Browsing by Author "McLoughlin, Catherine"
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Item Assessment Online: New Horizons and Blue Skies(2003-01-01) Northcote, Maria T.; McLoughlin, CatherineThe use of the WWW in tertiary learning environments offers greater adaptability and flexibility than traditional assessment procedures as it enables the planning and design of tasks that monitor both learning processes and learning outcomes. This paper proposes that the move towards alternative assessment paradigms has been accelerated by technology with its capacity to offer learners a broad array of activities, tasks and forums for engaging in constructivist learning. It is anticipated that the benefits of online assessment will far outweigh its drawbacks and become accepted practice for both online and offline learners.
Item Opening Doors for Improved Doctoral Student Progress: Thresholds Concepts for Crossing the Research Barrier(2014-04-01) McLoughlin, Catherine; Northcote, Maria T.The journey through a doctoral candidature can be a challenging and emotional experience for both the candidate and their supervisors. Doctoral students are often known to experience “stuckness”, reach “brick walls” and experience “mental blocks” at various stages in their research. These barriers can prevent the progression or “learning leaps” of the candidate through key threshold research milestones of the doctoral degree. Supervisors typically take on the role of guide, coach and mentor throughout the process while enacting their conceptions of the research process. Identification of the threshold concepts and skills required of a postgraduate candidate can assist the developmental journey experienced by both students and their supervisors. Findings from an analysis of the guidance provided to potential and current doctoral students, a collection of milestones, skills and desirable competencies emerged. However, further analysis indicates that essential threshold concepts identified in the research literature are not in evidence on university websites. There appears to be a disconnect between the emphasis on procedural milestones on these sites, which are intended as guidelines for potential students, and essential research concepts and skills (that is, threshold concepts) that students require on the doctoral journey. Awareness of these transformative stages in a typical doctoral program of study may enable supervisors to assist their students to advance through these conceptual barriers. The research recommends that identification of the threshold concepts and skills required of a postgraduate candidate can assist the developmental journey experienced by both students and their supervisors.
Item Threshold Concepts about Online Pedagogy for Novice Online Teachers in Higher Education(2019-10-11) Gosselin, Kevin P.; McLoughlin, Catherine; Northcote, Maria T.; Reynaud, Daniel; Kilgour, Peter W.The use of threshold concepts to define key points of curricula is a relatively recent development in educational research. Threshold concepts represent crucial stages of learning, the acquisition of which enables learners to progress from one level of achievement to another. In this context, the learner is described as passing through an unsettling liminal space in which they may encounter troublesome knowledge and experience uncertainty or anxiety. When applied to online pedagogy in higher education contexts, academic staff become the learners as they extend their on-campus teaching knowledge into the online realm. In this setting, the identification of threshold concepts has the potential to inform the content of professional development (PD) programmes for novice online teachers. Because little research has yet been reported on threshold concepts associated with online teaching, this study identified these threshold concepts and investigated their specific nature. Funded by an Office for Learning and Teaching Australia Grant, the project employed a mixed-methods research approach. A mixture of qualitative and quantitative data was gathered from responses to questionnaires and reflective journal entries provided by university educators who were teaching in online contexts. Also, experts in the fields of PD, online teaching and threshold concepts were consulted using a modified Delphi technique that incorporated two rounds of surveys. Results of this study are discussed in association with potential applications to PD design for novice online educators, informed by the most fundamental learning experiences encountered by their more experienced colleagues.
Item Using Online Teaching Threshold Concepts in Transformative Professional Learning Curricula for Novice Online Educators(2016-01-25) Gosselin, Kevin P.; Rickards, Tony; McLoughlin, Catherine; Boddey, Chris; Kilgour, Peter; Reynaud, Daniel; Northcote, MariaItem 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”)(2017-12-01) Boddey, Christopher; McLoughlin, Catherine; Kilgour, Peter W.; Gosselin, Kevin P.; Northcote, Maria T.As online learning expands across the higher education sector, individual university lecturers are required to take on roles that incorporate responsibilities for designing and teaching online courses. Their growing capacities to fulfil these roles are sometimes supported by professional development (PD) programs within their institutions while some staff engage in staff development activities outside their home institutions. These programs and activities may take place within Communities of Practice (CoPs) while others are conducted on an individual basis. While much research has been undertaken into the field of online teaching and learning, including investigations into the most useful technological tools to incorporate into the design of online courses, the design of PD curricula to support the needs of novice teachers of online courses has not been extensively explored. This paper reports on the outcomes of an Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) funded project which purposely set out to identify the threshold concepts about online teaching that university lecturers develop as they engage in both the individual and communal aspects of designing and teaching online courses. This paper explains how the identification of threshold concepts about online teaching informed the development of a set of curriculum guidelines for the PD of novice online teachers. Recommendations for the design of PD for individual teachers (at the "me" level) are provided along with recommendations for the institution (at the "us" level).
Item What Skills Do I Need to Teach Online? Researching Experienced Teacher Views of Essential Knowledge and Skills in Online Pedagogy as a Foundation for Designing Professional Development for Novice Teachers(2017-07-01) Northcote, Maria T.; McLoughlin, CatherineAs e-Learning continues to dominate educational services globally, the domain of online pedagogy continues to expand, and teaching in online, blended and hybrid classrooms now considered an essential element of teacher education in the many parts of Europe, Canada and the US. As a result, the need for professional development of higher education teachers has never been greater. An important precursor to designing effective teacher preparation programs is to establish what novice teachers need to know and do to be successful in virtual teaching spaces. The idea that professional development for online teaching needs to focus on instructional and communicative skills, not just the technology skills, is reinforced throughout the literature. This large international qualitative study was designed to investigate and explore the perceptions of experienced teachers of the skills and knowledge deemed essential for online teaching and the capacities they perceive as most important for effective e-Learning. Transformative learning theory formed the foundational theoretical framework for this study. The research problem identified was the lack of practitioner voices on the challenges that novice teachers experiences in their transition to online teaching and the perspective changes that happen when they reconsider their pedagogies. Results indicate that teachers need to transform their pedagogy when teaching in virtual spaces and this includes new roles, modes of interaction and discovery of engaging ways of teaching online that increase connectivity and interaction with students. Implications for professional development and practice in higher education are examined.