How do you like it? Student Perspectives On Remote E-Learning

Edith Cowan University (ECU) is embracing e-learning as its preferred mode of distance education. E-learning has changed the mode, pedagogy and style of learning for distance education students. The convenience of studying online has provided numerous opportunities for remote learners but what is the reality of their educational experience via e-learning? This paper reports on a smallscale research project that examined e-learning from the student‘s perspective. The views of ECU distance education students in Singapore, Thailand, and remote parts of Australia were analysed in order to learn how to better support their needs

Cross-cultural probing: an examination of university student ICT ownership and use of e-learning materials in Thai and Australian Contexts

This paper reports on the second phase of an ongoing project being carried out at Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Western Australia examining ECU Education students’ ownership and use of information and communication technologies (ICT). It is critical that modern universities understand their students’ ICT capabilities in terms of hardware ownership, software facility, and preferences in order that online course and content delivery may be tailored to deliver effective, usable and engaging learning resources (Smith & Caruso, 2010). In addition, with universities placing greater focus upon attracting students from beyond the borders of any one country though e‐learning, it is equally important that we understand these basic capabilities more globally. In this second phase data was collected at a Thai university as well as in Australia. The objective being to both inform the individual institutions, and to provide comparative data. In particular the study gathered information concerning students’ self‐perceived software skills and frequency of use, hardware ownership and frequency of use, access to and location of Internet use, preference for various types of online learning materials, and access and use of university email and university online learning environments. An online survey consisting of both Thai and English language versions was used that fed respondent data into a common database for analysis

Digital Assessment in Secondary Schools: A Western Australian Experience Focusing on a Senior Engineering Course [conference paper]

This paper reports on the results of a three-year study conducted at the Centre for Schooling and Learning Technologies (CSaLT) at Edith Cowan University in collaboration with the Curriculum Council of Western Australia which concerns the potential to use digital technologies to represent the output from assessment tasks in four senior secondary courses: Applied Information Technology, Engineering Studies, Italian and Physical Education Studies. This paper focuses on Engineering Studies. The general aim of this study is to explore the potential of various digitally-based forms for external assessment for senior secondary courses in terms of manageability, cost, validity and reliability

Web-based Courses to Support EFL Learning for Pre-service Teachers: A Thai Pilot Study

In a modern, information rich, economically driven society, Western universities as well as Thai Universities are turning towards the Web to disseminate and retrieve information. Integration of computers to support the learning environment in teaching language is still in its infancy in Thailand. Its implementation changes both the instructional strategy and also the teaching and learning environment. English has been taught as a foreign language for over a century, and plays an important role at all levels of the Thai education system. At higher education levels, English skills are essential components of every pre-service teacher‘s professional education. In order to maximise opportunities for future teachers to develop their English skills, the teaching and learning of these skills has blended with the utilisation of ICT in many developed and developing countries. This paper describes research that developed a computer-supported EFL course as a new learning model for EFL curricula and practice. The context for the study, was the development of a web based course to support pre-service teachers‘ professional knowledge and skills in English, set in a Rajabhat University in Thailand. Results from the multi-method approach used highlighted the possible contribution of ICT use in EFL classroom teaching and learning

Do you want authenticity with that?: Online practical exams in an engineering course

This paper reports on part of the results of a three-year study conducted at the Centre for Schooling and Learning Technologies (CSaLT) at Edith Cowan University in collaboration with the Curriculum Council of Western Australia. This paper focuses on the use of a computer managed examination in Engineering Studies. A computer-managed examination was designed that consisted of a design task that was broken down into a number of timed activities. Students were paced through each activity, recording their input in the form of a portfolio. Input consisted of text, graphics through a camera, video and voice. The exam outputs were uploaded to an online repository; the students’ work was then marked by external assessors. The general aim was to provide students with assessment opportunities that were authentic, while being able to be reliably and manageably assessed by external examiners

Go online and have a chat with your colleagues: a new image of teacher professional learning in Indonesia

