Sponsor/year: Library, 2016 – 17.

Project leads: Chris Rawson, Christine Oughtred. For further information on using Perspectives, contact Craig Patterson.

Aims: Support students’ development of digital literacy, particularly judging reliability and accuracy of resources.

Underpinning theories/literature:

• Authentic learning: website with explanation of authentic learning, examples.
• Transformative dimensions of adult learning: foundational text describing Mezirow’s transformative learning framework.
• Connectivism: a learning theory for the digital age: George Siemens’ short article outlining the theory.

• Students build digital literacy, critical thinking and perspective-taking skills as they explore more serious research beneath the often over-hyped positions taken by various stakeholders. They can work alone or in groups and respond to each other’s positions on the Perspectives platform. Final reflections help them articulate surprisingly deep learning outcomes.
• Library staff developed the platform with the help and input of Deakin’s ‘Digital Incubator’ students. The Library now work with unit chairs to customise the interface content and functionality to suit each learning context.
• Embedded in units AIX160 Introduction to University Study, EES303 Communicating Science, HDS106 Diversity, Disability and Social Inclusion, SIT223 Professional Practice in a Digital World, SLE121 Environmental Sustainability and EDU303 Education, Communication and Technology.
• Robust and versatile: With each iteration, student and teacher evaluations inform further improvements and extensions to the activity and platform, making it now a robust and versatile design. The Library is actively seeking to move this onto an enterprise platform in the near future.
• Platform rationale: One of the key reasons for developing Perspectives is that it does things that CloudDeakin doesn't do—mainly the social media aspects.

• Skills and knowledge: Activities are built around carefully chosen contemporary, controversial and multifaceted issues that are discipline-specific. Evaluations show students to immediately see the relevance of developing digital literacy and critical thinking skills to help them spot spurious claims and construct a persuasive case of their own. They develop discipline knowledge ‘by stealth,’ without having to go through the routine of reading/listening and taking notes.
• Flexibility: Cloud-based and cross-campus students can interact readily in the platform, opening students to a wider range of perspectives and skills and increasing flexibility for students who find it difficult to come onto campus.
• Team-oriented: The platform is designed for group work, and as students work together as stakeholders (even if they submit individually in the end), they develop an inclusive and socially mediated knowledge.
• Perspective-broadening: Social anxieties are shared as the role play puts everyone in the position of playing someone else, and students are encouraged to explore beyond the provided basic content to enrich and personalise their position.
• Peer-learning: Text-based communication and an equal footing in the platform can increase students’ confidence as they learn with and from their peers. They can readily benchmark themselves, post constructive comments and pick up alternative approaches to the issue that could be vital to developing their own position.
• Accessible and usable: Increasingly, students say the platform is intuitive, accessible, usable and stable, and they quickly understand the social media style of the communication tools. The Library is hoping to increase these features when it migrates to a new platform.
• Options and choice: Students appreciate the different format of assessment that this activity offers, introducing a social element, a possibility of group assessment, the opportunity to draft and revise after peer/teacher comments and the opportunity to evaluate a variety of media formats. Allowing students to communicate in simple text foregrounds their developing ideas rather than their ability to format and structure traditional reports and essays.
• Novel and instructive: Most students find taking on a different perspective novel—even fun—as well as instructive. They say they engage easily in the virtual world created by the simple scenario and their powerful roles as key decision makers needing to quickly understand, weigh and use competing evidence to build strong arguments.

An alternative format may be downloaded here: EES unit success rates (DOCX 14KB).

• Improved student success: In Trimester1 2017 (the trimester the Perspectives activity was introduced), the overall EES200 student success rate improved by 5.2% on that of Trimester 1 2016. Low-socioeconomic status (LSES) students’ success rate improved by 7.1%; regional/ remote students’ success rate improved by 18.5% and non-English speaking background (NESB) students success rate improved by 25%. LSES, NESB and regional-remote students’ success rate was higher than that for all students. In this unit, the Perspectives activity was the main change to the curriculum so it is reasonable to attribute this change in large part to the activity. The Perspectives activity had a 40% assessment weighting (Interview)
• Improved critical thinking: All AIX160 and EES200 Trimester 1, 2017 focus group students said they were ‘much more confident’ in judging resources’ reliability afterwards, and some were already applying critical skills developed in Perspectives in other units. Themes from students and teachers were that Perspectives increased their ability to see important social issues from different perspectives, think critically, construct an argument and apply these skills in an authentic way.

• Cripps Clark, J, Rawson, C, Hobbs, L, Oughtred, C, Hayes, K, Kelly, L & Higgins, J 2016 ‘A pedagogy for epistemic agency in the judgment of accuracy and reliability’, QWERTY: rivista interdisciplinare di tecnologia cultura e formazione,11, no. 2, pp. 27 – 47.