Faculty of Education - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 4 of 4
-
ItemWhat role can universal design play in facilitating inclusive learning and teaching within online business degree programs at Australian universities?( 2023-11)In an attempt to be inclusive, Australian universities have traditionally provided reasonable adjustments to students living with disability. This process has been criticised for requiring students to self-report based upon narrow classifications of impairment (Pitman et al., 2021). Another concern has been students under-reporting disability (Brett, 2016a) for a variety of reasons, including stigma (Berman et al., 2020). Trends have suggested that the number of students living with disability will continue to increase (ADCET, 2021), and as such, reasonable adjustments may not offer a sustainable approach in future. This view aligns with those who have advocated for a universally designed curriculum (Burgstahler, 2020; Novak & Bracken, 2019). Universal Design (UD) refers to products and environments designed to be useable by as many people as possible, without adaptation (CUD, 1997). This is consistent with the social model of disability since it assigns the responsibility of inclusion to society rather than the individual (Oliver, 1986). With that in mind, this study sought to identify practices within Australian universities based upon UD principles. In doing so, business faculties were targeted due to the reach they have and their diverse student cohort. This study also argued that online delivery has become ubiquitous with university coursework, and as with others (Kent et al., 2018), it challenged assumptions about inclusivity in such cases. As a result, this study asked, “What role can universal design play in facilitating inclusive learning and teaching within online business degree programs at Australian universities?” The literature review found reports of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (CAST, 2018) within individual subjects and the suggestion that Universal Design for Instruction (UDI) (Scott et al., 2003) could potentially support broader organisational change (Black et al., 2014; Rao et al., 2021). Based on that review, the investigation included surveying and interviewing disability support staff and educational designers to learn about professional practice as it related to UDI (Scott et al., 2003). This produced 14 survey responses and seven interviews involving educational designers along with five survey responses and one interview involving disability support staff. Collectively participants identified 10 Australian universities. This was complemented with a desktop environmental scan of all disability action plans (DAPs) published by Australian universities. It was found that although reference to UD was appearing more often within DAPs, most actions taken to address disability were reactive in nature. Participants reported challenges due to lack of influence, ignorance towards disability, and competing demands placed upon academics. Despite this, it was found that at one university a widescale initiative had allowed for the application of UDL (CAST, 2018). The aim of that institution was to not only address the needs of students with disability, but to anticipate diversity more broadly. These findings suggested that universities looking to employ UD should develop a widescale approach extending beyond the teaching academic (Lawrie et al., 2017) while also offering reasonable adjustments when needed. Because of this, the discussion focussed on the importance of stakeholder relationships, the need for common understandings about inclusive practice, and policy which contextualises UD within each university (Fovet, 2020). Recommendations have been offered, along with the limitations of this study. In way of conclusion the main research question was revisited and ideas for future research shared.
-
Item“We need to provide structure, but with open arms": An Exploration of Intent and Practice of Social Learning Design by University Teachers and Learning Designers( 2023-03)The student benefits of social learning in online environments are widely recognised, yet explicit design for social learning is often overlooked during development. This study explored the intent and practice of designing for social learning in online subjects by university teachers and their associated learning designers. The aim was to investigate the relationship between intention and practice to design for social learning. The study also sought to identify factors that influence design participants’ social design practice. For this qualitative study, multiple data collection methods were used to examine four online subjects at a single university in Australia. Semi-structured interviews provided insight into design participants’ perceptions of designing for social learning. Analysis of planning documents and expert review of online subjects allowed comparison between intention and practice. Goodyear’s (2005) framework describing the problem space for educational design was used to guide data analysis. This multi-case analysis suggests three main findings. Firstly, teachers and their associated learning designers have an intentionality to design for social learning, however this is not always implemented in practice in online subjects. Secondly, the influence of the organisational context shaped the design process with institutional pressures identified, which impact efforts to implement social learning designs. Thirdly, the study highlighted the importance of collaboration between teacher and learning designer when designing for social learning. This relationship was influenced by the teacher’s own expectations, experience, and expertise of designing and developing online subjects. Contribution from this study is an enhanced conceptual framework describing the problem space for educational design. This includes greater regard and awareness of the people and technology which impact designing for learning. This study also contributes to the development of a broader typology for social design indicators which were found to be consistently observable. It provides insights on the importance of the learning designer and teacher relationship - to ensure planned and intended activities eventuate through a more positive, collaborative and efficient dynamic. Study findings have significant implications for institutional processes and operational practices that aim to partner teachers with learning designers, and to develop online subjects that meet the intentions of educators in a more collaborative fashion. The resulting outcome of the design process are subjects with potentially greater social outcomes for teachers and students, enriching the learning experience for all.
