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Chie Adachi
Deakin University
@chieadachi

Julia Savage
Deakin University

Marcus O’Donnell
Deakin University
@marcusod

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Tuesday 5 December, 11.20am – 11.40am
Stream 6
Room T125

Abstract

The notion of learning design and social learning has been foregrounded lately in the field of technology-enhanced learning. The rise of Web 2.0 that has allowed social networks to develop (not just to find and share information) in connecting global learners to learn from each other through the web. Following this movement, the higher education sector has begun to embed a design of learning that socially encourages peer learning among learners themselves. This is particularly relevant to MOOC environments where there is the potential for thousands of participants to learn through multiple open source tools with minimum intervention from educators. This may in turn present a challenge for university educators to adapt to this new learning environment and ways of teaching. This paper presents a work-in-progress collaborative project designed to respond to such transformation. We in a central learning and teaching unit, designed and developed a course that sought to build the capacity of academics going through this change: they were about to teach on a MOOC platform. We applied the same learning design principles our academics were asked to employ in the development of their MOOC courses. Our purpose was to model and test the framework, but also to distil authentic social learning for academics as learners first. This resulted in creating a community of practice among educators involved in this space. Further research is required to measure the impact of this capacity-building course in order to further enhance the learning experiences of academics in the course.

About the authors

Chie Adachi

Dr Chie Adachi has a PhD in Linguistics (The University of Edinburgh) and has taught/worked at universities in Japan, UK and Australia over the past 12 years. Her current research interests lie within the areas of digital learning and teaching in higher education, sociolinguistics and intercultural education. She currently works as a Lecturer within the central Learning and Teaching unit, Deakin Learning Futures at Deakin University, Melbourne. Since 2017 she has been involved with the ASCILITE Special Interest Group, TELedvisors, as one of the co-founders serving to create a collaborative space and empower advisors working within the area of Technology Enhanced Learning.

Julia Savage

Julia Savage is a lecturer in professional learning within a central unit at Deakin University. Her particular research interest is the scholarship of learning and teaching and supporting the work of sessional staff.

Marcus O’Donnell

A/Prof Marcus O’Donnell is Director, Digital Learning at Deakin University where he has been academic lead on the Degrees at FutureLearn project. Prior to coming to Deakin Marcus was a journalism program convenor at the University of Wollongong and then part of the core team for the institutional Curriculum Transformation project. His research interests are cloud-first learning design, narrative approaches to research, teaching and learning and contemplative pedagogies, particularly the intersections of digital literacies and mindfulness in an age of distraction.