One on one to thousands: Expanding the conversations of the ALL practitioner

  • Timothy John Beaumont The University of Melbourne
Keywords: academic language and learning, discipline-specific learning support, e-learning

Abstract

Perceptions of academic language and learning (ALL) practitioners being “pinned to the margins” (Stevenson & Kokkinn, 2007) have been subject to challenges as ALL research and practices have strengthened the field, and as practices have become increasingly developmental, flexible and integrated. However, longstanding misconceptions of the nature of ALL work have not been easy to overcome, and integrated and embedded forms of ALL practice have not always been easy to implement. This paper introduces the Electronic Just-in-Time Session, a form of integrated and developmental learning support which has experienced initial success in terms of student uptake and feedback in the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Melbourne. Short conversations are filmed and linked to the Learning Management System pages of specific subjects. The short films can augment subject content by featuring conversations between learning advisers and subject coordinators, lecturers, tutors and library staff. Sessions are ideally suited for academic skills support that is highly tailored for particular subjects. However, sessions may also focus on content or on generic skills and can feature related resources. This paper presents an overview of this initiative before discussing how the success of the format can be attributed to the sessions being typically content-rich, assessment-task specific, user-friendly, flexible, non-didactic, non-remedial, and built on multiple sources of expertise.

Author Biography

Timothy John Beaumont, The University of Melbourne
Lecturer in Higher Education Teaching and Learning Unit Faculty of Business and Economics
Published
2011-11-13
How to Cite
BeaumontT. J. (2011). One on one to thousands: Expanding the conversations of the ALL practitioner. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 5(2), A35-A43. Retrieved from https://journal.aall.org.au/index.php/jall/article/view/147