From online enhanced to wholly online: reflections on e-learning developments in teaching psychology

Deakin University has determined that every undergraduate student enrolled from 2004 will undertake at least one unit wholly online, without the usual face to face teaching that is a major component in on campus study. In response to this policy, Research methods in psychology has been developed as a wholly online unit and offered in 2004 as one of the first wholly online units to be run in the University. The design of the unit builds on the development and use of digital media and online technologies in teaching first and second year units. This paper outlines the antecedents of the unit’s design and operation, along with its current wholly online teaching and learning environment. The relationship between the use of digital resources and online features is mapped against key concepts and skills to be mastered in the unit. Distinctive student attributes to be developed in relation to the subject being offered wholly online are considered. The move to new e-learning territories of wholly online environments raises important research questions. An approach to researching wholly online teaching and learning environments in the discipline of psychology is detailed as a response to illuminating key dimensions of a significant development in e-learning in higher education.

Teaching and learning online with wikis

Wikis are fully editable websites; any user can read or add content to a wiki site. This functionality means that wikis are an excellent tool for collaboration in an online environment. This paper presents wikis as a useful tool for facilitating online education. Basic wiki functionality is outlined and different wikis are reviewed to highlight the features that make them a valuable technology for teaching and learning online. Finally, the paper discuses a wiki project underway at Deakin University. This project uses a wiki to host an icebreaker exercise which aims to facilitate ongoing interaction between members of online learning groups. Wiki projects undertaken in America are outlined and future wiki research plans are also discussed. These wiki projects illustrate how e-learning practitioners can and are moving beyond their comfort zone by using wikis to enhance the process of teaching and learning online.

Development of an internet supportive platform for online teaching and learning of construction planning and scheduling

Construction Planning and Scheduling is taught for the fIrst time ill Semester 2, 2004 in the School of Architecture and Building, Deakin University. During the unit development process and the implementation of teaching activities, several issues arose in relation to implementing computer-aided construction scheduling and unit delivery in a unitary environment. Although various types of construction planning and scheduling software have been developed and applied, none of them can be run inside an online teaching software package, which provides powerful functions in administration. This research aims to explore the strategies to connect a project planning and scheduling software package and an online ~aching and learning software package by a Web-based support platform so that both the lecturer and students can draw up and communicate a construction plan or schedule with tables and fIgures. The key techniques of this supportive platfonn are idt;nlifies and they include a web-based graphically user-interfaced, dynamic and distributed multimedia data acquisition mechanism, which accepts users' drawings and retrieval information from canvas and stores the multimedia data ona server for further usage. This paper demonstrates the techniques and principals needed to construct such a multimedia data acquisition tool. This. research will fill the gap.in the literature in respect to an online pedagogical solution to an existing problem.

Establishing best-practice principles for the teaching of group design projects

As student-to-staff ratios escalate, increasing numbers of undergraduate architects are finding the reduction of ‘one-to-one’ studio supervision an impediment to learning. Group design projects are becoming a widespread solution to this problem. However, little analysis has been undertaken as to their effectiveness both in terms of student assessment and as a design teaching methodology.
The two hundred years of apprentice/master tradition that underpins the atelier studio system is still at the core of much present day architectural design education. Yet this tradition today poses uncertainties for a large number of co-ordinating lecturers faced with current changes in the nature of tertiary education and its funding structure. In particular, with reductions in staff/student contact time, in sessional funding sources and in the relative weighting of design-based subjects with respect to other subject areas, many design teachers are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain an atelier system that has shaped both their learning and, more pointedly, their teaching. If these deficiencies remain unchecked and design-based schools are unable to implement strategies that successfully overcome the resource intensive one-to-one teaching program, then architecture may prove to be an untenable course structure for many institutions.
Rather then spreading their time thinly, many co-ordinating lecturers are setting group projects in order to review less assignments but at greater depth. However, while this learning model better reflects design teams in practice, this approach may pose other pedagogical and assessment questions. What is clear is the urgent need for structured research into the teaching and assessment problems experienced by design teachers, and for a readily adoptable pedagogy for group design projects. At Deakin University, research is underway aimed at establishing best-practice principles for group design projects by analysing students’ performance and recording and implementing their feedback to adjustments made to the pedagogical fundamentals of assessment, group configuration, and program structure. There are after two years of preliminary studies already clear indications of what changes can be made to these to encourage more effective team learning. This paper will present the findings of these studies.

