Assessment of Student Web 2.0 Authoring

The Assessment of Student Web 2.0 Authoring group has been set up to support the activities of an ALTC-funded project titled "Web 2.0 authoring tools in higher education learning and teaching: New directions for assessment and academic integrity". The project is an 18 month project that aims to establish a set of guidelines and develop a suite of resources to encourage good practice in the assessment of student web 2.0 authoring.

This online community is a space for higher education professionals to engage with the project and to participate in an ongoing dialogue about issues to do with assessment and the use of web 2.0 tools to support students' learning.

About the project

In university learning and teaching there is growing encouragement for students to use so-called “web 2.0” forms of authoring or content creation, also known as “social software” – blogging / microblogging, audio / video podcasting, social bookmarking, social networking, virtual world activities and wiki writing. The representation of student learning in these forms in higher education raises both familiar and novel challenges for assessment and academic integrity, which are critical to resolve if university learning and teaching is to keep pace with trends in public and scholarly communication. (For convenience, the Assessment of Student Web 2.0 Authoring is abbreviated on this website to ASW2A).

This project will address these challenges by developing guidelines for formalise academic practices, standards and reporting related to ASW2A. These guidelines will be based on:

• Documenting the ASW2A experiences of up to 100 Australian teaching academics, in particular their assessment standards, practices and reporting issues with ASW2A.
• Conducting a national roundtable for up to 15 of these academics along with 10 academics selected for their expertise in assessment policy and practice, in e-learning and e-assessment, or in student management and support, to review experience and make joint recommendations for good practice guidelines.
• Field-testing good practices guidelines in up to 20 varied semester-long ASW2A practice improvement projects in major Australian universities.
• Producing, promoting and presenting a suite of resources for improving ASW2A, including a handbook with guidelines for academic policy-makers, teachers and academic support staff, examples of good practice and materials for staff development and student support, as well as an interactive web-based resource and scholarly publications.

The project will develop improvements in the conduct of ASW2A. Improvements will address teaching, tutoring and marking practices in order to overcome setting superficial tasks, requiring ephemeral forms of work for educational credit, accepting work that is without academic rigour or claiming exaggerated learning outcomes from ASW2A. Improvements will also include filling gaps in the context: i.e. in the scope of assessment policy and procedures; the emphasis of library and learning skills support; the educational design of assessment activities; the management of student records; the provision of educational technology services. The project will engage a range of institutions, staff and students in collaborative activities that address internal and external stakeholder expectations as they give shape and direction to improve practices across universities and disciplines, locally and nationally. It will fill a gap internationally in integrated resources to support ASW2A.

Staff Survey and Interviews

In September and October 2009 we conducted an online survey about the use of Web 2.0 tools in higher education in Australia. 60 university teaching staff from around Australia responded to our survey, and 22 respondents were then interviewed by phone, providing more in-depth information about how Web 2.0 learning activities are assessed in different learning and teaching settings. The initial findings from the surveys and interviews were collated in a discussion paper, which was shared with participants at the National Roundtable held in November.

National Roundtable 23 November 2009

Academics from universities across Australia and internationally took part in this Roundtable. Participants were selected because of their expertise in student learning, assessment, e-learning, and / or their practical experience in using Web 2.0 technologies in university teaching. The objectives of the roundtable were to:

- Provide a forum for people with expertise, interest and experience in this area to come together to share experiences and ideas and provide multiple perspectives on assessing student web 2.0 authoring;

- Support collaborative review and synthesis of: key concepts and issues from the literature; new findings about Australian academics' practices; and assessment policies of Australian universities.

- Gather recommendations for good practice guidelines that universities and disciplines can apply when assessing student web 2.0 authoring

Web link to Roundtable proceedings

Pilot Projects

In first semester 2010 we will be field-testing our draft guidelines in a range of learning and teaching settings at universities in Victoria. During these pilot projects we will:

• implement our draft guidelines in subjects where students are being assessed on their use of Web 2.0 tools,
• observe the progress of the design, conduct and marking of the assessment tasks, and
• gather information from staff and students about the use of Web 2.0 tools in assessment.

The guidelines will be field-tested in a range of disciplines, including cultural studies, languages, sports science, business, design, and accounting. A cross-section of Web 2.0 activities will be included - e.g., wiki writing, blogging, social networking, virtual world activities, and photo/video sharing.

Data from these studies will be used to refine and redraft our guidelines framework. The final version of the guidelines will be disseminated to the Australian higher education community at the end of 2010.

About the Project Team

Kathleen Gray (Project leader) Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne. PhD (2001), M Environmental Sc (1986), M Library Sc (1977), BA Linguistics (1975). Member of an ALTC / Carrick competitive grants program project team investigating the implications of the Net Generation for Australian higher education, 2006-2009, including acting as designer and leader of the national dissemination workshop series. Founding member and convenor of a funded health information technology research network with over 100 members and an active knowledge transfer program, and secretary of its interdisciplinary steering committee, 2006ff. Leader of Melbourne-Monash Acknowledgement project to support university staff to undertake continuing professional development about academic honesty and integrity issues, including considerations of new media, 2005-06. Significant responsibility for managing academic development, including funded action research by teaching staff, and for educational technology policy and strategy at RMIT, 2000-05, in Associate Dean (Academic) and Director of Educational Quality roles in Science, Engineering and Technology and as founder and chair of the university’s Teaching and Learning Committee Educational Technology Sub-committee. RMIT Institutional Award for “innovative and practical approaches to the enhancement of the quality of teaching and learning” (2004).Over 15 years teaching experience, including web-based from 1995. Over 60 publications, presentations and workshops on academic development and educational technology topics, including several papers on web 2.0 topics in the past two years. Member of ASCILITE, HERDSA, ALIA, ISSOTL.

