Transforming higher education and student engagement through collaborative review to inform educational design

This paper reports on staff perceptions arising from a review process designed to assist staff in making informed decisions regarding educational design, approaches to engage students in learning, and the technology to support engagement in the classroom and across multiple locations and delivery modes. The aim of the review process was to transform the level of student engagement in the business faculty of an Australian university. The process took a collaborative approach through consultation with academic staff involved in the design and delivery of the units under review, and included targeted professional development as necessary. An institutional framework that characterises engagement indicator contexts and their attributes facilitated dialog during the review process. This paper reports on a mixed method study that included a survey of participants, and purposeful interviews to evaluate the effectiveness of the process. Although the study identified factors that hindered implementation and operationalization of review recommendations in some instances, study participants were generally of the view that recommendations would enhance student engagement. It is demonstrated that the bottom-up approach described in this paper is consistent with theoretical frameworks for transformational change in teaching and learning and the adoption of innovations

Blended Learning and Digital Curation: A Learning Design Sequence Blended Learning and Digital Curation: A Learning Design Sequence

This chapter presents a case of successful integration of digital curation in a repeating series of blended classroom activities. Digital curation, in education, can be understood as the collection, organization, interpretation, summary, and sharing of online resources by learners on a topic of inquiry. This research reports on a blended digital curation learning design integrated into a third-year university course. A digital curation activity sequence development process and the classroom activity structure form the basis of the educational implementation presented here. In theory, digital curation activities can support the sharing of collected resources between learners. In practice, digital curation learning activities in higher education can also support blended and flipped classroom engagement models while providing opportunities for the development of critical thinking skills. The chapter describes the activities, the learning design, and the outcomes of a digital curation activity sequence. This provides other educators with a learning design roadmap for engaging students in pre-lecture activities or blended learning that adds value to classroom lectures

Networked Professional Development: Describing a Learning Activity Design that Utilizes Social Media and OERs

This paper reports on an outcome of a design-based research (DBR) program evaluating the designand delivery of Networked Professional Development for Teachers (NPD): a learning activity design. With theincreasing use of blended and fully online spaces to support student engagement, it is critically important todevelop teacher capacity of online-networked teaching skills and strategies. Having teachers participate in NPDactivities is one manner in which this goal can be accomplished. The results of the research indicate that teacherparticipation in NPD develops TPCK skills, supports the sharing of instructional resources and engagesteachers in meaningful discussions about teaching and learning. This paper provides details about the specificNPD learning activities that were delivered using social media tools and Open Educational Resources (OERs).Further research around learning supports for NPD, as well as methods to develop networked communities ofpractice is needed

Addressing the challenges of a bilingually delivered online course: design and development of the Australia China Trade (ACT) MOOC

This paper describes a design-based research program exploring a MOOC designed for delivery in two languages, English and Chinese. Learning resources, online discussions and activities, and live synchronous sessions with topic experts form the basis of the bilingual delivery. The goal of the MOOC was threefold: to engage leaners in bilateral Australia-China trade discussion activities, develop reusable open learning objects, and to explore bilingual online education delivery. Over the course of the initial iteration of this research, learning technologies, resources, delivery platforms, and communication processes were selected and incorporated into the design. In theory the bilingual delivery of large-scale online education courses can utilize tools that allow for cross-language learner interactions. In practice the development of resources, activities, and shared MOOC learner artifacts present numerous challenges for both synchronous and asynchronous components. Further research to identify technologies and processes that support bilingual online course development deliveries which support learner-learner interactions efficiently is needed

Reconceptualizing learning designs in higher education: Using mobile devices to engage students in authentic tasks

© 2015, IGI Global. All rights reserved. This goal of this chapter is to provide a design and development roadmap for the adaptation of traditional classroom activities into engaging iPad-based digital learning activities. Reporting on an ongoing longitudinal case study, the chapter provides an overview of rationale and design considerations of the authentic iPad learning design implementation project, and the outcomes and improvements made over time. The iPad activities described provide further details of the approach taken and adaptations made. Since implementing iPad activities into this higher education environment several terms ago, the lecturer reports significantly higher levels of student engagement. Additionally, students report that the classroom activities in the post-graduate marketing course are authentic, transferrable, and are more engaging due the use of the iPad-based activities

Creating authentic iPad activities to increase student engagement: A learning design approach.

This paper describes the design approach adopted for creating authentic iPad activities for use inclassroom settings with the aim of increasing student engagement. The challenge of this task was to also ensureequity for learners by designing learning activities that can be completed with or without an iPad. A pilotimplementation of the learning design approach in a classroom setting was received favorably and this has led toplans for a formal study trialing a range of learning designs. In theory, the results indicate that iPads can be usedsuccessfully for engaging students in authentic digital creation activities related to the content they are studying. Inpractice, a sequential process for the development of these learning activities was needed for implementation. Afive-step approach for adapting traditional learning designs to include iPad activities is outlined

Optimizing K-12 Education through Online and Blended Learning

Thousands of educational institutions and K-12 Schools deliver blended and online education (Picciano, Seaman, Shea, & Swan, 2012). In this context we see that research and dissemination of models, support for, cases of, and delivery ..

Using video to support massive business courses: Learning goals and development processes

This paper reports on two cases of developing online video resources for university students enrolled inmassive business courses. This exploratory investigation is focused on considering the design and development ofvideo resources for massive courses. Initially, the findings indicate that lecturers responsible for massive courses havesome common educational needs and goals for resource development and common approaches to developing videoresources. The study also identified that current technology available to lecturers allows them to efficiently develop andpresent targeted video materials for students taking massive courses. In practice, the goals and processes need carefulplanning, organization, and implementation to ensure the production of videos is an efficacious use of lecturer time.Future research needs to explore the types of resources developed and production time and costs required for variousvideo segment types, with student perceptions of the value added by online video segments for their learning

Networked Professional Development: Describing a learning activity design that utilizes social media and OERs

This paper reports on an outcome of a design-based research (DBR) program evaluating the design and delivery of Networked Professional Development for Teachers (NPD): a learning activity design. With the increasing use of blended and fully online spaces to support student engagement, it is critically important to develop teacher capacity of online-networked teaching skills and strategies. Having teachers participate in NPD activities is one manner in which this goal can be accomplished. The results of the research indicate that teacher participation in NPD develops TPCK skills, supports the sharing of instructional resources and engages teachers in meaningful discussions about teaching and learning. This paper provides details about the specific NPD learning activities that were delivered using social media tools and Open Educational Resources (OERs). Further research around learning supports for NPD, as well as methods to develop networked communities of practice is needed