This paper describes the design and implementation of an online learning community-based Teacher Professional Development (TPD) model to support ongoing teachers’ professional learning in Indonesia. Teaching can be a very isolating career, frustrating, especially for those who work in rural and remote areas and can receive little support from other colleagues. Research shows that ICT displays a lot of potential to support teachers’ ongoing professional learning process. However, ICT itself is not the only answer to tackle this challenge. The key is the process of facilitating of online social learning. This paper presents the results of research, which undertook a case study of the design and implementation of an online learning community in a developing country such as Indonesia. The authors examine in what ways synchronous and asynchronous online learning environments could facilitate social learning interaction among educators from dispersed geographical locations and support teachers’ professional learning. Three online learning environment investigated include Web Portal Discussion Forum, Skype and Facebook. The results showed that while Facebook has the biggest membership, involvement in this online environment was not as intensive as in the Discussion Forum and Skype. However, Facebook has opened up to a new way of sustainable interaction that leads to professional knowledge construction. Synchronous online interaction, on the other hand, attracted most of the educators, yet it had the lowest, but most intensive social learning interaction. The paper discusses what factors facilitated and inhibited the process of social learning interaction in these three online learning environments. This paper concludes with a reflection on the relevancy of this online learning community-based TPD to existing TPD practice in Australia

Tales from the exam room: Trialing an E-exam system for computer education and design and technology students

The Centre for Schooling and Learning Technologies (CSaLT) at Edith Cowan University (ECU) was asked in 2016 to be the Western Australian arm of a national e-exam project. This project used a bespoke exam system installed on a USB-drive to deliver what would have been traditional paper-based exams in an enclosed computer-based environment that was isolated from the internet and any resources other than those provided by the lecturer. This paper looks at the two exams chosen by the Western Australian group for the trial; a programming exam for pre-service computing teachers and an occupational health and safety exam for pre-service design and technology teachers. Both groups were drawn from the Graduate Diploma in Education course at ECU. The paper looks at the nature of the exam environment and the procedure for creating e-exams. It also outlines the exam procedures used and examines the feedback provided by both the lecturers and students involved. Conclusions are drawn about the suitability of the e-exam system and improvements are recommended as well as a discussion about e-exams and digital assessment more generally

Educational Innovations And Pedagogical Beliefs: The Case Of A Professional Development Program For Indonesian Teachers

This study aimed to explore the impact of a professional development program on the teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and practices. More specifically, the program endeavoured to design a prototype for teacher professional development in Indonesia that was sustainable and scalable. This one-year program built upon the participating teachers’ existing practices, reinforced with the concept of reflection as a tool for ongoing inquiry of their own practices. The three major components of this program were: action research, peer-coaching and leadership support. By using a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative data collection, this study examined the changes in the participating teachers’ beliefs and practices, and how these changes may be related to the professional development program. The key findings in this paper have highlighted the importance of (1) the clarity of both the content and the outline of the program, (2) applicable and suitable professional learning methods, (3) modelling , and (4) collaboration among teachers. The findings have also identified teachers’ (limited) resources, such as time and access to facilities, to be taken into account when planning for professional development programs. The discussion focuses on the challenge to design professional development programs based on a belief-action relationship

Examining student ICT ownership, use and preferences towards electronically delivered learning resources in Nakhon Phanom University and Sakon Nakhon Rajabhat University

The objectives of this research were 1) to find students’ ownership of technology devices, ownership, soft-ware facility, and preferences, 2) to find out what devices instructors use in the classroom, 3) to find out how the students use the online learning that the university provided for them, and 4) to examine students’ software skills. The questionnaire and the interview instruments were designed to clarify participants’ attitudes, and used a Likert scale. Surveys and qualitative research design were developed using Qualtrics software, which is an online research survey tool that can be used for a whole range of data gathering purposes applicable to Higher Degree Research. The samples were the students in both universities (Nakhon Phanom University and Sakon Nakhon Rajabhat University), a total of 977 people. A statistical computer program was employed