Tertiary Education in a Time of Change: Disruptions, Challenges and Strategies [1st ed.] 9789811558825, 9789811558832

Table of contents :
Front Matter ....Pages i-xii
Front Matter ....Pages 1-1
Reconstructing the Digital Learning Environment (Claire Macken)....Pages 3-4
Embedding Media Richness in Online Assessment Feedback: Effects of Multimedia Delivery and Paralinguistic Digital Cues on Social Presence and Student Engagement  (Robyn L. Moffitt, Christine Padgett, Rachel Grieve)....Pages 5-20
Designing Authentic Assessments: Engaging Business Students in Flow Experience with Digital Technologies (Viktor Arity, Gillian Vesty)....Pages 21-38
Successful Factors for Adoption of Synchronous Tools in Online Teaching at Scale (Ling Mei Cong)....Pages 39-60
Front Matter ....Pages 61-61
Shifting the Curriculum (Rowena Scott)....Pages 63-64
From Small Things: Building Cross-Disciplinary, Transformative Learning Experiences Through a Global Mobility Experience for Higher Education Students (Patricia McLaughlin, Peter Stasinopoulos, Jeff Shimeta, Rick Ryan, Matthew Currell, Graeme Allinson et al.)....Pages 65-81
Using an Applied Curriculum Project to Connect Theory and Practice in Teacher Education (Kathy Jordan, Kathy Littlewood, Belinda Kennedy)....Pages 83-98
Exploratory Variations in Course Structure Consistency Within the Learning Management System (Pablo Munguia, Christopher Cheong, France Cheong, Ehsan Gharaie)....Pages 99-111
Enabling Holistic Curriculum Transformation by Using ‘Thoughtfully’ Designed Blended Activities and Resources (Suneeti Rekhari, Lisa Curran, Anselm Paul, Pauline Porcaro)....Pages 113-124
Front Matter ....Pages 3-3
Reflections on Change (Michaela Epstein)....Pages 127-128
Speaking Together: Reflections on Reconciliation, Yarning Circles, and Signature Pedagogies (Cathy Brigden, Al Fricker, Richard Johnson, Andrea Chester)....Pages 129-141
My First Six Months: Students’ Perceptions of Learner-Centred Design Studios (Helen McLean, Soumitri Varadarajan)....Pages 143-153
Front Matter ....Pages 155-155
Preparing for the World of Work (Leoni Russell, Judie Kay)....Pages 157-159
Graduates: The Future of Work, Soft Skills and the Increasing Importance of Careers Education at RMIT University (Alan Montague, Gabrielle Harvey, Genevieve Dickinson)....Pages 161-180
External Competitions and Work Integrated Learning: A Creative Industries Perspective from Vietnam (Lam Hong Lan, Jerry Watkins)....Pages 181-194
Future Systems Lab: A Landscape Architectural Teaching Model to Enable the Development of Practices that Can Thrive in Times of Disruption (Kyle Bush, Bridget Keane, Jen Lynch)....Pages 195-214
Front Matter ....Pages 5-5
Beyond Disruption (Tricia McLaughlin, Andrea Chester, Belinda Kennedy, Sherman Young)....Pages 217-217

Citation preview

Tricia McLaughlin · Andrea Chester · Belinda Kennedy · Sherman Young   Editors

Tertiary Education in a Time of Change Disruptions, Challenges and Strategies

Tertiary Education in a Time of Change

Tricia McLaughlin Andrea Chester Belinda Kennedy Sherman Young •

•

•

Editors

Tertiary Education in a Time of Change Disruptions, Challenges and Strategies

123

Editors Tricia McLaughlin RMIT University Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Andrea Chester RMIT University Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Belinda Kennedy RMIT University Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Sherman Young RMIT University Melbourne, VIC, Australia

ISBN 978-981-15-5882-5 ISBN 978-981-15-5883-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5883-2

(eBook)

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Preface

It’s a great pleasure and privilege to write the foreword for this collection addressing tertiary education in these disrupted times. Tertiary Education in a Time of Change—Disruptions, Challenges and Strategies is a timely addition to the scholarly practice as we struggle with the challenges of meeting educational needs in a rapidly moving world of climate change, health and human wellbeing and sustainable, equitable access to essential resources—and most recently, global pandemics. The chapters presented here originated in the RMIT Learning and Teaching conference, DisruptED, held in Melbourne in October 2019. This annual conference brings together a community of scholars, practitioners and sector innovators, who actively contribute their ideas, enthusiasm and passion to support RMIT’s journey towards scholarship and the promotion of remarkable, contemporary learning experiences for students. This book draws together invited authors based upon conference abstracts and presentations. Each author further developed their presentation into full chapters for this book which then underwent a double-blind peer review. This scholarly process took place prior to any inkling of the global disruption that was to emerge in the following months. Each of the authors developed their chapters under the shadow of a global pandemic which increasingly impacted tertiary institutions, academic staff and students. The ensuing year has been one of educational disruptions with the challenge to learning and teaching never greater as institutions attempted to maintain quality and access as well as meet technological challenges that grew in significance with each passing month of national and international lockdowns. It is fitting, therefore, that the themes of this book not only expand upon the many ideas and rich activities of the learning and teaching conference, but also go to the heart of the conference theme itself—Disrupted—and the ensuing time post-conference. The four themes of this book—

v

vi

• • • •

Preface

Digital Learning; Shifting the Curriculum; Reflections on Change and Belonging; and Conceiving the Future

could not be more apt in this disrupted time and space. In Part I—Reconstructing the Digital Learning Environment—the authors challenge readers to think beyond the known tertiary landscape of lecture rooms, semester-based courses and qualifications to a new world of authentic assessments, teaching online at scale and online assessments with contexts acquired beyond traditional settings and contexts. Moffitt et al. deftly outline behavioural aspects of online assessment and the effect of paralinguistic cues on student engagement. Their work itemizes the evidence and leads the reader to a better understanding of the levels of social presence of students separated physically. It gently explores the veracity of such cues and enables the reader to create new understandings of areas of engagement that have traditionally been seen as frivolous or outside our understanding of student online presence. Their findings suggest that paralinguistic emotional cues, mode of feedback delivery and engagement with assessment processes interact to influence reactions to online feedback. Similarly, Arity and Vesty examine using digital tools and flow experiences in their student’s work in The Big Idea—a University Challenge. Their outcomes and success reinforce the complex nature of student engagement in an online environment and the role of the educator in facilitating such engagement and success. Finally, in this section Cong proposes successful factors for the adoption of synchronous tools in online teaching at scale —a timely reminder of the challenges faced under online teaching in a complex global pandemic context. Her findings illustrate the very basics of remaining relevant in an online at-scale environment (staff and student training, online technology support, defining a clear purpose and scheduling patterns) and reinforce their importance for the success of online provision at scale. Part II of this book identifies parallel shifts required to facilitate such learning— face to face, blended or in the current “new world” of online or remote learning. It is interesting that such shifts had emerged prior to any global disruption, yet reinforce the need for innovation in curriculum to achieve adaptable change. Whilst McLaughlin et al. write of global competence in a curriculum that seems far removed from current enforced physically isolated experiences, the message is clear—students want global experiences and understandings, they want to be connected and they value opportunities to test their learning beyond traditional classrooms. Likewise, Jordan et al. illustrate the positive responses of students to design-thinking and learning projects outside what has been to date, traditional teacher-education experiences. Readers can be informed by the writing of Rekhari et al. who in their chapter demonstrate holistic curriculum transformation. Their explanation of thoughtfully designed blended activities is apt in current contexts and their examples of innovative practice such as the use of OERs, authentic assessments, synchronous and asynchronous communication tools and a range of Web 2.0 tools for interactive summative tasks are both motivating and interesting

Preface

vii

for educators at all levels. Finally, Munguia et al. complete our understandings by examining the RMIT Learning Analytics project and exploring the effect that online learning has on student behaviour and the implications for course hierarchy and architecture. The importance of reflection within scholarship is expertly acknowledged by Brigden et al. in their honest analysis of Reconciliation, Pedagogy and Yarning Circles in the opening chapter of the section on Change and Belonging. If ever the time to pause and reflect upon the changes currently experienced by this generation and the echoes of past generations was required, it is now. This position is so clearly and truthfully evident in their contribution to this book. Along similar lines of self-reflection and purposeful pausing in scholarship understanding and growth, McLean and Varadarajan analyse students’ perceptions of learner-centred design studios. Such insights bear witness to retrospective examinations of learning and teaching practice and value-add to our educator competency in interrupted times. There is considerable discussion and debate as to the impact of current times upon the scholarship of learning and teaching as the world heads into uncharted post-pandemic waters and economic and social commotion. Three authors in Part IV of this book examine the future from perspectives of changing work and employability, external opportunities in work-integrated learning and a model of landscape architecture teaching that can survive beyond disruption. Montague et al. firmly fix our attention to the relevance and domination of “soft skills” in employability and future work, whilst Lan et al. illustrate the value of connected work experiences and authentic learning through industry-led competitions. Finally, in a timely reminder of resilience, Keane et al. present us with a teaching model in landscape architecture that transcends time and disruption. This is a book that balances the complex interrelationships between scholarship and practice, innovative and shifting learning design and future conceptions of the scholarship role of the institution, the teacher and the learner. Whilst conceived in a pre-pandemic world, it provides timely insights into the challenges—and possible solutions—for tertiary education; both adding new knowledge and scholarly insights that will assist us in navigating an increasingly complex global context. I do hope you enjoy reading and sharing this work with your colleagues and friends. Professor Sherman Young, Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education). Melbourne, Australia

Tricia McLaughlin Andrea Chester Belinda Kennedy Sherman Young

Acknowledgements

The RMIT University Learning and Teaching Conference, DisruptED, was held in October 2019. The theme was Educating in a Time of Change and Disruption. The conference explored how RMIT is responding to the rapid global shift in education and the world of work; changing patterns of how, where and when learning and teaching is undertaken. The five conference streams covered the university’s strategic focus areas, and each stream saw academics, teachers and invited guests presenting research papers, interactive showcases, ideation sessions and site visits. More than 800 participants had the opportunity to hear about the outstanding learning and teaching practices and innovations of their peers across a range of academic disciplines. The RMIT FoR1300 Club was actively involved in the conference organization again in 2019. The three-day conference was successful in providing a snapshot of innovative teaching practices at RMIT University. This is the second peer-reviewed and edited volume arising from the RMIT Learning and Teaching Conference. The editors would especially like to thank the academics who kindly donated their time to participate in the double-blind peer-review process. Their thoughtful and constructive contributions helped the authors to refine their chapters: Viktor Arity, RMIT University Gabrielle Harvey, RMIT University Peter Davis, University of Newcastle Jerry Watkins, RMIT University, (Vietnam) Roger Hadgraft, University of Technology, Sydney Kathy Jordan, RMIT University Matt Bangerter, Monash University Ling Mei Cong, RMIT University Bridget Keane, RMIT University Peta Jinnath Abdul, Developmental Editor and Language Consultant, Brisbane Richard Johnson, RMIT University

ix

x

Acknowledgements

Phil Poronnik, University of Sydney Suneeti Rekhari, RMIT University Robyn Moffitt, RMIT University Tina Hinton, University of Sydney Alan Montague, RMIT University Christine Padgett, University of Tasmania Michele Rosano, Curtin University

Contents

Part I

Reconstructing the Digital Learning Environment

1

Reconstructing the Digital Learning Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . Claire Macken

2

Embedding Media Richness in Online Assessment Feedback: Effects of Multimedia Delivery and Paralinguistic Digital Cues on Social Presence and Student Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robyn L. Moffitt, Christine Padgett, and Rachel Grieve

3

4

3

5

Designing Authentic Assessments: Engaging Business Students in Flow Experience with Digital Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Viktor Arity and Gillian Vesty

21

Successful Factors for Adoption of Synchronous Tools in Online Teaching at Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ling Mei Cong

39

Part II

Shifting the Curriculum 63

5

Shifting the Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rowena Scott

6

From Small Things: Building Cross-Disciplinary, Transformative Learning Experiences Through a Global Mobility Experience for Higher Education Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Patricia McLaughlin, Peter Stasinopoulos, Jeff Shimeta, Rick Ryan, Matthew Currell, Graeme Allinson, Nick Brown, and Tariq Maqsood

65

Using an Applied Curriculum Project to Connect Theory and Practice in Teacher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kathy Jordan, Kathy Littlewood, and Belinda Kennedy

83

7

xi

xii

8

9

Contents

Exploratory Variations in Course Structure Consistency Within the Learning Management System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pablo Munguia, Christopher Cheong, France Cheong, and Ehsan Gharaie

99

Enabling Holistic Curriculum Transformation by Using ‘Thoughtfully’ Designed Blended Activities and Resources . . . . . . . 113 Suneeti Rekhari, Lisa Curran, Anselm Paul, and Pauline Porcaro

Part III

Reflections on Change

10 Reflections on Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Michaela Epstein 11 Speaking Together: Reflections on Reconciliation, Yarning Circles, and Signature Pedagogies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Cathy Brigden, Al Fricker, Richard Johnson, and Andrea Chester 12 My First Six Months: Students’ Perceptions of Learner-Centred Design Studios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Helen McLean and Soumitri Varadarajan Part IV

Preparing for the World of Work

13 Preparing for the World of Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Leoni Russell and Judie Kay 14 Graduates: The Future of Work, Soft Skills and the Increasing Importance of Careers Education at RMIT University . . . . . . . . . . 161 Alan Montague, Gabrielle Harvey, and Genevieve Dickinson 15 External Competitions and Work Integrated Learning: A Creative Industries Perspective from Vietnam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Lam Hong Lan and Jerry Watkins 16 Future Systems Lab: A Landscape Architectural Teaching Model to Enable the Development of Practices that Can Thrive in Times of Disruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Kyle Bush, Bridget Keane, and Jen Lynch Part V

Beyond Disruption

17 Beyond Disruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Tricia McLaughlin, Andrea Chester, Belinda Kennedy, and Sherman Young

Part I

Reconstructing the Digital Learning Environment

Chapter 1

Reconstructing the Digital Learning Environment Claire Macken

Section Overview In the fourteenth century, Laurentius de Voltolina’s paintbrush captured an image of a medieval lecture at the University of Bologna. Some students are bored, others chatting. A couple are asleep. And some attentive students up the front are attentively listening and engaged. Even in the sudden shift to widescale online learning in higher education in 2020, an image that replaces boring lectures with boring video conference might still allow de Voltolina to immortalize a similar scene today. But, it isn’t all this way. Imagine the artist’s reaction if he were able to peek inside a university like RMIT and see the potential of a truly engaging digital learning environment. Not just right now, but for decades, a digital revolution has been transforming the ways in which students engage with learning. In this chapter, three of RMIT’s best examples are captured. The first example, by Moffitt, Padgett and Grieve, considers whether educators can take the digital affordances from social media to the online classroom for the purpose of student engagement. They address how technology allows teachers and learners to connect to each other in online environments. This includes the use of multimedia delivery approaches and incorporation of paralinguistic cues used in every day online interactions. They explore how the simple ‘like’, emoticons and emojis can change student perception of their markers and feedback given on assessments. The second by Arity and Vesty explains how educators can immerse themselves, along with their higher education business students, in an engaging game-based world to provide real-time assessment feedback to students. The instructional tool is intended to contribute to a flow experience, where learners feel total involvement

C. Macken (B) RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 T. McLaughlin et al. (eds.), Tertiary Education in a Time of Change, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5883-2_1

3

4

C. Macken

in their learning and assessment in addition to a connection to their teachers in this context. Finally, the chapter by Cong addresses the question of technology adoption, using the example of Collaborate Ultra, an online webinar synchronous tool. Based on lived experience of promoting technology in learning, Cong explores the factors that lead to technology adoption success, such as staff and student training, mentoring and support, defining a clear purpose and scheduling. She addresses the important question of how technology adoption can occur at scale. As we celebrate in this chapter the potential of digital learning environments, all of our authors have a common theme. Whether in person or online, humans are wholly social beings. We learn from our teachers and we learn from each other. We need a sense of connection with who is on the other side of the screen. There must be a learner-centric approach to teaching in these environments. As educators, we must address the needs of learners in a digital age, reconsider our practice and embrace the affordances technology provides. Digitally enabled learning environments is an imperative way for RMIT and higher education, more generally, to continue to play a role in equipping current and future students for the new economy and prepare learners for workplaces that are rapidly evolving in this changing world. The contributions to this chapter clearly demonstrate how this can occur.

Chapter 2

Embedding Media Richness in Online Assessment Feedback: Effects of Multimedia Delivery and Paralinguistic Digital Cues on Social Presence and Student Engagement Robyn L. Moffitt, Christine Padgett, and Rachel Grieve

Introduction Online learning in higher education is rapidly increasing in popularity, with millions of students worldwide enrolling in online courses each year (Broadbent & Poon, 2015; Jaggars & Xu, 2016; Kebritchi, Lipschuetz, & Santiague, 2017). This is not surprising when considering the advantages of online courses regarding flexibility, accessibility, efficiency, consistency, and the breadth of rich digital technologies and multimedia resources available to deliver course content (Guàrdia, Crisp, & Alsina, 2017; Timmis, Broadfoot, Sutherland, & Oldfield, 2016). However, despite growing uptake, the more independent and autonomous online delivery environment and the requirement for effective self-directed learning have meant that dropout rates are often higher and achievement lower in online courses when compared to their traditional face-to-face counterparts (Broadbent & Poon, 2015; Kebritchi et al., 2017). Additionally, university educators have expressed concern over the quality of courses and programmes delivered entirely online (Wingo, Ivankova, & Moss, 2017). In one study, 70% of university educators endorsed the belief that an online degree was less prestigious than a traditional face-to-face degree (Stewart, Bachman, & Johnson, 2010). Nevertheless, with increased and faster Internet access, growing industry competition, and the fast-paced digitally oriented lives of the typical twenty-first century student, online course delivery in higher education will only continue to expand (Kebritchi et al., 2017; Timmis et al., 2016). When coupled R. L. Moffitt (B) RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia e-mail: [email protected] C. Padgett · R. Grieve University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 T. McLaughlin et al. (eds.), Tertiary Education in a Time of Change, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5883-2_2

5

6

R. L. Moffitt et al.

with the pressures in higher education institutions to improve student learning and demonstrate programme flexibility and effectiveness, it is becoming increasingly important to maximise student experiences in the online environment (O’Flaherty & Phillips, 2015). The literature supports the idea that “assessment sits at the heart of the learning process” (Timmis et al., 2016, p. 454). Therefore, it is important to address and enhance the student experience in the context of online assessment submission and receipt of feedback. However, digital learning environment designers have largely focused on the delivery of course content rather than assessment, and this has created an online environment where learning activities can be misaligned with their associated assessment tasks, and feedback processes are often simplistic and automated (Timmis et al., 2016). Innovations in online assessment practices have also traditionally been conservative, and slow, and remain efficiency and procedurally focused (Guàrdia et al., 2017; Timmis et al., 2016). Most online assessments involve multiplechoice questions that facilitate immediate and automated marking and feedback (Timmis et al., 2016). Other typical uses of technology in online assessment include software programs that automatically assess free text responses and written essays (Guàrdia et al., 2017), and plagiarism detection services such as Turn-it-into detect academic misconduct, create marking rubrics, and generate “quick-marks” (Rolfe, 2011). These types of assessment practices provide advantages in relation to standardisation of assessment, marking efficiency, provision of timely feedback, and reductions in educator workload, but do not capitalise on the potential applications of technology for student engagement with online assessment (Timmis et al., 2016). There is a strong need to better understand how technology can be used to support and enhance assessment and learning, rather than only make assessment processes more efficient (Timmis et al., 2016). This is especially important for online assessment, and when students are receiving feedback on assessments submitted online with minimal opportunity for personal student–student or student–educator interaction (Guàrdia et al., 2017). Online learning theories emphasise the importance of interpersonal interaction for the development of critical thinking skills, deeper learning, reduced transactional distance, and enhanced psychological connectedness (Jaggars & Xu, 2016). The current higher education online assessment context is, therefore, one where (1) effective assessment remains central to students’ engagement, motivation, and overall learning experience, (2) to date, very little has been done to bring online assessment policy and practice into step with digital advances and the needs of twenty-first century students, and (3) the importance of psychological closeness, social cues, and student–educator interpersonal connectedness in the online environment has been largely ignored in assessment design. The current chapter aims to explore and summarise, using a media richness theoretical framework and emerging empirical evidence, new and innovative ways educators can capitalise on the social affordances of available digital technologies to connect and relate to students, and consequently, improve learning and satisfaction with online assessments.

2 Embedding Media Richness in Online Assessment Feedback …

7

Online Assessment Feedback One of the most important considerations in assessment design is feedback; including not only the type of feedback and the way feedback will be given to students, but also the students’ response to the feedback received. Assessment feedback is central to the learning process and has consistently emerged as one of the most important tools available to educators to teach, motivate, and engage with students (Dawson, Henderson, Mahoney, Phillips, Ryan, Boud, & Molloy, 2019; Henderson, Ryan, & Phillips, 2019; Moffitt, Padgett, & Grieve, 2020; Timmis et al., 2016). The benefits of effective feedback are broad and include increased motivation and performance, personal growth, improved goal setting and attainment of goals, and a positive learning mindset (Evans, 2013; Hattie & Gan, 2011; Hemingway, 2011; Shute, 2008). To better understand how to encourage students to actively engage with feedback, a breadth of research has investigated the common characteristics of good feedback according to both educators and students. This research has identified a variety of factors including modality, timeliness, credibility of the feedback source, and feedback comments that are specific, detailed, and able to readily be applied in future work as being important characteristics of effective feedback (Dawson et al., 2019). However, higher education students are consistently dissatisfied with the feedback they receive on assessments (Dawson et al., 2019; Henderson et al., 2019; Pitt & Norton, 2017). This widespread dissatisfaction with the quality and usefulness of assessment feedback has emerged in both course evaluations submitted by students, and empirical research surveying student samples (Moffitt et al., 2020). There are also discrepancies between what educators and students believe are the components of good quality feedback (Mulliner & Tucker, 2017). Moreover, differences have also been observed in studies that have captured both educator and student perspectives, such that educators have reported inflated impressions of the quality and effectiveness of feedback practices relative to the impressions reported by students (Carless, 2006; Dawson et al., 2019; Orrell, 2006). A study by Dawson et al. (2019) involving 406 educators and 4514 students from two Australian universities revealed that educators and students largely agreed that the overall purpose of feedback was improvement: improvement in this context included both enhanced understanding of important concepts and higher quality future assessment submissions. However, in relation to the factors constituting effective feedback, educator and student impressions were not as closely aligned. More than half of the educators in this research (53%) emphasised aspects of feedback design like timing, frequency, and modality. However, students were much less likely to focus on these aspects of design in their evaluations of feedback efficacy (17%). By contrast, students emphasised the content of feedback comments in relation to characteristics like usability, detail, consideration of affect and personalisation (84%) more heavily than educators (34%). Students not only reported valuing feedback comments that were specific enough to allow application in future work, but also highly valued comments that were kind, personal, supportive, and individualised

8

R. L. Moffitt et al.

(Dawson et al., 2019). Thus, educators tend to focus more heavily on the pragmatic or mechanistic aspects of feedback provision, whereas students view feedback as deeply personal (Dawson et al., 2019). This mismatch between how educators and students view assessment processes and conceptualise high-quality assessment feedback may be at least partly explained by a different understanding of the key components of effective feedback. Receiving constructive criticism on personal work can be confronting, and critical or negative feedback can challenge self-concept and self-esteem (Moffitt et al., 2020). Students have consistently reported a preference for feedback that is positive, emphasises things done well, and comes from a warm and trustworthy educator who cares about students as individuals (Boudrias, Bernaud, & Plunier, 2014; Grieve, Padgett, & Moffitt, 2016; Hattie & Gan, 2011). For students, “feedback is an emotional business” where interpersonal connection matters, and this social and affective connection is important in both face-to-face and online educational environments (Forsythe & Johnson, 2017, p. 853; Grieve et al., 2016).

Feedback Social Presence This quality of closeness and availability in online communication, or “the ability to perceive others in an online environment” (Richardson, Maeda, Lv, & Caskurlu, 2017, p. 403), was originally labelled social presence by Short, Williams, and Christie (1976). Social presence has two primary components: intimacy and immediacy. Intimacy relates to the use of non-verbal cues and interactive discussion to foster a perception of interpersonal closeness. Immediacy involves the use of social cues to communicate accessibility and emotional availability (Grieve et al., 2016; Short et al., 1976). Online social presence has been strongly associated with a variety of educational outcomes; social presence can enhance student engagement, motivation, satisfaction, actual and perceived learning, retention, and overall achievement (Bangert, 2008; Grieve et al., 2016; Hostetter & Busch, 2013; Liu, Gomez, & Yen, 2009a; Reio & Crim, 2013; Richardson & Swan, 2003; Weidlich & Bastiaens, 2019; Zhan & Mei, 2013). Specifically, Gunawardena and Zittle (1997) found that social presence accounted for 58% of the variance in student satisfaction during an online educational conference. Similarly, studies have revealed that online social presence explained approximately 40% (Hostetter & Busch, 2013), 44% (Cobb, 2011) and 26% of the variance (Strong, Irby, Wynn, & McClure, 2012) in learner satisfaction in the online environment, respectively. Furthermore, Boston et al. (2009) found that social presence explained approximately 20% of the variance in learner retention in online courses. Social presence has also been found to predict 36% of the variance in perceived student learning (Cobb, 2011) and has positively correlated with better academic performance outcomes (Hostetter & Busch, 2013). There is also a relationship between online social presence and satisfaction with assessment processes and feedback (Walter, Ortbach, & Niehaves, 2015).

2 Embedding Media Richness in Online Assessment Feedback …

9

Richardson and Swan (2003) reported a positive correlation between social presence and students’ perceptions of learning via written assessments. Grieve et al. (2016) also revealed that higher perceptions of online social presence predicted more positive student attitudes towards assessment feedback provided online. While shown to be important in both face-to-face and online educational contexts, Zhan and Mei (2013) revealed that perceptions of social presence more strongly predicted academic achievement and student satisfaction for courses delivered online. Therefore, designing assessment and providing assessment feedback that enhances student perceptions of feedback social presence is a particularly important endeavour for educators. However, this is not a straightforward task. Online assessment feedback has been judged to be less personal than offline feedback (Grieve et al., 2016; Parkin, Hepplestone, Holden, Irwin, & Thorpe, 2012). Online assessment contexts can also leave students feeling isolated and disconnected from educators (Liu et al., 2009a, 2009b; Richardson et al., 2017). The online environment lacks the interpersonal cues present in face-to-face communications, which can further separate the student from the educator delivering the feedback and encourage disengagement with the feedback process (Guàrdia et al., 2017; Moffitt et al., 2020; O’Flaherty & Phillips, 2015). Thus, educators may tick all the pragmatic and administrative boxes relating to good quality feedback, but still not reach students on a personal level. Indeed, it has been argued that online learning environments are “not rich enough to communicate affect” (Richardson, Maeda, & Swan, 2010, p. 331; Richardson et al., 2017). However, feedback medium and media richness are important considerations when trying to boost student perceptions of social presence online (Richardson et al., 2017). As stated by Short et al. (1976), “social presence varies between different media, it affects the nature of the interaction and it interacts with the purpose of the interaction to influence the medium chosen by the individual who wishes to communicate” (p. 65). The effectiveness of online assessment feedback is, therefore, influenced by the interaction between the strategies used to translate and communicate emotionality, and the feedback medium used for delivery.

