ASCILITE 2021

ASCILITE 2021 is on from 29 November to 1 December at University of New England in Armidale (NSW), and online. I am a joint author for one poster, a paper, and as a mentor.

It is good to see ASCILITE have decided to retain dual mode for the conference: in person or reasonably priced online.*

Here are the topics which caught my interest in the draft paper.

Conference — Program Day One

9:30 — 10:30 am Session #1 — Keynote Speaker: Professor Sarah Pearson, University of Queensland.

11:00 — 12:00 pm Parallel Session #2

Session 2 - Stream A Virtual Worlds in Education. Why are they not centre stage in online learning in a pandemic? - Lisa Jacka, Sue Gregory and Steven Warburton ID: 33

Session 2 - Stream B A systematic approach to learning design for supervisor training in a specialist medical college - Jorge Reyna, Santosh Khanal, Victoria Baker-Smith and Ellen Cooper CP ID: 15 Advancing the scholarship of teaching and learning using educational drama - Rajeev Kamineni CP ID: 20

Session 2 - Stream C Capability development by educational technology - Cedomir Gladovic CP ID: 38

Session 2 - Stream D Benchmarking educational quality – an independent analysis and alternative approach - Stanislaw Paul Maj CP ID: 7

12:00 — 1:00 pm— Lunch + ASCILITE AGM —1:00 — 2:30 pmParallel Session #3

Session 3 - Stream A Sponsor Session Chair: Steph Toole AccountingPod - Sponsor Demo Pedestal 3D - Sponsor Demo

Session 3 - Stream B Managing Career Transitions into post-secondary Learning Designer Jobs: An Australasian Perspective - Michael Sankey and Jack Sage FP ID: 91

Session 3 - Stream C Exploring the social aspects of student collaboration in online learning - Shahed Kamal, Margaret Bearman, Joanna Tai and Brandi Fox FP ID: 40

Session 3 - Stream D Implementing pedagogies of care in online teacher education - Dewa Wardak FP ID: 11

2:30 — 3:00 pm— Break —3:00 — 4:30 pm Parallel Session #4

Session 4 - Stream A Panel Session An integrated framework for non-formal to formal learning in Queensland - Professor Kevin Ashford-Rowe, Dr Donna Harvey and Margo Griffith ID: 49

Session 4 - Stream B The Role of the Lecture in Post Pandemic IHLs: Possibilities and Implications from a Singapore Case Study - Ganthi Viswanathan and Marnie O'Neill FP ID: 16 The Use of WeChat in Higher Education: Investigation of Chinese Students in Australia - Daeyoung Kim and Shanton Chang FP ID: 89

Session 4 - Stream C New way of investigating ICT-enhanced teaching in TAFE Australia: Disciplinary Focused - Shahadat Khan and Sue Gregory CP ID: 97

Session 4 - Stream D Chair: Special Interest Groups Contextualising the horizon

Conference — Program Day Two
9:30 — 11:00 am	Pecha Kucha & Poster Session - Session #6
Pecha Kucha For a full list of Pecha Kucha presentations click here. To read abstracts, click here Poster Session 6 Stream C Pecha Kucha Session 6 Stream A Chair: Steph Toole Pecha Kucha Session 6 Stream B Chair: Samuel Bugden
11:30 — 12:30 pm	Parallel Session #7
Session 7 - Stream A Panel Session D2L Panel Jan Owen - Chair and Convenor, Learning Creates Australia Prof Shelley Kinash - Executive Principal Student Experience, University of New England Tony Maguire – Regional Director, ANZ at D2L Emeritus Prof Martin Bean – CEO The Bean Centre (past Vice Chancellor, RMIT University) Session 7 - Stream B Design and development of a large Business School core interdisciplinary unit to foster blended learning during the Pandemic - Abdul Razeed and Thea Werkhoven FP ID: 9 Session 7 - Stream C Pedagogy Before Technology: Understanding the Confidence of Vocational Educators for Integrating Technology Enhanced Learning - Robert Vanderburg, Michael Cowling and Joanne Dargusch FP ID: 82 Enhancing students’ employability skills and experiential learning through integration of Xero software - Gregory Jones, Hazel Jones, Claire Beattie and Dom Pensiero FP ID: 84 Session 7 - Stream D Special Interest Groups
3:00 — 4:30 pm	Parallel Session 8
Session 8 - Stream A Panel Session Digging deeper into the ethical use of learning analytics - Linda Corrin, Hazel Jones and Srecko Joksimovic ID: 69 Session 8 - Stream B Back to what? What STEM and Health teaching academics learnt from COVID - Christopher Bridge, Birgit Loch, Dell Horey, Brianna Julien, Belinda Thompson and Julia Agolli FP ID: 52 Deakin Launch Network: an employability network that improves engagement, graduate outcomes and wellbeing by connecting and leveraging the expertise of diverse students and alumni - Trina Jorre de St Jorre FP ID: 96 Session 8 - Stream C Exploring students’ experience with and perceptions towards eLearning in an online public health module - Charlene Goh, Kit Yung Tan and Andre Matthias Müller CP ID: 65 Employability focused technology enhanced hybrid and online accounting capstone experience - Christine Contessotto, Edwin Lim and Harsh Suri CP ID: 70 Mobile learning and socially constructed blended learning through the lens of Activity Theory - Vickel Narayan, Thom Cochrane, Neil Cowie, Paul Goldacre, James Birt, David Sinfield, Alizadeh Mehrasa, Tom Worthington and Stephen Aiello CP ID: 57 Embedding the Development of Graduate Qualities of International Postgraduate IT Students in the Disciplinary Subject - Ping Yu, Siyu Qian, Zhenyu Zhang, Lina Markauskaite, Jun Shen and Ting Song CP ID: 71 Session 8 - Stream D AJET and the future of scholarly publication - Linda Corrin, Gwo-Jen Hwang, Jason Lodge and Kate Thompson - AJET Lead Editors About AJET; publishing and reviewing - Linda Corrin, Gwo-Jen Hwang, Jason Lodge and Kate Thompson - AJET Lead Editors

