Best wishes from Transform

As 2013 draws to a close and we reflect on the first few months of developing ideas for transformed learning at QUT it is worth taking stock. We have:

• Developed a conceptual framework and draft business models for transformed learning, focused on the personal learning needs of a wide range of potential learners.
• Worked with around 50 staff in six course teams to develop modules of learning based on our ideas.
• Investigated online community learning, learning ecologies, models for online assessment, serious games for learning, mobile technologies for learning and much more.
• Discussed transformed learning with a wide variety of faculty and divisional staff across the university. In all, we have briefed around 500 staff in formal information sessions.
• Worked with about a dozen student ambassadors to learn about modern learners and the ways they engage with QUT.

Currently we have, in development, an interface for learning which draws from ideas for online shopping in the way it allows learners to interact with QUT materials. Our colleagues in Marketing and Communication are assisting us to build an environment which has the look and feel of QUT’s real world brand and allows learners to easily get to the learning they need.

Our model for learning is centred on:

• Connected learning using ubiquitous technologies. Our working proposition is that learning is social and that our online learners will be assisted to form connections with each other and with experts using the technologies which we all use every day. Access to this mediated environment will assist learners to work with others to develop understanding of the concepts and ideas presented in independent learning elements. 
• Independent learning elements may be in the form of ebooks, videos or combinations of various other types of files. In these independent learning elements, the materials necessary to participate in connected learning will be collated and curated by QUT experts.
• Assessment elements will be separately provided so that learners can provide evidence of their knowledge and skills.
• A scaffolded portfolio will assist learners to collate evidence of their learning.

Transform’s first six months have been energising, revealing, hard work and good fun. We have traversed QUT’s learning landscape and found a wide range of colleagues ready to engage with imagination and grit in the task of ensuring that QUT’s real world, collaborative learning brand can be brought to a wide and diverse range of learners wherever they are and whatever level of engagement they need with learning.

From the core team (Sheona Thomson, Richard Evans, Steven Kickbusch and me) we extend our gratitude for all the good work and support we have enjoyed from across QUT.

Best wishes for a safe and relaxing holiday season; we look forward to working with you again in 2014 and beyond.

Professor Sue Savage - Director Learning Futures QUT.

My best learning experience at university

As 2013 rushes to an end, our final three posts for the year will reflect on what the Transform team has learned since we began our work, as well as what lies ahead.

Ultimately, Transform is about using the enormous range of online tools at our disposal to provide students with the richest learning experiences possible.  So, this week, we’ve asked some of the Transform Student Ambassadors to share the best learning experience they’ve had at university.

Only one ambassador mentions the impact of technology on his learning. However, all of them mention the impact of individual teachers: committed, engaging and inspiring teachers. 

This is one of Transform’s greatest challenges. How do we take what great teachers do best – connecting with students – and ensure this occurs digitally on a global scale? 

Samuel Weston – Bachelor of Journalism / Bachelor of Laws 

A Journalism subject – KJB222 Online Journalism - is certainly the most rewarding example of utilising digital technologies to enhance learning I’ve been involved in. The unit coordinator, Susan Hetherington, reinforced the importance of understanding key online concepts, and as a result, online capabilities played an integral role in the subject’s assessments. For example:

• A running story, where new information would appear incrementally on Blackboard that we would then write a story about; simulating a real-time newsroom;
• A live blogging exercise, where we watched a video online and simultaneously created a running commentary pertaining to what we saw;
• A weekly blog entry, in which we had freedom to write about topics relevant to the course.

All information was conveyed to us through a Twitter feed set up with the hashtag #QUTOJ1. Even during lectures, students were free to tweet, enabling us to discuss and comment on what we were hearing as we heard it. This made lectures so much more invigorating, even if the zombie apocalypse made them more hazardous than most!

Kristy Winter – Bachelor of Applied Science / Bachelor of Information Technology

I recently discovered I had to change majors because mine was no longer offered by the university. After tracking down Laura Gregory, my course coordinator, I spent an entire hour in her small office discussing my future degree and career. It was the best hour of my academic life. Laura was incredibly helpful in guiding my study plan, offering me positions in research for the summer, and planning my honours degree. Upon entering the appointment I had little hope for my graduation. Leaving with a newly structured plan that focuses on my personal interests at university, and a step closer to my career, I could not have been happier.

