ERGA Collaborative Networking
ERGA recognises the need for education researchers to collaborate in order to share ideas and develop research methodologies. This is essential for obtaining ALTC level grants and recognition.
ERGA hosts an annual breakfast to establish and nurture collaborative relationships. Some of the recent projects to emerge from these events are listed below. If you interested in participating in any of these projects please contact the listed project representative.
Current Projects
Voting Systems
Contact: Edward Palmer (edward.palmer@adelaide.edu.au)
Voting Systems provide an easy method for gathering feedback in the classroom. This project will examine strategies for their use in different contexts.
The first stage will be to define the strategies the voting system project participants will use, based on a review of the literature. Secondly, project participants will implement voting system projects within their classes as appropriate. A survey will be conducted to garner student interest in this technology, and case studies developed based on the individual class projects.
Practicals
Contact: James Botten (james.botten@adelaide.edu.au)
Students completing a degree at University have a reasonable expectation that by the end, they will have acquired professionally relevant skills for their chosen career path. In some cases (such as in the Sciences, Engineering and Medicine) these skills are very hands on, and thus it is essential that the students "get their hands dirty" i.e. attempt to replicate practical scenarios and master technical competencies for themselves. However this can be problematic for reasons such as the costs involved, obtaining the required equipment or samples needed for testing, complications involved with large class sizes and even setting up the appropriate conditions to accurately represent the desired scenario. In some cases, artificial conditions (such as computer simulations) can be used to address these shortcomings. However these are not always suitable, and in some cases may actually be insufficient for replicating the desired conditions. The aim of this project is to evaluate the "state of play" regarding practical/laboratory classes within various disciplines at the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. The evaluation will focus on indicators of the perceived value of practical classes: how well do they convey specific concepts, how well do they teach technical proficiencies and how well does their assessment reflect the technical ability of a student exiting the course. These and other issues will be examined from the perspective of both students and staff. It is hoped that this study will result in improved teaching of practical classes within the participating institutions. In addition, the longer term objective is for this information to be even more widespread.
RSD
John Willison (john.willison@adelaide.edu.au)
An EPLE a day, keeps boredom away
Sophie Karanicolas (sophie.karanicolas@adelaide.edu.au)
'EPLE' is an acronym that stands for "Effective Pre Lecture Engagement. We are looking at ways in which students can engage in meaningful online pre lecture engagement so that they can explore and learn key concepts prior to the scheduled face to face. By meaningful, we mean that students will form an active part of the learning, as learning tasks will be devised with the purpose of providing students with feedback. The aim of EPLE is to ensure that the pre lecture task is not an onerous one and is kept short to make it manageable. Students can then preview this as many times as they need in order to be well prepared for the face to face session which will become a more applied session through group work and real life applications.
Cohort Engagement
Cheryl Pope (cheryl@cs.adelaide.edu.au)
