Jill Lyall and Katie Freund from ANU Online together with Alex Webb from the ANU College of Medicine, Biology & Environment recently presented at the annual Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE) conference. With over 60 papers presented and 450 pages of proceedings covering topics ranging from digital equity, social media for learning to augmented and virtual reality and the Internet of Things (IoT), the conference held over three days at the University of Southern Queensland was delightful, engaging and thought-provoking (certainly intensive!).

We presented on the first day of the conference on the Challenges and tensions in the role of the LMS for medical education: Time for the "next generation LMS?" and received some wonderful feedback and questions.

Here is the abstract of our paper:  

In the context of discussions of a “next generation LMS” and other contemporary challenges in higher education, this case study looks at the iterative process a team of educational designers and Medical School academics at Australian National University used in a review of the ANU Medical School LMS sites. Adopting the framework of the actor network theory, this reflective process discovered the tensions, dynamics and issues involved, and worked to gain and maintain key Medical School staff engagement and support for the review and for any changes that might be recommended. This paper reflects on emerging possible models for technology-enhanced learning beyond our current institutional LMS while acknowledging the institutional constraints on learning innovation within the global higher education context. Next generation LMS models may provide a more flexible future solution that could be applicable not just to medical education, but to higher education generally.

Read our paper

Full conference proceedings: http://2017conference.ascilite.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ASCILITE-2017-Proceeding.pdf

Our recommendations:

Mitchell, K., Simpson, C. & Adachi, C. (2017). What’s in a name: The ambiguity and complexity of technology enhanced learning roles, ASCILITE 2017 Conference Proceedings, p. 147-151. 

Adachi, C., Savage, J. & O'Donnell, M. (2017). Facilitating social learning through learning design: A perspective of collaborative academic development, ASCILITE 2017 Conference Proceedings, p.7-11.

Northcote, M., Gosselin, K., Kilgour, P., McLoughlin, C. & Boddey, C. (2017). Using threshold concepts about online teaching to support novice online teachers: Designing professional development guidelines to individually assist academic staff (“me”) and collectively guide the institution (“us”), p. 1-9.