Anna Kalma – Bachelor of Creative Industries / Bachelor of Information Technology

The best learning experience I have had during university, I experienced this semester. I was reunited with Jane James, a tutor who I previously had in my first year. I had developed a good relationship with Jane; she had taught and encouraged me to develop my drawing skills. She always took time to provide additional exercises or explanations of the topic and took a personal interest in helping me achieve my best work. This semester it was highly satisfying to show her my progress and continue to achieve success through her assistance. Again this time, Jane took a personal interest in my work and assisted me. The best part was that she often went above and beyond what was required, such as recommending resources and stores for supplies. At the end of semester I felt my work had improved beyond what I previously thought possible; all through her assistance.

Melissa Blacklock – Bachelor of Education (Secondary)

My most memorable learning experiences are the ones where I can tell my teacher/lecturer/tutor is interested in the fact that I am engaging.  That is more important than achieving perfect test scores. This usually boils down to who the teacher is – what kind of person they are and what their teaching pedagogy is. Often this overlaps with hands-on work because the interests of students have been considered. Practical work in labs and interactive tutorials always stick with me much more than dry lectures where we are merely being taught at – as though we are empty vessels.

It’s ironic, because while we Education students are taught how to teach, we are frequently shown examples of teachers who don’t follow these models. If anything, the bad experiences make me appreciate the good ones more, and overwhelmingly my best university learning experiences are the ones where I can feel someone is taking an interest in me.

The business of education ...

The introduction of MOOCS has captured the imagination and attention of education stakeholders worldwide.  Much has been made of the enormous uptake of the various offerings available on the EDx and Coursera platforms (amongst others) and the potential offered by open access on-line learning experiences.  However, the long-term sustainability of the MOOC model has also come under scrutiny, with significantly high rates of participant attrition (up to 93%), highly variable levels of quality and, most importantly, significant levels of investment (e.g. Coursera $US65M to date) without any apparent means of achieving a financial return (Ruth, 2012). 

In fact there appears to be a distinct lack of consideration around how "moving on-line" fits into University’s broader strategic agenda.  Rather, most appear to be engaging in the space early (we don't know where we're going but we're on the journey!) with some expectation of developing a degree of capability.  In the hope perhaps that when a viable business model does in fact emerge, they will have reduced the lag-time associated with responding (Magner, 2013).  

However, while MOOCS in their current incarnation have been underwhelming (bar the hype) both financially and pedagogically they have effectively signalled at least three important emerging trends in the tertiary sector:

•      They have effectively raised awareness as to the evolving nature of education, the increasing commercial and market pressures being placed on the tertiary sector and have opened up the idea that there might be (gasp!) alternate models of tertiary education (see Bokor 2012 for a snapshot of these issues);

•      The "sharks are circling”.  The significant amount of private funds invested in the MOOC space indicate the significant interest from private investors anticipating a number of opportunities in the tertiary education space.  Investing in MOOCs now helps those interested in "the business of education" to learn about our (sometime arcane) world and develop an appropriate business model that will suit their agenda;

•      There is widespread desire for short term, consumable learning experiences amongst the general population, particularly for those able to facilitate and support collaborative learning opportunities (Chafkin, 2013). 

This last point is particularly important in the context of the QUT Transform project.  Trounson (2013) in the Higher Ed. supplement (27th Nov, p20) reports that the growth of “taster courses” offered by Open Universities Australia “Open2Study” is over 30% with just short of 20000 students in their fourth cohort.

 

“We have found that online learning that focuses on collaboration and co-operation enhances student’s ability to explore ideas and knowledge more effectively” (Open2Study GM Jose Herrera)

So.... The sky isn't falling, but the climate is changing and more importantly, for those organisations that are agile enough a wealth of opportunities exist.  As Transform fellow Jason Sternberg says “good teaching is good teaching”. MOOCs have shown that it’s not enough to whack up a video of a smart cookie and a couple of quizzes for an engaging on-line experience.  By effectively adapting to digital delivery models we can remain competitive and to continue doing what we do best: educating (not just certifying).  By default however it does require investment and open thinking around the best way to respond. As such the Transform teams are building and growing a model that leverages QUT's existing strengths and capabilities and takes advantage of the learning gained from observing other institutions’ experiences in this space over the last 2 to 3 years.  A strong common theme throughout the process has been the need to develop a learning architecture that is flexible and responsive to the needs of student expectations, employer needs, and aligns strongly with the value proposition and unique capabilities offered by QUT in an increasingly fragmented and diverse education sector.

Dr Glen Murphy  -- Senior Lecturer, School of Management - QUT Business School /Transformational Teaching Fellow

Reference List

Bokor, J. (2012) University of the future: a 1000 year industry on the cusp of change.  Ernst & Young.  http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/University_of_the_future/$FILE/University_of_the_future_2012.pdf (Accessed 17/10/2013)

Chafkin, M. (2013)  Udacity’s Sebastian Thrun, Godfather of free online education, changes course.  Fast Company, http://www.fastcompany.com/3021473/udacity-sebastian-thrun-uphill-climb. (Accessed 14/11/2013).

