ASSURING GRADUATE CAPABILITIES INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

Assessing and accrediting graduate capabilities in 21C: People, practices, places and public accountability

A six-week event in Melbourne, Australia (19 August - 27 September 2013)

• For more information on the event please visit http://boliver.ning.com/ 
• To read the ALTC Good Practice Report on Assuring Graduate Outcomes by Professor Beverley Oliver please visit the OLT website here.

Introduction:

With the establishment of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) and a strengthened Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), higher education providers are required to demonstrate that their graduates have achieved capabilities at required standards. The National Teaching Fellowship, Assuring Graduate Capabilities, explores how educators, in partnership with industry, can:

1. Create and implement degree level descriptors of standards for generic capabilities (describing, for example, how and how well successful graduates can communicate, think critically, collaborate in diverse teams)
2. Embed new ways of assessing those achievements in degree programs
3. Encourage students to create, curate and present evidence of their achievements in a range of media using 21C technologies.

Key questions explored at this Symposium include:

1. Practices: How do we assess and accredit evidence of learning, particularly in generic skills and capabilities, for graduate success? What works well now, and how can we sustain and scale up such practices? What works less well, and how can we improve through sustainable new practices?
2. Places: How might we authenticate, warrant and accredit learning evidence in the digital economy? What are the challenges emerging from the wide-scale adoption of digital technologies in higher education, and how might these be addressed? What are the opportunities emerging from the wide-scale adoption of digital technologies in higher education, and how might innovations be trialled, evaluated and implemented in sustainable ways? In the wake of such innovations, what might be the best use of time for accreditation on campus and in the workplace?
3. People: What might be the role(s) of industry (including experts, professional bodies and alumni) in such processes? What is the potential for self and peer assessment and accreditation? What are the implications and possibilities for academic roles, industry partnerships and workloads?
4. Public accountability: How might we judge, measure, record and report authenticated and accredited learning—to students, the community, and regulatory authorities—drawing on emerging technologies, adaptive environments, massive open online courses, and open educational resources?

Who will be there?

The International Symposium is an opportunity to engage with experts such as:
Professor Mantz Yorke, University of Lancashire, UK
Dr Gary Brown, Portland State University, US
Professor Joy Higgs, Charles Sturt University
Dr Helen Chen, Stanford University, US
Rob Ward, Centre for Recording Achievement, UK
Professor David Nicol, University of Strathclyde, UK
Professor David Boud, University of Technology, Sydney
Mary Catherine Lennon, Leader AHELO, Canada
And more…

Where is it?

Deakin University’s City Centre, Level 3, 550 Bourke Street, Melbourne, Australia.

Who else is invited to attend the symposium?

Colleagues from any higher education institution are warmly invited to attend any event (all attendance must be booked at Assuring Graduate Capabilities and places will be limited—booking opens 1 July).

There is no charge to attend any event.

Professor Beverley Oliver, National Teaching Fellow
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education), Deakin University

Final Call For Papers - SECOND Australasian Conference of Undergraduate Research (ACUR)

19-20 September 2013

SECOND Australasian Conference of Undergraduate Research (ACUR)

- Final Call for Papers - (Click here to view flyer)

The second Australasian Conference of Undergraduate Research is to be held at Macquarie  University in Sydney on 19-20 September 2013. This two-day conference will include poster presentations and spoken papers by undergraduate students from all disciplines and from across Australasia.

We invite all Undergraduate, Matser of Research (1st year only) and Honours students who completed in 2012 to submit their work by the 1st July 2013.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS AND STUDENTS IN THEIR 1ST YEAR OF MASTER OF RESEARCH

First you need to submit an abstract of no more than 300 words by 9 am on Monday 1st of July 2013. Abstracts will be peer reviewed and the conference committee will decide the format of your presentation (a poster or a paper) depending on the quality of your abstract. You will be informed of the committee’s decision  by the end of July 2013. You may be asked to submit a revised abstract.

COMPLETED HONOURS 2012 STUDENTS: - Submit a full paper

If you completed your Honours degree in 2012, you must submit a full paper by 9 am on Monday 1st of July 2013. Please refer to www.undergraduateresearchaustralia.com for submission guidelines. Best Honours  student papers will be invited to give a spoken presentation in a special session at the conference. We will endeavour to inform you of the outcome of your paper by 9th August 2013.

PRIZES OFFERED AT ACUR 2013

• $1000 Prize for the Best Presentation and Paper at the Australasian Conference of Undergraduate Research 2013 (open to UG and MRes (1st year) students only)
• $1000 Prize for the Best Presentation and Paper on Community-Engaged Research (open to ALL students)
•  $500 Prize for the Best Presentation in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering (open to UG and MRes (1st year) students only)
• $500 Prize for the Best Presentation in Business and Economics (open to UG and MRes (1st year) students only)
• $500 Prize for the Best Presentation in Mathematics or Statistics (open to ALL students)
• Four $500 Travel Scholarships for students who have engaged in online education: rural and remote; indigenous; female; and teacher/  educator (open to UG and MRes (1st year) students only)

Go to: www.undergraduateresearchaustralia.com for more details and to submit your abstract or paper.

