Year
2021Credit points
5Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unitPrerequisites
UNMC540 Good Practice in Higher Education: Assessment Design or UNHE501 Curriculum Design, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education
Incompatible
UNHE505 Technology-Enhanced Learning in Higher Education
Unit rationale, description and aim
As a tertiary educator you need to support your students’ learning in a digital space that is transformative, engaging, and flexible. To do this, you need to be able to identify and take advantage of what technology-enhanced learning can offer and critically evaluate these options. This unit helps meet this need by encouraging you to extend your scholarship of higher education into blended and online learning environments to evaluate teaching technologies and digital resources. Using evaluative perspectives on technology can help you select and modify the environment and support you offer all the students you teach and prepare them for digital workplaces and communities.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:
LO1 - On successful completion of this micro-credential, you should be able to evaluate technology-enabled learning in higher education from one or more perspectives. (GA1, GA2, GA5, GA9)
Graduate attributes
GA1 - demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity
GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society
GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession
GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media
Content
Topics will include:
- accessibility and equity in technology-enhanced learning
- cognitive psychology
- Indigenous knowledges and technologies
- learning analytics
- scholarship of technology-enhanced learning (‘SoTEL’)
- technologies for learning and teaching
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
What is technology good for? Can it help students learn, or teachers teach? Are some technologies better for some purposes than others?
Starting with a scan of how technology is used in a unit you teach, this micro-credential asks you to consider the evaluation of technology for learning and teaching from multiple perspectives. This wide approach to evaluation is taken from the Learning to Teach Online MOOC (McIntyre & Mirriahi, 2019), which emphasises how important it is to evaluate the use of technology, especially “when you are first developing an online teaching practice, or when you are trying something new for the first time.” Four reflective angles – self-reflection, student feedback, peer observations, and theory – feed into this evaluation approach: you may recognise these angles as the lenses for critical reflection on teaching practice presented by Brookfield (2017).
It is recommended to use a portfolio to document your work in this micro-credential.
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment tasks have been designed to equip you to probe the value of technology for your teaching using these different lenses. The first assessment task is a formative one, and uses the lens of “theory”, in this case the scholarship of technology-enhanced learning (SoTEL): this is an important area to include in the scholarly reading you do to develop your teaching. In this task, you are invited to share a summary (approximately 1000 words, in Week D) of a SoTEL article with the class by finding and analysing an article that describes an educational technology in use in the classroom/lecture theatre/lab.
In the other assessment task (summative, approximately 1500 words, in Week H), you select one of the other perspectives and complete an assignment for that lens, choosing between
- the autobiographical lens: examining and developing your experience of learning about and using educational technology
- the student lens: planning an evaluation of a technology-enhanced learning sequence by using student input and activity
- the peer lens: that is, learning from your teacher colleagues, their experience and advice, by, for example, exchanging peer reviews of designs or teaching.
Scholarly literature will be needed to support each of these assignments. While you choose one of these lenses to work with in this assessment task, a knowledge of each perspective will enable you to select the most powerful combination for teaching insights.
By completing this task you will be able to make informed decisions about how you use technology in your teaching and understand what specific technologies offer the learner and learning experience.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes | Graduate Attributes |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment Task 1 The kind of assessment task needed is one in which participants demonstrate knowledge and understanding of theory relating to the use of TEL in the adult learning context of Higher Education.
An example task would be to use the lens of “theory” provided by the scholarship of technology-enhanced learning (SoTEL) to share with peers a summary analysis of a SoTEL article that describes an educational technology in use in the classroom/lecture theatre/lab. | LO1 | GA1, GA2, GA3, GA5 | |
Assessment Task 2 The kind of assessment task needed is one in which participants demonstrate knowledge and understanding of use of TEL in the adult learning context of Higher Education from both a lens of theory, and also an autobiographical lens, or student lens, or peer lens.