Media Richness Theory Media Richness Theory (MRT) provides a useful theoretical framework to explain this interplay between student perceptions of social presence and delivery medium in the context of online transactional feedback processes (Daft & Lengel, 1986). MRT was developed to explain workplace communication effectiveness regarding establishing shared meaning, the strength of interpersonal relationships, and the degree to which individuals are perceived as real people in online settings (Ishii, Lyons, & Carr, 2019; Lan & Sie, 2010; Sun & Cheng, 2007). The richness of a medium depends on four communication qualities: capacity for immediate feedback, ability to transmit multiple cues, variety of language, and personal focus (Ishii et al., 2019). Specifically, rich communications are fast and facilitate quick convergence on a shared interpretation of a message. Rich communications use natural language

10

R. L. Moffitt et al.

rather than relaying information primarily in numeric form and can transmit a variety of cues, including physical presence, body language, words, numbers, and graphics. Finally, rich communications are personal, tailored, and convey emotionality (Lan & Sie, 2010; Sun & Cheng, 2007). Enhancing these four communication qualities can minimise two factors known to compromise communication effectiveness: uncertainty and equivocality. Uncertainty relates to information quantity and results from a lack of detail or a lack of information (Daft & Lengel, 1986; Ishii et al., 2019). Equivocality refers to the quality of the information being communicated. Equivocal feedback is ambiguous, vague, and contributes to a lack of comprehension and understanding (Daft & Lengel, 1986; Ishii et al., 2019). MRT proposes that media richness becomes more important in certain communication contexts; lean media can be appropriate when the information being exchanged is straightforward and unambiguous, whereas rich media are particularly useful in contexts where the information exchange involves the communication of uncertain and equivocal content (Liu et al., 2009a, 2009b; Shepherd & Martz, 2006). According to MRT, there is a hierarchy of richness in communication media. The richest form of communication is face to face: it provides immediate feedback in real time and access to a variety of communicative cues, including facial expressions, body language, vocal tone, natural language, and important social and emotional information (Lan & Sie, 2010). Audio communications are less rich because while they allow the transmission of verbal cues including words, intonation, and pitch, they do not include the important visual cues present in face-to-face communications (Lan & Sie, 2010; Sun & Cheng, 2007). Text-based written communications that are personal in nature follow audio communications in the hierarchy, with impersonal written communications classified as the leanest form of communication media. Theoretically, the richness hierarchy in online assessment feedback would be represented by face-to-face feedback as the richest form of feedback, followed by audio feedback, and then text-based written feedback. The leanest forms of feedback would be assessment rubrics, with a simple numerical mark comprising the leanest feedback medium. The impersonal and predominantly numeric and text-based online education context is therefore one that could be considered ordinarily very low in perceived media richness. Although originally created to predict communication effectiveness in organisations, MRT has had some application in online education. While studies have not specifically examined online feedback contexts, Shepherd and Martz (2006) found the use of richer communication technologies in online teaching which led to higher student satisfaction, more positive student impressions of course effectiveness, and increased levels of communication between students and educators. Similarly, Sun and Cheng (2007) found that enhancing media richness by using more advanced technologies in the delivery of online courses high in uncertainty and equivocality was associated with higher student satisfaction and performance. A study by Liu, Liao, and Pratt (2009b) investigated student impressions and performance in online courses delivered via video, audio, or text. The results revealed that online course delivery using richer multimedia was more strongly associated with student concentration levels than leaner text-based delivery modalities. Together, the research has revealed

2 Embedding Media Richness in Online Assessment Feedback …

11

that enhancing the richness of online communications with students can improve learning and satisfaction, thus providing further evidence of the links between social presence, feedback medium, and media richness in the online educational context.

Applications and Innovations in Online Feedback Processes Rapidly evolving embedded technology features in online education have seen the continual creation of new methods to enrich lean media and facilitate social, emotional, and relational interactivity (Ishii et al., 2019). This has encouraged exploration of the different avenues through which educators can promote social presence and media richness when providing assessment feedback online.

Audio and Audio-Visual Feedback One approach that has been investigated to enhance the richness of feedback delivered online is the use of audio-visual and audio feedback, and evidence generally supports the suggestion that media richness and student impressions of feedback can be enhanced by increasing the quality and quantity of communication cues. Merry and Orsmond (2008), for example, reported higher student preferences for audio than written assessment feedback; audio feedback was considered higher in clarity, detail, and authenticity than written feedback. Killingback, Ahmed and Williams (2019) further reported that students preferred audio feedback over written feedback. The benefits of audio feedback over text-based feedback included higher detail, greater clarity, and ease of comprehension. Moreover, students reported that audio feedback was preferable to written feedback as it conveyed information regarding assessor tone and personality, and that these extra affective and emotional cues helped to soften the impact of critical feedback. When compared with traditional text-based written assessment feedback, audio feedback has also been judged to be more personal and more flexible in relation to student learning styles (Carruthers et al., 2015; Rawle, Thuna, Zhao, & Kaler, 2018). West and Turner (2016) similarly revealed that students preferred audio-visual feedback over text-based written feedback. Student reflections regarding the advantages of audio-visual feedback included more clarity, less ambiguity, higher perceptions of feedback quality, and the ability to communicate rapport and establish an assessor-student interpersonal connection. The additional non-verbal cues present in video-based feedback can enhance comprehension of feedback messages and student engagement with feedback processes (Crook et al., 2012; Killingback et al., 2019; Mahoney, Macfarlane, & Ajjawi, 2019; McCarthy, 2015; Thompson & Lee, 2012). Audio-visual feedback can increase the time spent by students viewing (i.e., pausing, repeating, and revisiting) feedback. Students have also been found to engage more with generic audio-visual assessment feedback presented to an entire student

12

R. L. Moffitt et al.

cohort than with individualised written and audio feedback (Mahoney et al., 2019). Interestingly, though, some evidence has revealed that increasing the number or richness of cues in accord with a simple linear hierarchy of media richness does not uniformly result in more favourable student impressions. McCarthy (2015), for instance, reported that students preferred audio-visual feedback, followed by written feedback, and lastly audio feedback. While the audio feedback was considered more personal than the written feedback, students were dissatisfied with the lack of visual cues (graphic or text-based) available in the audio-only feedback. Congruent with MRT, the impact of enhancing media richness in assessment feedback can differ across feedback contexts (Liu et al., 2009a, 2009b; Shepherd and Martz, 2006). Indeed, students have reported that richer forms of assessment feedback, delivered via audio and audio-visual files, can be intimidating and distracting (Gleaves & Walker, 2013; Henderson et al., 2019). Feedback modalities that facilitate the transmission of emotional information also do not discriminate, and instructors can find it difficult to conceal unwanted emotionality, such as disappointment and frustration (Mahoney et al., 2019). Moreover, while the additional communication cues in richer feedback modalities can communicate useful non-verbal information to minimise uncertainty and equivocality of the message, there may be instances where the reverse is also true. Research has shown that student impressions of educator effectiveness are influenced by a range of variables including educator age, gender, appearance, and personality (Felton, Koper, Mitchell, & Stinson; 2008; Mitchell & Martin, 2018; Rosen, 2018). Richer feedback modalities that transmit these more peripheral cues may not be uniformly beneficial for students to facilitate message comprehension. These multimedia feedback modalities, while richer in non-verbal cues, are also inefficient and inflexible in relation to tailoring (Morris & Chikwa, 2016). Audio and audio-visual feedback files necessitate the provision of overall feedback that applies to an entire assessment piece, and do not easily enable links with specific components or sections within an assessment submission. Students have also reported that downloading large audio and audio-visual files to access assessment feedback can be time consuming and introduce opportunities for technological difficulties. The provision of multimedia feedback files to students also has not been found to provide an advantage in relation to marking efficiency for educators (Henderson & Phillips, 2015; McCarthy, 2015; Morris & Chikwa, 2016).

Paralinguistic Digital Cues In addition to the mixed research evidence to support the use of audio and audiovisual online assessment feedback, the typical twenty-first century student now has a broader variety of online communication modalities readily available. Although there are numerous audio and video-based communication platforms available to facilitate online communications (e.g., Skype, Instagram, and Apple Facetime), text-based computer-mediated communication is still the most preferred medium for social and interpersonal communications (Olaniran, 2003). In response to their

2 Embedding Media Richness in Online Assessment Feedback …

13

popularity among users, researchers have begun to explore the use of digital affordances including text-based paralinguistic cues to enhance social presence and media richness in online communications. Digital affordances are technology design or interface features that are used to communicate sociability and create and convey meaning among users (Carr, Wohn, & Hayes, 2016). Textese, or casually abbreviated language (e.g., “YOLO” for “you only live once”), is one form of digital affordance commonly used in online communications. Very little research has explored the use of textese in formal education settings. However, textese is used primarily to abbreviate and shorten, rather than enrich, messages. The limited available research has also suggested that textese, while having no documented negative implications for student language and literacy skills, is currently more commonly used in mobile-phone text messaging among friends and peers than with educators in more formal educational contexts (Kemp & Clayton, 2017; Ouellette & Michaud, 2016). One-click phatic tools which are activated by a single click on a written comment or image (e.g., Facebook Likes and Twitter Favourites) are another popular paralinguistic cues used in online communications (Carr et al., 2016). In social media settings, one-click tools have been shown to be effective at communicating social support, sociability, and relational closeness (Carr et al., 2016). Due to their popularity and simplicity, one-click tools have been enabled in several educational software systems used to deliver courses online (i.e., discussion board Likes). However, these tools are lean, there is limited empirical evidence for their effectiveness, and no research has investigated their application in the provision of online assessment feedback. Of the currently available digital affordances, the approach that is most likely to influence both social presence and media richness is the use of paralinguistic cues designed to communicate emotionality. Paralanguage relates to the “emotion-laden aspects of speech that are not actual verbal prose” (Luangrath, Peck, & Barger, 2017, p. 98). Text-based paralinguistic digital cues include words, symbols, images, character repetitions (e.g., yessssss), or punctuation (e.g., ?!??!???!!) used to provide non-verbal emotional context (Luangrath et al., 2017; Rodríquez-Hidalgo, Tan, & Verlegh, 2017). Some of the most popular and effective paralinguistic symbolic cues used to communicate emotions online are emoticons and emoji (Rodríquez-Hidalgo et al., 2017). Emoticons are representations of facial expressions created using typographical marks, such as (Aldunate & Gonzalez-Ibanez, 2017). Emoji are graphic , used to symbols of more human than typographic emotive characters, such as similarly convey facial expressions and emotional states (Prada et al., 2018). In social communications, emoticons and emoji have been shown to effectively communicate emotional tone, facilitate disambiguation, improve comprehension, and enable more accurate classification of the affective valence of online messages (Aghajani & Aldoo, 2018; Aldunate & Gonzalez-Ibanez, 2017; Derks, Bos, & Grumbkow, 2008; Hu, Zhao, & Wu, 2016; Stapa & Shaari, 2012). They are also highly prevalent among young adults across a range of online platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp with approximately 90% of Facebook users regularly including emoji in their public feed (Prada et al., 2018).

14

R. L. Moffitt et al.

The evidence for the effectiveness of emoticons and emoji to convey emotionality in the educational context, and specifically for the provision of online assessment feedback, has also grown in recent years. Grieve et al. (2019), for example, presented students with a faux essay written by a student and associated written educator feedback. The assessment feedback was designed to emulate a standard Turn-it-in software interface whereby brief in-text comment bubbles were included along with a written summary feedback paragraph displayed on the right-hand side of the screen. Students were asked to read the essay and the associated feedback and then provide their perceptions of the educator who marked the work. The written feedback was identical for all participants. However, participants allocated to the experimental group viewed written feedback which also included six emoticons (four happy face emoticons and two sad face emoticons) presented alongside feedback comments of a matching valence. The results revealed that students perceived the marker to be significantly higher in extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to experience when emoticons were included in the assessment feedback. In a follow-up study, Moffitt et al. (2020) investigated whether student perceptions of the use of emoticons in assessment feedback delivered online differed with the number and valence of the emoticons. Students were again presented with an essay and associated written feedback from an educator using an emulated Turnit-in interface. A control condition presented the written feedback with no emoticons. The experimental groups included either one, three, or six emoticons that depicted happy, sad, or confused faces. Student perceptions of marker warmth were significantly higher when the feedback included happy face emoticons, relative to the inclusion of no emoticons or emoticons of a negative valence. Perceptions of marker competence were also significantly higher when the feedback included three happy face emoticons, in comparison to the inclusion of three sad or confused face emoticons. Importantly, these benefits to student perceptions of marker warmth and competence with happy face emoticons were observed without any accompanying decline in perceptions of marker professionalism or perceptions of overall feedback quality. Although indicative, this existing research is sparse and is not without limitation. Current research has incorporated emoticons rather than emoji in the assessment feedback. However, it is possible that findings may only be strengthened with the inclusion of emoji as emoji characters have been rated higher than emoticons on attributes including visual appeal, familiarity, and realism (Rodrigues, Prada, Gaspar, Garrido, & Lopes, 2018). The educators in these studies have also been unfamiliar to the student participants, and it is not clear how student perceptions may change if they already have baseline knowledge regarding an educator’s personal qualities. Emoticons and emoji are more commonly used in social settings with friends and peers (Carr et al., 2016; Prada et al., 2018), and seeing them in a formal education context may still be unexpected and new (Grieve et al., 2019; Moffitt et al., 2020). Existing research has also not yet explored effects with more personalised feedback, or the impact of any observed differences in student reactions on future behaviour. Given that students and educators agree that the overall purpose of assessment feedback is improvement (Dawson et al., 2019), it remains important to investigate whether the

2 Embedding Media Richness in Online Assessment Feedback …

15

use of paralinguistic cues in online feedback can prompt a greater understanding of content and higher quality future outputs. Overall, however, evidence has suggested that the inclusion of emoticons in online assessment feedback may be a simple and efficient method through which to enhance the communication message, increase student perceptions of educator warmth and emotionality, and improve student perceptions of the personal qualities of the educator delivering the feedback. Considered from an MRT perspective, there are some clear advantages of embedding emoticons or emojis. When placed alongside specific written feedback, they can confer an emotional tone which is likely to reduce both uncertainty and equivocality. For example, providing a comment such as “A little more care in proof reading will improve future assessments” could be intended to offer positive constructive feedback by the educator, but could be interpreted negatively by the student (i.e., there was insufficient care taken in the current assessment), thereby decreasing student confidence and engagement. The same statement with a positive emoji (i.e., “A little more care in proof reading will improve future assignments ”) provides identical constructive feedback contentwise but reduces uncertainty regarding affective tone and consequently encourages more positive interpretation. Using emoticons or emoji to enhance the emotionality and richness of assessment feedback may thus result in more personalised and less ambiguous feedback, higher student engagement with feedback processes, and by extension, greater application in future work.

Conclusion In summary, assessment is one of the most important learning tools available to educators, and increases in the popularity of online learning and technological course delivery mean that assessment feedback is increasingly being provided online. Online feedback can lack social presence and media richness, and interpersonal connectedness and unambiguous feedback messages are two aspects of the feedback process that are most highly valued by students. As suggested by Aldunate and GonzalezIbanez (2017), “two factors that influence the success of a communication channel are its social presence and its richness” (p. 2). The inclusion of multimedia feedback and paralinguistic emotional cues in online assessment feedback have emerged as useful methods through which to influence both factors. However, the research in this area is new, and empirically supported initiatives in online assessment have struggled to keep up with constant technological developments (Timmis et al., 2016). The current state of the literature in this space does, nevertheless, leave a plethora of research opportunities to advance our knowledge and understanding of online transactional feedback processes to better meet the needs of twenty-first century students. As stated by Krohn (2004) more than 15 years ago, educators need to embrace digital affordances and technological change or risk being “disregarded as dinosaurs from another age” (p. 326). Alternatively, if our dinosaur status is retained (#outoftouchasaurus), we should at least try to be a technologically aware, kind, and

16

R. L. Moffitt et al.

emotionally astute dinosaur species who embrace new opportunities to connect with, relate to, and motivate students online. Because, after all, YOLO .

References Aghajani, M., & Adloo, M. (2018). The effect of online cooperative learning on students’ writing skills and attitudes through Telegram application. International Journal of Instruction, 11, 433– 448. https://doi.org/10.12973/iji.2018.11330a. Aldunate, N., & González-Ibáñez, R. (2017). An integrated review of emoticons in computermediated communication. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016. 02061. Bangert, A. (2008). The influence of social presence and teaching presence on the quality of online critical inquiry. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 20, 34–61. Boston, W., Diaz, S. R., Gibson, A. M., Ice, P., Richardson, J., & Swan, K. (2009). An exploration of the relationship between indicators of the community of inquiry framework and retention in online programs. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 14, 3–19. Boudrias, J., Bernaud, J., & Plunier, P. (2014). Candidates’ integration of individual psychological assessment feedback. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 29, 341–359. https://doi.org/10.1108/ JMP-01-2012-0016. Broadbent, J., & Poon, W. L. (2015). Self-regulated learning strategies & academic achievement in online higher education learning environments: A systematic review. Internet and Higher Education, 27, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2015.04.007. Carless, D. (2006). Differing perceptions in the feedback process. Studies in Higher Education, 31, 219–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070600572132. Carr, C. T., Wohn, D. Y., & Hayes, R. A. (2016). Thumbs up as social support: Relational closeness, automaticity, and interpreting social support from paralinguistic digital affordances in social media. Computers in Human Behaviour, 62, 385–393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.03.087. Carruthers, C., McCarron, B., Bolan, P., Devine, A., McMahon-Beattie, U., & Burns, A. (2015). ‘I like the sound of that’—An evaluation of providing audio feedback via the virtual learning environment for summative assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 40, 352–370. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2014.917145. Cobb, S. C. (2011). Social presence, satisfaction, and perceived learning of RN-to-BSN students in web-based nursing courses. Nursing Education Perspectives, 32, 115–119. https://doi.org/10. 5480/1536-5026-32.2.115. Crook, A., Mauchline, A., Maw, S., Lawson, C., Drinkwater, R., Lundqvist, K., et al. (2012). The use of video technology for providing feedback to students: The feedback experience for staff and students? Computers & Education, 58, 386–396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011. 08.025. Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. (1986). Organisational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Management Science, 32, 554–571. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.32.5.554. Dawson, P., Henderson, M., Mahoney, P., Phillips, M., Ryan, T., Boud, D., et al. (2019). What makes for effective feedback: Staff and student perspectives. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44, 25–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1467877. Derks, D., Bos, A. E. R., & Grumbkow, J. V. (2008). Emoticons in computer-mediated communication: Social motives and social context. CyberPsychology & Behaviour, 11, 99–101. https:// doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2007.9926. Evans, C. (2013). Making sense of assessment feedback in higher education. Review of Educational Research, 83, 70–120. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654312474350.

2 Embedding Media Richness in Online Assessment Feedback …

17

Felton, J., Koper, P. T., Mitchell, J., & Stinson, M. (2008). Attractiveness, easiness and other issues: Student evaluations of professors on Ratemyprofessors.com. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 33, 45–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930601122803. Forsythe, A., & Johnson, S. (2017). Thanks, but no-thanks for the feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 42, 850–859. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2016.1202190. Gleaves, A., & Walker, C. (2013). Richness, redundancy or relational salience? A comparison of the effect of textual and aural feedback modes on knowledge elaboration in higher education students’ work. Computers & Education, 62, 249–261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012. 11.004. Grieve, R., Moffitt, R. L., & Padgett, C. R. (2019). Student perceptions of marker personality and intelligence: The effect of emoticons in online assignment feedback. Learning and Individual Differences, 69, 232–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2018.02.008. Grieve, R., Padgett, C. R., & Moffitt, R. L. (2016). Assignments 2.0: The role of social presence and computer attitudes in student preferences for online versus offline marking. Internet and Higher Education, 28, 8–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2015.08.002. Guàrdia, L., Crisp, G., & Alsina, I. (2017). Trends and challenges of e-assessment to enhance student learning in higher education. In E. Cano & G. Ion (Eds.), Innovative practices for higher education assessment and measurement (pp. 36–56). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. https://doi.org/ 10.4018/978-1-5225-0531-0.ch003. Gunawardena, C. N., & Zittle, F. J. (1997). Social presence as a predictor of satisfaction within a computer-mediated conferencing environment. The American Journal of Distance Education, 11, 8–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923649709526970. Hattie, J., & Gan, M. (2011). Instruction based on feedback. In R. E. Mayer & P. A. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of research on learning and instruction (pp. 249–271). New York: Routledge. Hemingway, A. P. (2011). How students’ gratitude for feedback can identify the right attitude for success: Disciplined optimism. Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing, 19, 169–173. Henderson, M., & Phillips, M. (2015). Video-based feedback on student assessment: Scarily personal. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 31, 51–66. https://doi.org/10.14742/ ajet.1878. Henderson, M., Ryan, T., & Phillips, M. (2019). The challenges of feedback in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1599815. Hostetter, C., & Busch, M. (2013). Community matters: Social presence and learning outcomes. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 13, 77–86. Hu, Y., Zhao, J., & Wu, J. (2016). Emoticon-based ambivalent expression: A hidden indicator for unusual behaviours in Weibo. PLoS ONE, 11, e0147079. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone. 0147079. Ishii, K., Lyons, M. M., & Carr, S. A. (2019). Revisiting media richness theory for today and future. Human Behaviour & Emerging Technologies, 1, 124–131. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.138. Jaggars, S. S., & Xu, D. (2016). How do online course design features influence student performance? Computers & Education, 95, 270–284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016. 01.014. Kebritchi, M., Lipschuetz, A., & Santiague, L. (2017). Issues and challenges for teaching successful online courses in higher education: A literature review. Journal of Educational Technology, 46, 4–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047239516661713. Kemp, N., & Clayton, J. (2017). University students vary their use of textese in digital messages to suit the recipient. Journal of Research in Reading, 40, S141–S157. https://doi.org/10.1111/14679817.12074. Killingback, C., Ahmed, O., & Williams, J. (2019). ‘It was all in your voice’—Tertiary student perceptions of alternative feedback modes (audio, podcast, and screencast): A qualitative literature review. Nurse Education Today, 72, 32–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2018.10.012. Krohn, F. B. (2004). A generational approach to using emoticons as nonverbal communication. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 34, 321–328. https://doi.org/10.2190/9EQHDE81-CWG1-QLL9.

18

R. L. Moffitt et al.

Lan, Y.-F., & Sie, Y.-S. (2010). Using RSS to support mobile learning based on media richness theory. Computers & Education, 55, 723–732. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.03.005. Liu, S. Y., Gomez, J., & Yen, C.-J. (2009a). Community college online course retention and final grade: Predictability of social presence. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 8, 165–182. Liu, S., Liao, H., & Pratt, J. A. (2009b). Impact of media richness and flow on e-learning technology acceptance. Computers & Education, 52, 599–607. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu. 2008.11.002. Luangrath, A. W., Peck, J., & Barger, V. A. (2017). Textual paralanguage and its implications for marketing communications. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 27, 98–107. https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.jcps.2016.05.002. Mahoney, P., Macfarlane, S., & Ajjawi, R. (2019). A qualitative synthesis of video feedback in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 24, 157–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2018. 1471457. McCarthy, J. (2015). Evaluating written, audio and video feedback in higher education summative assessment tasks. Issues in Educational Research, 25, 153–169. Merry, S., & Orsmond, P. (2008). Students’ attitudes to and usage of academic feedback provided via audio files. Bioscience Education, 11, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3108/beej.11.3. Mitchell, K. M., & Martin, J. (2018). Gender bias in student evaluations. Political Science and Politics, 51, 648–652. https://doi.org/10.1017/S104909651800001X. Moffitt, R. L., Padgett, C., & Grieve, R. (2020). Accessibility and emotionality of online assessment feedback: Using emoticons to enhance student perceptions of marker competence and warmth. Computers & Education, 143, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103654. Morris, C., & Chikwa, G. (2016). Audio versus written feedback: Exploring learners’ preference and the impact of feedback format on students’ academic performance. Active Learning in Higher Education, 17, 125–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787416637482. Mulliner, E., & Tucker, M. (2017). Feedback on feedback practice: Perceptions of students and academics. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 42, 266–288. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 02602938.2015.1103365. O’Flaherty, J., & Phillips, C. (2015). The use of flipped classrooms in higher education: A scoping review. Internet and Higher Education, 25, 85–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heduc.2015.02.002. Olaniran, B. (2003). Computer-mediated communication: A test of the impact of social cues on the choice of medium for resolving misunderstandings. Journal of Information Technology Systems, 31, 205–222. https://doi.org/10.2190/576R-1NVK-M943-CJMP. Orrell, J. (2006). Feedback on learning achievements: Rhetoric and reality. Teaching in Higher Education, 11, 441–456. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562510600874235. Ouellette, G., & Michaud, M. (2016). Generation text: Relations among undergraduates’ use of text messaging, textese, and language and literacy skills. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 48, 217–221. https://doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000046. Parkin, H. J., Hepplestone, S., Holden, G., Irwin, B., & Thorpe, L. (2012). A role for technology in enhancing students’ engagement with feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 37, 963–973. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2011.592934. Pitt, E., & Norton, L. (2017). ‘Now that’s the feedback I want!’ Students’ reactions to feedback on graded work and what they do with it. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 42, 499–516. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2016.1142500. Prada, M., Rodrigues, D. L., Garrido, M. V., Lopes, D., Cavalheiro, B., & Gaspar, R. (2018). Motives, frequency and attitudes toward emoji and emoticon use. Telematics and Informatics, 35, 1925–1934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.06.005. Rawle, F., Thuna, M., Zhao, T., & Kaler, M. (2018). Audio feedback: Student and teaching assistant perspectives on an alternative mode of feedback for written assignments. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 9. https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2018.2.2. Reio, T. G., & Crim, S. J. (2013). Social presence and student satisfaction as predictors of online enrolment intent. American Journal of Distance Education, 27, 122–133. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 08923647.2013.775801.

