2008 Awards
The annual ascilite Awards, comprising 'ascilites' and the President's Award, are designed to reward leaders in the use of electronic technologies in teaching and learning in tertiary education.
Each year at the ascilite conference these awards recognise exemplary product design and development in the application of ICT in Higher Education.All entries are judged on their merits in terms of the above over-arching goal and the following criteria:
- Appropriateness for the target audience.
- Appropriateness and effectiveness of the design from a learning-technology perspective. (For example, interface design, navigation, usability, exploitation of the affordances offered by various media.)
- 'Fit of the project' to its specified goals. (Technical and pedagogical.)
- Creativity/Innovation in its application of technology/pedagogical approach.
- Appropriateness and effectiveness of the Learning Design.
- Impact on Teaching Practice. (Likelihood and ease of adoption by or transference to other practitioners/teaching and learning environments.)
- Substantive evidence of educational effectiveness. (Evaluation.)
- Overall quality.
As in past years the standard of entries was very high. This year (2008), three projects were passed on to the International Judging Panel as finalists. The International Panel for 2008 comprised:
| Judge | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Dr Bob Corderoy (Chair) | Australasian College of Dermatologists (AUST) |
| Associate Professor Helen Carter | University of Canberra (AUST) |
| Mr Ray Stace | University of Wollongong (AUST) |
| Professor Frank Rennie | Lews Castle College (SCOT) |
| Dr Diane Salter | Hong Kong Polytechnic (HK) |
| Professor Robin Mason | The Open University (UK) |
| Dr Elaine Pearson | University of Teeside (UK) |
| Professor Thomas Reeves | The University of Georgia (USA) |
| Dr Meg O'Reilly | Southern Cross University (AUST) |
| Professor John O'Donoghue | University of Central Lancashire (UK) |
| Professor Gilly Salmon | University of Leicester (UK) |
| Mr Alan Soong | Nanyang Technological University (SG) |
'Ascilites' are awarded to those projects which the judging panel nominates as worthy, based on the 'scores' they achieve for each of the criteria. The citation which appears on the 'Ascilite' Award Certificate reflects the list of criteria which the judging panel flagged as commendable scores.
Please use the links to see further details on each of the projects which made it to the 'Finalist' stage and the various awards given to the successful projects.
eUreka (Nanyang Technological University - Singapore) [Large Project]
Contact: A. Prof Daniel Tan (LYWong@ntu.edu.sg)
Habitat Change in Morton Bay (University of Queensland) [Small Project]
Contact: Wendy Chalmers (w.chalmers@uq.edu.au)
Online Tutorial: Academic Integrity (University of Queensland) [Small Project]
Contact: Wendy Chalmers (w.chalmers@uq.edu.au)
eUreka
Awarded an 'ascilite'
Typically, students learn through knowledge transfer and sharing via teaching by the instructor. It is also recognised that another important form of learning is through constructivist or discovery learning environment. A good common practice for the latter is project work. Its many forms include, notably, the final year project (or FYP) that is a major course component and key highlight in the undergraduate program. Other varied forms include term or mini-projects, group project work, as well as postgraduate project resulting in a defence for a PhD.
Nanyang Technological University (NTU, Singapore) has developed a web-based project work management system to manage knowledge creation, discovery, sharing and collaboration to better document such learning journeys by the project students. Building on instructional and learning processes, eUreka provides an effective platform for project work planning and scheduling, documentation of resources and findings, collaborative work and reflections on the learning experiences in the project work duration. It also offers a centralized platform to manage the internal quality processes of invention and future innovation.
Habitat Change in Morton Bay
Awarded an 'ascilite'
Highly Commended
This Marine Studies "Habitat Change in Morton Bay" scenario takes second year University of Queensland students on a virtual field trip to prepare them for a real research task. It addresses an identified need for more research experience in the first years of undergraduate study. The resource is a case in field research and guides students through the processes involved: the preparation, the collection of data and the analysis of that data.
Students work in groups as a 'professional' with a brief. In order to complete their project, they must make decisions critical to the experiment design. They can research various locations within Morton Bay and select suitable sites to study. When the sites are selected they 'travel' to these locations and collect sample quadrats for data collection. On identifying species within the sample quadrats, they complete a statistical analysis of the data.
The scenario is interactive and colourful. It provides an active learning solution, introducing students to the practice of research so that students can get the most from the experience when they do go out and get their feet wet.
Academic Integrity - Online Tutorial
Winner: President's Award for Excellence 2008
Awarded an 'ascilite'
The online interactive tutorial, "Academic Integrity: referencing and avoiding plagiarism", was developed to address the needs of first year students for effective academic writing which avoids accidental or intentional plagiarism. The positive notion of academic integrity was the focus, and the tutorial includes components which develop users' referencing skills within two referencing styles, clarify the meaning of inappropriate practices such as collusion or copying, and the consequences of inappropriate academic practices, and address academic practices that reduce the likelihood of plagiarism. This tutorial uniquely integrates instruction with real-life student cases, and users' active, engaged participation with interactive exercises.
Learning is promoted by extensive feedback and multiple attempts and users' progress and outcomes are recorded in a database. The tutorial has a refreshing, attractive design to appeal to early stage university students, but with a tone promoting the seriousness of the focus. This web-based tutorial was developed with aspx coding, and includes flash overlays to enhance learning through visual demonstration. The needs of diverse learners were considered, such as a range of cultural backgrounds in the cases, ensuring all visual information represented in text was suitable for visually impaired users, incorporating the use of screen readers, and designing the flash demonstrations to reduce cognitive overload.
The tutorial is an effective means to provide learners with knowledge and skills to complete their university studies with academic integrity, with the flexibility of individual user needs for repeated attention and flexibility of time and location, as well as an effective use of School funding and staffing.