Learning technology as contested terrain: Insights from teaching academics and learning designers in Australian higher education

Technology-enhanced learning and teaching practice in Higher Education is facilitated in different ways by ‘Third Space’ support staff including Learning Designers, Education Technologists and Academic Developers, broadly defined as ‘EdAdvisors’ – educator/advisors. EdAdvisors offer rich experience and expertise across both pedagogy and technology can be hampered by workplace factors that diminish their ability to have meaningful impact. The work that EdAdvisors do is increasingly represented in existing research but there less is known of the barriers to their practice, particularly across different role-types. This doctoral research uses a Practice Theory lens and mixed methods to examine the complex web of factors in Australian Higher Education that shape the practices of EdAdvisors, including cultural, epistemic, material, organisational and relational, in an attempt to identify problems and suggest solutions. One significant problem is that EdAdvisor roles are often poorly defined. This work adds clarity to the understanding of these roles by comparing core activities and knowledge areas associated with them and using this analysis to find distinguishing characteristics and areas of overlap. It contributes to deeper understanding of the ways that teaching is and should be supported in Australian Higher Education. Feedback is sought on the theoretical lenses and methodology

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors impacting the ability of ‘EdAdvisors’ to support and enhance technology-enhanced learning and teaching in Australian Higher Education

Simpson

2023

“…Even for those working and researching in and around the field, "defining what a learning designer does is a challenge" (Heggart & Dickson-Deane, 2022, p. 282). Learning designers "toil in the interstices between the more prominent teacher and student narratives" (Costello et al, 2022, p. 1), occupying an uncertain 'third space' (Whitchurch, 2012) as they work to support their academic colleagues by providing a range of pedagogical, technological, design, and other expertise-particularly in designing for technology-enhanced and online learning (Tay et al, 2022). Learning design appears both a consequence but perhaps also, in part at least, a cause of the disaggregation or 'unbundling' of traditional academic roles and the rise of the 'para-academic' (Tucker & Neely, 2010;MacFarlane, 2011) as "educational responsibilities are redistributed to staff with different kinds of expertise" (O'Connor, 2020, p. 19), including those in non-academic and professional roles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to build a learning designer

Abblitt,

Davis,

D'Rozario

et al. 2023

The practice and profession of learning design has grown significantly in recent years. However, there remains a scarcity of formal qualifications and training specifically designed for learning designers. This paper describes a work-in-progress initiative to co-design a training program for/with/as a team of novice learning designers. The question driving our practice-led and design-based investigation is not just what but how learning designers should learn. The team conducted research into the requisite knowledge, skills, and capabilities that make a successful learning designer, including an informal learning needs analysis. Based on this research and analysis, this paper explores the question of how learning designers should learn by discussing four guiding theoretical principles and related design components consequently ideated by the team: learner agency; becoming professional; novice/expert mentorship; and community of practice. It then turns to the question of what, describing the core curriculum and program structure through which these principles will be enacted. These questions are critical to the present and future of the profession as we collectively articulate our shared practices and identity, and what it means to be a learning designer.

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confidence: 99%

“…The role of the third space woman leader is a blurry one (Denney, 2021). While making a difference for students is at the heart of our work, creating and leading teams in a direction often not of our choosing and from a position that crosses many boundaries is a challenge and is often invisible or unrecognized (Tay, Huijser, Dart, & Cathcart, 2023).…”

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confidence: 99%

Re-imagining women’s leadership in the third-space

Hinze,

Rokvic,

Kelly

et al. 2023

The role of the third space woman leader is a blurry one (Denney, 2021). While making a difference for students is at the heart of our work, creating and leading teams in a direction often not of our choosing and from a position that crosses many boundaries is a challenge and is often invisible or unrecognized (Tay, Huijser, Dart, & Cathcart, 2023). No two third space women leaders arrived in this role by the same path, but all have a diverse range of skills and personal attributes to draw upon – formal qualifications, teaching experience, technical skills and experience, growth mindsets, resilience, flexibility, creativity and not afraid of change. Yet there is no model of leadership that encapsulates this eclectic range of personal expertise which enables us to work with a diverse range of people and varying digital fluencies in the tertiary teaching and learning space. We therefore propose a new model of leadership for women working in professional staff third or liminal space roles (Loftus, 2018). A model which moves away from Servant Leadership (Smith, 2005), one of invisibility, nudging, persuading, to a more visible form of leadership - leading change from the front as well as alongside others in partnerships. A coaching and leadership style which empowers others and ourselves by flipping perceived weaknesses (no PhD, casual contracts, imposter syndrome, inability to articulate our own worth) highlights our strengths (our passion, our empathy, our problem solving ability, our practical and technical skills), diminishes the threats (seen as a support or an admin role in the rapidly changing digital landscape) and raises the importance and credibility (Kouzes & Posner, 2007) of the role and the work that we do promoting and enhancing digital pedagogy in higher education. It is precisely the work undertaken as third space professionals: implementing strategy as agents of change, working effectively with diverse people and disciplines, that develops the skills required to be leaders in higher education today (Denney, 2022, pp11; Pontefract, 2104 as cited in Loftus, 2018). The proposed model highlights the value we bring to our institutions and pinpoints where we can and should take the lead in designing and supporting digital pedagogy. The model also benefits those women in and aspiring to be in leadership by illustrating that the strengths and opportunities as well as perceived threats and weaknesses of the third space female professional, place us well for contemporary leadership in higher education. This digital poster will be interactive, inviting other women leaders to reflect on their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and to contribute to our model.