SPARKPLUS V4.1 increased power to improve group work and collaborative learning | 9 October

This workshop will introduce the new features of SPARKPLUS (V4.1) and discuss how they are being used to improve students’ group work/collaborative learning, professional skill development and their learning experience. Participants will also discuss how to get the most out of the existing and new versions of the group contribution mode monitoring tool and which setup options are recommended to achieve various learning outcomes.

The new features that will be introduced during the workshop include:

• Uploading of students and teams can now be done by cut-and-paste (For UTS already has a blackboard plug-in for uploading students but this feature will make uploading groups/teams easier).
• Group contribution and Objection to RPF tasks are now available with recommended settings, improving task design and reducing setup time.
• New recommended criteria and suggested comment prompts available for you to select from pulldown menus (capacity to add UTS preferred/recommended criteria and prompts)
• Students can now be required to provide comments to support their ratings of themself
• Major improvements to the monitoring tool.
  • Results matrix enables non-contributor, exclusions, comments to be withheld, RPF factors to be overwritten and evaluation of group’s activities all on the one screen.
  • Previous version options available under custom view
  • New group management tools
• Log only shows activity within your subject/course unless you’re an administrator
• Allows more than one chief instructor great when you are co-teaching unit.

The session will end with a Q&A session where participants can have their SPARKPLUS questions answered.

Facilitators

Keith Willey earned his B.E. and PhD from the University of Technology, Sydney and his Grad Cert in Higher Education from the University of Sydney. He is currently A/Professor of Engineering Leadership Education and the Head of the Integrated Engineering Program at The University of Sydney. He is a Principal Fellow of the HEA, an Australian Learning and Teaching Fellow and SMIEE. Keith, an active Engineering Education Researcher began using SPARK in 2002 and has led the development of SPARKPLUS since 2007.

Anne Gardner is Head of School in the School of Professional Practice & Leadership in the Faculty of Engineering & IT at the University of Technology.  Anne’s research and practice are both in engineering education with a focus on developing professional skills and identity through both the curriculum and internship/work placement opportunities.  She is an Australian Learning and Teaching Fellow, a member of Engineers Australia at Eng Exec level, and incoming President of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE) https://aaee.net.au/

Zoom link

Zoom link will be provided upon registration.

Register for this event

Your video, audio and the meeting chat transcript may be recorded or photographed. Please advise the facilitator if you do not wish to be recorded or photographed.

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