2 Embedding Media Richness in Online Assessment Feedback …

19

Richardson, J. C., Maeda, Y., Lv, J., & Caskurlu, S. (2017). Social presence in relation to students’ satisfaction and learning in the online environment: A meta-analysis. Computers in Human Behaviour, 71, 402–417. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.02.001. Richardson, J. C., Maeda, Y., & Swan, K. (2010). Adding a web-based perspective to the selfassessment of knowledge: Compelling reasons to utilise affective measures of learning. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 9, 321–328. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMLE.2010.514 28555. Richardson, J. C., & Swan, K. (2003). Examining social presence in online courses in relation to students’ perceived learning and satisfaction. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 7, 68–81. Rodrigues, D., Prada, M., Gaspar, R., Garrido, M. V., & Lopes, D. (2018). Lisbon emoji and emoticon database (LEED): Norms for emoji and emoticons in seven evaluative dimensions. Behaviour Research Methods, 50, 392–405. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-017-0878-6. Rodríquez-Hidalgo, C., Tan, E. S. H., & Verlegh, P. W. J. (2017). Expressing emotions in blogs: The role of textual paralinguistic cues in online venting and social sharing posts. Computers in Human Behaviour, 73, 638–649. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.04.007. Rolfe, V. (2011). Can Turnitin be used to provide instant formative feedback? British Journal of Educational Technology, 42, 701–710. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2010.01091.x. Rosen, A. S. (2018). Correlations, trends and potential biases among publicly accessible web-based student evaluations of teaching: A large-scale study of RateMyProfessors.com data. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43, 31–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2016.1276155. Shepherd, M. M., & Martz, Wm B., Jr. (2006). Media richness theory and the distance education environment. The Journal of Computer Information Systems, 47, 114–122. Short, J. A., Williams, E., & Christie, B. (1976). The social psychology of telecommunications. London: Wiley. Shute, V. J. (2008). Focus on formative feedback. Review of Educational Research, 78, 153–189. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654307313795. Stapa, S. H., & Shaari, A. H. (2012). Understanding online communicative language features in social networking environment. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 12, 817–830. Stewart, C., Bachman, C., & Johnson, R. (2010). Predictors of faculty acceptance of online education. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 6, 597–616. Strong, R., Irby, T. L., Wynn, J. T., & McClure, M. M. (2012). Investigating students’ satisfaction with relearning courses: The effect of learning environment and social presence. Journal of Agricultural Education, 53, 98–110. https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2012.03098. Sun, P.-C., & Cheng, H. K. (2007). The design of instructional multimedia in e-learning: A media richness theory-based approach. Computers & Education, 49, 662–676. https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.compedu.2005.11.016. Thompson, R., & Lee, M. J. (2012). Talking with students through screencasting: Experimentations with video feedback to improve student learning. The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, 1. Retrieved from https://jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/talking-with-students-through-scr eencasting-experimentations-with-video-feedback-to-improve-student-learning/. Timmis, S., Broadfoot, P., Sutherland, R., & Oldfield, A. (2016). Rethinking assessment in a digital age: opportunities, challenges and risks. British Educational Research Journal, 42, 454–476. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3215. Walter, N., Ortbach, K., & Niehaves, B. (2015). Designing electronic feedback—Analysing the effects of social presence on perceived usefulness. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 76, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2014.12.001. Weidlich, J., & Bastiaens, T. J. (2019). Designing sociable online learning environments and enhancing social presence: An affordance enrichment approach. Computers & Education, 142, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103622. West, J., & Turner, W. (2016). Enhancing the assessment experience: Improving student perceptions, engagement and understanding using online video feedback. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 53, 400–410. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2014.1003954.

20

R. L. Moffitt et al.

Wingo, N. P., Ivankova, N. V., & Moss, J. A. (2017). Faculty perceptions about teaching online: Exploring the literature using the technology acceptance model as an organising framework. Online Learning, 21, 15–35. https://doi.org/10.10.24059/olj.v21i1.761. Zhan, Z. H., & Mei, H. (2013). Academic self-concept and social presence in face-to-face and online learning: Perceptions and effects on students’ learning achievement and satisfaction across environments. Computers & Education, 69, 131–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013. 07.002.

Chapter 3

Designing Authentic Assessments: Engaging Business Students in Flow Experience with Digital Technologies Viktor Arity and Gillian Vesty

Introduction Embracing technology in higher education has become a necessity, rather than a desired value-added addition to educational delivery. Previously, innovative technological adoption was the result of academic dissatisfaction of the current status quo (Ely, 1990), and/or the push from institutional leaders and the financial benefits that technology can bring through increased student volumes, enhanced reputation and competitive advantage (Price & Kirkwood, 2013). More recently, particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic, academics are now being forced to engage with digital technologies and consider the transformational benefits that technology can potentially bring to the online classroom. More than ever, academics are faced with addressing the long-standing calls for innovative student-centric and project-based teaching practices rather than using technology to merely sustain, ‘replicate or supplement traditional activities’ (Price & Kirkwood, 2013, p. 8). To date, there is still a void in the uptake of digital innovations in education, which is arguably confounded by performance pressures, competing priorities, financial and time constraints (Brimble, 2016; Harper et al., 2019). As a result, issues relating to poor curriculum design and academic integrity continue to exist. The contention for this chapter is that innovative authentic digital assessment designs can contribute to relieving key pressure points such as last-minute assessment preparation, poor-quality assessment designs and submitted work, minimal opportunities for regular academic engagement and feedback and minimising the growing impact of plagiarism and contract cheating in higher education (Bretag et al., 2016; V. Arity (B) · G. Vesty RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia e-mail: [email protected] G. Vesty e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 T. McLaughlin et al. (eds.), Tertiary Education in a Time of Change, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5883-2_3

21

22

V. Arity and G. Vesty

Harper et al., 2019). It is argued that contract cheating can be minimised by providing students with a learning environment that motivates them not to cheat, by providing them with personalised and sequential assessment designs that encourage them to realise the intrinsic (skills) and extrinsic (work ready) motivation that engaging in the assessment will provide (Bretag et al., 2016; Harper et al., 2019; Walker & Townley, 2012). Most importantly, digital innovations allow for more ‘individualisation of learning’ and enhances the development of twenty-first century skills of ‘independent learning, initiative, communication, teamwork, adaptability, collaboration, networking, and thinking skills within a particular professional or subject domain’ (Bates & Sangrà, 2011, p. xxi). Individual learning can be better managed through coaching and scaffolding with assessment appearing to be seamlessly integrated with the learning activity (Herrington & Standen, 1999; Lameras et al., 2017). If the innovative environment is engaging enough, success can be measured by the extent to which the immersive experience is described by students in terms of their flow experience, that is, the ‘holistic sensation that people feel when they act with total involvement’ and lose a sense of time (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p. 477). The flow experience occurs when learners experience cognitive efficiency, are intrinsically motivated and happy (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). The broad research question investigated in this chapter is the extent to which digital assessment design features can reduce the cognitive load burden of students and accomplish flow experience. In the sections that follow, contributions to the authentic assessment literature, underpinned by cognitive load and flow theories, are provided. This is followed by the design and pilot testing of a digital, scaffolded assessment tool intended to provide an immersive learning environment and reduce the cognitive burden of higher education business students. Survey data is used to determine the topics students find most challenging. The survey results guide the direction taken in the reportwriting journey, whereby students are required to propose a ‘big idea’ which is linked to improved performance and includes the achievement of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN, 2018). In the design sections, we explain the educator role in the technologically based management world with the ability to provide individualised, real-time feedback to students. The platform designs ensure that academics and students engage in regular conversations through a system that is dynamic and adaptable to new queries, topics and assessment formats (including written, graphics and numerical). The system can be used to motivate students across different educational settings and time zones. In the findings section, we discuss the analysis of the secondary data from undergraduate business students undertaking a large core business course and use this data to evaluate the impact of the digital platform on student flow experience. We conclude the chapter with a discussion of limitations and insights for further research in this area.

3 Designing Authentic Assessments …

23

Innovative Scaffolded Digital Designs to Achieve Flow Experience: Cognitive Load Theory According to cognitive load theory, a scaffolded approach to learning results in cognitive efficiency and reduces the cognitive load burden (Sweller, 1988). These factors are particularly important for students facing challenging assessment topics when they could easily give up. As such, the digital environment provides a perfect setting for scaffolding learning and examining flow experience in education (Annetta, 2010; Giasiranis & Sofos, 2017; Shin, 2006), including distance education (Liao, 2006; Pearce, Ainley & Howard, 2005). The ability for students to comprehend the individual schema in scaffolded designs is an important part of pedagogical designs (Sweller, Van Merriënboer & Paas, 1998). These important design features provide educators with more informed learning analytics. They also contribute to the observable flow experience associated with cognitive efficiency (Annetta, 2010). Cognitive load theory comprises three parts: intrinsic, extraneous and germane cognitive loads. Intrinsic cognitive load is the inherent difficulty level of the specific topic or the complexity that emerges from dealing with a number of elements that must be processed at the same time in a learner’s working memory (Gerjets & Scheiter, 2003). Importantly, the inherent difficulty level of a specific topic cannot be changed (e.g., higher education maths compared with primary school mathematics). As such, the ability of the learner to break down the components into manageable schema depends on the topic and the learner’s expertise (Sweller’s et al., 1998). Educational designs can support learning by breaking down the complex topic into schema or subtopics before combining them back together for final, holistic understanding (Sweller et al., 1998). Extraneous cognitive load relates to the knowledge seeking of individual learners due to ineffective instructional techniques. Learners are required to tap into their cognitive resources or working memory for additional information to support learning (Sweller, 1994). Extraneous cognitive load is brought into play when learners are required to expend their cognitive resources by searching for information (i.e., internet, other resources, guides and instructions) that is needed to complete a learning task (Paas, Renk & Sweller, 2003). This may fail if learners have limited cognitive resources to utilise. It also means that the more the extraneous cognitive resources are utilised, the less cognitive resources are available for schema construction or automation. Hence, learning the topic becomes more difficult, and intrinsic load schema construction less possible. Nevertheless, if learning materials are suitably designed, extraneous cognitive load is reduced, and more resources can subsequently be allocated to process the intrinsic cognitive load. Students may feel baffled if the schema has not been constructed and/or available for them to access (Sweller, 1994). However, when sufficient working memory resources remain after the intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load processing, learners may expend additional efforts in value-added processes which are related to learning, such as schema construction (knowledge formation). This is referred to as the germane cognitive load. Germane

24

V. Arity and G. Vesty

cognitive load is the desired or effective cognitive load, the result of beneficial cognitive processes such as abstractions and elaborations that are promoted by instructional presentation (Gerjets & Scheiter, 2003). When sufficient working memory resources remain, after the intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load processing, learners may expend additional efforts in value-added processes which are related to learning, such as schema construction. These processes also increase cognitive load, but it is only germane cognitive load that will contribute to, instead of interfering with, learning (Sweller et al., 1998). Germane load is described as the mental resource learners use to learn and conceptualise ideas-schemata. Promoting germane load may enhance learning performance. Cognitive feedback is facilitated by digital technologies and plays an important role in capturing learner’s attention and focusing it on the essential schema (Ketamo & Kiili, 2010). Instructional designers can support the working memory of learners by reducing extraneous cognitive load and wasteful effort. This leaves learners with the capacity to invest in their own resources, such as constructing mental maps, or other advanced cognitive processing techniques associated with germane cognitive load (Gerjets & Scheiter, 2003). Debue and Leemput (2014) confirm when the extraneous load is reduced, such as through animation and pictures, the germane load increases, and learner performance improves. Early feedback has also been found to enable reflexive development and validation of mental models, along with the effective formation of new pedagogically informed strategies (Ketamo & Kiili, 2010; Bellotti et al., 2011). As learners become immersed in the project, their active participation transfers to passive participation as they become completely absorbed in the task at hand. The flow experience concept has been measured (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975, 1990) and used to test immersive learning experiences (Annetta, 2010; Bitrián, Buil & Catalan, 2020; Giasiranis & Sofos, 2017; Jackson & Marsh, 1996; Liao, 2006; Pearce et al., 2005; Shin, 2006; van Schaik, Martin & Vallance, 2012). Drawing on the earlier flow theories (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975; Jackson & March, 1996) and adapting to digital immersive learning designs, Annetta (2010, p. 107) defines flow as 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Feeling the activity can be successfully completed, The player can concentrate fully on the activity, The activity has clear goals, The activity provides fast feedback, The player is deeply involved in the activity, A sense of control over the actions is necessary to perform the activity, Self-awareness disappears during flow, and There is an altered sense of time.

Flow experience in digital designs has been studied, for example, in immersive technologies such as virtual reality (Giasiranis & Sofos, 2017) and distance learning (Liao, 2006; Shin, 2006). Liao (2006) found positive relationships between the learner and instructor and digital interface in flow experience. Shin (2006) similarly examined the flow effect in an online virtual course and found that student perceptions of levels of skills and challenges are critical to determining the level of flow.

3 Designing Authentic Assessments …

25

Fig. 3.1 Conceptual framework

These authors confirm that teacher role and designed learning pedagogy are important in impacting the cognitive burden of students, thus contributing to improved flow effects. Shin (2006) also found a relationship between flow and student satisfaction scores. Together these findings provide the impetus for this study to examine whether our individual authentic assessment design can similarly achieve flow experience for our business accounting students. Furthermore, Pearce et al. (2005) flow process helps to understand that an examination of the alternative paths students take when dealing with challenging concepts requires specific skills. We address their calls for examining the interactions required so students can navigate the ‘challenge-skill space’ on the way towards the flow experience. The theoretical framework that underpins the design of the artefact and data collection approach is outlined in Fig. 3.1. It is argued that the scaffolded approach to learning design will lead to a reduction in the cognitive load burden for students. This approach reduces the intrinsic load supported by extraneous design features. We contend that because students feel more comfortable with the task at hand, and engage more readily with design features, this will contribute to their flow experience. That is, there will be greater immersive engagement with the task and communication through the built platform with their teacher. In addition, we expect fewer requests for extensions, fewer queries about the specificities of each of the tasks and better-quality assignment submissions because they are not left to the last minute. The built ‘assessment’ artefact is designed according to the cognitive load and flow theories with attention to immersion, interactivity, increasing complexity, informed teaching and instructional design. These elements are achieved by attention to the assessment storyline, developed as a result of a short survey of students about the course topics they found cognitively challenging. Python coding contributed to scaffolding the assessment design.

Artefact Design Survey to Inform Storyline Design A survey was conducted with final year management accounting students across two campuses (Singapore and Melbourne) over three semesters, asking them about topics they found most cognitively challenging. The question asked students to list their top three (3) challenging topics from the following 10 items.

26

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

V. Arity and G. Vesty

Organisational Strategy and Management Accounting Control Systems; Organisational Structure and Responsibility Centre; Transfer Pricing; Budgeting and the Strategic Management of Costs and Revenues; Behavioural Approaches to Budgeting; Static and Flexible Budgets; Budgeting and Market Responses; Performance Measurement and Reward Systems; Non-Financial Performance-Strategy Maps and the Balanced Scorecard; Risk Management.

From 858 students, we received 283 responses, representing a 33% response rate. Results indicated that they found a qualitative balanced scorecard and non-financial performance evaluation (9) and risk management (10), along with a quantitatively challenging topic transfer pricing (3). We used this final year student data to redesign the first-year course, to ensure our immersive digital designs would contribute to an overall scaffolded approach to learning. By breaking down the complexity of the balanced scorecard to a practical ‘immersive’ experience, we were hoping that by the time our students faced third year, they would find this topic less cognitively challenging. We also added quantitative items in the digital design that would later build to the more complex transfer pricing topics experienced in their third-year courses.

Coded Storyline The tailored storyline is designed to promote authentic assessment and foster individual creativity by engaging business students in developing their own business plan for an idea that would not only improve business performance but also address the broader impacts on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Students were required to select their own avatar (or perspective) that they take when they pitch their business case to generate interest and potential funding to help realise the idea in practice. They might be an owner of a company, marketing manager, supply chain manager, CEO, CFO, etc., giving them more autonomy in the project itself and contributing to the flow experience and level of ‘immersion’ in the topic. By encouraging them to be innovative with their idea, this also contributes to achieving flow experience as measured by Annetta (2010). The extent of interactivity was limited to the interactions between the student and their teacher at each designated stage of the project. The system administrator has the capacity to intervene, provide more instructions, change questions, set deadlines as well as hide and lock cells. In this example, the idea section was ‘locked’ after a designated deadline to ensure the rest of the business report remains unique to the idea, and students cannot deviate from their original plan. This was decided as we wanted students to engage with and ‘own’ their own idea from the beginning

3 Designing Authentic Assessments …

27

to end. Locking the template ensured students could not adjust their idea to make it ‘easier’ for themselves or provide an easier avenue for plagiarism or contract cheating. We considered the major project as an exam equivalent, hence posed these stricter conditions. Increasing complexity of the project was an important part of the design with the complexity increasing as the students learned the topics in class. They were required to begin to pitch their idea in terms of explaining how it would contribute to society (economically, environmentally and socially). Then they were required to use the SDGs to determine how performance would be measured and evaluated. Next, they had to consider the costs associated with bringing the idea to fruition and the template was coded to use randomly generated numbers for individual students to calculate cost-volume-profit (CVP) and financial performance in terms of ratio analysis. Because of the student-entered qualitative data and the randomly assigned input information, requiring different calculations, every assessment piece was unique, requiring individualised written interpretations. Students are unable to anticipate questions, as these are blocked from view until the designated time. We did not allow students to change their previous inputs without staff feedback and intervention. The entire course content is matched with topic content, so learning and assessment can be managed in staged developments. Informed teaching and regular feedback are designed to contribute to the immersive learning experience.

Digital Artefact Design The digital artefact was coded in Python and situated on Amazon Web Server (AWS). Through Microsoft API, students and teachers use their RMIT login credentials to enter their learning or teacher interface, respectively. The digital platform can be accessed on computers, tablets or mobile phones. Students advised us that they used their mobiles to enter thoughts and ideas, even while commuting and would continue to develop until the deadlines. The current server structure and flow diagram of the digital artefact design is indicated in Fig. 3.2, with plans to improve this structure further with the autoscaling technique. This greater flexibility was designed to support work–life balance and other challenges students face getting their work done in a timely manner. The dynamic interface embeds instructions for students. As soon as similar queries emerge through email queries, this can be answered by the administrator (course coordinator) entering direct edits in the interface to ensure all students are clear about the instructions and goals to be achieved. This dynamic feedback and adjustment are essential in large course delivery and also contribute to the well-being of the teaching staff, who do not have to repeat instructions over and over. Even if students are provided updated details on the Learning Management System (LMS), our experience is that students tend not to search for clarification updates on the LMS but go directly to their instructors. By updating the system, the students avoid the cognitive extraneous effort or ‘search’ for additional information to support and confirm understanding.

28

V. Arity and G. Vesty

Fig. 3.2 Current server structure

An example of the digital learner interface is provided in Figs. 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6 and teacher interface in Figs. 3.7, 3.8 and 3.9. Figure 3.3 authentication process is completed by using their RMIT student email and password. No extra registration

Fig. 3.3 Learner interface-login page (WritePal screenshot)

Fig. 3.4 Learner interface-assignment selection page (WritePal screenshot)

3 Designing Authentic Assessments …

29

Fig. 3.5 Learner interface-blocked questions (WritePal screenshot)

Fig. 3.6 Learner interface-feedback and multiple deadline display (WritePal screenshot)

is required to access the system. Once logged in, all the active assignments will be displayed to students. Students can select which project they would like to work on by clicking the blue button ‘Business Plan’ (or another identifying label). This screenshot indicates how we use WritePal across different courses and jurisdictions. In Fig. 3.5, note that the due date is clearly identifiable for students and the tasks that followed appear blurred, until the designated release time. Students cannot see the questions but know how many they must complete to finish the assignment. The instruction for each question is clearly displayed. Input can be written in numerical or picture format. In one question, students are asked to present an organisational diagram and draw a value-chain activity diagram. Students can hand draw and upload a photo, or they can graphically design in a word document to upload to the platform. The teacher platform enables student tracking of performance and time when each

30

V. Arity and G. Vesty

Fig. 3.7 Teacher interface-course management portal (WritePal screenshot)

Fig. 3.8 Teacher interface-assignment marking display (WritePal screenshot)

3 Designing Authentic Assessments …

31

Fig. 3.9 Teacher interface-marking process display (WritePal screenshot)

task is completed. Further graphical design features can be included, such as badges or tokens on recognising each task completed. Figure 3.6 shows how the feedback is displayed to students. In the WritePal system, the student will be able to review instant feedback for each question and the score for the question. Teachers have the option to set a designated feedback release date or result release date. The multiple deadlines are clearly shown on the righthand side with upcoming deadlines shown in red as a reminder. Recall that students cannot change their previous inputs without staff feedback and intervention, unlike the traditional assessment which could be easily sent to a contract writer to complete. Figure 3.7 provides an overview of the teacher’s assignment management portal. In this portal, teachers can add courses, semesters and seminars; set up questions; add users; give extensions; and review student’s responses. Figure 3.8 displays how a teacher reviews, provides feedback and checks for marking memo. On the left side of the figure is the student response. The system is set for teachers to select a question type. For example, refer to Q9 (Fig. 3.7). This question requires students to upload an image of their company value chain. In the middle of the figure are teacher comments and scores. In the right of the figure is a marking guideline memo providing instructions to staff. Figure 3.9 displays the interface for markers to review how many papers/questions are unfinished. Given the assignment is staged, it is important to show how many questions have been answered and how many questions remained ungraded so teaching staff have clear instructions. As indicated in Fig. 3.8, the interface clearly displays student information and the marked and unmarked questions. The system also offers both teachers and students opportunities to generate and download the full report by clicking the ‘report’ button when necessary. For students, this button is made visible once the report is completed.

32

V. Arity and G. Vesty

Data Collection and Analysis Data was collected in accordance with RMIT ethics guidelines. Survey data was collected from the final year on topics they found challenging. This initial data was used to inform the digital artefact design. We then pilot tested the digital artefact in our first-year accounting course, which comprises students undertaking business degrees across a number of major programs including accounting, finance, economics, law, management marketing, supply chain and logistics. This is a large course with enrolments ranging 1200–1900 per semester. Secondary data from the course experience survey and comments from teachers are used to evaluate the flow experience of our students undertaking assessment through the digital artefact. We used Annetta’s (2010) eight elements of flow for immersive digital designs to analyse the data. The standard questions on the course experience survey ask students to comment on what is best about the course as well as what they think should be improved. Because the digital artefact was being used as a formal assessment piece, we did not want the potential for biased feedback; hence the decision to evaluate what emerged ‘unsolicited’ from the students at the end of the semester. We did not ask any specific or additional questions about this assessment piece. We also used data in relation to the number of student assignment extension requests, along with direct evidence from the teacher interface, to determine whether students believe the task can be successfully completed. The other items are gathered from themed analysis of the qualitative responses and evidence presented through the unsolicited student feedback.

Findings We received positive feedback from both students and staff. We had 979 students and 13 educators teaching in the course. Throughout the semester and staged use of the digital artefact, both staff and students agreed that the interface is easy to use. Students engaged with the template and enjoyed the continuous feedback and ability to adjust their responses and build on them based on weekly topic content. Of the 979 students, we received qualitative comments from 194 students (20% response rate) for the question ‘what is the best part of this course’. Of the responses, 16% explicitly mentioned the digital assessment was what they enjoyed the most and 28% of the responses indicated that they really liked the staged assignment. The course received the highest overall satisfaction rating and good teaching scores on record for a common core course. We believe the following discussion provides evidence of the flow experience of our large student cohort. While we cannot give a definitive

3 Designing Authentic Assessments …

33

Fig. 3.10 System data indicating due date and activity in the system (WritePal screenshot)

measure of flow experience for every student, the following qualitative evidence helps to support that flow was achieved. Evidence of findings for flow element, (1) Feeling the activity can be successfully completed, we used data for the number of student extension requests which indicated that our number of extension requests dropped by 50%. We also generated a graph of the system data (Fig. 3.10) which demonstrates that students remain active before and after the due date for each of the subsequent stages. The graph is also useful in demonstrating the extent to which (2) The player can concentrate fully on the activity. Because there is evidence of ongoing activity during the semester, we can claim there must be ongoing concentration and the ability to go in and out of the activity and pick up when required. We also found several qualitative responses from the Course Experience Survey (CES) indicating that students were able to engage with the assessment as an ongoing activity: I found the assignment very approachable (individual business report), it gave a step by step guideline of what it is expected and what is needed giving a feeling that I am being provided assistance along the way. I did not find any difficulty doing the assignment, which makes me feel motivated in this course. (student CES response)

In further analysing, the entire qualitative dataset data visualisation techniques were utilised. Figure 3.11 provides an overview of the keywords that emerged from the data. Figure 3.11 also helped to indicate that the students felt that they were able to accomplish the task as the data visualisation helped to indirectly demonstrate that (3) The activity has clear goals. We did not find glaring evidence that students were not sure of the assessment requirements and conducted a more detailed examination of

34

V. Arity and G. Vesty

Fig. 3.11 CES data visualisations. Source adapted from CES qualitative responses

the use of some of the apparent negative words. We found that the word ‘deadlines’ was a positive response to the staged approach and that the tasks were ‘broken’ into manageable parts. Furthermore, the CES results also indicated that 92% of student respondents agreed that they met assessment deadlines. Most importantly the word ‘stressful’ designated that students felt that the digital tool made the experience less stressful. This was evidenced in one of the students’ comments: I love the assessment layout for the report. Easy to use, easy to meet deadlines, not too much to stress over and it encourages me to get it all done early rather than procrastinating and leaving doing the whole report till the last minute and stressing out the day before it’s due. I wish every course could adopt this style. Unlike all my other courses, I’ve never had a panic attack when working on this assignment, especially after procrastinating, thank you so much. (student CES response)

Another student liked our experimentation and expressed the following sentiment: ......Courage to try new ideas in order to help and improve student engagement. The new system used to incrementally complete our individual business report is carefully designed for students in mind, and I believe it is much better than a standard assignment of completing everything by a due date. It is also fairly user friendly. (student CES response)

In evidencing that (4) The activity provides fast feedback, at this stage of the project design—we can only provide evidence of teacher interaction. If the digital elements are further enhanced to provide automated feedback to students (for example, through algorithms, Bots and AI), we can address this area further. At this stage, we are working with a simplified digital design. During one stage of the question release, we received two (2) emails simultaneously from students asking the same question. We immediately responded to the students directly and updated the instructions in the digital template and this stopped all further questions in relation to clarifying the goals of that specific activity. In terms of flow element (5) The player is deeply involved in the activity, student engagement was evidenced in their novel business case ideas. Many came and explained their innovative approaches to us, largely because they were extremely proud of their big ideas. The entrepreneurial spirit was evident in the teacher feedback too. While we cannot determine the level of involvement in the activity for every individual student, we can only surmise from the CES comments and the interactive feedback provided to use during the semester, that a large percentage of the student cohort were willing to engage. The feedback acknowledged the creative freedom as well as the pragmatic gains associated with this activity:

3 Designing Authentic Assessments …

35

It is kind of interesting. I like assignment 2 because it allows for freedom and creativity (student CES response) and, The assignment where students are able to use their interests in making a business plan, which helps with motivation and connection to the content (student CES response).

