Web 2.0 for networked learning : from collaboration to shared cognition and knowledge networking

This poster presents research-in-progress into the educational affordances of so-called Web 2.0 sites, services, with a particular emphasis on those applications that involve forms of shared human-machine cognition and that promote public knowledge networking. This research involves reviewing many hundreds of Web 2.0 tools and selecting approximately 50 for further analysis and exploration as learning applications. In doing so, the research will generate examples of unusual affordances provided by Web 2.0; it will also present a more structured categorisation of the kinds of uses and benefits of these tools. This approach is valuable because much current research and analysis of the impact of Web 2.0 on education, particularly higher education, has emphasised a relatively limited array of tools – principally blogs, wikis and social networking services – that offer educators and students opportunities for student-led collaborative work. Such opportunities involve strong emphasis on constructivist pedagogy: students’ interactions with each other, mediated via the Internet, are viewed as the positive benefit which networked learning can provide. However, Web 2.0 is far more than just collaboration, and associated shared self-expression. In particular, Web 2.0 includes many examples of services that take one form of input from a user and, rather than just sharing it with others, enable the transformation of that input into different forms, either as visualisations, maps, or other re-representations. Web 2.0 is also starting to see the development of knowledge-work engines that embody the concept of shared cognition, in which the service and the user cooperate in the production of some final knowledge output or which present to users knowledge that has already been processed more extensively than through simple searching. Web 2.0 is also closely associated with the idea that knowledge work is now networked and distributed; it involves users appropriating, creating and sharing knowledge products in a very public way, far beyond the narrow ‘audience’ of a particular course or program of study. The research presented in this poster will provide, firstly, examples of the Web 2.0 tools which emphasise these additional ways of exploiting the Internet for networked learning; secondly, the research will provide a first iteration of the overarching structure of categories and classifications which can be used to assess any proposed Web 2.0 application in terms of its affordances for learning as knowledge networking. By understanding these technologies, truly collaborative networked learning can be developed that blends with the emerging cultures of online behaviour increasingly common to contemporary student populations.

Utilising the virtual learning environment to encourage faculty reflection and improve the student learning experience

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are the most frequent form of faculty performance in the classroom, though they tend to be used as summative rather than formative evaluations. In this chapter, a project involving the use of a virtual learning environment for formative, weekly SETs is explored from both the student and faculty point of view at a rural university college in the United Kingdom. This project encouraged student participation in creating the learning environment and faculty reflection on how to improve the student experience. From the student perspective, the weekly anonymous evaluations were useful for providing feedback; however, students tended to only respond if they were not satisfied with the faculty member. The exception to this was that some students were more motivated to complete the evaluation forms if they believed the faculty member was utilising their feedback. From the faculty perspective, the feedback was not as detailed as they had expected, and some questioned whether it was worth the effort of conducting formative evaluations if the response rate was so low. Others used the feedback for reflective purposes, and it was found that those that reflected on their work at higher levels tended to receive a greater year-on-year increase in their end of year teaching evaluations.

The pragmatic portfolio : an assessment approach for distributed learning

Portfolios, especially where they involve some use of or link to online technologies, are currently a popular focus for learning innovation in universities, drawing on a tradition of using portfolios in some areas of higher education and attempting to extend and broaden this practice. In some cases this focus has led to ambitious plans for whole-of-institution approaches, often involving significant technological development. However, the term portfolio can also cover a wider variety of possible learning and assessment activities and there are ways of using portfolios which, while quite traditional in their own form and approach, enable teachers to approach other aspects of their curriculum and pedagogy in far more innovative ways. This paper explores the conceptual basis on which the Department of Internet Studies at Curtin University of Technology is utilising a pragmatic approach to portfolio assessment within individual units of study, so as to enable a more thorough implementation of distributed learning. In this form of learning, where students regularly contribute to their own and others' learning through short tasks and conversations, the evidence of achievement is widely distributed and not easily accessible for either formative or summative assessment. As explained in the paper, students are required to collate, select, and then contextualise a sample of these numerous productive moments of their ongoing study. The paper concludes that while other goals for portfolio assessment (such as encouraging reflection) can also be used with this approach, its primary value is in unleashing the potential of social media creativity in a manner that motivates students via the requirement of assessment, enables feedback to be provided to guide learning, and which promotes shared responsibility between teachers and students in determining the kind and extent of their learning activities.

Through the looking glass : teaching and learning in blended immersive multiuser virtual and real world environments

This paper reports on the participation of higher education students and educators in blended immersive multi user virtual (MUVE) environments and real life teaching and learning experiences. Selected next generation technologies engage students and educators within the virtual socially networked elearning landscape of Deakin Arts Education Centre , and support the interaction of communities of learners in multiple modes, ranging from text and images accessed within the Deakin Studies Online learning management system to the "through the looking glass" virtual world in which the user’s creative imagination transports them to the “other side“ of their computer screens.

These constructed environments enable multiple simultaneous participants to access graphically built 3D environments, interact with digital artifacts and various functional tools, and represent themselves through avatars, to communicate with other participants and participate in collaborative art learning.

