Be Recognised as a Leaders in Education for only $1,000?

Recently I received an email which I thought was asking me to write an article nominating to educators. A fee of just over $1,000 was offered. But when I looked more closely, I would have to pay the fee and then I would appear as one of the leaders.  Along with a  profile or me, would be a photo. I would even get a certificate recognising my achievement (the achievement in this case being have paid a fee). Does anyone really fall for these sort of scams? 

Singapore Fintech Festival 2025

At Singapore FinTech Festival 2022

The Singapore Fintech Festival is now accepting free registrations from academics. This is a very big event filling much of the Singapore Expo center. In 2022 I never actually got to any of the presentations and just wandered around talking to be on standards (including mayy Australians) and at the drinks in the evening. To help get me to the  I have volunteered to fill in if the scheduled chair doesn't turn up for a session.

My Last Review

I have decided to stop reviewing papers for academic journals (I will still do for conferences I am involved with). The reason is that the academic publishing system is exploitative. Reviewers don't get paid, or any other form of compensation, for reviewing. In theory this is something you do, as you will then have your papers reviewed. But in practice there are many free riders. My gesture is a tiny one, but then I remember when I decided to stop giving lectures and that gained traction.

Authors submit papers and expect others to review them, but are not required to review. The authors receive a benefit from published papers, and a financial benefit when this results in a job, or research grant. Some publications are for profit and the published receives revenue from subscribers. The ones missing out from this are reviewers, who get no credit, or payment. So I will stop doing this. 

The system could be easily fixed. Reviewers could receive a voucher for each four papers they review, entitling them to priority processing for one paper submitted. For for-profit publications, they could simply be paid.

Publications could also invest in automated tools to take some of the drudgery out of reviewing. This would check for plagiarism (especially self plagiarism, where autoes submit the same paper, or ones with just a few changes, to multiple publications). Systems could also check references in papers. 

Canvas for WIL and Accreditation

This week I have been on training to use the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS). I have been using Moodle for 17 years, but Canvas doesn't look that different. At the same time I have been asked to contribute to a local event at ANU College of ANU College of Systems & Society on how to improve Work Integrated Learning (WIL). As I happened to be learning Canvas I have volunteered to lead a session on how it can be used for WIL. As I have been involved with accreditation for the Australian Computer Society (ACS) I also volunteer to contribute to a session on that. Here I am collecting my thoughts on the topic.  

There are specialised systems to help with experiential learning. Some of these are very specialised. As an example, I provided some advice on the development of the Student Practice Evaluation Form – Revised (SPEF-R) at The University of Queensland. This is used for occupational therapy students on placements. It has been used across Australia and is very useful for that purpose, but not applicable to other professional training. 

A LMS can't help with the difficult task of finding places for students to get experience. But they can help provide students with the familiar structure of a "course" with deliverables. Also underappreciated is to give staff some structure. These can be the workplace clients or supervisors of the students, but also the academic staff mentoring and assessment them. 

One idea which came up with Canvas training about quizzes was to use such simple tests to help orientate the students. I asked Microsoft Copilot to create a set of multiple choice questions, based on the ANU Techlauncher public description. Here is one of the questions:

Q: What is the primary goal of the TechLauncher program?

  A To develop advanced coding skills
  B To foster teamwork and project management skills
  C To learn about the latest technology trends
  D To prepare students for academic research

This may seems trivial, but it can be difficult to get students (and staff) out of the habit of seeing learning as about attending lectures.  

Assessment

The LMS can be used to lay out the milestones for the WIL, each with an assessed task. Rubrics can be used to clarify and simplify, the assessment. The student can see what they have to do, the assessor then indicates by ticking boxes on the rubric, how well they have done it. 

One challenge for universities is the form of assessment to be used. Vocational education would normally only use pass/fail grading (or "Competent/Not Yet Competent"). Universities tend to use a scale (and some accretion processes require this). However, perhaps on all of the tasks for WIL need to be graded finely. Small tasks can be pass/fail, with a few to grade more finely. 

Collaboration

I am most familiar with the ANU School of Computing's Techlauncher and Internships. Techlauncher has groups of students working for a client, whereas internships are individual. This semester I have been assigned a group of interns all at the same company and another all with the Australian Public Service. This provides mutual support for the students, and something which might be formalised, in a similar way to group projects. 

Accreditation

Accreditation bodies, such as ACS and Engineers Australia, need to be assured that every student achieves every learning outcome required from WIL. The risk is the university will simply send the student off to work and they will have AI write them a report. The LMS can help with assurance by showing there is a structure to the process. The evidence for each learning outcome can be recorded in the LMS, timestamped. This can be accompanied by a report from the workplace supervisor to say the student was there and performed, to the required standard. 

Charting the Future of Australian Higher Education in Sydney 11 & 12 June

I will be chairing part of the Higher  Education stream of EduTech_Au in Sydney 11 & 12 June. You can read about my previous visits and talks at EduTechs. These events can be a little overwhelming with the number of parallel stream and the scale of the exhibition. It helps to do your homework, using the website, or the app, to select who to listen to when, and book visits to vendor stands.

Assessing Student Team Project Work

 Greetings from the ANU Techlauncher "Sprint 1" assessment review. There are 12 tutors (mostly in person, a couple online) plus two convenors reviewing grades from assessment of the first assessed task for project students. There list a list of teams on the wall, with each tutor going trough their proposed graduate and comments for each team over the last few weeks. Issues with the nature of the project, problems with the client are addressed as we go along. The meeting has been going for two hours. This is a slow, often tedious, occasionally exciting, process as those involved argue over grades and techniques. Students, and the public, may not realize how much effort goes into grading, and how much this is an art, rather than a science. With projects for real clients, which are all different, there is no easy way to do this.