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Learning management systems (LMSs) have long been adopted by tertiary education providers to be the conduit through which courses are delivered. However, debates about the capacity of the LMS to meet all the required current and future needs of both students and educators have become more pronounced over the past few years, particularly given the rapid shift to online learning during Covid-19. This qualitative study aimed to examine practitioners’ current experiences in using the LMS for formal teaching and learning in tertiary environments. To discern the possibilities and issues, a focus group was held with fourteen practitioners from Australasia (Australia and Singapore), Canada, and the UK (England and Scotland) attending virtually. Adopting a novel and recognised approach to thematic analysis, a Delphi process was adopted on the de-identified webinar and chat transcripts. Analysis revealed several key themes ranging across pedagogical, technological, and managerial issues with the LMS. The findings in this paper have become even more pertinent as a result of Covid-19 with institutions urgently reviewing standards for teaching in the LMS whilst also reviewing their overall technology ecosystems to ensure a suite of complementary teaching and learning tools to enable best teaching and learning practices. It appears the LMS still has a key role to play in contemporary learning ecosystems.

Learning management systems (LMSs) have long been adopted by tertiary education providers to be the conduit through which courses are delivered. However, debates about the capacity of the LMS to meet all the required current and future needs of both students and educators have become more pronounced over the past few years, particularly given the rapid shift to online learning during Covid-19. This qualitative study aimed to examine practitioners’ current experiences in using the LMS for formal teaching and learning in tertiary environments. To discern the possibilities and issues, a focus group was held with fourteen practitioners from Australasia (Australia and Singapore), Canada, and the UK (England and Scotland) attending virtually. Adopting a novel and recognised approach to thematic analysis, a Delphi process was adopted on the de-identified webinar and chat transcripts. Analysis revealed several key themes ranging across pedagogical, technological, and managerial issues with the LMS. The findings in this paper have become even more pertinent as a result of Covid-19 with institutions urgently reviewing standards for teaching in the LMS whilst also reviewing their overall technology ecosystems to ensure a suite of complementary teaching and learning tools to enable best teaching and learning practices. It appears the LMS still has a key role to play in contemporary learning ecosystems.

Many universities claim to provide flexible learning opportunities, but most still require students to keep pace with prescribed curriculum delivery and assessment deadlines, and few have disrupted the academiccalendar. In this paper, we report on an innovation called ‘Start anytime’ that was purposefully designed to break from a trimester model and instead give students the flexibility to study in their own space andpace online. Here we report on measures put in place to support students during self-paced online study, and share insights from research investigating students’ expectations and experience of ‘Start anytime’.For many students, the self-management required for self-paced study was a challenge, but for most students those challenges were out weighted by the benefits of flexible learning. Importantly, the majorityof students thought that access to learning support and teaching staff was the same or better in ‘Start anytime’ units than in a timetabled unit, and many students found that self-paced study was easier andmore enjoyable. Thus, we have shown that where it is carefully designed and supported, self-paced online learning and disruption of the academic calendar, can have considerable benefits for experienced adult learners who have difficulty fitting study around their busy lives.

Teamwork skills have been a recognised key employability attribute in university graduates for at least the last two decades, as analysed by Curtis and McKenzie (2002) and continue to be a significant key selection criterion of many Australian employers (Graduate Outlook, 2014). This paper outlines the implementation process, learning and future directions associated with the use of an online self and peer assessment strategy, aimed to develop teamwork skills in engineering students, at Deakin University. Initially student feedback from a pilot study was used to inform and justify a three-year trial of the strategy. Then consideration was given to the professional development needs of academics to support and foster the teaching and assessment of teamwork skills in the school. Into the future, teamwork skill development depends upon the evaluation of course learning outcomes and development of minimum standard descriptors of teamwork skills across all year levels.

