Unit rationale, description and aim

As a tertiary educator you want to support your students’ learning in a digital environment that is transformative, engaging, and flexible. To do this, you need to be able to explore and critically examine situations where you teach, where technology, pedagogy, spaces, people, tasks, values and purposes are closely entangled. This microcredential introduces you to ways to analyse and evaluate complex digital environments and asks you to extend your scholarship of higher education into a scholarship of technology-enabled learning.

This microcredential can provide an analysis of a learning sequence in preparation for a redesign project (UNMC560) or research of practice (UNMC580) or can describe how tools, tasks and teams are combined and made available when teaching within (UNMC581) or beyond (UNMC582) the classroom.

2025 5

Campus offering

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  • Term Mode
  • Professional Term 2Online Unscheduled
  • Professional Term 4Online Unscheduled
  • Professional Term 5Online Unscheduled
  • Professional Term 8Online Unscheduled

Incompatible

UNHE505 Technology-Enhanced Learning in Higher Education

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.

Locate scholarship of interest within the field of...

Learning Outcome 01

Locate scholarship of interest within the field of digital learning and technology-enabled learning
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC9

Analyse digital learning environments in higher ed...

Learning Outcome 02

Analyse digital learning environments in higher education using at least one well-theorised framework
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC7, GC10, GC11

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’) 
  • teachers’ roles in digital learning environments
  • technologies for learning and teaching 

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment tasks require students to analyse digital learning from at least two of these multiple perspectives – one perspective, that of theory and scholarship; the other, an analytical framework.

To pass this microcredential, you must demonstrate your achievement of both learning outcomes. You must therefore pass Assignment 2 and obtain at least 50% overall..  

Overview of assessments

Assessment Task 1   The kind of assessment task n...

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. 

 Word length: 1000

An example task would be to find and share with peers a summary of an article that describes an educational technology in use in the classroom/lecture theatre/lab.

Weighting

30%

Learning Outcomes LO1

Assessment Task 2   The kind of assessment task n...

Assessment Task 2 

The kind of assessment task needed is one in which participants analyse a digital learning environment in a higher education context

Word length: 1500

An example task would be to analyse the activity and learning environment of a classroom/lecture theatre/lab using a scholarly tool such as the ACAD framework (activity-centred analysis and design).

Weighting

70%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This microcredential starts from the premise that technology and pedagogy are closely entwined in any learning situation, and that we need to consider multiple elements when describing and analysing the environment which is provided to students and their activity within a complex learning ecology. Given these assumptions, the learning tasks posed in this microcredential involve exploring technology-enabled learning from multiple perspectives.

Representative texts and references

References for this outline 

Bower, M. (2017). Design of technology-enhanced learning: Integrating research and practice. Emerald Group. 

Carlson, B. (2022). Online lessons from Indigenous knowledges. Reprinted in M. Sweet (Ed.), Croakey Health Media, https://www.croakey.org/online-lessons-from-indigenous-knowledges/

Dabbagh, N., Marra, R., & Howland, J. (2019). Meaningful online learning: Integrating strategies, activities, and learning technologies for effective designs. 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 & Development36(1), 73–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1171300

Goodyear, P., Carvalho, L., & Yeoman, P. (2021). Activity-centred analysis and design (ACAD): Core purposes, distinctive qualities and current developments. Educational Technology Research and Development. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-020-09926-7

Green, J. K. (2022). Designing hybrid spaces for learning in higher education health contexts. Postdigital Science and Education, 4(1), 93–115. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-021-00268-y

Kay, D., & Kibble, J. (2016). Learning theories 101: Application to everyday teaching and scholarship. Advances in Physiology Education40(1), 17–25.ttps://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00132.2015 

Lai, J. W. M., & Bower, M. (2019). How is the use of technology in education evaluated? A systematic review. Computers & Education, 133, 27–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.01.010

Miller, M. D. (2017). Minds online: Teaching effectively with technology. Harvard University Press. 

Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. (2019, April 11). Guidance Note: Technology-Enhanced Learning [Text]. TEQSA; Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. https://www.teqsa.gov.au/latest-news/publications/guidance-note-technology-enhanced-learning

 

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