Magner, L. (2013)  A wider web: Technological developments have spurred rapid industry growth.  On-line education in Australia.  IBIS World Industry Report X0008, September

Ruth, S. (2012) Can MOOCs and existing e-learning efficiency paradigms help reduce college costs? International Journal of Technology in Teaching and Learning, 8(1), 21-32.

Trounson (2013) Appetite growing for ‘taster courses’.  The Australian (Higher Education supplement, 27th November, p20.

Harnessing the strength of online communities within higher education

“The most promising use of the Internet is where the buoyant partnership of people and technology creates powerful new online learning communities” 

(Brown, 1999, p. 19).

Over the last decade the Internet has evolved from being a tool used by a few dedicated educators to one used by the majority of educators.  How do we develop this great resource in teaching and learning to allow students to build knowledge?  The ability for students to construct knowledge and demonstrate higher order thinking skills is at the heart of educational practices, and online communities have the potential to support these.  However, to understand how we can harness the strength of online communities to transform higher education, it is important to understand what they are and how we can use them.

The terminology associated with communities and learning is vast and well-developed. Researchers and educators use the terminology synonymously even though learning communities can be described and defined in different ways.  Some common terminology includes:

1. Communities of learners (see Brown & Campione, 1990)
2. Knowledge building communities (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1992)
3. Communities of practice (CoP)(Lave & Wenger, 1991)
4. Online learning communities (Brown, 1999)
5. Internet based learning communities (IBLC) (Wolf, 2001)

Despite differences in terminology, there are some basic similarities in how these communities operate.  Savery and Duffy (1995) suggest these commonalities include:

1. Complex, challenging learning environments with authentic tasks;
2. Social negotiation and shared responsibility as a part of learning;
3. Multiple representations of content;
4. Understanding that knowledge is constructed;
5. Student-centred instruction.

These learning communities can exist in a physical face-to-face (f2f) mode, an online or virtual mode, or a hybrid mode (more commonly referred to as blended) and students tend to seamlessly move between physical and online communities.  The challenge for university educators is knowing how to build and scaffold appropriate learning experiences for students in these communities given the range and availability of online tools, mobile devices and social media technologies (SMT).  Familiarity with online tools and user-friendliness also needs to be considered – some purpose built online education tools can be quite daunting.

Some common tools, activities and social media technologies that could support online communities if used correctly include blogs, google communities, facebook groups, discussion forums, wikis, twitter, pinterest, digital storytelling, storify, instagram and tumblr. This is not an exhaustive list but gives some idea of where to start the transformation process in higher education when developing an online community.

Building an online community involves more than merely placing digital artefacts such as documents, presentations or even video and audio online for students to consume.  Furthermore, placing this within a learning management system (LMS) with a common interface also does not equate to building an active online community where knowledge building occurs.  Too often LMS’s are used for the transmission of content in higher education and do not allow students to build knowledge or engage in higher order thinking. Many LMS’s also measure how often students access resources but this does not mean they actively engage in learning.  Some MOOCs place content online for students to consume and add a few quizzes and peer review assessment items. This does not engage students in an active online community as co-constructors of knowledge.

In transforming higher education and embracing the strength of online communities it is essential to choose the most appropriate online community tools for what you are trying to achieve.  There is no one size fits all for every possible topic of study or experience you wish students to participate in.  It is possible a combination of tools is best suited to a particular learning experience (but be careful not too use too many and confuse students).  There is a need to identify what the intended purpose of the community is and how it will work as well as understanding the background of your students.

For example, if we decide a discussion forum is needed as part of our online community, then it needs to involve more than posting a link for discussion or asking a series of questions (which would essentially result in similar responses).  It should encourage argumentation by allowing students to propose solutions or explanations to events or problems, provide evidence to substantiate these, and allow them to evaluate any feedback. Other learning approaches may involve problem-based learning or even the notion of students as authors.

True online communities don’t just happen and don’t always work in their intended way.  However, they do allow educators to rethink their approaches to teaching and learning and to create environments that are both collaborative and social in nature. Students must have a reason for joining an online community and this needs to be more than a linked assessment item.  Likewise, academics need time to effectively manage their online community and provide scaffolding where necessary.

