TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATOR INITIATIVE 2020
MGT8077 Project Risk Management StudyDesk Design Pilot:
Student Perspectives
Dr Bronte van der Hoorn (PhD, MPPM, MBAD, DipPM, BFA(TechProd)) is a Senior Lecturer of Project Management in USQ’s School of Business.
Download 2020 TechDem Report:
2020 TechDem – FULL Report (PDF: 3MB)
Extracts:
2020 TechDem – Executive Summary only (PDF: 216kb)
2020 TechDem – MGT8077 – Project Risk Management (PDF: 128kb)
Course and cohort
MGT8077 Project Risk Management | 39 postgraduate students
Context
Project Risk Management (MGT8077) is a core course in the Master of Project Management. This program cohort are studying part-time and online. Based on experience from previous cohorts, the course examiner found that text-based forums were not generating interaction between students and staff, and therefore, decided to trial the use of some asynchrononous tools to encourage greater student-to-student and teacher-to-student interaction. As a core course in the Master of Project Management program, it was believed that MGT8077 was well-suited to pilot the introduction of a selection of learning technologies with this program cohort.
Description of course design
The aim of this project is to increase (meaningful) asynchronous engagement in the MGT8077 course using a range of learning technologies. This course has been redesigned for teaching in Semester 1, 2021 using a new StudyDesk design, by flipping the weekly learning structure of the course to make the achievement of learning through completion of assignments more obvious, and introducing a variety of asynchronous engagement tools. The redesigned course includes four key interventions to enhance student engagement based on Redmond et al’s (2018) Online Learning Engagement elements:
Intervention 1: Adobe Spark for Teaching Presence
Used by the course examiner to create a series of mini-videos (between 1-2 mins each) to present instructions and guidance in each StudyDesk module, and present a weekly wrap-up on course material, activities and discussion.
Intervention 2: Padlet for Social Presence
Used for students to nominate and discuss their case assignments and receive feedback from course examiner.
Intervention 3: VoiceThread for Cognitive and Social Presence
Used for students to examine assignment guidelines and assessment criteria and seek feedback on their understanding of assessment requirements from course examiner.
Intervention 4: H5P for Cognitive Presence
Used by students to undertake a series of short self-check quiz activities throughout the course to test their understanding of course content and assessment.