KPCB Internet Trends 2013, by Mary Meeker & Liang Wu

KPCB Internet Trends 2013 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Some highlights:

• 2.4B global internet users in 2012 - Population penetration; USA 78%, China 42%, India 11%, Brazil 45% and Mexico 37%
• 80% of the top 10 Global Internet Properties (Google, Microsoft, Facebook...) 'Made in the USA'... 81% of their users were from outside USA... (Q2:2013)
• 1.1B global active Facebook users, 60% of whom log in daily (May 2013)
• Mobile internet access surpassed PC access in China during the second quarter in 2012
• Smartphone subscriber grown is rapid, 1.5B subscribers (2013)
• Mobile users typically reach for their phones approx. 150 times per day (2013)

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Preparing your ascilite submissions; some key considerations from Helen Carter and Matt Bower's ascilite webinar, "How to Prepare a Conference Paper for ascilite 2013"

The ascilite Webinar held on Friday the 31st of May, titled “How to Prepare a Conference Paper for ascilite 2013” presented by Helen Carter and Matt Bower provided a range of advice on preparing submissions for the upcoming ascilite conference, 'Electric Dreams', which will be held at Macquarie University on the 1-4^th of December. The three topics or streams are designed to enable as many submissions as possible whilst celebrating the 30 years the conference has been going and include:
 

1.       Learning from the past (reflecting on development, literature reviews etc.)

2.       Understanding our present (what we are doing now, current research/projects etc.)

3.       Imagining the future (what might be, what is possible etc.)

Some handy hints are found below which you may like to consider when preparing your ascilite submissions, remembering that the full paper submissions are due July 1.

• A good abstract is really important and should always be written after the article to ensure that it reflects the essence of what is being said.
• Make it clear to the reader what your article is contributing to the sector.
• Don’t overwhelm your article with references, there needs to be a balance, and the reviewers are actually interested in what you have to say.
• Have a colleague, even if they are not in the same field, read your article prior to submission. As the author you are often too close to the work and having another set of eyes look over it can help a great deal especially with grammar and readability.
• There needs to be alignment in your research article, it needs to be an integrated piece which clearly states your research question and differentiates between research and simply reporting.
• In a more detailed look at structuring the submission, Matt provided the following advice. The context for the piece should be clearly established and used as a platform for justifying the value of the research project. This should be followed by an exploration of the literature trying to draw upon as much core literature as possible. You may want to use google scholar to see how many times an article has been cited, previous actilite proceedings and editions of AJET are also valuable places to look for relevant literature. Your description of the method should be rigorous enough so that it could be replicated by others. Make sure you select key findings to highlight, don’t overwhelm the audience by providing a huge spread of findings and be sure to link these back to the literature. The conclusion is your chance to provide your take home message and make a personal statement.

Also some key or ‘hot’ topic areas for this year were noted including learning analytics, MOOCs, flipped classrooms, augmented reality, 3D printing, internationalisation, student diversity as well as women, indigenous people and technology (where have we come over the last 30 years?).

Thanks to Helen Carter, Matt Bower and ascilite for putting on the webinar. For more information please visit the conference website.

Innovative Indigenous Teaching and Learning - The latest Good Practice Report published by the OLT

The 'Innovative Indigenous Teaching and Learning' Good Practice Report by Professor Nereda White, Dr Jack Frawley and Ms Dang Thi Kim Anh has recently been published by the OLT and can be found on their website along with the 10 other published Good Practice Reports.

"The review consists of three major sections. First, it provides a summative evaluation of the good practices and key outcomes for teaching and learning from completed ALTC projects and fellowships (as at February 2013) relating to the topic of Innovative Indigenous learning and teaching in higher education. Second, it presents a review of relevant Australian and international scholarly research and publications on the topic. Drawing on the observations from the review of ALTC projects and relevant literature, the final section, Recommendations, identifies areas in which further work or development is needed" (Extract from Innovative Indigenous Teaching and Learning Report - Overview, p.5).

These Good Practice Reports offer great insights through the development of key outcomes for learning and teaching related to specific topic areas, detailed project examples, recommendations for further work as well as drawing upon relevant literature.

NOTE: The OLT is currently seeking applications for commissioned projects including the development of new Good Practice Reports in the areas of Postgraduate research and coursework degrees and Standards (Due Friday 28th June, 2013).

More information about OLT commissioned projects including the Good Practice Reports can be found here on the OLT website.

NATA Project Event Scheduled for the 6th of November, 2013.

NATA will be hosting a project event on Wednesday the 6th of November at the University of Queensland. This event will showcase the work of NATA, including research findings, Good Practice resources developed as well as details of projects by partner associations. This event will also provide a space for discussing the future of the NATA Network and what sustainability may look like.