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Blended and Online Learning Design in BJBS (#15, 20 April)

BOLDBlended and Online Learning Design in BJBS (#15, 20 April)
This newsletter will (touch wood) be the last in this format. Why? There's a growing demand and need for multiple newsletters within our Faculty, and as you all know, that runs the real risk of clogging up emails. So we're moving to a single space for all news - Faculty, L&T, research, workplace learning, TOL, TOC...you name it, all the important stuff you need to know. Then at regular intervals, we'll send out an email with links and key information on all the recent posts so you can access what you need. We hope it's an improvement that will streamline communication a little more.


So this is just the next stage in an evolving journey - the newsletter started as a QLT (Online) initiative, moved into a shared newsletter with Warwick as Sub-Dean L&T, and now will move into a shared Faculty space.Thanks to all of those who have given such positive feedback on how valuable the newsletter is (and even to those who have said, 'nah, don't read it!' We will never make everyone happy, but we've tried. :) Onwards... Carole

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News from the Sub Dean (L&T)

G'day All

  • Great to see so many of you in Wagga last week at the 2018 BJBS L&T Symposium. If you did attend you should have received a request for feedback. Thanks to the 78 who have already responded, would love more and it only takes 2 minutes! And if anyone has any decent pics they'd be happy to share, please send them in.
  • After a few false starts the new special considerations workflow is now live. Training sessions have been run, for further info contact Kate Aylmore.
  • The new Subject Outline Tool is just about ready for use on 201860 outlines and beyond. You should have received an email earlier this week from Lucy Webster outlining important details about release dates, help website, and training needs. On 3 May outlines for 201860 and 201875 will be loaded into the new Subject Outline Tool. You can continue to draft 201860+ outlines in the current MSI tool until 3 May if that suits. These draft outlines will then be available to clone in the new tool but please do not publish outlines in the current MSI system.
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ALLaN Faculty Liaison changes

Ann Lawless has left CSU to take up a position at the University of Western Australia, helping to integrate health consumer advocates into the health research happening at the university. We wish her well!


Until a permanent replacement is found, Debbie Wheeler will cover the ALLaN Faculty Liasion role for our Faculty. Debbie can be contacted on (07 5529 4140 or dwheeler@csu.edu.au)

Opportunities to learn Opportunities to learn

After such a big few days at the symposium, we're taking a brief rest from synchronous professional learning. Don't forget that all PD sessions - upcoming, as well as past recordings, can be found in the Faculty PD Calendar. You can also check out other professional opportunities on the institutional PD calendar or the sessional staff PD site.

For those of you who can't bear a break, there's lots around to keep you occupied:
  • Online Coffee Courses - these are short, self-paced courses focusing on educational technology, teaching online, online pedagogy and trends. From ANU.
  • MOOC-List offers a searchable summary of upcoming MOOCs for those wishing to find free, open courses in specific areas of online learning.
  • Beyond the Lecturn - A regular podcast about learning and teaching in higher education, often focusing on issues related to online learning. Worth a listen.
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New library resources on trial!

Two video collections, Practical Research and Academic Skills Videos and the Sage Video Business and Management database have been added to the CSU Library Trial Databases page and we need your feedback.


The two collections hold hundreds of videos which we hope will help you in your study and research. Please see the Library Blog for more information.

Ramp up your digital skills...

These tech tips come with a lot of kudos to Judy O'Connell, a colleague in FoAE. If you haven't already seen it, the 23 things for digital knowledge could keep you very busy for a very long time in ramping up your digital skills. Or, you could just use it in the way it's intended - dip in, find something you want to learn more about, use the tips and links and go and have a play.


Oh...and some big news for Mac users...you can now download Skype for Business. Works a treat! It's been a long wait. :)

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Social media for researchers

"Engagement with the wider community and the removal of institutional barriers are the key features of social media for researchers. Its conversational style encourages more open, proactive interaction and it also allows for informal professional engagement with colleagues across different disciplines." Find out more

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Infographics and data visualisations

"Pictures really can be worth a thousand words. Images grab our attention, and carefully created representations of data and other information can help us quickly grasp what is being presented and communicate a message more effectively." Find out more

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Altmetrics

"Short for alternative metrics, altmetrics are a measure of web-based scholarly interaction. They aim to measure such things as how often research is tweeted, blogged, downloaded or bookmarked. Altmetrics are a recent addition towards attempts to measure the impact of scholarly and scientific published papers."

