Conference Agenda

The central theme of this paper focuses on the recent shift from standardization to differentiation in assessments through the advent of digitalization in higher education. Digitalisation has been borne as an artificial solution to academia’s issues with the contextual complexity of assessment. It addresses the issues surrounding a reluctance of some academics to mark and grade assignments for benchmarking, tracking, and scaffolding which have been swiftly overshadowed by digitalization, and particularly during the recent Covid-19 global pandemic. Elements of digital transition include Artificial Intelligence (AI) software applications, which have been able to inspire an entire new learning community in preparing graduates with new and desirable skills, knowledge, and ecumene with the aim of prospering in the world of digitalized futures.

This inquiry into digitalization has allowed us to explore tangible evidence of what is learnt in an equitable fashion, the breadth and depth of disciplinary knowledge, and how this knowledge is conceived, internalized, reflected on, expanded, and abstracted. Parenthetically, this combines linkages between theory / knowledge, disciplinary methodological approaches, and prospects for further application in the real world outside the university.

As a caveat, it is our understanding that technology continues to advance the workforce and, as such, so too should the advancement of university teaching and learning. Higher education institutions have responded by re-evaluating outdated teaching and learning methods and embracing new technologies in approaches ranging from establishing learning management systems to shifting from teacher-focused to student-centred learning. Unfortunately, much of the technology advancements to date and particularly as a function of the pandemic, have focused merely on online delivery---relying heavily on learning management systems---and much less on the technical utility and applicability of teaching and learning analytics.

Inspired by digitalization issues in the provision of the quality of teaching and learning in higher education, efforts to uncover an alignment between academic teaching and assessment have attracted our attention to trial what personalized assessments may accomplish across academic discipline and cultural and learning boundaries.

A digital Personalised Assessment Tool (PAT) was developed initially in Australia in response to Gonski et. al's white paper (2011) on the quality of education. The PAT is an attempt to provide a more equitable assessment solution in analyzing and recognizing learner difference among undergraduates and postgraduates from diverse learning backgrounds (urban, regional, rural, remote). Developed as an alternative to standard assessment tools and utilizing a theoretical modification of Seligman's 2002 strength-based assessment approach, the PAT was further enhanced for exploring how five higher order skills (creativity, communication, analytical thinking, problem solving, and reflective thinking) might be better benchmarked, tracked, and scaffolded using Fiske and Taylor's social cognition theory (2013). The PAT was subsequently trialed in China and Sweden to explore the applicability of teaching and learning analytics across cultures, institutions, and disciplinary boundaries.

Today's society is characterized by changes that place greater demands on the competence development of professionals. The White Papers, Meld. St. 16 (2016-2017) and Meld. St. 14 (2019/2020)) points out that digitalization and flexibility are a key to making education accessible to adult students. During the corona-pandemic, mainly teaching in higher education was done through digital learning platforms. Bern, Lorentzen and Noranger (2021) have examined the student's participation in digital teaching. The survey indicates that visibility, belonging and community have an impact on the students' participation in the digital lessons, (Bern, Lorentzen, & Nordangen, 2021). Fossland and Tømte (2019) have looked into the tension between active participation and passive acquisition in knowledge development. Findings from their survey show that affiliation too group and the program appear to be decisive for participation and collaborative learning in online studies.

In this article we will look at how the use of online seminars can help to increase student participation in the digital classroom.

Our research question is:

1. Which factors do students think are important for their own participation in online seminars?
2. Which characteristics of the teacher do students think contribute to their own participation in online seminars?

Theoretic framework:

In the academic literature, it can be difficult to distinguish clearly between the classical seminar and the seminars as group teaching. It is therefore difficult to identify the criteria that characterize a good seminar in the academic literature. Roar Pettersen (2005) uses group teaching where one can recognize principles and working methods that we think are somewhat similar to seminars in our understanding. He describes group teaching as an arene for dialogue- and discussion-like teaching in small groups. What can be interpreted from the teaching activity seminar or group teaching is that several of these teaching methods are dependent on activity and participation. According to Illeris (2012), the most general form of interaction is participation. Participation can be characterized by the learner being part of a targeted activity that is common with someone else, a community of practice. That is, the more active one is, and the more one engages, the greater the chance that one learns something significant, and that one learns in such a way that one can remember it and use it in relevant contexts (Illeris, 2012 p.129).

Sfärd (1998) makes a division into two metaphors, acquisitions and participation, in a cognitive and cited/sociocultural learning perspective. Acquisitions refer to learning that occurs through concepts and cognitive structures. Participation points to a situated perspective on learning where interaction and activity are central. This metaphor has many similarities to Lave &Wenger's understanding of professional learning communities (Wenger & Lave, 1991). If the learning takes place in a community, participation is required, but participation will provide both opportunities and limitations. Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective on learning, human thinking and action is that one takes an interest in how individuals and groups acquire and exploit physical and cognitive resources (Wittek, 2004). From a sociocultural perspective, the interaction between collective and individual is in focus.

These different ways of understanding participation can be linked to the Norwegian philosopher Hans Skjervheim's understanding of how to make oneself a participant through engagement. According to Skjervheim, engagement can be about engaging with the other or what the other says, and thus contributing to subject-subject relationships (Skjervheim, 1996). In situations where one cannot, or will not, engage with the other directly, such as in a teacher-student relationship, it is nevertheless possible, according to Skjervheim, to meet in an equal subject-subject relationship, if one introduces a third paragraph in the relationship, where common directing towards a common matter constitutes a third paragraph (Skjervheim, 1996).

Students in tertiary education are often considered competent and self-regulating learners. However, it has been shown, that under demanding circumstances, e.g., in distance-education, they are less likely to apply metacognitive strategies of self-regulated learning (SRL) (e.g. Broadbent & Poon, 2015), instead resorting to superficial cognitive strategies (e.g., Karpicke et al. 2009; Enders & Wienzierl, 2017; Dunlosky et al., 2017). Distance-learning settings pose particularly high demands on the self-regulation of learning, while at the same time minimizing instructors’ options to offer guidance. Is it possible to support students in their learning process with a short intervention in form of an e-learning course, specifically targeting the use of effective strategies of self-regulated learning? While in laboratory settings, interventions in the form of prompts have been shown to improve students’ learning competence, (e.g., Sonnenberg & Bannert (2015), little is known about supporting students in ecological-valid distance-settings. First studies find support that a promotion of SRL strategies online is promising (e.g., Endres at al., 2021). We designed a short e-learning course teaching students strategies of self-regulated learning and providing declarative and conditional knowledge on SRL strategies in order to promote the application of SRL-strategies in distance settings. E-learning courses have the following benefits: 1. easy administration (the same course can be administered repeatedly), 2. cross-discipline relevance (scientifically informed study behavior benefits students and educators from all fields), 3. adaptability to other languages given the universal context (can be use on large international scale), 4. an alleviation of the teachers’ duties.