The integration of social media into higher education is having a significant impact on learning and teaching. As they become enmeshed in the fabric of academia, they are also becoming a site of contestation, especially in relation to teaching and learning. This research paper explores the key issues dominating current debates about the use of social media in higher education in Australasia. By exploring themes emerging from a debate around the use of social media in higher education in Australasia, it integrates additional comments from the collective wisdom of experienced colleagues from around the globe, as captured in the debate’s Twitter feed and live Periscope streaming. These comments highlight points of sensitivity in the adoption of social media in higher education in Australasia. This paper presents the findings and some key ideas that emerged from the debate.

This paper analyses parts of speech in a training corpus with 13,189 learning outcomes in which Bloom’s Taxonomy levels were previously classified by human experts for 3,496 subjects offered at an Australian university. This paper explores the automatic identification of verbs and other parts of speech impacting the semantic meaning and Bloom’s classification of learning outcome statements. The frequency with which words in learning outcomes appear as different parts of speech and at different Bloom’s levels is described as a preliminary step of a larger project that aims to automatically classify Bloom’s levels using a combination of table lookup and machine learning approaches. It is indicated that automated parts of speech classification can assist human learning and teaching designers to write clearer learning outcome statements. This is in addition to playing a role in automated Bloom’s Taxonomy classification, and identifying cases requiring

Le Bibliolab, lieu temporaire qui préfigure le futur Learning centre de l’Université du Luxembourg, donne lieu à plusieurs expérimentations. Cet article présente les méthodes d’observation employées, ce qu’elles apportent à un projet de construction de bibliothèque et, plus globalement, comment elles permettent d’améliorer l’expérience des utilisateurs.

Le Bibliolab, lieu temporaire qui préfigure le futur Learning centre de l’Université du Luxembourg, donne lieu à plusieurs expérimentations. Cet article présente les méthodes d’observation employées, ce qu’elles apportent à un projet de construction de bibliothèque et, plus globalement, comment elles permettent d’améliorer l’expérience des utilisateurs.

Social media is pervasive in all aspects of modern life, including health, education, parenting, entertainment personal relationships and current affairs. In Higher Education however, social media is becoming a site of tension between those pursuing connected and innovative educational practice on one hand and an increasingly constrained policy environment reacting to reputational damage resulting from subversive and risky online behaviour by students and staff on the other. Social media has polarised academics, many of whom dismiss it as time-wasting and trivialising academic work and others who embrace it as an open and evolving form of scholarship and academic practice. Students engage with it for learning despite the expected norms of traditional academic practice. This symposium will highlight and explore key issues dominating current debates around the use and misuse of social media in Higher Education drawing on the wisdom of the crowd to find solutions to such challenges.

Social media is pervasive in all aspects of modern life, including health, education, parenting, entertainment personal relationships and current affairs. In Higher Education however, social media is becoming a site of tension between those pursuing connected and innovative educational practice on one hand and an increasingly constrained policy environment reacting to reputational damage resulting from subversive and risky online behaviour by students and staff on the other. Social media has polarised academics, many of whom dismiss it as time-wasting and trivialising academic work and others who embrace it as an open and evolving form of scholarship and academic practice. Students engage with it for learning despite the expected norms of traditional academic practice. This symposium will highlight and explore key issues dominating current debates around the use and misuse of social media in Higher Education drawing on the wisdom of the crowd to find solutions to such challenges.

Social media – broadly defined – has become part of the landscape of teaching and learning in higher education, first entering the sector as an informal learning space then being used more formally, and by student-driven and teacher-directed means. The gamut of social media can include amongst them blogging tools, networking tools, forums, photo sharing tools, business collaborations, service and product reviews, research networks, video sharing tools, and virtual worlds. There are pros and cons of each type of technology. Yet not all staff are confident social media users and therefore need opportunities to understand what is available, and to be able to critically appraise these for teaching and learning. They also need a safe space in which to explore these various technologies and have their own abilities and confidence developed. This paper outlines the development of a professional learning programme on the uses of social media in teaching and learning for academic staff in higher education, integrating opportunities for the use of social media into the learning design in order to build staff confidence and competence in a supported environment.

