Learning Intranet - Academic Development

Teaching Innovation: Learning Modes | Generative Artificial Intelligence | TEL Beyond the LMS

ECUlture 2023 is celebrating innovative teaching practice across the evolving intersection of digital and physical learning environments. For 16 years in a row, ECU has achieved a 5-star rating for teaching quality in the Good Universities Guide. Our aspirations to build on our strengths are clearly articulated in the University's Strategic Plan to maintain our reputation for an exceptional student experience through contemporary and agile responses to changing societal needs and expectations and ensuring consistent high-quality teaching across all modes and locations of study. All staff who teach and/or support learning and teaching and the student experience contribute to the achievement of this goal.

All ECU staff are encouraged to join ECUlture and share and learn about innovative practices at ECU across learning modes, responding to and embracing generative AI, and engaging with technology beyond the LMS.

Streams

1. Learning Modes

The rapid expansion in the use of learning technologies brought about by COVID-19 is prompting universities to consider how contemporary learning experiences are best enacted and communicated. In recent times language has been evolving to describe the ‘modes’ of learning afforded by new technologies, student diversity and active learning pedagogies.

Presentations in this stream will focus on teaching practice in specific learning modes: on-campus, hybrid, online synch, online flex, WIL.

2. Generative Artificial Intelligence

Generative AI (GenAI) emerged at the end of 2022 as the 'next big disruptor' with the release of ChatGPT. Higher education staff have been discussing and debating the impact of GenAI and the appropriate response with regards to assessment, student support, and academic integrity. It will necessarily require universities to rethink their curriculum, assessment and support. Presentations in this stream will focus on experiences with GenAI as it relates to learning and teaching practice.

3. TEL Beyond the LMS

For many years, ECU has recognised that all our formal university learning experiences are technology enhanced to some degree and that approaches to technology-enhanced learning (TEL) vary according to the discipline, year level, student cohort, learning outcomes, and resources, as well as any professional accreditation requirements.

Presentations for this stream will focus on innovative TEL, including immersive learning and other use of technology beyond the LMS to enhance student learning.

Visit the ECUlture 2023 Sharepoint site for additional information

Planning for the Future: Embracing Change and Transformation

Every year the Centre for Learning and Teaching hosts ECUlture, a teaching and learning conference where staff are invited to present unpublished educational research, case studies, and best practice showcases, as well as network with each other. Our theme is usually related to a priority that we have been supporting during the year.

This year, our theme is ‘Planning for the Future: Embracing Change and Transformation’. The format is hybrid, which means presentations and discussions will be accessible both in-person and online.

Margaret Bearman

Research Professor within the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE), Deakin University​​​​​​​

Margaret holds a first class honours degree in computer science and a PhD in medical education.

Over the course of her career in health professional and higher education, Margaret has written over 100 publications, and regularly publishes in the highest ranked journals in her fields. Recognition for her work, includes Program Innovation awards from the Australian Office of Learning and Teaching and Simulation Australasia.

Margaret’s interests include: assessment and feedback; simulation and digital technologies; sociomateriality; and educational workforce development.

Denise Jackson

Associate Professor, Director of Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) in the School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University

Denise’s work has been recognised by a number of research, teaching and learning awards, most recently a national Award for Teaching Excellence and the James W. Wilson Award for Outstanding Contribution to Research in the Field of Cooperative Education. Denise sits on the National Board for the Australian Collaborative Education Network, the professional association for WIL in Australia, and maintains close links with industry through research projects, the WIL program and networking.

As well as facilitating in the UK and Australian tertiary sectors, she has worked in HR Management in financial, manufacturing and tourism sectors around the world.

​​​​​​​Promoting student-centred feedback in online spaces

In higher education, feedback forms a significant point of connection between students and teachers. Feedback is therefore critically important at a time where students and teachers must negotiate technology-mediated learning environments in new ways. This keynote explores contemporary feedback principles and how they can be employed in digital spaces. Insights into student-centred feedback will be illustrated by practical applications.

Developing future-ready students who can realise their career goals

Employability is strategically important to the higher education sector with mounting pressure on universities to demonstrate strong graduate career outcomes. COVID-19 has increased uncertainty in the graduate labour market and universities need to carefully consider how they can help students to become future-ready and increase their chances of career success.

Associate Professor Andrew Harvey

Associate Professor Andrew Harvey, Director, Centre for Higher Education Equity and Diversity Research, La Trobe University

Associate Professor Andrew Harvey is Director of the Centre for Higher Education Equity and Diversity Research (CHEEDR) at La Trobe University. Andrew has published widely in areas of higher education policy, including issues of access, retention, regionality, comparative international admissions frameworks, employability, and the experience of foster care students. In 2016 he led a national report on student equity and employability in higher education funded by the Department of Education and Training. Andrew recently co-edited a scholarly book on student equity, Student Equity in Australian Higher Education: Twenty-five years of A Fair Chance for All (Springer, 2016).

Abstract:  Equity at the end of the student life cycle: strategies for success, completions and graduate outcomes

Universities are increasingly accountable for student outcomes. Quality Indicators of Teaching and Learning include graduate outcome data designed to drive enrolment decisions of prospective students. Performance-based funding has been introduced within the Indigenous Student Support Program, requiring universities to focus on success rates and student completions. The Australian Government is proposing to expand this model to mainstream funding, rewarding universities that record high completion rates and strong graduate outcomes.

There is a rising focus on the far end of the student lifecycle – completion, graduate employment, and postgraduate transitions. For universities, new trends and policies raise new institutional questions. How can attrition be prevented, and how can students labelled as ‘drop-outs’ be re-engaged and re-recruited? How might employability strategies support all students, including those who lack time, connections, or money to undertake work-integrated learning or extra-curricular activities? Which groups are at risk of poor outcomes, and what tailored strategies are required to support their employability and postgraduate prospects?

The presentation will address these questions with reference to recently conducted research around retention, performance-based funding, employability, and postgraduate equity.

Professor Linda Crane

Professor Linda Crane is Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine and Deputy Chair, Academic Senate at Bond University

Professor Linda Crane has extensive experience in leading learning and teaching, having eight years’ experience as an Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) in health professional education faculties across two universities including establishing the role in her previous institution.

Linda has also established an active research profile in learning and teaching having led National Strategic Priority Projects funded by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching in the areas of graduate employability and student experience. Recent research higher degree students have focussed on staff development and curriculum development issues reflecting Linda’s other major interests.

Wrap-up session

Professor Linda Crane will lead discussion of perspectives on the earlier sessions. Particular focus will be on themes that are common across sessions – with an emphasis on their relationships to student transitions and employability.

At the end of the session participants will be able to recognise issues relevant to transition and employability in their context and think about effective strategies to improve student experience in both domains.