Developing the Deakin online teaching and learning repository

Slides for a report on the development of the Deakin online teaching and learning repository and the proposal to create a modern Deakin version of the 1991Najaden Collection of papers on collaborative learning through computer conferencing. The collection will be called Audio, Video, Disco - Look, Listen, Learn and contain 'best of breed' papers about Deakin's past and future as a distance edcuation - flexible learning university, from the Deakin online teaching and learning repository.

Alternative dimensions in assessment : an overview

This four-part paper is the 'highlights' of the 2009 Australian Technology Network conference, 'Assessment in Different Dimensions: a conference on teaching and learning in tertiary education', held at RMIT University, 19–20 November 2009.

The main theme of this paper is an exploration of how 'progressive and innovative' assessment techniques from other higher education providers might be used to 'progress and innovate' the assessment of Media and Communication students at Deakin University.

As lecturers and tutors have traditionally had almost total control over the learning and assessment environment, for most students, the approach to assessment has changed little. The arrival of 'new media', 'digital culture' and 'dispersed learning' threatens this stability and control. Students are now able to operate in a more open, collaborative, interactive and distributed manner, and this fact challenges many of the traditional perceptions about what constitutes a 'university experience' and what are now 'appropriate' assessment tasks (Crisp 2009).

Each of the four speakers will present a 'spotlight' initiative from the 2009 Australian Technology Network conference, describing how each assessment innovation might be useful to (a) confront our current ideas and values around what is 'good' and 'bad' assessment; (b) explain why some assessment myths are 'hard to shift'; and (c) suggest how these new approaches might be useful in the years to come.

Custom essay writing : an exploration

In late 2010, three things happened. Firstly, I graded the final submission of a student who had, to date, been producing work that was, on the whole, pass/credit standard. Their last essay was outstanding. It was well organised, cleverly argued, well referenced and enjoyable to read. Turnitin assured me that the paper was not plagiarised but I remained suspicious because it seemed ‘too good to be true’. In the end, I gave it 91/100. Later in the same year, the final two events happened. I discovered that a large scale essay writing service provider from the USA was opening a ‘branch’ in Australia. Finally, a colleague from the States told me how she had become enraged to see a custom writing essay provider as a (busy) stallholder at her orientation week market day. She was furious, surely this is illegal? Interested in finding out ‘what (if anything) this might mean to Deakin?’, Toija and I approached Teaching and Learning in our faculty to see if they might fund a small experiment. They did, and the presentation will contain a record of this exploratory project. This project had a very simple premise. What would we receive if we ordered a custom written essay for one of the ALC101 assignment questions? Would it pass?