Shaun Nykvist -- Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education / Transformational Teaching Fellow

References

Brown, A., & Campione, J. (1990). Communities of learning and thinking, or a context by any other name. In D. Kuhn (Ed.), Developmental perspectives on teaching and learning thinking skills (Contributions to Human Development Series) (pp. 108-126)). Basle, Karger.

Brown, M. E. (1999). Beyond the first wave: A framework for online learning. Journal of Online Learning, 11(1), 15-21

Hillery, G. (1955). Definitions of community: Areas of agreement. Rural Sociology, 20(2), 111-123

Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991).  Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1992). Text-based and knowledge-based questioning by children. Cognition and Instruction, 9(3), 177-199

Savery, J. R., & Duffy, T. M. (1995). Problem based learning: An instructional model and its constructivist framework. Educational Technology, 35, 31-38.

Wolf, K. D., (2001). Internet Based Learning Communities: moving from patchwork environments to ubiquitous learning infrastructures.  In S. Dijkstra, D. Jonassen and D. Sembil (Eds.)  Multimedia Learning: Results and Perspectives. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang.

Is there a place for storytelling in the Transformed environment?

 “Huddled near the warmth of his dwindling fire, Magma realises his days in this foetid cave are finished. Incessant drips from the lime soaked walls are the only indication of the minutes remaining. He straightens from his twisted stoop and rises to an imposing figure as fear begins to wrack his frame. The noises grow stronger as the cave begins to reverberate in a deafening cacophony. He will not go like a savage…”

A good story creates an immediate connection between reader and content. The reader becomes consumed with detail and anticipates the next sentence, paragraph and chapter. A great author elicits an incredible range of emotions from the reader by ensuring a personal connection between characters and reader.  We’ve all been there, unable to put the book down because we’re so engrossed in the story. A great story leaves the reader with questions. ‘What will happen to Magma?’ ‘Is he going to die or will he save himself?’ We want to know because we seek completion. Closure.

Great lecturers know this. The TED stage is full of amazing orators holding audiences captive to their incredible stories of survival, discovery or creation. Through the use of careful scripting, engaging photos and clever music, we feel part of the journey. We hang on each word as if we’re right there, sharing the experience firsthand; the sights, sounds, and smells are all a careful construct of our own creative imagination. This is what great storytelling does. It challenges us to suspend reality. We see this from great lecturers within our own faculties and schools – speakers who bring content to life through imagination and storytelling. They move content from the screen to the mind by sharing lifelong experiences of why this ‘stuff’ matters. They contextualise information around the audience’s knowledge. And the audience responds. We see this in our teaching award winners.

What can we draw from this when we move into the ‘Transformed’ environment of online learning? How can we bring content to life? This is our challenge.

There’s no single formula to ensure our success in the online world, but we know many formulas for failure. If we provide content only, we will fail. Our audience is not an amorphous group of content hungry, self-directed learners. Our online audience seeks the same engagement as our physical learners. They want to be shocked, impressed, engaged and most of all, connected. Connected with content and connected with each other. We need to rethink how we apply the culture of storytelling to the transformed environment. If we do this well, we will indeed have some stories to share.

So…what ever happened to Magma?

Jonathon James -- Transformational Learning and Teaching Fellow / Supervising Technician (Engineering Precinct)

Transformative Assessment

Assessment is one of the most challenging aspects of designing curriculum. The debate about teaching and learning in MOOCs has exposed several issues related to online pedagogy, including formative and summative assessment. Designing Transform curricula has given us opportunities to re-think online assessment practices and learn from the world-wide MOOC experience.

The design principles underpinning Transform curriculum are to:

• be inquiry-based around real world challenges
• offer flexibility for learners
• allow for collaborative learning between peers (with varying degrees of synchronicity)
• allow for contact between learners and experts (with varying degrees of synchronicity)
• allow us to curate learning resources and experiences in meaningful and coherent ways
• enable learners to provide evidence of their learning
• provide appropriate guidance and support for learners

So, what does this mean for assessment? And how might the experience of assessment be transformative for learners and teachers?

First principles of assessment

Regardless of the mode of learning, best-practice assessment principles still apply. First principles of assessment are summarised in this graphic:

References:

Boud, D. (2000). Sustainable Assessment: Rethinking assessment for the learning society. Studies in Continuing Education, 22(2), 151-167. 

Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112.

Herrington, J., Reeves, T., & Oliver, R. (2010). A guide to authentic e-learning. New York: Routledge. 

Sadler, D. R. (2010). Beyond feedback: developing student capability in complex appraisal. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(5), 535-550.