Au début des années 2000, la reconversion du site de l’usine sidérurgique d’Esch-Belval, au Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, est entamée pour devenir le siège de l’Université du Luxembourg alors dispersée sur plusieurs campus. Cet article présente : - la réaffectation d’un ancien bâtiment de l’usine, la Möllerei, en Learning Centre dont l’ouverture est prévue pour 2018 ; - le BiblioLab, espace destiné à servir le public universitaire présent sur le site de Belval avant 2018 et conçu comme un laboratoire permettant de tester les concepts d’aménagements et de services en vue du Learning Centre., In het begin van de 21ste eeuw leidde de reconversie van de site van de vroegere staalfabriek van Esch-Belval in het Groothertogdom Luxemburg tot een centralisatie van de verschillende faculteiten van de Université du Luxembourg tot dan verspreid over verschillende campussen. Dit artikel gaat in op: - het herschikken van het vroegere fabrieksgebouw Möllerei tot een Learning Centre met een voorziene opening in 2018 en - het BiblioLab, een ruimte bedoeld om het academisch personeel en de studenten te ondersteunen en gelokaliseerd op de Belval site, opgezet als een laboratorium om concepten en faciliteiten voor het Learning Centre te testen.

Au début des années 2000, la reconversion du site de l’usine sidérurgique d’Esch-Belval, au Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, est entamée pour devenir le siège de l’Université du Luxembourg alors dispersée sur plusieurs campus. Cet article présente : - la réaffectation d’un ancien bâtiment de l’usine, la Möllerei, en Learning Centre dont l’ouverture est prévue pour 2018 ; - le BiblioLab, espace destiné à servir le public universitaire présent sur le site de Belval avant 2018 et conçu comme un laboratoire permettant de tester les concepts d’aménagements et de services en vue du Learning Centre., In het begin van de 21ste eeuw leidde de reconversie van de site van de vroegere staalfabriek van Esch-Belval in het Groothertogdom Luxemburg tot een centralisatie van de verschillende faculteiten van de Université du Luxembourg tot dan verspreid over verschillende campussen. Dit artikel gaat in op: - het herschikken van het vroegere fabrieksgebouw Möllerei tot een Learning Centre met een voorziene opening in 2018 en - het BiblioLab, een ruimte bedoeld om het academisch personeel en de studenten te ondersteunen en gelokaliseerd op de Belval site, opgezet als een laboratorium om concepten en faciliteiten voor het Learning Centre te testen.

Distance learners are typically embedded within rich and complex life-contexts that comprise family, friends, work colleagues, and community connections. However, relatively few studies explore the interplay between distance learners’ life-contexts and their studies and none examine the study-related interactions distance learners engage in with other people in their life-contexts. Changes currently occurring in the higher education sector, including the emergence of postgraduate lifelong learners, mean this position is becoming untenable. This research note provides an overview of a study currently under development that is intended to shed light on this unexplored phenomena.

A social and cultural expectation that Information Communication Technologies (ICT) should be ubiquitous within peoples' daily lives is apparent. Connecting generational groups with a specific set of technological attributes also assumes the ways that particular groups of students should be able/do “naturally” use emergent mobile and social technologies. Moreover, the use of social networking technologies is evident in a number of ways within higher education (HE) pedagogies. As part of the suite of possibilities in Web 2.0, Facebook is used in a number of ways to support communications within and between institutions and their students as well as a mechanism for teaching and learning within specific units of study. The chapter commences with a broad discussion about social sharing software of Web 2.0, specifically Facebook, as a potential teaching and learning tool in HE contexts. We traverse recent exemplars and discourses surrounding the use of social technologies for the purposes of HE. It is clear from the literature that while there is much excitement at the possibilities that such technologies offer, there are increasing anxieties across institutional and individual practitioners, in regard to possible consequences of their use. Through autoethnographic methodology, this chapter showcases potentials and challenges of Facebook in HE. Through the use of constructed scenarios, the authors describe occurrences that necessitate increasing professional development and vigilance online. Some of the issues highlighted within this chapter include blurring of professional and personal life world boundaries, issues of identity theft and vandalism, cyberstalking and bullying, working in the public domain, and questions of virtual integrity.