In determining the flow experience of this digital artefact and the response to the element that (6) A sense of control over the actions is necessary to perform the activity, the qualitative evidence from students helped demonstrate their comfort with the task at hand, in which they would not lose control in meeting deadlines, or of conceptual knowledge development throughout the 12-week semester: I really liked how the report was a staged submission. It allowed me to focus on a part at a time and do my best work. This also ensured I didn’t leave things to the last minute. (student CES response) …, the individual assignment was a good idea to have going through the semester, with learning content so you can practise the stuff you learn while moving through. (student CES response) It’s great that the Business Plan assignment was done in stages as it made it less stressful to complete. (student CES response) The business report was the best aspect because it allowed us to sequentially submit parts of our assignment. This meant that we weren’t stressed about completing the whole assignment by the due date, but rather focus on certain aspects and spend time on each part. I was really motivated to do this business report and it’s the first time I enjoyed doing a report. (student CES response) …Digital learning and assessments particularly the online system that was developed for the business report is making students in-control as they feel self-confident and independent… (academic peer evaluation response)

The final elements of flow—(7) Self -awareness disappears during flow and (8) There is an altered sense of time—are difficult to claim evidence without directly asking or observing the students. The data visualisations from all positive and negative CES responses indicate that the most dominant word is ‘engaging’, meaning that overall the students were satisfied with their course experience. While the other dominant words ‘structured’ and ‘deadlines’ that were clearly aligned with the digital artefact also could be viewed as negative, a more detailed analysis of the comments around these words indicates that the students enjoyed the formal way they were navigated through the system. Nevertheless, this also indicates that the scaffolded, layered deadlines evident in the course design potentially are a trade-off to the latter two flow elements. Nevertheless, in handing control back to the students, we explained that the important ‘print’ button at the end of the task ensured that the template they used would print to a formatted document that they could be proud to take to job interviews. We also demonstrated that the SDG topic is relatively new to businesses and having expertise and understanding in this area is valuable for future employers. Part of the sense of involvement in the activity is related to the direct link to the goals of authentic assessment for students to develop twenty-first century skills and be work ready.

36

V. Arity and G. Vesty The game aspect was really engaging. The teaching team was extremely helpful and friendly. The course content itself was not something I thought I would enjoy however it was super interesting and taught me skills and concepts that seem useful for my future as a possible employee or employer. (student CES response)

The findings contributed to confirming that the implementation of a scaffolded, staged approach not only contributed to the flow experience of students but also contributed to their cognitive load.

Discussion, Conclusion and Limitations The digital artefact was a relatively successful pilot experiment built on cognitive load and flow experience literature. We consider success in terms of meeting the flow experience criteria designated by the psychology literature dealing with immersive technologies (Annetta, 2010; Pearce et al., 2005) and contribute to the emerging but minimal literature in this area (Bitrián et al., 2020). While we were able to describe many of the eight (8) flow criteria, some of the elements were harder to directly evidence, thus requiring further exploration in future research initiatives. We also relied on secondary data, and unprompted qualitative responses to measure student flow experience. In recognising this as a potential limitation to the study, further evidence, through targeted surveys and interviews, is recommended. To date, the system appears to minimise plagiarism and contract cheating problems identified by Bretag et al. (2019). This is arguably due to the personalised, unique and progressively released questions that build on the previous inputs. While we cannot be definitive, the ability for contract cheating is harder when assessments are staged and not all questions are made available at the outset. The most important aspect of the system is that it can continually be adapted to new queries, topics and new assessment formats (written, graphics, numerical, etc.). This means the system is transferable across semesters, courses and educational disciplines. The flow experience, an important part of understanding the degree of engagement and immersion with the digital artefact with the benefit of this dynamic digital artefact, is that other aspects, such as identity and interactivity, can be developed further and tested in new iterations of this digital assessment design. The elements of increasing complexity are important in addressing the ability of the digital design to address the cognitive loads of students when being introduced to challenging topics (Sweller, 1988). Likewise, the pedagogical design is in accordance with informed teaching whereby the teacher can play an active role in engaging in the student journey. The findings indicated that this was made possible. We focused more on the student experience, and further research would provide more insights, particularly from the teacher perspective. The instructional design was evident in the student responses, which directly links to the formality of the scaffolded approach identified as important in the cognitive load theory literature. However, this was not exploited as much as the emerging flow literature in digital pedagogy would expect. Further iterations of the digital artefact could also engage with more gamified elements such as

3 Designing Authentic Assessments …

37

rewards, badges and leader boards. We also recommend further longitudinal research that follows the first-year students through to their third year, to determine whether this first-year assessment experience contributed to long-term germane, cognitive benefit. We could also give the same digital assignment to different student groups, test different design features, such as staged deadlines, as well as address the cognitive load benefits between the different experimental groups. In conclusion, we consider that the digital artefact has contributed to relieving key pressure points for both academics and students including last-minute assessment preparation, poor-quality assessment designs and submitted work, plagiarism and contract cheating, minimal opportunities for regular academic engagement, and feedback and overall well-being concerns.

References Annetta, L. A. (2010). The “I’s” have it: A framework for serious educational game design. Review of General Psychology, 14(2), 105–112. Bates, A., & Sangrà, A. (2011). Managing technology in higher education: Strategies for transforming teaching and learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/John Wiley & Co. Bellotti, F., Ott, M., Arnab, S., Berta, R., de Freitas, S., Kiili, K., … De Gloria, A. (2011). Designing serious games for education: from pedagogical principles to game mechanisms. In The 5th European Conference on Games Based Learning (pp. 26–34). Greece: University of Athens. Bitrián, P., Buil, I., & Catalán, S. (2020). Flow and business simulation games: A typology of students. The International Journal of Management Education, 18(1), 100–365. Bretag, T., Mahmud, S., Wallace, M., Walker, R., James, C., Green, M., et al. (2016). Core elements of exemplar academic integrity policy in Australian higher education. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 7(2), 3–12. Bretag, T., Harper, R., Burton, M., Ellis, C., Newton, P., van Haeringen, K., et al. (2019). Contract cheating and assessment design: Exploring the relationship. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education., 44(5), 676–691. Brimble, M. (2016). Why students cheat. In An exploration of the motivators of student academic dishonesty in higher education (pp. 1–14). Handbook of Academic Integrity. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975). Beyond boredom and anxiety. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Journal of Leisure Research, 24(1), 93–94. Debue, N. & Leemput C. V. D. (2014) What does germane load mean? An empirical contribution to the cognitive load theory. Frontiers in Psychology. Ely, D. P. (1990). Conditions that facilitate the implementation of educational technology innovations. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 23(2), 298–305. Gerjets, P., & Scheiter, K. (2003). Goal configurations and processing strategies as moderators between instructional design and cognitive load: Evidence from hypertext-based instruction. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 33–41. Giasiranis, S., & Sofos, L. (2017). Flow experience and educational effectiveness of teaching informatics using AR. Educational Technology & Society, 20(4), 78–88. Harper, R., Bretag, T., Ellis, C., Newton, P., Rozenberg, P., Saddiqui, S., et al. (2019). Contract cheating: A survey of Australian university staff. Studies in Higher Education, 44(11), 1857–1873. Herrington, J., & Standen, P. (1999). Moving from an instructivist to a constructivist multimedia learning environment. In B. Collis & R. Oliver (Eds.), In ED-MEDIA 1999–World Conference on

38

V. Arity and G. Vesty

Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications (pp. 132–137). Seattle, WA USA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Jackson, S. A., & Marsh, H. (1996). Development and validation of a scale to measure optimal experience: The flow state scale. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology., 18(1), 17–35. Ketamo, H., & Kiili, K. (2010). Conceptual change takes time: game based learning cannot be only supplementary amusement. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 19(4), 399–419. Lameras, P., Arnab, S., Dunwell, I., Stewart, C., Clarke, S., & Petridis, P. (2017). Essential features of serious game design in higher education: Linking learning attributes to game mechanics. British Journal of Educational Technology, 48(4), 972–994. Liao, L. F. (2006). A flow theory perspective on learner motivation and behavior in distance education. Distance Education, 27, 45–62. Paas, F., Renk, A., & Sweller, J. (2003). Cognitive load theory and instructional design: Recent developments. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 1–4. Pearce, J. M., Ainley, M., & Howard, S. (2005). The EBB and flow of online learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 21(5), 745–771. Price, L., & Kirkwood, A. (2013). Using technology for teaching and learning in higher education: A critical review of the role of evidence in informing practice. Higher Education Research and Development, 33(3), 549–564. Shin, N. (2006). Online learner’s “Flow” experience: An Empirical study. British Journal of Educational Technology, 37(5), 705–720. Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 139–297. Sweller, J. (1994). Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty and instructional design. Learning and Instruction., 4(4), 295–312. Sweller, J., Merrienboer, J. J. G., & Paas, F. G. W. C. (1998). Cognitive architecture and instructional design. Educational Psychology Review, 10(3), 251–296. United Nation (UN). (2018). Sustainable Development Goals, United Nations Department of Public Information. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300. van Schaik, P., Martin, S., & Vallance, M. (2012). Measuring flow experience in and immersive virtual environment for collaborative learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 28(4), 350–365. Walker, M., & Townley, C. (2012). Contract cheating: A new challenge for academic honesty. Journal of Academic Ethics, 10(1), 27–44.

Chapter 4

Successful Factors for Adoption of Synchronous Tools in Online Teaching at Scale Ling Mei Cong

Introduction With the advancement of technology in recent decades, online learning is becoming increasingly popular. Statistics show that the uptake of online learning is growing more rapidly than the face-to-face mode of learning (Lederman, 2019; Norton, Cherastidtham, & Mackey, 2018). Since learning is becoming a life-long goal, many adult learners enrol in either formal online programs or professional training courses. Meanwhile, given the improvement of technology, such as mobile learning and virtual tools, the access to learning using technology is much easier than before. Recently, COVID-19 forced many universities to go online overnight. Improving the learning experience of online students is an ongoing topic. There are challenges faced by the online learning environment. For example, isolation, lack of interaction with peers and instructors, and the absence of real-time feedback (Kim, Liu, & Bonk, 2005). Previous literature (Park & Bonk, 2007; Pineda Hoyos, 2018; Schullo et al., 2005; Ward, Peters, & Shelley, 2010) generally suggests that synchronous tools, such as web conferencing and online discussions can help to relieve these difficulties, particularly the former. Studies suggest that synchronous software can improve online student interaction and satisfaction (Cornelius & Gordon, 2013; Gegenfurtner, Schwab, & Ebner, 2018; Kear, Chetwynd, Williams, & Donelan, 2012; Wang & Hsu 2008). However, the findings are not entirely conclusive. Gegenfurtner and Ebner (2019) conducted a meta-analysis using controlled trials and found webinars were slightly more effective than control conditions (online asynchronous and face-to-face delivery) for student achievement, but the differences were trivial in size.

L. M. Cong (B) RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 T. McLaughlin et al. (eds.), Tertiary Education in a Time of Change, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5883-2_4

39

40

L. M. Cong

In the real implementation of synchronous tools, there are numerous barriers to the adoption at scale in Higher Education. Primary problems include, for example, the digital literacy of teachers, increased workload for staff and technology competency of students (Ertmer, 1999; Hew & Brush, 2007). Furthermore, if staff and students are not well prepared and engaged for the effective use of the technology, it may not necessarily improve the student experience. Much research has been conducted into investigating if synchronous tools improve student satisfaction or learning outcomes. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to how to properly design the implementation of synchronous tools in order to improve the student learning experience. Where students’ learning experience is not improved, it may not necessarily be that the technology itself doesn’t work, but the pedagogies and implementation process have not been designed well. Given online education is a primary trend in tertiary education, it is imperative to investigate it. The Graduate School of Business and Law (GSBL) at RMIT University runs three postgraduate programs, Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA), MBA and Juris Doctor (JD). RMIT is one of the first universities in Australia to offer online classes to postgraduate students via Open Universities Australia. All three programs are offered both face-to-face and online. The EMBA and MBA programs both have 12 courses. The EMBA requires students to have a minimum 3 years of experience as a manager and is offered to mature age students. Most students in the EMBA, both face-to-face and online, study by part time. The MBA program does not require students to have prior work experience. The JD program comprises of 24 courses. Similar to the MBA program, work experience is not mandatory for enrolment into JD. It is primarily offered to students with a non-law undergraduate degree to study law at the master level. Compared to the face-to-face cohort, the proportion of part-time students in MBA and JD is much higher in the online cohort. Prior ad hoc student feedback shows the motivations for students to study these programs online include flexibility, work-life balance and geographic reasons (e.g. living in rural areas or interstates that are difficult to commute to the campus). Approximately 43% of the MBA/EMBA and 58% of JD students are female. The highest percentage of age range for MBA students was 25–29 years, EMBA students, 30–39 years and JD students, 25–29 years. Collaborate Ultra is the web-conferencing software used for online delivery at RMIT. Collaborate Ultra is a piece of relatively mature software for learning and teaching purposes. Key features of Collaborate Ultra include traditional chats, document and screen sharing and whiteboard. It also includes more sophisticated features like polling and breakout rooms. The School promoted the use of Collaborate Ultra since it is embedded in the Learning Management System (LMS) and IT support is available. This chapter reports on the authentic experience of promoting the webinar tool Collaborate Ultra in postgraduate programs to examine factors for a successful adoption to improve student engagement and satisfaction. By using the student feedback and teaching scores over 3 semesters, this chapter identified success factors including (a) staff training, mentoring and support, (b) student training, (c) defining a clear purpose and (d) consistent scheduling pattern. The findings are important for

4 Successful Factors for Adoption of Synchronous Tools …

41

online instructors and administrators to consider the best ways to promote the use of synchronous tools. Given the ever-increasing enrolment in the online education and the demand from the students for highly engaged active learning methods (Kim et al., 2005; Ward et al., 2010), this study provides insights into the pedagogical design for active learning and staff training.

Literature Review Synchronous Tools and Active Learning The Active Learning literature suggests students need to be engaged in order to achieve the best learning experience and outcomes (Meyers & Jones, 1993; Prince, 2004). Asynchronous tools including audio, video, discussion boards and blogs are typically designed for single-to-many participants interaction. The interaction in webinars is typically designed for large numbers of participants and has the advantages of being live, synchronous and in real time (Gegenfurtner & Ebner, 2019; McKinney, 2017; Wang & Hsu, 2008). Among the benefits of synchronous interaction, previous studies highlight teacher immediacy and dynamic interaction as components benefiting students (Shen & Ho, 2020). In a number of cases, it has been reported that there is even a higher level of interaction than the on-campus mode because some students may be more active online than in class (Gegenfurtner & Ebner, 2019; Shen & Ho, 2020). The popular Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000), rooted predominantly in social constructivism, is one of the earliest to explain the interactions among participants in the teaching activity. Garrison et al. (2000) proposed that to enable a positive experience, learning needed to occur within the community through multiple forms of “presence”, such as teaching, social and cognitive presence. It highlights students as active participants who collaboratively engage in “purposeful critical discourse and reflection” to construct personal learning and confirm mutual understanding (Garrison & Akyol, 2013, p. 85). Social presence is particularly emphasised for the online setting by follow-up studies (Kear, Chetwynd, Williams, & Donelan, 2012; Kim et al., 2005) because it can be challenging in the online environment. In addition, Moore (1989) outlined three key interactions in online settings: student-content, student-teacher and student-student interactions. Moore’s classification remains the most widely accepted framework for examining the interrelationships between these three types of interaction. Anderson (2003) further extended the theory. Anderson’s interaction equivalency model argues that “deep and meaningful formal learning is supported as long as one of the three forms of interaction (studentteacher; student-student; student-content) is at a high level” (Anderson, 2003, p. 4). This means if one form of interaction is strong, the others are not essential. In the online context, Arbaugh (2001) noted that immediacy behaviours could be used in

42

L. M. Cong

online classrooms to reduce social and psychological distance. Meanwhile, Wise et al. (2004) suggested by using welcome messages, including student profiles, humour and icons, a social climate could be created in the virtual classroom.

Barriers to Staff Adoption of Webinar Tools Previous literature on the barriers of technology adoption primarily focuses on K-12 teachers. For example, Ertmer (1999), Hew and Brush (2007) and Kopcha (2012) conducted thorough reviews of the barriers and classified them into five categories: (a) Access, (b) Vision, (c) Beliefs, (d) Time and (e) Professional Development. These factors can be manipulative or non-manipulative depending on if the factors can be influenced by the school administrators (Drent & Meeliisen, 2008). In a similar vein, Christensen and Knezek (2008) developed the model of will, skill, tool (WST) that identifies technology attitude (will), digital competency (skills) and access to technology (tool) as key elements affecting the level of technology integration into classrooms. Studies by Hayes (2007), Park and Ertmer (2008), Sugar and Kester (2007) note how vision and belief about the usefulness of technology can affect staff resilience of using it when encountering difficulties. Meanwhile, facilitators can perceive technology as not accessible even if the technology is provided to them, because it does not work as intended or it is not useful for teaching purpose (Kopcha, 2012). Regarding the element “skill”, when training lacks connection to actual classroom practice or focuses solely on technical skills (Instefjord & Munthe, 2017; Kopcha, 2012), it does not help to facilitate the integration of technology into teaching. The increased workload can be a barrier to the adoption of technology, because planning and learning process is time consuming (Instefjord & Munthe, 2017; Kopcha, 2012) and there can be additional work to deal with misbehaviour from students (Instefjord & Munthe, 2017). Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, and Yoon, (2001) identified six principles to provide effective professional development including: focus on teacher knowledge, reform-type activities (e.g. study groups and teacher networks), situate activities in teacher needs, opportunities for active learning, extensive duration and collective participation. Mouza (2006, 2009) extended the principles to apply to the technology context. For example, professional learning communities and collaborative workshops aligned with classroom practice as reform-type activities. Other studies advocate localised professional development, that link with the pedagogical and disciplinary context in which teaching and learning take place (Burnett & Meadmore, 2002). Eib and Miller (2006) highlighted the community of practice could foster a sense of connectedness and collegiality for continuous improvement and innovation. Similarly, Friel et al. (2009) proposed a “collaborative training team” approach whereby technology training was placed into a pedagogical context by means of pedagogical dialogue to complement technology skill attainment.

4 Successful Factors for Adoption of Synchronous Tools …

43

Learning Design Components of Webinars There are various components of a webinar learning tool. This includes the structure of the webinar, e.g. length, frequency, scheduling pattern, and learning medium like slides, discussion, polling, group activities or whiteboard (Gegenfurtner & Ebner, 2019). The learning design also includes the software itself, with examples including Collaborate Ultra, Zoom, Cisco WebEx, Adobe Connect, Microsoft Teams or Skype, which have some similar features though some are primarily developed for educational purposes and some for meetings or conferencing. The technical requirements include a fast and stable internet connection, a browser or an app installed on a digital device (a laptop, mobile phone or tablet), a camera and a headset (Kim et al., 2005). A facilitator can prepare the webinar room independently or with the support from technologists. Different from traditional face-to-face teaching, the technical aspects can play a significant role in the success or failure of a webinar (Shen & Ho, 2020). For example, unstable internet connection, bandwidth and technical glitches with the hardware can compromise student experience. The webinar structure can be divided as pre-webinar preparation, delivery of webinar and post-webinar. The planning starts with scheduling the webinar event and announcing the webinar times and rooms (Gegenfurtner & Ebner, 2019). The preparation includes both the staff and students. During the webinar, various learning activities can be used to engage students online. Typical instructional methods include screen sharing, PowerPoint slides, real-time chats, quizzes, polls, breakout rooms, group discussions and real-time feedback among students and teachers to facilitate webinar-based learning. McInnerney and Roberts (2004) suggested the deliberate inclusion of a “warm-up” period in the webinar could help alleviate the feelings of isolation and build a sense of online social communities. At the end of a webinar, facilitators can leave some Q&A time. Prior literature (Vlachopoulos & Makri, 2017; Woods & Baker, 2004) shows immediate feedback from tutors allows learners to reflect on the extent of the knowledge they have acquired. This can happen during or after the webinar to facilitate the immediacy component of social presence. The facilitator can also review recordings to perform post-webinar follow-up analyses and evaluations of the webinar’s effectiveness.

Research Methods There are various ways to evaluate the success of synchronous tools, including questionaries, interviews and student results. The success can be measured by student learning outcomes or student satisfaction. Previous studies have used pre-post analysis, control group analysis and gain analysis to measure learning outcomes (Gegenfurtner & Ebner, 2019). This research project focused on student satisfaction and measures the success of the webinar adoption by course experience survey results.

44

L. M. Cong

The Course Experience Survey (CES) asks students about the learning experience and directly addresses their satisfaction with the learning design. Given this study primarily focused on the impact of synchronous tools on learning experience instead of learning outcomes, this measurement provides a more direct proxy of the effectiveness of the instructional design. The program-level survey results are secondary data and RMIT permits its staff to use aggregate data for research purposes. Prior to 2018, the Open Universities Australia (OUA) courses were surveyed by OUA and not all courses were evaluated. Since 2018, the RMIT CES was used for online students. This provides the opportunity for consistent comparison over semesters. The CES includes seven questions that comprise two scores: Good Teaching Scale (GTS) and Overall Satisfaction Index (OSI). The GTS aims to measure students’ perceptions of teaching standards. It consists of six questions that focus on teachers’ interactions with students: motivation, attention, understanding of problems, skill in explaining concepts and feedback. The last question is the OSI, which measures the overall satisfaction of the learning experience of a course. The seven CES questions are listed below: (a) The teaching staff are extremely good at explaining things. (b) The teaching staff normally give me helpful feedback on how I am going on this course. (c) The teaching staff in this course motivate me to do my best work. (d) The teaching staff work hard to make this course interesting. (e) The staff make a real effort to understand the difficulties I might be having with my work. (f) The staff put a lot of time into commenting on my work. (g) Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of this course. Each question is given five options for students to score: (a) strongly disagree, (b) disagree, (c) neutral, (d) agree and (e) strongly agree (Likert-type scale). The scores represent the overall percentage “agree” for the GTS or OSI questions. It is calculated by adding the number of students that “agree” or “strongly agree” with the GTS items, represented as a percentage of all student responses. TDis research used an experimental design to observe the CES results over three stages: (1) voluntary adoption stage; (2) pilot stage; and (3) mass adoption stage. Since the postgraduate programs are offered 3 semesters per year, the observation stages match the semesters. Semester 1, 2018 was the voluntary adoption stage for all three programs. It forms the primary control group for Stages 2 and 3 (i.e. Semesters 2 and 3). In the first stage, there was no management intervention. Semester 2 was the pilot stage when the School promoted the use of web conferencing by providing training in two programs, MBA and EMBA. The JD program did not participate in the pilot. The pilot stage also acts as a benchmark for comparison with the mass adoption stage. Semester 3 was the mass adoption stage when all programs adopted compulsory webinars and received revised training and guidance. This staged approach of adoption allowed a chance to learn lessons from the pilot stage and refine training and guidance for the mass adoption stage. This experimental

4 Successful Factors for Adoption of Synchronous Tools …

45

design enabled use of the first two stages as control groups for comparison of the effect of the adoption of webinars on student satisfaction. It is recognized that there can be other factors that contribute to student satisfaction. However, this design forms a relatively clean comparison that controls for extraneous factors (e.g. institutional factors, delivery modes, pedagogical designs) that may affect student satisfaction. It is worth noting that this research did not use the corresponding face-to-face classes as the control groups due to the vast different delivery modes and pedagogical designs.

Results and Discussion Voluntary Adoption Stage Before the promotion of synchronous tools, student satisfaction in the three programs was in the 70–80% range of agreement. The GTS and OSI scores of the two MBA programs were 69.7 and 69.8 in S1 2018, respectively. The GTS and OSI scores in the JD program were 77.7 and 80.2, respectively. Using the University average score in S1 2018 (GTS: 63.6, OSI, 65.5) as the benchmark, these scores were clearly above average score. However, the qualitative feedback from a number of students about the online learning experience was unfavourable. Examples of some comments include the following: The way the course is set up …where we can learn the material ourselves and then get graded through our assessments on how well we learnt it ourselves. This is not worth the cost of tuition, (EMBA student, S1 2018). This course is a waste of time and money, (MBA student, S1 2018). We don’t have the face to face element of interaction to help us obtain what is expected of us. (MBA student, S1 2018). The lecture is audio without slides, (JD student, S1 2018). Sometimes it is difficult listening online when students interrupt the flow of the lecturer to ask questions… the flow was interrupted very frequently, making it difficult to understand, (JD student S1, 2018). Sometimes it can be hard to follow on audio when the face to face class is jumping around in the slides as the audio obviously does not give the visual clue as to where the class is, (JD student, S1 2018).

At this stage, the majority of the courses in the 3 programs used asynchronous tools in the online delivery: Echo 360 recording of face-to-face classes, recorded videos, voice-over PowerPoint slides and discussion boards. Three MBA courses voluntarily adopted webinars and all of them achieved a GTS and OSI of over 80. The qualitative feedback shows students’ primary concerns were around the lack of interaction with teachers and peers, and the difficulty in using asynchronous recordings, particularly face-to-face recordings, to engage with the course content.

46

L. M. Cong

Pilot Stage In Semester 2, 2018, a pilot was undertaken for each course in the MBA and EMBA programs to run regular webinars instead of just audio or video recordings. Each course was required to have at least 4 webinars over 12 weeks with the first webinar held in Week 1 for orientation. The School drafted a guideline entitled “Online Minimum Standards” that detailed the expectations of the online delivery (see Appendix 1 for the latest version). Instructions and training on how to use Collaborate Ultra software were provided via workshops to staff. Figure 4.1 provides a screenshot of the Collaborate Ultra interface. During Semester 2 adoption, it was noted some students had technical issues with setting up the system. Students also reported they didn’t feel online drop-in sessions added value because it only offered the opportunity to ask teachers questions, but lack of engagement with peers. Staff reported the attendance in some courses was low; particularly for the ones that only provided drop-ins. The GTS and OSI scores for the MBA programs were 68.5 and 70.1, respectively (see Table 4.1 for data). This is on par with the results from Semester 1 with the GTS score slightly lower and the OSI score slightly higher. Note: the 3 voluntary MBA courses were still on the Semester 2 course list, and achieved a score relatively consistent with Semester 1. For JD, the GTS was 80.3 and OSI 81.0, again slightly better than Semester 1. The GTS and OSI scores of the MBA programs were still considerably lower than the JD, even with the adoption of the webinars.