For learning to address real world challenges, assessment should also provide real world opportunities for learners to enhance the quality of the products of their learning. In assessment theory, we talk about the close relationship between assessment and learning using terms like assessment FOR or AS learning. This means assessment is a learning experience in its own right, rather than being tacked on afterwards (i.e. assessment OF learning).  

Assessment FOR and AS learning involves both students and teachers making judgments in order to inform future learning (formative assessment). David Boud has captured this idea in his concept of  ‘sustainable assessment’. Sustainable assessment is where learners learn to make judgements about the quality of their own and other’s work, and to engage in reflective practice. This involves peer feedback and self-assessment, activities that require a good deal of scaffolding and support for learners.

Real world learning involves engaging with messy problems in order to develop higher order thinking, problem solving and decision-making skills. It’s easy to design assessment that measures things that are easy to measure. But perhaps we should be suspicious if something is easy to measure, as maybe it’s not designed to measure the type of real world learning that involves messiness!  This is where VALIDITY comes in. Are we measuring what we had intended to measure? Careful design is needed to match real world inquiry learning with valid and authentic assessment opportunities.

Real world learning also involves engaging with the student’s own context, interests, strengths and weaknesses. Inquiry-based learning involves students choosing a question/problem/project related to their own life/workplace. It involves deciding on a process or methodology to use to address their question, and the mode or format that they use to present the outcomes of their investigation. Like sustainable assessment, inquiry-based learning requires strong support and guidance for learners as they undertake the inquiry process.

The assessment design process

Design of authentic assessment starts with identifying the learning outcomes. The next step involves designing assessment that provides evidence of these learning outcomes – i.e. what does success look like and what opportunities are needed to create this evidence? Only then do we design the learning activities that develop the skills and knowledge needed for the assessment.

However, as academics, we tend to be very passionate about our field, and this means we often start with the content, then develop the learning activities, and then create the assessment. And then we realise that we need to design the learning outcomes!

An even greater trap is being seduced by technologies.

The challenge of assessment and modularisation

The Transform curriculum approach involves packaging learning into chunks undertaken as online modules that can be bundled together as part of a post-grad qualification. This creates challenges for assessment, as it’s easy to fall into the trap of designing atomistic, easy-to-measure assessment at the module level. It’s not easy to scaffold students’ learning to make complex judgements on the quality of their own and other’s work in a real world, inquiry-based approach. Herein lies our challenge. Some helpful questions to start with are:

• What will success look like?
• What opportunities do learners need to demonstrate success?
• How will learners know they have been successful?

The risks and opportunities for Transform can be seen in the MOOC assessment experience. The worst MOOCs provide simplistic, poorly written multiple-choice quizzes, while the best provide rich, authentic, collaborative assessment experiences. For us, the choice is easy!

Mandy Lupton -- Transformational Teaching Fellow / Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education

Jill Willis -- Lecturer, Faculty of Education

Kirsty Kitto - Transformational Teaching Fellow / Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Kelli McGraw - Lecturer, Faculty of Education

The Curated University

Curating information and turning it into knowledge is the fundamental task of universities. Why then, is there so little discussion about it? When I began investigating how to best curate material for teaching and lifelong learning, I thought there would be systems in place and a community of practice. I expected extensive discussion in scholarly journals. Apart from some rare examples, I was wrong.

I see three layers of curation in tertiary education.

First, libraries play an important role as collectors and collators of information. Here, curation involves finding and keeping material, but not converting it into knowledge. Libraries are a repository (glad I got that one right) of knowledge. Some library services develop sites that bring knowledge together on a specific topic (e.g. QUT’s Library Subject Guides). However, this only reduces one step in the data gathering process rather than curating that data into knowledge. That is the task of lecturers.

Second, lecturers review knowledge on a topic and curate it in a way that allows their students to engage with it and learn from it. Lecturers also distribute knowledge to the general public. Queensland is currently in the middle of a state government crackdown on motorcycle gangs. As an expert on organised crime, I have been interviewed more than a dozen times in the last two weeks on bikies.  I gather information on bikies, convert it into accessible knowledge and pass that knowledge on to the public. This, in turn, helps the public form reasoned and rational opinions about government policy.

Third, as lifelong learners, graduates also curate material, continuously updating and expanding their knowledge. Online curation sites play an important role here, gathering publications and snippets of information. However, their filtering programs are not sophisticated and often provide little more than a data dump. Academics can carry out this filtering role, locating new developments, assessing them and providing informed appraisal. In the process, we become facilitators of lifelong learning and remain connected to our graduates.