Immersive interfaces for art education teaching and learning in mixed reality virtual and real world environments

Selected ubiquitous technologies encourage collaborative participation between higher education students and educators within a virtual socially networked e-learning landscape. Multiple modes of teaching and learning, ranging from real world experiences, to text and digital images accessed within the Deakin Studies Online learning management system and a constructed virtual world in which the user’s creative imagination transports them to the “other side” of their computer screens is discussed in this paper. These constructed environments support interaction between communities of learners and enable multiple simultaneous participants to access graphically built 3D environments, interact with digital artifacts and various functional tools and represent themselves through avatars, to communicate with other participants and engage in collaborative art learning. A narrative interpretative research approach was used to profile the 21st century higher education student learner, to investigate the lived experience and multiple art learning perspectives documented in student visual journal entries and art educator observations to ascertain if an e-technology rich augmented learning environment resulted in the establishment of more effective e-learning communities of practice.

Immersive interfaces for art education teaching and learning in virtual and real world learning environments

Social capital framework in the adoption of e-learning

This is a study of the influence of social and cultural factors on the adoption of e-­learning in higher education in Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Singapore and Australia. Particular attention in each case was given to factors relating to social capital, attitudes and patterns of behavior in leadership, entrepreneurialism, and teaching and to broader sets of attitudes that shape general outlook. A case study approach was chosen in order to enable a richer and more finely grained analysis of the issues. The case studies are based on semi-­structured interviews and observations conducted over several years. This research shows that previously known factors that affect the adoption of e-­learning in higher education, namely, policy, guidelines, paradigm shifts and pedagogical change, are also significant in the contexts of each of the case studies in this research. However, this research shows that the adoption and uptake of e-­learning technologies is also strongly shaped by cultural and social factors but not in ways that might first have been expected. It is not so much that there are specific cultural and social factors relating to specific e-­learning technologies, but rather, that the degree of uptake of these technologies depends on teachers being encouraged, guided and assisted to innovate and adopt new technology. This can only occur when there is sufficient social capital, mediated through appropriate social networks, to build trust, overcome objections and anxieties, and generally motivate staff to engage in challenging, time-­consuming initiatives in e-­learning that generally do not promise immediate rewards.

Certain culture-­based issues emerged as important. These included staff mentoring, clustering through ‘bamboo networking’, trust-­building and overcoming fear of ‘losing face’ (kiasu), facilitating women to take the initiative and lead, developing sensitivity to cultural differences, encouraging entrepreneurialism and rewarding pioneering endeavours, all of which were present in varying degrees across all five case studies. There were subtle variations on a central theme, which was clearly that of the impact of social capital as a driver. It was social capital played out through personal relationships and social networks that most strongly influenced individual teachers to be sufficiently motivated to add to an already busy schedule by taking on the additional burdens of pioneering e-­learning technology and it was those social relationships that provided guidance and ongoing encouragement. As a consequence of these findings, this study offers a social capital model of e-­learning adoption, which suggests that the adoption and uptake of e-­learning technologies is strongly shaped by cultural and social factors.

Readiness for interprofessional learning : a cross-faculty comparison between architecture and occupational therapy students

Health and wellbeing includes a need for built environments to accommodate and be inclusive of the broadest range of people and a corresponding need to ensure graduates are ready to engage in this field of interprofessional and inter-industry practise. All too often, interprofessional education in higher education is neglected with a tendency towards educational silos, particularly at a cross-faculty level. This paper reports on an initiative that embedded universal design practice education into the curricula of first year architecture and third year occupational therapy students and evaluated the impact on students’ readiness for interprofessional learning. The Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) was given to students at the beginning and end of the semester during which students participated in a variety of online and face-to-face curriculum initiatives. Results showed that at the beginning of semester, occupational therapy students were significantly more positive about interprofessional learning than their architecture counterparts. Post-results showed that this trend continued but that occupational therapy students became less positive on some items after the interprofessional learning experience. This study provides insights into the interprofessional learning experiences of a group of students who have not previously been studied within the available literature.

Learning context in Australian universities - perceptions of Chinese accounting students

The study concentrates on how Mainland Chinese students perceive and respond to the learning in Australian universities. Students' satisfaction with their educational experiences and the Australian learning context such as teaching, teacher/student relationship, assessment, workload and English language is explored in this study. Using focus groups, the results show that teaching, teacher/student relationships and English language are areas of concern.

The new higher education reality: what is an appropriate model to address the widening participation agenda?

Along with the massification of higher education comes a need for new models to support the success of greater numbers of diverse students. A greater proportion of these students are ‘non-traditional’ in terms of preparedness, socioeconomic status  and geography. This paper introduces an Associate Degree model designed to support this new higher education reality of broader student cohorts, thin regional markets and cross-sectoral collaboration. Background literature on challenges facing the higher education sector and its prospective students is presented, with a particular focus on regionality. An argument is made for the role of curriculum and pedagogy as enablers of non-traditional student success. This is supported by the results of a mixed-methods exploratory study. This Associate Degree model was attractive to students and institutes. Students experienced similar levels of challenge, workload and progress to their traditional peers. While technology was essential for the success of the model, it played a supporting role to the relationships and multiple modes of learning it facilitated. This article provides insights for institutions seeking to address the broadening participation agenda.