Fig. 4.1 Collaborate Ultra interface

4 Successful Factors for Adoption of Synchronous Tools …

47

Table 4.1 Summary of GTS and OSI mean including the standard deviation over three stages EMBA/MBA n

Voluntary adoption stage

Pilot stage

Mass adoption stage

S1 2018

S2 2018

S3 2018

73

132

83

Survey population

326

305

194

Response rate (%)

22

43

43

No. of Courses

15

14

GTS Mean (%)

69.4

68.5

87.2

GTS Std Dev (%)

23.3

22.7

13.3

9

OSI Mean (%)

69.8

70.1

84.1

OSI Std Dev (%)

27.2

21.8

17.9

n

75

87

14

Survey population

302

224

70

Response rate (%)

25

35

20

No. of Courses

18

18

4

GTS Mean (%)

77.7

80.3

90.0

GTS Std Dev (%)

24.5

25.9

10.1

OSI Mean (%)

80.2

81.0

95.0

OSI Std Dev (%)

26.4

29.4

10.0

Note Voluntary adoption stage: no management intervention Pilot stage: MBA and EMBA programs adopted webinars and received training Mass adoption stage: all programs adopted webinars and received revised training and guidance n denotes the number of student responses

Mass Adoption Stage Based on the feedback from staff and students, the professional development and guidance were revised to ensure the pedagogical components were appropriately incorporated into the support and guidance given. The JD program was required to implement regular webinars. Hence, all three programs in the School adopted the synchronous tools formally in Semester 3. The key initiatives to ensure successful implementation were as follows.

Staff Training, Mentoring and Support By reflecting on the literature (Instefjord & Munthe, 2017; Kopcha, 2012), access, vision and belief are important barriers to overcome. Even if the software is available to staff and training was provided, they may not necessarily feel it is accessible to them, because of their lack of confidence in using the software and doubts about whether it will work.

48

L. M. Cong

Therefore, the learning and teaching leadership team conducted an analysis of the hazard zones based on Semester 2 MBA staff feedback (Feedback was collected via teaching review and course enhancement conversations), which included the technical and pedagogical components. The three key areas of concern were the following: (a) Setting up the room for students and communicating the correct information to them. On a number of occasions, staff mixed up the web-conferencing rooms they set up and entered a different room from that students joined. (b) The first webinar was important to go smoothly. If that one did not go well, students were not interested in attending webinars. Staff also lost confidence in running it. (c) How to engage with students to enhance their attendance rate. Therefore, training was further provided to address the hazard zones. Staff who were less confident with technologies were assigned mentors to support their instructional design, following suggestions from the previous literature (Zhao & Bryant, 2006). The Deputy Dean, Learning and Teaching and the School Online Coordinator acted as the key mentors. Staff were also engaged as voluntary peer mentors to share their experience. For example, sitting together during the training sessions to go through the Collaborate Ultra functions. Elbow-support for the setting up of the webinars and where necessary, a moderator was arranged for the first week’s webinar for technical support. The support was provided for three courses by the key mentors and RMIT Online learning designers upon the staff’s request. For this research, engagement with synchronous learning was measured using the attendance rate and active participation in the discussions during webinars. Engagement was addressed by the purpose and scheduling discussed below.

Student Training In addition to the technical issues, students’ confidence in using the software impacted their learning experience. Based on the staff feedback and student comments from Semester 2, there was a particular difference between first-time student users and returning users. Staff observed students tended to have much less technical issues later in the semester, likely due to the growing familiarity with the conferencing software. One student’s panic about minor issues could affect the spirit of the entire class, for example, coming late to the webinar, frequently logging in or out of the conference room due to unstable internet, or leaving speakers on with noises. The School, therefore, designed an instructional document for first-time student users (see Appendix 2). They were advised to check their audio and video devices before the first webinar. Also, an explicit reminder to use a headset and mute speakers when not speaking to avoid distraction to others. Staff were asked to upload the instruction document to the Canvas LMS resource area for the orientation week.

4 Successful Factors for Adoption of Synchronous Tools …

49

Clear Purpose (Meaningful Engagement, Dynamic Interactions and Community Building) Previous literature (Anderson, 2003; Moore, 1989) reveals that the learning experience is only effective when there are dynamic interactions between student-content, student-teacher and student-student. Face-to-face workshops were conducted for staff to delve into the purpose of the webinars. Academics agreed the purpose of the synchronous tools was to provide meaningful engagement, dynamic interactions and community building. Staff were encouraged to share with each other their pedagogies in the online delivery and what worked and what didn’t. For example, there needs to be an understanding that in the online environment, the attention span of students can be shorter than the face-to-face setting (Chen & Wang, 2018). The webinar needs to be broken down into small sections to enable sufficient interactions among participants. An exemplar webinar structure was circulated to staff, which recommended an icebreaker at the beginning, a series of small mini activities, using topical newspaper articles and bringing industry people to online webinars as guest speakers (see Appendix 3). Typical webinars were recommended to be no more than one-hour duration. Drop-in sessions were advised to supplement the webinars to offer Q&A opportunities, particularly close to the assessment due weeks. The study also revealed personalized, warm and immediate styles help to facilitate online delivery (Anderson, 2003; Wise et al., 2004). Other interactions complementing the online webinars are also important (Vlachopoulos & Makri, 2017; Woods & Baker, 2004). An updated Online Minimum Standards (see Appendix 1) were developed to explain minimum expectations starting from the very beginning of the course. It requires a welcome announcement in the orientation week, weekly announcements prompting students to complete their tasks, timely feedback on assignments and prompt responses to student queries.

Consistent Scheduling To resolve the problem of low attendance and engagement, an analysis was conducted to find the features of the courses with a high attendance rate. It was found those courses tend to schedule the webinars in a consistent pattern mirroring the faceto-face class scheduling. That is, there is a designated weekly time for the online webinars, so students can pre-arrange their time to ensure they are available for the webinar. Staff were advised to schedule webinars in a relatively consistent pattern by the leadership team. As a result, the Semester 3 CES scores were considerably higher than Semester 2 (Note: a smaller number of courses were offered in Semester 3, since it is a summer semester and some students take a break from their studies). Table 4.1 (above) presents the GTS and OSI mean and standard deviation values across the three periods for EMBA, MBA and the JD programs, respectively. The Semester 3 MBA programs achieved a GTS of 87.2 and an OSI of 84.1, much higher than

50

L. M. Cong

the Semester 2 results (GTS 68.5, OSI 70.1). The JD program also improved with a GTS and OSI of 90 and 95, respectively. Qualitative comments show students were generally satisfied with the synchronous delivery (Figs. 4.2 and 4.3). The online lecturers are a great opportunity to interact with the teaching staff and I received great feedback. Interaction with peers is also good, (EMBA student, S3 2018). Group sessions with lecturers very worthwhile, (MBA student, S3, 2018). User friendly online interactions by inclusive, positive and passionate lecturers, (MBA student, S3 2018). I found RMIT Online studies immensely enjoyable and rewarding, (MBA student, S3 2018). Thoroughly enjoyed XXX’s teaching style and the unit. Thank you XXX for making the subject interesting and interactive, (JD student, S3 2018). The extra Collaborate Ultra sessions were useful for interaction with the lecturer, (JD student, S3 2018).

Survey Scores

EMBA/MBA Student Survey Results 100 95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60

Mass adopon

Pilot

S1 2018 EMBA/MBA (n=73)

S2 2018 EMBA/MBA (n=132)

S3 2018 EMBA/MBA (n=83)

GTS

69.4

68.5

87.2

OSI

69.8

70.1

84.1

Fig. 4.2 MBA programs student survey results

Survey Scores

JD Student Survey Results 100 95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60

Mass adopon

S1 2018 JD (n=75)

S2 2018 JD (n=87)

S3 2018 JD (n=14)

GTS

77.7

80.3

90

OSI

80.2

81

95

Fig. 4.3 JD program student survey results

4 Successful Factors for Adoption of Synchronous Tools …

51

Conclusion This chapter explores successful factors for the adoption of synchronous online tools at scale. Using three programs at GSBL, and undergoing the pilot and mass adoption stages, the study showed that there are four factors that are important when using the webinars to improve online students’ satisfaction: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Staff training, mentoring and support; Student training; Defining a clear purpose; Consistent scheduling.

As shown in Fig. 4.4, these factors interact with each other and address the barriers to the adoption of technology. Particularly, access, time and professional development are properly addressed in the revised training program. Mentoring is important to build the confidence and strengthen vision and belief for the integration of synchronous tools. Mentoring also tailors the needs of the staff to link to pedagogical context for teaching practice. Out of all four factors, “defining a clear purpose” is particularly important for ensuring the technology is not considered as a standalone tool, but the means to facilitate meaningful engagement, dynamic interactions and community building (Anderson, 2003; Garrison & Akyol, 2013; Garet et al., 2001). “Staff training, mentoring and support” and “student training” help to ensure this purpose achieves its goals. It consequently leads to the deep and meaningful learning experience of online students, which eventually can improve the achievement of learning outcomes. Out of all learning design components of a webinar, “consistent scheduling” is the factor that aims to enhance student preparation, active participation and continuous engagement. Fig. 4.4 Framework for successful adoption of synchronous tools at scale

Staff training, mentoring & support

Clear Purpose

Successful Adopon of Synchronous Tools at Scale

Student training

Consistent Scheduling

52

L. M. Cong

This research project offers a holistic view of the factors that affect the implementation of the webinar tool. Results suggest, to improve student satisfaction, a deep understanding of pedagogies, professional development of staff, student preparation and learning design of the webinar are all important for the success. These factors should not be segregated from each other. The pilot-formal adoption approach also allows a trial on a smaller scale and then improved mass adoption. The findings are important for online instructors and administrators to consider the best ways to promote the use of synchronous tools using appropriate pedagogical models. This study also contributes to the literature on professional development for technology adoption and technology-enhanced learning.

Limitations of This Study This study used student survey results (GTS and OSI) to measure student satisfaction. Whilst it directly measures the student experience, it does have limitations. It is recommended that future research in this area should undertake more targeted interviews and questionnaires with staff and students to understand their perspectives on the impact of the adoption of synchronous tools on their experience.

Appendix 1: GSBL Online Minimum Standards Prepare for the semester • Provide an informative welcome announcement at the beginning of semester. • Provide students with some of your (the lecturer) background, e.g. professional experience, teaching experience. • Provide an overview of how Canvas works for the course—where students will find material, how updates will happen, etc. • Tell students at the beginning of the semester how you will communicate with them, e.g. “I will be loading an announcement every Monday, talking about the topic to be covered that week”. • Use a forum on the discussion board, or some other mechanism, to allow students to introduce themselves to the lecturer and to other students. • For courses that have group assessment, ask students to start to look for groupmates in the orientation week. • In the Announcement section, have a message, in a welcoming tone, saying that if students wish to share information with the lecturer but not other students—send an email.

4 Successful Factors for Adoption of Synchronous Tools …

53

During the semester • Have announcements regularly, e.g. a welcome to each unit message. Refer to newspaper articles, current events, YouTube videos as appropriate to give students a sense of authentic learning. • Use a friendly, open and chatty tone in the announcements rather than too formal. • Keep Canvas up to date—at least on a weekly basis during the semester. • Maintain an organised Discussion Board—not just one big forum. Consider having a number of forums. Title each forum to give a strong message as to what goes there. • Monitor Discussion Boards on a regular basis and send regular announcements/emails. You can subscribe to the forums so you automatically received responses. This may be in a conversational tone to encourage engagement. • Run regular webinars to engage with students and promote active learning. • Engage students with interesting interactive activities, e.g. use icebreakers at the beginning of the webinars, prepare some slides and use chat, polling and whiteboards or other tools to interact with students and promote peer learning. • Schedule the webinars in a relatively consistent pattern, send a reminder to students on the day when the webinar is held and give them a link to the room. • Consider making video material (usually 6–8 min) to engage students with key ideas in a topic. • Post podcasts (or recordings of seminars) wherever possible. • Answer all emails within a time frame, e.g. 48 h. The answer may be—“please put your question on Canvas in Forum X—many students will benefit from your question”. • Reinforce details of assessment (which must appear in part B) on Canvas at the beginning of the semester. Include a rubric for all assessments on Canvas. • For courses that have group assessment, ask students to register their groups under the Canvas Groups, give clear instructions on how the group assessment will be marked, how their contributions will be verified and monitor the groups’ activities. • Tell students at the beginning of the semester when they will get feedback on their work, e.g. major assignment—2 weeks. • Make clear that all assignments must be submitted through Turnitin located in the assessment section of Canvas. • All assignment feedback for OUA should be through Canvas Speedgrader. Provide general feedback on how students went in the assessment through announcements in addition to individual feedback. • If there is an exam, provide some practice material and regular updates on how to prepare and use “feedforward” where possible, i.e. common errors from last semester’s group.

54

L. M. Cong

Appendix 2: Collaborate Ultra Instruction for First-Time Student Users Prepare to Use Collaborate Ultra Collaborate Ultra is a webinar tool built into your Canvas course site. It also can be used for meetings with lecturers and group work. You are recommended to use an echo-cancelling headset when in a web conference. If you already have an earphone, most of them should be able to do the job. Using PC built-in speakers can cause noises in the background when you speak. Preferred browser: Google Chrome, Firefox Step 1: Access and join a session To find the “Collaborate Ultra” tab, go to the Canvas “Home Page” your course. Click “Collaborate Ultra” menu on the left bottom hand of your Canvas home page. For example:

Usually your lecturer will give you a link to the session they wish you to join. You can then directly click into the link. Alternatively, you can join the session from Canvas. Click the name of the session instructed by your lecturer and select “Join session”.

4 Successful Factors for Adoption of Synchronous Tools …

55

The Collaborate Ultra session will open. Your name, along with other participants/moderators, will be listed in the Attendees list. If the session you’re joining is not yet opened, you can use this room to set up your audio and camera. When you’re on the page, click on “Join from a browser”. Enter a name and click on “Join Session”. Step 2: Set up camera and audio When you join a session for the first time, you need to set up your camera and audio to ensure they work properly. Follow the below steps:

1. Open the Collaborate panel on the bottom right-hand side of your screen. 2. Click on My Settings. 3. Then, click on the Set Up your Camera and Microphone. 4. Choose the microphone you want to use. It tells you that you sound great when it is receiving your audio. Select Yes, it’s working. 5. Choose the camera you want to use. It tells you that you look great when it is receiving your video. Select Yes, it’s working. 6. You can adjust your speaker and microphone volume by dragging the button.

Step 3: Participate in a session Watch this below short video to get familiar with all menus in Collaborate Ultra. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=1W4sGpVmJaY You can type chat messages, talk to other attendees, participate in polls and set your status using various functions available. Even though it is possible for multiple people to talk at the same time, it is recommended that you release the Talk button each time you have finished speaking to avoid a possible echoing effect.

56

L. M. Cong

Etiquette The online environment is great for networking and getting to know one another, and the rules of common courtesy or “netiquette” apply here as they do in any classroom or public area. Retrieve past recordings You can view recordings in the courses you are enrolled in. You may be able to download recordings. Instructors must allow session recording downloads for each session. Go to Collaborate, open the Menu and select Recordings

By default, only recent recordings appear on the Recordings page. To search for recordings that are not recent, click on Filter by: Show Recent Recordings menu and select “Recordings in a Range”.

To view a recording now, click on the recording name. To view additional options, click on the Options menu on the right for the desired recording.

4 Successful Factors for Adoption of Synchronous Tools …

57

Appendix 3: GSBL Online Webinar Expectations • Hold regular webinars each semester. The minimum ones include the following: – At the very beginning (week 1)—expectations and assessment. – In weeks 3–5 around assessment 1, including feedforward hints and tips. – Between weeks 6 and 8, including feedback on assignment 1 and feedforward for assignment 2. – At the end (week 11 or 12)—focusing on exam preparation. • Timing: Lecturers need to check-in with their cohort to find a suitable time. There will never be a time that suits everyone and this is why sessions should be recorded. Popular times include evenings, weekends or lunchtime. Please try to schedule the sessions in a relatively consistent pattern, which will enhance the attendance. • A webinar is not a lecture and thus not intended to replace the time students take to read the material and listen to the actual lecture recording. Students are expected to listen to and watch the regular weekly lecture posted. • Keep the sessions short and sharp (e.g. 40 min to 1 h). Prepare some slides with some key points (e.g. hints and tips, or key topics you have learned, exercises or even a media article to prompt some discussion). • Check out interactive tools in Collaborate Ultra which can help to engage with the students (e.g. voting polls, whiteboard drawing for ideas, etc.). • Promote the Collaborate Ultra session via announcements, and you can even include a handy link for them to enter the session directly. The best practice is to send a reminder on the day of the webinar with a link. • You can use the standard course room or you can schedule separate sessions for specific times. The latter might be preferable if you wish to give advanced notice and schedule specific sessions in advance. Make sure you give students a correct link to the session. Don’t forget that apart from holding Collaborate Ultra webinars, it’s important to maintain the regular good online teaching practice such as the following:

58

L. M. Cong

• • • •

Sending out regular announcements. Being friendly, open and chatty rather than too formal. Providing comprehensive, personalized feedback on assignments. Ensure the quality of your recordings is high, including greeting online students at the commencement of the audio recording and breaking up audio recordings into logical parts (avoid a lengthy 3-h recording at all cost!). • Hold discussion board posts and invite students to participate. Newspaper articles are a good prompt for discussions. • Be available (and respond to emails within 48 h).

References Anderson, T. (2003). Getting the mix right again: An updated and theoretical rationale for interaction. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 4(2). https://doi. org/10.19173/irrodl.v4i2.149. Arbaugh, J. B. (2001). How instructor immediacy behaviors affect student satisfaction and learning in web-based courses. Business Communication Quarterly, 64(4), 42–54. Burnett, B. M. & Meadmore, P. J. (2002) Streaming lectures: Enhanced pedagogy or simply ‘bells and whistles’?. In P. L. Jeffery (Eds.), Proceedings Australian Association for Research in Education 2002, Brisbane. Chen, C. M., & Wang, J. Y. (2018). Effects of online synchronous instruction with an attention monitoring and alarm mechanism on sustained attention and learning performance. Interactive Learning Environments, 26(4), 427–443. Christensen, R., & Knezek, G. (2008). Self-report measures and findings for information technology attitudes and competencies. In J. Voogt & G. Knezek (Eds.), International handbook of information technology in primary and secondary education (pp. 349–365). New York: Springer Science. Business Media. Cornelius, S., & Gordon, C. (2013). Facilitating learning with web conferencing recommendations based on learners’ experiences. Education and Information Technologies, 18, 275–285. Drent, M., & Meelissen, M. (2008). Which factors obstruct or stimulate teacher educators to use ICT innovatively? Computers & Education, 51(1), 187–199. Eib, B. J., & Miller, P. (2006). Faculty development as community building—an approach to professional development that supports communities of practice for online teaching. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 7(2). Ertmer, P. A. (1999). Addressing first- and second-order barriers to change: Strategies for technology integration. Educational Technology Research and Development, 47, 47–61. Friel, T., Britten, J., Compton, B., Peak, A., Schoch, K., & VanTyle, W. K. (2009). Using pedagogical dialogue as a vehicle to encourage faculty technology use. Computers & Education, 53, 300–307. Garet, M. S., Porter, A. C., Desimone, L., Birman, B. F., & Yoon, K. S. (2001). What makes professional development effective? Results from a national sample of teachers. American Educational Research Journal, 38(4), 915–945. Garrison, D. R., & Akyol, Z. (2013). Toward the development of a metacognition construct for communities of inquiry. The Internet and Higher Education, 17, 84–89. Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2–3), 87–105. Gegenfurtner A., & Ebner, C. (2019); Webinars in higher education and professional training: A meta analysis and systematic review of randomized controlled trials, Educational Research Review, 28, 100293.

4 Successful Factors for Adoption of Synchronous Tools …

59

Gegenfurtner, A., Schwab, N., & Ebner, C. (2018). There’s no need to drive from A to B: Exploring the lived experience of students and lecturers with digital learning. Bavarian Journal of Applied Sciences, 4, 310–322. Hayes, D. N. A. (2007). ICT and learning: Lessons from Australian classrooms. Computers & Education, 49(2), 385–395. Hew, K., & Brush, T. (2007). Integrating technology into K-12 teaching and learning: Current knowledge gaps and recommendations for future research. Educational Technology Research and Development, 55(3), 223–252. Instefjord, E., & Munthe, E. (2017). Educating digitally competent teachers: A study of integration of professional digital competency in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67, 37–45. Kear, K., Chetwynd, F., Williams, J., & Donelan, H. (2012). Web conferencing for synchronous online tutorials: Perspectives of tutors using a new medium. Computers & Education, 58, 953–963. Kim, K. J., Liu, S., & Bonk, C. J. (2005). Online MBA students’ perceptions of online learning: Benefits, challenges, and suggestions. Internet and Higher Education, 8(4), 335–344. Kopcha, T. J. (2012). Teachers’ perceptions of the barriers to technology integration and practices with technology under situated professional development. Computers & Education, 59(4), 1109– 1121. Lederman, D. (2019). Online enrolments grow, but pace slows. Retrieved February 2nd https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/12/11/more-students-studyonline-rate-growth-slowed-2018. Meyers, C., & Jones, T. B. (1993) T.B. Promoting active learning: Strategies for the college classroom. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, U.S. McKinney, W. P. (2017). Assessing the evidence for the educational efficacy of webinars and related internet-based instruction. Pedagogy Health Promotion: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 3, 475–515. McInnerney, J. M., & Roberts, T. S. (2004). Online learning: Social interaction and the creation of a sense of community. Educational Technology and Society, 7(3), 73–81. Moore, M. G. (1989). Three types of interaction. The American Journal of Distance Education, 3(2), 1–6. Mouza, C. (2006). Linking professional development to teacher learning and practice: A multi-case study analysis of urban teachers. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 34(4), 405–440. Mouza, C. (2009). Does research-based professional development make a difference? A longitudinal investigation of teacher learning in technology integration. Teachers College Record, 111(5), 1195–1241. Norton, A., Cherastidtham, I., & Mackey, W. (2018). Mapping Australian Higher Education 2018, Grattan Institute. Park Y. J., & Bonk C. J. (2007). Is online life a breeze? A case study for promoting synchronous learning in a blended graduate course. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 3(3). Park, S. H., & Ertmer, P. A. (2008). Examining barriers in technology-enhanced problem-based learning: Using a performance support systems approach. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(4), 631–643. Pineda Hoyos, J. E. (2018). Error correction and repair moves in synchronous learning activities. International Journal of Educational Technology in High Education, 15(23). Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education, 93(3), 223–231. Shen, C., & Ho, J. (2020). Technology-enhanced learning in higher education: A bibliometric analysis with latent semantic approach. Computers in Human Behaviour, 104, 106177. Schullo, S., Venable, M., Barron, A. E., Kromrey, J. D., Hilbelink, A. & Hohlfeld, T. (2005). Enhancing online courses with synchronous software: An analysis of strategies and interactions. In Proceedings of the National Educational Computing Conference (pp. 1–16). Philadelphia, PA. Sugar, W., & Kester, D. (2007). Lessons learned from IMPACTing technology integration practices: Four IMPACT model case studies. Computers in the Schools, 24(1–2), 15–32.

60

L. M. Cong

Vlachopoulos, D., & Makri, A. (2017). The effect of games and simulations on higher education: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14, Art. 22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0062-1. Wang, S.-K., & Hsu, H.-Y. (2008). Use of the webinar tool (Elluminate) to support training: The effects of webinar-learning implementation from student-trainers’ perspective. The Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 7, 175–194. Ward, M. E., Peters, G., & Shelley, K. (2010). Student and faculty perceptions of the quality of online learning experiences. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 11(3), 57–77. Wise, A., Chang, J., Dufy, T., & del Valle, R. (2004). The effects of teacher social presence on student satisfaction, engagement, and learning. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 31(3), 247. Woods, R. H., & Baker, J. D. (2004). Interaction and immediacy in online learning. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v5i2.186. Zhao, Y., & Bryant, F. L. (2006). Can teacher technology integration training alone lead to high levels of technology integration? A qualitative look at teachers’ technology integration after state mandated technology training. Electronic Journal for the Integration of Technology in Education, 5, 53–62.

Part II

Shifting the Curriculum

Chapter 5

Shifting the Curriculum Rowena Scott

Section Overview In this year, the 30th anniversary of Boyer’s seminal work- Scholarship Reconsidered, it is clear that more than ever the implications arising from this work are both astutely relevant and judicious in higher education today. Boyer (1990) maintains that the health of the academy rests upon our ability to connect with what it means to be a scholar so that “our students will be well served, our academic creativity will be expanded and our university richer for our work.” (p. 16). In an era of almost universal higher education participation, scholarship of teaching is more important than ever to respond to student diversity and learner understanding. Discovery, integration, application and teaching––the four pillars of Boyer’s work (1990) entices the academy to look beyond what is and reach into new practice, new explorations of applications that are integral to developmental and critical learning activities within universities. As Fincher et al. (2000) remind us––teaching both educates and entices future scholars. It is because teachers bring the depth of their disciplinary knowledge to the task of transforming and extending knowledge in ways that encourage students to be critical, creative thinkers with the capacity to go on learning, that scholarship is central to the work of higher education. This is never more so than in the rapidly changing world of teaching in a new context. In this section, the authors identify and reflect upon the challenges and questions of learning and teaching in a global setting, teaching online, in a technology-driven blended context and in a design-led environment. The relevance of cross-disciplinary, transformative learning and the building of global competence is explored by McLaughlin et al in their work “From Small Things.” Their conclusions and reflections upon the building of global citizenship provide food for thought R. Scott (B) RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 T. McLaughlin et al. (eds.), Tertiary Education in a Time of Change, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5883-2_5

63

64

R. Scott

around the ongoing challenge of sustaining this work into a world that is increasingly shrinking in size and cultural diversity. The encouragement of critical, culturally aware learners is fundamental to global citizenship––the challenge for educators is the maintenance of such approaches. Framed within this section is also a work that goes to the heart of scholarship–– the education of future teachers. Jordan et al., give us silage for tired minds against approaches that emphasize assembly-line learning. It is refreshing to read of their design-led project and to learn of the insights so often abandoned in the race for completion of graduate studies in education. It is worthy of comment that such a contribution augurs well for the pursuit of the scholarship of teaching by new members of the academy. Munguia et al., explore students’ experiences as they navigate an online learning system. They question the trade-offs associated with course design and effective learning. Their findings centre upon the understandings of course organization and structure and in attempting to determine the balance between uniqueness, flexibility, innovation and continuity. Most importantly, they challenge us to reconsider the effect upon learners as integral to our teaching structures. In a similar vein, Rekhari et al., demonstrated holistic curriculum transformation. Outlining the pedagogical approach, strategies implemented and the staff capability development plan to deliver blended content, this chapter describes variations under the term ‘blended learning’. One key driver of the program enhancement was to ensure active rather than passive learning. Another driver was to establish a community of learners and educators. By providing a very practical insight into the use of blended activities and resources they create examples of holistic curriculum transformations that both mirror real-world teaching experiences in STEM and create room for variation and critical scholarship analysis. Scholarship, of course, has always existed in one form or another, with individuals and outstanding teams promoting teaching rigour and awareness over many years. However, in a time of global crisis, uncertainty about the future of higher education and fiscal tightening across all spheres of academic pursuit, the ability to harness scholarship to deliver sustainability, informed and innovative practice is heightened. The contribution of these works is never more vital.

References Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate (p. 08648). Princeton Pike, Lawrenceville, NJ: Princeton University Press. Fincher, R. M. E., Simpson, D. E., Mennin, S. P., Rosenfeld, G. C., Rothman, A., McGrew, M. C., et al. (2000). Scholarship in teaching: an imperative for the 21st century. Academic Medicine, 75(9), 887–894.

Chapter 6

From Small Things: Building Cross-Disciplinary, Transformative Learning Experiences Through a Global Mobility Experience for Higher Education Students Patricia McLaughlin, Peter Stasinopoulos, Jeff Shimeta, Rick Ryan, Matthew Currell, Graeme Allinson, Nick Brown, and Tariq Maqsood

Introduction Australian universities in recent years have seen increased student interest in skills that evidence capacity in global contexts. This has fuelled student growth in international exchanges, short-term study tours, and cultural immersions (Scharoun, 2016). This interest has coincided with a shift in Australian government policy towards the promotion of funded short-term mobility programmes (Universities Australia, 2016). With increasing economic ties to Asia, Australian governments over the past decade have attempted to increase possibilities for Australian students to study specifically in Asia and the Pacific. Government policy supports the belief that intercultural experiences in these geographic areas open students’ vision of the world to new cultures, different people and their customs, and different ways of thinking and doing, thus increasing their cultural intelligence and global work-ready skills. This also aligns with government policies on new economic directions and possibilities for the education sector, but also in the longer term for business and trade opportunities in Asia and the Pacific. Such direction is evident from both funding targets and stated policy: The main purpose of Global Mobility funding grants is to increase the productivity and prosperity of our country through interactions between young Australians and other young people in the Asia Pacific region (Bishop, Minister for Foreign Affairs, 2016).

The growing realisation amongst higher education institutions that global mobility can also help to increase a graduate’s employment marketability, career prospects, P. McLaughlin (B) · P. Stasinopoulos · J. Shimeta · R. Ryan · M. Currell · G. Allinson · N. Brown · T. Maqsood RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 T. McLaughlin et al. (eds.), Tertiary Education in a Time of Change, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5883-2_6

65

66

P. McLaughlin et al.

and advancement, along with the possibility of future international networks has also contributed to this growth. For many tertiary institutions, the “lure” of global opportunities assists in student marketing and provides a platform for further research links into vital growth regions. Schech, Kelton, Carati, and Kingsmill (2017) have found that higher education institutions often attempt to anticipate the future skills needed beyond a university degree by providing global learning opportunities within study programmes, and that many promote global experiences that will directly assist in developing a diverse range of employability skills such as communication, teamwork, cultural empathy and 21st century skills. Students, too, understand the value of an international experience, however limited, and there has been steady interest and uptake at undergraduate levels across Australia for global mobility programmes and Australian Government funded study internationally (Universities Australia, 2016). As well as “looking good on the resume” global mobility experiences may also provide evidence of personal growth and satisfaction, cultural empathy and cultural capital along with unique global perspectives (Ballestas & Roller, 2013; Knutson Miller & Gonzalez, 2016; Schech et al., 2017). Paige, Fry, Stallman, Josi´c, and Jon (2009) went so far as to say that global mobility experiences have been found to be “one of the most important experiences students can have during their undergraduate years” (p. 41). Due to this increased interest there has been much research on student global mobility. Much of the research has focussed upon short-term outcomes, organisational aspects, culture and geography and the student mobility experience, along with impacts upon employability and personal growth. There has been little investigation of student future intentions as a result of the mobility experience. This gap in our understanding of global mobility means that for tertiary institutions, the longer term outcomes upon students of the global mobility investment are unclear. This limits both opportunities to link the experiences to lifelong learning, student personal growth in global understandings and professional development links to industry and work futures. As Li, Mobley, and Kelly (2013) note, without further investigation around the global mobility phenomenon, higher education institutions cannot effectively make full use of short-term, international experiences to assist with meeting twenty-first-century industry skills for global economic advancement. This chapter reports on the feedback from differing cohorts of students over a 2year period, who all undertook a global mobility short-term study experience to the Yasawa Islands in Fiji. The students, both undergraduates and postgraduates, were involved in ongoing sustainability projects primarily focussing on water sanitation, marine ecosystems, education and waste management on the Islands. This chapter explores their post-visit responses to the impact of the experience upon their future lifelong intentions.

6 From Small Things: Building Cross-Disciplinary …

67

Global Mobility and the Student Experience There is significant evidence that the positioning of global mobility within the undergraduate Australian curriculum has grown in significance in recent years (Scharoun, 2016). To better reflect the globalised context in which their graduates will live and work, many Australian universities have adopted graduate attributes such as global citizenship, international knowledge, and competence in culturally diverse and international environments, which has repositioned a global experience as an important feature in the curriculum (Harvey & Shahjahan, 2013). Many higher education academics use international study tours as ideal vehicles for blending concepts, capstone studies, and bringing to authenticity material discussed in the classroom. This usage of global mobility such as international study tours as an opportunity to provide real-world learning and new global skills for students is well supported in the literature over the past decade. The concept that graduates who acquire international knowledge and global work experience are highly competitive in the current and future job market is also well evidenced (Knutson Miller & Gonzalez, 2011). The literature shows that students, too, are aware that intercultural skills are key to succeeding in a globally connected and multicultural working place (Hénard, Diamond, & Roseveare, 2012) and, consequently, avail themselves of these opportunities to expand their linguistic and cultural understandings (Jackson, 2015). Streitwieser and Light (2016) note that many institutions use global citizenship as rhetoric with much ambiguity surrounding the term, the inherent skills, and their measurement, with rarely any explanation for how these skills will be achieved. However, whilst students may not necessarily understand the finer definition of what these global skills are, as the definitions of “global competence” and “intercultural skills” are diverse, there is a general understanding that elements of cognitive/knowledge, affective/attitudes, and behaviour/skills are generally affected and expanded (Hains-Wesson & Appleby, 2017). Many millennium students also crave opportunities for self-actualisation, personal satisfaction and opportunities to undertake social or humanitarian work (Brindley, Quinn & Morton, 2009) and global mobility linked to tertiary study is seen as an ideal opportunity to both realise this desire and establish networks for future social interactions and civic-mindedness. There is evidence that global experiences linked to tertiary study offer exclusive, “one-off” opportunities for enhancing personal and professional development (Brindley, Quinn & Morton, 2009) and that direct service experiences with children, families, and communities in international settings provide opportunities for students to develop foundational multicultural competencies and enhanced growth on a personal continuum (Knutson Miller & Gonzalez, 2016). Weaver and Tucker (2010) identify improved student confidence as an example of personal growth through a global experience, whilst a number of authors talk about personal growth and growth through learning achieved as a result of a global mobility experience. For example, Chieffo and Griffiths (2004) identified increased functional knowledge whilst Sutton and Rubin (2004) illustrated a deeper understanding of

68

P. McLaughlin et al.

global interdependence which can be further enhanced through the purposeful integration of interdisciplinary and team-based learning within short-term study tour models. They extrapolated to note that such learning encourages students to learn across diverse knowledge landscapes. In addition, many studies report outcomes including increased personal flexibility or social agility, expanded notions of community, greater appreciation of and awareness for global issues amongst students undertaking global experience programmes (Brindley, Quinn, & Morton, 2009). Plater (2011) notes that global mobility programmes can also be seen as essential to effective professional functioning in future careers in diverse contexts—that is, the development of skills seen as vital to future professionals. It appears that the length of time is not necessarily relevant to this type of skills development. Even short-term study tours of 1–2 weeks duration have been shown to develop cultural empathy and personal growth skills. Studies by Lipsett (2008), for example, show that graduates who have studied abroad, even for a short period of time, are more culturally adaptable, aware, and able to work more effectively in multicultural work environments than students without this experience.

Global Mobility and the Impact Upon Students’ Future Intentions Cultural perspectives and cultural understandings are learned, not something inherent in people, and acculturation (or the cultural change resulting from the meeting of diverse cultures) is a process. Parrish and Linder-VanBerschot (2010) explain that teaching and learning are not only embedded in culture, they are cultural transmission in action—the means to culture. When students move away from the traditional classroom and familiar environments into foreign or alien contexts, even for a short period of time, they are engaged in experiences that grow their opportunities for cultural changes. Miao and Harris (2012) have identified that students on study tours have to interpret phenomena that are not always specified in a structured curriculum and are unexpected and students are, therefore, required to constantly shift impressions and understandings and form new knowledge. Affective learning that results from such things as cultural immersions or shortterm study tours offer opportunities that can result in changed behaviours or different attitudes and the appreciation of different approaches to life (Lee & Schottenfeld, 2012). Global mobility experiences such as short-term study tours open opportunities for intensive reflection and behavioural change. Kiely (2005) noted a perspective transformation in students which was interpreted as ways of “thinking about and acting within the world” (p. 9). The most significant element of cross-cultural growth is the ability to be open to new ideas and have the capacity to change such ideas when necessary. Such perspectives include the ability to view the world in an open and non-judgmental way from

6 From Small Things: Building Cross-Disciplinary …

69

a position of tolerance and understanding. Ott and Michailova (2018) have shown the critical importance of interaction between an individual and a foreign environment in order to develop this perspective and cultural intelligence. Involvement in global mobility experiences or short-term study tours can create experiences that are potentially transformative in nature (Kiely, 2005; Ott & Michailova, 2018). For example, Kiely (2005) noted changes in ways of acting within the world in association with undergraduate student participation in a global mobility programme. Such changes included coordination with local communities to organise and implement health clinics. Ellwood (2013) also identified differing personalities as a factor in the multifaceted and unstable processes of identity and self-awareness demonstrated by students on a study tour. This study examines the students’ intentions and perspectives on future life changes post study tour and adds to this knowledge by identifying, supporting, and adding insights into this growing body of research on transformative experience and global mobility.

Context of the Study––the Yasawa Islands (Fiji) Project Water sanitation and hygiene-related causes account for most deaths in developing nations, where lack of access to clean water kills those most vulnerable. The SelfSufficiency and Sustainability in Remote South Pacific Islands Project commenced in 2016, when an emergency physician approached RMIT for assistance in water sanitation and ecosystem issues in the Yasawa Islands, a remote part of Fiji. After a number of exchanges, meetings and staff visits in 2017, the first cohort of students to undertake the self-sufficiency and sustainability project spent 2 weeks on the Islands, mapping out projects to measure water contamination levels, gauge waste and other disposal mechanisms and measurements, map marine ecosystems and engage with local communities and schools to develop education links. This mobility experience was then offered to RMIT students by RMIT staff members. Students were enrolled in a range of disciplines: engineering, science, and education. Under the direction of academic staff and local community members, a series of projects were commenced under these themes, which have been expanded and developed over the 3-year period.

Method The survey of students was conducted over a 2-year period. Students who had attended the self-sufficiency and sustainability study tour completed a post-visit online anonymous survey within a month of returning to Australia. This was an element of participation in the global mobility experience and students were informed of this upon enrolment in the experience. However, the surveys were voluntary and free form answers were required. Whilst a range of questions were asked about the

70

P. McLaughlin et al.

operational nature of their experiences, a key question about the impact of this study tour upon the students as individuals was included. Five different study tour groups of 107 students were surveyed in 2018/19 and 44 responses were collected to the question about transformational experiences (response rate 40%). This method and approach was qualitative, based upon grounded theory, where deep and insightful interactions with the data are a prerequisite for qualitative data interpretation (Birks & Mills (2011). The theoretical approach was based upon the Charmaz (2006) version of grounded theory as it most closely aligned with a design approach to research enquiry incorporating pragmatism, and an interpretivist view of research, which matched both the form of questions asked and the responses. An interpretive approach was adopted because an in-depth understanding of the study tour experience, including contextual issues, was sought from the stakeholder’s point of view. Constructing social meaning in this form demands a qualitative approach. This form of the “how/did”-based research question means that the research is exploratory rather than explanatory (Kreuger &Neuman, 2006). That is, it seeks to provide an understanding of the experience and to generate discussion of the responses and ideas. Participants were asked the following questions in relation to their short-term global mobility experience: • Would you say that participating in this study tour has been transformational? • Has it inspired or motivated you to do anything in the future that you may not have if you didn’t do the study tour? • Please provide a brief description (to explain your answer). The data was collected within 2 weeks of each cohort returning to Australia. All five study tour cycle responses were collated which were then analysed using NVivo software. NVivo offers a valid and tested analysis method for grounded theory generation––which was the aim of this analysis (Maher, Hadfield, Hutchings, & de Eyto, 2018). Whilst it has been highlighted by some researchers that digital analysis software packages such as NVivo do not fully scaffold the analysis process (Fallman & Stolterman, 2010), the software does, however, provide excellent data classification and retrieval facilities that support analysis and write-up (Maher et al., 2018). The data were also triangulated and coded against the NVivo themes, using word context analysis, which has shown to be effective in interpretivist approaches (Maher et al., 2018). The participants’ responses were analysed into key themes evident in data and then sub-themes using the NVivo software. In addition, the themes were reviewed for contextual analysis against the original responses and the descriptors were then matched to the sub-theme of the individual response. The descriptors were drawn from the third question requesting an explanation of the answers. The descriptors (and the themes) were all checked manually against the original responses.

6 From Small Things: Building Cross-Disciplinary …

71

Participants The participants were students who had undertaken the short-term (2-week) study tour Self-sufficiency and Sustainability in Remote South Pacific Islands, in 2018 and 2019 (n = 107). This was a combined cohort of five different study tours. Although other study tours to the Yasawa Islands were undertaken in these years and in previous and subsequent years, the collection of student responses was different and comparisons between cycles and student cohorts could not be analysed. The inclusion of five identical study tour cycles allowed for increased, richer data from the largest possible cohort of students. Students who participated in the study tour and subsequent online post-visit survey were studying the following programmes: Science, Engineering and Education. Within each of these programmes, a capstone course is completed and undergraduate students were enrolled in the capstone course of their relevant degree at the time of the study tour to Yasawa Islands, Fiji. Also within these programmes, a wide range of capstones were offered, so all of the undergraduate students in this survey and data cohort had agreed to participate in the self-sufficiency and sustainability projects in their final year of study. Postgraduate students who were involved in this cohort were also engaged in thesis work in specific sub-projects relevant to science, education, and engineering programmes. The online, post-visit survey was voluntary; however, the decision to undertake the study tour in the first place may have resulted from the university’s funding/award options, rather than students’ choice alone, although no evidence was collected on this decision-making. In addition, the time of year that the study tours were organised may have influenced the cohort, for example, education students were mindful of registration requirements for school terms. As the survey was completed post-visit, students were not required to outline demographic information.

Student Feedback, Discussion, and Results The key aim of this research was to elicit information about transformation in each individual student. This question was presented in three sub-questions and the resultant themes and sub-themes are presented in Table 6.1. The percentage of responses under each theme is given below. Of the total number of students responding to these questions (n = 44, the responses were thematically grouped into six key themes and the response percentages are the following: • • • • • •

Cultural (28%) Personal (33%), Sustainability (16%), Humanitarian (10%), Professional (11%), No change (2%).

72

P. McLaughlin et al.

Table 6.1 Themes arising from study responses Theme

Sub-theme

Descriptors

Explanation

Culture

Global

Perspective

New perspectives on own culture

Local communities

Awareness People Understanding Appreciation

Awareness of others Understanding of culture Depth of knowledge

Reinforcement of personal direction

Seek work/future work Volunteer Study Continue Integration into a life plan

Personal/personal change

Change of personal life Better person direction New personal skills Communication Recommended to others

Humanitarian

Collaborate difficultly Strengthen friendships Motivate

Engage Network beyond the present Motivate others to engage

Confidence

Increased scope

To speak/comment

Future travel

New destinations

Responsibility

Clean-up Help others Improve

Privilege

Inspiration

Appreciation Sustainability

Profession/career growth

Waste management

Resources management

Marine ecosystem

Conservation

Pathways

Future

Changes in career

New career understandings

Application and applied work

Work harder and appreciate opportunities

The questions established whether the individual student thought the global mobility experience was transformational. The definition of “transformational” was given as “motivating you to change your thinking”. Of interest is the breakdown of the themes and indicators of transformation within each of these areas, which are discussed below. Of the student responses, by far the most recognised and prevalent response was within the theme of Personal Change as a result of the global mobility experience. Of

6 From Small Things: Building Cross-Disciplinary …

73

all students responding, 33% felt that the key transformational change was in their person and personal direction. Brindley, Quinn and Morton (2009) have noted that many millennium students crave opportunities for self-actualisation, personal satisfaction and opportunities to undertake social or humanitarian work that will benefit others beyond their own context. These responses are indicative of this indicator: I think I have come out the other side a better person, and have gained skills that I will use forever. (This) has inspired me to continue on the renewable energy pathway. This study tour has been transformational for my confidence. I made an effort to put myself further out of my comfort zone than usual and improved my interpersonal, teamwork and field work skills and had a better time than I might have otherwise. I am inspired to push myself more out of my own comfort zone more often now by taking jobs or volunteer opportunities that involve travel, intensive field work, working with a variety of people etc. This tour has opened my eyes to a new culture and new people. It has given me the opportunity to learn from my peers, (learn) a new culture and (think) through difficult problems. From my view, taking this opportunity has left me more open to future possibilities with travel and helping others using my specific skills.

For those students who indicated a personal transformation, the key concepts for them were either a reinforcement or change of their own personal direction, or a desire to recommend the change experience to others along with a desire for further travel or increased confidence. I am much more motivated now than before to work with developing communities outside of the first-world, and I have a greater appreciation for cultures that are not of a typical Anglo-Western nature. As a result of this tour I have gained a broader perspective of education. In particular, I have gained greater understanding and appreciation for the challenges that the Fijian teachers face on a daily basis, particularly in terms of the environment and resources. This has motivated me to consider how we can best use the resources we have in Australia. It has shown me the pathways for pursuing a career in humanitarian engineering and opportunities and ways to contribute to sustainable development. I doubt it’s a common sentiment but for me it basically forced me to finally take that step and travel outside of Australia as an adult, something that became a pipe dream the longer I was immersed in study. Now overseas doesn’t seem like such an impossibility, and my scope no longer narrows itself to Australia.

Reinforcement of personal direction and seeking opportunities to volunteer were also noted within this personal change theme. These intentions align with the literature on personal actions as a result of global mobility experiences. Kiely (2005), noted personal changes in student and changes in ways of acting within the world as salient in global mobility students. These intended actions included coordination with local communities to organise and implement health clinics. This is also evident in this study where students stated the following: It has motivated (me) to do more projects that are similar, with the potential for real world environmental improvement.

74

P. McLaughlin et al.

When asked the second question, “Has it inspired or motivated you to do anything (now or in the future) that you may not have done if you didn’t go to the Yasawa Islands, the study tour?” these students responded with comments such as the following: It absolutely has been. I never thought I could teach overseas (low socio-economic areas), but after this study tour, I came to my senses and realised how noble/rewarding this career is and no matter what the salary is, I will teach anywhere if needed. It has opened my eyes to try new things more often, that I need to get out of my comfort zone more often, travel and explore new destinations. The project also reassured me that this is the type of work I wish to pursue professionally. Yes. I would really like to continue following the project. I think it has immense potential and I would love to see where it goes. If given the opportunity, I would love to go again and see more of the schools in action.

These responses indicate a personal change of direction based upon the global mobility experience. Global mobility experiences such as short-term study tours often open opportunities for intensive reflection and behavioural change (Kiely, 2005) and the student responses in this study indicate this perspective transformation––that is, the students thought differently about their world and how they might act in it: It’s made me reflect on what I want to be doing with my time. It has inspired me to be the best educator I can be and further develop my ability to effectively communicate my intentions with clear understanding. (I would like) To go back to Fiji and develop relationships to benefit the communities. It’s added to my experience in a field I was already developing through other areas. It has shaped my understanding on how to make changes in difficult environments.

Of interest within this theme of personal change is the number of students who identified a desire to recommend the experience to others, either with a view to motivate them to engage or to motivate them to network beyond their own understandings. The responses indicate a desire to do something that might involve others––almost like a spreading of the word about the experience. They had moved beyond their own reflections and needs to consider/recommend this context for others. This is indicated by comments such as the following: Humanitarian projects make you feel generous and appreciated if done correctly. I would recommend it for everyone to try at least once. Yes, it has inspired me to look into other ways to address the world’s waste situation and to seek work in waste management and to motivate my friends to get involved as well. It definitely made me remember how much I enjoy working with people on social issues, and how I can use my privilege to help those who are not as fortunate. I really enjoyed working with people in their communities, and learned valuable things I would not have learned if I hadn’t been in Fiji.

6 From Small Things: Building Cross-Disciplinary …

75

Sutton and Rubin (2004) have shown that global experiences can create in students a deeper understanding of global interdependence, which can be further enhanced through the purposeful integration of interdisciplinary and team-based learning within short-term study tour models. They extrapolated to note that such learning encourages students to learn across diverse knowledge landscapes. For some students in this study, the desire to collaborate and learn from others was evident in their responses: After working in a professional consulting environment, this project gave me an insight into doing humanitarian engineering with low resources and working closely with a community. This study tour had encouraged me to get more involved in projects like this in the future, knowing now the failure rate of WASH programs I’d like to see how they can be improved with better preparation and data collection.

And others indicated an increased confidence and desire to travel further: I want to snorkel around every coral reef hotspot around the world. (I) Will hopefully be striving for a career in marine science. Very (much improved confidence). I have decided to spend next year travelling.

Knutson Miller and Gonzalez 2016 note that the desire to “see even more” and travel further may be the result of direct interaction with other communities that do not reflect one’s own, particularly those that included opportunities for direct interaction with local children in school and community contexts. In the global experience reported upon here, a number of the students had visited schools and become involved in community life whilst on the Yasawa Islands. A few of the students in this global experience noted that the travel had given them confidence to “see more of the world” than they had to date: I would be interested in going on more study tours/volunteering activities in the future. This study tour has furthered my interest and desire to travel and work overseas with different people and cultures.

Approximately 28% of students also identified with transformation in terms of their cultural understandings and perspectives. As Schech et al. (2017) noted, cultural empathy and cultural understandings often go hand in hand with global experiences and provide easy channels for the development of such skills. For the students responding to this study, new perspectives on their own culture and awareness of the culture of others were given as responses to questions 1 and 2. A few students cited the ability to build a depth of knowledge about a particular culture as a change in themselves. As discussed by Hains-Wesson and Appleby (2017), whilst students may not necessarily understand in detail or finer definition what these cultural skills are, there is a general understanding by them that elements of cognitive knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour are generally affected and expanded when engaged with a different culture (Deardorff, 2009). Indicative of their responses were comments such as the following: It gave me a developing perspective which makes me appreciate what I have at home. I also made and strengthened some friendships.

76

P. McLaughlin et al. Yes this project really transformed me honestly. Before I was quite unsure of what I will do after I graduate but going on this tour and doing my project it has really inspired me. Before, I was uncertain of how my project on constructed wetland will go and how it will help me, but then after going out taking water quality test and visiting the village it has reminded me of my home village (Solomon Islands) because it is similar to Fiji and the issue is also the same. I am more confident that after I graduate I will be able to do similar project(s) in my home village and other villages to help my people.

These comments indicate a changed appreciation of the local communities and the beginning of cultural empathy and future understanding. Yes definitely, I now see myself wanting to go into marine conservation. If given the chance, I would go (and do an) intern(ship) in Fiji for a few months and work on things like coral rejuvenation as well as marine conservation (whales, sharks, mantas, etc). I would also try to get some time to go and volunteer but not just everyday things, it would be nice to go and make a difference, starting by teaching the locals to provide for themselves starting by building houses for themselves. Yes, it has given me a clearer idea of the current condition of Fiji, in terms of cultural, economically and environmentally (contexts). (The) trip also gave me insight outside of my course as well, which could potentially help with my future career ahead. This study tour changed the way I see things at an economic level when it comes to energy consulting. I see potential in providing clean energy solutions with higher efficiencies and when it comes to solving the energy problem in less developed regions that are remote, I see a potential in energy consulting where the market can be diversified to Islands like the ones visited in my study tour, rather than focusing on developed regions of the world strictly. Energy is more expensive in less developed regions, this opens a big gap in the markets that engineers like myself can close one day.

Jackson (2015) identifies that for many students the opportunity to expand their linguistic and cultural understandings is a motivator in global mobility experiences as well as building a deeper knowledge of a particular country or community. This was also evident in the student responses, where students felt “appreciative” and grateful for the insights. More than is identified in the literature is the evidence in this study of a cultural recognition of difference––difference in circumstances, access to material things and opportunities to move beyond the current Yasawa community. The clear messages in comments such as The trip has definitely given me strong memories to draw upon whenever I lose motivation to work against injustice where I see it. It has awakened an interest in the Pacific region and the issues that exist there, but I am not sure I will be able to do anything further with this interest. I do not want to have gone and for the whole thing to become an anecdote I tell in job interviews, but I am unsure how to integrate it into my life now.

show this recognition and there is evidence that the global experience students were both grateful for this insight and felt compelled to “do something” as a result of the insights and experiences. They had moved beyond their own work in a global understanding continuum to consider the context of others. One student commented: Yes! From my survey experience in Naviti Island we found so much plastic waste on the beach. I felt that I have a responsibility to clean up the beach or I shall contribute myself in the waste management field in the future to save this paradise.

6 From Small Things: Building Cross-Disciplinary …

77

Absolutely. As mentioned in one of my previous responses, it has directed me onto an unfamiliar path which I’m so excited about. Looking into the eradication of an invasive species of plant to create space for agriculture, rehabilitation of Tropical Dry Forests and re-introduction of a highly endangered iguana is not something I would ordinarily look into. Understanding what has taken place on the drier Yasawa Islands really has ignited a spark of wanting to help in any way I can.