Conference — Program Day Three
9:00 — 10:30 am	Panels Session #9
Session 9 - Stream A Hiring practices: an analysis of higher education in Australasia - Nhung Nguyen, Camille Dickson-Deane, Keith Heggart and Mounika Ragula ID: 31 Session 9 - Stream B Community Mentoring Program  Session 9 - Stream C Learning to Research in Distance Mode: Technologies for Building Higher Degree Research Community Online - Nikki Rumpca, Ariella Van Luyn, Adele Nye and Huw Nolan CP ID: 64 A proposal to measure the Impact of Automated Response Systems on Meeting Student Learning Outcomes - Josiah Koh, Michael A Cowling, Meena Jha and Kwong Nui Sim CP ID: 41 Session 9 - Stream D Sustainable learning design in large transformational teaching and learning initiatives - Courtney Shalavin and Elaine Huber CP ID: 80 Exploring industry-university partnerships in the creation of short courses and micro-credentials - Rachel Fitzgerald and Henk Huijser CP ID: 67
10:30 — 11:00 am	— Break —
11:00 — 12:30 pm	Parallel Session #10
Session 10 - Stream A Panel Session Online proctored exams: the good, the bad, and the meh - Phillip Dawson, Michael Henderson and Lesley Sefcik ID: 27 Session 10 - Stream B The use of a publishing platform to facilitate the adaptation and development of Open Textbooks: A Pilot Report - Kate Nixon and Katya Henry FP ID: 87 On the Need for Open Teaching on the JamStack - William Billingsley CP ID: 68 Embedding wholistic learning: Designing curated eLearning processes for social work students - Prue Atkins and Katie Sykes CP ID: 50 Session 10 - Stream C Providing Equitable Education through Personalised Adaptive Learning - Punithavathy Palanisamy, Shamini Thilarajah and Zihui Chen CP ID: 76 Increasing Student Grades in Large Online Subjects: Combining Tutorial Support with Technology - Kelly Linden, Ben Hicks and Neil Van der Ploeg CP ID: 88 Session 10 - Stream D The silver lining of COVID-19 – improving operational processes - Sabina Cerimagic and Dewa Wardak CP ID: 4 From Pandemic to Endemic: Examining Transitions in Blended Learning in Teacher Education - Shamini Thilarajah and Renuka Nasendran CP ID: 37
12:30 — 2:00 pm	— Lunch + Special Interest Groups — Read SIGS information here
2:00 — 2:30 pm	That's a wrap! Handover

* It should be kept in mind that not everyone can get to a conference in person. They may not be able to afford the trip, they may have family,  or community obligations, or have illness or disability which prevents attendance. The last two years shows that an acceptable conference experience can be provided online. In my view it is ethically, and perhaps legally unacceptable to not provide the option.

Teaching Computer Professionals to Teach with Educational Technology

For some years I have been considering the question of how to improve the quality of teaching at universities. One obvious way is to have academics who teach trained and qualified to do so. However, the business model of university is to attract students, and funding, based on the quality of their research. Students will select a university to study at based largely on a reputation which comes from research, even though this has nothing to do with the quality of the teaching. As a result, there is a strong incentive for universities to select and promote staff based on their research record.

Having recruited a staff member based on their research, it is very difficult to get them to study how to teach. The academic knows that they will be promoted based on the research they do. Regardless of the quality of education they provide, students will enroll. However, those same staff then have a frustrating time teaching students, because it is a skill they did not acquire during their undergraduate degree, where they learned the basics of their discipline, or in postgraduate studied, where they learned research techniques.

Universities offer academic staff short courses, and various fellowship schemes, in an attempt to improve the quality of education, and also to be seen to be doing something. However, this is frustrating for all concerned. I have been through many of these training courses and programs.

One solution I suggest is to incorporate training into degree education, before academics graduate, are appointed and become fixated on research. It can be argued that teaching is an integral part of any professional's job.

To make this training more relevant, it can be tailored to the needs and opportunities of the discipline. As an example, computer professionals can help provide education using computers and networks (so called Educational Technology, or EdTech).

Emphasizing the technical aspects of teaching will make the topic more palatable to computing students, and also make the topic more acceptable to those who approve degree courses. Such a course can make use of whatever short training courses, or work experience through tutoring, or edtech support work is available.

This approach could turn teacher training from something graduates are reluctant to do, even when they are paid to do it, into something students will pay for.

Previously I used this approach in a reflective learning module. Students were required to write a job application as a course assignment. While they were offered training materials, workshops and individual one-on-one help by a specialist careers unit of the university, they were reluctant to use these services. As a result they produced poor job applications. However, when the same materials, workshops and staff were integrated into the formal course, students engaged. The same approach should work for teaching and edtech.