HKAECT International Conference 2021

Dr. Bart Rienties is Professor of Learning Analytics and head of Academic Professional Development at the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University UK. As Associate Director he leads a group of academics who provide university-wide academic professional development and innovation courses and conduct evidence-based research of how professionals learn. As educational psychologist, he conducts multi-disciplinary research on work-based and collaborative learning environments and focuses on the role of social interaction in learning, which is published in leading academic journals and books. His primary research interests are focussed on Learning Analytics, Professional Development, and the role of motivation in learning.

Furthermore, Bart is interested in broader internationalisation aspects of higher education. He has successfully led a range of institutional/national/European projects, and has received a range of awards for his educational innovation projects. He has published over 200 academic outputs, and is the 4th most cited author and contributor in Learning Analytics in the period 2011-2018 (Adeniji, 2019), the 5th most published author on internationalisation in the period 1900-2018 (Jing et al. 2020), the 7th most published author on social network analysis in social sciences in the period 1999-2018 (Su et al. 2020), and the 14th most published author on educational technology in the period 2015-2018 (West & Bodily, 2020).

Keynote Title: Implementing Learning Analytics at Scale in an Online World: Lessons Learned from the Open University UK

Abstract

While many “brick-and-mortar” universities had to rapidly shift online provision during the pandemic, a range of online and distance learning universities have been teaching in blended and online formats for years. The Open University UK (OU) has been trailblazing innovative learning across the globe for 50 years. Since 2014 the OU has gradually moved from small-scale experimentation to large-scale adoption of learning analytics throughout all 400+ modules and qualifications available within the OU for its 170.000+ online learners. This keynote at HKAECT 2021 will explore two large scale implementations (i.e., Analytics4Action, learning design) as a multiple case-study to illustrate how educators and institutions might make sense of rich data coming from online learning.

In Analytics4Action team of experts work together to make sense of the rich data coming from blended and online learning, and work together with educators how to further optimise the learning design. Learning Design is a structured design, specification, and review process (Conole, 2012; Rienties & Toetenel, 2016; Wasson & Kirschner, 2020) that helps educators to design an effective learning design. The findings indicate that active engagement by educators with learning analytics can positively improve the chances of learners to get support early, and to set them up for success. However, more needs to be done to actively support our educators to make sense of learning data.

Our main lesson learned is that innovation takes substantial time to grow, develop, mature and embed into an organisation. Without clear senior management support it would be extremely difficult to reach a critical mass to implement innovations like learning analytics at scale. Evidence-based research can gradually change perspectives and narratives in an organisation, and throughout both case studies we continuously conducted scholarly research together with key stakeholders to understand what was working, and what was not. Finally, if there is one thing both case studies have in common then it is all about people.

Dr. Xun Ge earned her Ph.D. in Instructional Systems from the Pennsylvania State University. At the University of Oklahoma, she has been teaching graduate-level courses related to instructional design and technology, as well as cognition and instruction.

Dr. Ge’s scholarship focuses on some interesting dimensions of cognition, metacognition, motivation, and assessment that intersect with each other, in the context of designing, developing, and using emerging learning technologies to create open and constructivist learning environments and advance learning of 21st century skills. Specifically, her research involves design effective scaffolding tools and learning environments to support higher-order thinking, complex problem solving, self-regulation, and co-regulation in various learning environments (e.g., problem-based, project-based, game-based, and community-based) across Science, Technology, Education, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) domains. She has collaborated with faculty and researchers from various disciplines (e.g., computer science, construction science, pharmacy, mechanical engineering) across different institutions and countries and in various educational settings (e.g., from K12 to higher education).

Keynote Title: Towards a Warm Approach to the Design of Learning Environments

Abstract

The pandemic has compelled educators from PreK-12 to higher education throughout the world to move classes online and seek innovative solutions to deliver instruction in alternative modes and approaches by integrating cutting-edge technology. The transition from face-to-face instruction to online or remote learning environments is not without challenges. Of many challenges experienced by students during the pandemic is the lack of humanistic touch due to the lack of communications and interactions which are commonly found in face-to-face learning environments, despite the availability of communication tools. With the lack of communication and interactions comes the lack of empathy and emotional support that is particularly needed during the hardships of pandemic and essentially important for students’ academic success.

