Educational Technologies

studyingThe appropriate use of learning technologies to enhance the student experience underpins much of CSU teaching and helps the university meet its goals around flexible learning. CSU Interact (Sakai) forms the core and serves as a portal to the dynamic online learning environment that also includes other tools such as ePortfolios.

The CSU Educational Technology Framework (.pdf) guides the governance, policy and practice needs for educational technology at Charles Sturt University (CSU) and defines the provision, use and application of educational technology at CSU. The Framework provides a structure through which planning and goal-setting will occur to guide future development; that is, it aims to provide a  strategic and operational pathway for development to follow.

The CSU 2011 - 2013 Educational Technology Plan (.pdf) guides the implementation of educational technologies for a three year period at CSU and ensures the development, provision and use of educational technology advances learning and teaching towards positioning CSU as a leader in the provision of blended and flexible learning and teaching. The Plan embodies from 2011 and 2013 the principles espoused in the CSU Educational Technology framework and will be reviewed annually. The Plan addresses on-campus, blended, online and distance education and CSU's focus on education for the professions.

Overview of CSU's Educational Technologies

CSU has a balanced and extensive educational technology portfolio. This observation is based on a survey of educational technology use in 2011 by the university sector in Australasia (.pdf) conducted by ACODE of which CSU is a member and represented by the Division of Learning and Teaching Services.

Access a snapshot of current developments in the educational technologies at Charles Sturt University (.pdf)

Access various examples of Learning and Teaching with Educational Technology

Figures (analytics) are available on the usage of Educational Technologies at Charles Sturt University (.pdf)

Review the CSU Learning Analytics Strategy (.pdf) 

 

Research by CSU staff into educational technologies can be accessed via the CRO - CSU Research Output website. Search terms such as 'educational technology" and "elearning" are recommended.

You are welcome to join the ICT-enabled Learning Community of Practice (ICT COP) which shares practice around educational technologies.  You may wish to join our ICT COP by engaging in one or all of the following activities:

  • Become a CSU 'Yammer' member - Similar to email, Yammer also provides a CSU-only micro-blogging site.  Find out more by visiting www.yammer.com
  • Join the 'ABOUT ICT Integration' CSU Interact project site. This may be done in Interact by going to 'My Workspace', selecting 'Membership' and then locating the site within 'joinable sites'.
  •  Attend the Video-conference presentations which occur every two/three months and are announced on Yammer and the site 'ABOUT ICT integration'  Your Educational Designer will also promote these conferences in your School.
  • Share your ideas through the CSU Interact - learning and teaching examples

Browse through presentations titled "Conversations on Online and Mobile Learning @ CSU" (access the flyer) and:

Mobile Learning

LTS is leading the mLearn project to support the mobility of our students through the use of portable, largely handheld devices. Mobile learning facilitates the learning experiences of our students through mobile devices wherever the students might be.

Learn more about the mLearn project (2011 to 2013) and the findings of the 2010 investigation

The Affordances of Educational Technology

The suite of educational technologies available at Charles Sturt University  can be used to support a range of pedagogical approaches (learning and teaching strategies). This section is designed to link learning and teaching strategies with the affordances of the educational technologies available through CSU Interact  i.e. what does each of the tools allow one to do in learning and teaching?

Because students come with a broad range of technological experience, guidelines for technology usage need to be clearly laid out. Students should know:

  • What they should expect to see at the relevant learning site.
  • How they are to use the particular tool.
  • What professional or behavioural standards may apply.

Educational Technologies

CSU supports the following educational technologies:

Adobe Captivate - Adobe Captivate is a powerful tool combining branched eSimulation authoring, online eLearning Modules building and enhanced screen capture functions. The branched eSimulation features of Adobe Captivate allow users to build multil-pathed learning experiences leading to specific content or exercises based on a series of questions and responses.  The eLearning capabilities in Adobe Captivate, let users build interactive and passive content from scratch or by enhancing an existing presentation from MS Powerpoint complete with extensive quiz functionality.  The enhanced screen capture capabilities of Adobe Captivate allow demonstrations to be built complete with recorded mouse movements, pop-up boxes and hint captions.  Learn more by visiting the CSU Adobe Captivate website which contains online tutorial.

Adobe Software - CSU staff may download Adobe Fireworks for image editing, Adobe Dreamweaver for simple webpage creation and Adobe Flash to create web animations by visiting the CSU DIT software download page https://online.csu.edu.au/division/dit/software/

CSU Interact/Interact2 - For more information, visit the CSU Interact website

Interact2 (i2) is CSU's new online academic environment. It is based on the Sakai Open Academic Environment with some Interact tools (like subject outlines, Test Centre and Gradebook), and with other CSU educational technologies like online meeting, EASTS, CSU Replay and  ePortfolio integrated.