An example task would be use the lens of “theory” in conjunction on with one of the other three lenses (above) provided by the scholarship of technology-enhanced learning (SoTEL) to analyse a SoTEL article that describes an educational technology in use in the classroom/lecture theatre/lab. | LO1, LO2 | GA1, GA2, GA4, GA6, GA8 |
Representative texts and references
References for this outline
Brookfield, S. (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher (Second edition). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
McIntyre, S. & Mirriahi, N. (2019). Learning to Teach Online. MOOC offered by University of New South Wales on the Coursera platform, based on earlier work by Simon McIntyre and Karin Watson. Available at https://www.coursera.org/learn/teach-online
REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS
Bower, M. (2017). Design of technology-enhanced learning: Integrating research and practice. Bingley, Eng: Emerald Group.
Dabbagh, N., Marra, R., & Howland, J. (2019). Meaningful online learning: Integrating strategies, activities, and learning technologies for effective designs. New York, NY: Routledge.
Englund, C., Olofsson, A. D., & Price, L. (2017). Teaching with technology in higher education: Understanding conceptual change and development in practice. Higher Education Research & Development, 36(1), 73–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1171300
Kay, D., & Kibble, J. (2016). Learning theories 101: Application to everyday teaching and scholarship. Advances in Physiology Education, 40(1), 17–25. https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00132.2015
Kirkwood, A., & Price, L. (2014). Technology-enhanced learning and teaching in higher education: What is ‘enhanced’ and how do we know? A critical literature review. Learning, Media and Technology, 39(1), 6–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2013.770404
Miller, M. D. (2017). Minds online: Teaching effectively with technology. Harvard University Press.
Thompson, K., Gouvea, J. S., & Habron, G. (2016). A design approach to understanding the activity of learners in interdisciplinary settings: Environment and diversity. Transforming Learning, Empowering Learners: The International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), 870–873.
REFERENCING
In your work in this unit, please use the APA (American Psychological Association) reference and citation system, as described in the sixth (2010) or seventh (2019) edition of the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association.
ACU Policies and regulations
It is your responsibility to read, familiarise yourself and abide by ACU policies and regulations as they apply to students, including regulations on examinations; review and appeals; acceptable use of IT facilities; and conduct and responsibilities. These are in the ACU Handbook, available from the website.
Assessment policy and procedures
It is your responsibility to read, familiarise yourself and abide by ACU Assessment Policy and Assessment Procedures in the University Handbook: they include rules on deadlines; penalties for late submission; extensions; and special consideration. If you have any queries on Assessment Policy, please see your Lecturer in Charge.
Academic integrity
You have the responsibility to submit only work which is your own, or which properly acknowledges the thoughts, ideas, findings and/or work of others. Please read and abide by the policy on academic integrity and misconduct and note that plagiarism, collusion and recycling of assignments are not acceptable. Penalties for academic dishonesty can vary in severity and can include being excluded from study.
FIRST PEOPLES AND EQUITY PATHWAYS DIRECTORATE FOR ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER STUDENTS
Every campus provides information and support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students. Indigenous Knowings are embedded in curricula for the benefit of all students at ACU.
LEARNING SUPPORT
If you are experiencing difficulties with learning, life issues or pastoral/spiritual concerns, or have a disability/medical condition which may impact on your studies, you are advised to notify your Lecturer in Charge and/or one of the services listed below as soon as possible.
Academic Skills offers a variety of services, including workshops (on topics such as assignment writing, time management, reading strategies, referencing), drop-in sessions, group appointments and individual consultations. It has a 24-hour online booking system for individual or group consultations.
Campus Ministry offers pastoral care, spiritual leadership and opportunities for you to be involved with community projects.
The Career Development Service can assist you with finding employment, preparing a resume and employment application and preparing for interviews.
The Counselling Service is a free, voluntary, confidential and non-judgmental service open to all students and staffed by qualified social workers or registered psychologists.
Disability Services can assist you if you need educational adjustments because of a disability or chronic medical condition; please contact them as early as possible.
Technology requirements
You need a headset to participate in online meetings in this unit.