Rosemary Clerehan , Associate Professor and Director, International Postgraduate Academic Support, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University. PhD (2006) "Disciplined Words: Designs for Supporting and Improving Student Writing in the Academy", MA (1993),Dip Ed (1986), BA (Hons) (1971). An internationally known specialist in academic literacy, as head of Monash University Language and Learning, 1987-2005, implemented the expansion of student language and learning support to all Australian campuses and South Africa. Published in leading international journals in higher education, educational media and online learning in the areas of: learning on the web; disciplinary understandings and genre studies; plagiarism; cross-cultural issues in teaching and learning; and written doctor-patient communication. Has attracted external funding for medical communication projects and has had NHMRC and other consultancies, some involving CD-ROM development. Leader of series of Monash-funded University-wide projects (1998-2006), involving teams of students and staff, to develop academic skills web sites for students and professional development sites for staff.

Margaret Hamilton , Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science and IT, RMIT University. PhD, BSc (Hons). Senior co-chair of ACE2009, Australasian Computing Education Conference, co-chair ACE2008, and convenor of the Third Melbourne Computing Conventicle 2006. Collaborator in many studies in CS education, including BRACE (Building Research in Australasian Computing Education), RMIT mobile computing group, CSIT Academic Integrity group. Chief investigator in study on how lecturers and students manage in large groups with plagiarism detection software, and has developed interactive workshops for introducing students to academic integrity practices with regard to assessment which she has been invited to discuss at other universities. Published more than 30 papers in computer science education including plagiarism detection and academic integrity initiatives. Nominated for Carrick Citation for "leadership in promoting academic integrity and the development of a resource which engenders student and staff mentoring and management of plagiarism with fairness".

Judithe Sheard , Senior Lecturer, Director of MIT and MNC (minor thesis) degrees, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University. PhD (2006) "An Investigation of Student Behaviour in Web-based Learning Environments", Grad Dip DP (1974), BSc (1972). Leadership roles both nationally and internationally in the computing education research community. Co-director of the Computing Education Research Group at Monash and is an executive member of the Australasian chapter of the ACM special interest group in computing education (SIGCSE). A programme chair for the 4th Australasian Computing Education conference (2000) and co-leader of an international working group held at the ITiCSE conference in 2003 on Academics perceptions of cheating and plagiarism. Established, and is director of, the Monash Museum of Computing History. Monash Vice Chancellor's Award for Team-based Educational Development (2002) and School of Computer Science and Software Engineering Excellence Awards (2002 and 2003). She has worked on a number of computing education related projects and has had the role of chief investigator on 3 Monash IT Small Grants. More than 70 peer-reviewed publications on IT education and educational technology. Over 19 years teaching experience.

Celia Thompson , Lecturer, English as a Second Language (ESL) and Intensive Academic Program Coordinator, School of Languages and Linguistics, University of Melbourne. PhD (2006) “Plagiarism and the Politics of Textual Ownership” MA Applied Linguistics (1998), RSA Dip TEFLA (1986), Cert Counselling (1983), Cert Ed (1978), BA (Hons) French & Euro Lit (1976). Member of TESOL (US) and ALAA (Australia) since 1998. Member of National Teaching Development Grant Team (1993-1995) that produced teacher training video materials for ESL learners. Participant in trialling and evaluating university plagiarism software detection system (2003). Nominated for Cultural Diversity and Faculty of Arts Teaching Awards (2003). Has been invited to give cross-disciplinary academic staff development seminars and conference papers on academic writing and plagiarism at universities nationwide. 18 years of university-based teaching in ESL and project-based approaches to learning. A reviewer for several national and international teaching and learning scholarly journals. More than 17 refereed publications relating to plagiarism and academic writing at tertiary level.

Jenny Waycott, Researcher in Educational Technology, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne. PhD (2004) from the Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, UK. Jenny has been involved in research in the fields of human-computer interaction and educational technology for the past decade. In past research she has examined user perspectives on technology use in various learning, workplace and social contexts, and in her PhD work she developed an activity theory approach to understanding how people appropriate mobile technologies as learning and workplace tools. Jenny has recently worked on another ALTC-funded project, "Educating the Net Generation: Implications for Learning and Teaching in Australian Universities".

Joan Richardson, RMIT University BAppSci (Canberra), DipEd (LaTrobe), Med (LaTrobe), PhD (LaTrobe). Joan is the Deputy Director Teaching and Learning in the School of Business Information Technology at RMIT University. Joan has led University projects designed to strategically support design, development and implementation of new technologies in the higher education sector for a number of years. She has won University awards for curriculum development and construction and incremental development of suites of resources that utilise technology innovations for delivery. Since 2001 she has been the principal author of four editions of the text Computing For Business Success published by Pearson Education Australia. Each version of the text has included ‘state-of-the-art’ digital media and resources, in the form of companion CDROM’s and Web sites. This work has currently been extended to investigate the use of mobile technologies, namely SMS, to communicate with end-users of learning products. Projects undertaken in 2006 and 2008 have piloted a rudimentary prototype of an SMS student administrative service system. Joan has also led and/or been a team member in four RMIT University, Learning Investment Teaching Funds (LTIF) projects in 2008 and 2009.