The Asia-Pacific FutureLearn Academic Network (AP FLAN)

By Associate Professor Margaret Bearman, Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE), and Wendy Palmer, Director of Global Studio.

The inaugural Asia Pacific FutureLearn academic network (FLAN) held June 6 at Deakin Downtown was a great success with over 30 people attending, in person and virtually, from both Australian and Japanese Universities. With an insightful mix of presentations and panels, the event concluded with a shared live streamed session with the European FLAN event, with Professor Mike Sharples discussing practical pedagogy.

Wendy Palmer, Director of Global Studio who leads the partnership with FutureLearn noted that one of the interesting themes was the increased use of video for interaction between students and lecturers. 

“Keio University are using daily video blogs to address loneliness for students and Murdoch University are trialling video and audio feedback for assessments to enable more authentic feedback. Keio are trialling this currently and are expecting reduced marking time and a truer sense of feedback than text where tone can be lost, it will be interesting to see the outcomes.”

Associate Professor Margaret Bearman from Deakin’s CRADLE has been involved in evaluating the impact that Deakin’s initiatives on FutureLearn have had. Professor Bearman conveyed how fortunate she was to listen to Professor Emerita Beverley Oliver’s keynote, which explored new ways of thinking about micro-credentials.

“Beverley discussed why they mattered in a world of increasing focus on flexibility and work-skills, and what needed to be done to transform them from ‘random’ learning to credentialed learning.”

For Margaret, this is the start of a very interesting conversation that she is looking forward to exploring further.

Wendy echoed Margaret, stating

“Beverley’s presentation on Micro-credentials was indeed thought provoking especially the focus on shared value across students, educators and employers – how do micro-credentials work for all these stakeholders. Beverley also made the interesting point that universities have been doing micro-credentials all along – they’re called units. It is fascinating to see how this global conversation on the shape of education is evolving.”

Watch Deakin’s Dr Nick Patterson give his FLAN presentation on the Master Information Technology Leadership, and Goki Miyakita on Enhancing Learning Experience Beyond MOOCs below.

Margaret had the privilege of hosting a panel with Professor Kylie Readman from Murdoch, Professor Nick Barter from Griffith and Dr Clare Lloyd from Newcastle.

“While the starting point was the strategic value of researching MOOCs (or “open courses” to use Clare’s term) in the University sector, the message I took away was that “digital is coming”. While MOOCs offer the opportunity to make what universities do (teaching and research) matter in the community, we still need research to understand this opportunity.”

 

Looking for more?

Watch keynote speaker Mark Sharples’ presentation below on Pedagogy at Scale.

 

Useful Resources

For more on FutureLearn at Deakin see here.