Open fishbowl

Jonathan Powles
University of New England
@jonpowles

Shelley Kinash
University of Southern Queensland
@KinashinAUs

Aliya Steed
University of New England
@afsteed

Jennifer Lawrence
University of Canberra
@jennyalawrence

Catch this session

Tuesday 5 December, 12pm – 12.30pm
Stream 2
Room R113

Abstract

Often, our default pedagogies for professional, authentic, and/or work-integrated learning start with face-to-face assumptions. The “placement” is the starting-point for many academics’ thinking about how to provide students with authentic experience of professional work, and the placement is predicated on the assumption of physical presence in the workplace. Often, academics’ experience of other pedagogical strategies for authentic learning – for instance, problem-based learning, role play, action research – start with an assumption of physical presence.
On the other hand, we now have many rich experiences of professional, work-integrated and authentic learning that have been situated online. This fishbowl session allows participants to share, analyse and learn from these experiences. What are the challenges and opportunities in moving role play or simulation online? What have MOOCs taught us about how people seek to develop their professional education? What technologies and tools exist to capture authentic learning in the workplace and curate these as online records of professional practice? How do employers respond or react to professional learning conducted online? What sorts of pedagogical and business models have universities adopted around online professional qualifications, and how do these differ from more traditional models? Given that the great majority of students who study online are simultaneously working, how have we or can we leverage this body of existing professional experience as part of students’ learning journeys?

About the authors

Jonathan Powles

Jonathan Powles’ role at UNE is to lead the strategic pedagogical direction of the university. With 18,000 online students, UNE is Australia’s oldest provider of distance and online education, with a rich history of delivering online, professionally-focused education in fields as diverse as agriculture, education, healthcare, business, law and the performing arts. Prior to taking up his position at UNE Jonathan held education leadership positions at a variety of universities in Australia and the UK, where he led and contributed to a number of online and professional-education curriculum innovations.

Shelley Kinash

Shelley Kinash returned to USQ as Director, Advancement of Teaching and Learning in 2017. Previously she was Director of Teaching and Learning at Bond University, where her major achievements were championing employability throughout the everyday curriculum; migrating the student evaluation of teaching to an online system; and supporting a whole-of-university approach to blended / technology-enhanced learning. She has over 200 publications including 3 books. The central tenets of Shelley’s research portfolio are student voice, learning experience and employability and academic development. Shelley has a long history of research and practice in employability. She has co-led two national strategic priority research projects (Supporting graduate employability from generalist disciplines through employer and private institution collaboration; and Engaging postgraduate students and supporting higher education to enhance the 21st century student experience).

Aliya Steed

Aliya Steed has led and contributed to the development of online professional learning programs at ANU for nearly twenty years. For much of that time she managed the educational design programs at the ANU College of Law, where she led the development of pedagogical strategies and technological environments for a national program in Migration Law and Practice; a fully-online and Australia-wide simulation-based Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice; and most recently an online, PBL-based Juris Doctor program. As Manager, educational design at ANU Online, she and her team support online innovation ANU-wide, including programs ranging through business, science, languages and health, and the development of ANU’s suite of MOOCs. In October 2017 she joined the University of New England as Manager, Strategic Learning Initiatives.

Jennifer Lawrence

As Teaching and Learning Fellow (transition pedagogy) at UC, Jennifer Lawrence has led the development and delivery of “Foundations of Professional Planning”, a first-year unit taken by nearly all undergraduate students. This unit supports students to identify their potential professional destinations, and develop a five-year plan to acquire the specific and generic skills required to reach that destination through a combination of curricular and co-curricular learning. The unit is delivered both face-to-face and online. Jennifer also led the development and delivery of UC’s related MOOC, “Navigating Your Professional Future”. Prior to joining UC, Jennifer taught in the secondary sector, where her foci included authentic learning and learning technology innovation.