Keeping up with knowledge produced in our disciplines is extremely difficult. We can't read all the journal articles or attend every conference. So, we have two alternatives. First, we can narrow our fields of interest so the information flow becomes manageable. Life is far too interesting for that.  Second, we can build curation networks that enable us to control the information flow. 

We all use filtering tools such as Google Scholar to direct our attention to professionally relevant issues. However, perhaps groups of content curators supporting each other would be more beneficial. We have writing groups, why not curation groups? Students are natural content curators – when studying, they share the workload and combine notes. Good research teams curate content when they plan projects. Why can't we build networks that share the curation load on a topic and allow members to pass on knowledge rather than simply data?

Dr Mark Lauchs – Transformational Teaching Fellow / Senior Lecturer, School of Justice Studies

How do you learn?

Are you effective? Strategic? Curiosity driven? Do you prefer to think deeply about a concept, or would you prefer to learn just enough to get by?  Your answers to these and other questions will very much drive your learning experience. 

Traditionally, we have had few ways of tailoring our teaching to the learning styles of our students.  However, Transform has the potential to change that.  Profoundly.

With the official release of the Experience API (xAPI), also known as Tin Can, we are entering the next age in data collection about learner behaviour.  The field of learning analytics is concerned with collecting, interpreting and reporting data about learners to help them and their teachers optimise learning experiences.   xAPI consists of statements about individual learners and sends these to a Learning Record Store (LRS).  You just need to work out what functionality you want, and then build it into your system.

I want to use the xAPI LRS to help learners build portfolios quickly and easily from a set of completed modules. This would make it easy for them to showcase work they are particularly proud of in LinkedIn or at their next job interview. How about a set of learning activities targeted to an individual learner and only sent to them when they are ready? We could even set up an automated assessment process, where modules unlock for learners as they complete well-specified requirements.

We usually only find out where our students have gone wrong after they’ve messed up an assignment, and the best we can do is tell the next class not to make the same mistakes.  Learning analytics give us the opportunity to help people learn how to learn, and direct their learning towards much more individualised goals and objectives. 

Dr Kirsty Kitto -- Transformational Teaching Fellow / Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Online learning: A student's perspective

I'm Sam. I’ve been asked to give a student’s perspective on what’s going on. My first brief is to talk about what I like about learning stuff online.

An online learning experience's primary strength lies in its flexibility. We keep hearing about how everyone wants everything to become more convenient; it's inherent to human nature. Online education is a (probably the) next step in making learning more convenient. And it isn't (solely) the fact it allows me to stay indoors and watch lectures in my bed. It enables a fluidity in learning that simply isn't available by a course with a timetabled lecture and tutorial.
The gaps and inconsistencies in access to tertiary education are well documented. We're paying so much more for university education than ever before. Plus, if you don't live within an hour of a major Australian city, it's not going to be easy for you to even attend university. The logical response is what we've seen beginning to happen around the world: massive open online courses (or MOOCs, because it's not a thing until it's an acronym).

These courses, despite various obvious criticisms, have proved extremely popular. This is unsurprising. I can think of over 50 people off the top of my head who would have been willing to complete an online course, but weren't willing/ able to commit to a physical university course. There are a hundred reasons they didn't, but most of them would be overcome by the type of online environment QUT Transform is proposing.

In Sue Savage's previous post, Developing modern learning experience, she set out the key principles grounding what Transform is trying to achieve. They all seemed to fit in with what I, as a student, would expect from an online course. They are all challenges that need to be addressed in a contemporary manner, with an eye fixed on what kind of new technologies can be employed. As students, we are no longer fazed by having to learn new interfaces and programs - so long as they aren't overly complicated.

This semester, one of my units, Online Journalism, required us all to create a Twitter account. Using the hashtag #QUTOJ1, we would all post relevant links to stories we created, or comments on lectures. It was a constantly moving platform, and the updating twitter feed was even displayed on the screen during lectures. It was an extremely forward thinking concept devised by the unit coordinator, Susan Hetherington. It offered me the most engaging experience in a unit I've had at QUT so far.

Maybe I'm just a bit weird, but I've never found learning a chore. An old teacher of mine once told me, "When you stop learning, you stop living." She was probably 60 years old, and was completing her fifth degree while teaching at my high school. I can't help but think we'll see cases like that increase exponentially as universities harness online learning technologies.

Sam Weston -- QUT Journalism & Law student / Transform Student Ambassador 

Immersion and Flow

I recently spoke at the ‘Immersion’ Keyword Seminar held by QUT’s Children and Youth Research Centre.  Seminar convenor and Transformation Teaching Fellow, Dr Peta Wyeth, invited me to consider immersion in relation to the Transform agenda and how digital technology creates meaningful and absorbing personalised online learning experiences.