Personal pedagogies and online teaching

This paper describes the rationale for and approach to research that is investigating the context, use and effects of a new teaching and learning online environment on the pedagogical practices of academics in a Faculty of Education in a traditional university setting. The use of online communication software is not new to the university. There is a history of use of a different suite of online communication software, but a new set of ‘tools’ was imposed in a top down model. Associated with this imposition was a requirement that all units in all courses make use of this software at least at a most basic level.

Crossing boundaries between learning and research : doctoral programs at a distance

Australian distance education, from school to university contexts, typically concerns teaching people the knowledge, values and skills that constitute their chosen courses of study; whereas doctoral courses principally concern candidates learning how to produce – through producing – significant original new knowledge. This paper considers the history and contemporary practices of Australian off-campus doctoral education and argues that these are at the forefront internationally. It is argued that understanding the provision of quality doctoral education at a distance requires a form of conceptual boundary crossing by policymakers, distance educators, and (especially) doctoral education practitioners, in order to develop and/or enhance future practices.

Time to make a difference: using action research to foster student engagement

This paper reports on a project, funded by the Victorian Department of Education and Training (Australia), undertaken to explore the capacity for teachers to develop innovative teaching and learning strategies aimed at improving the educational experiences of students in the middle years. Central to this charter was the need for local schools to form Clusters, share ideas and develop strategies designed to improve student engagement and connection. In forming the Buxton (pseudonym) Cluster, four schools came together to declare their shared interest in improving student connection through the teaching and learning of mathematics. The 22 teachers involved in the project shared a broad concern that the traditional pedagogies built up around the maths discipline were contributing to the wider level of student disconnection observed in the middle years. In thinking about change, the group were attracted to constructivist approaches to pedagogy in which learning opportunities and tasks are varied sufficiently to appeal to the various learning styles and aptitudes of learners. Favouring an action research framework teachers involved in the project embarked on the implementation of pedagogic reforms aimed at improving levels of student engagement.

Studio - learning and teaching environment for multimedia

This paper is a case study of the introduction of a studio environment for the teaching of multimedia practice. This change is in the context of multimedia being placed within an information technology degree program, where the conventions and traditions of computer science prevail. The studio based teaching was accepted and now new studios are being built at the university and a research project is proposed with the Queensland University of Technology to explore further teaching and learning issues using studio
teaching methods.

Tapping global human resources in an MBA teaching team : insights with implications for management education worldwide

It is found that geographic diversity, respect for differing beliefs, encouraging feedback, active participation and interaction with the students, and techniques such as active listening, contribute an architecture and atmosphere to student learning, teacher effectiveness and program excellence in virtual education. One functioning teaching team in University of Maryland University College’s online MBA program provides the action research foundation underpinning the findings. A widely dispersed team of academics and assistants have documented the ways they enhance educational information for students in the program. Assessment activities, supplementary communications and biographical information contribute to student perception of the quality of management education in the program. Mechanisms for effectively tapping a global faculty team are discussed and are informative for administrators and academics alike.

Developing and rewarding advanced teaching expertise in higher education - a different approach

The Australian university sector is undergoing a major change, with a significant increase in the emphasis on quality teaching and learning. This change is being driven by the national government. The paper asks if the correct response to this change of emphasis should be a change in the attitude to the appropriate mix of research and teaching skills within an institution, and within individual staff of the institution. The same question could be asked of how to better develop teaching expertise in many higher education sectors globally. It is proposed that to create excellent teaching and learning within an institution may better be achieved by allowing staff to become experts in a narrow field of teaching rather than
generalists across the basics of teaching. The creation of a Community of Experts in teaching parallels the process of creating a Community of Experts in Research and can bring similar benefits in the teaching area to what it does in the research area.

Teaching for blended learning : how is ICT impacting on distance and on campus education?

