CloudFirst Project ( 2018 to 2022)

What was CloudFirst Design?

At Deakin University, all students are digital learners. CloudFirst aimed to design online learning experiences that were flexible and self-paced, enabling students to acquire knowledge while also interacting with peers and teaching staff to build connection and community. These experiences were complemented by active and collaborative seminars, either online or on-campus, in which teachers guided students to apply their knowledge and skills.

Put simply, CloudFirst enabled purposeful design of learning experiences suited to a digital world, leveraging the strengths of the online learning environment to enhance student interactions with content, peers, and teachers.

Project history

The CloudFirst Project began in 2018 as a two-year project with the goal of collaboratively co-designing high quality exemplar units across some of Deakin’s largest degrees, led by a purpose-built multidisciplinary team of experienced staff members with deep expertise and broad knowledge in areas such as educational design, multimedia creation, user experience, project management and IT development.

Over the two years, the team worked with teaching academics across the University to co-design over 25 units in the Master of Business Administration, Bachelor of Law, Master of Education – Research Pathways, Master of Education – TESOL.

The co-design processes between were iteratively refined and improved over the project life, resulting in the creation of numerous assets to support the transition of project innovations into normal teaching practice; including a learning design framework, unit site templates, self-paced capability building resources and design workshops that the wider university could use to begin their own CloudFirst journey.

From 2020 to end 2022 the CloudFirst team became the Course Review and Renewal Project, continuing the work of providing premium exemplar units, while expanding into new areas of strategic importance such as course hubs, and non-unit student support sites, as well as supporting the rapid pivot to teaching and learning online during COVID-19 lockdowns.

The team worked across discipline areas including public health and health promotion, mathematics, architecture, data and business analytics, Indigenous studies, chemistry, physics, biology, arts, and communications, co-designing and producing over 40 units.

In 2023 onwards, learnings from the the CloudFirst Project provided a critical input into the evolution of learning design at Deakin University, helping to inform the new Deakin Design Principles and Practices, as well methodologies incorporated into the Deakin Design Pathways.

The following exemplars showcase how CloudFirst learning design has been applied to the creation of multimedia resources and interactive learning tools. Each one of these elements sits within a sequenced online package and helps support that narrative structure of a the unit.

Video

Video and Audio are essential for building authentic and personalised learning experiences by taking students outside the classroom and promoting connection with teachers.

Audio

Video and Audio are essential for building authentic and personalised learning experiences by taking students outside the classroom and promoting connection with teachers.

Images

Images – are used to complement, supplement or replace text. Images can create tone, assist with storytelling and by improving the visual design of an interface make it more engaging.

Interactives

Interactives – provide opportunities for students to interact with content, self-check their understanding and receive feedback.

CloudFirst Publications

Taylor, D., Bearman, M., Scarparo, S., & Thomas, M.K.E. (2022). The emotional transition to online teaching: grief, loss and implications for academic development. International Journal for Academic Development. 27(2), 176-190. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2022.2083141 (PDF, 1.2MB)

Fox, B., Bearman, M., Bellingham, R., North-Samardzic, A., Scarparo, S., Thomas, M, Taylor, D., & Volkov, M. (2021). Longing for connection: University educators creating meaning through sharing experiences of teaching online. 52, 2077-2092 British Journal of Educational Technology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13113

Kamal, S., Bearman, M., Tai, J., & Fox, B. (2021). Exploring the social aspects of student collaboration in online learning. In Gregory, S., Warburton, S., & Schier, M. (Eds.) Back to the Future -ASCILITE ’21. Proceedings from ASCILITE in Armidale (p. 65-73). https://doi.org/10.14742/ascilite2021.0110 (PDF, 314KB)

Taylor, D., & Elliott, J. (2020). Supporting the transition to online teaching through evidence-based professional development. In S. Gregory, S. Warburton, S. & M. Parkes (Eds.), ASCILITE’s First Virtual Conference. Proceedings ASCILITE 2020 in Armidale (pp. 1–6). https://doi.org/10.14742/ascilite2020.0113 (PDF, 463KB)

Elliott, J. & Taylor, D. (2019). ‘Okay, but what does it look like?’ Building staff capacity in online learning through role modelling. In Y. W. Chew, K. M. Chan, and A. Alphonso (Eds.), Personalised Learning. Diverse Goals. One Heart. ASCILITE 2019 Singapore (pp. 413-417).
https://2019conference.ascilite.org/assets/proceedings/ASCILITE-2019-Proceedings-Final.pdf (PDF, 16.3MB)