ChatLAANZ

Guidance on using and advising on AI tools

Abstract:

Teaching staff and learning advisors are on the front line when it comes to handling the rise of new AI tools by students. Yet if we don’t know much about these tools, we can’t help advise students or staff about the ethical and responsible ways to use them. In this session, I’ll discuss practical guides and resources we can use to help us empower ourselves and our students to use these tools responsibly and not shortchange students’ learning and development.

Presenter:

Kara Kennedy is at the Manukau Institute of Technology.

Success with less: Reducing word splurge in online resources.

Abstract:

In the past year, the Learning Advisors at Auckland University of Technology have become increasingly involved in the development of Your Library on Canvas – a course-linked online resource providing discipline-specific academic and information literacy learning materials. These materials have been adapted from teaching slides used in embedded academic literacy work across the disciplines. For the Learning Advisors, one of the biggest challenges in adapting teaching slides for online access by students is fostering learner engagement without the benefits of face-to-face interaction. While there has not been extensive research on user experience of adapted resources in this context, literature on multimedia principles for online learning seems to suggest that text heavy content can be a barrier to learner engagement. However, reducing explanatory text can be difficult because we are used to using teacher voice to introduce and clarify learning materials in the workshop environment. This session explores our own experience in learning to reduce explanatory text in online academic literacy resources on Canvas. We demonstrate how we worked to balance what we show in annotated sample texts and diagrammatic content with what we explain in introductory text. We identify key design principles that we followed in the process of learning how to edit our content. Participants will be asked to share their opinions on sample online materials, and then they will have an opportunity to edit wordy content using our suggested principles. They will also be asked to provide feedback on the usefulness of the design principles in this work, and how they could be improved, particularly for diverse learner groups.

Presenter Bios:

Vanessa van der Ham is a Learning Advisor in Te Mātāpuna, the library at Auckland University of Technology. She mainly works in collaborative projects with course lecturers to embed academic literacy support in Education, Health Care and Engineering, providing workshop materials and videos on specific assessments. Vanessa has recently begun developing online resources for Canvas as part of a library-wide project to provide discipline-specific online support for learners.

Robyn McWilliams is a Learning Advisor in Te Mātāpuna, the library at Auckland University of Technology. Robyn mainly works closely with faculty lecturers in courses in the disciplines of Health and Education. She collaborates with them to develop and embed a range of both synchronous and asynchronous academic literacy resources to support students’ assessments. These include workshops, videos and online resources. More recently, Robyn’s work involves creating discipline-specific online resources tailored to specific assessment types in these disciplines.

Success with less: Reducing word splurge in online resources.

Abstract:

In the past year, the Learning Advisors at Auckland University of Technology have become increasingly involved in the development of Your Library on Canvas – a course-linked online resource providing discipline-specific academic and information literacy learning materials. These materials have been adapted from teaching slides used in embedded academic literacy work across the disciplines. For the Learning Advisors, one of the biggest challenges in adapting teaching slides for online access by students is fostering learner engagement without the benefits of face-to-face interaction. While there has not been extensive research on user experience of adapted resources in this context, literature on multimedia principles for online learning seems to suggest that text heavy content can be a barrier to learner engagement. However, reducing explanatory text can be difficult because we are used to using teacher voice to introduce and clarify learning materials in the workshop environment. This session explores our own experience in learning to reduce explanatory text in online academic literacy resources on Canvas. We demonstrate how we worked to balance what we show in annotated sample texts and diagrammatic content with what we explain in introductory text. We identify key design principles that we followed in the process of learning how to edit our content. Participants will be asked to share their opinions on sample online materials, and then they will have an opportunity to edit wordy content using our suggested principles. They will also be asked to provide feedback on the usefulness of the design principles in this work, and how they could be improved, particularly for diverse learner groups.

Presenter Bios:

Vanessa van der Ham is a Learning Advisor in Te Mātāpuna, the library at Auckland University of Technology. She mainly works in collaborative projects with course lecturers to embed academic literacy support in Education, Health Care and Engineering, providing workshop materials and videos on specific assessments. Vanessa has recently begun developing online resources for Canvas as part of a library-wide project to provide discipline-specific online support for learners.

Robyn McWilliams is a Learning Advisor in Te Mātāpuna, the library at Auckland University of Technology. Robyn mainly works closely with faculty lecturers in courses in the disciplines of Health and Education. She collaborates with them to develop and embed a range of both synchronous and asynchronous academic literacy resources to support students’ assessments. These include workshops, videos and online resources. More recently, Robyn’s work involves creating discipline-specific online resources tailored to specific assessment types in these disciplines.