Theme Index
Leadership and change management
Learning objects and resource sharing
Communication and learning communities
Sustainable international development
The theme descriptions below are collated from the session descriptions used at the conference to orient delegates to what might be expected in each of the concurrent sessions.
Leadership and change management
These three long papers represent theoretical perspectives that may help to inform organisations and organisational leaders about new development directions. The relationship of knowledge management to other e-learning related systems is examined by Inglis. Spratt contends that there are personal and professional costs to individual innovators when the ideology of embedded pedagogical conservatism intersects with individual technology innovation in the context of prevailing managerialism. Buchan and Buchan draw on lessons from environmental sustainability to offer an Adaptive Management Model to guide educational decision makers in sustaining quality learning environments.
Evolving organisations
Seven papers were presented under this theme. The four case studies in the first session demonstrate ways in which educational organizations are proactively facing the challenges of providing quality education beyond the traditional classroom. Specialist units set up to support staff in their understanding and implementation of new approaches are evaluated at the University of Canberra by Donnan and Veness. Andrews reflects on achievements after four years of campus wide innovation in teaching and learning at the Ipswich campus of the University of Queensland. Clouston and Wenmoth recount personal experiences in transitioning a traditional correspondence school to e-learning in the New Zealand context. A state level initiative to implement virtual schooling, and the potential to assist students at risk of disengaging with learning, is described by Batt.
The three longer papers describe three further organizational initiatives. Turnbull and Gofers, decribe OTEN's implementation of e-learning and e-business strategies across the organization. The second paper by McNeill and Lantry, expand on particular e-efforts to support learners at OTEN. The final paper by Clark, Searle and Batt looks at Queensland’s Virtual Schooling Service.
Learning objects and resource sharing
Moore and Wallace recount their experiences in moving an organization from a traditional learning materials specification to a learning object model and consider the paradigm shift inherent in this. Philip and Dalziel highlight the development of secondary metadata to facilitate finding, exchanging and managing the rights of learning objects within the Collaborative Online Learning and Information Systems initiative to share objects at a national level. Fripp et al look at the AEShareNet Model in facilitating a collaborative approach to sharing and trading learning resources in the VET sector.
Supporting learners
All three of these long papers describe case studies of alternative modes of study that consider their value for bringing students together and furthering quality learning within the context of particular learner and organizational needs. Deo and Nabobo reflect on the impact of three modes of offering a foundation teacher education course at the University of the South Pacific. Kerr describes the supported external mode of study used with remotely located indigenous students in Edith Cowan University’s teacher education courses. Samarawickrema and O’Reilly describe a converged learning environment that aims to bring together students in a business law course, regardless of their mode of study.
These four papers cover quite different aspects relating to learner support for off campus learners. Brown reviews the issues surrounding offering online personal counselling to distance students, and describes the way this operates at OTEN. Yates highlights the relationship between support and student retention and relates efforts in the University of Waikato multi media primary teacher education program to offer a range of supports and thereby maximise retention rates. Sturgess and Kennedy look at Central Queenslamd University’s use of volunteer mentors in a WebCT based telementoring relationship with students. Morgan and McKenzie consider what this extra support for learners means for the workload of academics responsible for distance subjects.
Sustainable e-learning
Technology tools are explored in this session. Lee proposes using multi media animations to enhance mathematical learning. Nichols presents the ‘best’ e-learning tools for particular assessment purposes. Hastie and Palmer use net meetings to create real time learning experiences for primary school learners.
The papers in this session explore quite disparate areas of sustainable e-learning, one being quite practical and the others more theoretical. Sahab considers the rationale for moving a university into e-learning and its suitability for educational needs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. McNickle discusses the impact in the VET sector of the ways people learn through information and communication technologies. McLoughlin and Visser explore the emerging consensus defining quality in online leaning.
The first of these long papers, by McLoughlin and Hollingworth, posits that metacognitive skills can be developed online and illustrates techniques to do this through a fist year science tutorial. The second, by Gerbic and Stacey, considers research methodology to analyse computer conferencing exchanges and contribute to improvements in quality online learning environments. The third, by Quinn and Muldoon, relates the experiences of a large regional university rethinking the role of invigilated examinations in the light of new educational realities.
Communication and learning communities
These four papers really work as two pairs emphasizing participation and partnership. The papers by Campbell and Hughes describe different means of stimulating meaningful student participation in online discussion forums, through, respectively, explicitly adopting the roles of particular conversational contributors and by linking participation with assessment. The other two papers bridge the concepts of learning communities and communities of practice by taking learners beyond the boundaries of the educational institution and into contact with practitioners in the field. In the Ussher paper engaging local teachers in mentoring relationships with students teachers is seen to have positive impacts for each group, whereas Foxwell et al describe beneficial interactions with industry for environmental scientists.
These three long papers examine the application of information and communications technologies in the service of effective learning communities. Working from the use of asynchronous discussion boards to further distributed problem based learning, Lobry de Bruyn offers social presence and convergence as indicators of highly responsive and interactive learning communities. Batt evaluates whether the interactions within a telematic environment are of a type to promote successful second language acquisition. Dennis et al review cross institutional plans for a blended online and face to face learning community and consider the implications of infusing an online learning community into the existing educational environment.
Sustainable international development
These papers offer suggestions for improving off shore and cross cultural teaching, including a critical examination of the use of recorded lecturers from Randolph and Thompson; a review of systematic organizational support needs and a suggested framework for sustainable offshore development from Thompson, Baron and Newton-Smith; the importance of cultural sensitivity and culturally appropriate responses to student needs from Vardanega, Hatcher and Crombie.
© 2003 Open
and Distance Learning Association of Australia (Inc)
ISBN 0-9751326-0-1
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