The idea of learning immersion is founded in Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of ‘flow’ (1990). His 8 dimensions of the flow experience are: clear goals and immediate feedback; equilibrium between the level of challenge and personal skill; merging of action and awareness; focused concentration; sense of potential control; loss of self-consciousness; time distortion, and self-rewarding experience.

During the last decade, many studies have considered ‘flow’ in online learning, with most endorsing its positive effects. For example, a study of 525 students in 23 different online courses at Seoul’s Dongguk University (Shin 2006) found that ‘flow is a strong predictor of student satisfaction with online learning’, with student perceptions of skill and challenge influencing their level of flow (p.719)

Some educators point to the challenge of providing evidence of flow in online social and collaborative learning.  In this environment, is flow also aligned to ‘engagement’?  Research in Networked Flow: Towards an Understanding of Creative Networks (Gaggioli et al, 2012) identifies ‘social presence’ as a key element in building and sustaining ‘networked flow’.

This has clear implications for designing and organising online social and collaborative learning experiences.

As we move forward with Transform, our faculty fellows are developing principles and approaches to ensure the experiences we offer are based on an authentic understanding of personalised, small-bite encounters with learning, as well as learners’ more expansive social and collaborative experience in networked, online communities of inquiry. It’s an exciting time to be working at QUT as we chart our path towards real future learning.

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York, NY: HarperPerennial.

Gaggioli, A., Riva, G., Milani, L. & Mazzoni, E. (2012). Networked Flow: Towards an       understanding of creative networks [EBL version]. Retrieved from http://www.qut.eblib.com.au.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/EBLWeb/patron/

Shin, N. (2006). Online learners’ ‘flow’ experience: an empirical study. British Journal of Educational Technology, 37, 705-720. doi:  10.1111/j.1467-8535.2006.00641.x

Sheona Thomson
Associate Director, Learning and Teaching Transformation

Feeling the interdisciplinary love!

There’s often a lot of talk in organisations about “breaking down silos” and improving collaboration - and then very little happens... In part because very little focus is placed on the structural elements of organisational and job design that actually allow the transfer of ideas, knowledge and insight from one “tribe” to another.  One of the more interesting aspects of the Transform project has been that from the very beginning those structural elements were put in place. Various “Transform fellows” were effectively embedded within the Faculty teams responsible for building the on-line learning offerings.  The Business School have been lucky enough to have Jason Sternberg from Creative Industries aligned to our project.  


Speaking frankly, from the outset we did feel that we’d had a bit of a win (this of course is no reflection on the other fellows!) because of Jason’s strong social media background.  However as the last month has progressed it's obvious that Jason’s contribution to the team is far exceeding his “technical” skill.  In fact Jason’s official role written into our project plan is now “Ideas Man” & “Devils Advocate”.  Having someone sympathetic to your context and organisational environment, but external to your peculiar discipline has been incredibly valuable.  An appropriate question here and there, and example of what has been done elsewhere, a subtle but slight reframing of a problem, all in the context of the wider group discussion has produced a number of solutions to potential issues. Who knows... maybe eventually we can tempt Dr Sternberg over to the Business School!

Cheers, G.

Dr Glen Murphy 
Transformational Fellow 
Senior Lecturer and Subject Area Coordinator (HRM) 
School of Management
QUT Business School


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I couldn't agree with Glen more!  

Having the opportunity to be "undisciplined" and work with the Business School on its contribution to the Transform initiative has been a very liberating experience and its reassuring to hear that my input has been beneficial for the team.

To be honest, working in this cross-disciplinary environment is not that much of a stretch.  My home of Journalism, Media & Communication is definitely at the industry end of the Creative Industries (we even used to be part of the Business School!).  JM&C has also run double degrees with Business for years.

However, I think my "outsider" status has helped the team in a number of ways:

No one expects me to be a disciplinary expert

This frees me up to ask questions that could be considered naive and even stupid if they were asked by someone with insider knowledge.  Having to answer these questions means the Business crew have to explain, what is to them, common sense.  That process leads to greater clarity and insight for everyone involved.

I'm not brand loyal

I understand the need for whatever we produce to be consistent with the other high quality offerings that make up the QUT Business School brand.  However, having someone on the team who doesn't have to be brand loyal can allow the Grad Cert Business Managment to enhance the Business School's reputation in creative and unexpected ways.

Being interdisciplinary makes it easier to be ... interdisciplinary!