Earley (2002) conceptualizes cultural intelligence as a multidimensional construct composed of a number of facets of which behaviour is one. The behavioural element of cultural intelligence allows the individual to enact appropriate verbal and behavioural actions when interacting with others in cross-cultural situations and to be motivated to undertake actions within and beyond the context to reflect that cultural competence and intelligence. That this is evident in some of the student’s responses is illustrated by the following comment: I will be more inclined to teach in remote areas now that I can see how one person’s work can affect a local area and the local community, improving their conditions slowly over time and building relationships that will last forever.

For a number of students in this study, the decision to “take further action” was a result of a transformative experience. Ott and Michailova (2018) support this transformative experience as well in their research, but note that cultural intelligence and understandings is also a construct of individual differences and to presume that all students will have the same reaction at the same time is erroneous. They note that the impact of cultural intelligence and understanding on performance and effectiveness reveals a complicated relationship between the variables of individual differences and maturity, the importance of the individual facets of the cultural intelligence and the role of adjustment in the experience. Certainly there is evidence in the responses of the students in this study that the cultural awareness and understanding are on a continuum: some students were still interested in personal changes, whilst others had moved beyond understanding their own personal transformations to wanting to undertake something for others. This too, is evident in the comparative responses: It made me more interested in my project.

To: Yeah, it definitely motivated me to do the best I can for this project and helped reaffirm why I chose to become an engineer.

And from: I will be more inclined to teach in remote areas now that I can see how one person’s work can affect a local area and the local community, improving their conditions slowly over time and building relationships that will last forever.

To: It has inspired me to keep in contact with the teachers we met in Fiji. We now talk all the time and share curriculum and documents related to out teaching. I love that it is a two way relationship.

78

P. McLaughlin et al.

A total of 11% of the students responding also identified professional growth as a transformation. Whilst a small number, these findings complement those reported by Knutson Miller and Gonzalez (2011), where participants reported consistent personal and professional development outcomes. The students in this study formed opinions on career pathways and new career directions as a result of this experience. Typical of the comments were: I can see potential business ideas such as distributing used products. E.g. Hotels throw away their linen after a couple of years, we could use this and distribute it to people in Fiji.

These results suggest the short-term global mobility experience, Self-sufficiency and Sustainability in Remote South Pacific Islands, can provide significant professional and personal development opportunities for those who participated. The uptake of such opportunities is beyond the scope of this research study, but indications from the specificity and detail of the responses may indicate that the students are invested in their future plans. Finally, it is worth noting that for one of the students responding, 2%, this question of transformative experience elicited no response. Presumably the student did not feel he/she had any “changed” experience or that they could not comment at this stage. The nature of the online survey did not allow for greater insights, but some further research into this “no responses” may be useful, especially against the very strong indicators of cultural and personal change amongst over 60% of the other students. In summary, the students involved in this short-term global experience (study tour) have exhibited a number of key transformations around personal, career, humanitarian, sustainability, and culture. By far the greatest changes were noted for personal direction and cultural appreciation, understanding and intelligence. Discussed against the existing literature on the effect upon students of global experiences, this study has shown these key themes to be further reinforced and evidenced. In addition, the study gives new insights into what effects the transformations had upon actions, with most respondents able to articulate future actions and directions based upon this experience. In this way, the study sheds new light beyond a simple view of global mobility as transformative and highlights the ways in which this transformation has played out for each of the individuals. These insights have been further validated by the methodology selected, which allowed deeper exploration of the initial themes and greater insights into transformative experiences in global mobility experiences beyond existing literature. As with all research studies and subsequent analysis, there are certain limitations that need to be applied to these results and findings. Clear limitations relate to the online collection of data. Online responses require access to technology within the timeframe of the survey, which may have inhibited or excluded some responses. Finally, the online nature of the survey itself may have restricted greater detail or depth in responses, which then affects the contextual understanding of the response. In addition, the responses relied upon students’ beliefs and perceptions of personal and professional learning outcomes; changes that may have been attributed to other experiences may not have been filtered in the responses.

6 From Small Things: Building Cross-Disciplinary …

79

However, these limitations do not detract from the overall findings of “transformative” learning experiences and perceived growth along a continuum of global competency skills and understandings that are evident in the responses. Such limitations reinforce the need for further study into this and other short-term global mobility experiences and the overall effect upon students both as a personal growth opportunity and also as a transformative experience that leads to future professional and humanitarian plans.

Conclusion Global mobility experiences have the potential to be transformational and lifechanging for the individual students involved, although little is known about the effect of global mobility experiences upon a student’s future intentions as a result of this transformation. This chapter has examined the feedback from students involved in the Self-sufficiency and Sustainability in Remote South Pacific Islands global mobility study tour over a 2-year period of five mobility experiences. The students were asked to identify their individual changes and impacts resulting from the global mobility experiences. The results indicate a significant depth of aspirations for both personal and career directions resulting from the experience. The results also indicate that the students were on a continuum of global understanding and transformation, with some still concerned with the impact of the experience upon themselves and their own projects, whilst others were able to move beyond their own work to discuss potential experiences and desires for future opportunities for real-world global inclusivity, resilience, innovation, cultural empathy and sustainability. This continuum of global understandings and competence may be the result of the individual involved or the nature of the experience. Further research into these findings will allow greater comprehension of this difference. These findings provide rich insight into the value of global mobility experiences both to the individual students and the wider tertiary education sector and add valuable knowledge to our understandings of the diverse role of global experiences in tertiary education.

References Ballestas, H. C., & Roller, M. C. R. (2013). The effectiveness of a study abroad program for increasing students’ cultural competence. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 3(6), 125. Birks, M., & Mills, J. (2011). Essentials of grounded theory. In Grounded theory: A practical guide (pp. 1–14). Bishop, J. (2016). New national strategy for international education launch. https://www.abc.net. au/news/2016-04-30/new-national-strategy-for-international-education-launched/7373030.

80

P. McLaughlin et al.

Brindley, R., Quinn, S., & Morton, M. L. (2009). Consonance and dissonance in a study abroad program as a catalyst for professional development of pre-service teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(3), 525–532. Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. Sage. Chieffo, L., & Griffiths, L. (2004). Large-scale assessment of student attitudes after a short-term study abroad program. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 10, 165–177. Deardorff, D. K. (2009). Implementing intercultural competence assessment. In The SAGE handbook of intercultural competence (pp. 477–491). Earley, P. C. (2002). Redefining interactions across cultures and organizations: Moving forward with cultural intelligence. Research in Organizational Behavior, 24, 271–299. Ellwood, C. (2013). The International Schools Journal, 32(2), 5–7. Fallman, D., & Stolterman, E. (2010). Establishing criteria of rigour and relevance in interaction design research. Digital Creativity, 21(4), 265–272. Hains-Wesson, R., & Appleby, M. (2017). A perspective on third-party providers and study tour programs: A mixed method study. Issues in Educational Research, 27(3), 435. Harvey, N., & Shahjahan, M. (2013). Employability of bachelor of arts graduates. Sydney: Office for Learning and Teaching. Hénard, F., Diamond, L., & Roseveare, D. (2012). Approaches to internationalisation and their implications for strategic management and institutional practice. IMHE Institutional Management in Higher Education, 11(12), 2013. Jackson, S. L. (2015). Research methods and statistics: A critical thinking approach. Cengage Learning. Kiely, R. (2005). Global civil society and spaces of resistance (pp. 138–153). Hampshire: Global Ethics and Civil Society. Ashgate. Knutson Miller, K., & Gonzalez, A. M. (2016). Short-term international internship experiences for future teachers and other child development professionals. Issues in Educational Research, 26(2), 241–259. Lee, Y. S., & Schottenfeld, M. A. (2012). Internationalising experiential learning for sustainable development education. Journal of education for sustainable Development, 6(2), 341–354. Li, M., Mobley, W. H., & Kelly, A. (2013). When do global leaders learn best to develop cultural intelligence? An investigation of the moderating role of experiential learning style. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12(1), 32–50. Lipsett, A. (2008). Graduates who have Studied Abroad More Appealing to Businesses. http://www. guradian.co.uk/education/2008/oct/16/students-highereducation. Maher, C., Hadfield, M., Hutchings, M., & de Eyto, A. (2018). Ensuring rigor in qualitative data analysis: A design research approach to coding combining NVivo with traditional material methods. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 17(1), 1609406918786362. Miao, S. Y., & Harris, R. (2012). Learning and personality on study tours abroad. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 17(4), 435–452. Ott, D. L., & Michailova, S. (2018). Cultural intelligence: A review and new research avenues. International Journal of Management Reviews, 20(1), 99–119. Kreuger, L., & Neuman, W. L. (2006). Social work research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches: With research navigator. Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. Paige, R. M., Fry, G. W., Stallman, E. M., Josi´c, J., & Jon, J. E. (2009). Study abroad for global engagement: The long-term impact of mobility experiences. Intercultural Education, 20(sup1), S29–S44. Parrish, P., & Linder-VanBerschot, J. (2010). Cultural dimensions of learning: Addressing the challenges of multicultural instruction. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 11(2), 1–19. Plater, W. M. (2011). The context for international service learning: An invisible revolution is underway. In International service learning: Conceptual frameworks and research (pp. 29–56).

6 From Small Things: Building Cross-Disciplinary …

81

Scharoun, L. (2016). Short-term study tours as a driver for increasing domestic student mobility in order to generate global work-ready students and cultural exchange in Asia Pacific. Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, 20(2–3), 83–89. Schech, S., Kelton, M., Carati, C., & Kingsmill, V. (2017). Simulating the global workplace for graduate employability. Higher Education Research & Development, 36(7), 1476–1489. Streitwieser, B., & Light, G. (2016). The grand promise of global citizenship through study abroad: The student view. In Global and local internationalization (pp. 67–73). Brill Sense. Sutton, R. C., & Rubin, D. L. (2004). The GLOSSARI project: Initial findings from a system-wide research initiative on study abroad learning outcomes. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 10, 65–82. Universities Australia. (2016). Keep it clever. In Policy statement. Weaver, D., & Tucker, M. (2010, July). An international business study tour: A student perspective. In Research and Development in Higher Education: Reshaping Higher Education, Proceedings of the 33rd HERDSA Annual Conference (pp. 6–9). Melbourne: Deakin University.

Chapter 7

Using an Applied Curriculum Project to Connect Theory and Practice in Teacher Education Kathy Jordan, Kathy Littlewood, and Belinda Kennedy

Introduction Internationally, initial teacher education programs are criticised for not preparing graduates for the realities of classroom teaching (Grudnoff, Haigh, & Mackisack, 2016). Traditionally, teacher education programs in countries such as Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, have structured their programs into two components, a university-based component and a school-based component (DarlingHammond, 2010; Taylor, Klein, & Abrams, 2014). As well as being physically located on different sites of learning, each component has a different learning focus. During the university-based component, pre-service teachers undertake coursework focused on professional studies in education (discipline-specific curriculum and pedagogical studies and general education studies (AITSL, 2019). During the schoolbased component, pre-service teachers practice teaching in school settings supported by an experienced teacher. A common concern however by policymakers, researchers, educators, and teachers alike is that there is not enough connection between these two components (Grossman, Hammerness, & McDonald, 2009; Grudnoff et al., 2016; Taylor et al., 2014). As Forgasz, Heck, Williams, Ambrosetti and Willis (2018) suggest, this lack of connection “is exacerbated by the fact that the distinction between university-based and school-based learning is not only figurative but also literal” (p. 33). Zeichner (2010) argues that this disconnect is “one of the central problems that has plagued college-and university-based preservice teacher education,” (p. 89). Korthagen, Loughran, and Russell (2006) express similar sentiments, commenting that “little progress has been made through several generations of rhetoric about

K. Jordan (B) · K. Littlewood · B. Kennedy RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 T. McLaughlin et al. (eds.), Tertiary Education in a Time of Change, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5883-2_7

83

84

K. Jordan et al.

teacher education reform” (p. 1036). Greater connection is often seen in the literature as needed so as to enhance program quality and pre-service teacher learning. The school-based component of teacher education programs, often termed professional experience (also termed practicum, field experience and teaching rounds) is commonly acknowledged as important to realising this connection. The Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) (2014) commented that “Professional experience placements are crucial to the development of new teachers and must provide strong opportunities to integrate theory and practice” (p. 15). Yet numerous researchers raise concerns about the capacity of professional experience to achieve this interconnection. In 2007, the Top of the Class Report expressed concerns about the “weakness of the link between the practicum and the theoretical components of teacher education courses” (Australia. Parliament. House of Representatives, 2007, p. 71). The report also raised specific concerns around limited communication between schools and universities, schools having little say in content, the timing and structure of professional experience, poor articulation of expectations, limited support for pre-service teachers, lack of control over quality of teacher mentors and lack of mentor training. Zeichner (2010) raised similar concerns including lack of support from academic leadership and colleague support, few incentives for permanent academic/faculty to be involved in Work Integrated Learning (WIL), the common employment of non-academic staff or retired teachers, the outsourcing of placement to office staff, teacher’s lack of knowledge about the university courseware and vice versa. The lack of time spent planning practicum, with teacher mentors left to work things out for themselves is also a source of concern. It is within this context of criticism of teacher education programs, and calls by government as well as teachers and researchers for greater connection between theory and practice, that this research project is framed. It reports on the development of a new practicum model in the first year of the Masters of Teaching Practice (MTP) (secondary) program by the School of Education at RMIT University and seven partner schools in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. This model, involved placing 21 first-year pre-service teachers in groups of three in partner schools, where they planned and implemented an Applied Curriculum Project and had their work assessed via coursework. Two sets of the literature informed the development of this model; the literature around the importance of having productive partnerships between university and schools, and the literature around Third Space Theory as a conceptual lens for understanding how to connect theory and practice. This chapter begins by examining these two sets of literature, then describes the practicum model and the Applied Curriculum Project which was used to provide a greater connection between theoretical and practical components of this teacher education program.

7 Using an Applied Curriculum Project to Connect Theory …

85

Background Context Historically, it was perceived that pre-service teachers would learn educational theories in their university campus courses and then practice or apply them in school settings. However, there “is a growing consensus that much of what teachers need to learn must be learned in and from practice rather than preparing for practice,” (Zeichner, 2010, p. 91). Teacher educators have tried various ways to form greater connections between the two components, such as laboratory schools on campus, modelling of school practice in university-based coursework, using simulations of classroom practice and using assessment to connect coursework and practice in schools (Zeichner, 2010). Often, however, as Zeichner (2010) adds this involved the university bringing its knowledge to schools and proliferated hierarchical views of knowledge, that university-based knowledge was more important than schoolbased knowledge. More recently, researchers have looked to Third Space Theory as a means of bridging or navigating across these two spaces of learning, and creating a new transformed space. While there has been much attention focussed on fixing this perceived problem or rebalancing the theory and practice in programs in the past, there has been a growing intensity in the debate in Australia with teacher education now having a national policy focus (Forgasz et al., 2018). The most recent review of teacher education, TEMAG (2014) was set up to drive improvement in teacher education, with attention given in part to professional experience. It argued that providers, employers and schools needed to share a commitment to improve teacher education and work in partnership so that the components of programs could be integrated with practice in schools (Eckersley, Tobin, & Windsor, 2018). It concluded that “better ways to integrate the theory and practice components of initial teacher education” was “the single most important action to be pursued” (p. 9) to improve the quality of teacher education provision. Moreover, from 2011, Australia adopted a national approach to teacher education program accreditation. These standards and procedures “reflect high expectations of initial teacher education and the interest of all Australian governments in maximising our collective investment in the development of pre-service and graduate teachers” (AITSL, 2019, p. 2). National accreditation requires providers to demonstrate the “quality” of their programs (through their design, development and delivery), and also by providing evidence that graduates have taught, practised and been assessed on the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST). A key focus on improving the quality of programs is through forming partnerships with schools. All providers under Program Standard 5 (AITSL, 2019) are required to have formal partnerships for every professional experience school/site agreed in writing that specify the components of placement and the planned experiences, identify the roles and responsibilities for both parties and responsible contacts for day-to-day administration of the arrangement. As well, programs must have a minimum number

86

K. Jordan et al.

of professional experience days and provide supervised practice in diverse settings. All placements must also have clear communication about the knowledge and skills pre-service teachers have acquired during their coursework and the planned learning experiences while on placement. Providers and schools are required to work together to determine assessment and to identify and provide professional learning for teacher mentors (AITSL, 2019). For some universities, these revisions in the regulatory environment have stimulated a rethink in the way professional experience is conceptualised, perhaps leading to the development of different practicum models. Increasingly providers are developing different forms of professional experience, so that schools and providers align more closely. As Eckersley et al. (2018, p. 176) propose New times challenge our existing programs of professional learning and curriculum and imply the need for new pedagogies in teacher education where the workspace of the school and the concerns and needs of its various stakeholders (preservice teachers, students, school community and the teaching profession) are actively taken into account.

Partnerships Between Universities and Schools On a simple level, partnerships can be defined as two or more entities working together on a shared vision or purpose. However, partnerships especially in relation to professional experience can be varied, ranging from loose arrangements to more formal arrangements with clear objectives and desired outcomes. School-university partnerships have received considerable attention in government policy over the past five years. The TEMAG (2014) report, the latest review in a long list of reviews and reports into teacher education (Mayer, 2014), argued that partnerships were vital to ensuring the connection of theory and practice. The report proposes that theory and practice “must be inseparable and mutually reinforced in all program components” (TEMAG, 2014, p. 10). To accomplish this objective, it advocates for providers and schools to form “structured and mutually beneficial partnerships” (TEMAG, 2014, p. 10) and to document these arrangements via a partnership agreement. Informal partnerships have existed for some time, however as commented in a later report on the implementation of these partnership revisions …while the benefits of strong school-university partnerships underpinning high quality teacher education have been evident for over a decade through a range of innovative initiatives by ITE providers and education jurisdictions, TEMAG reforms have lifted partnerships to a pivotal role in all ITE (PTR Consulting Pty Ltd, 2018, p. 4).

For over 20 years, Darling-Hammond has reviewed teacher education in the United States and has argued that one of the key features of effective programs is strong school-university partnerships (Darling-Hammond, 2010). The author makes a strong case for teacher education having to confront the challenge of “how to foster learning about and from practice in practice” (p. 42). The author also advocates an overhaul of university-school relationships, saying that teacher educators must create partnerships with schools, confront and dismantle regularities that prevent

7 Using an Applied Curriculum Project to Connect Theory …

87

investments in strong academic and clinical training, and behave as members of a profession. This she adds will mean embracing a new form of professional accountability that leverages universally strong practice in all programs (Darling-Hammond, 2010). Zeichner (2010) at the same time argues for the “creation of hybrid spaces in preservice teacher education programs that bring together school and universitybased teacher educators and practitioner and academic knowledge in new ways to enhance the learning of prospective teachers” (p. 92). It is well acknowledged that partnerships rely on the goodwill of teacher educators, school leaders and teachers in schools (Le Cornu, 2015). There is also the challenge that working in the partnerships space is often under-valued, with teacher educators needing to legitimise their work and value of partnerships. Sustainability of partnerships is often considered as a central concern in the partnership literature (for example see Le Cornu, 2015). Successful partnerships rely on relationships. Kruger, Davies, Eckersley, Newell, and Cherednichenko (2009) argue that partnerships are “characterised by trust, mutuality and reciprocity among pre-service teachers, teachers and other school colleagues and teacher educators” (p. 10). These characterisations of partnerships underpinned the development of the Triad Model reported in this chapter. A number of researchers (McIntryre & Hobson, 2016; Taylor et al., 2014) have suggested that what is needed is a new way of thinking about the relationship between universities and schools and propose that creating a hybrid, or third space, could prove effective in bridging the connections between theory and practice. Zeichner (2010) suggests that such a space could create “new kinds of roles for teacher educators and ways of bringing academic, practitioner, and community-based knowledge together in the teacher education process” (p. 92). Furthermore, it could enable recognition of a shared knowledge, of bringing together academic and practitioner knowledge in “less hierarchical ways to create new learning opportunities for prospective teachers” (p. 92).

Third Space—the Creation of Hybrid Spaces Bringing Together Pre-service Teachers, Schools and University-Based Teacher Educators The notion of a Third Space stems from hybridity theory, which considers that individuals draw on multiple discourses to understand the world (Bhabha, 1994; Beck, 2018). It has essentially been used to explore the spaces “in between” two or more discourses, conceptualisations or binaries (Bhabha, 1994). In their influential paper, Moje et al. (2004) summarised three main ways in which theorists have conceptualised Third Space and how this can be applied within an educational space: as a bridge between knowledge, where there is space to acknowledge contradictions and/or competing understandings; as a navigational space, that enables crossing or drawing upon different binaries, discourses or discursive boundaries; and as a

88

K. Jordan et al.

transformative space, that enables competing knowledge to be brought into “conversation”, leading to new understandings, new forms of learning and new knowledge projection (Moje et al., 2004). Third Space Theory challenges binaries that have typically populated teacher education (Woolf, 2019). As Klein, Taylor, Onore, Storm, and Abrams (2013) argue, teacher education underpinned by Third Space Theory attempts to “address the major criticisms of teacher education, from the theory practice divide, to the unequal status of practitioner and academic knowledge as well as the teacher and learner knowledge, and to the nature of school-university partnerships” (p. 51). It integrates these binaries in new ways so that “an either/or perspective is transformed into a both/also point of view” (Zeichner, 2010, p. 92) and encourages alternatives. While Third Space Theory may not have originated in education, it has been adopted by educational researches in various ways, including exploring the intersections and disjunctures between every day and school-based literacy (Moje et al., 2004). It has also been adopted in teacher education (Flessner, 2014; Gannon, 2010; McDonough, 2014) and more specifically within practicum (Cuenca, Schmeichel, Butler, Dinkelman, & Nichols, 2011; Wood & Turner, 2015), with Zeichner (2010) popularising its use as a conceptual framework to address the theory and practice divide particularly in professional experience (Forgasz et al., 2018). To Zeichner (2010) “third spaces bring practitioner and acknowledge together in less hierarchical ways to connect new learning opportunities for prospective teachers” (p. 92).

Inquiry-Based Practicum Model In 2019, the School of Education at RMIT University reconceptualised professional experience in its 2-year Masters of Teaching Practice (MTP)(secondary) program. Five professional experience courses, each with embedded placement in schools were designed around several themes and assessment tasks developed to connect theory and practice. The first year of the program has two professional experience courses, one in each semester, and each involving a 4-week practicum block at the same school. Professional experience courses were designed to be taught in intensive mode; three days before the placement, and one day following, to enable preparation for and reflection on practice, respectively. Partnerships with schools were formed around this new model. Three pre-service teachers were placed in each placement school to enable greater opportunities for collaboration and support. Partnerships with secondary schools associated with the Tech School initiative were cultivated by the School of Education at RMIT University. Tech Schools are hosted, owned and operated by Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutions or universities. The Tech School initiative aims to increase engagement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills to help young people into jobs in industry growth sectors, increase student and teacher engagement with STEM capabilities and link education with emerging industries to keep the Victorian economy growing and competitive (DET, 2015). All of this is directed at preparing

7 Using an Applied Curriculum Project to Connect Theory …

89

young people for opportunities in Victoria’s fastest growing, STEM-dominated priority industries. The School of Education at RMIT University formed partnerships with BanyuleNillumbik (Greensborough, Victoria) and Whittlesea (Epping, Victoria) Tech Schools to improve the quality of pre-service teacher provision through developing a new professional experience model, “the Triad Model”. Banyule-Nillumbik and the Whittlesea Tech Schools both opened in 2018, and each has approximately 15 partner schools. While partnerships can take many forms, and range from formal to informal, we set out to form genuine partnerships based on trust, mutuality and reciprocity (Kruger et al., 2009). Trust focuses on partners having belief that there will be benefits for each stakeholder; mutuality refers to the degree to which working together results in gains for all; reciprocity refers to the value each partner holds for the other. In the Triad Model, three pre-service teachers are placed in the same partner schools for two placement blocks (each of 4 weeks). They work in a professional learning community with their teacher mentors to design and then implement an Applied Curriculum Project, which links to, and supports, partner school curriculum priorities. Applied Curriculum Projects are inquiry-based projects that use design thinking methodologies. Thus, the Triad model enables pre-service teachers, teacher mentors and university educators to work in collaboration. The two professional experience courses in the first year of this MTP program (each with an embedded 4-week professional experience block) frame this study. • During their first course, pre-service teachers learned about schools, learners and teachers, professional experience and this placement model and began to develop their teaching practice around curriculum planning, teaching, assessing and reflecting. They engaged in reading literature and learning activities around why it is important to prepare students for the globalised and highly technological world of the future. They learn about the Teacher Professional Standards (at the graduate level) and VIT Code of Conduct. They learn about the placement school, its programs and priorities and the Tech School Initiative as appropriate. They are also introduced to the notion of the Applied Curriculum Project by university educators. • During their first placement, pre-service teachers get to know the school (its programs and priorities, curriculum, etc.) and learn more about the role of the teacher. They learn about how the Tech School initiative is being conceptualised and implemented at the school level. They begin their teaching practice, planning, teaching, assessing and reflecting on student learning. Along with teacher mentors collaborate to plan an Applied Curriculum Project. They submit this plan to be assessed by university educators. • During their second course, pre-service teachers reflect on their first placement and key learning. They discuss their audits and observations in small groups, building their knowledge of school diversity and different programs and priorities of schools. They explore how the Tech School is being implemented across a range of schools.

90

K. Jordan et al.

Table 7.1 Examples of applied curriculum projects undertaken in partner tech schools The Clean Water Project, Year 7 Students explored issues including water scarcity, the effects of dirty and unsafe water, and the lack of proper sanitation and hygiene in a community Building Bridges, Year 8 Students act as structural engineers and learn about forces and load distributions as they follow the steps of the engineering design process to design and build small-scale bridges using wooden tongue depressors and glue Structuring in Art: An Exercise in Collaborative Learning By constructing cardboard structures, students examined 3D shapes in mathematics including cubes, prisms and pyramids Endangered, extinct and vulnerable animals, Year 7 There are five major causes of animal extinction. Students learned about these causes and the animals that are, and have been, affected by them. Students are always interested in endangered and extinct animals Cells and diseases, Year 8 Each team researched a particular human disease and presented information about the cellular structure or process affected by the disease, the cellular and molecular biology of the disease and recent research focused on understanding the cellular mechanisms of the disease process Entry for ACMI Screen It, Year 3 and 4 Students were involved in Screen It, a national competition for student filmmakers, animators and game developers Skills for Past—Present—Poverty, Year 8 The purpose of this activity was for students to raise questions and clarify their own thoughts about what things are most important to having a good life. Students begin to see that although people living in poverty are lacking many material things, their lives may also include some aspects that the students value. This thinking was important as students learn more about experiences of poverty

• During their second placement, they implement the Applied Curriculum Project they planned with teacher mentors and the coach. They develop a means to evaluate the effectiveness of the project and enact it. Drawing on this evaluation, they then reflect on the success of the project and explore key learning for the future. This evaluation could include a presentation to School staff, an item on the school newsletter, a conversation with the principal, or a presentation to a faculty group. They submit a report on their project to be assessed by university educators. • A Futurefest was held in one of the partner schools, with pre-service teachers showcasing their projects, celebrating their efforts and sharing practice within a larger professional community. A sample list of projects is presented in Table 7.1.