-
ItemTertiary music education and musicians' careers( 2018)Australian tertiary institutions offer many courses for musicians intent on working in the music industry. There has been, however, limited research into how these courses from different providers contribute to musicians’ careers. The rationale for conducting this research was to provide insights to educators on how they might design courses to meet better the needs of musicians preparing to work in the music industry. A review of the literature highlighted the concerns of educators and academics about the balance in curriculum emphasis between musical expertise and industry practice. This study examined the merits of different pedagogical paradigms through the experiences of graduates from different tertiary music offerings. Using a mixed methods approach and a descriptive, interpretive research design, this study explored the experience of tertiary music graduates and how their learning contributed to establishing their music careers. Data were analysed around three themes, (1) the characteristics of music portfolio careers, (2) tertiary music education experiences and graduate outcomes, and (3) the ongoing professional development needs of musicians for sustaining a music career. The findings demonstrate the formidable challenges of working in a music portfolio career including the self- management of a career in a precarious employment market. Such careers required a mix of work realms such as music practice, teaching and entrepreneurial activities to generate new work. Consequently, career trajectories were found to be necessarily circuitous and “messy” but there is evidence that tertiary music education is a significant intervention in the continuum of learning for a musician’s career. It is argued that there are five broad categories of proficiencies that are required first to establish and then sustain a music career. The pedagogies and course emphases from different tertiary music providers in the Australian state of Victoria contributed in different ways towards musicians’ careers. Furthermore, there were some shortcomings in requisite proficiencies which suggest the potential for further curricular development. This potential lay in both undergraduate courses to better prepare musicians for starting out in their careers, and post-graduate courses to provide further development for the sustainability of musicians’ careers.
-
ItemBlending learning and technology: degree studies at vocational training college as a case in point( 2017)Blended learning is commonly defined as teaching and learning that combines digitally mediated and face-to-face activity. While the infusion and growth of digital technology into classrooms and beyond is said to have had the effect of transforming educational practices, educators talk of the unease that is experienced between what ‘should be’ and what ‘is’ when using educational technology in practice (Selwyn, 2014). There is a need for studies that challenge the qualities reified in discussions on educational technology such as ‘affordance’, ‘open’, or ‘ubiquitous’ and that articulate the lived reality of blended learning. Using actor-network theory, a materialist approach firmly based upon observation of actual events, this study explores blended learning as a sociomaterial practice in a higher education setting within an undergraduate business communications course. Departing from thinking about technology as a discrete artifact (Scott & Orlikowski, 2014), the study demonstrates the significance of material agency in the everyday practices of blended learning. Rather than a nexus of online and embodied activity, or a dualism of human/tool, the study extends the common understanding of blended learning by arguing that it does not exist outside of the relations that produce it. Viewed relationally, blended learning is an emergent practice, constituted by human-material co-agents (Michael, 2000). In the case under study, it presents as a heterogeneous assemblage of bytes, buildings, talk, smart ‘phones, learning systems and notes, among other materialities. Towards achieving a detailed tracing of the everyday practices of students when engaged in blended learning, the empirical material collected for the study involved learning management system log data, student discussion texts, classroom activity sketches, images of campus common areas and individual interviews. Technology was found to play a constitutive rather than a mediating role, producing blended learning as an effect. By using a concrete example of achieving the blend in blended learning, the chief contribution of this study lies in offering a more than constructivist approach that dismantles the notion of blended learning holding together as a discrete entity, realised through human agency alone. Practitioners of blended learning could, with profit, reflect on how spatial, digital and embodied learning encounters are performed through diverse sociomaterial practices. Further, blended learning designs that allow for the hybridity of practices will provide improved opportunities for students to learn in both embodied and digital encounters on-campus and online.