the project we documented current web 2.0 assessment practices by conducting a survey and interviews with lecturers who teach in different discipline areas across Australia. Initial findings from this stage of the project are presented here, with a focus on using examples from the interviews to illustrate the opportunities and challenges that web 2.0 affordances introduce for learning, teaching, and assessment in higher education. Student authoring in web 2.0 environments can be quite different from traditional academic writing tasks. Using web 2.0 technologies, students can publish their work to an open audience, use different communication styles and texts, draw on their unique personal identity and experiences, co-create content with other students, and manage their content outside the confines of the university. Each of these affordances provides opportunities for enhancing students' learning in higher education, while simultaneously imposing new ways of thinking about scholarly writing and assessment that can be challenging for both students and staff

Transforming assessment in higher education: a participatory approach to the development of a good practice framework for assessing student learning through social web technologies

Social web technologies, such as blogs, wikis, social networking and photo/video sharing sites, are increasingly being used in innovative learning activities in higher education. While there has been much discussion about the pedagogical rationale for using social web technologies in higher education, there has been little examination of the challenges involved in assessing the work students create or the activities they undertake using these tools. The transformation of academic authoring in a social web environment poses complex and urgent assessment-related challenges for policy-makers and educators alike. In this paper we describe the participatory approach we have taken in a project that aims to identify issues and support good assessment practices when students are asked to use social web technologies in medium to high-stakes assessment. In this paper, we outline the design rationale for the research, and describe the methods used in the three stages of this project: 1) documenting current practice through a nationwide survey and interviews; 2) initiating broad discussion across the sector about the issues raised; and 3) field-testing a draft good practice framework in 17 diverse teaching and learning settings. Our initial findings indicate that there are a range of complex student, teacher and institutional issues to consider. We conclude that bottom-up input from practitioners and students, combined with a policy-driven top-down approach is more likely to succeed in bringing about transformation and supporting good practice in the assessment of students' social web activities