Although advanced technologies have provided affordances for the level of communications and interactions (synchronous or asynchronous) that are compatible to one that is found in in-person learning environments, the opportunities for communications and interactions are still minimal compared with in-person learning environments. Such situations become a barrier for instructors to show caring and empathy to their students and for students to feel being cared and supported by their instructors and peers. While there are many issues or factors contributing to the lack of connections between instructor and students and between students and students, one of the issues is the lack of awareness of the need for empathy instruction or lack of skills for designing and creating a learning environment that is culturally specific, responsive and relevant to individuals with motivational and emotional encouragement and support. Therefore, the purpose of this presentation is to share a warm approach for designing learning environments, with a specific focus on students’ well-being and emphasis on designing and creating a safe, caring, and welcoming learning environment that aims at helping educators to understand the affect needs of students so they can be intentional in incorporating emotional and motivational support in their instructional design and delivery.

The warm approach is a learner-centered and community-based approach focusing on awareness, sensitiveness, and responsiveness to learners’ needs, feelings and experience, as well as their social and cultural contexts, in various processes and aspects of instructional design, from needs analysis, designing learning environments, developing instructional materials, resources, media and tools, and performing evaluation. Specifically, this presentation will illustrate how to create an enabling context, provide scaffoldings, and promote social and cultural presence in a learning community, which will be related to students’ experiences, address their concerns and needs, demonstrate understanding and empathy, encourage peer support, and provide emotional scaffolding to learners, in addition to cognitive and metacognitive scaffolding. The goal of this presentation is to highlight the need for integrating affective domain in instructional and curriculum design and promote a warm approach to the design and development of online learning environments, which will motivate learners and provide them a safe learning environment to engage in self-regulated learning, construct and build knowledge, and pursue inquiries. The humanistic approach will ultimately help our students to excel academically and thrive as a valued and vital member of the society in the 21st century.

Dr Hew is an Associate Professor in Information and Technology Studies at the University of Hong Kong. His research interests are in how technology can be used to support learning and engagement in both formal and informal contexts. Dr Hew’s work has two main tracks: researching engagement in social media-supported environments, and examining pedagogies and technologies in online or blended learning contexts, including the design and use of digital game elements.

Dr Hew has been listed as a World Top 1% scholar in his field by Essential Science Indicators based on Web of Science indexed journal article citations (SSCI & SCIE), for three consecutive years (2015, 2016, 2017). Dr Hew has won more than 20 types of international recognitions (e.g., best paper awards, highly-cited articles recognitions). He recently won a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning award from the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong.

Keynote Title: Engaging Students in Online Learning: The Case for Fully Online Flipped Learning

Abstract

The use of online learning has become the new normal of education in many parts of the world today. Yet, despite our familiarity with online learning, there is a general concern about the lack of student engagement in an online learning environment. One potential solution to promoting student engagement in videoconferencing courses is the fully online flipped classroom, which allocates more online class time for active learning approaches. As in a traditional flipped course, in a fully online flipped course students are encouraged to complete online pre-class work. But unlike in the traditional flipped approach, students do not subsequently meet face-to-face in physical classrooms, but rather online. In this presentation, I will talk about 3 key issues: (a) What are the benefits (if any) of using flipped classroom, (b) How I drew upon the 5E framework to design two traditional flipped classes, and (c) How I transformed the two traditional flipped classes into fully online flipped classes. Quantitative analyses of students’ final course marks reveal that the participants in the fully online flipped classes performed as effectively as participants in the traditional flipped learning classes. Our qualitative analyses of student and staff reflection data identify several good practices for videoconferencing-assisted online flipped classrooms.

Nick Melchior is Springer’s Editorial Director for Education and Social Science books. Based in Melbourne, Australia he manages a team of editors in China, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore and the USA, responsible for a program of approximately 600 books per year. He joined Springer in 2013 and has worked in Scholarly and Professional publishing for nearly 20 years with previous positions at Blackwell and Wiley. He serves on the Scholarly and Journals Committee of the Australian Publishers Association and holds a Master’s Degree in History from the University of Melbourne.

Keynote Title: New Developments in Scholarly Book Publishing – The Acceleration of Trends

Abstract

COVID-19 has accelerated many changes in scholarly book publishing, but created very few actual changes. This talk will discuss the implications for scholarly books and their ongoing relevance in today’s climate and propose that the book remains as relevant as ever to the Academy. Open Access, electronic publishing and peer review have all seen changes due to the pandemic, but all of these trends were already underway in various forms before being accelerated over the last two years. In addition, Nick will discuss new and emerging technologies in book publishing and the way Springer Nature is harnessing those to provide the greatest range of option to academics in their roles as authors and readers.