If the QUT Transform initiative is going to offer genuine flexibility, learners should be able to combine offerings in interesting ways that suit their needs.  It makes perfect sense for someone interested in business management to also be interested in social media management.  Why shouldn't an educational leader, or a scientist managing a team of 50 people, want to understand organisational behaviour?  Being able to float across the breadth of offerings being offered by QUT Transform and identify the places where learning experiences from Business can be dropped into other courses and vice versa, will strengthen the quality of every course.

Good teaching is good teaching

Everyone involved in the Grad Cert Business Management is committed to providing learners with the best experiences possible.  As a result, there has been an incredibly inspiring exchange of teaching ideas that transcend disciplinary boundaries.  I'm happy to say that some of my most effective teaching strategies have come from conversations with colleagues in nursing, science and education.  I'm now adding management to that list.  I hope the rest of the Business team are finding the teaching strategies from JM&C as useful as I find theirs.

I'm a focus group of one

I don't have a management background, but I know that my own professional development will require me to have one in the very near future.  Being someone who is genuinely interested in the learning materials I'm helping develop, both as a student and a teacher, gives me a unique perspective on how to balance content rigour, flexibility of delivery and concerns about how individual learning experiences might be turned into a qualification.  All of these are issues at the heart of the Transform experience.

Dr Jason Sternberg

Transformational Fellow

Senior Lecturer

Study Area Coordinator (Media & Communications)

Creative Industries Faculty

Developing modern learning experience

Purpose

The initiation phase of Transform (during 2013) is organized so that six selected 48 credit point ‘chunks’ of learning (one from each Faculty) are planned for online implementation from 2014. This means that learning experiences from each Faculty’s nominated Graduate Certificate award will be designed for learners to access through a range of digital interfaces.

Principles

Principles for the design of these online learning experiences are based on the successes afforded by our new physical learning environments and the principles that underpin our student success and real world learning initiatives at QUT.  Our intention is that these principles are translated to digital learning experiences aligned to QUT’s branding.  This mean that QUT’s online learning experiences will be designed to:

• be inquiry-based around real world challenges
• offer flexibility for learners
• allow for collaborative learning between peers (with varying degrees of synchronicity)
• allow for contact between learners and experts (with varying degrees of synchronicity)
• allow us to curate learning resources and experiences in meaningful and coherent ways
• enable learners to provide evidence of their learning
• provide appropriate guidance and support for learners

Support and Resources

In order to support the purpose of this initiation phase the QUT Transform Team (including twelve Transformational Learning and Teaching Fellows in collaboration with six Faculty-based course teams) will develop:

• an outward-facing online environment to engage learners wherever they are located at whatever times they may wish to take up learning; the platform will
• allow for learners to interact with each other and with QUT experts
• allow for the curation of resources and provide support to assist learners to achieve their learning aspirations
• incorporate a Portfolio to allow learners to gauge their readiness for new learning based on prior course and work-based experiences. It will also provide a place where learners can collate and provide evidence of their learning in ways which may assist them to gain an accredited awards further along their learning pathways
• include eCommerce solutions (including pricing structures for learning experiences)

Outcomes of initiation phase

Our hope is that, by the end of this year, each Faculty’s course team will produce, with the support of the Transform Team:      

• a plan for the equivalent of 48 credit points of learning experiences to be delivered online. The plan is likely to include:
• a map of proposed learning experiences with a synopsis of each experience outlined, and
• a version of the map that can be used to show learners how their learning could build to an accredited award (where one is offered).
• the detailed design and production of a number of learning experiences for offer from 2014,
• a framework to assist learners to provide evidence of their learning which would qualify them to seek credit towards an accredited award
• a schedule for the proposed roll-out of further learning experiences so that learners, once engaged, can continue in the field they have chosen.

How are we tracking?

We’re well underway.  Our course teams are adapting to thinking about the experiences we can offer to learners in new and different ways.  Course teams are getting their collective heads around who their learners could be and how we might best meet these learners’ aspirations in ways which remain true to QUT’s mission and values.  We are prototyping online ‘shopping-like’ platforms for offering learning experiences and we’re talking with colleagues across the University about pricing models, marketing, communication, IP, ways to support learners, means of achieving course learning outcomes through a new model of delivery and business solutions which are lean and easy on learners.

Our focus is on our learners, as it always will be.  Through this lens we hope that the knowledge, skills and expertise of QUT’s disciplines can be brought to many more learners than those students who are fortunate enough to live within daily travelling distance of one of our campuses.

Onward and upward!  Please be in touch if you have ideas and advice that will help QUT reach a whole new cohort of learners.

Sue Savage

Director, Learning and Teaching Transformation