Making material available through learning management systems is standard practice in most universities, but this is generally seen as an adjunct to the 'real' teaching, that takes place in face-to-face classes. Lecture attendance is poor, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to engage students, both in the material being taught and campus life. This paper describes the redevelopment of a large course in scientific practice and communication that is compulsory for all science students studying at our Melbourne and Malaysian campuses, or by distance education. Working with an educational designer, a blended learning methodology was developed, converting the environment provided by the learning management system into a teaching space, rather than a filing system. To ensure focus, topics are clustered into themes with a 'question of the week', a pre-class stimulus and follow up activities. The content of the course did not change, but by restructuring the delivery using educationally relevant design techniques, the content was contextualised resulting in an integrated learning experience. Students are more engaged intellectually, and lecture attendance has improved. The approach we describe here is a simple and effective approach to bringing this university's teaching and learning into the 21 (st) century.

Making material available through learning management systems is standard practice in most universities, but this is generally seen as an adjunct to the ‘real’ teaching, that takes place in face-to-face classes. Lecture attendance is poor, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to engage students, both in the material being taught and campus life. This paper describes the redevelopment of a large course in scientific practice and communication that is compulsory for all science students studying at our Melbourne and Malaysian campuses, or by distance education. Working with an educational designer, a blended learning methodology was developed, converting the environment provided by the learning management system into a teaching space, rather than a filing system. To ensure focus, topics are clustered into themes with a ‘question of the week’, a pre-class stimulus and follow up activities. The content of the course did not change, but by restructuring the delivery using educationally relevant design techniques, the content was contextualised resulting in an integrated learning experience. Students are more engaged intellectually, and lecture attendance has improved. The approach we describe here is a simple and effective approach to bringing this university’s teaching and learning into the 21 st century.

The eMentors scheme encapsulates the concept that the person in the home most likely to be able to programme the audio-visual equipment is the teenager. The scheme harnesses the digital generation’s propensity for technology by using the students to teach their teachers how to make appropriate use of electronic resources in the classroom. We present a case study that focuses on both staff and student experiences of the eMentoring system at a further education college in Hertfordshire, UK and outlines the strategy for ongoing staff development and support. The scheme has given lecturers the confidence to develop new technology-enhanced pedagogical practices and has given students the opportunity to play an active part in the development of their own learning environments and to influence policy on the use of technology. We believe that this model has been an effective element in a concerted approach to changing the prevailing attitudes to designing pedagogy for 21st century learners.

No abstract

Creative risk taking is at the heart of innovation, and therefore a valuable skill in educational design (Henderson, et al., 2022; Glover, 1977). Equally important is the skill of being able to learn from when those risks result in unexpected or undesirable outcomes (Manalo & Kapur, 2018; Trilling & Fadel, 2009; Vedder-Weiss, et al., 2018). However, in our observations creative risk taking and productive failure in educational design are rarely discussed let alone celebrated within higher education institutions. This silence is mirrored in the research literature. Despite a growing body of research around creative risk taking and productive failure in teaching (for example see: Creely, et al., 2021; Henriksen et al., 2021), there continues to be a need for empirical studies of educational designer experiences and practices. This poster reports on six narrative-based case studies of creative risk taking and productive failure. They have been drawn from the experiences of 12 educational designers working centrally and across nine faculties in a large metropolitan Australian university. The cases were developed through an iterative storying approach, within an adaptation of autoethnographic narrative inquiry. This approach was designed to elicit and synthesize complex, personal and, sometimes, emotionally charged case studies. The data and analysis were further enhanced through a secondary process of analytic focus groups which interpreted and made meaning of the narratives. Thematic analysis of the narrative stories and transcripts of the focus groups led to co-constructed propositions about the barriers, inhibitors, and opportunities for creative risk taking and productive failure in educational design work. This study confirms that creative risk taking and productive failure are common and valuable practices of educational design. The study also confirms that there is a broad aversion to openly acknowledging the risks and failures. This was partly due to a drive for narratives of success by institutions and education in general, combined with the often precarious positions of the designers themselves who work in a “third space” beside and between educators and students and who therefore have to establish and sustain the trust of those who they work with. Through the analysis of the cases it became apparent that the barriers to an enthusiastic culture of creative risk need to be addressed by both educational designers as well as institutional leaders. The poster will describe the problem, extant literature, and methodology. The poster will also outline the six cases (key characteristics and insights). However, the focus of the poster will be on our key findings: seven broad strategies for educational designers and institutional leaders to promote changes in practice. These seven strategies are thematically organized under three themes: Shape expectations Normalize failure Question the validity of success criteria Redefine the process Position failure as part of a process Revise the language surrounding the work of educational design Support the people involved Recognize the emotional labour of failure and vulnerability in engaging with it Involve others and resist internalising failure Purposefully build trusting and candid relationships over time The poster will elaborate on each of the seven strategies for both educational designers and institutional leaders.