EDUCATION CONFERENCE: Jill Downie officiating at the 2nd IHETL conference by hitting the gong ‘three times’, witnessed by Beena (second left), Betty Leask (second right) and Ronald Barnett (right) as well as over 100 representatives from 17 countries.
MIRI: The technological advances and easy access to media network means the traditional classroom-style of pedagogy in higher education institutions, by all means with writing boards and textbooks, is about to see a huge transformation.
Deputy vice-chancellor of Curtin University in Western Australia, Professor Jill Downie, said with more digitally-savvy students entering universities, it is time that these institutions be innovative to keep up with the sea of change.
Downie, who spoke as inaugural speaker to a crowd of more than 100 international academics at the 2nd International Higher Education Teaching and Learning Conference (IHETL) at Park Everly Hotel here yesterday, said open online courses is the new alternative to enable students from different backgrounds to not only enrol in online courses, but that this new learning process would be tremendously different too.
“Massive open online courses (MOOCs), for example, provide a platform for students to learn without any space and material constraint.
“As a result, students are able to complete assignments based on their understanding with research materials obtained with own initiatives while engaging with their respective lecturer.
“Similarly, at Curtin University, our digital-savvy students are looking for us to change the way we provide education, to be extremely flexible and to have a great learning experience,” she remarked.
Downie went on to share Curtin’s plan of transforming learning, by disclosing that by the start of 2016 academic year, all courses offered at Curtin will be transformed.
“The whole purpose of learning is to prepare our students for the real market; therefore remodelling courses for students enable them to be responsive to the needs of industry globally.
“We believed no two persons has to learn similar knowledge under the same course, thus designated teaching and learning are vital, because a personalised experience for each of them would completely made their higher education a memorable and also a useful one,” she added.
Held at the auditorium in Curtin University campus, the two-day conference was attended by over 100 representatives from major higher education institutions from 17 countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Nigeria, Myanmar, the Philippines, Japan and Malaysia.
Its organizing chairperson, Associate Professor Dr Beena Giridharan, commended that the second edition since its inception last year was indeed, a much larger than the previous IHETL.
“Our intention is to provide a forum for educators and researches to meet, network, disseminate findings, expand perspectives and ultimately advance teaching and learning practices and research in higher education.
“We hope the conference will provide a wonderful opportunity for academics to share ideas, discuss issues, and reflect on the myriads aspects of what constitutes excellence in teaching in higher education,” Dr Beena said in her opening remarks.
Themed ‘Engaging Innovative Pedagogical Practice and Research in Higher Education’, the conference also heard speakers discussing topics like scholarship of teaching and learning, transnational education and internationalization, blending authenticity with online learning, assessment and feedback, work-integrated learning and ‘Classroom without Walls’.
Among the keynote speakers were Professor Ronald Barnett from University of London, Professor Betty Leask from University of South Australia and Professor Khairi Obaid Al-Zubaidi from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).