The Applied Curriculum Project The notion of an Applied Curriculum Project reported in this chapter draws on project-based learning theory. According to Thomas (2000), there is considerable diversity in defining project-based learning and it has various roots. Projects are often

7 Using an Applied Curriculum Project to Connect Theory …

91

associated with complex tasks and based on big problems. They often aim to engage students in design thinking and problem-solving, are conducted over time and involve the production of a meaningful product. Thomas suggests five criteria for problembased learning, these being: centrality (projects are central to the curriculum), driving question (projects are framed by big questions), constructive investigations (projects are goal-directed inquiries, autonomy (projects are developed and owned by the students) and realistic (projects are authentic). The Applied Curriculum Projects have much in common with project approaches adopted by Victorian University (VU) (Eckersley et al., 2018) over the past 20 years. A number of principles underpin this innovation including “partnership-based teacher education, learning from immersion in professional practice and the notion of ‘praxis inquiry’” (Arnold, Edwards, Hooley, & Williams, 2012). The VU model is based on an ethical view of professional practice in which pre-service teachers learning through social practice. Pre-service teachers undertake a project in conjunction with practising teachers at their placement school. They plan and develop these projects in conjunction with school plans and priorities and use templates to support them do so. As a result, the project becomes a means to promote conversation, which then can lead to the reciprocity of such collaborations (Kruger et al., 2009). Findings from their research demonstrate that pre-service teachers have valuable learning opportunities and contribute to the work of the school. As well these projects help establish and maintain relationships between schools and programs. As a result of these relationships, pre-service teachers have more opportunities to critique the school community including its pedagogical practices (Arnold et al., 2012).

Objectives The objective of this work was to bridge the two disconnected components (spaces) of theory and practice by using an Applied Curriculum Project, that was planned, and taught on one site and assessed on another. For our purposes, and based on the Third Space Theory work of Bhabha (1994), visible connections between and beyond were made, i.e. seeing curriculum from multiple viewpoints and providing a means to research the slippages between universities and schools. This research was guided by the two research questions: 1. What were the participants’ (teacher mentors and pre-service teachers) experiences of the Applied Curriculum Project? 2. How did participants (teacher mentors and pre-service teachers) experience working within the Tech School community?

92

K. Jordan et al.

Method Design The redesigned first-year professional experience program in the MTP explicitly aimed to connect theory and practice through the use of the Applied Curriculum Project. Table 7.1 shows examples of the Applied Curriculum Project work that was undertaken at the partner Tech Schools (Banyule-Nillumbik and Whittlesea, Victoria). Applied Curriculum Projects, it was envisioned would enable pre-service teachers to make explicit connections to their coursework and to the practice in schools. These projects would enable pre-service teachers to work together with teacher mentors, and thereby draw on their expertise as well as localised knowledge. Importantly, they would aim to work in cross-discipline ways and use STEM skills, design thinking and inquiry, in line with the larger Tech School initiative. Unlike the VU model, where pre-service teachers were placed in schools one or two days per week, groups of three pre-service teachers in the Triad Model adopted at RMIT University, worked collaboratively with cooperating teachers in the same placement school for two 4week blocks.

Data Collection and Analysis Open-ended survey questions were designed to explore perceptions and experiences of the project and were completed by seven teacher mentors and twelve pre-service teachers. Survey data was analysed by research team members and key themes identified, which were then used to frame the study findings. While the survey was anonymous, some teacher mentors mentioned their school name and were, therefore, identifiable, so pseudonyms were assigned as a consequence. This study was a small, exploratory study. The literature around forming partnerships is quite clear; that partnerships take time to establish and effective partnerships involve trust, mutuality and reciprocity. Therefore, only a small number of schools, were involved in this study, as we sought to build these partnerships, meaningful relationships and opportunities for collaboration.

7 Using an Applied Curriculum Project to Connect Theory …

93

Findings Experiences with the Applied Curriculum Project Teacher Mentors commented that they had positive experiences with The Applied Curriculum Project. Winnie, for example, commented that she thought it gave preservice teachers learning opportunities at an early stage of their program, adding I loved this aspect of the Model. I think the opportunity for the PSTs to plan, create and implement something significant at this stage of their learning is really great. After some negotiation and lots of collaborative planning, our PSTs grasped this challenge with both hands and produced amazing results.

Gavin commented that he also thought it gave pre-service teachers opportunities to understand the school context. “I think it’s a fantastic concept which prepares students extremely well for their future placements in schools. It gives them invaluable experience of a school context and lets them apply their knowledge and passions in a meaningful way.” Finn wrote about how he thought the project had benefits for pre-service teachers, students and the schools, as shown in this comment. I really like the concept of the Applied Curriculum Project. At its best it provides fantastic gains for all parties involved, from the pre-service teachers (developing a school resource/learning framework), the school (having a custom designed learning tool available for future use) and the students (benefiting from the enthusiasm and expertise of the preservice teachers). At its worst, it gives students a new idea or opportunity to learn in different ways and through different perspectives.

Most pre-service teachers had positive comments to make about their experiences with the Applied Curriculum Project. For example, “It was a great learning experience,” and, “Great experience to explore the whole school and staff. Enjoyed my time and felt supported by my Teacher Mentor.” Some commented, however, that they felt the project needed to be clarified more and that schools needed more information about it. As one pre-service teacher wrote, “I was very much left to my own devices regarding the curriculum project. While my mentor was supportive, her knowledge of what I was doing in regard to my project was fairly limited.” Many of the positive comments about the project related to the Teacher Mentor. As one pre-service teacher explained, “He sat down with me … and effectively told me to not pick something until the end of the first placement. That was really freeing.” As another pre-service teacher explained, when the Teacher Mentor helped to choose the topic, the project was more likely to be relevant to the school.

Experiences of Working in a Community The Teacher Mentors for the most part had positive experiences with the pre-service teachers. As Gavin commented, “Very good—we worked well together and were

94

K. Jordan et al.

open about their experience and what they wanted to achieve.” Wendy gave this in-depth response, commenting that she thought that positive placement experiences were dependent to a large extent on the mindset of the pre-service teacher, as well as the Ambassador’s skills in communicating the expectations of the placement, and the school’s capacity to be adaptive to the needs of the pre-service teacher. The success of this innovative approach to placements hinges a great deal on the attitude and mind set of the pre-service teachers. The role of the coach in communicating this and bringing the pre-service teachers on board is critical. Schools need to be mindful of the capabilities and needs of their pre-service teachers and tailor the placement accordingly. I think the key is flexibility. I felt that I had a break-through moment with our pre-service teachers when I explained that the object of the placement was to develop their own 21st century learning skills, as well as their ability to teach these skills to students regardless of the Domain. The placement wasn’t about learning to teach Technology or Art. I also stressed that the opportunity to work with students in a variety of settings is incredibly valuable, as it will help them gain a deeper understanding of students as learners (before the pre-service teacher’s perspective is narrowed by a subject area).

Finn commented that he had varied experiences with the pre-service teachers at his school as some were very independent and interested and others weren’t. Yet as Winnie also commented, even when these experiences were not so positive, they were perhaps needed learning experiences. As she elaborated, the pre-service teachers at her school, “had an entirely unrealistic expectation of the time, effort and commitment needed to teach” and had difficulty juggling teaching demands as well as outside work.” As she added though, “the reality of teaching when you first begin, is that good planning takes time. They did take feedback well and rose to the many challenges we threw their way.” All pre-service teachers had positive comments to make about their Teacher Mentor. In the main these comments referred to the Mentor being very helpful and supportive. As one pre-service teacher commented, “Had a really good experience. He always checked in and we always talked about the experience” and, “He was fantastic—super supportive.” And this, “We always had discussions, everyday about what was happening with my observations, teaching lessons and curriculum project. He was very helpful, always gave me feedback and helped me plan my lessons.” And this, “Teacher Mentors were great—supportive and gave constructive feedback with helpful suggestions.” Some commented that their experiences were affected by their Teacher Mentors having other roles in the school. As one pre-service teacher commented, she felt this limited her access to the mentor. “My mentor is a wonderful teacher and I learnt a lot observing her practice. However, she is also a team leader and as such had very limited time for discussion/advice outside of class time.” Whereas another commented on how advantageous it was. “The biggest benefit was having a mentor with a small teaching load who could facilitate things.” The Mentor was key in directing the focus of the project. She gave us time at the beginning of our first placement, a week, to look around and see if we saw any gaps where we could make an impact basically. Then she made a suggestion as to where she needed help with developing an incursion programme …which was really helpful because it really focused us and obviously, she had way more insight as to what the school needed than we had.

7 Using an Applied Curriculum Project to Connect Theory …

95

As well, the pre-service teachers spoke about ways that the Mentor supported the development of the project. One of the other pre-service teachers spoke about how she and the Mentor team taught the project, drawing on her knowledge of health and his knowledge of science. As she elaborated, she enjoyed this teaching experience: He was very involved in it. He even went to Bunnings to buy sand (and) he even grabbed water bottles from his own house, things like that…He was very supportive, and I built a really good relationship with my Tech School Ambassador. We even emailed each other before the second placement about the project, there was really good communication there as well.

Another pre-service teacher spoke about the feedback provided by his Mentor, as well as input into a survey instrument: I just really felt very fortunate to have somebody who gave phenomenal feedback in a way that I didn’t fully appreciate until I left. I was like, oh my goodness, who am I going to get next time? I don’t think I’ll be quite so fortunate. As a result, I was able to conduct heaps of interviews with the students, with ministry, with the counselling department. He helped me put out a survey – which I got 35 teacher responses back from – it was ace. On top of that he was – I was able to go to a lot of professional learning things with him.

When Teacher Mentors and pre-service teachers were asked about how successful they considered the Applied Curriculum Project within the Tech School Community in relation to student engagement and learning outcomes, on the whole, both groups responded positively. One pre-service teacher summed it up with this response: ….the success of the Applied Curriculum Project became apparent when I witnessed the students lining up and explaining their bridge building designs to the teachers and their peers. The project was a success and the students had a great time.

Pre-service teachers identified five Professional Skills that were utilised during the Applied Curriculum Project; planning, evaluating, problem-solving, time management and teamwork. Pre-service teachers and Teacher Mentors identified a number of benefits of the Triad Model including collaboration between the two groups, peer to peer learning, professional support, improved student outcomes, feedback about teaching and classroom practice and increase in pre-service teacher confidence.

Discussion and Conclusion This chapter reports on participant experiences of the Applied Curriculum Project, designed to enable greater connection between theory and practice in the MTP (secondary) program. Connecting theory and practice, which are traditionally structured as two separate components in teacher education programs remains a challenge. Policymakers, researchers, educators and teachers alike all call for greater synergies between the two. There is considerable agreement with this proposition but deciding on ways to do so are complex. As Forgasz et al. (2018) remind us, this is both a structural problem as well as a literal problem. It has also become a policy problem,

96

K. Jordan et al.

with policymakers arguing that integrating theory and practice is vital to ensuring classroom-ready graduates. This has also contributed to a “failing discourse” around teacher education. Teacher education programs have traditionally divided ownership and responsibility between universities and schools. Universities have been responsible for the theory components and schools have been responsible for the practice of this theory. However, the Applied Curriculum Project, challenges these notions and enables pre-service teachers to develop knowledge across the two sites. Various approaches have been used to facilitate a greater connection between university-based coursework and school-based practice in schools. But there are many challenges that have remained constant and are difficult to overcome. Establishing a Third Space, one that enables universities and schools to bridge across their spaces (and perhaps lead to the creation of a transformed space as a result) have been advocated to enable the greater connection between theory and practice. While other models of structuring professional experience have been touted as a means to encourage greater facilitation of theory and practice, these do require a shift in thinking; shifts around how schools and providers see teacher knowledge and shifts in how to work together. Forgasz et al. (2018) argue, however, that while Third Space has gained popularity for closing the theory and practice divide in teacher education the metaphor encompasses a number of associations and relationships, and researchers need to be mindful of their various assumptions and purposes. They acknowledge, however, that using Third Space does help problematise teacher education and to gain insights from multiple stakeholders and recognition of complexities. There is common acknowledgement that partnerships between providers and schools could enable the greater connection. As yet though, national standards and procedures have focused on structural reforms, including the use of partnership agreements. Yet while attention is given to forming partnerships, and constantly reiterated in reports such a TEMAG (2014), due consideration to issues in sustaining partnerships and the resourcing need to enable this to happen are not given such a profile. Partnerships take time. This is challenging, when providers can be preoccupied with finding placements for their pre-service teachers. The notion of an Applied Curriculum Project that enables students to learn in and through both sites (school and university) has merit. Such a project encourages pre-service teachers to gain an understanding of school practices and needs and to see curriculum planning and delivery in action. It enables them to identify some of the factors that impact on their curriculum design including the student cohort and the time they have available to undertake the project. It also gives them opportunities to showcase their projects thereby providing a real audience and purpose for their efforts. This chapter has reported on a small study using the lens of the Third Practice Theory that aimed to better connect theory and practice in a teacher education program by using an Applied Curriculum Project. Concern about the failure of teacher education programs to connect theory and practice is well reported in both the Australian and international literature. This study, while conducted in an Australian context could be of value to other contexts that also face similar concerns.

7 Using an Applied Curriculum Project to Connect Theory …

97

A more detailed study that focuses on the possible impacts of the project is warranted. Although this chapter reports on a small-scale-exploratory study, it does suggest that schools and universities can collaboratively use the notion of an Applied Curriculum Project to support pre-service teacher engagement in learning.

References Arnold, J., Edwards, T., Hooley, N., & Williams, J. (2012). Conceptualising teacher education and research as ‘critical praxis’. Critical Studies in Education, 53(3), 281–295. Australia. Parliament. House of Representatives. Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training, & Hartsuyker, L. (2007). Top of the class: Report on the inquiry into teacher education. House of Representatives Publishing Unit, Canberra. Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2019). Accreditation of initial teacher education programs in Australia. Melbourne: AITSL. Beck, J. S. (2018). Investigating the third space: A new agenda for teacher education research. Journal of Teacher Education, 0022487118787497. Bhabha, H. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge. Cuenca, A., Schmeichel, M., Butler, B. M., Dinkelman, T., & Nichols, J. R. (2011). Creating a “third space” in student teaching: Implications for the university supervisor’s status as outsider. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(7), 1068–1077. Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). Teacher education and the American future. Journal of Teacher education, 61(1–2), 35–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487109348024. Department of Education and Training (DET). (2015). The education state. Melbourne: DET. Eckersley, B., Tobin, K., and Windsor, S. (2018). Professional experience and project-based learning as service learning. In J. Kriewaldt et al. (eds.), Educating future teachers: Innovative perspectives in professional experience. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5484-6_3. Flessner, R. (2014). Revisiting reflection: Utilizing third spaces in teacher education. The Educational Forum, 78(3), 231–247. Forgasz, R., Heck, D., Williams, J., Ambrosetti, A., & Willis, L.-D. (2018). Theorising the third space of professional experience partnerships. In J. Kriewaldt et al. (eds.), Educating future teachers: Innovative perspectives in professional experience. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-98110-5484-6_3. Gannon, S. (2010). Service learning as a third space in pre-service teacher education. Issues in Educational Research, 20(1), 21–28. Grossman, P., Hammerness, K., & McDonald, M. (2009). Redefining teacher: Re-imagining teacher education. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 15(2), 273–290. Grudnoff, L., Haigh, M., & Mackisack, V. (2016). Re-envisioning and reinvigorating schooluniversity practicum partnerships. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/1359866x.2016.1201043. Klein, E. J., Taylor, M., Onore, C., Strom, K., & Abrams, L. (2013). Finding a third space in teacher education: Creating an urban teacher residency. Teaching Education, 1(24), 27–57. Korthagen, F., Loughran, J., & Russell, T. (2006). Developing fundamental principles for teacher education programs and practices. Teaching and Teacher Education 22, 1020–1041. Kruger, T., Davies, A., Eckersley, B., Newell, F., & Cherednichenko, B. (2009). Effective and sustainable university-school partnerships. In Beyond determined efforts of inspired individuals. Canberra: Teaching Australia [Electronic version]. Retrieved from http://hdl.voced.edu.au/10707/ 144200. Le Cornu, R. (2015). Key components of effective professional experience in initial teacher education in Australia. Melbourne: Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership.

98

K. Jordan et al.

Mayer, D. (2014). Forty years of teacher education in Australia: 1974–2014. Journal of Education for Teaching, 40(5), 461–473. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2014.956536. McDonough, S. (2014). Rewriting the script of mentoring pre-service teachers in third space: Exploring tensions of loyalty, obligation and advocacy. Studying Teacher Education: A Journal of Self-study of Teacher Education Practices, 10(3), 210–221. McIntyre, J., & Hobson, A. J. (2016). Supporting beginner teacher identity development: external mentors and the third space. Research Papers in Education, 31(2), 133–158. Moje, E. B., Ciechanowski, K. M., Kramer, K., Ellis, L., Carrillo, R., & Collazo, T. (2004). Working toward third space in content area literacy: An examination of everyday funds of knowledge and discourse. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(1), 38–70. PTR Consulting Pty Ltd. (2018). TEMAG Evaluation: School-university partnerships, prepared for the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. Melbourne: AITSL. Taylor, M., Klein, E. J., & Abrams, L. (2014). Tensions of reimagining our roles as teacher educators in a third space: Revisiting a co/autoethnography through a faculty lens. Studying Teacher Education, 10(1), 3–19. Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG). (2014). Action now: Classroom ready teachers. Retrieved from https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/action_now_classr oom_ready_teachers_accessible.pdf. Thomas, J. W. (2000). A review of research on project-based learning. https://tecfa.unige.ch/proj/ eteach-net/Thomas_researchreview_PBL.pdf. Wood, M. B., & Turner, E. E. (2015). Bringing the teacher into teacher preparation: Learning from mentor teachers in joint methods activities. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 18(1), 27–51. Woolf, S. B. (2019). Exploring pedagogies to elevate inquiry: Teaching action research in the third space. Educational Action Research, 1–18. Zeichner, K. (2010). Rethinking the connections between campus courses and field experiences in college-and university-based teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 61(1–2), 89–99.

Chapter 8

Exploratory Variations in Course Structure Consistency Within the Learning Management System Pablo Munguia, Christopher Cheong, France Cheong, and Ehsan Gharaie

Introduction Course design is an important pedagogical skill that combines discipline-specific knowledge and practice with recommended ways for students to interact with course content (Hardy, Langley, Mintzberg, & Rose, 1983). Course design (the application of the pedagogy and development of course content) drives the specific implementation of a course structure in a Learning Management System (LMS). A course structure is defined by the course content and the arrangement of the course content, for example the number and sequence of modules, the compositions of the modules (number of pages in the modules) and the number and sequence of assessments. With the advent of online tools (e.g., Weller, 2002) and new societal pressures, universities are adopting cross-discipline policies to help uplift course design, yet these policies often encounter problems with adoption (Devlin & Samarawickrema, 2010; Zudans-Fraser & Bain, 2016). The constant challenge is resolving best practices in course design at the scale of a single course, incorporating that course’s topic, outcomes and teachers’ perspective with best practices to provide students with continuity within their program and university experience. When courses were passively delivered, course structures were relatively simple and incorporate either files or physical copies of items such as course outlines and copies of slides. With the creation of digital Learning Management Systems (LMS), course design and its structure have greater complexity as students and instructors are interacting with an online platform (Chen, 2007). There is a correlation between course content with both LMS use and student satisfaction (Naveh, Tubin, & Pliskin, P. Munguia · C. Cheong · F. Cheong · E. Gharaie RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia P. Munguia (B) · C. Cheong Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 T. McLaughlin et al. (eds.), Tertiary Education in a Time of Change, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5883-2_8

99

100

P. Munguia et al.

2010), yet student satisfaction may be also associated with the course structure and design in an LMS (Chen, 2007). Course content in an LMS can be accessed through different pathways by students; can be hidden or made accessible and can be presented in linear and sequential fashion or in non-linear, choose-your-own-path, modes. Contemporary course design requires an understanding of how users interact with information (i.e., how quickly can a user get to the required piece of information), and an understanding of how discipline and instructor delivers a course (e.g., whether it is highly interactive, video driven, discussion driven or through articles and annotations) (Pincas, 1998). The design and value of the design are particularly important where there is a large number of learning tools available to instructors using an online learning management system (Kleinman, 2005; Weller, 2002). Compliance in higher education has recommendations for best practice, and universities may have regulations to help academics be compliant (Massy, 2016; TEQSA, 2017). Importantly, course design guidelines are also in place to help students have a streamlined experience. Students will learn how to navigate and experience their first course, but if their subsequent courses (or co-enrolments) have different structures, then students need to learn multiple ways to engage with information. This is a frustrating and inefficient experience analogous to learning how to use different platforms that achieve the same thing. Often students report a lack of user-friendliness as a major issue in using an LMS (Zanjani, Edwards, Nykvist, & Geva 2017); having consistent course design and structures between different courses in an LMS results in familiarity, which will help increase user-friendliness. An ancillary advantage of digital LMS is the ability to share course design to stimulate sharing between academics and disciplines. This sharing practice often promotes self-reflection on course design and the use of Education Technology (EdTech tools). Such a level of openness can be threatening if it has never been present before; for sharing information to be successful, instructors need to understand the context of learning design metrics. For example, a course with many modules is not necessarily better organized than a course with few modules; the differences between module number(s) need to be understood in the context by which they were created, therefore stimulating reflection of teaching practice. Rather, it is an opportunity to engage in constructive inquiry as often promoted by the leadership at universities and educational research (Kane, Sandretto, & Heath, 2004; Massy, 2016). The framework that universities set up to help design courses often rely on the lowest common denominators, such that all disciplines should take advantage of the minimum standards (Zudans-Fraser & Bain, 2016). However, it is important to recognize that a teacher’s idiosyncrasies such as personality, background, interests, teaching experience and the discipline involved need to be considered. One solution that can help balance these top-down recommendations and bottom-up practices is to keep student cohorts in mind, as student learning is what is being disrupted when innovation is constrained (from a top-down approach) or constantly changing (from a bottom-up approach).

8 Exploratory Variations in Course Structure Consistency …

101

Objectives of Study and Expectations The main objective of this study was to explore how courses were structured among different academic schools across three colleges at RMIT University. We were also interested in understanding whether course structure differed between courses of different sizes, large (greater than 130 students), medium (30–130 students) and small courses (less than 30 students). Due to the exploratory approach of our work, we had no expected mechanisms or values or a priori insights. Based on our combined teaching experience, our two initial expectations surrounding course structure were that (a) structure would be similar across schools and that (b) there would be no difference in course structure between large, medium and small courses. These expectations allowed us to investigate and start identifying potential mechanisms behind the patterns, to help generate reflective practice and sharing of ideas between academics and between disciplines. In our chapter discussion, we present a series of points of inquiry to continue this exploration and to help guide course architecture. We use this analysis as an opportunity to initiate discussion on how to address consistency among courses without sacrificing the uniqueness of each course and program.

Method RMIT University uses Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) (Instructure, USA) for all courses. There was a migration from Blackboard LMS to Canvas that started in 2016 and was completed in 2018. In this transition, the aim was to avoid a “lift and shift” of course material from the old to the new platform, and rather take this opportunity to revise and improve content and course structure and help drive the university’s learning and teaching strategy. Academic programs are delivered by sixteen schools at RMIT. These schools are organized under three colleges: The College of Business and Law offers programs in both higher education and vocational education in disciplines related to business, management and law. The College of Design and Social Context incorporates 10 schools and 24 disciplines, including architecture; art; media; communication; social studies; design; education; fashion and textiles and construction, property and project management. The College of Science, Engineering and Health incorporates the fields of sciences, engineering, IT and health and medical sciences. Canvas Data consists of 105 fact and dimension tables in a star schema developed and occasionally added to by its parent company, Instructure. Data increases exponentially in large part because all user log activity is collected in a single table called the requests table (Taylor & Munguia, 2018). Canvas data also includes information associated with a course structure (Fig. 8.1).

102

P. Munguia et al.

Fig. 8.1 Canvas LMS course structure map

The main element in a course is called a “page” (Fig. 8.1), which can contain text, links to parts of the course or external websites and embedded elements such as quizzes, surveys and videos. Educational tools can be linked via a page or can be found in the course menu if they are enterprise-wide tools (e.g., Echo 360). A course is often organized through modules, and it is common to see a module for each week of the semester, or for a broad topic being covered in the course. Each module is recommended to have a page introducing the topic, a page with content for that topic and a page with activities or assessments (Fig. 8.1). Modules and pages can be made visible to users (e.g., students) or invisible by the course administrator (usually the coordinator or teacher). However, pages that contain items such as assessments can also be accessed through the course menu if these are visible. Therefore, some pages can have multiple access pathways and users may not necessarily reach them via the modules. Courses in Canvas are broken into modules, each of which would contain specific content (e.g., a module for each week of the semester), including the welcoming page to the course. Pages are the key units that contain content. Quizzes, assignments and discussions are stand-alone entities that may be linked or nested within a page. Thus, each element may have different navigation pathways. Data was collected on 3,440 courses delivered in sequential semesters: Semester 1 and 2, 2018, and Semester 1 2019 after the end of Semester 1 2019.1 Not all courses were delivered in all three semesters, and course name tended to be modified between semesters (and potentially content, as good teaching practice suggests that courses should be reflected upon and revised after each semester). Therefore, we treated each delivery of a course as a separate instance. We did not include courses 1 Upon checking with RMIT University’s ethics committee, it was deemed the research was exempt

from ethics approval.

8 Exploratory Variations in Course Structure Consistency …

103

that had fewer than three students enrolled, and only considered courses within the higher education sector and assigned to one of the 16 existing schools at the time of analysis. The median number of students enrolled in these courses was 65, with the upper and lower quartiles being 134 and 30 students, respectively. Therefore, we classified courses as large (>134 students, n = 857 courses), medium (30–134 students, n = 1,652 courses) and small (