Since the advent of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) like Coursera, Universities have been playing ‘catch up’ to bolt ‘client friendly’ online services and digital literacy onto traditional teaching and research activities. And with the ever-closing noose of funding restrictions for EMCRs, can we exploit the online environment to get our message across and use it for novel funding strategies? I will be speaking about my recent experiences in the Online environment for teaching, research and community engagement and how Academics can tailor their interactions according to their work load and priorities.

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MUSINGS OF AN ONLINE
ACADEMIC
Implications for Teaching, Research
and Community Engagement
Dr Melanie Thomson – Deakin Medical School
m.thomson@deakin.edu.au
@Dr_Mel_Thomson (Twitter)
www.facebook.com/drmel.thomson

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MOOCs – The devil’s work?

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Bricks & Mortar Unis – use MOOC model?
http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/11/iversity-moocs-pivot/

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Deakin – LIVE ! The future agenda

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Academic work force – Adapt or Die?

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Deakin Faculty of Health: NetPrax project
Networked Practice
Aim: Encouraging
Academics to gain
online ‘skillz’ to use in
T&L and research

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Deakin Faculty of Health: NetPrax project
Joyce Seitzinger
@catspyjamasnz on Twitter
Colin Warren
@colwar on Twitter

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NetPrax project: ARRRRGGGHH!!!

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NetPrax project: Learn to Filter

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There’s an App for that!

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NetPrax for Teaching: Digital Literacy
• Facebook Page
• Twitter Hash tag
(#UnitCode)

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NetPrax for Research: Crowd Funding
Prof Deb Verhoeven
Chair in Media and
Communication
Faculty of Arts & Education
School of Communication &
Creative Arts
deb.verhoeven@deakin.edu.au
@bestqualitycrab on Twitter

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NetPrax for Research: Crowd Funding
• Deakin-Pozible.com
partnership
• Pozible founder
Rick Chen, me &
Dr Michelle Harvey

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Pozible-ly, an exercise in marketing
Maggot Art: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1WJZiflxi8
Mel and Michelle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1WJZiflxi8

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Getting $10K for Maggots? It’s !
• 45 days to convince
people to give us $$
• No existing ‘audience’
• Target Market not as
tech savvy
• Ran ‘physical’
outreach campaign as
well as online
• Apps used: Twitter,
Facebook, LinkedIn
and Storify
• Diverse Donors

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Pozible-ly, rewarding for donors?
Rewards turned out to be an
important part of the process

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NetPrax for Crowd Funding: Usual suspects
• Facebook Page – Friday
Arvo Maggot Racing
• Twitter ‘parody’ accounts

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Twitter Parody Accounts: Panto Villians!
• Used Storify to ‘record’
Twitter arguments b/w
the protagonists

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A real life Crowd : Community Engagement
Cons: Can get
hostility from
punters

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A real life Crowd : Community Engagement

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Crowd Funding: Not for the faint of heart!
Cost
• Pricey on Time!! (10-20 hrs on top of Academic job!)
• $$ return per hour….less than minimum wage
• Seen as ‘zany’ = non credible by science establishment??
Benefit
• Raised profile in local and national communities
• ‘Ripple Effect’ still in action…several further donations
• Obtain network of random ‘cheerleaders’
for your science

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‘Ripple Effect’ of community engagement
• Approx $5,000 extra
donations (so far!)
• Plus $37,000 Grants

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NetPrax for Community Engagement
• ‘Research my World’ Pozible Campaign Tweets and
Re-Tweets network by Stuart Palmer (@s_palm)

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NetPrax for Community Engagement
• Online opportunities exist
for short term ‘desk top’
engagement or ‘own pace’
communication
http://imascientist.org.au/

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NetPrax for Research Community
Source @katiephd

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NetPrax for Research Community
• @realscientists
• #onsci
• #emcr or #emcrforum
• #microtwjc
• #phdchat
• #womeninscience

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NetPrax for You? The Overworked academic?
• Give yourself a time limit to learn new App
technology….DISCARD those that do not suit you
• Big Three are Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
• Set up ‘professional’ Facebook and Twitter Accounts and set
them to replicate posts on the other
• Use Unit FB pages and #unitcodes for teaching
• Follow people in your discipline and geographic area
• Use ‘down time’ while travelling to post stories of interest
• Crowd funding is good for raising profile and gaining seed
funds and kudos, but labour intensive
• Social Media can be used to further professional networks,
esp. at EMCR and PhD student levels
• Make sure you do ‘Real Life’ engagement too!

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
SPONSORS: 129 individuals @pozible.com +
Deakin
Jane den Hollander
Lee Astheimer
Deb Verhoeven
Michelle Harvey
Joyce Seitzinger
Colin Warren
Stuart Palmer
Rebecca Plant
Ryan Raybould
Warwick Hadfield
Pozible
Rick Chen
Matt Benetti
I’m a Scientist! Team
Kristin Alford
James Hutson

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Our Maggots in Canberra!