Find out more

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From the wiki...active learning

Evidence of active learning is now one of the teaching dimensions you can use to support for promotion application. In the lead up to the BJBS symposium, we've started to pull together some resources to support active learning in our wiki. There are oodles of strategies and technologies to try, and advice for those with specific needs - whether you're new to the active learning space, wanting to go deeper, tips for applying, examples, trouble-shooting and resources from recent workshops. Special thanks to Deb D'Cruz, Gana Pathmanathan and Kylie Gumbleton for contributing case studies. Take a look.


If you have specific feedback, requests or would like to share what you do in the classroom, let Carole know. This is a co-created space that is still very much in development. We're looking for more contributions, especially case studies of good practice in this area. Get in touch if you have something to share, and would like some support in return.

How might we... How might we...

Ultimately, each large scale online learning project that we take on offers opportunities not just for individual subject enhancements, but to rethink how we do our design and development work.


As we start to move further into the Transform Online Learning project, there are some questions that are worth asking. We're deliberately not offering any answers...but leave these questions with you to ponder.

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...bring students into the design process?

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...design for maximum student impact?

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...be more collaborative in the design process?

This month, we liked... This month, we liked...

There are always a thousand great resources, papers and ideas to share. Here's a few that stood out this month...
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The top MOOCs of all time?

There are so many MOOCs out there - so how to do find the right one for you? Class Central is a search and review engine for MOOCs - a useful resource to find online courses and help others decide which are the best courses to try. And...if you are looking for the highest rated MOOCs of all time, you could try their top 50 list (2017 edition).


As MOOC 'tasters' are a part of the TOL initiative, are we having conversations about how ours will be different to the other 1900+ on offer every month?

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ePortfolios - a review

This report, which comes from Dublin City University, is a useful overview of the state of play in ePortfolio use in higher education - what we know, and what we still need to work on. It provides a literature review, implementation success factors, and conceptual underpinnings, including process v product as the purpose. Definitely worth a read, though manages to miss some interesting players in this space (Helen Chen, for one).
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Feedback for learning

Did you know that while 94% of students want feedback, only 76% will use it on a subsequent task, and this is less so as they progress during their degree? Hmm. The feedback for learning site coming out of Monash, offers great case studies and a framework for success. One of the parts we like is Henderson & Philip's structured feedback approach for technology-mediated feedback, such as audio feedback. We're gathering other great feedback resources on the wiki...if you have something to share (e.g. tips, strategies/technologies/resources you've found useful), contact Carole. Why? Co-created spaces are where it's at.

Focus on learning analytics Focus on learning analytics

There's been a lot going on in the learning analytics space, both at CSU and externally, over the past month or so. If you've been hiding under a rock, here's what you've missed.
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The promises and problems of learning analytics

This is a simply brilliant keynote by Prof Neil Selwyn from the LAK18 conference, opening up some of the key concerns expressed about LA. Neil isn't an analytics specialist, which is what makes this keynote so good. He gets to the heart of some of the communication, blindspots and unresolved tensions in the field. As we move further into the use of analytics, it's important to be across this.
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Perspectives from a computer scientist

In this podcast Dragan Gašević, who comes from a computer science background but is now researching in education, talks about his pioneering work in learning analytics around student decision-making and moving beyond self-reporting. He also reflects on where the field is heading.
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Can analytics tell us what works?

UImagine have been running a lecture series on learning analytics, called 'we!magine data'. One of the big names is Bart Rienties, from Open University UK, who has done some great work on using analytics on a large scale to find out which design 'patterns' are linked to the strongest outcomes. This work is some of the most interesting in the field.

Before you go...

I came across this the other day...a time lapse video of how a research paper is written. Great as a resource for talking with students about the importance and power of revising their work, and just what it takes to pull a great paper together. Or just to watch yourself as something interesting.
https://youtu.be/hNENiG7LAnc
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Carole Hunter | Lecturer in Online and Blended Learning

I'll now be in Bathurst (most) Tuesdays and Thursdays. If anyone wants to catch up to chat about their teaching, let me know.

Email: chunter@csu.edu.au
Phone: 02 636 57127
Twitter: @carolelhunter

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Warwick Baines | Sub Dean (L&T)

Email: wbaines@csu.edu.au
Phone: 02 6338 4438

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