Pour la première fois, la Bibliothèque de l'Université du Luxembourg publie des chiffres disponibles relatifs à ses activités, à ses services et collections, ainsi qu'à l'usage de ceux-ci.

Pour la première fois, la Bibliothèque de l'Université du Luxembourg publie des chiffres disponibles relatifs à ses activités, à ses services et collections, ainsi qu'à l'usage de ceux-ci.

Popular social networking sites such as Facebook demonstrate an emerging opportunity for students and educators within formal higher education contexts to share ideas, celebrate creativity and participate in an environment which offers immediate feedback from others who belong within a specific network. As this is an emerging use of the technology, an autoethnographic approach has helped capture the potentials and pitfalls of incorporating social networking within higher education. The findings highlight implications for the key stakeholders in higher education.

Open educational resources (OER) have already impacted educational systems around the world. In higher education more specifically, it has benefited learners, and has influenced institutional strategic plans and policies. Additionally, the benefits of OER also extend to staff in higher education, such as academic staff. For this group, OER can provide opportunities for collaboration, promote curriculum innovation and student led content development, as well as contribute to university teachers' much needed continuing professional development. In this paper, we examine the potential of OER to build capacity of academic staff in higher education, in particular to overcome some equity and access issues that they may face. It also examines some existing activities and strategies for professional development in higher educational institutions and provides some recommendations for academics, academic developers, institutions, and the sector in general.

This exploratory paper picks up elements from the European Commission’s educational vision and philosophy behind Opening up Education, the resulting initiative of the OpenupEd.eu MOOC platform, and takes this as a starting point to look at potential challenges for developing MOOCs that include vulnerable learner groups. In order to align the future conceptualization of MOOCs with the vision and philosophy of Europe, potential tensions of contemporary and future education are listed. The current dichotomy of xMOOC and cMOOC are used to mark some of the unexplored MOOC territory. Practical answers to contemporary, ICT-supported educational challenges are provided as options to fuel the debate. The challenges and options for future online education initiatives are based on insights and ideas of international scholars and researchers reflecting on potential barriers for learners and online education. This paper aims to stimulate discussion of the potential for new educational technologies to ensure social inclusion for virtual and physical vulnerable learner groups.

This exploratory paper picks up elements from the European Commission’s educational vision and philosophy behind Opening up Education, the resulting initiative of the OpenupEd.eu MOOC platform, and takes this as a starting point to look at potential challenges for developing MOOCs that include vulnerable learner groups. In order to align the future conceptualization of MOOCs with the vision and philosophy of Europe, potential tensions of contemporary and future education are listed. The current dichotomy of xMOOC and cMOOC are used to mark some of the unexplored MOOC territory. Practical answers to contemporary, ICT-supported educational challenges are provided as options to fuel the debate. The challenges and options for future online education initiatives are based on insights and ideas of international scholars and researchers reflecting on potential barriers for learners and online education. This paper aims to stimulate discussion of the potential for new educational technologies to ensure social inclusion for virtual and physical vulnerable learner groups.

Open educational resources (OER) have already impacted educational systems around the world. In higher education more specifically, it has benefited learners, and has influenced institutional strategic plans and policies. Additionally, the benefits of OER also extend to staff in higher education, such as academic staff. For this group, OER can provide opportunities for collaboration, promote curriculum innovation and student led content development, as well as contribute to university teachers' much needed continuing professional development. In this paper, we examine the potential of OER to build capacity of academic staff in higher education, in particular to overcome some equity and access issues that they may face. It also examines some existing activities and strategies for professional development in higher educational institutions and provides some recommendations for academics, academic developers, institutions, and the sector in general.