The concept of blended learning, defined in a range of ways, has begun to change the nature of all teaching and learning in higher education. Information and communication technologies have impacted by providing a means of access to digital resources and interactive communication for all courses and the blending of pedagogy and technology has produced a range of approaches to teaching and learning. This paper will investigate reported studies from both research literature and from the writers' research, defining what they have concluded are teaching practices that use the concept of blended learning effectively.

Students perceptions of learning outcomes from group-based, problem-based teaching and learning activities

Objective: A study aimed at exploring the variation in perceptions of learning outcomes reported by undergraduate nursing students enrolled in a problem-based learning subject in a pre-registration Bachelor of Nursing course (BN).
Method: Students were asked to respond to four open-ended questions which focussed on their learning outcomes in the different teaching/learning modalities of the subject. Data were analysed in two phases using a modified phenomenographic analysis. In the first phase a set of categories of description were developed from the student responses to questions related to the learning modalities. In the second phase the individual responses were classified in terms of the categories. Finally, correlations between the learning modalities were identified. In this paper the approach to analysis, the process of category identification and the correlations between the learning modalities will be described and the implications for further research and teaching will be discussed.
Results: The findings indicated that there were two distinct groups of student responses. Inward focussed students who described outcomes in terms of their own learning and students whose focus was outward i.e. describing learning in terms of patient care and how learning relates to that care. Another important result shows the relationship between the learning modalities and outcomes. From the students' perspective, the most sophisticated outcomes of the lectures and laboratories were ideas and skills to be used and applied in clinical settings. Whereas, the group-based activities in which clinical problems were presented to the students in the form of Situation Improvement Packages (SIPS) focussed their attention on the clinical setting which constituted a preparation for the realities of clinical practice.
Conclusion: The findings from this study indicate that students perceive their learning in the group based teaching/learning modality (SIPS) as effective in focussing them on the reality of their role in the clinical practice environment while lectures and laboratories provided the skills and knowledge required for this setting.

Improved questionnaire for gathering student perceptions of teaching and learning

An instrument used to gather university students’ perceptions of their learning environments, the Perceptions of Learning Environments Questionnaire (PLEQ) has been used recently in higher education research. The current paper examines the strengths and limitations of the PLEQ, particularly in relation to uncovering student perceptions about responsibility for their own learning. A study trialling a modified questionnaire, which
builds on the advances and addresses the limitations of the PLEQ, is reported.

Teaching for life : generic capabilities that link university learning with workplace learning

Business schools are under increasing pressure to enhance the learning capability and employability of graduates. Business professional institutes and employer organizations are demanding more than the technical knowledge and skills required to perform discipline/professional specific tasks. They want graduates who can demonstrate capabilities in communication, teamwork, risk taking, decision making, problem solving, critical thinking, analytical reasoning, visioning and innovation, leadership, ethical practices, appreciation of diversity, and a commitment to social justice. Evidence in literature and reports (Karpin, 1995; Kirby, 2000; Commonwealth of Australia, 2002; Nelson, 2002) and in test data (McCowan & Richardson, 1998; Employer Survey, 1998; DETYA, 2000) shows that the employability gap7 is closed when graduates possess these generic capabilities. What is important, however, is the increasing research showing that the strategies used to develop generic capabilities lead to improved learning, both in university courses and in the workplace.

Accommodating culture and cultural diversity in online teaching

The term 'culture' has been in common use for a long time. However there is no universally accepted definition and hence it is important to define clearly what culture means in a particular research context. The research reported here is part of a project undertaken at a large Australian university in late 2005. The overall aim of the project was to identify the characteristics of culture and cultural diversity, and to consider how these manifested themselves when teaching and learning in an online environment. The article reports on particular outcomes from the second stage of the project. This involved conducting focus groups with experienced academics and educational developers of online units. The aim was to gain an understanding of culture and cultural difference in the online environment and to consider what strategies were effective in teaching a culturally diverse cohort of online students. The findings from the focus group sessions were benchmarked with other external faculty. The cultural factors of ethnicity and language, attitudes to educational learning, education and prior learning, learning styles and socio-economic background were well supported by the external faculty. However the factors of religion and gender were not supported. Practices for accommodating such cultural differences amongst students within the online class are presented.