Creation
Adaptable Resources for Teaching With Technology
University of Technology Sydney
Dr Mais Fatayer
Adaptable Resources for Teaching with Technology
This case study highlights the enhancement of shareability in teaching approaches, fostering collaboration among academics and learning designers in higher education through The Adaptable Resources for Teaching with Technology (ARTT).
The ARTT project is an initiative led by the Learner Experience (LX) Design team at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). This project aims to create a collection of adaptable learning activities and assessments that can be shared and adapted across various learning environments in higher education. ARTT tackles the issue of underutilised teacher-generated pedagogies that have been developed and trialed, providing evidence-based practices that significantly enhance the student learning experience. For example, the collection offers activities that engages students at different stages of the academic session (e.g. academic semester), considers the size of the cohort and provide reusable digital assets that can be imported directly into leanring management systems (LMSs).
The ARTT collection consists of two main sections: Learning Activities and Assessments. These resources are developed using a standardised template, peer-reviewed, and published on the UTS website as open educational resources (OER) under Creative Commons licenses. This approach ensures quality, consistency, and open access for users. As OER, the collection not only benefits UTS academics but also extends its reach to the broader higher education community. The project also engages academics in open educational practices (OEP) through meaningful contribution to the developing complete guides on implementing leaning activities and assessments for others. By enhancing the clarity and shareability of learning and teaching approaches through OEP, ARTT also contributes to the professional development of academics and learning designers, fostering innovation in pedagogical practices.
Overview
UTS academics, like their counterparts elsewhere, create their own learning activities and assessments (aka teacher-generated pedagogies) that undergo continuous refinement over years of teaching. Despite the substantial number of academics across all universities, certain activities/assessments gain significant value through iterative improvements. Unfortunately, these valuable resources often go underutilised. The project highlighted in this case study endeavors to tap into these teaching ideas, restructuring them in a manner that others can derive value from. By doing so, we enable fellow academics to seamlessly incorporate these teaching activities into new educational contexts. This approach ensures that teacher-generated activities and assessments have an extended life, benefiting a broader spectrum of students.
Interestingly, teaching practice varies widely, encompassing both formally trained educators a