To see regular updates on the project, have a look at the 'i2 project' yammer group. If you join the group you will receive the updates via email.

CSU Replay -  An easy & effective way to create learning and teaching and non learning and teaching content on-demand using a Capture Appliance, Podium Capture, Personal Capture or Via External Media Ingest. For those wishing to use CSU Replay for the creation of learning and teaching content, the software allows you to employ recording choices based on the type of curriculum, instructor preference, and the technical complexity of the venue being captured. Read more about CSU Replay

DOMS - The CSU Digital Object Management System. A collection in DOMS stores any copyright free (or CSU copyright) reusable digital resources that a school or division may want to share within the school or division and with students. DOMS is Shareable (one resource can be shown in many places), Searchable (keywords), and Sustainable (persistent links, ease of resource rollover). For more information contact an educational designer within your faculty, or access the help guide on the DOMS website

EASTS - The CSU Electronic Assignment Submission Tracking System is used to submit assignments to the University, as well as track the status of assignments and provide online marking facilities.  Learn more by reading the EASTS Paperless Marking Process (.pdf) or by visiting the 'EASTS for Academics Guide'

Forums - The CSU forum supports asynchronous discussions, enabling students and teaching staff to post, read and reply to messages from others. Often referred to as 'threaded conversations' this form of communication is available within all CSU Interact teaching sites.  You may wish to download the Guide to Managing CSU Online Forums (.pdf)

e-Portfolio - an ePortfolio is your private space for managing your own learning and development, and for sharing and collaborating with others. All CSU staff and students may create ePortfolios using PebblePad.  Learn more by visiting the ePortfolio page - additional information can be found here: CSU ePortfolio website

Interactive Video Teaching -  Interactive video-teaching (IVT) is a live two-way video and audio telecommunications connection between two sites (point-to-point), or between multiple sites (multi-point), which allows 'real-time' teaching/learning interaction between lecturer and students. You may wish to download this Good Practice Guide (word.doc)

Online Meeting - Online Meeting is a live, virtual classroom environment which includes audio, video, application sharing and content display, as well as MP4 capabilities

Paperless Marking via a tablet device - The Division of Learning and Teaching Services has created comparison documents for iPad and Android describing the key features of recommended apps. More detailed guides for use with paperless marking are also available for GoodReader (iPad) and iAnnotate (iPad) and ezPDF (Android). Batch conversion of Word files to PDF files ready for use with a tablet device is possible with the use of PrePair PDF. PrePair PDF allows for the conversion of a batch of assignments with the optional inclusion of a marking sheet or Rubric.

Paperless Marking using Microsoft Word - The Division of Learning and Teaching Services has created a Microsoft Word add-in called NORFOLK. This word add-in can be used for the creation of comment and rubric banks and other feedback elements in Word. NORFOLK for Windows is available from here. A video illustrating features of NORFOLK is available, as well as a help website. A Mac version is also available please enquire via: eastshelp@csu.edu.au

PoDs - The PoDs, or Places of Design are creative spaces where innovative learning design can be considered. PoDs are available to academics on the Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst and Wagga Wagga campuses. Full descriptions of each facility as well as local contacts may be found on the PoD Webpage

studying happilyTurnitin - is an electronic originality checking service offered to the staff and students of CSU. Turnitin checks for potential referencing errors by comparing assignments to billions of pages of content on the Internet, in books, newspapers, scholarly journals, magazines and student papers. Turnitin is used by many educational institutions worldwide and is also used by several large publishers to ensure the integrity of their publications. CSU students are provided with an educative checking service via EASTS and CSU staff are provided with accounts for plagiarism detection via their school administration staff. A guide for academics in batch uploading EASTS Assignments to Turnitin is also available.

For more information contact an Educational Designer within your Faculty.  See the Division of Learning and Teaching Staff webpage 

Further resources and services available to assist staff in their teaching and to help enhance the student learning experience.

The Multimedia Specifications Working Party was established to make recommendations on, and to assist in, the implementation of a flexible framework for development, delivery and support of multimedia resources as an enterprise solution. The Recommended Multimedia Specifications 2008 (.pdf) are the recommendations on the major points of consideration; pricing, cross-platform compatibility, access requirements, usability for developer and consumer, vendor support, production quality, required user knowledge, possible applications and feature set.

Conferences

For information regarding the annual CSUED conferences, please see this webpage

AuSakai 09 was the annual Australasian Sakai conference which took place on 16 - 18 September 2009. More details for this conference can be found here: 2009 AuSakai conference